Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Green Lights Only
Why in the hell was Gore rarely fact-checked? I can remember this one time in particular when the dude went on the Larry King Show and just made a myriad of untrue statements. a) He predicted that the sea level was going to rise by a meter withing a decade. Even the IPCC has only said that the sea level would rise about 1.3 CENTIMETERS per decade. b) He claimed that global warming was making droughts more severe. The Palmer Drought Severity Index has shown nothing of the sort. And c) he predicted a rapid decline in agricultural yield. The exact opposite has been the case throughout the 20th and early 21st century (plants respond well to warming and especially well to increases in CO2). I mean, this isn't difficult stuff to check, folks. You just need a computer and a modicum of motivation. CNN does have those things, correct?
'plants respond well to warming and especially well to increases in CO2)..' Agreed, particularly
ReplyDeletethe algae, On the other hand the
forests around here are burning up
due to extended hot dry weather!
Drought are naturally occurring events, BB (and there has been no increase in them according to the data), and more than likely have nothing to do with the tweaking of a minor gas.
ReplyDeleteDrought is a natural phenomenon, agreed; however drivers such as
ReplyDeletepoor agricultural practice (increasing desert in Africa,
perhaps the Dust Bowl and Amazonian deforestation) or overuse
of acquifers (sinking water tables)
can have an effect. Ours is a dry
area to start with: we had 2 relatively wet years and are running about 70% of normal rainfall this year. I believe you have noted prior the numerous and multifarious factors/feedbacks etc.
which bear on climate, and it may be that huge reservoirs in the arid
west exhibit very high evaporation
(as suggested in Reisner's 'Cadillac Desert' which
demonstrably affect micrometeorology at a minimum.
Meanwhile, waiting for the snows
to put out the smoldering forests
isn't all that novel in this area.