I became aware of the power of the climate decades ago in college classes that were the most interesting that I had. The professor was not talking about 'Global Warming' or 'Climate Change' at all, only about the immensity of the oceans and their affect on the climate and weather. I've since been collecting articles from around the world about recent research into the warming that has taken place (not modeling, which is somewhat suspect) and I've become amazed at how little of this research has made it's way into the US corporate media.
After two years of google alerts for "climate change" and "global Warming" I have sifted through hundreds of articles looking for info about the research being conducted. The research that has currently been coming from the scientists who are collecting data in the field is showing that the warming is accelerating......at a rate that is alarming the scientists. It is happening much faster than they anticipated.
THE WARMING IS ACCELERATING ITSELF - POSITIVE FEEDBACKS
With melting at the ice caps, there is less reflection of the Sun's rays back into space, and the darker water absorbs more heat. The melting of the tundra is producing more CO2. The oceans are reaching their limits of CO2 absorption and are now starting to release CO2 back into the atmosphere.
Don't get caught up in the arguement about whether the warming is caused by man or not. It is a moot point. It is a ruse made to confuse people and to avoid liability by the energy giants who are not willing to take the world off of it's oil addiction. There are a number of things that act on the climate such as the "positive feedbacks" just mentioned. But they are cumulative. It matters very little the percentage of each contribution.
The scientists always give projections for decades into the future, that have a high and a low probability, and they expect that it will be somewhere in between. But recently their projections have proven to be too rosy, even the worst projections are being shown to be too low, almost certainly because of the positive feedbacks starting to kick in to the equation sooner than expected.
TWO LONGTIME OBSERVERS OF GLOBAL WARMING
Clive Hamilton, author of 'Scorched', wrote an article published recently in the Couriermail of Australia: (scientists) "have for years systematically understated the dangers. Climate scientists have been afraid to talk about the true extent of the dangers of global warming. Those who have looked closely at what the scientists are concluding believe that the truth is so frightening that, if told, it will stop people from acting, rather than stimulate them to do more.
There is a cavernous gap between the urgency of the warnings from science and the political response to it. The concern among the public is way ahead of that of our politicians but it remains true that the public simply has no grasp of the magnitude of the disaster that looms ahead of us."(1) What is even scarier is that a very large part of the public still has felt no detrimental affects of the warming and are still in the mode of - You talk about global warming? Last winter I froze my butt off. The average citizen does not want to believe that there is anything wrong, and they will side with the deniers who give them hope (false hope) that things are just fine. They won't spend the time that it takes to understand the science of climate change, which has come a very long way in just the past few decades.......indeed, just the past few years.
George Mongoit, author of "Heat" (which is about global warming) recently gave a speech in which he said, in so many words, that we are finding out that the book is terribly out of date:
What we need now".... is a much tougher message than any that I've put out before..... what I thought were rather bold and revolutionary proposals in my book "Heat", those proposals don't go nearly far enough. Those proposals have been superseded and we need to start thinking on a different scale altogether. We have very very little time in which to act. We have very very little time in which to bring about the largest economical and political transformation the world has ever seen."(2)
Here is a list of articles of research science on the ground (not models, which are somewhat suspect) with the important quotes and links to the articles which were gathered from around the world by google alerts and a few science websites. http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/09/364754.shtml These articles should have been given much air time and print by the corporate media, but of course were not. Just count how many times the scientists say such things as "It's happening much faster than we anticipated."
References:
1) Hidden doom of climate change, Sept. 9, 07 http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22383639-27197,00.html
2) George Monbiot Updates His Global Warming Book, 8/28/07 http://www.portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/08/364255.shtml
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September 14, 2007 By: Don Beck, No rights reserved.
