The coming climate crisis
Let’s go back to your point about people taking their cues from the weather—what are scientists watching the weather for now?
We look at the Big Three:
Heat and “mega–heat” waves. And we’re watching the air-pollution issues that are related to higher temperatures, like ozone levels. Those are known to cause health problems.
Heavy rainfall. As we warm the planet, we also increase the risk of heavy downpours. A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, and as a result, we’re seeing an increase in very-heavy-rainfall events. Here’s a map of these observed increases from the 2009 “Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States” report.
Drought. We’re watching Florida and Georgia with great concern, as they head into a prolonged drought. Texas may finally be pulling out of this drought. But of course, drought will continue to be an intensifying problem for the Southwest. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, parts of every state except for Alaska and Ohio are either abnormally dry or in some form of drought.
Blowback
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LOL LOL LOL and LOL
brewcrew67 on April 22, 2012 at 3:44 PM
Ohio? Isn’t that part of the lower 48? I didn’t realize that it was not.
upinak on April 22, 2012 at 3:46 PM
We live on the crust of a ball of burning lava….hurled through the cold vacuum of space around a huge ball of hydrogen/helium fusion. Yet you would like me to believe there is only one variable involved…CO2…from man.
Who is delusional again?
brewcrew67 on April 22, 2012 at 3:46 PM
If there was a way to make a wager with the Left and one that they would actually honor, we’d own their pants.
chimney sweep on April 22, 2012 at 3:47 PM
I would rather not, we all have seen the crap they have been in.
upinak on April 22, 2012 at 3:49 PM
rogerb on April 22, 2012 at 3:51 PM
If an actual climate crisis is coming, nobody will believe it. The boy who cried wolf screws us all when/if a real wolf shows up.
besser tot als rot on April 22, 2012 at 3:52 PM
Awesome, talk about hedging your bets.
mudskipper on April 22, 2012 at 3:52 PM
And to think it could all be so very easily prevented by giving our Democrat overlords massive new taxes and equally massive government regulations over every facet of our lives.
/Sarcasm off
RJL on April 22, 2012 at 3:53 PM
See hoss, there’s yer (cognitive) problem!
squint on April 22, 2012 at 3:53 PM
roger.. wrong thread dude.
upinak on April 22, 2012 at 3:53 PM
Ah he good ole days of Jan 2011 when 71% of the USA was was covered in snow and was proof-positive of global cooling.
Yes. Good ole days indeed.
eforhan on April 22, 2012 at 3:54 PM
The logical conclusion of liberal misanthropy is a series of feel-good climate “solutions” for an imaginary problem.
“Of course man is destroying the planet – how could he not be?” Never mind that the planet has been alternating frozen and fiery hells over the 4.5B years of its existence, the climate must now remain exactly stable from now into perpetuity because, well, who knows.
The Count on April 22, 2012 at 3:58 PM
Okay, I like it warm. The leaves are coming out right now! So yeah, call me bias, but after 11+ ft of snow this year, hell yeah I want it to warm up!
upinak on April 22, 2012 at 4:04 PM
It wasn’t much, but the late Julian Simon wagered with Paul “Population Bomb!!!” Ehrlich and WON.
thebrokenrattle on April 22, 2012 at 4:05 PM
You don’t start up feed-forward control of an active process that tends towards equilibrium on its own that you don’t have confidently modeled. You just don’t do that. Don’t panic. Anything you can do to “fix” the system can also screw up the system and you’re firing into the dark.
normalphil on April 22, 2012 at 4:07 PM
I haven’t read it yet, but I’ve got dibs on doom being 5 years away. Now lets see how close I am.
DFCtomm on April 22, 2012 at 4:08 PM
Wow, it’s a big emergency! Better give up our rights to statist authoritarians here at home and send all of our money to third world tyrants right away.
Then the weather will be medium everywhere all the time.
forest on April 22, 2012 at 4:18 PM
An important earthday message. This is a must watch and something to be passed on.
FLconservative on April 22, 2012 at 4:22 PM
My 2-cents theory: The world is still recovering from the last ice age and “normal” earth temperatures are warmer.
