global warming?

Lately in Detroit, Michigan, the winter has been unusually mild. It only started snowing on Thursday for the second time this year. This has been a recurring pattern the last few winters and I believe that the planet is warming. I am still unconvinced that greenhouse gas emissions are causing are planet to retain more heat. I do believe that the planet is warming but I am not sure that greenhouse gases are the only problem. I've heard convincing theories about the tilt of the Earth on its axis. Is the weather funny for other people too?

 

It's been a fairly mild winter where I am. I'm not worried 'bout it. Things go in cycles.

 

ah, i'm looking forward to global warming... it's cold in canada...

 

I live in the Midwest, and we've been having pretty mild winters here for a while. This year moreso than others I believe. We got most of our "heavier" snow back in December, but January and February has shown little accumulation, which is pretty odd.

To be honest, it worries me. Back when I was a child, it seemed that the winter months always brought blankets of snow. There were rarely days when there wasn't snow covering the ground, but with each passing year, it seems we see less and less. I remember building snowpeople and sled riding frequently as a young child, something of which hasn't happened this year for my own children but once.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of the cold, snowy weather. Someday I would like to reside in a warmer climate and avoid the cold and snow altogether. But it doesn't stop my concern over what is happening to our environment. I wouldn't be surprised if in the upcoming years we skirt over the wintery weather and have little if no snow whatsoever. It might not happen for a while yet, but I'm fairly certain that it will sometime in the near future.

Even spring has brought confusing weather. It seems that around here spring is almost a thing of the past, and we head directly into the hot, summer weather, skipping over the mild spring temps.

 

Global warming is causing the sea temperatures to rise.This in turn is melting the Polar Ice Caps hence the Polar Bear may one day become extinct.Fish are also spawing further north away from the equator to escape the warmer temperatures.River levels throughout the world are lower than ever previously recorded.

 

It's nasty....
Yesterday we had rain then beautiful, clear sunlight, then hail and then sunlight and then a blizzard and then sunlight then some more hail and so on....

Like 4 different weather conditions, our world is fuct

 

The planet IS warming, that's a fact. The only question that remain is whether humans are causing it. Now you look at the Carbon Dioxide issue:

1. Carbon Dioxide is a greenhouse gas
2. Humans are burning fossil fuels at a high and ever increasing rate
3. Burning fossil fuels releases lots of carbon dioxide

which then, logically, leads to:

4. Humans are causing global warming

 

Winters here have not only been unusually warm the past number of years, but they have also been highly unstable. Where I live, one day this month it would hit 60 degrees for a high and the next day it would be below freezing (literally!), and this sort of thing is becoming more common.


It's no surprise, given that even Greenland is beginning to melt along with the arctic ocean. I don't understand how people can deny global warming; the debate (as Trippin said) is the cause, not whether it's happening or not.

 

Studying weather and climate, over a long time line, one will find that the Earth warms and cools. Climate comes in cycles. There was a great History Channel program on just this subject over the weekend. Climate shifts have always occured.
During the Dark Ages the climate was very cold, then mirroring the "time of enlightenment" around the 1300s was a 300 year warm cycle producing a lot of food, the people were healthier therefore more higher level progress was made during those times. During this time the Viking settlements on what they called "Greenland" - which was very green and lush because of the warm 300 years - thrived.

However it didn't last forever, which when the little ice age came, the black death followed. The little ice age caused cultures to change their diets, and this is when LSD was discovered from the destoryed rye and wheat crops across Northern Europe. The vikings in Greenland all died off as a result of the little ice age. Greenland was no longer green.

The little ice age began to ease up in the 1700s through the early 1800s. One year in the early 1800s because of an erruption of a Super volcano in southeastern Asia, it was known as "The Year with No Summer" across the world crops failed under summer snow, ect... werid shit has happened before.

We've been mostly warming ever since then. I think humans have an impact, but I believe from my studys on the subject, that it's not all about us. It looks like if this current warming does continue, most of the coastal areas will be under water, yes up and down the eastern seaboard cities would be completely underwater as would the West Coast, much of northern Europe as well, and that's the way nature works. Woe to the man who believes he will get away will removing a hill to build his house by the ocean. That's why I migrated from the coastal plains of South Carolina to the inner Mountain West, I survived Hurricane Hugo, 1989, and when I was able to leave in 2001, I got the hell out of dodge. "Go West"

 

Yea, lonewolf knows his stuff. As the temps get warmer, the ice caps have melted. The more they do, the more they push the gulf stream lower, at one point the earth will revert to another ice age, cooling and restarting the cycle.

 

yep and george bush is such a twat he can't be botherd to cut gas emissions, and now china and some other countries are following suit, i was quite suprised to hear that britains are a mere 2% of the world total.

 

Hey, if you don't know about politics and policies in the US don't comment on them. It's called a tax credit for hybrids, you can get $2000 for purchasing a hybrid. Do some research next time.

 

as this topic is about global warming i thought it was fair to say that america could improve the situation, i didn't comment on how the country is run did i , and why would i come up with that if i didn't do any research? ...im not stating which country is better

 

America is improving the situation, a la tax cuts for hybrids. So, now other countries should step up and contribute.

 

America, with the best economy on the plant, also rejected Kyoto accord point blank. Other countries HAVE stepped up, and now its time for gas emissions to be reduced, rather than arrogantly supporting the country's massive industry and pollution.

 

Another thing is that things like this isn't going to happen in a short time span, It'll will take decades to do, with the phase in of alternative fuels. Even then, with most alternatives, you still need fossil fuels to produce alternatives. And as I said before, the global warming process is a cycle, it heats up to a point, disrupts the gulf stream and we go into a mini ice age.

 

That, and some of the stuff I have read says more carbon dioxide means more green vegitation. Plants apparently love that stuff....

http://www.oism.org/pproject/s33p36.htm

 

to the above poster: Yes, there are historical cycles...HOWEVER, the speed in which our earth is warming isn't normal or cyclic.

 

I agree that we sped up global warming, but it just means it will be a faster cycle from now on.

 

So what is everyone here doing to minimize your impact on the emissions of fossile fuels? I find humor in those living in the heart of urban excess, driving in gas powered cars, sporting bumper stickers condeming others for "ignoring the environment" ect.

I find the air in eastern Montana to be the most pristine air I've ever inhaled. Blow right out of the northern rainforests of Canada and the Northern Rockies. Every time I go into a city, I feel sick just from the smog in the air.

Anyone here run on solar or wind? we hope to within the next year or two, the state of Montana will pay people to use renewable energies. The scientists at the USDA northern Plains Ag research center are working to get an ethanol plant built here as a valued added business on the existing barley and wheat industry of the area. There are ethanol pumps being installed in fuel stations across the area.

This region is very agriculturally progressive, but I expect other regions of the U.S. may also be implementing infrastructure to bring in the new wave of renewable energies like eastern Montana, despite the lack of any "visable" pollution in this extremely pristine environment here in the Big Sky Country.