From what we are able to gather (collectively) - it seems that "climate change"
"Global warming" is happening if the authorities are to believed.
The media generally has blunted our emotional responses to most news issues but has worked up a storm re: global warming
Here in the UK - everything and anything that has consequences flooding, poor summer this year (last year was too hot and blamed again on GW) etc is immediately blamed on global warming.
Almost every day it is mentioned on national news - So it must be true!
Slowly the effects are starting to filter down into everyones lives with the first of many green taxes on vehicles relative to engine size and age.
"Home information packs" have been introduced - buying or selling a house requires the compulsory use of a HIP. The info contained is the legal searches and the energy efficiency of the building.
I can only assume that when enough houses have been bought or sold then they will become compulsory (even if not selling) and then we will have an extra tax imposed on us based on the size of our carbon footprint or overall house efficiency.
But then again they just might want to know that we are all doing our best to reduce our carbon footprint! -
http://ncpa.org/pub/st/st285/st285c.html
the above link provides some basic information re: current weather trends and relates them to weather trends over our past century
http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/GlobWarmTest/start.html
the supporting information for the above link is interesting esp the pages relating to orbital eccentricities of Earth and variations in the Sun's output.
Orbiting satellites provide the most accurate global temperature readings-- accurate to 0.1 degree C. Interestingly, in the 18 years that satellites have been recording temperature they have actually showed a slight decrease in average global temperatures. - Also from the above questionaire
http://home.earthlink.net/~ponderthemaunderg/ponderthemaunder/
http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2007/08/10/are-greenland-s-gla...
This is an interesting link and argues what a lot of "dissenting scientists" have been saying for years - that there is regional cooling taking place in both hemispheres.
I for one don't believe that scientists can actually work out the average temperature of a planet over the period of a year.
There are too many atmospheric variables and then there is that huge heat sink that covers 3/4 of the planet surface.
The real worry - that hasn't been mentioned for a while (not since the 80's) is the threat of a new Ice age - This is inevitable according to all scientists - its just a question of when?
Scientists say it is imminent!
http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Research-Review/Magazine/1997-fall/villag...
When it does happen , the ice caps will expand and the sea levels will drop.
The speed at which this could happen is also open to conjecture
http://motls.blogspot.com/2007/09/hansen-schneider-catastrophic-new-ice.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2003/nov/13/comment.research
http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=12455&tid=282&cid=10046
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/comment/story.html?id=bdc249...
The following is from the Independent Summary for Policymakers (ISPM) of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report.
The following concluding statement is not in the Fourth Assessment Report, but was
agreed upon by the ISPM writing team based on their review of the current evidence.
"The Earth»s climate is an extremely complex system and we must not understate the
difficulties involved in analyzing it. Despite the many data limitations and uncertainties,
knowledge of the climate system continues to advance based on improved and expand-
ing data sets and improved understanding of meteorological and oceanographic
mechanisms.
The climate in most places has undergone minor changes over the past 200 years,
and the land-based surface temperature record of the past 100 years exhibits warming
trends in many places. Measurement problems, including uneven sampling, missing
data and local land-use changes, make interpretation of these trends difficult. Other,
more stable data sets, such as satellite, radiosonde and ocean temperatures yield
smaller warming trends. The actual climate change in many locations has been rela-
tively small and within the range of known natural variability. There is no compelling
evidence that dangerous or unprecedented changes are underway.
The available data over the past century can be interpreted within the framework of
a variety of hypotheses as to cause and mechanisms for the measured changes. The
hypothesis that greenhouse gas emissions have produced or are capable of producing
a significant warming of the Earth»s climate since the start of the industrial era is
credible, and merits continued attention. However, the hypothesis cannot be proven by
formal theoretical arguments, and the available data allow the hypothesis to be credibly
disputed.
Arguments for the hypothesis rely on computer simulations, which can never be
decisive as supporting evidence. The computer models in use are not, by necessity,
direct calculations of all basic physics but rely upon empirical approximations for many
of the smaller scale processes of the oceans and atmosphere. They are tuned to
produce a credible simulation of current global climate statistics, but this does not
guarantee reliability in future climate regimes. And there are enough degrees of
freedom in tunable models that simulations cannot serve as supporting evidence for
any one tuning scheme, such as that associated with a strong effect from greenhouse
gases.
There is no evidence provided by the IPCC in its Fourth Assessment Report that the
uncertainty can be formally resolved from first principles, statistical hypothesis testing
or modeling exercises. Consequently, there will remain an unavoidable element of
uncertainty as to the extent that humans are contributing to future climate change, and indeed whether or not such change is a good or bad thing."
I agree that there are political agendas - Global warming, oil, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, 9/11, "The war on terror" - all inter-related
Whatever happens - I'll bet that the rockerfellers and the rothschilds and other uber rich families that form the world banks will survive and prosper at the working mans expense.
I was taught that the Feudal system slowly disappeared in Europe as the industrial revolution progressed.
Though as far as I can tell - wealth has not distributed more evenly as a result, it is in fact as disparate as it ever was. Many of the same major families still hold the same lands that they did before industrialisation.
Whether GW is believed to be man made or not its not really the point.
I would think that our impact is virtually nil in the scheme of things.
Our so called leaders would set a good example if all this was true - but they dont - They have what are among the highest energy bills in the country.