Global warming evidence mounts - Flurry of reports show a withering ice cap

SF Chronicle ^ | 12-22-02 | David Perlman, Science Editor

[Oldeconomybuyer]

From the tropics to the poles, evidence is growing stronger than ever that Earth's climate is warming dangerously.

In the Arctic Ocean, floating masses of sea ice are shrinking and splitting apart, and the massive Greenland ice cap melted more this past summer than ever before. Meanwhile, warming ocean temperatures are endangering coral reefs in the tropics.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

VIRTUAL CLIMATE ALERT

December 19, 2002 Vol. 3, No. 36

As predictably as reclusive authors reappear on talk shows to flog their latest book or movie stars can be seen yucking it up with Jay Leno just before he coincidently runs a clip from their upcoming box office smash, right on cue, this last week, came the flurry of announcements that characterize this year’s average global temperature as the whatever-warmest-on-record. Somehow these announcements always manage to precede the actual end of the year when all of the data actually is in, but let’s run with this year’s declaration that 2002 is – as you’ve heard by now – "the second warmest on record," a record that extends back into the mid- to late-1800s."

[snip]

So where’s the proof of the statement that global warming is increasing ever faster? These annual pronouncements are revealed to be what they are: efforts to resuscitate a dimming paradigm, that humans’ use of fossil fuels results in carbon dioxide emissions that are disrupting earth’s climate.

...CONTINUE

[reformedliberal]

But of course, that refutation is from a *rightwing* source. </sarcasm>

There is no way to convince fools.

[Jen]

Truth or liberal BS? (I'm thinking more BS from the left...)

[dighton]

"It is humans who are clearly forcing the abrupt climate change we see right now," said Richard B. Alley of Pennsylvania State University, who recently chaired a National Research Council committee looking specifically at climate change.

Used thus, clearly evokes Stalin's formula, "as is generally known."

[meenie]

The second warmest summer on record, dating back to the mid-1800's. Yeah, those were the days when we were using lots of fossil fuels.

[fastdraw]

As long as we're being sarcastic, I hereby welcome the impending inundation of our coastal areas, which are inhabited primarily by Democrats. Presumably, instead of fleeing the rising waters, they will drown helplessly as they wait for the federal government to bail them out.

[ovrtaxt]

Gosh, I guess somebody should inform Florida about the shrinking ice caps, because apparently we don't know about this yet. I was at the beach the other day and the water was still in the same place...

[metesky]

The Arctic's sea ice -- large masses of snow-covered ice that float everywhere around the polar latitudes -- usually covers 2.4 million square miles of the ocean north of Canada, Greenland and Russia in September, the height of the ice season.

Oh, yeah. I would have sworn that winter was the height of ice season, but then all I can do is look out the window. I don't have sophisticated computer models to tell me when winter arrives in the northern hemisphere.

[LiberationIT]

Ah yes... more Liberal Chicken Littles; running in circles, flapping their wings and breathlessly clucking "The sky is warming, the sky is warming!"

[irish guard]

I have a question......If there has already been a 20% erosion of the cap, why isn't there a bunch of shoreline already underwater? Wasn't that one of the claims of a melting ice cap?

[alwaysconservative]

I have a question......If there has already been a 20% erosion of the cap, why isn't there a bunch of shoreline already underwater? Wasn't that one of the claims of a melting ice cap?

It's the junk science. I still remember (if this doesn't date me too much!) about the fears in the mid-70's about global COOLING, preceded by a "heightened" period of increased CO2 emissions and record warming. We're entering a new era, according to Bjorn Lomborg, but not one necessarily caused by human greenhouse gases.

[laredo44]

I have a question......If there has already been a 20% erosion of the cap, why isn't there a bunch of shoreline already underwater? Wasn't that one of the claims of a melting ice cap?

I believe the effect of the ice in the Arctic icecap is already included in the current ocean levels -- it could all melt and ocean levels wouldn't rise one centimeter -- just like an ice cube melting in a glass of water won't raise the level of water in the glass. It is the melting of ice currently over land -- Greenland, Antarctica -- that will cause ocean levels to rise.

[Hank Kerchief]

If the trends continue unchecked, scientists say, rising sea levels will drown coastlines. Droughts in some regions -- and increased rainfall in others -- will alter harvests drastically. And other climate disruptions will destabilize regional ecologies and global economies.

Well that's a safe bet. No matter what happens, if the world gets cooler, or warmer, or wetter, or dryer, there will be "droughts in some regions -- and increased rainfall in others -- will alter harvests drastically. And other climate disruptions will destabilize regional ecologies and global economies. Duh!

I'm in the wrong business. Do people get paid to write this drivel?

Hank

[Fresh Wind]

Global Warming™ hype + media panic = endlessly increasing research grants

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Record snowfall whitens Beijing

[jazerb]

I've posted this before, but it is appropriate to post this again, here. From the December 11, 2002 CO2 Science Magazine, written by Sherwood Keith and Craig Idso: There Has Been No Global Warming for the Past 70 Years], the Arctic - which according to essentially all climate models is supposed to be the harbinger of things to come for the rest of the world - is not yet as warm as it was in the late 1930s and early 1940s. In fact, because temperatures were so high for so long back then, the authors report that linear regression trends calculated from the 1920s to the present show a small but statistically significant cooling tendency.

[petuniasevan]

Ah...The SF Comical, that paragon of unbiased reporting...

[wbill]

"Bail them out"....yuk yuk yuk.

[muir_redwoods]

Let me pose a simple question about this supposed global warming. So What? The earth has gone through countless cycles of warming and cooling long before humans arrived and it will go on through cycles long after we're gone.

If these Greenies and Liberals are so worried about global warming doesn't that just suggest that they are out of tune with nature and clinically averse to change. So what if over time the Mississippi valley becomes the rain-forest and Alaska looks like Los Angeles? We're human beings. The best among us adapt and move on. The species that can adapt will thrive and the others won't.

[Piquaboy]

If this came out of San Francisco, it must be true!