Ice Cores Show Global Warming 'Natural'

[anastrophe]

if i may continue a bit further, i want to make clear: i'm a strong proponent of alternative energy. fossil fuels are, to the best of our knowledge, finite. while there's coal enough to satisfy US energy needs for about three hundred years, aside from the CO2 emissions, there's just the plain old 'dirtiness' of burning oil or coal. if there are alternatives that are less likely to be exhausted, and less likely to leave a heavy footprint on the planet, i'm all for them, in spades. the problem is that *right now*, our world's economy is not just 'tied to' fossil fuels, it is absolutely dependent upon fossil fuels. the lives of millions, and likely billions of people are dependent upon oil, gas, and coal. not dependent for convenience, but dependent for staying alive, pure and simple. wean us off of fossil fuels? certainly. many proposals however are far more draconian - and place the onus on the western nations to clean up, while china and others continue to belch far nastier stuff into the air and water than we have in a quarter century.



in any event, i believe solar is the way to go, presuming fusion energy is untamable, which it seems to be. the energy that reaches the earth in the form of sunlight every day is millions of times more than we require, if only it can be harnessed efficiently.

[Galbally]

Yes, sorry i should have souced the graph, its not good practice, I will do when I have more time, and I will get you some more information, not to change your mind, but to show you the reasons why I take the contrary argument to you. I think to be fair that most people are sanguine about fossil fuels and if we had something as effective for generating energy then they would use it, unfortunatly that technology is not in place yet, and won't be for quite a while, so we will have to balance the use of coal, oil, and gas with sustainable practices for several decades to come. One of the best things we can do is actually to just increase our energy efficiency and not waste so much of it, as a lot is wasted, through bad practice, thats not an unrealistic goal. It will become more popular as oil and particularly gas becomes more expensive anyway.

[anastrophe]

Galbally;505301 wrote: Yes, sorry i should have souced the graph, its not good practice, I will do when I have more time, and I will get you some more information, not to change your mind, but to show you the reasons why I take the contrary argument to you. I think to be fair that most people are sanguine about fossil fuels and if we had something as effective for generating energy then they would use it, unfortunatly that technology is not in place yet, and won't be for quite a while, so we will have to balance the use of coal, oil, and gas with sustainable practices for several decades to come. One of the best things we can do is actually to just increase our energy efficiency and not waste so much of it, as a lot is wasted, through bad practice, thats not an unrealistic goal. It will become more popular as oil and particularly gas becomes more expensive anyway.


not a single thing here that we're in disagreement on.



actually though - i think the only differing comment i have is that i believe the alternative energies are a lot closer than you think. great strides are being made in increasing photovoltaic efficiency. i think in a decade's time, we could be seeing non-trivial contributions of solar to the energy infrastructure.

[Galbally]

Magenta flame;505927 wrote: OK...... like dah!

Human beings have brains ...Deal with it!

OH god do I really have to take matters into my own hands?

This topic doesn't take a lot of science nor intellect.... Yes we're heating up. It's happened before and then it dies down again .

Are we heating up as a planet? I don't think you want to know farmer science so I'll just state, Yes! get over it. Stop being dooms dayers.

a wise man once said (ok he wasn't really all that wise. ) if you don't bring me the solution, don't bring the problem.


I do enjoy your prosaic view of such matters, and of course you are right to a certain extent. However, it seems we are still trying to get people to understand that this is actually happening, and why. This isn't the end of the world, but its not ignorable either and its important to talk about it I think. There are also lots of ways we can mitigate these problems, but none of them are easy or without cost. Thats when things always get difficult.

[Galbally]

Here is a little update on what to expect in 2007 in terms of our climate. It comes from the U.K. Met Office.



News release

4 January 2007

2007 - forecast to be the warmest year yet

2007 is likely to be the warmest year on record globally, beating the current record set in 1998, say climate-change experts at the Met Office.

Each January the Met Office, in conjunction with the University of East Anglia, issues a forecast of the global surface temperature for the coming year. The forecast takes into account known contributing factors, such as solar effects, El

Niño, greenhouse gases concentrations and other multi-decadal influences. Over the previous seven years, the Met Office forecast of annual global temperature has proved remarkably accurate, with a mean forecast error size of just 0.06 °C.

Met Office global forecast for 2007

* Global temperature for 2007 is expected to be 0.54 °C above the long-term (1961-1990) average of 14.0 °C;

* There is a 60% probability that 2007 will be as warm or warmer than the current warmest year (1998 was +0.52 °C above the long-term 1961-1990 average).

The potential for a record 2007 arises partly from a moderate-strength El Niño already established in the Pacific, which is expected to persist through the first few months of 2007. The lag between El Niño and the full global surface temperature response means that the warming effect of El Niño is extended and therefore has a greater influence the global temperatures during the year.

Katie Hopkins from Met Office Consulting said: "This new information represents another warning that climate change is happening around the world. Our work in the climate change consultancy team applies Met Office research to help businesses mitigate against risk and adapt at a strategic level for success in the new environment."

Review of 2006 in the UK

This startling forecast follows hard on the heels of news that 2006 was the warmest year on record across the UK.

For 2006, all UK data have now been gathered, revealing a similar story to that of Central England Temperature already announced last month.

For the whole of the UK, 2006 was the warmest year on record with a mean temperature of 9.7 °C, 1.1 °C above the 1971-2000 long-term average. Ranked warmest years in the series going back to 1914 are:

# 2006 9.73 °C

# 2003 9.51 °C

# 2004 9.48 °C

# 2002 9.48 °C

# 2005 9.46 °C