From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Sat May 24 2003 - 09:54:48 MDT
> I hereby declare Global Warming to be a dead issue. See the following:
> http://www.spacedaily.com/news/climate-03q.html
Actually, this is a mixed bag. They actually confirmed global warming and
conceded that it was probably caused by humans, and then calculated that it
was occurring at a slower rate than previously thought. Pro-global-warmists
will hype this as confirmation of their theory, while anti-global-warmists
will hype this as refutation of their theory. In reality, it is a mixture
of both, with the truth somewhere in-between.
They estimated a "95%" confidence in satellite data. I am sure more studies
will be done to increase that confidence. The also gave the rate of
increase per century as a single number as if it were linear. I would like
to see graphs to see if it is steady of if it is increasing. The actual
rate turns out to be one and a quarter degrees Fahrenheit each century. But
since the satellites only measured two decades, it is still hard to predict
whether this trend will continue into future centuries. I don't think the
question of global warming in the future is settled yet, but the immediate
emergency seems to have been substantially delayed.
I actually hope that global warming is caused by humans, because that puts
it under our control. If the cause is "probably caused by humans" as this
study says, it might increase as technology and population increases. Or it
might go away as we miniaturize technology and become more energy efficient.
Or it might be solved by technology with air scrubbers or energy pumps that
get energy by taking heat out of the atmosphere
The actual data trend graph and interactive global map of temperatures over
time as recorded by these satellites can be viewed at
<http://www.ghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/temperature/>
-- Harvey Newstrom, CISSP, IAM, GSEC, IBMCP <www.HarveyNewstrom.com> <www.Newstaff.com>
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