Global "warming"
OK, rather than go through each and every idiot commentary on Al Gore's recent speech on global warming (the general message being, "what a lefty idiot, what kind of reactionary gives a speech on global warming on the coldest day in NYC in years?") I'm just going to address it once, here, in my own damn forum.
These two things are true:
1) No credible scientist disputes the conclusion that human activity has increased the "greenhouse" effect, trapping heat in our atmosphere. Many scientists in the pay of global corporations dispute the conclusion, though, as does the Wall Street Journal editorial page.
2) Global "warming" isn't a good name for the effect. It's more accurate to think of energy being trapped in our atmosphere. What this does is increase the amplitude of weather changes. Hot weather is hotter, it's true, but the recent extreme cold weather that walked across the US is probably also an effect of global "warming". The increase in violent hurricanes and other storms in the last ten years? Yep, global "warming" also. Remember, it's just more energy in the system.
Thank you.
A.E. Sundstrom, on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 at 8:55 AM:
Apropos, in the 28 Jan 2004 NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/28/opinion/28EPST.html
David Adam Edelstein, on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 at 9:33 AM:
For those who try to follow Drew's excellent link after it expires on the NYT site, here's the meat of Mr. Epstein's essay:
"Normally, water circulates in the North Atlantic like this: Cold, salty water at the top sinks; that sinking water acts as a pump, pulling warm Gulf Stream water north and thus moderating winter weather. But now, fresh water from the thawing ice and heavier rain is accumulating near the ocean's surface; it's not sinking as quickly. (The tropics are faced with the opposite phenomenon. According to Dr. Ruth Curry and her colleagues at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the tropical Atlantic is becoming saltier; as warming increases, so does evaporation, which leaves behind salt.) The "freshening" in the North Atlantic may be contributing to a high-pressure system that is accelerating trans-Atlantic winds and deflecting the jet stream — changes that may be driving frigid fronts down the Eastern Seaboard. The ice-core records demonstrate that the North Atlantic can freshen to a point where the deep-water pump fails, warm water stops coming north, and the northern ocean suddenly freezes, as it did in the last Ice Age. No one can say if that is what will happen next. But since the 1950's, the best documented deep-water pump, between Iceland and Scotland, has slowed 20 percent.
Why now? After all, the planet's previous periods of global warming resulted from changes in the earth's tilt toward the sun, and recent calculations of these cycles indicate that our hospitable climate was not due to have ended any time soon. But because of the warming brought by the buildup of carbon dioxide, mainly from the burning of fossil fuels, the equations have changed. We are entering uncharted waters. It's something for New Yorkers to ponder as they bundle up."