Global Warming, do you notice it where you live?

[Hardbopjazz]

The warm winter made the high-heating-cost warnings not such a big deal. Seems like the only nasty weather has for the most part been out east. In KC we're just now heading into some cold weather- it's been a very warm and dry winter. We could use some precipitation.

Did anyone get socked with unusually high heating bills this winter?

The woman I work with, her husband sells home heating oil. She said they are going to charge more, not because of demand, because they aren't delivering as much, and they need to make money to pay the workers.

Screwed either way you look at it.

Edited February 16, 2006 by Hardbopjazz

[Free For All]

Gobel warning.....

[GregK]

To answer the question, yes, BIG time. While the winter of '05 was fairly cold and long, this winter has been quite mild. And this is now becoming fairly typical. Hardly any snow, at least where I live. 30-40 years ago when I was a kid in this same general area, outdoor rinks could be kept frozen for at least 2-3 months of the year; there was lots of sledding and snowmobiling, and other winter sports. No more. (Hard to do in any case, because the area is now much more urban). Long term I know it's bad, but for now it's great for lowering the heating and electricity bills.

this is not global warming. Global warming isn't predicted to suddenly make everyone's heating bills more manageable-it is a gradual (over decades, centuries) warming, not noticeable to people from year to year. This winter is most likely a La Nina effect, that's all. And no, my pockets are not lined by any corporate interests, and they never will be; I'm a chemist working in biotech.

[medjuck]

My late father once told me that the harbour in Sidney Nova Scotia used to freeze over in the winter but it hasn't in years. People used to drive across it to save time. He also said that you knew it was spring in Cape Breton the first time a car went through the ice.

[RDK]

One can't make any conclusions on global warming based on a warmer-than-average winter or two; as someone above said, this is a long-term (as in hundreds/thousands of years) thing. If next year was suddenly a bad winter, would everyone say that the whole global warming concern is over?

There's also little doubt among scientists that global warming is occuring; the question is whether it's a natural occurance, the result of industrialization, or some combination of the two.

[Guy Berger]

One can't make any conclusions on global warming based on a warmer-than-average winter or two; as someone above said, this is a long-term (as in hundreds/thousands of years) thing. If next year was suddenly a bad winter, would everyone say that the whole global warming concern is over?

There's also little doubt among scientists that global warming is occuring; the question is whether it's a natural occurance, the result of industrialization, or some combination of the two.

Oddly enough, one of the possible byproducts of global warming could be a shutdown of the "Atlantic conveyor belt" that brings tropical warmth to the seas around northern Europe. If that happens, London will get similar weather to Vladivostok and Scandinavia will become nearly uninhabitable.

Guy

[Hardbopjazz]

CNN today.

Greenland glaciers dumping ice into Atlantic at faster pace

Thursday, February 16, 2006; Posted: 2:05 p.m. EST (19:05 GMT)

Many bergs are calved each year from the Kangerdlussuaq glacier in east Greenland.

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Manage Alerts | What Is This? ST. LOUIS, Missouri (AP) -- Greenland's southern glaciers have accelerated their march to the Atlantic Ocean over the past decade and now contribute more to the global rise in sea levels than previously estimated, researchers say.

Those faster-moving glaciers, along with increased melting, could account for nearly 17 percent of the estimated one-tenth of an inch annual rise in global sea levels, or twice what was previously believed, said Eric Rignot of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

An increase in surface air temperatures appears to be causing the glaciers to flow faster, albeit at the still-glacial pace of eight miles to nine miles a year at their fastest clip, and dump increased volumes of ice into the Atlantic.

That stepped-up flow accounted for about two-thirds of the net 54 cubic miles of ice Greenland lost in 2005. That compares with 22 cubic miles in 1996, Rignot said.

Rignot and his study co-author, Pannir Kanagaratnam of the University of Kansas, said their report is the first to include measurements of recent changes in glacier velocity in the estimates of how much ice most of Greenland is losing.

"The behavior of the glaciers that dump ice into the sea is the most important aspect of understanding how an ice sheet will evolve in a changing climate," Rignot said.

"It takes a long time to build and melt an ice sheet, but glaciers can react quickly to temperature changes."

Details of the study were being presented Thursday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The study appears Friday in the journal Science.

The researchers believe warmer temperatures boost the amount of melt water that reaches where the glaciers flow over rock.

That extra water lubricates the rivers of ice and eases their downhill movement toward the Atlantic. They tracked the speeds of the glaciers from space, using satellite data collected between 1996 and 2005.

If warmer temperatures spread to northern Greenland, the glaciers there too should pick up their pace, Rignot and Kanagaratnam wrote.

The only way to stem the loss of ice would be for Greenland to receive increased amounts of snowfall, according to Julian Dowdeswell of the University of Cambridge, who wrote an accompanying article.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[Hardbopjazz]

Video

Global warming

[Robert J]

So yesterday I take off my jacket at lunchtime because I am sweating, it was 9C/48F. This morning I am shoveling snow off my driveway and am pelted with freezing rain. I see tomorrow night it will be -15C/4F!

[.:.impossible]

The Chesapeake Bay has, on an almost regular basis, frozen over so thick in areas that auto traffic can cross. Of course the Chesapeake is a relatively shallow bay. This has happened on a larger scale as recently as 1977. Before that, the late 1930s I believe.

Second story snows have been reported from islands in the middle of the Bay going back to 1780. This is not a common occurrence and I wouldn't imagine trying to explain it.

