Global Warming

[Fla._Deadheader]

  Just read this on another Forum. Info is "Supposed"to be accurate ??

  Link

[TexasTimbers]

"There is an overwhelming bias today in the media regarding the issue of global warming . . . "

No!    Does anyone really believe there is an overwhelming bias in the media regarding anything? Surely, they don't give us bad info do they? We can trust them fully, to report accurate and unbiased information can't we?  :

[Tom]

We probaby could if they were reporting, but, they aren't.  They're editorializing.
In  my opinion you don't see much actual reporting anymore.

Our current Media:
"Middle aged alcoholic drives his delapidated, old pick-up truck into intersection, damaging Mayor Kizyerbabi's new shiny limo and sending his college educated, very religous, chauffer to the hospital with head injuries."
(This would segue into lengthy comments on alcoholism, driving under the influence and the local homeless, who are driving because the Shelter is full.)

What I would consider decent reporting:
"Mayor's limo involved in accident at 8th and Main.  Driver's were treated and released at the scene.  The Mayor is in Acupulco and was not involved. "

Reporting:
"Minor auto accident at 8th and Main.  There were no reportable injuries, say police."

You can see why the news of 40 years ago went from a 10 minute broadcast to two hour long, back-to-back News/magazine shows.

:D :D :D

[Murf]

Headline on the homepage of the website of a major Cannuckistan ISP this morning reads;

"Santa Claus to be homeless by 2040?"

:D  :D

[DR Buck]

There is a great editorial on this in the current issue of Forestry Products Equipment magizine.   Check out the December 2006 issue page #6.   

The editorial puts a new common sense perspective on the whole global warming thing.  Makes you wonder about the tree hugging bozos of the world.    ;D

[thurlow]

if they were reporting, but, they aren't.

So, how about a list of (National) reporters that you respect...............or once respected, if they're gone.  Edward R. Murrow, Hughes Rudd, Lowell Thomas.   Usta' watch David Brinkley, Chet Huntley and Walter Cronkite, but they succumbed to the disease before they left.......DanG, I've run out already.  In the print media,  Charles Krauthammer, George Wills (maybe), Mike Royko and in a different fashion, Lewis Grizzard. 

All those news readers/talking heads on the major networks; are they still on?   Have ABSOLUTELY not tuned in a single time since Nixon was President.

[TexasTimbers]

Headlines you won't see:

The Anytown Daily Favorite

New Survey Suggests Public Distrusts Major Media

Reporters Associations are reporting that they are stunned to discover that the unjustifiably skeptical American public, as a whole, do not believe that major media outlets in general, and newspapers reporters specifically, attempt to merely present newsworthy events based simply on fact; on the contrary, the survey discloses that the American public believes that the cast majority of reporters go out of their way to skew their offerings in a way that attempts to lead their readers to a conclusion which more closely aligns itself with that of their own political, cultural, historical, and social leanings . . . . .


Another one you wouldn't see is . . . .

The Anytown Daily Favorite

Survey Suggests Media Distrusts Low Intelligence of American Public; Feel Responsible to Guide the Morons to Conclusions . . .

  : : : 

[Paul_H]

In 1994 I was among  20,000 BC loggers and supporters that met on the lawn of the BC Legislature.I was there with my family and it was a peacefull,orderly protest against the forest policies of the Government at that time.

BCTV News reported that the crowd was carrying signs with messages that they could not show on their broadcast.I was bothered by that because I saw no crude language on placards and all groups from around BC had agreed that it would be a peacefull protest.
Then I watched CBC coverage of the event and over by the BCTV cameras were a group of people holding up signs that said "BCTV biased journalism"  "BCTV unfair reporting" and other similar messages directed against BCTV.

That was back in 1994.They may have reformed but I wouldn't know because I don't watch them anymore.

Link

[Dan_Shade]

while the media does report what they want us to know, I do think there could be something to global warming, but who knows what exactly is causing it.

I do know that the old timers talk about the rivers freezing over when they were kids in this area.  I've never seen that happen.  In some local areas they would log out remote areas by getting mules and oxen into the woods over the frozen water.  so it's definately warmer now.

