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Saturday, February 12

Global Warming: We're All Going to DIE!

                Okay, so maybe that was a dramatic title, but this is seriously the impression most people are giving. The earth is getting warmer and before you know it we will all be dead. Lately I’ve heard that by 2050 almost all coastal areas will be flooded. If I recall correctly, weren’t we told that would have occurred by last year? And what happened to the idea that the earth was going to freeze over? I specifically remember watching the movie The Day After Tomorrow. What was that? Five years ago?  People believed it too. “By 2030 the earth may enter another Ice Age!” but now we have a change of mind.
                Now some of you may have gotten the impression there that I don’t believe Global Warming (AKA Climate Change) is occurring. IT IS. If you say it isn’t then boo-on-you. Don’t go on Jeopardy any time soon. The real debate for this issue should only be “Are we responsible?”, I say we are not, but I understand where people who do believe it’s our fault are coming from. By the way, the reason the name has been changed to “Climate Change” is not because it isn’t Global Warming anymore, it’s because the warming has caused changes in extremes. This means that just because it’s very cold right now is not because Global Warming isn’t happening. It’s actually because it is happening. You see, polar caps act as a sort of regulator for temperatures. So when you reduce that it creates a greater extreme. Look it up, I’m sure somebody else can explain it better than I can. And in case a lot of you have forgotten the way the earth tilts, it is currently Summer in the Southern Hemisphere and as hot as ever.
            I consider most of the charts I see very inconclusive, or showing only very small sections in great detail so it makes it evident the temperature has gone up dramatically. Most of these charts I will be posting come from http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/temperature/. I’m going to make comments on them, but I really want everybody to formulate their own opinions.
Please note other highs. Also note we have not gone down any in temperature since the Montreal Protocol of 1987 which ceased production of the major Greenhouse Gas contributor CFC. However, CFC have a potential lifespan of 110 years so I honestly can't say a lot.
    
Up is colder since we're looking at Oxygen-18 levels. Looks fairly consistent to me. We haven't even been around a million years, remember that.

Ocean Temperatures
This is Greenland's Temperature over the last 130k years. Please note that the LEFT side is modern time.
This shows deep ocean temperatures. Please note that DOWN is colder and the RIGHT side is ancient times.


                So is the earth getting warmer? Yes it is. Is it our fault, I think it is not. We’ve had warm spells in the past and many ended in an Ice Age. Don’t forget the Medieval Warming Period, which some say was even warmer than today, which grew progressively warmer over two generations and ended in the Little Ice Age. But even if it is our fault, what can we really do about it? We can’t stop cows from farting methane gas. We won’t stop breathing. We can reduce our pollution though, but shouldn’t we really be doing that anyways? I honestly don’t care if my kid can’t see a polar bear in its natural habitat because I don’t think we could really prevent that (Plus my kid better not be going off to the Polar Regions on his own anyways), but I do care if my kid has to wear a gas mask to school because of all the smog.
                "This planet has been through a lot worse than us." - George Carlin

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