(Those dinosaurs that lived on earth for a few hundred million years weren’t living in cool temperatures…)
Then sooner or later there will be another ice age. Unfortunately none of us will be around to witness it…the human life span is too short.
albill on April 22, 2012 at 4:23 PM
Ditto.
Look for heavy rainfall and drought. Look for heat waves and cold waves. Look for sun and clouds. Look for the Rocky Mountains to melt.
petefrt on April 22, 2012 at 4:24 PM
Good one. Thanks.
On the lighter side: Celebrate earth day
petefrt on April 22, 2012 at 4:32 PM
In other words, we’re watching for weather. If there’s weather, then that proves global warming.
Got it.
The Rogue Tomato on April 22, 2012 at 4:33 PM
Excellent! Thank you.
FLconservative on April 22, 2012 at 4:38 PM
Here in the foothills of the White Mountains (NH) it was 91 degrees just the other day and it’s a balmy 45 degrees today. Gotta be Bush’s Fault.
Del Dolemonte on April 22, 2012 at 4:43 PM
Earth Day and the False Prophecies of Ecological Apocalypse, by John Barnes at CatholicVote.org:
More at CatholicVote.org.
petefrt on April 22, 2012 at 4:49 PM
FIFY
CW on April 22, 2012 at 4:51 PM
This is what I argued back when i was a hardcore liberal; that all the panicmongering would turn people off. In one ear, out the other, of course.
Best advice I can give on climate-change dangers? Don’t buy one of those houses that’s less than 100 yards from the tide line. I don’t care HOW good the view is from the porch. If the ocean rises just a few feet you’ll be in serious shinola.
MelonCollie on April 22, 2012 at 5:13 PM
Absolutely meaningless. The United States makes up a very small of the earth’s surface and what happens here is indicative of nothing in terms of global climate. We had a warm winter this year while Europe’s was unusually cold. What does that mean? Not a damn thing other than that the Church of Global Warming is filled with liars and fools.
RadClown on April 22, 2012 at 5:13 PM
I wish all ecotards would make a tiny angry fist and fist themselves.
BL@KBIRD on April 22, 2012 at 5:17 PM
Good guess. Why? Because IIRC it was the aforementioned Paul Erlich who said: “Never predict anything less than 5 years or more than 10 years out.”
Why? Because less than 5, and they will be able to tell you are lying. More than 10 is too easily dimissed as ‘fix it later’.
Erlich another one of these communists who value human life like a old nose tissue.
Now I propose a new plan. Use these Communists and greenies for fuel in the furnaces. We get electricity from burning them up, and the earth is saved from so many useless O2 consumers and consumers of resources. And I don’t have to listen to their whining anymore.
orbitalair on April 22, 2012 at 5:18 PM
Oh My God, Oh My God, Oh My God, what do I do? Here! take my money, tax me, outlaw my light bulbs!! Anything, just save me liberals from that big scary ball of fire in the sky!!
Dollayo on April 22, 2012 at 5:24 PM
The kids they’ve been working on so hard will be reaching voting age. These kids have been raised to think of the sun’s heat against their skin as an infection from man caused polution. Your kids are cult conditioned and we are still playing defense against the cult leaders who are Jim Jones on a global scale. We haven’t even started putting these people on trial yet. That will be some of the most important work of the next AG.
Buddahpundit on April 22, 2012 at 5:36 PM
The ignorance on display here towards climate science in particular, and even more terrifying, the scientific method in general, is truly breathtaking. Can anyone name one piece of evidence that they would accept as validating the hypothesis of anthropocentric climate change? Of course not, because you do not apply the scientific method (if you even had any idea what that is) to these issues. To you all, these are matters of religious faith. God will do what “he” has always done to our planet, and we can have no affect on it at all… These comment boards are like reading something from the 12th century, or, as you would all call it “the good old days.”…
pm123 on April 22, 2012 at 5:50 PM
For 35 years the alarmists have been saying repeatedly: Weather is not climate. They did so because they got tired of getting asked about especially cold, prolonged winters. Now that the climate is no longer getting warmer, they’re grasping at any weather event, cold or hot, wet or dry to stay in the news. I almost feel sorry for them. Almost.
