"This is no longer something that is theory or conjecture out of models we are observing. It's happening, it's real, it's a scientific fact."
These were the words out of the mouth of Climate Scientist Derek Arndt from Scripps, USCD, last night Jan. 13, 2011 on World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer about climate change and the continuous recent unprecedented storms and flooding taking place world-wide right now.
Imagine my surprise to hear a scientist say these words, looking straight into the camera, with no equivocation on a major news network. How refreshing. Spin that!
Arndt, in an interview with the Washington Post, also tied the climate extremes recently to retreat of Arctic sea ice.
Derek Arndt, who heads the climate monitoring branch at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., said the new data should be viewed in the context of the record retreat of snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere at the end of the melt season and a near-record retreat of Arctic sea ice.
"Together across the board, it was an unusual year, and a year that in many ways was a culmination of what we've been seeing for the past several years," Arndt said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Other facts presented on World News Tonight:
Last ten years had nine of record hot temps ever recorded since records have been kept in 1880.
2010 was the wettest year on record and tied for the hottest year ever recorded.
In Australia an area larger than France and Germany combined has been flooded causing many deaths.
http://abcnews.go.com/...
The world is currently undergoing climate devastation. Records are being broken worldwide for snow and rain. Wet goes with hot. Scientists interviewed have all attributed these weather events to climate change. I haven’t checked Faux News or the right wing spin, but I’m sure the message will be deny, deny. After all, we need to keep those drills in the gulf pumping, because oil is going up, and we need all we can get. There are hefty profits to be made. Who cares about the future. Fuck that.
In Brazil, as of Friday, the death toll was 514 from flooding and mudslides and is expected to climb. Whole villages have been wiped out.
http://news.yahoo.com/...
The East is digging out from record breaking snowfalls.
The big storm on Wednesday was a record-setter and the eighth heaviest single-storm snowfall since weather records started being kept nearly 120 years ago.
The National Weather Service said 21.1 inches of snow fell Wednesday, shattering the previous Jan. 12 record of 10 inches in 1996.
Read more: http://www.telegram.com/...
Another scientist, Paul Kocin also recognizes the unprecedented storms:
Paul Kocin, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Washington, D.C., said the storm compares to some of the greatest ever largely because of its timing. He estimated 50 million people were affected.
"The big difference is that it occurred within a week and a half of three other storms," Kocin said. "The combination of storms is almost unprecedented — the amount of snow, the amount of impact."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
Sri Lanka flooding in recent days has affected more than a million people.
Days of heavy rain have swamped Eastern Province, affecting more than a million people and forcing 360,000 from their homes. The government has estimated the damage at $500 million.
http://news.yahoo.com/...
India has hottest year on record:
"Indians experienced the worst summer in the last one century, and this was a definite result of global warming," IMD spokesman B.K. Bandyopadhyay told AFP on Friday. The country's weather records began in 1901.
Got that? "A definite result of global warming." At least they are trying to deal with the problem.
In late 2009, India announced a plan to reduce the growth of its greenhouse gas emissions by becoming more carbon efficient. It aims to cut the emissions generated per unit of GDP by 20 to 25 percent by 2020 compared with 2005.
http://news.yahoo.com/...
If we could take the evidence, and listen to the scientists, that would be one thing. We still seem to think we can keep going the way we have, while we endlessly debate the subject as if there were more than one interpretation of scientific facts and evidence. I do believe there is a tipping point. Once reached there is no turing back. Unfortunately, I do not see the driving impetus to turn us from the path we’re on. Even if we were to stop every activity today that contributes to climate change, and I see no signs of that, we will live with the results of what we have already done for long after. There are new dire predictions for the future even if green house gas emissions would cease.
Even if humans stop producing excess carbon dioxide in 2100, the lingering effects of global warming could span the next millennia. The results? By the year 3000, global warming would be more than a hot topic - the West Antarctic ice sheet could collapse, and global sea levels would rise by about 13 feet (4 meters), according to a new study.
http://news.yahoo.com/...
Our rhetoric in this country is dangerous in acting as if both sides to an argument were equal in their merits. Unfortunately this is one argument that, if lost, could spell our doom. I predict as long as we talk, and don’t act, we will keep witnessing the devastation to our planet. Hear, hear for Dr.Arndt for telling it like it is.