Friday, February 02, 2007

double dawg dare!

binghamton, ny 2005









germany, 2005








the carolinas, 2006









florida, 2006






my childhood buddy from florida dared me to do a piece on global warming. i can't imagine why :) i am going to let everyone guess my thoughts on this one :) ok- here goes- it's friday and i don't want to make you work :) in lieu of cat blogging- here is my opinion:

our planet is in grave danger from climate change precipitated by global warming- caused by human made pollution- most significantly from burning fossil fuels. but- by all means let us continue to mine coal and drill for oil and ignore the entire problem in order to rake in billions- yes, billions of dollars in profits. and for all of you folks who are too willfully ignorant to believe in global warming- because the earth's temperature is actually falling in some places- let me spell it out for you- and i will try very hard to use small words for you to understand:

the polar ice caps are melting- that's turning from ice into water- and that is due to global warming. the melted ice makes the planet's oceans cooler- in turn making things cooler. not a good thing. this will directly effect food production and fuel consumption- folks have to have heat and air conditioning for extreme temps. if you aren't convinced- take a look at recent weather patterns.

12 comments:

Peacechick Mary said...

Yep. Here we are with tornadoes in February. If that doesn't say something, I dunno. It's strange now and it's going to get stranger.

Spadoman said...

Ever since I remember, weather patterns have been changing. Things that were very common in weather, cold snaps, extreme rain or drought, etc, don't seem to happen with the same regularity.

I believe the human factor, the use of fossil fuels and many other polluting and environmentally unsound activities, have had an effect. We might not see all the change that is going to take place in out lifetimes, but I feel the human race is rushing things along a bit faster than when the earth was not so populated and people weren't using so many things that destruct the enmvironment.

It is a fact, there is no place on the planet that pollution of the air is not evident, even Antarctica.

There is a severe cold spell here where I live, but we haven't had one in years of this nature. Earlier in my life, it happened more often.

Need proof, it can be found, I'm sure. Not just in general terms, but in specific areas. The last two winters and one in 2002 were the warmest recorded for Minneapolis, for example.

It's also not "just" from fossil fuels from automobiles. We pollute in so many ways. Lumbering chokes streams, mining loses land mass for drainage, covering millions and millions of acres with cement and asphalt stops natural run off.

5th Estate said...

Per spadoman...half a lifetime local casual observation doesn't consitute proof of a globa weath trends and man-made impact on weather--it could be circumstantial observation of a long term cyclical process.

But rather than use personal anecodtal evidence there is overwhelming scientific evidence collected and analyzed over decades and very importantly across the world and during many different political systems that nonetheless arrive at a singular conclusion --that global warming is an active and urgent problem caused by the industrialization of human activity.
At the moment I'm not confident that we can prevent some warming, but I think we can still mitigate it and then halt it at a point and adjust to it.

That said I'll still offer my own anecodtal evidence: The UK has long been one of the most stable climates on the planet and oddly enough has probably the most ancient written formal continous weather records ever. Basically its been raining or partly cloudy or partly sunny for 300 hundred years, regardless of the season.

But in the last 15 years the UK has experienced significantly hotter and lengthier summers and in winter, hurricanes and not just gales. France and spain have haveseen great droughts and repeated floods for several years in a row and even high-mountain skiing has become a rarity.

Frankly I'm worried for my own limited future, let alone the future of my 11-year old neice.

5th Estate said...

PS sorry about the weird typos at the beginning above! :D

C-dell said...

I don't see how people claim that global warming isn't real. The weather is eradic and very different from when I was younger

Obob said...

I like having beachfront property in the Midwest

billie said...

obob- i am sure your east coast fellow americans might not feel the same way. not all of the east coast is 'libral.'

The Future Was Yesterday said...

I'm originally a Michigan native, now living in SC. Under you can't make this shit up....

I was attending a conference on global warming, it's causes, effects, etc., when a guy spoke up and said: "The icebergs melt in the lakes every year! This is a bunch of crap!!"

Sigh...(:

Obob said...

it is not a liberal or conservative thing, after rooting for the Bears, especially this year, I accept my role as the villian in life. Jack "I wear a black fedorra because I really am Black Bart" Abrahmoff is my nw hero

billie said...

we all need a hero i guess :)

moonlitetwine said...

wow! so....
of these who wrote here, how many drive their cars two blocks to pick up a soda? better still, how many of these responders would ever walk somewhere with their sweetie to go on a date? oh...how many ever have taken a bus? better still...how many insist upon having a gigglion square feet to live in, like they actually need three or four bathrooms to satisfy two or three dwellers?
just wondering....

billie said...

moonlite- i live in a 6 room apartment that i own. i leave my heat on a constant 65 degrees. i go shopping once a week and my sister doesn't own a car at all- she walks or takes the bus. we recycle and take short showers. i actually just found out about using energy saving light bulbs and intend to change all of the ones in our apartment. we try to do what we can- and will continue to try and upgrade the building.