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Utah scientific: Climate-change perception heartens professor

I guess the model of the late and more soggy start of Winter and a likewise early Spring appear a bit off this year. Seeing snow on the mountains in late Sept. and early Oct. is an inconvenient truth that tends to contradict the theory. But, anomalies happen.

So, perhaps the delay of the start of more Winter like weather next year will bolster the model and provide some evidence that the predictions based on it are worth more than they appear now.

As proved by the failure of so many other past predictions of the future, one really never knows the future very well. I suspect but am not certain that such will be true of 90% of the dire predictions based on “global warming”. We’ll just have to wait and see.

No, you don't have to "wait and see." The evidence of significant climate change is truly global. Sea levels are rising, arctic and antarctic ice sheets are shrinking, permafrost is thawing, most of the world's glaciers are rapidly melting, major habitat areas are shrinking & shifting as climate changes... the list goes on and on.

So what are the bad consequences to your list that goes on?

What's so bad that the sea level rises an inch or two over FIFTY YEARS. It's not like it's going to drown anybody.

The arctic ice sheet is melting. Good, we can cut the cost of shipping by shipping across the Arctic Ocean. Meaning more economic growth for the world.

Warmer weather means more food for the world. The article says more precipitation. Good, we'll have more rain over the summer and therefore we won't have to rely so much on the snow pack.

A warmer climate will help people migrate north and to help alleviate over population.

Doesn't any of the global warming alarmists see any good that can come from global warming. To every consequence to global warming I can name a benefit.

Nathan, please take a larger view.

Warmer weather only means more food production in a few places that can actually benefit from it. Food production in many more places will decline.

Migrating to mitigate overpopulation only works if the places people are migrating from can still sustain a the pre-migration population. For every region on earth that becomes more habitable due to climate change, more regions become less habitable.

Hundreds of millions of people now live so close to sea level that higher storm swells due to higher sea levels will flood them out of their homes and farms. Get used to the term "eco-refugee," you're going to see a lot of these folks.

I think the USU professor and the Utah government need to consider a few facts:

1) 30 years does not a climate change make. Too short. Besides, most of the 1 C increase was before 1940. How about the cooling 1945-1978?
2) No correlation exists between CO2 and temperatures, either short or long term. Temperatures correlate to solar output, not "greenhouse" gases.
3) Antarctic and Greenland ice packs are growing, not shrinking.
4) The peace prize for Gore is ludicrous. His self-promotional, political movie has nothing to do with peace, and is full of scientific inaccuracies.

yo waite at one time grass grew in the artic coasts, pre-horses grazed on the grass. Then came a long cold period which killed thousands of species. Man came across the bearing strait, Clovis man had arrived. Yes its true, Man came to americas, reveresed the ice age and has caused the latest global warming. If Man hadn't of come across the bearing strait, we would still be in an ICE AGE.

Glaciers were shrinking and sea levels rising since the last ice age.

So like idiots we forcast rising sea levels, and like Jimmy Carter we want to rebuild New Orleans below current sea levels. When global warming fanatics stop the new orleans rebuild below sea level then maybe I'll get on board. Its the democrates crying wolf and the democrates rebuilding new orleans. Ya think they reeally believe global warming and that its caused by man.

The fact that no scientist has yet been able to come up with a strong correlation between the increase of greenhouse gasses and global warming keeps pestering me. It is also very upsetting when those who claim global warming continue to only present part of the facts. If they want to be taken seriously by a larger share of the population, they need to address all the evidence that is contrary to their viewpoint and explain it.

Global warming or not, mankind cannot continue pumping all the gasses into the environment that we do and expect our descendents to be able to enjoy the beauties of the earth, which we enjoy in this era. We must take better care of our world.

Just for a laugh, I decided to read these comments. With the exception of Nick, you all are up in the night. Sam hill, climate is what you expect while weather is what you get. And Roc Doc, how can you say that 30 years does not a climate change make and then ask about a thirty year period? There is strong correlation between temperatures and atmospheric CO2. Greenland's ice pack is shrinking. Wow, just get your science correct.

