Global Warming

Global Warming

Global Warming (One Scientist's Perspective) March, 2002

We need to conserve energy because it is the right thing to do. We use CF bulbs, energy star appliances and my hot tubs by Hot Spring are energy star rated.

With that said and this way off topic, but CO2 and man are not evil. Scientist from the University of Alabama and Virgina who have been studying upper atmospheric temps for the last 30 years released data 2 months ago stating there is no change in the upper atmospheric temps. IF CO2 is the cause of climate change the upper atmosphere would be warming too and it is not. Further many of the studies I have read in graduate school indicate CO2 follows a warming trend
and not lead it.

I heard a report a couple days ago that earth's mean temperature fell 6 tenths of degree in 2007 according to NOAA. The ice in Arctic polar region has recovered and is thicker than the past 25 years. The polar ice in the South Pole is expanding also according to NOAA and NASA. There has been record snow fall in the northern hemisphere and more snow has fallen across the globe this winter shattering records set in 1965.

I am a scientist and appreciate data. I am not a politician or scare monger. We barely trust models giving us a ten day forecast, why in the world would want to trust the UN and others about models who project climate change 100 years down the road. The Climatologists at Alabama and Virginia noted that the Carbon based
models over emphasize CO2 and deemphasize water. Water in the form of cloud vapor can absorb a lot heat energy and is a negative feed back in heating the atmosphere.

With all this said, I think having energy efficient homes and green technology is good thing. We need to be energy independent as a nation. We need to develop in ways in harmony with the environment. All of this will save money and it is a good thing to do.

I agree with the scientist at UVA and Alabama when they attribute climate change in large part from the increased solar energy coming from the sun spot cycles. It makes sense to me we would get a tad warmer when the sun cranks out more heat which it has been doing for a while.

The problem with this discussion is the media is taking a side and politicians and media alike are not scientist, they are not critical thinkers, they are agenda driven and live off fear and use that fear to acquire power. Before you know it there will be a carbon tax every time you pop open a Coke releasing evil CO2 into the atmosphere or better yet somebody will propose a law banning carbonated soft drinks
from the planet. Here is a little secret, there is a dark and light cycle in photosynthesis and for a brief period plants give off CO2 in the dark cycle.

We need to be thinkers on this issue and not be lead down this path by politicians who are hungry for power and fame. America is about ideas, free speech and good debate, not one sidedness jammed down our throats like climate change is being done.

The flip side to this, one huge volcanic eruption or super caldera event like Yellowstone popping off as it as before and the earth cools down to near ice age levels. It could happen tomorrow and there is nothing we could do about it.

Bob Williams
Welcome to Smoky Mountain Time!
http://www.mountainbearcabins.com

(About the Author (in his own words)

My credentials, if any, include a BS in biology from UCF with an emphasis in ecology and MS in Urban and Regional planning with a specialization in environmental planning and resource management from FSU. Spent about 12 years involved in environmental planning, GIS modeling, greenway and trail planning and transportation planning. I have studied this issue as an interested person and understand how people can use statistics to lie and take wild policy leaps from science when there is not enough evidence one way or another to support it. As a planner you quickly realize how folks with an agenda will constantly drone on about gloom and doom to enact policy. The UN has little relevance around the world. They are in effective at doing anything meaningful like Darfour or Iraq or Iran and its nuke program. Global climate change gives them meaning and purpose, so they latch onto it like a pup suckling at its momma.
They don't care that the science is not conclusive, so they cherry pick to prove a point which in the end may costs us money, time and liberties for something that may happen, then again it may not. The climate change agenda is nothing more than environmental fascism and the US will be the ones to flip the bill and we will be the ones to loose a little bit of our liberties. For me, if it is all true, I am not willing to loose liberty in exchange for keeping the earth from increasing 1 degree over the next 100 years or so. Funny thing is I believe we will get the fuel cell technology to replace much of how we make energy figured out in the next 20 years or so and our dependence on oil will wane. Fuel cells produce water as a byproduct and all that water could cool down the planet?

This will all become relevant to our business as vacation rentals because of the entire carbon credit scheme. We will all be impacted by carbon taxes and other carbon oriented issues. Travel could be impacted by a carbon tax and you could see the cost of the annual vacation be put out of reach of the middle class family because of carbon taxes on our daily lives. If this happens many of us may lose our properties.