I also feel that we have the power to be responsible and we should be responsible wherever we can.

[Furby]

On the weather cast today, they were talking about snow on Christmas and if we were going to have any.
Temps are suposed to be above normal.
They put up a list of the amount of snow we have had on Christmas day from 2001 through last year.
2001 we had 6.7" the amount fell each year up to last years "trace amount", and this years forecast of probly none.
If I remember right, we didn't have any in 2000, but that was left out.
Based on what they showed, it would be easy to belive in global warming.

[sawguy21]

Harold, that article showed some common sense where it has been sorely lacking. The chicken little syndrome, "the sky is falling, the sky is falling" is all to prevalent but it is appealing, a nice simple explanation for a complex problem. When we were getting mild winters northern Europe was getting socked with record snow and low temperatures. Now they are getting the mild weather and parts of North America are seeing winter extremes. Apparently, skiers training for the Olympics in northern Finland were recently treated to rain. :

[TexasTimbers]

If you look at the big picture, there is nothing new under the sun. Climate changes are cyclical and have been throughout recorded history. The pendulum swings first one way and then another. There is no scientific evidence to suggest an unusual warming trend when held against the template of history. This is my opinion so I won't engage in an argument about it or cite links to studies which purport to back up my opinions - I know others have the opposite opinion based on what they have read and believe, and an opposing opinion has no less merit than my own.
I don't suggest however, that one should be a less responsible steward of his or her little acre though.

Now when it comes to earthquakes and wars, it seems to me that these are increasing in frequency.

[farmerdoug]

They say the same thing about the level of the Great lakes.  They warn that if the level of the lakes keep dropping they will dry up.  HUH??? ???

I read that there are forests of trees up to 80 feet of water all around different areas of the Great Lakes.  That must have been from the last time they dried up, right?

FD,  They will mot let you dive to harvest the trees either. :D :D :D

Farmerdoug

[PineNut]

Global warming – probably so. Earth has warmed and cooled in the past.

Caused by man – partially so. If we choke off that volcano of hot air coming out of Washington DC, we would be in a mini ice age

[Riles]

This is one of my favorite topics, because it ties into so many parts of human nature. Here's a few facts (you don't have to take my word for it, please feel free to check up on them.)

The greenhouse effect is real. Just get into your car on a summer day, especially you Florida types. Or walk into a greenhouse for that matter, duh. In fact, if it weren't for the greenhouse effect, we'd be dead, because the temperature on the surface of the earth would never come above freezing.

CO2 is a greenhouse gas. So is water vapor, by the way.

The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is increasing, according to measurements taken since the 50's atop an extinct volcano in Hawaii. http://cdiac.ornl.gov/trends/co2/graphics/mlo145e_thrudc04.pdf (The levels are cyclical, by the way. CO2 is highest in the winter on the volcano and lowest in the summer. Any guesses, wood products people?). There are other studies that measure CO2 levels from ice cores going back thousands of years that say roughly the same thing.

Not quite a fact, but there is a rough consensus among scientists that the earth is warming up. Lots of anecdotes here about hottest year on record, north polar ice cap melting, and on and on.

So connect the dots and you see enough evidence to say hmmmm. Whatta ya gonna do?

That's all science. The missing link here is what is the cause of the increase in CO2? Gotta be mankind, we're all evil. That's not proven, by the way.

Here's a few questions to ponder: When was the last time you saw good news about global warming? Why do more people live in Florida than Wisconsin? How can we blame mankind for the fact that Mars is also experiencing global warming? Is the earth so fragile that doubling the amount of CO2 from 0.038% spells the end of life as we know it? (Yes, that 38 thousandths of a percent).

By the way, my 7 seven year old is interested in science, so I tried to get him to watch NOVA, the science show. He refuses, saying it's too scary and all the shows say we're going to die. Asteroid strikes, magnetic field reversals, global warming, etc. He has a point.

[scgargoyle]

I have heard that the output of the sun has also increased. Evidence indicates that Mars is undergoing a measurable warming, also. Must be them DanG Martian SUV's!

[Bill]

Wow - too much for me to absorb without a headache. Here's some trivia I've picked up over the years that may confuse the issues more .

