According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the answer is YES. The average temperature is rising. Here's a link to NOAA's recently released talking points about Climate Change. Here's a quote:
Q. Is there any question that surface temperatures in the United States have been rising rapidly during the last 50 years?
A. None at all. Even if NOAA did not have weather observing stations across the length and breadth of the United States the impacts of the warming are unmistakable. For example, lake and river ice is melting earlier in the spring and forming later in the fall. Plants are blooming earlier in the spring. Mountain glaciers are melting. Coastal temperatures are rising. And a multitude of species of birds, fish, mammals and plants are extending their ranges northward and, in mountainous areas, upward as well.
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4 comments:
I don't think there is any doubt that Global Warming is real. Where I'm having my trouble is figuring out whether it is caused by human activities such as CO2 emissions. That is where it gets all political and fuzzy for me. I cannot figure out why it is right wing or left wing issue. It should be a science issue.
Yogi,
Global warming was predicted 150 years ago soon after the infrared absorption of CO2 was first measured. The basic physics demands that if the CO2 content of the atmosphere is increased, then the IR absorption of the atmosphere will increase as well. When that happens the energy equilibrium of the earth gets upset and the average temperature MUST go up in order for it to be reestablished. At first it was thought that effects of any contributions by humans would be small; however, the research activity since the 1950s has been about actually measuring the amount by which humans have increased the CO2 content of the atmosphere (>30%) and determining what the ultimate effects are likely to be. There remain scientific uncertainties (just as a climatologist what they are; they are open about it); but what is quite certain is that it is real, the basic physics requires the temperature to go up if the CO2 content of the atmosphere is increased, and the best estimates are that effect will be considerable even if we manage to significantly curb fossil fuel emissions. If you are interested in a detailed discussion of how the discovery of global warming came about and a presentation of physics for the intelligent layman, you probably can't find a better source than the presentation "The Discovery of Global Warming" which is maintained at the website of the American Institute of Physics (which is the umbrella organization of all the professional physics societies in the United States).
http://www.aip.org/history/climate/
Since 2000, atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased 18.4% of the increase from 1800 to 2000. According to the average of the five reporting agencies, the trend of average global temperatures since 1998 shows no increase and from 2002 through 2008 the trend shows a DECREASE of 1.8°C/century. This separation (there have been many others) corroborates the lack of connection between atmospheric carbon dioxide increase and average global temperature. I wonder how wide the separation will need to get before the IPCC and a lot of others are forced to realize that maybe they missed something.
Human being is destroying himself by his own hands: http://inspirationwriting.blogspot.com/2009/07/scientific-studies-showed-where-there.html
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