Global Warming and Snow in April

A more descriptive term than "global warming" is global climate change. It just so happens that, on average spatially, the "change" is toward warming.

Global climate change... Starts with climate turbulence as masses of warmer air around the world rises. It causes the waves in the jet streams to gyrate more northerly & southerly and along with it more extremes in warm and cold climate both up in Canada and down here in the lower 48.

In addition to understanding that warming causes turbulence in the global atmospheric system, the "on average" thing is critical to understanding why we can have cold weather, particularly snow, at a time of year when it's typically warm.

The best mental picture I have about the concept of "averages" is a joke:

A man is standing with one foot in a bucket of boiling water and the other foot a in bucket of ice water.

The man is asked, "How's the water?" To which he replies,

"On average it's comfortable."

You know the one about statisticians out deer hunting; one shoots and misses to the left. The other shoots and misses to the right, at which point the third guy says, "On Average you Got 'em!"

So now, back to the man with his feet in the buckets. Lets say the boiling water stays boiling, and the ice water melts and warms very slightly... still really cold. On average, the water has warmed, right? If the two buckets represented the Earth, one area hot and one cold, you could still say the "Earth" was, on average, warming, regardless of the extremes.

Now, with the jet stream fluctuating, those "extremes" move around, making it a little more complicated than a couple of buckets. It's just a little more complicated than the small minds on Fox News Corporation seem to be able to comprehend... either that, or they have ulterior motives for misleading the public.

Climate Change Fatigue and Hope

I produce monthly news and entertainment audio show called GDAE Podcast. I recently received the following comment on Episode 23, to which I responded in late-December (Episode 24).

Alas I fear we are beginning to suffer from Climate Change fatigue. This of course plays into the hands of those who don't believe global warming is real or who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Reports from the Copenhagen meeting on the subject make it seem like just another big corporate sponsored conference rather than a gathering to find a way to prevent a global disaster. Now there are some "experts" who say that no matter what we do we're doomed unless we deal with the population exponential growth problem. When I heard that I of course flashed back to my early environmental action days in 1968 when Paul Ehrlich's famous book, "The Population Bomb" was published. It's been some 40 years since then and nothing seems to have changed. Until Times Square starts to fill up with sea water I fear nothing will change. Sorry to be so pessimistic. I hope I'm wrong and suddenly the majority of people in the world become intelligent.

My Response: I'm not sure that a majority of people would make a difference, after watching the US Senate water down the healthcare legislation in order to secure 60 of 100 votes to pass a bill without a public option. That's inspite a solid majority of American people being intelligent enough to want a public option.

AH! but not all is lost, as we are reminded by Margaret Meade who said:

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Meade

"Hope" means feeling that the effort that you put into a cause has a real prospect of making a positive change.

Sources:

GDAE Podcast

The Establishment Control in Copenhagen

What's the relationship between the Kyoto Protocol and the U.S. Articles of Confederation (the original U.S. Constitution?).

Read More.

GDAE Podcast Episode 23

Climate Justice

• Climate Change: November 30 Day of Action, Corporate villains, Act for Climate Justice dot ORG.
• Wall Street's so-called "profits" and the Phony Accounting that created them.
  
• Climate Change II: Naomi Klein: Framing the issue in terms of "reparations".
  
• The Chasm between the Super Rich and the Rest of Us: Words of wisdom from Kuwait's Abdlatif Al-Hamad.
• Prosecution of Bush: War Crimes Against Children from a Book by Professor Michael Haas and Article by Sherwood Ross.
• Musical diversion: Sam Bush Fiddle Solo exploration from "Little Maggie" with Doc & Merle Watson.
  
• Bloopers.
  

Play Episode 23 from this page:



Click to Download Episode 23.

Previous Episodes & 60-Sec Promo:

GDAE Podcast 60-Second Promo

GDAE Podcast Episode 22 November 11, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 21 October 18, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 20 October 9, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 19 September 27, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 18 September 16, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 17 August 31, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 16 July 30, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 15 June 17, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 14 June 10, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 13 May 22, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 12May 5, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 11 April 24, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 10 April 9, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 9March 28, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 8 March 15, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 7 March 1, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 6 February 17, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 5 February 6, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 4 January 24, 2009

Step It Up 2007: Ice Melting

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The following is my contribution to Step it Up National Day of Climate Action on April 14th, 2007.












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Global Climate Change: Mortal Jeopardy

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Came across a good blog entry at Is America Burning blog on the recent UN report on Global Climate Change.[1] It has some interesting links to multi-media information.

A while back, media reform expert Robert McChesney had a guest speaking about Global Climate Change on his MediaMatters radio program. Bob said, something to the effect, that he has difficulty dealing with the subject of global climate change, because the discussion inevitably leads to depressing feelings associated with contemplating our own extinction.

As I listened to McChesney, I heard the words, and understood them. But on Saturday, April 7, I felt the words and was reminded of his comment. Listening to the DemocracyNow! podcast for April 6, their headlines included the following:

A new United Nations report on climate change warns that global warming could cause more shortages of food in Africa, more severe weather events in Europe and the United States, the decimation of coral reefs and the disappearance of the ice caps.

and the following:

A new study in the journal Science is predicting rising temperatures here in this country will likely result in a permanent drought throughout Arizona and the Southwest by the year 2050.

While listening, I realized that I was a little nauseated; this is a common response to thoughts of one's tenuous mortal jeopardy. In this case, it's all of humanity's mortal jeopardy.

As I watched polar bears swimming at the Baltimore Zoo recently, I was reminded of documented cases of their drowning due to melting ice at the North Pole. You can do something to save the polar bears. Submit Formal Comments to make the U.S. Government list the Polar Bears as "threatened and endangered" due to the loss of their icy habitat from global climate change.

Sources:

1. The report was written by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which consolidates the work of 2,500 scientists from the around the world.

2. DemocracyNow April 6, 2007 Headlines.

3. Polar Bear SOS.
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