Climate or Weather? Who Cares, It is Changing
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 01. 3.07
Robert Oullette, ReadingToronto: Riverdale Park on New Years Day
We are always told not to confuse climate and weather, but no matter what you call it, it is weird in Canada. Robert Oullette at ReadingToronto says "We quipped yesterday that there is no need to go south this year - southern temperatures have come to us. The image of this glider trying to launch himself from the slopes of Riverdale tells the story of yesterday's weather." Meanwhile, at the Globe and Mail, Roy MacGregor says that this year in Canada, weather was the big story. Storms are hammering British Columbia, almost taking out Vancouvers' Stanley Park. Summer storms "left enough downed trees in their wake to turn the Northwest Passage into an eco-tourism boardwalk." Up on the Canadian Shield, people are canoeing instead of snowmobiling.
And of course, 11,000 football fields worth of ice broke off Ellesmere Island. We learn from another columnist that in a recent survey, " Sixty-three per cent [of Canadians] were "desperately concerned that if we don't take drastic action right now, the world may not last much longer than another couple of generations." Say what? Drastic action? Now? Or we die? " The political climate in Canada, like the UK, is changing as fast as the real climate. 2007 may be the year this show comes to the United States. ::Globe and Mail
The world is going to last, it won't blow up or anything. What it will do is change to compensate for the changes we make. And we may not like the changes. But I don't think there will be any massive destruction. And if there was, the world would recover, it has before. Life has recovered from world destroying asteroids. That's not saying we have a free license to continue our current course. It's just saying the system will eventually recover if left to it's own devices.
I agree, and humans are probably the last species that would need to worry about extinction.
Unfortunately future generations may look back at the last couple of centuries and say "hmmm...you had a pretty nice status quo there....why did you not notice you were f%:*&ing it up?"
Jilted, what the heck does that have to do with the price of eggs? Of course the earth will survive. That's a specious argument.
But none of that matters. What matters is that we are humans and live in a human time reference. The changes that are now happening are doing nothing other than speeding up and are already perceptible by us. These changes will mean catastrophe for us as a species. This catastrophe will be fully in your face within YOUR lifetime. (Already in your face if you lived in New Orleans two summers ago) Your kids? Screwed. Your grand kids? Screwed. What happens over millenia is meaningless.
I like that 60%+ of Canadians agree with me that drastic action is needed now. Stop with the nonsensical parties, stop buying plastic trinkets because they are "green", and start demanding action of your public servants. Its not a joke, its not a reason to throw parties and get laid, its not a reason to be fashionable, its your SURVIVAL.
I agree with JiltedCitizen. The planet has been through worse and will ultimatly survive. My concern is that if it changes will we be able to survive with it? It has taken much less to destroy other civilizations, and much much less to destroy other species. We are not that robust- compared to other species, like insects, we are downright fragile.
So its not about if and when change will happen, as it always does, its about if we can adapt fast enough to survive.
I am living in an area in Canada that is breaking records daily. This is the time it should be -20 with a few feet of snow. At the moment we have no snow, just the odd patch here and there, have just come off a 10 degree high on Jan 1st and it is forecast to be 10 degrees again on Jan 5th. I live 2 hours northwest of ottawa.
The CBC brings up global warming every other day as a side topic when talking about all our crazy weather.
Last year, most of the US was in the grips of record cold weather for December (2005) and January (2006).
Maybe next year it will be -10C again, as well. Perhaps Al Gore can give another talk about phony "global warming" then, too.
I was never happy with the term "Global Warming". "Climate Change" I always found more apt and more explanatory.
As far as Stanley Park goes, I have seen the damage (I got back into town a day after it had hit) and it looks like someone bombed it. Trees even near Lost Lagoon got uprooted :(
Who said the Human race had to survive? There have been other mass extinctions, that's life. Like I said, it will probably suck.
Warmest winter on record for Norman, OK was 1991-1992 season -- 15 years ago. Warmest for Wichita Falls, OK (28 miles south) was 1931-32 -- 75 years ago. Climate is a local phenomenon. Don't worry, Canada: you're cold weather will be back. Enjoy the gliding while you can.
Warmest winter on record for Norman, OK was 1991-1992 season -- 15 years ago. Warmest for Wichita Falls, OK (28 miles south) was 1931-32 -- 75 years ago. Climate is a local phenomenon. Don't worry, Canada: you're cold weather will be back. Enjoy the gliding while you can.
The warm weather is a bit of an anomaly in North America this year primarily due to El Niño. I don't think that we are going to see radical changes in the weather as a result of global warming. It will be more a death of a thousand cuts; which will take a long time for big changes to occur in the climate. Of course, changes have been occurring since the industrial revolution and continue to accelerate as more countries increase development. The warm weather that we are enjoying this year is more El Niño than anything else. The El Niño anomaly began in February 2006 and is expected to run into May 2007 with the peak in the December 2006-February 2007 months. This means a warmer-wetter winter for North America. It is odd that the news media is not making a big deal out of it this time. Here's a link to the NOAA report on this year's El Niño effect: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/index.html
In the part of Canada where I live, local experts who have collected data for the past several decades are prediciting a drastic hemispheric warming trend, beginning as early as March, 2007!
Scientific observation and advanced computer modelling has shown that the average regional temperature will increase by as much as 21.3 degrees Celcius between March and July!
I only pray that by wearing organic clothing and holding shrill protests, we can forestall this environmental apocalypse.
Think about the children!
--
editor note: Funny or flamebait? Sometimes it's hard to know :-/
When it is understand that El Niño does generate milder climate in North America, it seem to be difficult to think it effect are such that peoples are playing golf mid January in Quebec and Ontario Canada. No, this is not only 28 miles of land but way over a 1000 miles distance.
No, we don't necessary hit a record HIGH temperature everyday but, we are very close for several days in December and likely January. In December, the major record that was hit is that we never see that many "Mild" days ever before.
Destruction : peoples are right that the planet won't be destroy. However, the changes are not limited to the climate (Getting warmer or colder). It also includes man made trouble for health such as Allergy, Cancer, etc... New viruses are sighted in Canada that never existed before, etc... Some insect that we use to see by the end of summer now survive the Canadian Winter and restart right at the beginning of the spring...
Human Race Surviving : I certainly hope so. However, it should not be taken for granted. Human might adapt to most situations but, too radical and fast a change might create situation where we can’t adapt. Actually, we are likely to adapt fast enough to cope with too hot a climate, too much win, too much carcinogen in the environment, too much of a lot of thing. However, can we adapt to all these thing at the same time and expect to survive keeping our current way of living?