Tag: global warming

snow reduces global warming

I recently learned that snow plays an important part in regulating the global climate, and a shortage of it can contribute to global warming (because of the effect).  So obviously we need more snow.  Well, coincidentally, I’ve been wanting one of those snow-makers for a while, so perhaps it’s time to get one installed on my house.  That way I can just push a button (because it would have to be remote-controlled, of course!), and snow would start shooting out from the corners of my roof to cover the yard.  This would be awesome for parties, and I would use a specially-formulated mixture so it will have reduced melt-ability during the non-winter parts of the year.

And when it’s cold enough outside for snow, I wouldn’t have to wait on the weather to cooperate — I’d just create my own snow with a click of a button.  And with sub-freezing temperatures, it would last for a while, giving me time to build that snow castle I have big plans for, and of course my driveway would be so deeply covered that I couldn’t go in to work.  So this plan would be, in one word, awesome!

When the Buffet o’ Blog R&D department gets this finished, we’ll put it on the market for sale, so other people can enjoy snow any time of the year and help combat global warming.  We’ll help save the Earth, we’ll make lots of people happy, and we’ll make millions of dollars.  It’s a win-win scenario, for sure!

Are greenhouse gas emissions beyond “worst-case” scenario?

In the news today, one of Australia’s leading climate change experts said global greenhouse gas emissions are already beyond the “worst-case” scenario.  He’s referring to a scenario defined by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) back in 2001.  For one thing, I thought they just met again this year in some big conference to discuss global warming and all that stuff, so why haven’t they updated their models with current data?  And another thing, the weather here seems mostly normal, so their “worst-case” scenario wasn’t well thought out, in my opinion.  Go outside and observe your weather, then consider if it’s anything near “worst-case”.  It’s not here.  If it is elsewhere, maybe more folks ought to move to Arkansas, because we’re having good weather right now.  (Just don’t bring your greenhouse gas emissions here!)

In fact, I was standing outside after lunch today, talking to some friends and enjoying the good weather.  I had no idea we were in the “worst-case” scenario!  Perhaps I should join the IPCC and explain what “worst-case” really means.  Have these people never seen the movie The Day After Tomorrow?  I’m thinking that would be worst-case.  Or, if you want to be really pessimistic, worst-case would be the Earth becoming uninhabitable.

Now, I realize I’m no important scientist, and sometimes we should leave stuff up to the “experts”, but I think they really dropped the ball on this one.  Are they just trying to scare us with these climate forecasting models and subsequent news releases?  It sure doesn’t sound like they’re downplaying it, because it’s all over the news, but today’s news release really has me befuddled.  It looks like they’re crying “wolf”.  And anybody who knows their children’s stories should realize that’s a bad strategy.  If we’re now beyond the worst-case scenario, it doesn’t seem so bad.  So is all their ballyhooing for naught?  I don’t know. I think we do need to reduce pollution and quit burning so many fossil fuels, but I don’t see how we’ve went beyond the “worst-case” scenario…

If their worst-case model shows some drastic changes over the next few years, like billions of people dying, then they should let us know.  But the news release said nothing about such things.  Perhaps they just don’t really know what they’re talking about…