--- Kevin Tarr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I wrote: > >--- William T Goodall wrote: > > > > >http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994072 > > > > > > "Europe may be breathing a sigh of relief as its > > > record-breaking > > > heatwave eases, but there is still plenty to > worry about. Temperature > > > changes caused by global warming are likely to > > > transform agriculture on > > > both sides of the Atlantic.... > ><snip> > > > The eastern and western seaboards of the US will > > > become much wetter > > > over the next century, while some central states > > > will become so starved > > > of water that they will be unable to support > > > agriculture at all. " > > > >I'd guessed it from our drought -- Colorado is one > >of the places forecast to become more arid in this > >report: > > > >"But Kansas, Colorado and Nebraska are just some of > >the central states that could suffer drought, the > >researchers say in two papers published in June this > >year (Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, vol 117, > p73 and p 97)." > > > >So, are the idiot developers still putting in > Kentucky > >bluegrass lawns instead of native prairie grasses? > >-oh, yeah. >:/ <snip> > > Colorado and Nebraksa? You mean the states that have > active sand dunes? Now > how could sand be there, if drought is caused by > global warming?
<drily> Well, sand in and of itself isn't the issue -- after all, Florida and Hawaii both have sand too (and maybe dunes, for all I know). The problem is loss of rainfall in already-arid or semi-arid regions, which can convert useful-to-humans land into non-livable land (and that says nothing of the flora and fauna, see link below). >Could it > be natural hundred and thousand year cycles causing > drought and wet > conditions? Nah, that's too easy (and there's no > money to be made off of it). http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/drought/drght_data.html <scratches head in puzzlement> Uh, as to the latter, *I* certainly won't profit by proclaiming that human activity is contributing to the current warming. Or is profiting from selling drought-tolerant lawn-grass unacceptable, while profiting from raising gasoline prices right before a holiday weekend is merely "taking what the market will bear?" :P <sarcasm mode off> No one denies that the climate changes, that it has done so in the past, and will do so in the future; it is the current and near-future-calculated *rate-of-change* that concerns many scientists now - and human activity has affected the rise of greenhouse gases. http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/releases2000/feb00/noaa00010.html "Researchers at the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have found evidence that indicates that the rate of global warming is accelerating and that in the past 25 years it achieved the rate previously predicted for the 21st century (2 degrees C per century)..." http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/climateuncertainties.html "Scientists know for certain that human activities are changing the composition of Earth's atmosphere. Increasing levels of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide (CO2 ), in the atmosphere since pre-industrial times have been well documented. There is no doubt this atmospheric buildup of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is largely the result of human activities. "It's well accepted by scientists that greenhouse gases trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere and tend to warm the planet. By increasing the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, human activities are strengthening Earth's natural greenhouse effect. The key greenhouse gases emitted by human activities remain in the atmosphere for periods ranging from decades to centuries. "A warming trend of about 1°F has been recorded since the late 19th century. Warming has occurred in both the northern and southern hemispheres, and over the oceans. Confirmation of 20th-century global warming is further substantiated by melting glaciers, decreased snow cover in the northern hemisphere and even warming below ground..." Civilizations that may have collapsed under natural drought conditions include the Mayans (mentioned in the link you gave), and the 'Anasazi' in the Four Corners area. It is likely that the Anasazi contributed to their collapse by over-cutting trees and cutting water channels/creating arroyos: http://www.abc.net.au/science/features/societies/#anasazi The Easter Islanders denuded their home of trees, leading to eventual collapse of their civilization: http://www.abc.net.au/science/features/societies/#easter Data for the impact of recent temperature rise on various animals and plants has been documented: http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/03/root18.html "Global warming is having a significant impact on hundreds of plant and animal species around the world -- although the most dramatic effects may not be felt for decades, according to a new study in the journal Nature... "...The authors pointed out that, although plants and animals have responded to climatic changes throughout their evolutionary history, a primary concern for wild species and their ecosystems is the rapid rate of change predicted during the next century...rapid climate change, coupled with the loss of habitat and other ecological stressors, could lead to the disappearance of species -- a consequence that might be avoided by taking proactive instead of reactive conservation measures..." <soapbox> We can't control what natural changes occur in Earth's weather, but we *can* identify what we might be doing to exacerbate that change, and take steps to minimize it. Or we can relax emissions standards as the current administration has done, and blithely assume that our children or great-grandchildren will figure out how to clean up our mess. Debbi __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
