In warmer world, even Inuit buy air conditioners

[5stringJeff]

warmest summer on record is an average of all temperatures from all temperature stations around the world......

1998.

However, we've only been keeping good records for about 125-150 years.

 

[manu1959]

1998.

However, we've only been keeping good records for about 125-150 years.

that is my undestanding as well....98 worlwide..... i believe 1930 for the USA

 

[MtnBiker]

I wonder, in warm climates of the globe, for comfort how many heaters are used?

But nobody would write a story on that.

 

[bobn]

I think the most likely factor for recent warming is increased co2 levels. I don't see on what basis people would write that off. Especially if you simultaneously argue that last centuries warming was only slight - then you should see it more probable that a slight warming could be caused by a 30% increase in co2.

 

[Hobbit]

I think the most likely factor for recent warming is increased co2 levels. I don't see on what basis people would write that off. Especially if you simultaneously argue that last centuries warming was only slight - then you should see it more probable that a slight warming could be caused by a 30% increase in co2.

CO2 not only makes up a very small portion of greenhouse gasses, but it is also consumed by every plant around the world. Besides, the temperature on Mars is rising slightly as well. The sun's hotter than it was 100 years ago. I don't see how we can just write that off and start talking all paranoid about how fossil fuels will kill us all.

 

[bobn]

CO2 not only makes up a very small portion of greenhouse gasses,

But temperatures have only increased by a "very small amount". So what you say here does not make it at all obvious that co2 increase of 30% cannot be responsible. In fact the best of scientific knowledge at the moment is that co2 is the largest recent temperature forcing.

but it is also consumed by every plant around the world.

And despite this concentration of co2 in the atmosphere has increased by 30%. All that matters is the increase.

[qutoe]Besides, the temperature on Mars is rising slightly as well.[/quote]

Even mars was undergoing global warming (and proxy info from one region does not prove that) it has no relevance to explaining the warming on earth.

The sun's hotter than it was 100 years ago.

Yes but by a "very small amount". In fact best of scientific knowledge is that the radiative forcing of co2 increase dwarfs the radiative forcing from increased solar output: http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg1/figspm-3.htm

I don't see how we can just write that off and start talking all paranoid about how fossil fuels will kill us all.

I am not talking about anything killing us all.

 

[RyzinEnagy]

CO2 not only makes up a very small portion of greenhouse gasses, but it is also consumed by every plant around the world. Besides, the temperature on Mars is rising slightly as well. The sun's hotter than it was 100 years ago. I don't see how we can just write that off and start talking all paranoid about how fossil fuels will kill us all.

Some science brushup is needed here. True, plants consume CO2 in the process of photosynthesis during the day when the sun is shining, and this produces the sugar the plant uses for energy. But at night it's a different story. When photosynthesis is not occuring the plant is using the energy it created during the day in the process of cellular respiration. This provides the energy needed for the plant to perform its processes and to grow. The process of breaking down glucose in cellular respiration releases CO2 back into the atmosphere. Plants don't just gobble up the CO2 we release and keep it inside. The chemical equations of photosynthesis and respiration are exact inverses of each other, except for the fact that plants don't emit sunlight but instead makes energy, but that is irrelevant here.

I agree with everything else you say and I believe it is one of the Sun's upward cycles in energy emissions that is causing the gain in Earth's temperature, but you can't say that if we release CO2 that plants will just take it right back out for us.

Plants also actually consume oxygen during respiration at night, and release it during the day during photosynthesis.

 

[waltky]

Granny says dem Eskimos gonna be so rich dey can pipe warm air in from Saudi Arabia...

The Inuit sitting on billions of barrels of oil
29 November 2012 - After a decade of legal wrangling and spending $4.5bn (£2.8bn), this year Shell Oil was given permission to begin exploratory drilling off the coast of Alaska. But many in the local Inuit community are concerned it could have a devastating impact on one of their main sources of food - the bowhead whale.

Marie Casados shows me the contents on her freezer. Inside there's whale meat, muktuk - frozen whale skin and blubber - a selection of fish and a polar bear foot, which looks like a human hand. She describes it as a real delicacy. But it's more than that - this is her food supply for the winter. Fishing and hunting are central to the Inupiat way of life - archaeologists have found evidence of humans hunting whales in the area dating back to as early as 800BC. "We are the oldest continuous inhabitants of North America," says Point Hope's Mayor Steve Oomituk. "We've been here thousands of years."

Oomituk shares the fear of many in the small community - population 800 - that offshore drilling by Shell could destroy the food chain that they rely on for survival. Over 80% of the food eaten in Point Hope is caught by the people themselves. They worry that it will disrupt the migration routes of the marine mammals, driving them away from the coastal waters where they can be reached by hunters. "Their proposed Arctic drilling is right in the path of the animals' migration routes," says Oomituk. "We live in a cycle of life that hasn't changed for thousands of years. We know where the animals are coming. We know when they are going north, when they are going south, this is our home, our land, our identity as a people."

But Oomituk recognises that, like every other American citizen, he is dependent on fossil fuels. He heats his house with diesel, he drives a vehicle that needs petrol. Jobs are also a major concern in this poor community. As mayor, Oomituk appreciates that many people would benefit from a new local employer. "You want jobs for the people, you want the economy to come up, but do you want to sacrifice your way of life to have that happen? To endanger a way of life that's been here for time immemorial?" So the proposed drilling poses a real dilemma for the Inupiat.

In Point Hope, some people simply don't have enough to eat. Queuing up at a soup kitchen, where chunks of deep-fried king salmon and caribou stew are dished out to hungry locals, Patrick Jobstone says he'd be grateful to get any kind of job. He has been looking for work ever since he came out of prison for drink and drug-related offences, and is struggling to support his wife and child. For Jobstone, a job with Shell would be an answer his prayers. He is already being trained in clearing toxic waste in anticipation of any new job opportunities and hopes to be taken on as one of Shell's spill response team. "If they have jobs I will work for them no problem," he says. But he too is concerned about pollution. "If an oil rig spilled and made a mess of the ocean, how am I ever going to eat a whale that's not contaminated? Crude oil stays on the bottom of the ocean," he says.

More BBC News - The Inuit sitting on billions of barrels of oil

 

[RosieS]

Warmest summers on record:

3rd place -2012

2nd place - 2011

1st place - 1936 Dust Bowl

Third Hottest Summer on Record for U.S. - weather.com

Coinky-dink? I don't think so.

Regards from Rosie

 

[gallantwarrior]

So it's a warm summer. We've had these before. And as the article states, the building was designed to hold in heat. Combine that with an unusually warm summer and a whole bunch of windows and it's no surprise they need a little AC.

Didn't we just finish an unusually cold winter? Was that caused by global warming, too?

What a lot of people don't understand is that if you have one cold winter or one cold summer that you can't really tie that to global warming. Global warming deals with the warming of the climate in general, and climate is measured over a long period of time. Just because you got a lot of snow or an unusually cold winter does not disprove global warming at all. Weather on a scale of days or months is affected by so many other things.

You know, when I'm out here freezing my ass off, it's really difficult to buy into that whole "global warming" thing...really.