First OPEC embargo the US used 7 million barrels of oil per day. Now we're up to 21 million per day, day in day out. Alot of oil coming out of the ground ( what replaces it ) and into the air - displaces alot of oxygen I think - every day, week, month, year.

Second back in the 70's I kinda helped a friend once in awhile race a dirt track car. He burned straight alcohol. I hear the exhaust is water and co2 - no pollutants ? He also showed me the engine at the end of the season - clean as a whistle. The US farmers would be the source for alcohol and their crops would absorb co2 the way I heard it. BATF would have a field day inspecting all them stills :-). Sounds OK but better minds would know . . .

Third we've been reading about the Atlantic ocean and the gulf stream lately. Seems the glaciers in Greenland and Iceland are melting. Their runoff is cooling the ocean with cold fresh water so the gulf stream is cooling and being diverted. This is changing the weather patterns in the Atlantic - a little now a little more later. It doesn't matter who melted the glaciers - is the earth in a cycle or is it mankind - its happening. Do we need to fix it ? How ? So whomever said things will always change is right.

So how do we deal with it. I kinda like biodiesel ( I get 42 to 52 mpg from my straight diesel ) but I don't think one person will change anything. Is the answer switching to alcohol ? I think the jury's out on that one but heck think of the possibilities for the production over runs ( think BATF here ) . I sure wish the roads were safe enough that I could use my bike more - doctor says it would be good for me :-)  Maybe one billion people can change something. 

All that and I didn't even have a soap box - nor any answers :-( 

and I still haven't figured out how we can put ( 20 million in the US and another 20 for the rest of the world ) 40 million barrels of oil  *  per day  *  into the atmosphere 24x7, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year without it effecting what we breathe or the weather  . . .

Just wish I had some answers . . .

[Tom]

It's all my fault.

[Ron Wenrich]

Yes, the sun may be warmer, but we also have a dimming effect due to all the dirt that's in the air.  They had a program about it on NOVA earlier this year. 

When they landed all the jets during 9/11, some of the scientists got busy and found out what kind of effect that had on temperature.  Temperatures went up during the time of the landing, then dropped back after air travel resumed.  This was at more than one airport, and all reports were similar.

But, we have had clean air technologies out for about how long?  Has the air gotten cleaner?  How does that corelate with the current global warming trend?

I considered it a pretty good show.  Here's the link:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sun/

One thing that I have often brought up about global warming is the existence of relic communities.  These are forests that are growing outside of their current range. 

There are 2 close to State College, PA.  One is called Bear Meadows.  It is a remnent of a Canadian forest.  It is a bog and has white, red and black spruce in solid stands.  At one time, that forest was part of a larger system of when times were cooler.  Bear Meadows is a frost pocket.

Go to the other side of the mountain and there is a very small stand of shortleaf pine.  Shortleaf pine's normal range is in southern Maryland, a good 125 miles away.  These trees grow on the south side of the mountain, and would indicate that the southern pine forest had grown further north in the past. 

[DR Buck]

It's all my fault.   

             and don't you forget it!

[Furby]

Now go to your room!

[stumpy]

Up till recently, I reserved my opinion on global warming because there were scientists much smarter than me that doubt that it is a crisis or that has been caused by man. I changed my mind completely when Al Gore became the spokesman and expert on global Warming. Now I KNOW that there is NO CRISIS!!!

[Dan_Shade]

yeah, he certainly doesn't help things any.

it's scary that a serious topic can be discounted because of who supports it.

[low_48]

I just don't understand why we can't have a national energy policy. The way our government works, it will take 10 years after it is too late to do something. Maybe if I started a story that flag burning and gay marriage caused global warming, legislation could be quickly drafted to make sure we don't build this problem. The idea of burning all the dead dinosaurs in the earth just doesn't seem important to most policy makers or the general public. Well, wait till China uses the same amount or dead dinos per person that we do. You thought the price of steel is bad, just wait........................

[farmerdoug]

Hey,

If it was not for Al Gore we would not be sitting here chatting to one another.  :D :D :D You know he invented the Internet don't you? :

Farmerdoug