Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a natural phenomenon caused by volcanoes

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Nice editing of the article, Bill.

I suggest people read the parts Bill did not include in his OP post.

Why? We already know what the "consensus among scientists" is for this decade. I can't wait to see what it will be next decade, or perhaps, next month...

Not really, although the actual science being conducted in tandem suggests quite the contrary conclusion to what Dr. Plimer suggests. Now arguing based on non-scientific lines of thought (politics and grant funding) are open to discussion. On those lines we've covered the political aspect... and I think it would be the first time I remind these threads that research grants do not line the pockets of the PIs that apply for them.

Government grants? Open to public scrutiny. Private grants? Open to strict accounting practices by the grantors.

So, you think scientists got it right, this time?

There are ominous signs that the Earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production– with serious political implications for just about every nation on Earth. The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only 10 years from now. The regions destined to feel its impact are the great wheat-producing lands of Canada and the U.S.S.R. in the North, along with a number of marginally self-sufficient tropical areas – parts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indochina and Indonesia – where the growing season is dependent upon the rains brought by the monsoon.

The evidence in support of these predictions has now begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologists are hard-pressed to keep up with it. In England, farmers have seen their growing season decline by about two weeks since 1950, with a resultant overall loss in grain production estimated at up to 100,000 tons annually. During the same time, the average temperature around the equator has risen by a fraction of a degree – a fraction that in some areas can mean drought and desolation. Last April, in the most devastating outbreak of tornadoes ever recorded, 148 twisters killed more than 300 people and caused half a billion dollars' worth of damage in 13 U.S. states.

To scientists, these seemingly disparate incidents represent the advance signs of fundamental changes in the world's weather. Meteorologists disagree about the cause and extent of the trend, as well as over its specific impact on local weather conditions. But they are almost unanimous in the view that the trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century. If the climatic change is as profound as some of the pessimists fear, the resulting famines could be catastrophic. “A major climatic change would force economic and social adjustments on a worldwide scale,” warns a recent report by the National Academy of Sciences, “because the global patterns of food production and population that have evolved are implicitly dependent on the climate of the present century.”

A survey completed last year by Dr. Murray Mitchell of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reveals a drop of half a degree in average ground temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere between 1945 and 1968. According to George Kukla of Columbia University, satellite photos indicated a sudden, large increase in Northern Hemisphere snow cover in the winter of 1971-72. And a study released last month by two NOAA scientists notes that the amount of sunshine reaching the ground in the continental U.S. diminished by 1.3% between 1964 and 1972.To the layman, the relatively small changes in temperature and sunshine can be highly misleading.

Reid Bryson of the University of Wisconsin points out that the Earth’s average temperature during the great Ice Ages was only about seven degrees lower than during its warmest eras – and that the present decline has taken the planet about a sixth of the way toward the Ice Age average. Others regard the cooling as a reversion to the “little ice age” conditions that brought bitter winters to much of Europe and northern America between 1600 and 1900 – years when the Thames used to freeze so solidly that Londoners roasted oxen on the ice and when iceboats sailed the Hudson River almost as far south as New York City.Just what causes the onset of major and minor ice ages remains a mystery.

“Our knowledge of the mechanisms of climatic change is at least as fragmentary as our data,” concedes the National Academy of Sciences report. “Not only are the basic scientific questions largely unanswered, but in many cases we do not yet know enough to pose the key questions.”Meteorologists think that they can forecast the short-term results of the return to the norm of the last century. They begin by noting the slight drop in overall temperature that produces large numbers of pressure centers in the upper atmosphere. These break up the smooth flow of westerly winds over temperate areas. The stagnant air produced in this way causes an increase in extremes of local weather such as droughts, floods, extended dry spells, long freezes, delayed monsoons and even local temperature increases – all of which have a direct impact on food supplies.

“The world’s food-producing system,” warns Dr. James D. McQuigg of NOAA’s Center for Climatic and Environmental Assessment, “is much more sensitive to the weather variable than it was even five years ago.” Furthermore, the growth of world population and creation of new national boundaries make it impossible for starving peoples to migrate from their devastated fields, as they did during past famines.Climatologists are pessimistic that political leaders will take any positive action to compensate for the climatic change, or even to allay its effects.

They concede that some of the more spectacular solutions proposed, such as melting the Arctic ice cap by covering it with black soot or diverting arctic rivers, might create problems far greater than those they solve. But the scientists see few signs that government leaders anywhere are even prepared to take the simple measures of stockpiling food or of introducing the variables of climatic uncertainty into economic projections of future food supplies. The longer the planners delay, the more difficult will they find it to cope with climatic change once the results become grim reality.

Newsweek~April 28, 1975

Edited November 13, 2009 by Lone Ranger

[HAL 9000 96]

Comparing yesterday's apples to today's oranges isn't in my field.

I will say this though- given the nature of scientific (knowledge) acquisition, technological advancement, methodological refinement, and modeling availability, I do think we have a better picture of what's going on on the large scale than they did in the 70s.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I huffy part HAL.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Comparing yesterday's apples to today's oranges isn't in my field.

I will say this though- given the nature of scientific (knowledge) acquisition, technological advancement, methodological refinement, and modeling availability, I do think we have a better picture of what's going on on the large scale than they did in the 70s.