Odd weather we're having, eh?

...

I've read many scientists contribute our current state to both cyclical occurrences and human impact. I think it is odd for people to deny that scenario.

My knowledge on climates is limited, but I have done some reading on global warming. Global warming is about sea level rise and fractional changes in the oceans' temperatures. Thermal expansion and glacial recession contributed under 15cm of sea level rise over the past 100 years. Past that, we don't have data to compare to.

My hunch would be that it is an accelerated rate due to human impact. CO2 emissions continue to rise. Even if emissions were reduced tomorrow, CO2 levels would continue to increase. I've read different ideas as to how long this would continue.

That is nuts. Reading a lot of these reports, especially “An Ocean Blueprint for the 21st Century,” it almost feels like we are hopeless. It is an absolute shame that we neglected these issues for so long in pursuit of progress.

[Free For All]

So yesterday I take off my jacket at lunchtime because I am sweating, it was 9C/48F. This morning I am shoveling snow off my driveway and am pelted with freezing rain. I see tomorrow night it will be -15C/4F!

Oh, Canada!

[ghost of miles]

Yes, it's been an extremely mild winter, but--as others have pointed out--no evidence there whatsoever of a global warming trend. That evidence has been accumulating for the past few decades, and the warming trend is accelerating. There are very few scientists who DON'T attribute this in large part to the increasing industrialization of the earth. And it's going to get much, much worse quite quickly, particulary as countries like China embrace the automobile. 50 years? Try more like 10. What are we doing about it? Nothing.

Actually, some in the business community are becoming concerned about it, because the impact on the bottom line will be potentially catastrophic. If you're a business person thinking long-term, you can't afford to indulge in the head-in-the-sand ideologue tactics of the present administration. You have to deal with reality.

[Hardbopjazz]

February 17, 2006 and it hit 57 F. in New York. This is wrong. I should be freezing my ass off.

[BeBop]

Okay, if we're going to be anecdotal about this, it's presently snowing in Oakland, CA hills.

[Guy Berger]

February 17, 2006 and it hit 57 F. in New York. This is wrong. I should be freezing my ass off.

In February 17, 1976 it hit 67 F in New York. Is anybody else noticing global cooling where they live?

Guy

[Guy Berger]

I wish global warming would come back. It's fucking cold out there.

Guy

[Hardbopjazz]

I wish global warming would come back. It's fucking cold out there.

Guy

LOL. I guess the gods are playing with us. Single digits where I am.

[RDK]

I wish global warming would come back. It's fucking cold out there.

Guy

And I wish that whatever it was that killed the dinosaurs would do the same to my neighbor with the very loud stereo and fondness for death metal...

[Guy Berger]

I wish global warming would come back. It's fucking cold out there.

Guy

And I wish that whatever it was that killed the dinosaurs would do the same to my neighbor with the very loud stereo and fondness for death metal...

[Hardbopjazz]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Antarctica's mammoth ice sheet, which holds 90 percent of the Earth's ice, is showing "significant decline" as world temperatures heat up, according to a new study released.

As Earth's fifth largest continent, Antarctica is twice the size of Australia and contains 70 percent of Earth's fresh water resources. British research suggests the melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet alone would raise global sea levels by over 20 feet (six meters).

And now a team of US researchers at the University of Boulder in Colorado say they have discovered that the Antarctic ice sheet is losing up to 36 cubic miles (152 cubic kilometers) of ice annually.

The estimated ice mass in Antarctica is the same as 0.4 millimeters of global sea rise annually, with a margin of error of 0.2 millimeters, according to the study. There are about 25 millimeters to one inch.

The study, however, appears to contradict the 2001 assessment by the UN-mandated Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which forecast that the Antarctic ice shelf would actually gain mass in the 21st Century due to higher precipitation in a warming climate.

Using specialized data from two NASA satellites orbiting Earth in tandem, the Boulder researchers determined the Antarctic ice sheet has lost significant mass in recent years.

"This is the first study to indicate the total mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet is in significant decline," said Isabella Velicogna, of the university's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.

The bulk of the loss is occurring in the West Antarctic ice sheet, according to Velicogna.

"The changes we are seeing are probably a good indicator of the changing climatic conditions there," she said.

The continent's ice sheet has an average thickness of about 6,500 feet (1,981 meters).

The study appears in the online issue of Science Express.

[jazzbo]

Proof of global warming . . . .

Edited March 4, 2006 by jazzbo

[Guy Berger]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Antarctica's mammoth ice sheet, which holds 90 percent of the Earth's ice, is showing "significant decline" as world temperatures heat up, according to a new study released.

Apparently the melting of the Greenland glaciers has also accelerated in the last few years.

Guy

[jazzbo]

Yes, the candle is burning at both ends. . . .

[Soul Stream]

Yeah, but why worry about it. Does anybody think the world could unite itself to combat it even if it could agree that it was happening? Of course not. America's going to burn every last drop of oil it can find, and if we didn't China and India would. We can't agree on shit. And even if we could, the moneyocracy that we live in wouldn't let us do a thing about it. My advice is to get a Hawaiin shirt, some bird flu vaccine, sunscreen, a life raft and enjoy it. We're pawns in their game. The illusion that we the people are in control is just that...an illusion.

[Guy Berger]

Yes, the candle is burning at both ends. . . .

On the plus side owners of beachfront property in Oklahoma and banana plantations in New England will be very pleased.

Guy