Patricia, strongest hurricane ever recorded, menaces Mexico

[Kung Wu]

Since we in in a interglacial period - no duh. Sea levels rises started ~20,000 years ago at the end of the glacial period. And for the first 10,000 years the rise was HUGE!

Hey! He's deliberately trying to stay away from what the causes are!

[shocka khan]

Since we in in a interglacial period - no duh. Sea levels rises started ~20,000 years ago at the end of the glacial period. And for the first 10,000 years the rise was HUGE!

I remember during the 70's we were being told we were going into another ice age. What I don't remember was an era so consistently setting records every year. We almost broke a record in Houston this summer for consecutive 95 degree days in a row (missed it by one) after a rather cool start of summer.

Someone said the summer was cool where they lived. Just because your summer was temperate, it doesn't mean everyone had the same experience.

[tropicalshox]

Dang dinosaurs and their CO2 emissions.

That's funny. But don't blame the poor dinosaurs. They were just returning CO2 that was already there.

[Aargh]

Temperatures in any specific area on land are pretty meaningless in evaluating the temperature of the Earth. The oceans are where readings have to be taken - and you need A LOT of readings.

The amounts of carbon and oxygen on the Earth was fixed billions of years ago. There isn't any more of either being created. Until the evolution of plants, there was a tremendous amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and very little, if any, free oxygen. Plants absorbed carbon dioxide and, through the process of photosynthesis, converted that into energy (hydrocarbons) and released oxygen.

The hydrocarbons in fossil fuels are the stored energy from photosynthesis. Combining those hydrocarbons with oxygen produces energy in a form we can use. That's just a reversal of the original process of photosynthesis. Using fossil fuels puts carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere, which was previously removed from the atmosphere by photosynthesis.

There is no carbon dioxide being created that wasn't originally there. The earth is in no danger from the carbon dioxide produced by the burning of fossil fuels. It will survive just fine.

Increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will cause a warming of the earth, but we could burn every hydrocarbon ever formed and never exceed the amount of carbon dioxide that has been in the atmosphere at some previous time.

The makeup of the atmosphere, temperatures of the oceans, ice packs, or lack of polar ice has been changing through the entire history of the planet. If humans can't adapt to changing conditions on the earth, then we, like every other life form, will eventually go extinct. Whether the earth changes temperatures by the action of people or by its own devices, it's going to change temperatures.

I suspect humans will find some way to wipe themselves off the face of the planet long before global warming (or cooling) has a significant effect on human survival.

[wufan]

I remember during the 70's we were being told we were going into another ice age. What I don't remember was an era so consistently setting records every year. We almost broke a record in Houston this summer for consecutive 95 degree days in a row (missed it by one) after a rather cool start of summer.

Okay, first of all, you did not set a record for most consecutive days. Second, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010 were not record breaking.

If you watch the trend line, this is not a deviation from normal.

[shocka khan]

Don't know what Patricia's doing in Mexico, but here in H-town (and at my house) we've received 10" of rain in the last 24 hours, 9 of which fell in 12 hours (1 p.m.-1 a.m.). Galveston was getting pounded by rain and 40 mph winds (gusting to 50). This is along with tides about 5 ft. above normal, which is minimal tropical storm conditions.

All caused by a low formed from the remnants of Patricia along with the incoming front. Pretty wierd stuff.

[shocka khan]

Okay, first of all, you did not set a record for most consecutive days. Second, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010 were not record breaking.

If you watch the trend line, this is not a deviation from normal.

I didn't say we broke a record. IIRC, the record was something on the order of 36 consecutive days. We got to 35 consecutive days of 95+. The last part of the summer was consistently hot, as we really did not get much below 90 until a couple of weeks ago.

I've been gone for the last two weeks, but I think this is only our second 'real' cold front. Contrast that to the weather in Milan, Geneva, and Lyon, where the temps were in the 50's during the day and mid to upper 30's at night. I only saw one day where it was warm enough for me to go without a coat. And yes, I did get sick :(

[wufan]

The back and forth on global warming can go on for pages since there has been a huge effort to sway public opinion. Perhaps a reason it has become political.

http://graphics.latimes.com/exxon-arctic/

That is just one article of two recent independent investigations.

I really don't want to take time to respond to every thing thrown out. If you are interested in what science says about most things you will hear against global warming, I suggest this site. You will find answers to some of the concerns expressed on this thread.

http://www.skepticalscience.com/argument.php

Skeptical science is a trash site. One example is the rebuttal on the cooling from 1940 to 1970. It was about 0.3 degrees per decade. The site calls it a "mild" decrease that was brought on by aerosols and fixed by the 1975 clean air act. It then states that temperatures since 1980 have risen "rapidly" at a rate of about 0.2 degrees per decade. If that isn't an agenda, I don't know what is.

