Clearly some on here will not see the warning signs until it is too late! coming up with superficial excuses will not mean it will go away, I'm pretty sure that when your houses flood girls, you'll be taking the issue a hell of a lot more seriously!..............
Global warming does happen Phil and is happening. The question is this, Is global warming a result of mankind or a natural climatically pattern that the earth NATURALLY goes through? Look at Harlech castle for instance, the sea no longer smashes against the cliff side and has retreated significantly. Now then should the sea level be restored to the level it was 700-800 years ago, would we argue that the sea levels have merely increased to their natural levels?
Why Phil. Building houses on floodplain will lead to houses flooding eventually. That simple geology. As for food shortages, the population of this planet has spiralled out of control in third world countries and therefore it's simple mathematics to see that this will result in food shortages. As for the jet stream, the recent flooding was a result of the position of the jet stream. Once the jet stream moved, the constant raining also stopped. However, more research needs to be done on investigating whether GW impacts on the jet stream.
You don't have to go any further that that downed jet into the Indian ocean .They find 300 huge pieces of debris in one place , 150 in another , bits of debris here and there and its all garbage and such . In one of the most unused parts of the high seas , were ****ed on this "Planet of no return " , every generations greed cared not about the next one to come along .
Most of the flooded villages and towns were not on flood plains, only Somerset was in that situation, most of the damage was caused due to the water table being saturated, and rivers unable to cope with the increased volume, as for the jet stream that's just another fall out from global warming. The instability in weather patterns over the last decade have reasons, cause and effect, and you cannot continue to pump billions of tons of pollution into the atmosphere without consequences, to think so is plain stupidity, to rationalise away the current global weather patterns as some natural cycle is also wishful thinking!....
Jet stream a fall out of global warming If seas are getting warmer and storms more violent, why have hurricanes been rather weak for the past 4-5 years Phil? Answer, because the weather climate comes in patterns.
Geology tells us the earth's crust is always on the move, just because the sea doesn't cascade against it's walls doesn't mean the sea has retreated, and your illustration has no baring on global warming which is now pushing weather patterns to unstable cycles, we cannot pump billions of tons of chemicals into our atmosphere without consequences................
Of course the sea level point is relevant as it suggests that the climate cools and warms in cycles thus giving us a rising and retreating sea level pattern. I ain't arguing the point that man made pollution isn't having an effect, I'm questioning whether GW is a natural occurrence in the climate of his planet and we are just speeding up the process. Then again, the Met Office did admit last year that the world hasn't warned for 15 years.
Everybody came out and said that Hurricane Katrina was a result of a Global a Warming. The fact is, it was part of a hurricane cycle where hurricanes are very powerful I.e. A 7 year cycle. Haven't had a category 5 since, therefore if sea temps are rising why aren't hurricanes more frequent and more powerful? Also Phil, article sea ice significantly increased this autumn.
It's movement away from it's norm is, I have been reliable informed by a climatologist. There's tremendous variation in hurricane activity over time and from place to place. Various studies published since 2005 indicate that the number and/or strength of hurricanes have increased in various regions, especially since the 1970s. However, it's likely that some hurricanes at sea went unnoticed in the days before satellites and hurricane-hunter aircraft, and that complicates the assessment. There's no doubt, though, that hurricane activity has stepped up since the mid-1990s in the North Atlantic, where ocean temperatures have risen through long-term warming and an apparent multidecadal cycle in Atlantic currents. The tropics are part of a global trend toward ocean warming that goes hand in hand with atmospheric warming, and warm oceans provide the energy to drive hurricanes. As for the future, computer models tend to point towards fewer hurricanes overall (for reasons that aren't yet firmed up) but a general strengthening of winds and rainfall in the hurricanes that do form. Trends aside, a catastrophic storm can strike in any year, and it's impossible to tie any single hurricane or other weather event directly to global warming. Take Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged New Orleans in 2005. Several hurricanes of comparable strength have been observed across the Atlantic over the past century. And the horrific damage caused to the city was the result not only of Katrina's strength but also the storm's track, the weakness of levees and many other factors. That said, the waters of the Gulf of Mexico that fuelled Katrina were at near-record warmth at the time.
