Global Warming : The Positive Side

[Squid]

Would a modest increase in the temperature of the planet necessarily be bad? Are there any potential benefits?

 

According to the World Bank, one-third of the world's population already suffers from chronic water shortages. The Worldwatch Institute predicts that this situation will be exacerbated further by the addition of an estimated 2.6 billion people to the world's population over the next 30 years. By 2025, the group claims, some three billion people -- or 40% of the world's population -- could be living in countries without sufficient water supplies, leading to crop failures, diminished economic development and even to regional conflicts as nations find it necessary to fight for control over scarce water resources.

 

While the scientific community is divided over many aspects of the global warming theory, the effect of global warming on precipitation levels is not one of them: Global warming would mean more condensation and more evaporation, producing more and/or heavier rains. Global warming, therefore, could offer the answer to the water scarcity problem that the Worldwatch Institute has been seeking.

 

If history is any indication, greater precipitation may be only one of many benefits of global warming. For example, between the 10th and 12th Centuries, when the temperature of the planet was roughly 0.5 degrees Celsius warmer than it is today, agriculture in North America and Europe flourished and the southern regions of Greenland were free of ice, allowing cultivation by Norse settlers. Evidence of this was found in 1993 when scientists from the National Science Foundation-sponsored Greenland Ice Sheet Project II extracted an ice core from Greenland's ice sheet that spanned more than 100,000 years of climate history. Samplings from the core suggest that a Little Ice Age began between 1400 and 1420, blanketing the Vikings' farms in ice and forcing them to abandon their farms in search of more hospitable climates. Prior to the onset of this Little Ice Age, temperatures were comparable to the temperatures general circulation models used by the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have projected for 2030-2050. Yet, the world's leaders stand poised to take dramatic steps to curb the risks of this kind of climate change.

 

The National Center for Public Policy Research

[j_b]

While the scientific community is divided over many aspects of the global warming theory,

 

just to be sure: the scientific community is not divided about the late 20th century acceleration in warming being due to anthropogenic emisssions of greenhouse gases.

 

 

the effect of global warming on precipitation levels is not one of them: Global warming would mean more condensation and more evaporation, producing more and/or heavier rains.Global warming, therefore, could offer the answer to the water scarcity problem that the Worldwatch Institute has been seeking.

If history is any indication, greater precipitation may be only one of many benefits of global warming.

 

while on average global precip will be greater, the effects of the intensification of the water cycle will be highly regional: intensification of precips and floods at high latitudes but mostly more frequent droughts and heat waves in other regions (examples: northern china, mediterranean regions, etc ...). in other words, ireland and norway will mostly benefit while it will be disastrous for many countries to the south.

 

For example, between the 10th and 12th Centuries, when the temperature of the planet was roughly 0.5 degrees Celsius warmer than it is today,

 

spin alert: the "medieval warm period" was non-synchronous and not global but regional in nature

 

Samplings from the core suggest that a Little Ice Age began between 1400 and 1420, blanketing the Vikings' farms in ice and forcing them to abandon their farms in search of more hospitable climates. Prior to the onset of this Little Ice Age, temperatures were comparable to the temperatures general circulation models used by the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have projected for 2030-2050.

 

spin alert: the little ice age was not global but regional

 

The National Center for Public Policy Research

 

it's more like the global warming disinformation center. the first sentence on that page: "There is no serious evidence that man-made global warming is taking place", which tells us a lot about they are trying to achieve. can you find a single scientific reference in the footnote section? i can't but i certainly see the weekly standard, the neocon paper.

 

squid: i don't know if you believe the bullshit you post or if you are simply trolling to get a rise out of people but i am pesonally not amused. it's difficult enough to cut through the fog of spin put out by the fossil fuel energy industry without having trolls perpetuate the myth.

[chelle]

My god conservatives are trying to put some level of positive spin on everything these days.

[Squid]

"We're not causing it, but if we were, would it be so bad?"

 

wait til you hear how cancer cases increase the gross national product.

[Dru]

War, famine, pestlence, genocide good: a rapid response to the problem of global overpopulation.

[j_b]

California air board adopts vehicle emission cuts

 

By Leonard Anderson

 

 

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California air-quality regulators have adopted the nation's first-ever rules to reduce car emissions linked to global warming, an action likely to prompt tough pollution standards in other states and a legal challenge by the auto industry.

 

The new rules will require carmakers to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases in cars and trucks by as much as 25 percent beginning with the 2009 model year, with cuts accelerating as high as 34 percent in 2016.

 

New York and other states may follow the California regulations when weighing their own plans to reduce vehicle pollution, analysts said.

 

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