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Every Month This Year Has Been the Hottest In Recorded History (vice.com)
Slashdot reader iONiUM quotes an article from Vice that calls attention to the fact that
record-setting temperatures in July are just part of the story: On Wednesday, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that July was the hottest month ever recorded on our planet, since modern record-keeping began in 1880. NASA has reached the same conclusion. July smashed all previous records... "We should be absolutely concerned," [NOAA climatologist] Sanchez-Lugo said. "We need to look at ways to adapt and mitigate. If we don't, temperatures will continue to increase"...
But the truth is that record-breaking temperatures, month after month, year after year, are starting to look less like an exception, more like the norm.
In fact, CityLab reports that the earth has now experienced 14 consecutive months of unprecedented hotness. Although July stands out, Vice notes that "each consecutive month in 2016 has broken its own previous record (May was the hottest May, April the hottest April, etc.)..."
But the truth is that record-breaking temperatures, month after month, year after year, are starting to look less like an exception, more like the norm.
In fact, CityLab reports that the earth has now experienced 14 consecutive months of unprecedented hotness. Although July stands out, Vice notes that "each consecutive month in 2016 has broken its own previous record (May was the hottest May, April the hottest April, etc.)..."
The people who believe in human-influenced global warming are usually NOT the same who believe in the sky-fairies and the Great Spirit.
"To think that man could be capable of effecting change on such an enormously huge scale is the height of arrogance. Sounds like you need to lay off the weed and granola"
Man? A single man probably doesn't stand a chance but millions, hundred of millions, billions?
I'm afraid so. It takes a long time but once there's enough heat built-up and stored, the effects will persist for decades, perhaps even longer.
"a whole solar system's worth of evidence to suggest that it's a natural occurrence"
the processes are natural and the Sun is the single biggest driver - but think of Old Sol as a nuclear plant, delivering steady, predictable baseload.
Once the plant is in operation, it just keeps humming along, provided there's enough cooling but if that diminishes, it quickly spins out of control.
So the GHGs, natural and man-made, are retaining more of the solar heat and storing it in the oceans and at some point, that stored heat is going to be released and we'll have a very bad couple of decades at best.
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
The people who believe in human-influenced global warming are usually NOT the same who believe in the sky-fairies and the Great Spirit.
"To think that man could be capable of effecting change on such an enormously huge scale is the height of arrogance. Sounds like you need to lay off the weed and granola"
Man? A single man probably doesn't stand a chance but millions, hundred of millions, billions?
They need to head off to West Virginia to see the Terraforming we've done. Looks like a reshaping of the land of biblical proportions. Entire mountains now reside in what used to be valleys.
I'm afraid so. It takes a long time but once there's enough heat built-up and stored, the effects will persist for decades, perhaps even longer.
"a whole solar system's worth of evidence to suggest that it's a natural occurrence"
We have a couple different things going on. Carbon Dioxide is a fairly long term greenhouse gas. Methane is much more powerful in effect, fortunately shorter lived in action. A few "anti-greenhouse gases are also short lived, like Sulfur Dioxide, which can cool the planet for a time after large volcanic eruptions.
My biggest concern is that as methane is released as is happening now, we'll be going through a special kind of hell for a hundred years or so.
the processes are natural and the Sun is the single biggest driver - but think of Old Sol as a nuclear plant, delivering steady, predictable baseload. Once the plant is in operation, it just keeps humming along, provided there's enough cooling but if that diminishes, it quickly spins out of control.
So the GHGs, natural and man-made, are retaining more of the solar heat and storing it in the oceans and at some point, that stored heat is going to be released and we'll have a very bad couple of decades at best.
It is such an odd thing that the deniers deny the simple chemical process that without which, life as we know cwouldn't exist, or in a seeming miracle of divine intervention, somehow keep the situation exactly the same, and that the Greenhouse effect is only happening for non-human greenhouse gas injection.
800 Terawatts of radiative forcing is nothing to sneeze at.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Huh. So what you're saying is, five years ago we had a year in which some months broke all previous records for heat, and this year that's happening again, but... what, exactly? I can't tell whether you're just using this topic to vent about your coworkers, or whether you actually have an opinion on global warming (or the lack thereof), or if you're just very disappointed that we haven't had a bunch of Category 5 hurricanes. ;p
Neither El Nino is supposed to heat the globe nor La Nina is supposed to cool it.
Both phenomena simply change wind patterns and surface currents in the ocean, and hence lead to different didtributions of warm and cool water and hence rain patterns.
That is all.
Except for perhaps more clouds (globally?) none of them has any effect on global warming, and my bet would be that El Nino causes more clouds and hence has a cooling effect.
The idea that El Nino is heating up the earth is a /. myth and only shows that no one even cares to read the wikipedia article.
This is an El Nino ocean temperature distribution picture: http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/...
This is an La Nina picture:
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/...
As a laymen you can not even guess which is which.
And as final note: both phenomena are restricted to the Pacific and have e.g. no influence on the weather of Canada, most parts of the US, Europe or Africa or Asia/Russia/Siberia.
The idea that one of them has an warming effect or cooling effect on the globe is completely ridiculous, even if you know nothing about the phenomena it should be obvious to everyone.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.