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I know there is some debate about the existence of climate change, however, here in little NZ the weather has lost the plot. Mother nature has menopause and is seriously slapping us. Over the last 24 hrs we have had heat waves, flooding, cyclones and now snow. If there was doubt, I have none now. How's the weather for the rest of the world??

Fluffykytten 5 Feb 1
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1

Climate change is a thing. It is happening whether or not we like it. Weather will continue to get more and more extreme and unpredictable. I have witnessed already in my lifetime things I never expected to see here in NZ. There are 1000 denialists for every person who states that it is happening and in my own personal experience there are a heap of trolls paid by big oil and energy to continue their disinformation campaigns. Whether man has / is playing as major a role as initially thought is the only real question here - other than the obvious question - how long can we humans ignore facts in favour of business and $$$. You can't eat money when the water and food and arable land and forests are gone - thats game over folks.

1

The weather is constantly changing it is normal for the Earth somehow climate change global warming thing has become very political and one-sided, I don't believe CO2 causes global warming but I do believe that agriculture activities and land usage may be responsible for some climate change. In my lifetime I have seen them predicting an ice age in the 1960s and now global warming so I just believe we are experiencing normal climate change. I am not against alternative energy. If you are Interested you can read some of my posts on this website.

dc65 Level 7 Feb 13, 2018
1

"warming is controversial"?!? The daffodils my grandmother planted around the family home, now owned by my brother, come up and bloom At Least 3 weeks earlier than when i was a child (i am now 69). So do the ones i transplanted here over 30 years ago.
Go tell the daffodils it isn't warmer..............

that is true but remember in the 1960s they were predicting an ice age and it was colder back then for longer periods

@dc65 my grandma died in the late 50's...so the daffodils predate that!

1

Observation: weather is not climate. Put another way: having an odd weather day does not indicate a change in climate.

That said, the thing about a warming trend in climate, and thus a change, is that it puts weather into a place where it tends to seem 'exaggerated.' Thus, winters are colder, summers are hotter, and the all weather is more energetic. So, what would've been a nice rain shower is now a storm, what would've been a storm is a thunderstorm, what would've been a T-storm is a cyclone... etc.

Here in the states we just had the first combination blizzard tornado that I've heard of in 50+ years... so, I am with you. The evidence of my eyes says that overall weather, and thus climate, has shifted and NOT in a good way. And yes, I blame we humans for the lions share of the problem... what is worse is that I believe that we could change the direction of this change without too much suffering on our part... sadly, and being in the Shithole known as the US of A, greed seems to be more important than survival.

4

The evidence for climate change is massive. The case for anthropgenic climate change is perhaps harder to make convincingly, but the evidence for it is building all the time. I have suspected both for decades.

3

yeah, we have been looking over the trench with amazement, and Tassie is the same. Last week Darwin was the coolest capital in Oz. How freaky is that. I accept humans have affected the climate, I was exposed to the hypothesis in the 70s at school, and if it was an experiment, the results back the hypothesis. Good enough for me for now.

5

Personally I believe the earth climate is cyclic, and that climate change is part of a natural occurrence. How much of this process has been speed up due to humans is debatable. However, in saying that I never accept any theory without a small bit of skepticism. By challenging the null hypothesis I can reassure my own understandings.

The Earth's climate certainly is cyclical. It has changed many times in the deep past. This time the climate is changing dramatically too and there is overwhelming scientific evidence that humans are indeed the cause.

Those who are profiting from selling us fossil fuels to run our economy wish to make the science appear uncertain, controversial and unsettled because they wish to continue to sell us fossil fuels. It is not. That humans are the cause is very well established.

We should be immediately directing our economy away from fossil fuels as fast as possible. That will require the consent of the population. Many good people are working hard to tell the truth about climate change. Equal numbers of other people are working hard to drown that message and simultaneously they attack the messengers personally.

The planet is warming. Future warming will be more dramatic. Future warming will have harmful effects on the human population and could well be very costly, and, possibly catastrophic for future generations.

@marmot84 oil companies are only supplying what the public is demanding the majority of the people will not stop using fossil fuels so we should be planning for global warming it's reality so let's learn to live with reality. Even the green people continue to use fossil fuels excessively.

@dc65 Not all of your points are factually correct but for just the moment let's assume that they are true.

Indeed, I suspect that we will not be able to stir the human race away from burning all of the fossil fuels in the ground without some incentive. Global Warming is likely not a significant enough incentive for most folks. Like a frog being slow boiled, that is the position we find ourselves in. By the way, there are only 500 years of fossil fuels. After that humans will have no choice but to use renewables or nuclear.

If we burn all of the fossil fuels available to us in the next few hundred years, it is all but certain that we will invoke the Earth's 6th major extinction event. Many scientists consider this to be already well underway. Could the human species be one of the lucky ones? I'm honestly not sure. Certainly we can expect a dramatic population reduction as a direct and ugly result of our actions.

