Last night I watched “An Inconvenient Truth.” I am going to state for the record that I disagree with Al Gore’s politics for the most part and that I have never been an alarmist about anything in my life (except gun control). However, I am finding myself confused by the unsettling feeling I got seeing the facts presented in that movie. Maybe this is a pitch for Gore (I hope not), but see the movie. Then please post any facts you may have or find pertaining to the subject. Opinions are of course always welcome (see above).
If nothing else comes of this post, I would like to see a popular movement of our readers toward realizing the true science behind global warming and real solutions to it. Now, please don’t take that to mean that we should be knee-jerkers or ELFers, but we can focus our efforts on showing our readers (you and me) what the situation really is from all sides of the issue, not just the yes or no camps.
I find myself more inspired to research this subject than any other that I have been exposed to, ever. I hope you feel the same and are willing to share what you find. I am going to reserve my commentary on the movie because you don’t need to concern yourself with my feelings, just the facts presented (if they are all facts).
5 responses so far ↓
1 discob4thebreakdown // Dec 1, 2006 at 3:48 pm
I find it funny how people can believe that Global Warming doesn’t exist at all. I do think that there may be a bit of an alarmist edge on the side if the tree-huggers, but you can’t totally neglect to recognize it as a very real threat to our world. I agree, something needs to be done, and fast. Good article. I feel guilty because I drive and SUV sometimes, but it is a good vehicle for my needs. I have moved several times in the last 5 years and I have been able to get almost everything I have in the back of my Explorer. Which is sad, I guess. I don’t have much. Now I am depressed.
2 william // Dec 3, 2006 at 10:48 pm
I agree, I don’t understand how anyone can reasonably argue whether or not global warming is taking place. It is absolutely undeniable. There are multiple contributing factors.
It is well known that there is more to it than human caused pollution - the natural environment is a huge contributor.
I’m very intrigued by this topic as well and I want to put something out that is very worthwhile, so it will be a couple weeks and you will get a good response.
3 kfb // Dec 5, 2006 at 4:42 pm
this is the magazine natural history
Astrophysicists Peter Foukal of Heliophysics, Inc., in Nahant, Massachusetts, and Hendrik C. Spruit, of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, Germany, together with two colleagues, analyzed records of variation in solar luminosity caused by changing dark and bright areas on the Sun–sunspots and faculae.
The team began by examining twenty-five recent years of precise solar-luminosity records gathered by radiometers on spacecraft. To peer further back in time, they scrutinized historical records of sunspots and faculae from the past century, as well as isotope ratios in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, which register changes in solar activity for the past 1,000 years. They correlated those data with reconstructions of how temperatures have varied in the Northern Hemisphere during the past millennium, giving a fine-grained picture of the effects of changes in the Sun’s brightness on climate.
The Sun did get brighter during the past 200 years, they discovered, but only by about 0.04 percent. That variation, they conclude, is far too small to have contributed substantially to the accelerated global warming observed since the mid-1970s. Although other solar traits–variable ultraviolet rays or solar winds, for instance–may yet be discovered to play a role, people burning fossil fuels are responsible for the bulk of the recent warming. (Nature)
4 william // Dec 8, 2006 at 10:56 am
Here are 2 articles from Yale Global online. Written by Jim Hansen, Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. They are written in “coffe table fromat” as one of my college professors used to term it - meaning that it isn’t like reading a submission from an actual scientific journal, more like something you would find sitting on a coffee table for easy reading. The information is pretty good nonetheless.
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=8305
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=8319
I agree with a lot of what Jim has to say in these articles, except his references to the Kyoto protocol and the fact that he makes it sound like this problem is all man made. The Kyoto protocol is/was something that sounds great on paper. I don’t blame the US for the fact that it fell through. Some of the main countries that were supposedly following it weren’t (namely China). Anyway, that is another topic.
As for undeniable facts that our climate is changing, the best site that I have found is http://www.ecobridge.org/content/g_evd.htm
The facts here are scientifically based, but it is rather old (appears to be year 2001) so I’m sure the things presented have changed even more dramatically.
Personally, I don’t need a scientist to validate the obvious.
The air temperature, ocean temperature, moisture levels, dissapearing glaciers, and many other things that have held recordable patterns (which I would be happy to expound upon if anyone requests) for generations are changing. The facts are everywhere, it just depends on how people want to interpret them.
5 mongo // Dec 9, 2006 at 8:48 pm
I just saw the film tonight and I kind of feel sick to my stomach after seeing the damage we have managed to inflict on our planet. I also encourage everyone to see the film. Whether you’re a Gore fan or not, he is stepping up to the plate to fight global warming. What are you doing?
Check back on the skunk soon for an article about what we can do to help.
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