Why do AGW believers not realize that climate and weather go hand and hand?

Question

River, AGW is an acronym for Anthropogenic Global Warming.

I ask this question because so many of them will claim that climate and weather are two different things.

Novaluna, That's a great explanation on how climate and weather can and does effect each other.

Bob, Why are you so convinced that Climate and Weather don't affect one another? We have years of proof that shows that it does and I don't need a scientist to tell me about it. When the global climate was a lot higher than it is now the weather on the planet was similar to that of the Rain Forests. We know this because of fossil records all over the continent collaborating this to be true.

Edit: Bob, So we are worrying about this because it could possibly change coastlines and where we plant crops? Do you see how silly that sounds?

So because we don't want to adapt to possible changes in our climate and weather patterns in the future, we have to try to change something we don't have a whole heck of a lot of control over? I can imagine God up in heaven shaking his head over how a lot of his little creations think we can change our climate.

Dana - It was your friend Bob mentioned coastlines changing and crops.

And you are Rude. I never go and state your questions are weird or strange. And the reason why I lumped the AGW believers as one, is from my reading their answers on here so far and how they treat my answers.

Answer 1

Climate and weather are different things but they are closely related. Climate deals with long term weather patterns, while weather is a daily happening.

When the day to day weather patterns change, so does the climate. But it can take hundreds or thousands of years of unstable weather for the climate in any particular region to change. For a massive, broad scale climate shift to occur globally, it would take something like a massive rerouting of the trade winds or the movement of a continental plate to effect a sudden climate change.

The unfortunate problem that Global Warming doomsayers overlook is that there simply isn't enough evidence (read years of data) to conclude that current weather conditions are anything but cyclical.

Answer 2

They have one crucial difference.

Weather is variable and unpredictable. Climate is much more steady and thus can be predictable.

This is often the case in science, where specific behavior is unpredictable, but the average is predictable.

Take a piece of lead 210. It is physically impossible to predict when a specific atom will decay. And it is utterly certain that half of them will decay in 22.3 years.

This graph shows the same behavior for weather/climate. Individual years jump around a lot (weather) but the long term trend (climate) is undeniable.

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Image:Climate_Change_Attribution.png

This isn't about words and definitions. This is science, it's about the data. Smart people know that.

"I wasn’t convinced by a person or any interest group—it was the data that got me. I was utterly convinced of this connection between the burning of fossil fuels and climate change. And I was convinced that if we didn’t do something about this, we would be in deep trouble.”

Vice Admiral Richard H. Truly, USN (Ret.)
Former NASA Administrator, Shuttle Astronaut

Good websites for more data:

http://profend.com/global-warming/
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science/
http://www.realclimate.org
"climate science from climate scientists"

EDIT - Mikira - Note that I give the same answer when someone cites weather as proof that global warming exists. Short term weather proves nothing about global warming, one way or another. Only the long term averages count.

When the Earth was much warmer, coastlines were very different, and plants grew in very different places. That would be ruinous for our coastal cities and agriculture. We DO NOT want to go there.

EDIT - You don't think changes to coastlines and plant habitat are important? We have hundreds of billions of dollars of "stuff" and people on the coast. Moving/abandoning that will cost - hundreds of billions of dollars. Our farms are high;ly specialized. Moving that all around - a lot more money.

Dealing with unreduced global warming will cost so much money that it would drive the world into an economic depression that would make the 30s look like good times.

Why do think all the world's leaders are concerned? It's even dawning on China that bankrupting their customers will not be good for business.

Answer 3

Novalunae gave an excellent answer to the difference between climate and weather. That part I understand it's the part of saying whether or not a flood is caused by global warming. They say that if the amount of floods go up on a twenty year average that can be related to global warming and that is considered climatology. If we see a flood like the in the northwest it is just a isolated event not caused by global warming(meteorology). But after the twenty year period the flood in the northwest that was not caused by global warming will be linked to global warming b/c it fits a trend. But what constitutes a flood caused by global warming. Could it not be poor damning of rivers, man is always trying to control water systems and usually when you build levees to contain the water if it is breached it makes the flood 100% worse. You know that originally the Mississippi River was trying to change its course in a more westerly route. But in the 70's the corp of engineers redirected the river to it could continue to flow through new orleans. B/c without the MS running through new orleans they would lose a lot of business. that can't be good for the river or new orleans.

Answer 4

You ask very strange questions.

I don't mean to be rude, but you shouldn't really be making general statements about other people's understanding of a subject that you yourself don't understand.

Of course weather and climate are related. Climate is basically the long-term average of all weather. However, as has been pointed out many many times, one weather even tells you absolutely nothing about climate change.

The consequences of climate change are going to me more than altering coastlines and where we plant crops. The WHO estimates that 150,000 people are already dying annually as a result of global warming, and that this number will double in 20 years. It will cause increased droughts, heat waves, floods, water shortages, food shortages, stronger hurricanes, people living along coastlines displaced, etc. etc. etc.

Answer 5

Weather is to climate what your present state of health is to your general health. If you presently have a cold, does that make you a sickly person? One is the present condition, the other is the average of many present conditions.

Answer 6

See you just don't understand. This is probable because you're not a board certified climatologist or a nobel peace prize winner.

Weather is what is happening now. It cannot be forecast any further than 3 days out and it could be either warmer, cooler, or normal. Anyone can measure weather

Climate occurs 10 or more years out, it can only be measured by board certified climatologist or nobel peace prize winners, is very accurate and is always warming.

Answer 7

Explain please: the most relevant definition of AGW i can find on the internet is "Atmospheric Gravity Waves"

and whats your point about climate and weather exactly?

Answer 8

because they think they understand science better than you do