After a delay of about two months, I am happy to be once again bringing you this collection of news related to our changing world. I know that a lot of people tend to dismiss the whole notion of Climate Change as so much poppycock dreamed up by evil, liberal communists to scare the ignorant masses (of which you and I would be members, I suppose).
This "Global Warming is a myth" line of thinking has been created and promoted by the same people who (a) chose to ignore the evidence of terrorists in America, then (b) assured us that Iraq was just chock full 'o weapons of mass destruction, and (c) assured the citizens of New Orleans that their dikes would hold since stronger hurricanes caused by Global Warming were a myth.
Photo from ENS Newswire
The stories below are, quite honestly, frightening. They aren't sensationalized pieces from the Weekly World News either,they are from respected, mainstream news sources like Reuters and the BBC. I urge you all to take the time to at least read over my story, and the blurbs from other news sources below. There are some basic facts here which we should all be aware of, that relate very much to how our future as individuals and the future of our children will play out.
The changes we are seeing aren't so much happening every day in your back yard (although this past summer was the hottest on record in the US). Instead they are planetwide in scale and scope. For example, the Arctic is warming up. This much is taken as a given fact now. Not a place that most of us have ever been to, or even think about very much. But the weather that affects the whole world is partially created there.
Arctic climate change is usually viewed as caused by the retreat of sea ice. This coupled with a lengthening of the snow-free season there has resulted in the spring thaw arriving an average of 2.3 days earlier each decade. As a result, plants in the region now "leaf out" about 2.7 days earlier than in previous decades. Likewise, the first freeze each year is arriving slightly later, allowing plants to extend their growing season.has increased atmospheric heating locally by an amount similar in magnitude to the regional heating expected over multiple decades from a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Continuation of this trend could further amplify atmospheric heating in the region by two to seven times and could possibly contribute to broader changes in climate, according to a new study to be published in the Sept. 22, 2005, issue of Science Express.
Summer warming is more pronounced over land than over sea ice, and atmosphere and sea-ice observations can't explain this," said Terry Chapin, a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks'."Snowmelt is 2.5 days earlier for each of the past several decades. Continuation of current trends in shrub and tree expansion could further amplify this atmospheric heating 2-7 times.This mechanism should be incorporated into climate models. It's the changes in season length rather than increases in vegetation that explains this observation.
Article comments
1 - Jeff Radecki
Great article about the myths surrounding climate change. In my quest to educate people about the problems facing the envirionment at www.hgcnow.com I've found a lot of people who think chlimate change is more fictional then the easter bunny.
Thanks for the article and check out my site if you get a chance (shameless plug)