Baked Alaska

mithras the prophet writes "Global warming stories usually focus on the hotbutton politics, scientific debate, or latest disturbing anecdote of receding ice. A very interesting New York Times story takes a different tack, highlighting the reality of climate change for small-town Alaskans. Whatever the cause, temperatures in Alaska have risen by seven degrees in the last 30 years. This has very real consequences for ordinary citizens; the rest of us would do well to consider their stories. Lucy Eningowuk and her 600 fellow citizens of Shishmaref will vote next week whether to move their town to the mainland. Despite community efforts, thawing of permafrost and wave action from melting ice has eroded away most of the land the village is built on. Residents of Barrow (warning: MIDI-enabled page), on the North Shore, are swatting mosquitos for the first time in their lives. In an ironic twist, managers of the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline are putting in supports to keep the pipeline from breaking as permafrost thaws."

Comments

oh no... more global warming (...not...??)

[Mobster75]

Ok, let's get all the extreme left-wingers out and have them parade around proclaiming that the rise in temps in Alaska are caused definitely by global warming.

Except..... it's not always global warming.... I recall reading somewhere that temps over the last 400 hundred years (or so) have, at times, fluctuated wildly and the Industrial Revolution was only the last 200 years of it.

Maybe I'm too cynical, but I'm sick of EVERYONE blaming every odd day on "global warming" and the "evil" that it is.... We are having an effect on the climate, but its not quite as bad as you freak extreme-left alarmists would have us believe. (If you voted for Al Gore, you are a freak, end of story)

The weather *IS* unpredictable and *CAN* and *WILL* fluctuate over time. Our concept of time is sooooo narrow....... a fluctuation that lasts 500 years or so is nothing to the planet, but to us, thats an eternity..

Ok. I'm ready for the flames :) (you socialistic, gov't-loving cowards ;) )

Re:what is wrong with you people

[Mobster75]

another leftist brainwashed numb-nuts..

Why should the government have to compensate them for an Act of God?

Get your hand out my pocket-book... Spend your *OWN* private funds on their "reimbursement" rather than have everyone else do it if you care so much.

Obvious!

[Cally]

Whatever the cause, temperatures in Alaska have risen by seven degrees in the last 30 years.

Why, isn't it obvious?

• The sun's natural variations in output cause fluctuating temperatures here on earth;
  
• Temperatures have gone up and down many times in the last few thousand years, regardless;
  
• Scientists said we were heading for a mini-ice age opnly fifty years ago!
  
• It's within the bounds of natural variation
  
• It's all the fault of those pesky Indians and Chinese. Goddam those anti-american creeps!
  
• It's a conspiracy by the World Bank / the interantional Jewish rulers / the freemasons /the Euro-weenies/ economic competitors to the United States / the UN / the World Bank
  

Don't you idiots pay attention to those well-informed Slashdot posters? They have all the answers as to why I don't need to worry about changing my lifestyle. Hey, a badly-reasoned ill-informed load of Ayn Rand bullshit posted on Slashdot by a complete nobody in Butt-Phuck, Nebraska, is good enough to get moderated up to +5, Informative -- so it must be true!!

Or I could pay attention to real scientists who, like, know what they're talking about. But that would just be falling into the trap prepared by ${evil_people}!