Hurricane Katrina was born out of the Gulf of Mexico where the sea temperature hit an all time record!.................
So if the sea has been warming, why hasn't another Katrina hit? Answer, hurricane natural cycles. We are due another soon, and that's part of the natural cycle.
These bizarre weather patterns are on the increase, and as they increase and accelerate, then this debate will no longer be an issue!........
Of course the debate will continue. There a thousands of scientists that argue that we are not experiencing global warming, but global cooling. Then you gave large institutions confirming no global warming for 15 years a la met office or the cover up a few years ago when a climate change facility was breached and data suggested that their data was manipulated to suggest GW.
Natural warming combined with mans affect could be a big problem for near future generations. With China and India having their own industrial revolution along side the existing consuming nations all fighting for the limited resources available will continue to cause wars and famin and the inevitable desolation of the human life support system of our planet. It will either change drastically one day by maybe, humanity coming to its senses and sharing and nurturing our planet and peoples. Or systematic slaughter of the poor by the rich to sustainable numbers. Or space exploration and technologies providing a second world to ruin out there. Or strict control of how lives are lived including strict breeding control and technology controlling all aspects of the consuming of limited resources. Or the strongest raping the planet as fast as they can before others beat them to it. There are loads of scenarios but the future will happen regardless of what the greed and stupidity of mankind decide to make it.
http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/16/another-year-of-global-cooling/ Interesting Phil. Artic ice increased last year. That would suggest that GW didn't take place.
Wavier jet stream 'may drive weather shift' The main system that helps determine the weather over Northern Europe and North America may be changing, research suggests. The study shows that the so-called jet stream has increasingly taken a longer, meandering path. This has resulted in weather remaining the same for more prolonged periods. The work was presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago. The observation could be as a result of the recent warming of the Arctic. Temperatures there have been rising two to three times faster than the rest of the globe. According to Prof Jennifer Francis of Rutgers University in New Jersey: "This does seem to suggest that weather patterns are changing and people are noticing that the weather in their area is not what it used to be." We can expect more of the same and we can expect it to happen more frequently” The meandering jet stream has accounted for the recent stormy weather over the UK and the bitter winter weather in the US Mid-West remaining longer than it otherwise would have. The jet stream, as its name suggests, is a high-speed air current in the atmosphere that brings with it the weather. It is fuelled partly by the temperature differential between the Arctic and the mid-latitudes. If the differential is large then the jet stream speeds up, and like a river flowing down a steep hill, it ploughs through any obstacles - such as areas of high pressure that might be in its way. If the temperature differential reduces because of a warming Arctic then the jet stream weakens and, again, like a river on a flat bed, it will meander every time it comes across an obstacle. This results in weather patterns tending to becoming stuck over areas for weeks on end. It also drives cold weather further south and warm weather further north. Examples of the latter are Alaska and parts of Scandinavia, which have had exceptionally warm conditions this winter With the UK, the US and Australia experiencing prolonged, extreme weather, the question has been raised as to whether recent patterns are due to simple natural variations or the result of manmade climate change? According to Prof Francis, it is too soon to tell. "The Arctic has been warming rapidly only for the past 15 years," she says. "Our data to look at this effect is very short and so it is hard to get a very clear signal. "But as we have more data I do think we will start to see the influence of climate change." Prof Francis was taking part in a session on Arctic change involving Mark Serreze, the director of the US National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado. He said the idea that changes in the polar north could influence the weather in middle latitudes - so-called "Santa's revenge" - was a new and lively area of research and somewhat controversial, with arguments for and against. "Fundamentally, the strong warming that might drive this is tied in with the loss of sea-ice cover that we're seeing, because the sea-ice cover acts as this lid that separates the ocean from a colder atmosphere," Dr Serreze explained. "If we remove that lid, we pump all this heat up into the atmosphere. That is a good part of the signal of warming that we're now seeing, and that could be driving some of these changes."
