Just a quick question...if they cannot even predict the weather accurately 5 to 10 days out, how can they know what will take place in years to come....?

"Now, the crisis du jour is "Global Warming"."

What a mentality. Ever heard of "better data than we had 30 years ago?"

Robespierre,

Refer to Wren's comment above. Better dat indeed... LOL!!!!

Here in the world's driest continent we'll get more rain in the tropical north, where it's not needed, and less where most of us live, where it's desperately needed. Major cities in the southeast of the country, including my own, have already implemented stringent water use restrictions which may well become draconian (saying goodbye to those green lawns may be the least of our problems). Dam levels are low and falling, and farmers and graziers are being forced off land that was once productive but is now a dustbowl.

For years the ostrich brigade has been in denial, hoping it will all go away so we can continue with business as usual. We can't, and at last even the troglodytes among us are beginning to wake up. As Governor Schwarzenegger said recently, "the debate is over". The party is over, folks, and it doesn't matter whether we like it or not.

I have always thought ignorance was bliss until I heard the report characterized as "amusing" and then I realized how powerful self-satisfaction really is.

I wrote, from a Northern Hemisphere perspective:
"Storm tracks will traverse the Continents at more southerly latitudes; what are now deserts (N. Africa, for example) will bloom."
That should have read: "at lower latitudes." When polar storm tracks dip to Equatorial laritudes, no one can predict the weather that will accompany them.

But every Climatologist & Meteorologist I know agrees that Global Warming is happening. They just haven't arrived at a consenses conclusion concerning the catastrophic weather events in our future.

>in 2003, US emitted 20 ...metric tonnes of CO2 per capita. China: 3.2 tonnes per capita.<

US has 3 x 10^8 people = 6 x 10^9 tonnes.

China has 10^9 people = 3 x 10^9 tonnes.

China has 1/6 the GDP of the US.

Thus, China emits 3x the Carbon per unit of production.

The same is true for India.

Hi Sue,

Re the report:

1. The data are much better now.

2. The consensus is that a major fraction of the warming trend in the last 50 years has been due to "anthropogenic causes" - ie, we're doing it.

(This is important, because last time the figures ranged from 10% to 60%.)

3. Even if the world reduces its output of carbon emissions to 2000 levels, the Earth will still warm up for the next 1000 years.

(Unless we have another Ice Age)

4. If we don't reduce Carbon emissions, the world will heat up faster.

5. Explicit in the data, but not addressed, is the fact that the Earth has been warming for about 12,000 years independent of humans.

6. Over the next 100 years, in much of the world, Summers are going to become dryer, Winters are going to become wetter.

7. The oceans are likely to rise about 1 meter over the next 100 years.

The consequences of this will be discussed in a later report.

The report summary doesn't address the effects of destroying the tropical rain forests.

My own thoughts:

Europeans (this is the Europe Forum) are going to be installing more AC capacity.

The High Season will be extended to March through November.

Hotter Summers won't change travel patterns as long as the kids are out of school.

President Chirac has called for "a new environmental body that could single out — and perhaps police — nations that abuse the Earth".

See http://tinyurl.com/yvqrfc

The USA is expected to increase its population to 400,000,000 by 2020 or so. So just to stay even with present energy usage rates everyone needs to reduce their activities 25%. The world population is increasing at a rate of 80,000,000 per year. How soon 'Armageddon'?

I have a suggestion for all of you so worried: boycott traveling to Europe. That way you will force airlines to cut down on their flights.

cruiseluv, you big spoil sport! Don't you know talk is more important than action and its the other guy who has to cut back! Next thing you know, you will be asking us to give up SUVs and not build 6,0000 foot mansions!

More doom and gloom.

I really think these 'expert' reports are just that ..'reports' They don't know for sure what the reasons for anything happening are.

The only facts there are is that the ice age began about 80million years ago and by 10 million years ago had ended. The world has been evolving and continuing to change ever since.

Now forgive me for being cynical, but I don't ever remember reading about humans flying around the world or driving big gutsy cars, polluting the atmosphere or even being around between 80 and 10 million years ago.

So to think that suddenly we have destroyed the environment and it is this that is calling global warming, to me is pants.

The world is evolving, getting warmer, it probably would have done anyway.

Oh and the governments of this world respond in the ONLY way they know how, they increase taxes. For what exactly??

Muck

Muck, give it up! Just hand over all your money to the government and trust that they will make logical and effcient decisions that are good for all citizens.

What I want to know is how global warming will affect skirt lengths in the coming season.

Global Warming sponsered by Prada.

Northshore,LOL!!

I already gave up my 6,000 ft. mansion... do I also have to give up my Hummer?
Next time I want to go to Europe I'll try an inner tube.

Well, if this winter is an example of winters to come, the term "apres ski" will be a thing of the past.

Hi Mucky,

I think that the last Ice Age ended between 25,000 and 12,000 years ago.

It was probably all those Neanderthal and Cro Magnon cooking fires that did it.

Sorry Northshore, I already gave them everything I have.

Ira,
It was definately 10 million years ago. An expert wrote a report about it, so it must have been right !!
And besides, my mother in law remembers it . She was there.

;-)

Muck

Mucky, your post conjures up a number of images - complacency, wishful thinking and whistling in the dark among them. The fact that we would prefer to believe it's not happening does not, alas, mean it's not happening. I'd like to believe it's nothing but scaremongering too, but the evidence is now overwhelming: it IS happening, and human activity is the major cause. We'll have a great deal more to worry about than increased taxes, believe me - or rather, our grandchildren will. Dealing with tens, possibly hundreds, of millions of refugees will be just one of them.