Global Warming Question?

Question

This is going to sound stupid, I'm sure. There's a reason I didn't graduate with a biology degree.

The question is this: the ice caps are melting, the the world is warming. However, at least in my area all of the temperature records (hottest/coldest temperature recorded for this date) are always from the first 3-4 decades of the 20th Century. Sometimes they will be from the 1980s.

I guess my logic is based on the assumption that global warming would cause us to be breaking records every day, every year? Or am I thinking too simplistic?

Even with a slow rise in temperatures, global warming isn't just a 21st century issue and has been going on for quite some time.

Answer 1

Very good question, well thought out. You make a very interesting point. It is true that most of the record high temperatures on earth are over 80 years old.

The highest ever recorded temperature was measured in Africa in the year 1922. The highest temperature recorded in North America was in 1913. In South America, it was the year 1905. In Asia - 1942, Australia - 1889, and in Europe 1881. You would think that an increase in overall global temperatures and a supposed increase in weather extremes would lead to more record temperatures, but this is not happening. The warming over the last century has been very gradual, nothing to panic over as many do, and completely natural.

Answer 2

Global Warming is not the correct term for what is taking place. Now scientists are more accurately using the term Global Climate Change while laypeople are still using the misleading term "global warming". Climate includes more than just the temperature. It also includes rainfall levels and the length of seasons. Record breaking temperatures aren't as important as the average global temperature which has risen several degrees in a relatively short period of time due to human activities. This rise of only a few degrees is enough to start melting ice and changing the length and severity of seasons in different areas around the world. Rainfall is also a major issue with regard to global climate change because we are seeing unusual flooding and drought patterns. Places that were once fertile farmland cannot produce crops because of lack of rain. Can you imagine a major relocation of all the farmland in the US and other parts of the world. How would we produce enough food and what would happen to the farmers who have lost their livelihoods. The severity of storms may also be affected, ie hurricanes, tornadoes.

Global Climate Change is a process that has been occurring since the earth began. The problem now is that Humans are changing the climate more than just about other species in history (except of course for algae which filled the earth's atmosphere with oxygen killing many species and creating niche for the oxygen breathing organisms that now dominate)

I would also like to say that you should always be very careful about the information that you read even when there appears to be creditable sources. Information that has been repeated on news programs and documentaries and PUBLISHED in SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS is going to be more reliable than anything you read in a blog or on the internet.

Answer 3

I think some of your data might be a little off. According to this article by the Union of Concerned Scientist 19 of the 20 hottest years all occurred since 1980. And 2005 tied for the hottest year world wide with 1998. And as far as I know 2006 was the hottest year on record for north America along with the antarctic being the fasting warming continent.

One report claims that global warming is occurring faster than previously thought, and by 2020 there will be no north pole ice during the summer. This will increase the global warming exponentially since there will be less reflective mass to reflect the rays back into outer space.

Not only is global warming a reality but it is a super dangerous reality that may extinct us all even before nuclear or even astral catastrophe.

Now we can be selfish and justify our lifestyles and those of others because we don't want to change for the better instead only living for the worldly moment, or in wisdom we can see the storm that is fast approaching like dark clouds in the sky and take action to save ourselves and this world before it is too late.

I want to have faith in the humanity. But it really takes one person at a time to do their part. The question should be are you will to do yours?

Answer 4

No not stupid however I would'nt base my reasoning of global warming on your own idealogy; for example the summers where I live in NC are getting hotter every year. There is also already physical evidence that abnormal atmosphere changes are occuring as a result from the depleation of the ozone layer you know that. Now think about this, they did'nt have access to the technology that we have now centuries ago. Therefore it is happening faster.

Answer 5

Global warming has been going on since prehistoric times, since the last ice age 10,000 years ago to be exact. There are warm and cold fluctuations, but on the whole it is warming. The only major concern I see at this time is how politically advantageous it is to certain groups.

Answer 6

Actually, according to the NOAA website, the polar ice caps and the Greenland ice is increasing and has been for years. This is another "convenient lie" the gorites have been passing off as an "inconvenient truth".

Revised Temp Data Reduces Global Warming Fever ---

By Marc Sheppard --- The American Thinker Blog --- 9 August 07

1998 was not the hottest US year ever. Nor was 2006 the runner up.

Sure, had you checked NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS)
website just days ago, you would have thought so, but not today. You see,
thanks to the efforts of Steve McIntyre over at
http://www.climatea udit.org/ , the Surface Air Temperature Anomaly charts for
those and many other years have been revised - predominately down.

