IBelieve

By a tour expedition. If you don't believe in global warming you should. According to reports, this will have MAJOR impact on our weather, ie more storms, rising tides etc in the northern hemisphere along with major economic impact in the tropic etc.

Kathy

How far along did you say you are on that ark project, IBelieve?

Uh

Looks like Al Gore was right about global warming.

Bob Brown

Look folks, you can make fun of global warming if you want. But it is real, and there are going to be climatic changes. It is not a case of Chicken Little screaming that the sky is falling. No serious scientist ignores the potential effects. So snort if you wish, but it is a fact. I for one think you are xyx to ignore the facts, where xyz is any set of adjectives someone might care to invoke -- none of which is very complimentary.

Louis

Perhaps people will really get the message. For reasons not fully understand the earth is on and has been on a warming trend for some years. Some want to blame the human race and this may just typical human ego. However, there may be some truth here. The fact is the sustained trent is warming and it will take a hell of a lot to reverse it -- most likely more that anything the human race can do other than its elimination. I just wish I could live long enough to be on an island surrounding our home on water front property. We are now about 60 feet above San Diego bay. You may believe this or not, that is your right, but I can assure you the mother earth is warming and changing. All of the sound science around the world will support this forecast. The only arguement is if this due to western civilization and, if so, can anything be done to change the trend?

Louis

I noted that mister Gores name was mentioned. I can almost assure you that neither Mr. Gore or Mr. Bush in my mind have a clue about what has been going on for years regarding global warming. We are talking about things that are going to happen in the next hundred and maybe thousands of years and nobody is going to win an election based on that. It is absolutely true that we are moving to times of major weather change and more hurricanes in the northern hemisphere which could in some ways destroy the economy of parts of the Carribean. San Juan has not recovered yet from the last one and St. Maarten/Martin is in bad shape. They may see another one tomorrow if it continues to build. What can the human race do? It reminds me of sombody trying to blow out a candle from a block away.

Where'sIke

Hey....Al Gore invented the internet so I'm sure he's well versed on mundane topics like global warming.
I just love ol' Al (trivia fact: the secret service have nicknamed him 'Woody' for his charisma

Darwin

Why is it that so many people seem to be of the opinion that the earth's climate and weather patterns have been static since the dawn of time?
Cyclical changes have occurred with regularity and our understanding of the nature and frequency of these cycles is still somewhat primitive.
Why should anyone assume that the changes we're seeing are due to anything other than natural phenomena?

Louis

I agree that most of the changes are most likely natural phenomena and they may be a chance that we help, who knows? If the change are good for us, great, but if they are bad can we stop them? I notice that there is enough fear here so some do not use their address as the case of the original post. No problem with me but it is also interesting.

I think we should get back to travel. The message is "Look for Changes in Weather in the Tropics" and also in the USA on the near term. Understand the problems of storm damage to small islands.

Snowman

Well, over here in the UK yesterday they
had SNOW in East Yorkshire ( in the
middle of August ! ).

Bill

I believe this old earth is warming up and the EPA and others are putting most of the blame on autos. Have they stopped to realize how much fuel per minute a jet plane burns. This pollution has a head start at 35,000 feet yet they don't blame the airlines.

XX

I think this is a travel topic because these climate changes will affect the weather in the tropics, ie more hurricanes, rising tides will cause major flooding and beach erosion. If you want to bury your head in the sand--fine. But, one mile wide of open ocean at the north pole where it should be ice--scares the heck out of me!

MM

Kathy-Obviously, you are an air-head who lacks the intellect to participate in a serious discussion! Why don't you take your inane comments and go post on a board that caters to people of your mentality?

Dick

Gee, Kathy's remark kinda made me chuckle, but I can see how it could be offensive to some over-sensitive christian types.

Anyway - - global warming is of course a fact, and has been since the Pleistocene glaciation some 20,000 years ago. As someone else pointed out, the earth has gone through numerous heating/cooling cycles in its history and will in all probably continue to do so. What's less clear is whether anthropogenic inputs of so-called greenhouse gasses are contributing to the process. I don't think the alleged hole in the Arctic ice pack is anything more than an anecdotal observation at this point and it contributes nothing to the argument.

One thing for sure, though. Anyone alive to be reading this has nothing to worry about, nor their kids, nor grandkids, etc. The changes are simply much too slow to worry about. The point is not that we shouldn't be concerned about being good stewards of the earth and leaving it in good shape for posterity, only that there's no need to change those travel plans.

Dirk

A very rapid change is exactly what most concerns me. From what I've read, if the Greenland icecaps break apart and send an endless army of icebergs adrift in the gulf stream this would plunge northern Europe into a 'deep freeze' - so to speak. It has happened before and there are signs that it may be starting again, and when is does it could take place within a year's time.

kam

MM, I also don't think Kathy deserved your nasty comment. She was just trying to be a bit funny. Touchy, touchy. Lighten up a bit.

Kathy

Dear Mr. or Ms. MM;
For those who are at least moderately educated on the subject, my comment was actually steeped in irony. You see, the broader geoclimatological cycles which result in warming and cooling of the earth's surface are measured in phases which span tens of thousands of years. As such, any changes which occur during a 10, 50 or 100 year period of time are either purely random background noise, or must be produced by unnatural (i.e. humanly engineered) stressors of cataclysmic proportion.
No on in the scientific community has been able to demonstrate that humanly generated environmental influences are causally related to the recent temperature trends. Theories abound, speculation is rampant, but as yet any effect is simply too small to measure. Certainly not of cataclysmic proportion.
The irony, then, is that the original poster is implying that catastrophe is nigh and no one seems to be paying attention. Exactly the type of apathy Noah encountered, but of course as the Bible tells things, Noah's fears were justified. And the ark reference, of course, ties into the global warming and flooding fears quite nicely.
Actually, as viewed by the informed reader, it was a simple but pretty witty bit of ironic humor. Sorry you didn't get it.
Kathy Jaeger, PhD

???

MSNBC story online now says in part that U.N.-BACKED RESEARCHERS recently announced that a hole in the icecaps has developed over the North Pole, marking what could be the first time in 50 million years that the top of the world is not covered by ice.
At the same time, the average thickness of the ice covering the Arctic Ocean has decreased by 42 percent over the past 22 years, according to data from the University of Bergen in Norway.

Pauline

For what it's worth, in my lifetime in New England (almost 60 years) I've seen no more snow at Thanksgiving, hardly any in December, a ski season only way up north in January and February now, a March that is neither winter nor spring, and--this year--no summer at all after a blazing hot summer last year...something's up.

Highfalootin

All right, Kathy. No need to rub your advanced degree in our faces. You made a little quip, it wasn't that great, some folks didn't get it. What do you expect when you are the first to hop onto a controversial thread with no apparent goal other than belittle the original poster?

Besides, don't all of those people on the Sally Jesse Raphael show also have PhD degrees? I'm soooo impressed.