Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Irrefutable Evidence

3 comments:

J said...

Back in 1996, my family did a tour of Yellowstone and Mesa Verde.

Mesa Verde was fabulous, and I highly recommend a tour through the museum.

What still stands clear in my memory is the cross section of a tree that was, I dunno, a thousand years old. The notes on each tree ring (one year in a tree life) showed that every 40-50 years there was a drought and variation in temperature that lasted a few years as I recall. At one point, there was a drought and temp change that lasted 20-30 years, drying up water supplies and forcing the Anasazis to leave the area.

I remember extrapolating that out and realizing that, with the dust bowl of the 1930s being the last drought/heat wave here, we were due another any year now.

Is the earth getting warmer, especially over the US? Yes, as I understand it. Thus, technically, the "Global Warming" label that everyone is using is correct.

However, everyone seems to think the cause is auto exhaust and industrialization - very few people are talking about the normal cylical weather patterns of the last few milleniums.

The early part of the last century was abnormally wet by historic standards. We are now returning to something more typical. We have better get used to it.

I don't care if we all drive cars that discharge nothing but ice cubes, it ain't gonna change a thing.



Also, I just found an article that matches my memory:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12313268

Mike said...

My brief experience with time-series analysis tells me that we'll never be able to say *why* the planet is getting warmer (it would help if we had a "control" planet). Clearly though, we need more pirates.

J said...

lol - control planet!

Yes, too many variables.

I'm not saying that we should not continue our push for greener forms of transportation, I think it's great. Personally I am considering this beauty - I could go to work and back on no gas !

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/01/07/detroit-auto-show-its-here-gms-plug-in-hybrid-is-the-chevy-v/


Hurry up, 2010!!

And it's probably worth a try to create more pirates around the world in order to reverse global warming. What's the worst that could happen?

scratch that...