EnMasse

[leftcoastguy]

Maybe buying alpine skis is not a good long-term investment any more.

Enormous ice shelf snaps off in Arctic
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Thinking is so overrated.

[Norse of 60]

[5 minutes to midnight]

Apparently there are concerns the massive iceberg could eventually run into oil and gas platforms off the coast of Alaska.

Now THAT is irony.
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To be a true radical is to make hope possible, rather than despair convincing

- Raymond Williams

[West Coast Tiger]

Yahoo: 2007 could be world's warmest year yet, British forecasters say

[leftcoastguy]

Paul Wells has an excellent suggestion on his blog today.

[Doug]

[TS.]

I miss snow, gawddammit. If I have kids, they aren't going to believe me about winter.
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"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear." - Thomas Jefferson

[Clog-boy]

[lagatta]

I hate snow and cold, and this springlike weather has been like an unexpected holiday. I'm heading out for a bicycle ride. That said, it is very, very, very worrying, even now for polar bears and for Northern Aboriginal peoples, later for everyone.

[DSquared]

My own experience is that in recent years, Brandon has consistently either set new high temperature records or came pretty close, more often than going in the other direction.

And I'm a little skeptical about blaming this winter on El-Nino. Could it not be that because there are warm waters in the Pacific Ocean that on that basis alone it was attributed to El-Nino because one component of El-Nino is warm Pacific waters? IIRC, El-Nino is supposed to bring warm, dry conditions to Western Canada while the jet stream takes a nose-dive in the east where it's colder. (The first major El-Nino I remember was winter 1997/98, and I recall seeing stories on the news about snow hitting the Southeastern US while people were golfing in Regina.) It's also at odds with the Weather Network's prediction for a cold, wet, Western Canadian winter.

Curiously enough though, most recent Februaries that I remember in Brandon have been cold, and I don't know why.
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This is pre-eminently the time, to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself-Franklin Delano Roosevelt

[sparqui]

I briefly heard on the radio that Toronto area pest-control professionals are warning of increases in rat population because of the unusually warm winter.
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“If my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a tractor.”

-- Gilles Duceppe

[DSquared]

[Rufus Polson]

As to El Nino, I saw a documentary a while back suggesting that heavy El Ninos are related to climate change, and if global warming keeps going the increased power of El Nino events could cause major catastrophes.

So, if it's El Nino that doesn't mean it isn't global warming.

[leftcoastguy]

CBC News tonite talked about a United Nations global warming report that is due to be released in about three weeks? Did anyone catch the details?
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Thinking is so overrated.

[Holly Stick]

Probably the IPCC fourth Assessment report due to come out in February.

http://www.ipcc.ch/
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You want it WHEN?

[elmateo]

The lack of cold and snow has made me depressed. take that.

[Norse of 60]

[anne cameron]

I've lost count, don't know if we're getting the fourteenth, fifteenth or sixteen massive storm in the past couple of months, but we're getting a doozy.

I'm sure we know very little , really, about long-term weather patterns, and I'm sure there are future ice ages in store which would have happened whether we polluted ourselves to death or not, and I think it's absolute hubris to declare we are going to "destroy" the planet because the Rockies will be there even if we aren't here to see them. But I do think we're making the problem worse, and listening to the nay sayers is very much like singing as you walk past the graveyard.

I live close to a river, and very close to the sea, and I do not expect my modular will float and I'll have a houseboat . I have friends who have a fish lodge, a very nice one, and it is built on logs lashed together and cabled to trees on shore...they lost a portion of their deck when a waterspout touched down a couple of storms ago.

Waterspouts used to be rare, now they hardly merit a mention on the news. With absolutely no science to back me up I'm sure part of the reason the storms have been so severe is that we've allowed the transnationals to clearcut so much of the province. Where once a solid wall of evergreen blocked the wind, there are now only stumps and bare rock and the storms can rage unchecked.

That's my theory and I'm stickin' with it. The same clearcutting on an insane scale has led to mudslides and washouts which have silted the spawning beds, reducing fish populations drastically.

And, really, people are downright stupid. Absolutely stupid. A few storms back some people were shown on TV bewailing the damage done to their houses. To paraphrase unapologetically , one woman said oh, we've never had the river come this high, usually it's over there..and she pointed... they were nearly IN the damn river even at low water. New house. Big fancy new house. And, sorry, but it serves them right! And WHO is so fekkin dim as to build on the very lip of a steep down-slope?

There are reasons this is called a rain forest. And reasons its called the wet coast. WHY build where you have any chance at all of being in your house when it slides downhill? WHY build where obviously there are no dikes and if the water rises you're in trouble?


People were saying Oh, "they" (municipality, building inspectors, etc.) should never have given permission for people to build where.... well, nobody was twisting their damned arms, nobody had a gun to their head, at some point people have to put their brains in gear and do the stop look listen thing themselves.

You don't puke into the wind and you don't spend your life's savings building something which has every chance in the world of being either flooded or wrecked. Right now it's wah wah time on TV, ohmigawsh, the poor homeowners who had trees fall on the roof. Well, why didn't they TOP the trees? Yeah, trees are gorgeous but how much of it do you actually see when you're sitting inside the house? Reduce the height and there's less for the wind to affect. Mostly what happens is the wind sways the tree back and forth until the dirt around the roots becomes a semi liquid slurry , then the tree falls over, pulling the root ball right out of what used to be earth and now is gumbo. With less height, the swaying isn't as extreme and if you make sure the tree is short enough that even if it does fall it won't smash the house to spoon-sized pieces....

but no. Pay no attention to your surroundings. Then blame the building permit inspectors. Who, by the way, should show some spine and write REJECTED on any plans to build on a flood plain or the slope of a cliff or other obviously unstable place.