Other than all the political nonsense, the biggest problem is that rises in CO2 follow increases in heat. That's correlation, not causation, and to boot, 97% of CO2, a trace (0.04%) greenhouse gas, is created by man. If man is causing the rise in temperature through CO2 production, it accounts for 0.0012% of the cause.

[1979Shocker]

Hottest summers ever???

This has been the most mild summer in the past 10 years in OK. Sounds like if this continues I may have some oceanfront property soon with perfect weather!!! I knew OK wasn't so bad!

Thanks to all the rain caused by El Niño.

[shocka khan]

Skeptical science is a trash site..

I don't know a darned thing about Skeptical Science, but I do use Wikipedia to research baseline computer systems and databases. I use Wikipedia because I find it generally reliable as a starting point. Here's what they said:

"Skeptical Science has become a well-known resource for people seeking to understand or debate climate change, and has been praised for its straightforwardness.[21] Marine biologist Ove Hoegh-Guldberg has described it as "the most prominent knowledge-based website dealing with climate change in the world",[22] and The Washington Post has praised it as the "most prominent and detailed" website to counter arguments by global warming skeptics.[23] In September 2011, the site won the 2011 Eureka Prize from the Australian Museum in the category of Advancement of Climate Change Knowledge.[24]"

So is your comment on this site based on your opinion or fact? I also noted during my Google search that there was at least one reference stating your opinion.

I know this may seem a little strange, but there's not much to do this afternoon (if some of you think the Chiefs are up $h!t creek, at least you're not having to follow the sorriest team in the NFL, the Houston Texans-losing 41-0 @ HALF today).

[shocka khan]

Thanks to all the rain caused by El Niño.

We got a lot of rain and were unusually cool in Houston until about July 10 when someone turned the faucet off. After that, it got dry and hot,. This is probably the reason we were able to challenge the record, as we generally get sea breeze fronts or tropical lows in late summer which bring rain and cooling off the gulf.

Our weather was cool early, then consistently hotter than average later, making it look like we had an average summer, as I would say the two trends pretty much balanced themselves out statically.

[tropicalshox]

Skeptical science is a trash site. One example is the rebuttal on the cooling from 1940 to 1970. It was about 0.3 degrees per decade. The site calls it a "mild" decrease that was brought on by aerosols and fixed by the 1975 clean air act. It then states that temperatures since 1980 have risen "rapidly" at a rate of about 0.2 degrees per decade. If that isn't an agenda, I don't know what is.

The link below shows a graft of global temperatures including the 1940 to 1970 period which was effected by aarosols. I beleive the argument of the earth cooling came from Norm Kalmanovitch and Friends of Science. It doesn't take long on Google searches to understand their interest and just how far they are outside of true scientific research. One of these guys was even part of the Tabacco industries' defense on harm from cigarettes. I got a chuckle out of what the Canadian Meteorogical and Oceanographic Society thinks of them.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11639-climate-myths-the-cooling-after-1940-shows-co2-does-not-cause-warming/

[wufan]

The link below shows a graft of global temperatures including the 1940 to 1970 period which was effected by aarosols. I beleive the argument of the earth cooling came from Norm Kalmanovitch and Friends of Science. It doesn't take long on Google searches to understand their interest and just how far they are outside of true scientific research. One of these guys was even part of the Tabacco industries' defense on harm from cigarettes. I got a chuckle out of what the Canadian Meteorogical and Oceanographic Society thinks of them.

https://www.newscientist.com/article...cause-warming/

What I pulled was straight off of skeptical science. It did actually cool based on their graph, and the 0.9 degrees of cooling was due to aerosols per that site. They also stated that the clean air act fixed the problem and that CO2 is causing the rapid increase of 0.6 degrees over the past 30 years.

[wufan]

We got a lot of rain and were unusually cool in Houston until about July 10 when someone turned the faucet off. After that, it got dry and hot,. This is probably the reason we were able to challenge the record, as we generally get sea breeze fronts or tropical lows in late summer which bring rain and cooling off the gulf.

Our weather was cool early, then consistently hotter than average later, making it look like we had an average summer, as I would say the two trends pretty much balanced themselves out statically.

My comment is my opinion after reading the content. You don't call a 0.9 degree swing mild and a 0.6 degree swing rapid if you are interested in facts.

[ShockerFever]

Glad to see this thread stay on course.