theCork on April 22, 2012 at 6:01 PM
Maybe it’s time for you to head on back to the more enlightened shores of HuffPo. We’ll miss ya.
squint on April 22, 2012 at 6:01 PM
Yeah, the climate may indeed be changing, just as it has many times over the last 4.6 billion years. What makes anyone think buying carbon credits and contributing billions so the UN empty-suits can party on tropical islands several more times a year can do anything to change that? Almost no one does except the true bull-lievers whose mantra seems to be “Everything is proof of climate change therefore the science is settled therefore shut up.”
Marxism is for dummies on April 22, 2012 at 6:19 PM
These Global Cooling/Global Warming/Global Change/GlobalWTF people are DENYING that the African continent should have a chance to flourish in the desert.
You know, as the “Change” comes on, it is possible the deserts will bloom again.
All because they want to keep the climate the same.
Seriously, they are climate statists.
Now I have to go and fire up my BBQ. Nice weather down here in Florida. Temperate and all. Very nice.
ProfShadow on April 22, 2012 at 6:21 PM
Remember, the koolaid you drank can double as an enema when you need it. Free yourself from hubristic stupidity.
BL@KBIRD on April 22, 2012 at 6:23 PM
Climate change…………
If I wanted America to fail……………
(see video posted on the frontpage blog)
redridinghood on April 22, 2012 at 6:24 PM
Coincidentally, the
Medieval Warm Period happened throughout the twelfth century. Probably had to do with all that castle-building!
eforhan on April 22, 2012 at 6:35 PM
What does “hide the decline” mean? Is it a scientific method?
Buddahpundit on April 22, 2012 at 6:35 PM
Yeah, let’s just trust that Jesus will help his favorite country, the good ol’ USA, which he and his Dad clearly like better than all other places on Earth, right? Sheesh.
pm123 on April 22, 2012 at 6:50 PM
No one else here is mentioning God or Jesus but you. Is this part of your type of scientific method? Strawmen?
eforhan on April 22, 2012 at 7:12 PM
No, let’s look at the science. Do you want to discuss the science, or do you hate science as much as all the other alarmists on this site?
blink on April 23, 2012 at 11:29 AM
1970 – Unless we give up our energy production we’re 10 years from a tipping point after which disaster follows an we all die.
1975 – Unless we give up our energy production we’re 10 years from a tipping point after which disaster follows an we all die.
1980 – Unless we give up our energy production we’re 10 years from a tipping point after which disaster follows an we all die.
1985 – Unless we give up our energy production we’re 10 years from a tipping point after which disaster follows an we all die.
1990 – Unless we give up our energy production we’re 10 years from a tipping point after which disaster follows an we all die.
1995 – Unless we give up our energy production we’re 10 years from a tipping point after which disaster follows an we all die.
2000 – Unless we give up our energy production we’re 10 years from a tipping point after which disaster follows an we all die.
2005 – Unless we give up our energy production we’re 10 years from a tipping point after which disaster follows an we all die.
2010 – Unless we give up our energy production we’re 10 years from a tipping point after which disaster follows an we all die.
Your “scientific method” is one I’ve seen before. He’s the crazy guy on the street corner crying “REPENT THE WORLD WILL END TODAY”.
I didn’t realize he was a scientist. Heck he’s probably a climatologist; I mean he has all the markers, right?
Would it be too much to ask that you guys be right ONCE before I credit you with the infallibility you demand? I’m not used to trusting abject absolute failures who have yet to be correct with infallibility.
So how is the “no snow in England or DC after the year 2000″ prediction coming? How are the UN predicted millions of climate refugees being handled? How about the millions and millions of acres of land lost to the rising seas as we’re all forced back by 2010?
Seriously, be correct with one of these predictions; then you’ll have some credibility. I’m sorry that the past fearmongers have used up all your credibility by being consistently and completely wrong; but they have.
gekkobear on April 23, 2012 at 12:27 PM