I've seen the weather change a lot around here. It used to be hot in the summer and cold with a lot of snow in the winter. The last few years it's barely reached 90F in the summer and it snows a couple inches at night and is melted by noon in the winter.
You and Ms. Norgaard are neighbors in Oregon.
Edit: As time passes, more and more personal info regarding Ms. Norgaard is disappearing from the net. Curiouser and curiouser.
I've seen the weather change a lot around here. It used to be hot in the summer and cold with a lot of snow in the winter. The last few years it's barely reached 90F in the summer and it snows a couple inches at night and is melted by noon in the winter.
An Oregon University professor has controversially compared skepticism of global warming to racism.
Sociology and environmental studies professor Kari Norgaard wrote a paper criticising non-believers, suggesting that doubters need to be have a ‘sickness’.
The professor, who holds a B.S. in biology and a master's and PhD in sociology, argued that ‘cultural resistance’ to accepting humans as being responsible for climate change ‘must be recognised and treated’ as an aberrant sociological behaviour
Resolving skepticism about climate change alarmists, she added, is a challenge equitable to overcoming ‘racism or slavery in the U.S. South’. ... The scientists behind the event recently put out a statement calling for humans to be packed into denser cities so that the rest of the planet can be surrendered to mother nature.
And fellow attendee Yale University professor Karen Seto told MSNBC: ‘We certainly don’t want them (humans) strolling about the entire countryside. We want them to save land for nature by living closely .’
Ironically Ms. Norgaard's profile at her school in which she talks about being in nature, hiking, white water rafting and many other activities which are ok for her and her friends but not for us unwashed and unworthy has been blocked to prevent this open display of elitism and hypocrasy.
Perhaps we have succeeded too well in reducing greenhouse gasses and are bringing on a new ice age ?
Are we bringing about a man caused Ice Age because we are tinkering too much with the climate trying to fix it ?
These two remarks of mine are specious, but what if it is the case ?
Here's a view that thinks that we are headed towards an Ice Age and why. This gentleman's views are decades old and recent science seems to be backing him up.
Darwin, Australia suffered its greatest 24-hour rainfall in its history Wednesday, when a deluge of 13.4 inches (339.4 mm) hit the city when Tropical Cyclone Carlos formed virtually on top of city and remained nearly stationary. Carlos has now dissipated, and brought only an additional 1.50″ (38 mm) of rain yesterday to Darwin. Over the past four days, Carlos has dumped a remarkable 26.87″ (682.6 mm) of rain on Darwin (population 125,000), capital of Australia’s Northern Territory. Australia’s west coast is also watching Tropical Cyclone Dianne, which is expected to remain well offshore as it moves southwards, parallel to the coast.
How extreme was the latest Australian deluge, which Dr. Jeff Masters described above? The Northern Territory Chief Minister Paul Henderson said:
Over 420 ml of rain in that catchment in less than 24 hours is off the charts since records began and certainly that combined with a six metre high tide, that water came up very, very quickly. So a really one in 500 year event; nobody’s experienced anything like this before.”
I asked Paul Gilding, author of the forthcoming bookThe Great Disruption, to comment on the implications of the off-the-charts weather Australia has been suffering though. He wrote:
Any doubt that climate change is an economic problem, not just an environmental one, was washed away with people’s lives, homes and businesses in Australia over the last few months. Floods of biblical proportions, and just weeks later, a cyclone of record intensity, saw people torn from inside their disintegrating houses as walls of water literally shattered whole communities. Also washed away was any doubt that the window for early action was now firmly closed. Now is the time to prepare for our new climate, a climate we helped to create with our massive coal exports and use. The good news is that faced with such catastrophic impacts, we will surely now wake up to the need to act urgently to stop climate chaos accelerating our of control. Humanity has shown itself to be good in a crisis, as witnessed in the mobilisation for World War II. We are more than capable or responding rapidly, we just need to decide to act. That decision is coming soon.
The northern hemisphere is having some really wacky weather. Generally, I am of the opinion that "weather" should not be confused with "climate".
But, this has me spooked.
Here's the normal local weather report, kinda hinting at it... the strange weather at the north pole is effecting the weather everywhere.
The weather is, in a word, fucked. In winter we're now getting cold air from the north, and precipitation. In the summer, we get hot air from the south, and it's bone dry.
That's why global warming is given the broader designation of climate change; the increased energy from the warming powers more extreme weather. The horrible blizzards and cold of this year's past winter are perfectly consistent with it, as much as the terrible scorching heat and drought of the summer.
Submitted by Evelyn Browning... on Thu, 18 Nov 2010
For the past 35 years, The Browning Newsletter has maintained a belief that a person is significantly influenced by the climate in which they exist. Therefore, in understanding the past and present conditions of the climate in which they live, they can use the momentum of change to their advantage in forecasting trends related to behavior and commodities.
SUMMARY: The La Niña continues to grow stronger and, combined with other factors, will shape a cold and stormy winter.
What season is it? I'm a climatologist, so at this time of year I automatically think about autumn and the onset of winter. However, if you have testosterone and are American, the odds are that a lot of you think of this time of year as FOOTBALL SEASON. (If you are Canadian and polishing a hockey stick, please bear with me.)
One of the pleasures of viewing the sport is watching the teamwork of the defensive unit. Some player on the offense is holding the ball and the entire defense rallies to crush him. Sometimes a sole player takes the runner down, but frequently it's a gang tackle. One by one, giant tacklers pile on the runner, leaving the flattened player buried in behemoths.
Ouch!
I think about weather, not sports - but I'm watching a potential pileup. Three enormous weather patterns are surrounding North America. All three cause cold winter weather. Expect to be flattened.
Certainly interesting how this will pan out. I can't imagine it is in China's interest to stifle economic activity in the rest of the world. In the short-term global prices will inevitably rise and local providers will return to the market in the mid-term, n'est ce pas*? What are the futures for these commodities doing?
(*Disregarding for the moment, the coming crunch in most raw materials as global consumption proceeds apace - that's really going to rock the global economy).
