An excellent summary of what the scientists now
know. Send this to any of your friends who still have doubts that we're in deep
doo doo...
Global warming, in capsule form
David Roberts, Gristmill
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2005/10/18/16151/159
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107,
this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving the included information for research and educational
purposes.
In the midst of a long post on Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer's
coal-to-liquid-fuel plans , Oil Drummer Stuart Staniford provides a handy one-paragraph-long
roundup of evidence on global warming. The next time someone you know asks
about it, just cut and paste this paragraph and send it to them. Warming cliff
notes!
[W]e are reaching the point where we can see
that we are starting to make massive, probably irreversible, changes to our
climate. The glaciers are in full retreat almost everywhere, the Arctic is melting (with total melting of the summer
sea ice possible, though not certain, as early as 2020 ), the permafrost is melting , and releasing large amounts of
methane, which is a very powerful global warming gas , while in the last thirty years, droughts have doubled due to warming, hurricanes are much more intense all over the globe
, and are showing
up in places they never did before in recorded
history. Scientists
have been projecting changes in ocean
circulation , and
lo-and-behold, they are starting to show up ,
including changes to the North Atlantic
Circulation, although major change here was previously thought unlikely this century. There
is some possibility of changes in deepwater circulation destabilizing methane hydrates in the ocean, particularly in South East Asian deeps. Oh, and the Greenland ice sheet is now melting much faster than climatologists
expected, and the West Antarctic ice sheet is starting to collapse, though again, this was previously thought unlikely. Also
paleoclimatological studies have made it clear that in the past the climate abruptly flipped between modes,
sometimes with dramatic change in as little as three years. And we are making rapid changes in carbon dioxide, known to be
critically important in regulating the temperature of this sensitive climatic
system for a century now.
As he says, "maybe there's some scientific
doubt still on any individual piece of the picture, but the gestalt is starting
to look extremely alarming." Yes.
OWEN E. DELL
P.O. Box 30433..................................Santa Barbara, CA 93130-0433
PHONE/FAX.......................................................805 962-6603
E-MAIL......................................................odell@silcom.com
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