We know from Earth's past history that burning all of the fossil fuels will essentially put us back into the Carboniferous period [en.wikipedia.org]. The Earth's climate will, on average, be about 12C warmer than it is today. That is a very significant climate change. Technology, for the elites, will have to work hard to keep up. The middle and lower classes will be doomed. Likely dying from starvation, war and eventually heat stress.

@marmot84 How many electric vehicle, solar panel and windmills do you have? at this time I only have one electric vehicle. I would not buy another one at this time. I use my turbo diesel truck when I travel because I have a camper and a motorboats the same as many other people. A person can find many article they want to prove their point on the Internet so I don't know what to believe I use my own knowledge about chemistry, physics and thermodynamics and I do not believe CO2 is the causes of global warming at this point in time I believe it's land-use and agriculture is causing the problem or just a natural cycle

@dc65 With all due respect you are wrong about CO2 and warming. You don't need the internet to research the science which is more than clear. CO2 emitted by human burning of fossil fuels is causing the Earth's climate to warm.

You've thrown a couple of explanations towards me and I'm enthusiastic about doing it but you'll have to give me some time. I will finish this post before I complete my full answers. As a science teacher I recognize that there is a significant amount of information to unpack. I will attempt to do that for you.

Lesson 1 is to watch the following video and understand that CO2 absorbs IR (heat) radiation:

@marmot84 I'm not sure the movie is legitimate the cylinder is probably nitrogen because it is a black color and CO2 comes in grey cylinders or green cylinders or black with silver at the upper 6 -8 inch at the top under the valve. We don't know if the camera is legitimate or what kind of filters they have on the camera we don't have the specifications of the concentration of CO2 they are using for the experiment we don't know what kind of gases in the clear cylinder to start with. So I don't feel this is a very scientific experiment. It lacking so much data I cannot accept it as a legitimate experiment.

@dc65 Wow! Then do it yourself. Seriously?? Are you that far into denial or are you being sarcastic?

That CO2 traps IR radiation has been known to science for almost 200 years and isn't controversial at all. John Tyndall provided the first robust experimental evidence in 1861.

[history.aip.org]

(The American Institute of Physics is about as solid as source as exists on the planet.)

@marmot84
I am only interested in new information late 2017 and 2018 as made public. Global warming has been very stagnant for the last 16 to 18 years and it's been far less than predicted. I am very well informed on both sides of the climate change, global warming issues. You need to look at and follow Judith Curry and her new endeavors she's not dwelling on the past anymore. She is not funded by oil industry, coal or government. Please research the other side with an open mind. This climate issue is not settled and it will take many more years to find the real conclusion. Eventually the data will support the correct conclusion. And the CO2 data in the 1800s it was .03% of the atmosphere today it is .041% of the atmosphere there is an increase of only .011% of the atmosphere that's very tiny tiny tiny increase which I believe is insignificant at this point in time.

[eenews.net]

@dc65 All wrong and Judith Curry is a world class denier not a legitimate scientist. You may claim you are open minded but ignoring 97% of the world's climate scientists is not being open minded.

As far as the "Global Warming not doing anything for 16 years" you are wrong - try to keep up.

@marmot84 ok

1

It's been unseasonably warm a few times this Winter. Not long ago we were in the 50's F.
Today it's an expected windy 26.

2

In Florida, it's pleasantly cool -- around 70 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny.

5

There is no debate among the scientists. I know that weather and climate are different things but I will say that visible proof is staring us in the face here in the west. Every year it seems dryer and the fires are bigger and more intense. Although the East has had it cold we have had virtually no winter and hardly any snow. I can remember Carl Sagan years ago talking about climate change and saying that something to look for were extremes. It's extreme.

gearl Level 8 Feb 1, 2018

NO! There is no debate among scientists. 97 to 3 isn't a debate.

@Dick_Martin And the 3 are paid by fossil fuel companies.

1

And this morning the sky is blue again here. Mother Nature definitely needs to get back on her meds.

Sacha Level 7 Feb 1, 2018
1

It's cold as usual ,nothing I'd class a extreme here to report in North England. Though we did get a passing Polar bear knocking on doors asking for any leftover fish,which I thought a tad odd.

3

There is no serious debate: the climate is changing, scientists say yes, people with debilitated thought capacity say no.

0

I have lived in Texas 58 years. I can tell you it used to be colder here in the winters. Not unusual for us to have a couple weeks off from school each year due to snow and ice that hung around for several days. I know weather has been historically cyclical so I am not sure how much if any can be attributed to man made climate change.

I had to see where you live. I was raised in Huntsville, TX and it only snowed about once every 6-8 years. We did have regular ice storms in March though. Those were a bitch.

@kiramea Huntsville is a little south of Ft Worth. Don't think there would be as much snow there. We are just south and east of the Edwards Plateau. A lot of weather sweeps south off of that area and hits us.

My dad lived in Carollton before he died, and my niece lived in Arlington. I attribute it more to being closer to the coast than anything else.

3

I have never denied climate change; I'm just not sure how much of it is cyclic and how much is due to humans. Either way we need to stop rushing it on and do something to curb the change.

Excellent point! Man-made or not, we should try to slow it down.

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