Climate Denial Crock of the Week

[Doctor Rock]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/vFGU6qvkmTI" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/vFGU6qvkmTI</a>

[Doctor Rock]

Useful web sites:

This one is the mother of all Climate Change sites:  http://www.realclimate.org/

How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic: Responses to the most common skeptical arguments on global warming

[Doctor Rock]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/y15UGhhRd6M" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/y15UGhhRd6M</a>

[Doctor Rock]

A Ted talk given by a photographer that took time lapse pictures of glaciers melting

[Doctor Rock]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/B7OdCOsMgCw" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/B7OdCOsMgCw</a>

[Doctor Rock]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/5P8mlF8KT6I" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/5P8mlF8KT6I</a>

[Doctor Rock]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/4nTw0KneNLg" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/4nTw0KneNLg</a>

[Doctor Rock]

There are many others on youtube.

[Poop Fresh-Herbed Pickles]

Under what conditions could global warming be GOOD?

I mean, the earth was much warmer during the Mesozoic for instance...and life was thriving.

I think we've turned so much of the planet into a desert through industrial farming and deforestation that an increase in temperature would surely be devastating in certain regions.

Is it possible that with healthier terrain and an overall better ecosystem that global warming could be a positive thing?  I mean, so much of the earth is covered in ice and nothing can live there.

Plus couldn't that frozen water in Greenland and at the poles be put to positive use?  Or is there salt in that ice already?

[Jeff]

Dan, isn't one of the key issues making climate change dangerous for people that the melting of the ice caps (and the changes to the atmosphere in general) will make weather more volatile and dangerous?

The station fire that recently devastated parts of California (which was far out of proportion to any fire most of the firefighters fighting it had ever seen, and hit an area not historically prone to such fires) has been said to have been enabled by climate change.

[Doctor Rock]

Once again, it's a matter of time frame.  Global climate changes that take million of years, or even tens of thousands of years (like Ice ages) can cause trouble, but they happen so slowly that there's time for the biosphere to at least partially adapt to the changes. 

But the present climate change is happening very, very fast (we're talking decades) leaving very little time for adaptation.

[Doctor Rock]

Plus couldn't that frozen water in Greenland and at the poles be put to positive use?  Or is there salt in that ice already?

How are you going to capture that melt water, Kurt? 

[Jeff]

In this episode of the NPR show, The Story, they talk to a fire captain who was at the station fire. It's interesting in and of itself (the part about the firefighters realizing the fire was going to go right over them, and them fleeing onto a parking lot, turning their hoses outward and hoping for the best is riveting) but there is a part where the fire captain, who is obviously a fairly conservative guy, says flatly that whatever your opinion on climate change, it is a fact that this kind of fire did not used to happen in this area, but the weather changed...

[Poop Fresh-Herbed Pickles]

Well the oceans are too salty now so even if the ice just melts into the sea it will help with that.

AND it's possible that some water will get trapped on land and create fresh water lakes in Greenland.

[Poop Fresh-Herbed Pickles]

But if ice melts too fast it will no doubt create crazy storms.