Posted on 02/19/2005 5:27:22 PM PST by Libloather
Global Warming Could Worsen U.S. Pollution: Report
Sat Feb 19, 3:57 PM ET Science - Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Global warming could stifle cleansing summer winds across parts of the northern United States over the next 50 years and worsen air pollution, U.S. researchers said on Saturday.
Further warming of the atmosphere, as is happening now, would block cold fronts bringing cooler, cleaner air from Canada and allow stagnant air and ozone pollution to build up over cities in the Northeast and Midwest, they predicted.
"The air just cooks," said Loretta Mickley of Harvard University's Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences. "The pollution accumulates, accumulates, accumulates, until a cold front comes in and the winds sweep it away."
Mickley and colleagues used a computer model, an approach commonly used by climate scientists to predict weather and climate changes.
She told a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that the model predicted a 20-percent decline in summer cold fronts out of Canada.
"If this model is correct, global warming would cause an increase in difficult days for those affected by ozone pollution, such as people suffering with respiratory illnesses like asthma and those doing physical labor or exercising outdoors," she said.
World temperatures have risen by an average of 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.6 degree Celsius) over the past century.
Earlier this week 141 nations signed the U.N. Kyoto Protocol aimed at cutting the so-called greenhouse gas emissions that fuel global warming.
It imposes caps on carbon dioxide emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars, in 35 developed nations.
The United States, which produces the most pollution of any country, has refused to sign it.
The model used by Mickley and her colleagues incorporates things such as the sun's luminosity, topography of the planet, the distribution of the oceans, the pull of gravity and the tilt of the Earth's axis, as well as predicted warming.
They fed in gradually increased levels of greenhouse gases at rates projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. What they found surprised them.
"The answer lies in one of the basic forces that drive the Earth's weather -- the temperature difference between the hot equator and the cold poles," Mickley said.
In the middle latitudes, low-pressure systems and accompanying cold fronts help redistribute heat by carrying warm air to the poles and replacing it with cool air. Warming slows that process down, Mickley's team found.
How about getting a huge number of 18-wheelers and SUVs hauling east down I-90 or I-94. Wouldn't that create some wind?
(Say, when will Mexico begin to get warmer - or does this global phenomena end at the Rio Grande?)
In Houston, we got at least 3 of them in July and August, the first I'd ever seen.
Houston. Not Topeka.
Didn't Lake Tahoe get several feet of global warming this year?
I COULD win the lottery...
Is this like a super model, or is it something that comes in a kit?
The whole gloom and doom aspect of this is all based on computer models. If you want funding, you make you models scary. With the number of unknowns and other varibles, you can make predictions to say anything you wish.
I'm feeling warmer already...
Where is the, "this is solid - no one can dispute this!" part?
LVM
the sun's luminosity,
topography of the planet,
the distribution of the oceans,
the pull of gravity
and the tilt of the Earth's axis,
as well as predicted warming.
These are some of what was fed into the "suspect" model. What was left out?
yeah.....Tahoe got 9 ft of global warming all in one day.....if this global warming continues, we are gonna freeze to death
More coulda-woulda-shoulda crap from the environazis. Every day there's different crackpot global warming disaster scenario peddled by some desperate snake-oil scientist who needs to keep the grant money flowing.
Typical of Reuters to be the source of a load of crap like this - just when there are serious doubts being cast upon the underlying "science" behind the "global-warming" theory.
The earth does not sit in one place. We are moving through the vast reaches of outer space as our planet revolves around the sun. Each day our tiny planet moves into unexplored space like our planet is 'space ship earth.' Getting the picture yet?
Our whole solar system is heating up. Dramatically heating up. Hit my Freeper page. Hit the link I posted about the solar system. But scroll down to the bottom of the very long page -- past all the dramatic images. Pages 2 and 3 are filled with scientific reports about the warming the the entire solar system. Think about it, digest it, and come back to the first page. Then look at the images of global cooling.
Global cooling (like snow storms in Texas) are a natural reaction to global warming. Think about that for a minute. What you will eventually understand is that we humans are only here in the present time by the grace of God. Time is just an idea in the mind of God anyway. Think about that for a minute. Or a half hour. Or Whatever . . .
But nobody listens to me anyway. I'm just an old geezer living in The Peoples' Republic of Oregon
That's funny. MY computer model says everything is going to be just fine. Why doesn't Rooters print THAT?
OUTPUT: EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE JUST FINE.
END OF OUTPUT
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