No Doubts Global Warming Is Real, U.S. Experts Say (x42 Admin. leftovers Alert)

Reuters ^ | Wed Dec 3, 2003

[anymouse]

There can be no doubt that global warming is real and is being caused by people, two top U.S. government climate experts said.

Industrial emissions are a leading cause, they say -- contradicting critics, already in the minority, who argue that climate change could be caused by mostly natural forces.

"There is no doubt that the composition of the atmosphere is changing because of human activities, and today greenhouse gases are the largest human influence on global climate," wrote Thomas Karl, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center, and Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

"The likely result is more frequent heat waves, droughts, extreme precipitation events, and related impacts, e.g., wildfires, heat stress, vegetation changes, and sea-level rise," they added in a commentary to be published in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

Karl and Trenberth estimate that, between 1990 and 2100, there is a 90 percent probability that average global temperatures will rise by between 3.1 and 8.9 degrees Fahrenheit (1.7 and 4.9 degrees Celsius) because of human influences on climate.

Such dramatic warming will further melt already crumbling glaciers, inundating coastal areas. Many other groups have already shown that ice in Greenland, the Arctic and Antarctica is melting quickly.

Karl and Trenberth noted that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have risen by 31 percent since preindustrial times.

Carbon dioxide is the No. 1 greenhouse gas, causing warming temperatures by trapping the Sun's energy in the atmosphere.

Emissions of sulfate and soot particles have significant effects too, but more localized, they said.

"Given what has happened to date and is projected in the future, significant further climate change is guaranteed," they wrote.

The United States has balked at signing international treaties to reduce climate-changing emissions, but the two experts said global cooperation is key.

"Climate change is truly a global issue, one that may prove to be humanity's greatest challenge," they wrote. "It is very unlikely to be adequately addressed without greatly improved international cooperation and action."

[anymouse]

Reuters gets some x42 Administration leftovers at NOAA to make some spurious claims to justify their dubious research budgets and claim that they are official Bush Administration authorities on Global Warming (read whining.) Funny that this pops up shortly after Russia and ESA fail to go along with the Kyoto Accord.

[pogo101]

The real issue, or dispute, isn't global warming or human activity's influence on it. The issue is, at what cost -- the money, the foregone industrial growth, and what other things (food, producing medicine, building dams) THEY could have been directed towards otherwise -- could we even possibly hope to "undo" that influence? Lomborg has an entire chapter of his book "The Skeptical Environmentalist" on this subject.

[isom35]

oh what a load of bull. we couldnt hurt this planet if we tried. its a self-cleaning system that worked before we were here, during, and will continue after all humans are dead. now, who's gonna win this week, colts or titans?

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

These post dung heap semipros have seen too many movies.

WATERWORLD frightens them but Al Gore might precipitate a world similar to the end of Spielberg's, AI.

I like it the way it is now, except for the rain, snow and cold and hot weather! :>)

[AdamSelene235]

[onedoug]

Human evil is of far greater concern.

[alloysteel]

Conclusive and definitive proof of global warming is still wanting, and is only speculation at best. First that it is happening, second that it is a bad thing, and the most hypothetical assertion of all, that any such warming is due solely and entirely to consumption of fossil fuels at such a profligate hurry that all such fuels will be completely depleted in 20 years or so, which is another assumption unproved in its own right.

[Symblized]

"x42 Administration leftovers"

Kevin Trenberth began his government days under Reagan in the early 80's and has been head of the climate analysis division at NCAR since '87. So he's an "x40 Administration leftover."

Thomas Karl has been in the government since at least 1980 (the Carter Administration) and was put in his current post by the Clinton Administration, so you have somewhat of a better case there, but dude's been around since waaay longer than Clinton.

[talleyman]

Thank God for global warming - when I was in school, we were told another ice age was on the way - hurray for technology! Pass the freon!

[Reeses]

The issue is, at what cost could we even possibly hope to "undo" that influence?

I think the biggest question of all is: What weather do we want and what technologies can we use to create it? The assertion that we must restore the weather to the way it was in the past is completely nuts and should be challenged. We already alter all of the world's rivers, storing water high in reservoirs to the point of making Earth wobble differently. Could 6 billion people survive on Earth without this technology? At some point we need to manage the weather just like we manage the world's ground water. The scientists should be researching ways to do that at the lowest cost. They should not be spending billions every year plotting how to tax and regulate everyone to restore Earth's climate to its prehistoric state.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Fraudulent Global Warming Data Exposed

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.

Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

[anymouse]

Ok, they are Carter leftovers that have been sucking off the government teet for 20 years pushing liberal agendas disguised as science. They probably were promoted to their management positions under x42 after lackluster government careers.

[Symblized]

You could say that about the second guy, but Trenberth was hired and promoted to his current position under the Reagan Admin., not the Carter or Clinton Admins.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!

[anymouse]

By Carter leftovers no doubt. :)