Global Warming is Confirmed

[Jonbo298]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A parcel of studies looking at the oceans and melting Arctic ice leave no room for doubt
that it is getting warmer, people are to blame, and the weather is going to suffer, climate experts say.

New computer models that look at ocean temperatures instead of the atmosphere show the clearest signal yet that
global warming is well underway, said Tim Barnett of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Speaking at an annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Barnett said on
Thursday climate models based on air temperatures are weak because most of the evidence for global warming is not
even there.

"The real place to look is in the ocean," Barnett told a news conference.

His team used millions of temperature readings made by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
to calculate steady ocean warming.

"The debate over whether or not there is a global warming signal is now over, at least for rational people," he said.

The report was published one day after the United Nations Kyoto Protocol took effect, a 141-nation environmental
pact the United States government has spurned for several reasons, including stated doubts about whether global
warming is occurring and is caused by people.

Barnett urged U.S. officials to reconsider.

"Could a climate system simply do this on its own? The answer is clearly no," Barnett said.

His team used U.S. government models of solar warming and volcanic warming, just to see if they could account for
the measurements they made. "Not a chance," he said.

And the effects will be felt far and wide. "Anywhere that the major water source is fed by snow ... or glacial melt," he
said. "The debate is what are we going to do about it."

COLD WINTERS, HOMELESS POLAR BEARS

Other researchers found clear effects on climate and animals.

Ruth Curry of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution found that melting ice was changing the water cycle, which in
turn affects ocean currents and, ultimately, climate.

"As the Earth warms, its water cycle is changing, being pushed out of kilter," she said. "Ice is in decline everywhere
on the planet."

A circulation system called the Ocean Conveyer Belt is in danger of shutting down, she said. The last time that
happened, northern Europe suffered extremely cold winters.

She said the changes were already causing droughts in the U.S. West.

Greenland's ice cap, which contains enough ice to raise sea levels globally by 23 feet (7 metres), is starting to melt
and could collapse suddenly, Curry said. Already freshwater is percolating down, lubricating the base and making it
more unstable.

Sharon Smith of the University of Miami found melting Arctic ice was taking with it algae that formed an important
base of the food supply for a range of animals.

And the disappearing ice shelves meant big animals such as walruses, polar bears and seals were losing their
homes.

"In 1997 there was a mass die-off of a bird called the short-tailed shearwater in the Bering Sea," Smith told the news
conference.

The birds, which migrate from Australia, starved to death for several years running when warmer waters caused a
plankton called a coccolithophore to bloom in huge numbers, turning the water an opaque turquoise colour.

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissin...43&sid=5548239

Scary stuff. Since its essentially proved that we are causing global warming, what can be done? Will Bush or any other future president open their eyes off of corporate greed/money and see that this is a huge problem and push laws for cleaner air to try and reduce the damage we have done to our own Earth?

[Vampyr]

I thought this had already been proven a long time ago. o_O

I mean, they've been teaching it to us for as long as I can remember.

I still am not sure that they entirely know what they are talking about. In a few years they will say the next ice age is coming.

At leat they are unpredictable.

[Typhoid]

It has already been proven.


Like...years ago.

Because right now in Geography we're learning how Global Warming is our fault.

And plus I kind of know Global warming occurs, because ever since I was 8, we've been getting less and less snow in Vancouver, up until the past 4 or so years when we get maybe only 6 inches total. (In my area)

When I was 8, we were getting like....a foot and a bit.

The thing most people dont understand, is that one country alone cannot stop Global Warming. If Canada, or the US stops using items that cause it, that will not solve the problem. Everyone needs to do the same.

[GameMaster]

The people who rule countries now just don't understand. Our generation is going to have to clean the Earth that our parents and grandparents have ruined. Figuratively speaking, it'll be up to people like Vampyr and Dylan to save humanity.

[Happydude]

Originally Posted by GameMaster

it'll be up to people like Vampyr and Dylan to save humanity.

we're doomed!!! doomed i tells ya!!!


as for global warming, yeah...it's been proven a long time ago, but i think what this artcile wants to put forward is that it's our fault and not nature's...right now the only thing i could think of that would REALLY help global warming is if everyone in the world stopped driving cars and started using public transportation or biking or roller blading or something like that. and since that's not going to happen, we're doomed!!

[Jonbo298]

I should've clarified the title. Global Warming - Worse then it seems right now