Sunday, January 29, 2006

Debate on Climate Shifts to Issue of Irreparable Change

The Washington Post has an article called the Debate on Climate Shifts to Issue of Irreparable Change.

Scientists agree the earth is warming, now the question is, how long do we have to act. There are several events that if they happen will be very difficult if not impossible to correct. The article cites three things: "widespread coral bleaching that could damage the world's fisheries within three decades; dramatic sea level rise by the end of the century that would take tens of thousands of years to reverse; and, within 200 years, a shutdown of the ocean current that moderates temperatures in northern Europe."

NASA said 2005 was the warmest year on record. "It's not something you can adapt to," Hansen said in an interview. "We can't let it go on another 10 years like this. We've got to do something."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not a problem according to you friends at the Heritage Foundation.

http://www.heritage.org/Research/EnergyandEnvironment/wm789.cfm

http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed121305c.cfm

Howard said...

First, they're not my friends. I don't like their policies as most posts from this blog should show.

Kyoto was viewed as flawed not just by those that ignore global warming. I do believe that the climate is a very complex problem that we don't fully understand. I also believe that we should tend to be cautious and that means reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

I agree with one of the articles that I've never understood how global warming can lead to an ice age and I'm not alone. I do know that we've measured cyclical changes in the atmosphere and that we're currently late in a warm patch and due for another ice age. My guess is this is unrelated to global warming and people have mixed the two up.

Anonymous said...

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=sarcasm