[TS.]

Peterborough is finally getting some snow today. It remains to see if it will stick around.
_________________
"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear." - Thomas Jefferson

[DSquared]

[Reverend Blair]

[sparqui]

[West Coast Tiger]

It's Kyoto or environmentalists' support for Conservatives goes up in smoke

[Tehanu]

Ahem

[Chester]

[anne cameron]

I sincerely hope the combined environmental groups put the boots to Harpoon and his crew. Absolutely blithely ignorant of the science and the situation, and for some reason dam proud to be ignorant, they went gallumping in to expunge even the mention of "kyoto" from gov't doc's... and now this large GIT is backtracking desperately. Jeez, all it takes are a few hurricane-force windstorms, widespread destruction and some downright panic to pry their eyes at least partway open.

Gits. That's all , just gits!

[DSquared]

Well, for the next few days at least, temperatures in southern Manitoba are going to be in the balmy -20s. More to that, it seems a great deal of the snow Brandon is supposed to get is shifted north. I also remember as a kid that in the rare instances when snow did melt for a few days in the winter, it ended when more snow came. Now, those spells simply end, it gets cold, and portions of the ground are exposed in cold weather in some cases for weeks before more snow falls to cover them up.
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This is pre-eminently the time, to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself-Franklin Delano Roosevelt

[Hephaestion]

Must make for a lot of frozen water lines...
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"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin

[Norse of 60]

[Reverend Blair]

[DSquared]

Ottawa's Winterlude to go ahead even if Rideau Canal doesn't freeze.
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This is pre-eminently the time, to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself-Franklin Delano Roosevelt

[DSquared]

[DSquared]

Looks like winter's back. And if the trend in the Prairies over the last few days, and this situation in Central Canada continues, this winter may be warm, but it won't likely end up being warmer than last winter.

Still, when the first real blast of winter in Central Canada occurs at this point in January and makes national news because of it, that's not a good sign.
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This is pre-eminently the time, to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself-Franklin Delano Roosevelt

[TS.]

I hope the fact that winter has finally arrived in central Canada isn't used to take the heat off of the government.
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"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear." - Thomas Jefferson

[West Coast Tiger]

CTV: Experts say global warming could spread disease

[Doug]

Global warming not real? Go see the new islands in Greenland

[leftcoastguy]

Interestin' stats.

Cut the bull Tough calls are ahead if Canada is to have any hope of reducing annual greenhouse gas emissions by 200 megatonnes
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Thinking is so overrated.

[West Coast Tiger]

Yahoo: Canada finds killer whales drawn to warmer Arctic

[West Coast Tiger]

CTV: Glaciers may vanish from Alps by 2050

[Hephaestion]

It's happening all over. I've been in this valley (in the West Kootenays) for about 10 years now, and the glacier on the mountains across the lake has gotten visibly smaller in just the time I've been here. It's also been officially downgraded from a glacier to an "ice sheet". Other Kootenay glaciers are facing the same thing, too.
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"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin

[West Coast Tiger]

Wow, Heph! I had no idea. It's pretty scary the amount of news stories that are coming out now concerning (or assumed connected with) climate change. No doubt climate change is going to be a very big political issue in the coming years (hell, it's already happening), and a HUGE issue for ALL life in the coming decades. We are all going to end up wishing we had listened to the environmentalists and scientists.
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~ Rational ravings from a relative stranger in a troubled paradise. ~

[edward]

[Hephaestion]

Sure, let's just move on and forget all those bastards who argued for years that global warming was a myth, and that responsible scientists were being "fear-mongers" who wanted to "deprive us of choice" by villifying SUVs and the like. Uh-uh. I say we bring back the public stocks, and stick 'em in them, so we the public can pelt them with cowshit and clods of dirt.

What would this do to ameliorate global warming, or lessen greenhouse gases? Well, nothing much, I guess. But it'd sure make a lot of us *feel* better.

Hey Harpo -- you're up first...
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"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin

[West Coast Tiger]

The thing is, edward, I still believe we can turn things around -- I've always felt that the planet has the power to heal itself (at least somewhat) if the conditions are right and we respect Earth by cutting down on energy consumption, working harder towards alternative energy, and having politicians walk the talk wholeheartedly -- in fact, it requires that every one of us do our part to improve the situation. Hell, I'm leaving out a lot of things here that need to change if we are ever going to give our planet (and ourselves) a chance to survive.

But I think we have mucho catching up to do in order to get the kind of conditions for the planet to heal. And I DO believe there is a "point of no return"... I'm just hopeful we haven't reached it yet.
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~ Rational ravings from a relative stranger in a troubled paradise. ~

[edward]

[transplant]

Survey shows 13 pct of Americans never heard of global warming

Reuters - Thirteen percent of Americans have never heard of global warming even though their country is the world's top source of greenhouse gases, a 46-country survey showed on Monday.

The report, by ACNielsen of more than 25,000 Internet users, showed that 57 percent of people around the world considered global warming a "very serious problem" and a further 34 percent rated it a "serious problem."

"It has taken extreme and life-threatening weather patterns to finally drive the message home that global warming is happening and is here to stay unless a concerted, global effort is made to reverse it," said Patrick Dodd, the President of ACNielsen Europe.

People in Latin America were most worried while U.S. citizens were least concerned with just 42 percent rating global warming "very serious." ....

Thirteen percent of U.S. citizens said they had never heard or read anything about global warming, the survey said. ...

[Hephaestion]

[West Coast Tiger]

I was wondering where this thread got to...

Meteorologists say sure humans cause climate change

[5 minutes to midnight]

[leftcoastguy]

This says it all.

Welcome to the NIMBY climate change folks!

Some Canadians cynical about climate change
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Thinking is so overrated.