2/12/2006 11:36:56 PM

no

2/12/2006 11:44:32 PM

Yeah, just as much as most of January being in the 60s proved it.

2/13/2006 8:30:22 AM

The environment? Didn't that bullshit fad go out of style in 1991?

2/13/2006 8:35:26 AM

january was actually the warmest january on record so far.

2/13/2006 9:06:15 AM

that's only if you view our world as a closed system. if you include the entire universe, it wasn't the coldest at all!

/evolutionary apologist

2/13/2006 9:14:37 AM

Global warming is expected to cause a general cooling and increase in precipitation in the north atlantic states and great lakes region.

Not that I give a damn about global warming, but you sir are way off.

2/13/2006 9:49:12 AM

global warming is expected to do lots of contradictory things. our understanding of the issue is not very well developed and there is no real certainty on the issue.

you have everything from high temp-->ice caps melt to high temp-->ice age to high temp-->stasis via negative feedback.

i don't really see global warming as bad, per se. simply a new experience to live through and i don't expect it to personally affect me that much (which is what really matters in the end).

2/13/2006 10:18:15 AM

it's not contradictory at all. the reason it's expected to cause cooling in some areas is because the only reason the north atlantic is temperate is because if enough cold, fresh water coming from the melting polar ice caps and the melting glaciers of Greenland flows into the northern Atlantic, it will shut down the Gulf Stream, which keeps Europe and northeastern North America warm. it's not warm because of the way the sun hits us or something, it's warm because of the gulf stream.

Quote :

"i don't really see global warming as bad, per se. simply a new experience to live through and i don't expect it to personally affect me that much (which is what really matters in the end)."

maybe not for humans in financially stable areas, where there are electric heaters/air conditioning and the like. what about for all the other humans and every animal who depends on relatively precise weather that only changes over millenia to survive?

Quote :

"that's only if you view our world as a closed system. if you include the entire universe, it wasn't the coldest at all! /evolutionary apologist"

matt, you're such a dork, but i'll placate this one for those who actually think it's meant to make sense. weather is, for the most part, an earth-wide closed system. the 2nd law of thermodynamics can apply to the whole universe

[Edited on February 13, 2006 at 10:59 AM. Reason : .]

2/13/2006 10:57:40 AM

^well durr, that's probably the most popular current theory but there's plenty of competing ones out there. i think it's safe to say that there are still plenty of unknowns.

in any case, i stick by my "widespread famine will be entertaining" stance. i am still hoping somehow dolphins will go extinct during my lifetime.

[Edited on February 13, 2006 at 11:04 AM. Reason : dolphins suck]

2/13/2006 11:04:20 AM

i believe that the Earth is currently in a phase of warming up a little bit. However I believe its almost entirely natural and that human actitivity has nothing to do with it.

that being said that blizzard that hit us yesterday was record snowfall for NYC (as measured at central park at least). it was fucking great

2/13/2006 1:23:34 PM

I adhere to the Limbaugh Theory, in that the Earth is waaaaaaay too big for humans to have any impact on its temperature.

I mean, it's huge!

And we're so small!

2/13/2006 1:29:31 PM

^^^ could you show me some of these competing theories? I've heard that there are realistic competing theories, but I haven't seen them.

2/13/2006 1:41:06 PM

sure (hopefully these links will work)

1) quiet a few studies are no longer implicating CO2 as such a dominating cause of global warming (which makes sense on a fundamental level as they have fewer IR stretching modes compared to compounds like sulfur hexafluoride which is released in pretty significant amounts--it is also incidentally the "ideal" greenhouse gas) the effects will be the same, but possible remedies would be different

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/97/18/9875?SEARCHID=QID_NOT_SET&hits=10&gca=170278997&sendit=Get+All+Checked+Abstract(s)&AUTHOR1=hansen&

2) the margin of error and sensitivity of current climatic models is highly questionable which affects the overall reliability of their predictions

http://www.jamstec.go.jp/frcgc/research/d5/jdannan/modelerror.pdf

i've gotta run now, but i remember reading a couple review articles in a major journal within the past year or so i can eventually find.

[Edited on February 13, 2006 at 4:45 PM. Reason : haha, pnas]

2/13/2006 4:44:43 PM

^^ how about there is no theory that describes long term climate change. My theory is that there is no theory. At a minimum you'd have to better understand variability in solar output, a field which still has many open questions/controversies if I remember my astrophysics correctly. But global warming is a fact anyway, don't question it.

2/13/2006 6:04:34 PM

Screw the grandkids! I'm cold right now!

2/13/2006 9:43:03 PM

2/13/2006 10:12:32 PM

if only

2/13/2006 10:19:55 PM

I think it just dispells it in NY. Everywhere else is warming up!

2/13/2006 11:24:32 PM

Its funny to me that there are still people who refuse to believe in global warming.

Shits only gonna get worse over time.

2/14/2006 1:38:06 AM

^ Or better, we just don't know!

Looking at the last hundred years, it warmed up considerably and my bank account is full! How is yours?

2/14/2006 10:13:57 AM

Quote :

"I think it just dispells it in NY. Everywhere else is warming up!"

The higher than average jetstream across the nation is responsible for our record warmness. That SAME jetstream is responsible for record coldness in Russia. So there's no real change there.

Quote :

"Its funny to me that there are still people who refuse to believe in global warming. Shits only gonna get worse over time."

Sure, maybe it'll get worse b/c it'll be the first time its really happened to humans. But guess what, the earth has been heating up and cooling down for millions and millions of years.

until humans have been around for hundreds of millions of years, you can't really hypothocize about it

2/14/2006 1:28:41 PM

The earth is always warming and cooling, but comparing natural climate change to the last 100 years worth of climate change is like comparing a sunrise to flicking a light switch.

2/14/2006 2:19:01 PM