On global warming - it is good to see the traditional media
covering this as it should be -
slamming Bush's oil-funded rhetoric. Someone asked me what was going on with all the rain here in Maryland. I replied that God said he would not punish us with The Flood again, but he didn't say we couldn't do it ourselves.
We have received over 10 inches of rain at my house in Montgomery County, Maryland since Friday, and more is coming. People are talking about "40 days and 40 nights" - Tom Toles
has a cartoon this morning that plays on a Biblical theme too. Increased rainfall is predicted by the science on global warming. What scares me is the consequences we may be unable to predict.
Reading the full report from the International Panel On Climate Change (IPCC) on the Scientific Basis some points of uncertainty may bring comfort to those worried about global warming, others may indicate ways in which climate change might have unexpected long or short term consequences.
More alarming than some of the predictions of warming, changes in precipitation, and sea level rise, may be what we do not yet understand. "The rapid forcing of a non-linear system has a high prospect of producing surprises," (p. 78). I am worried that there are many factors we do not understand that could "tip" the climate more quickly and drastically than is supported by current science - melting of permafrost and other events which could drastically increase CO2 and methane concentrations in the atmosphere are processes not well studied. Almost weekly I have noticed stories pointing out these dangers - coverage of peer-reviewed scientific journal articles. In a report about west Siberian bogs that have begun to melt Fred Pearce of New Scientist magazine points out that they contain "some 70 billion tonnes of methane" and that if the bogs dry the methane will oxidize, but if they remain wet, "as is the case in western Siberia today, then the methane will be released straight into the atmosphere." Methane is a much stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
I know - you get depressed and feel helpless when you hear this sort of thing, just like after the last two elections. My next entry will be on doing something about it. There really are ways for you to make a difference.