Swamp Musings

If you want to get some warm 'stuff' all over you, enjoy this.

Earth Gets a Warm Feeling All Over

NASA -- Last year was the fourth warmest year on average for our planet since the late 1800s, according to NASA scientists.

To determine if the Earth is warming or cooling, scientists look at average temperatures. To get an "average" temperature, scientists take the warmest and the coolest temperatures in a day, and calculate the temperature that is exactly in the middle of those high and low values. This provides an average temperature for a day. These average temperatures are then calculated for spots all over the Earth, over an entire year.

Sounds sooo scientific, eh? Buy me another Molson's so we can figger out dis graphic:



Looks a lot like global COOLING if I read the captions right. I'm still hoping for global warming as my 40 acre patch peaks at 178 feet above sea level and dips down 70 where I'm hoping to have the world's best nudie beach if you guys and gals will just GET ON WITH IT and melt all those nasty icecaps and glaciers!



I thought this was interesting. These folks are using the same routine that SETI@home has for years. Just checked, I'm up to 11,628 hours logged with SETI.

Internet project forecasts global warming

Biggest-ever climate simulation warns temperatures may rise by 11 ºC.

The greenhouse effect could be far more severe than experts had previously predicted, according to results from the world's biggest climate-modelling study. In the worst-case scenario, doubling carbon-dioxide levels compared with pre-industrial times increases global temperatures by an average of more than 11 ºC. (snip)

Use the embedded links in the page and take a look at the 'science'. Looks like a fun project if one doesn't mind the results looking like a table of random numbers. I wasn't able to discern if they were using the Mann material but if you're so inclined, here's a couple of links to play with:

Critique of the Mann et al Northern Hemisphere Average Temperature Reconstruction

Ironies Abound in Hockey Stick Debacle

* * * * * *

Antarctic ice sheet is an 'awakened giant'

"The melting of these three glaciers alone is contributing an estimated 0.24 millimetres per year to sea level." (snip)

For fun, 0.24 mm is less than 18% of the thickness of a dime. Damn. At that rate, it'll take 127,065 years before I can open my nudie beach. Buy some more SUV's, run your A/C's with the windows open, just DO SOMETHING!


Hotter world may freeze Britain

Fifty-fifty chance that warm Gulf Stream may be halted

Paul Brown
Wednesday February 2, 2005
The Guardian

The chance of the Gulf Stream, which brings warm waters around the British Isles, being halted, sending temperatures plummeting by more than 5C, is now more than 50%, a scientific conference on climate change was told yesterday.

The conference, called by Tony Blair to inform world leaders about the urgency of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, was told of a series of new research findings which showed that climate change was speeding up and would be worse than hitherto expected. (snip)

That's OK. I like (most) Brits. They can come enjoy the nudie beach if the boys will keep their clothes on.


The Cooling World

Newsweek - April 28, 1975

There are ominous signs that the Earth's weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production with serious political implications for just about every nation on Earth. The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only 10 years from now. The regions destined to feel its impact are the great wheat-producing lands of Canada and the U.S.S.R. in the North, along with a number of marginally self-sufficient tropical areas parts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indochina and Indonesia where the growing season is dependent upon the rains brought by the monsoon.

The evidence in support of these predictions has now begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologists are hard-pressed to keep up with it. In England, farmers have seen their growing season decline by about two weeks since 1950, with a resultant overall loss in grain production estimated at up to 100,000 tons annually. During the same time, the average temperature around the equator has risen by a fraction of a degree a fraction that in some areas can mean drought and desolation. Last April, in the most devastating outbreak of tornadoes ever recorded, 148 twisters killed more than 300 people and caused half a billion dollars' worth of damage in 13 U.S. states.

To scientists, these seemingly disparate incidents represent the advance signs of fundamental changes in the world's weather. Meteorologists disagree about the cause and extent of the trend, as well as over its specific impact on local weather conditions. But they are almost unanimous in the view that the trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century. If the climatic change is as profound as some of the pessimists fear, the resulting famines could be catastrophic. A major climatic change would force economic and social adjustments on a worldwide scale, warns a recent report by the National Academy of Sciences, because the global patterns of food production and population that have evolved are implicitly dependent on the climate of the present century.

A survey completed last year by Dr. Murray Mitchell of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reveals a drop of half a degree in average ground temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere between 1945 and 1968. According to George Kukla of Columbia University, satellite photos indicated a sudden, large increase in Northern Hemisphere snow cover in the winter of 1971-72. And a study released last month by two NOAA scientists notes that the amount of sunshine reaching the ground in the continental U.S. diminished by 1.3% between 1964 and 1972. (snip)

That's soooo "kewl"! (shoot me! ;o)


And now, an oddity from the lefties:

Bjorn Lomborg - 'We can do immense good'

San Francisco Examiner

"In 2001, Danish economist Bjorn Lomborg enraged the environmental community by publishing his book "The Skeptical Environmentalist," which claims the planet is not in as dire a condition as many would have us believe. With the Kyoto Protocol aimed at curbing global warming set to take effect next week, Lomborg spoke with Examiner reporter Josh Wein to discuss his views on the world's problems. His new book, "Global Crises, Global Solutions," argues there are other, more pressing issues that deserve the world's resources." (snip)

It's a good article. Worth a read. If the book shows up at the flea market this weekend, I'll buy it.

// posted by Bogdaddy @ 1:57 PM