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Historic Heat In North America Turns Winter To Summer
An anonymous reader writes "A huge, lingering ridge of high pressure over the eastern half of the United States brought summer-like temperatures to North America in March 2012. The warm weather shattered records across the central and eastern United States and much of Canada. From the article: 'Records are not only being broken across the country, they're being broken in unusual ways. Chicago, for example, saw temperatures above 26.6Celsius (80Fahrenheit) every day between March 14-18, breaking records on all five days. For context, the National Weather Service noted that Chicago typically averages only one day in the eighties each in April. And only once in 140 years of weather observations has April produced as many 80Fahrenheit days as this March.'"
So it has happened before. And on geological time scales, that was, like, just ten minutes ago.
Well, the scientific consensus is that global warming is happening and that man is contributing toward it.
Not all theories and consequent predictions are correct and complete - in most areas of science this is accepted calmly and rationally, but in this one it's suddenly proof that the whole premise is wrong. Kinda like saying evolution is a crock of shit just because one piece of fossil evidence isn't fully explained by a previous assumption. Not that I've ever seen global-warming deniers as any more rational than evolution-deniers, but they tend to find it hard to see themselves that way.
I'm sure it would also explain the brutally cold winter that Europe experienced this year. http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/03/cold-weather-kills-more-than-220-in-europe-danube-freezes-over-france-set-to-break-power-consumption-records/
Localized weather stories are now considered news for nerds??!! What the fuck?
Is Slashdot next going to post when the summer equinox is coming, or when the first snowball in Peoria is happening?
This place is really turning to shit.
It's becoming more and more clear that we're in for a rough ride - and we're all to blame.
The sad truth is that those who are least responsible will suffer the most.
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
I'm sure it would also explain the brutally cold winter that Europe experienced this year. http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/03/cold-weather-kills-more-than-220-in-europe-danube-freezes-over-france-set-to-break-power-consumption-records/
What I remember from thermodynamics when I took it with Newton: pumping energy (heat) into system making it go all kaflooey. Hotter and colder and then even colder to outrageously hot.
Nope, obviously a conspiracy on the part on those people who wrote the laws of thermodynamics in order to eventually tax us and hand over our God given sovereignty to the UN!
And yet last year saw some of the coldest temperatures we've had in a very long time. But I didn't see people screaming OMG GLOBAL FREEZING!!1!!1! back then.
That's because the people who understand global warming are smart enough to know that a single season doesn't mean anything on its own. It's the deniers who, every goddamned winter, come out of the woodwork with their childlike taunts: "If the Earth's getting warmer, then why is it currently cold outside!?"
Isn't it funny that this winter they all seem to understand that one point doesn't make a line? Sadly, I'm sure that by next year they will have forgotten all about this, and will point to the first snowflake as proof that the Earth is unchanged.
I was surprised, for a minute, to see all these Slashdotters sarcastically pretending this is proof of global climate change, or forgoing the sarcasm and outright denying it entirely. Then I remembered that, despite Slashdot readers being generally accepting of, and, in many cases, even excited about science, they also tend to be generally libertarian in their politics, which means denying ideas widely held by entire scientific and academic communities if it might lead to more gub'mint.
Weather and climate are not the same words.
Think
G
Means extreme weather patterns become more likely. This includes more extreme temp fluctuations while the global overall mean just inches by a fraction of a degree per year.
All well established and advertised for the last twenty years. People pointing to super cold, wet winter in NZ are just emphasizing this, while kidding themselves into thinking it somehow contradicts the climate change trend.
I'm quite certain that once the future history of global warming will be written it'll emphasize that it shows humanity at it's smartest and most stupid at the same time.
There's perhaps more to Europe than you think.
Don't be silly, it won't be 200F in July.
If it was as much above normal in July, as it is currently in March here in Chicago, the daily high would be 127, with an overnight low of 94.
Fun stuff, isn't it?
I know it's kinda an interesting anecdote, but it's not as funny when heat waves kill tens of thousands.
We would be seeing similar problems in the US if we had a heat wave of 127 with a low of 94 for several days in a row. It's not the average Slashdotter that would have problems, it's the elderly, the already ill, the poor, the young, et cetera. Those who are already vulnerable to severe temperatures. And to say nothing of the brownouts due to a huge city like, say, Chicago all running the AC at full bore 24x7.
Unfortunately, the Corporate Apologists in America would be sure to point out that there is no climate change problem and it's "All Obama's Fault" (tm) in any case, so we'll get nowhere.
It's really starting to look like we won't wise up and do something about our environmental destruction until it's too late.
I'm not sure I've ever read a more disjointed reply.
Doubt science because of economics?
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
Imagining that tomorrow that coal and gas plants stop making energy is a straw man. They will be phased out as alternative energy sources come on line. As I said it will take time to transform our energy systems.
Your bus scenario is an example of your lack of imagination. How about if instead of stopping the bus service you replace it with a hybrid bus that gets 20% better fuel mileage? Then in 15 years when it wears out you replace it with a bus that only needs batteries to run its route. The longest journey begins with the first step.
Of course, Pascal's wager is tragically flawed. Pascal was creating a justification to pretend to believe in God. The true wager would require much more than 4 squares because you have Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism as major religions. That's before we start dipping into the minors and silly religions. After all, it's technically possible that the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the Invisible Pink Unicorn or even Scientology could be true. Thus Pascal's wager only works for people who are already Christian because they will already "know" that all the other possibilities are false. It sort of the defeats the supposed purpose of the wager, though.
Fanatically anti-fanatical