Hysterical claims towards what end?..so Politicians & other people with an agenda can ride in on their white horses and save the day? and all you folks need only to kiss their rings, donate $'s to them, keep or put them in power? Grow-up people do your own research and discover the truth. The climate has been changing since time began. Anyone heard of Lake Bonneville? Cars and SUV's made it dry-up I'd bet! Walk out in the desert of central Utah and w/o much effort you can find seashells - it was once tropical. These changes occurred long before the industrialized world we live in today. Is it smart to waste energy, pollute our air and water -- certainly not! That said take responsibility for your energy footprint by doing something meaningful! How much natural gas did you burn in your home last year? How much electricity do you use every month 500,1K,2K kwh's or more? Do you think Al Gore's going to install more insulation in your home, install a new high eff furnace and AC in your home and drop off a new hybrid Accord in your driveway? Take responsibility for yourself 1st!

Al Gores has it wrong -- higher atmospheric CO2 comes "after" warming not the other way around! Btw, the single largest contributor to greenhouses gases is not CO2 or other man made gases -- it's water vapor...hmmmm!

I notice that Wagner is writing a book which "updates" the theories about climate change. Thus, his support of Gore and other global-warming hysterics is simply a marketing ploy.

A Google search comes back with zero hits when looking for his papers refuting the "inconvenient truth" hysteria of the 1970s and 1980s. Back then, the same breed of Chicken Littles were screaming about the coming Ice Age! If Wagner were so certain, why didn't he tell them that they were wrong?

The inconvenient fact (which overcomes any number of inconvenient truths) is that weather change comes from solar activity.

But nobody will buy a book titled "The Sun is Hot" . . .

If global climate change is such a farce, and if, as arguments have been presented, "there have been warming and cooling periods", "weather change comes from solar activity", and "the largest contributor of CO2 is water vapor", where are the peer-reviewed journal articles? Why are the only people making these arguments ordinary people or conservative think-tanks?

Ya know, I really wish the thousands of scientists that are a part of the IPCC realized all of the "evidence" presented to us in these comments before they spent years and years actually doing the scientific work to promulgate lies and brainwashing...

Let's get more cavemen like Infhoe to say global climate change doesn't exist, rather than take measures to not only slow global climate change, but to positively effect change and break our dependence of oil.

What does climate change have to do with breaking our dependence on oil??? One has nothing to do with the other-other than people like you trying to say they're somehow intertwined. One can develop economically viable alternative energy resources w/o buying into Al Gore nonsense. Wind, solar, clean coal technology, etc etc can and are being pursued on their economic and clean air benefits w/o again any Al Gore misrepresentations in play. Improved energy efficiency (if individuals would take responsibility by educating themselves and invest in currently available high efficiency measures/solutions) in home heating and cooling (~40-50% of all the energy used on the US is to heat and cool homes) alone would save billions and billions of dollars worth of coal and natural gas that's now being wasted. In large part people/businesses are still using old inefficient appliances that if replaced would not only save energy but would pay for themselves in short order. These improvements would extend fuel supplys and reduce emissions etc. etc. Take responsibility and do something meaningful! Politicians are not the solution to our problems, you are! Sitting around and complaining about your gas and electric bill, pollution, global warming solves nothing!

When the 2007 installament of the UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was issued, the science writer for the New York Times noted thatthe IPCC report actually contradicts Gore's hysteria. Each successive IPCC report has decreased the forecasted range of warming by 2100, so it is predicted to be about 2 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit. Sea level rise will be between 10 and 22 centimeters--10 inches in 100 years! That is negligible compared to storm surges of 10 to 20 feet that can happen anytime. Greenland's ice pack is currently slowly melting, but Antarctica's is growing! Glaciers that have been shrinking during the 20th Century were also shrinking during the COOLING period from 1935 to 1975. Other glaciers are growing. Glaciers are rivers of ice, that must be replenished by rain and snow at the top. Gore's biggest scare was hurricanes, but we have now had two quiet hurricane seasons! The hottest year in the US in the 20th Century was 1934--hotter than the most recent maximum of 1998. Note also that it was warmer 9 years ago than any year since then, not much of a warming trend in the US, and Utah had record cold last winter!