What are the "top 100" effects of global warming?

Question

Well, I'm not sure what this article means by "top 100", but it lists 100 unfortunate effects of global warming. Take a gander.

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/09/climate_100.html

Any thoughts?

Mr. Jello - yes, I would like to take that bet. How much?

Way to put your money where your mouth is.

Typical of global warming skeptics deniers. They claim to be confident in their denial, but will only wager if you give them astronomical odds, if at all.

If Jello thinks warmth is good for life, I vote we strap him to a rocket and shoot him towards the Sun. That would be good for human life.

Answer 1

Most people are too invested in their lifestyles to let something like that penetrate very deeply. It's too numbing and disconnected and the effects will be gradual, with ups and downs. Therefore, people who are already predisposed to think there is no problem will have "evidence" that there is no trend (the cooling observed after the 1998 spike in global mean temperature is a perfect example of this). So, although agricultural production will trend downward, it won't be a steep trend and there will be years when production will increase. Plus, a lot of the agricultural effects listed are silly (I mean, mixed nuts and guacamole? But if you talk about increasing droughts and severe weather impacting production in the grain belt of the US you just sound shrill and alarmist).

In 1989, I heard this lecture by Frances Bretherton, who is at the Univ. of Wisconsin at Madison, on climate change. During that era, people like Bretherton, Steven Schneider, and Jim Hansen positively knew the world was warming, CO2 was responsible, and that the effects were going to be severe and probably disastrous. However, Bretherton made the point that you couldn't tell people about all the bad things because they would just tune you out. In short, there was no way to warn people because the possible effects are too severe, they sound like hyperbole. But the truth is that our society is not very resilient, much as we would like to think the contrary. The experience of trying to rebuild New Orleans has shown that modern infrastructure is easily disrupted and hard to reconstruct.

Rather than try to even discuss rational responses to the probable consequences of climate change, let alone amelioration of climate change itself, it is far easier from a psychological perspective to latch onto any silly reason to disbelieve the whole concept.

Answer 2

1. The arctic ice melts. Last week they discovered that One Million Square Miles of Ice has melted. That is right, Square Miles, not acres. For the First Time, there is a satellite photo of a complete blue water passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. Yes, it will freeze over in the winter.
2. The Polar Bear and the Penguin populations will continue to drop. Some Penguin types have lost half their numbers (the funny looking ones with mustaches, it seems).
3. Bangladesh will have the worst floods ever and the worst loss in lives ever.
4. Himalayan Glaciers will melt too fast and the drinking water supply for 1.5 Billion people in Central Asia is at risk. When this becomes real, but not before, we will probably send big cargo planes like the C-17 to land on open land with equipment to purify water and medical equipment and to help relocate some to higher grounds.
These are my Top Four.

Answer 3

I don't really get that graph. How can there be 24 red dots over 120 years if each one is to represent a "length" of 11 or so years? The graph only goes from 1860 to 1980, if each point is supposed to track the length of an ~11 year cycle there should only be 12 data points, not 24...

Answer 4

That's just plains stupid. Who would put out a list of such nonsense anyway?

Maybe Soros funded that web site. After all, he's funded NASA scientists to propagate the global warming hoax.

Actually, I think whoever put that list together was hoping that extremely ignorant and gullible people would read it and believe in it.

They need lots of uninformed people to support the idea of man-made global warming so they can more easily tax every aspect of our lives.

Taking advantage of ignorant people is a crime.

Answer 5

Say hello to great English wines (again)
Say hello to aluminum bats
I could go on but most on this list is simply rediculous. Lobsters are probably dying more from over fishing than warmer waters.
Artic foxes may lose some habitat but they are in no danger of being wiped out due to warming. Do you have anything against Vulpes vulpes. I think the authors are red fox bigots.
Any geologist should understand the ignorance of the claims in this article. Believe it or not, habitats are not static. Trust me when I tell you that glacier used to cover Canada and parts of the US. It has been warming for thosands of years and as a consequence, glaciers receded northward and some species that are adapted to cold weather moved northward or died. Warm adapted species will inevitably take over. To try to alter this would be interfering with the natural trends. Climates change, habitats migrate, ocean levels move. These are facts but they are ignored in order to spread scare tactics.

Answer 6

Ugh. More "could happen" list.

All hype, conjecture, and speculation. Want to bet than not one of these thing will ever happen?

However it does make a good read and it does scare the simple mind as a way to get them to act on something that just isn't happening.



Added: Like you would make good on your wager.

Already several of these scare tactics are being shown as being false.

Global warming is always being blamed for species disappearing. In reality, new species are being discovered everyday. Warmth is good for life.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070926/ap_on_sc/vietnam_new_species_1

Answer 7

Oh my god. Not my french fries. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Well I was militant against global warming before. But now it's personal. I think I'll eat less French Fries to save energy. :)

Seriously global warming sucks. Everybody agrees but nobody's doing anything. They'd rather read about Paris Hilton. *sigh* Oh will petition your mayor and governor ppl! For renewable resources,minimums on mileage on cars, and less carbon emissions! Because we all know Bush isn't gonna do anything.

Answer 8

Well that would be the effects if global warming was a serious problem

Answer 9

101 Mars invades
102 The sky is falling
103 New world order via the Illuminate and your local Masonic lodge

Answer 10

hmm..

it's incomplete.

it should include:

environmentalist greed
loss of personal freedom
sweeping lifestyle changes for the masses to change because of a "prediction".

a prediction, i might add, that is as valid as ms. cleo @ the physic hot line.