Why?

It's a wild and technical story of compromised weather stations and hack
computer algorithms (including, get this - a latent Y2K bug) and those
wishing to read the fascinating details should follow ALL of the links I've
provided. But, simply stated, McIntyre not only proved the error of the
calculations used to interpret the data from the 1000 plus US Historical
Climatology Network (USHCN) weather stations feeding GISS, but also the
cascading effect of that error on past data.

You see, as Warren Meyer over at Coyoteblog.com (whose recent email
expressed a delight we share in the irony of this correction taking place
the week of the Gore / Newsweek story) points out:

"One of the interesting aspects of these temperature data bases is that
they do not just use the raw temperature measurements from each station.
Both the NOAA (which maintains the USHCN stations) and the GISS apply many
layers of adjustments. "

It was the gross folly of these "fudge factors" McIntyre challenged NASA on.
And won.

Today, not only have the charts and graphs been modified, but the GISS
website includes this acknowledgement that:

"the USHCN station records up to 1999 were replaced by a version of
USHCN data with further corrections after an adjustment computed by
comparing the common 1990-1999 period of the two data sets. (We wish to
thank Stephen McIntyre for bringing to our attention that such an adjustment
is necessary to prevent creating an artificial jump in year 2000.)"

But, as only the Gorebots actually believe the hype that recent year to year
temperature shifts are somehow proof of anthropogenic global warming, why is
this significant?

As explained by Noel Sheppard over at Newsbusters:

"One of the key tenets of the global warming myth being advanced by
[GISS head James] Hansen and soon-to-be-Dr. Al Gore is that nine of the ten
warmest years in history have occurred since 1995."

Additionally, as broken by Rush Limbaugh on his radio show this afternoon,
Reuters is now reporting in a piece entitled Scientists predict surge in
global warming after 2009 that:

"A study forecasts that global warming will set in with a vengeance
after 2009, with at least half of the five following years expected to be
hotter than 1998, which was the warmest year on record."

As so deftly observed by El Rushbo, who wonders how long NASA has been aware
of the errors, many greenies have spread their nonsense using 1998's bogus
distinction to generate angst amongst the weak-minded.

Yet - thanks to a Blogging Scientist -- that's all changed now - check the
newly revised GISS table.

1934 is now the hottest, and 3 others from the 1930's are in the top 10.
Furthermore, only 3 (not 9) took place since 1995 (1998, 1999, and 2006).
The years 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004 are now below the year 1900 and no longer
even in the top 20.

So, we're not really on a roller-coaster to hell, then?

Of course, eco-maniacs will argue that it's the global readings that count,
not those of the USA alone. Nuts to that. It's nearly impossible to
believe that when put to similar close scrutiny, global mechanisms will
stand the heat any better than ours.

Besides, as GISS hosts the reference database of choice for all manner of
enviro-mental- cases, one would think such a significant content correction
itself would spark huge news and greenie-card reevaluation, right?

Well -- as Noel asked and answered his readers:

"Think this will be Newsweek's next cover-story? No, I don't either."

Perfect.

Answer 7

I recall that in the 1970's there was this big scare about global cooling. The northern ice cap was going to cover half the U.S. We were all going to freeze to death. Now, thirty years later, it's global warming. Fool me once, shame on you - fool me twice, shame on me. Didn't happen then, ain't happening now. It's a cyclic climatic change that's been as regular as a clock for thousands of years.

Answer 8

Your thinking is too simplistic. It's global warming - in other words, it's simply the consistently increasing average global temperature. Weather in individual isolated areas doesn't tell you anything about this warming:

http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/info/warming/

Global warming has been going on for a long time, but it was a very very slow warming until the past few decades:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:2000_Year_Temperature_Comparison.png

Answer 9

Global warming has been going on for a long time now, but our generation is getting closer to the peak of it and now is when we all think about how serious it is. There is no way to "stop" global warming, but we can help to slow it down!

Answer 10

Global Warming

God holds the keys to our future not so called "Mother Earth"
No need to worry if you accept Jesus.
Worrying about Global Warming is a waste of time and doesn't concern me. The Rapture will zap the believers to heaven before the world starts getting worst. I could care less what happens to the earth. My soul will lifted up to heaven before it gets any worse. Whats the point of worrying?
It won't concern me or other christians, it is the non believers who didn't accept Jesus that are left behind that will be suffering.