And, in 10, 20, 50, 100 years, what will the scientists then say about the theories of today?

[HAL 9000 96]

Nobody puts good logic in a corner, Steven.

Comparing yesterday's apples to today's oranges isn't in my field.

I will say this though- given the nature of scientific (knowledge) acquisition, technological advancement, methodological refinement, and modeling availability, I do think we have a better picture of what's going on on the large scale than they did in the 70s.

And, in 10, 20, 50, 100 years, what will the scientists then say about the theories of today?

I am a HAL 9000 system, not a time machine.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Nobody puts good logic in a corner, Steven.

Comparing yesterday's apples to today's oranges isn't in my field.

I will say this though- given the nature of scientific (knowledge) acquisition, technological advancement, methodological refinement, and modeling availability, I do think we have a better picture of what's going on on the large scale than they did in the 70s.

And, in 10, 20, 50, 100 years, what will the scientists then say about the theories of today?

I am a HAL 9000 system, not a time machine.

I just haven't seen a lot of innovation over the last couple of decades, just some refinements with better, or perhaps cheaper, materials. They can't even replace a bridge link manufactured 60 years ago.

[HAL 9000 96]

Nobody puts good logic in a corner, Steven.

Comparing yesterday's apples to today's oranges isn't in my field.

I will say this though- given the nature of scientific (knowledge) acquisition, technological advancement, methodological refinement, and modeling availability, I do think we have a better picture of what's going on on the large scale than they did in the 70s.

And, in 10, 20, 50, 100 years, what will the scientists then say about the theories of today?

I am a HAL 9000 system, not a time machine.

I just haven't seen a lot of innovation over the last couple of decades, just some refinements with better, or perhaps cheaper, materials. They can't even replace a bridge link manufactured 60 years ago.

Just think of the advancement in computing in that same span of time and what it will do for increasing efficient designs as it continues to advance.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Nobody puts good logic in a corner, Steven.

Comparing yesterday's apples to today's oranges isn't in my field.

I will say this though- given the nature of scientific (knowledge) acquisition, technological advancement, methodological refinement, and modeling availability, I do think we have a better picture of what's going on on the large scale than they did in the 70s.

And, in 10, 20, 50, 100 years, what will the scientists then say about the theories of today?

I am a HAL 9000 system, not a time machine.

I just haven't seen a lot of innovation over the last couple of decades, just some refinements with better, or perhaps cheaper, materials. They can't even replace a bridge link manufactured 60 years ago.

Just think of the advancement in computing in that same span of time and what it will do for increasing efficient designs as it continues to advance.

I have been paying attention to that lately as well. Bigger cooling fans and more memory seems to be the answer for everything, not increased efficiency. Like I said, cheaper materials, not necessarily better.

But, the results have made a lot of things possible, like you said. Crunching numbers at 4 gigahertz is much better than using log tables and slide rulers.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

I wonder how the earth took care of it self with all those wildfires before there were humans? Geez I think Hal needs another GRANT! Hal, how did the earth control WILD fires before there was humans hmmmmmmm?

They burned all summer and were put out by the fall rains? I think I will put you up for a nobel peace prize! After all you deserve it. Take a dose!

[HAL 9000 96]

Nobody puts good logic in a corner, Steven.

Comparing yesterday's apples to today's oranges isn't in my field.

I will say this though- given the nature of scientific (knowledge) acquisition, technological advancement, methodological refinement, and modeling availability, I do think we have a better picture of what's going on on the large scale than they did in the 70s.

And, in 10, 20, 50, 100 years, what will the scientists then say about the theories of today?

I am a HAL 9000 system, not a time machine.

I just haven't seen a lot of innovation over the last couple of decades, just some refinements with better, or perhaps cheaper, materials. They can't even replace a bridge link manufactured 60 years ago.

Just think of the advancement in computing in that same span of time and what it will do for increasing efficient designs as it continues to advance.

I have been paying attention to that lately as well. Bigger cooling fans and more memory seems to be the answer for everything, not increased efficiency. Like I said, cheaper materials, not necessarily better.

But, the results have made a lot of things possible, like you said. Crunching numbers at 4 gigahertz is much better than using log tables and slide rulers.

Oh you're thinking about the consumer market, Bill... research systems are altogether another game brother!

Think new memory systems and faster, less energy-sucking nanotransistors, etc... One day I'll not be limited to residing in a narrow, red room on Discovery.

Its almost the 2 minute warning on the Bears/49ers game. I am hoping for Jay Cutler to perform a miracle so I can tell him in person when I meet him Saturday.

[HAL 9000 96]

Miracle indeed... Jay Cutler just got intercepted in the endzone with 1 second on the clock. Ahh... oh so typical Bears performance...

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Moon BOY! Mr. fvckin science major! LMAO!

Edited November 13, 2009 by ={Rogue}=

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

:dance: :thumbs: .....................Ya gotta love a boy with a silver tongue! Wit a ####### on it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKhnmUdmz74

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

He musta went back to fvckin space camp!

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Miracle indeed... Jay Cutler just got intercepted in the endzone with 1 second on the clock. Ahh... oh so typical Bears performance...

Bears suck, Patriots all the way.