Global warming (was: leps-list sleeping)

Woody Woods woody.woods at umb.edu
Wed Jul 9 22:38:02 EDT 2003


Perhaps one thing to keep in mind is that we humans are an exceptionally
successful species. Elsewhere in nature, we see populations that experience
exponential growth-- i.e. really fast-- but only for a few generations at a
time. Homo sapiens is the only species I know of that has managed to exceed
exponential population growth consistently over the past two centuries, a
brief period from an evolutionary standpoint, but one our species has made
more important. There is no denying our impact on major ecosystems; the
debate ranges only about the nature of the effect, but not on whether or not
there has been one. We are presently experiencing one of the planet's few
mass extinctions, and are obliged to ask ourselves what we might have had to
do to do with that.

Woody

P.S. --  regrets if I have cross-posted-- signed: someone who maybe did not
read the rest of the day's email closely enough...

*************************************************
William A. Woods Jr.
Department of Biology
University of Massachusetts Boston
100 Morrissey Blvd
Boston, MA 02125

Lab: 617-287-6642
Fax: 617-287-6650
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> From: Chuck Vaughn <aa6g at aa6g.org>
> Reply-To: aa6g at aa6g.org
> Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2003 13:56:39 -0700
> To: "Leps List" <leps-l at lists.yale.edu>
> Subject: Re: Global warming (was: leps-list sleeping)
> 
> Kenn,
> 
> I wondered how long it would be before this subject showed up here. ;-)
> 
> I can tell from the 3 paragraphs you wrote that you're a climate
> alarmist, you hate George Bush and big business, and you're a
> conspiracy theorist.
> 
> How many links would you like to summaries of peer reviewed studies
> that don't show an increase in extreme weather?
> 
> You must accept the fact that climate change is the norm, stability is
> the exception.  The trend is always towards colder or warmer. The
> medieval warm period, centered about 1200 AD was warmer than it is
> today. The warming we see today is mostly the recovery from the Little
> Ice Age that ended around 1850.
> 
> If you look at climate proxies for thousands of years you find that the
> long term global average temperature is higher than it is today.
> 
> As the climate models (still in their infancy) mature, the predictions
> for future warming become less and less. The human contribution, if
> any, is not likely to be more than a few tenths of a degree.
> 
> Finally, a recent review of 240 studies on the climate of the 20th
> century:
> 
> 
> Analysis Finds Twentieth Century Climate Unremarkable
> 
> http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=12392
> 
> Let the flames fly if you like but the accumulating evidence is against
> the climate alarmist.
> 
> Chuck Vaughn <aa6g at aa6g.org>
> 
> ----------------------------------------------
> 
>> It's surprising to see that a number of otherwise intelligent people
>> are
>> still confused on the issue of global warming.  To clarify:  Global
>> warming is a fact.  It is a phenomenon that is occurring now.  Of
>> course
>> it is not being manifested as a gradual and evenly distributed warming
>> everywhere, and competent scientists never predicted that it would;
>> instead, as predicted, it is being manifested in greater extremes of
>> weather, with more violent storms, more extreme droughts and floods,
>> more
>> extreme heat and cold, with the overall global average temperature
>> gradually going up.
>> 
>> In scientific circles this isn't even a matter of debate:  there is
>> near-universal agreement that this change is going on.  There's still
>> debate as to the cause, but no real debate about whether it's
>> occurring,
>> because it IS occurring in a measurable way.  Most unfortunately, the
>> Bush administration is making a serious attempt to quash the truth,
>> perhaps because the truth would be inconvenient to some of the
>> big-money
>> interests that put Bush in office.  The EPA's own scientists recognize
>> global warming as a serious problem, but the White House pressured them
>> into silence on this issue in a major report they were preparing this
>> spring.
>> 
>> I'm pasting in below a report from The Independent, in the UK, that
>> appeared in print less than a week ago.  My apologies to any on this
>> list
>> who are billionaires and polluters -- if the truth is widely
>> disseminated, you might be forced to spend a few bucks to clean up your
>> act.  But anyone who likes to be able to go outside and breathe should
>> be
>> aware of this news.
>> 
>> Kenn Kaufman
> 
> 
> 
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