The Weather Naysayers Meet the Doomsayer

You may use this content (better still, argue with me!), but please cite my ideas as © 2007, Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein. Find any typos? Just let me know!

---

I found it almost comical that a group including local television weathercasters came out a few years ago with a strong statement that global warming didn't exist, we were just experiencing normal fluctuations in the weather. Uh....yeah. It seemed to me these folks were saying "We're the experts around here. And since so many non-experts are talking about Global Warming, we're going to chip in and say "It doesn't exist!" Yes, you've seen the certificate of approval that Jo Weathercaster is "endorsed" by the American Meteorological Society.

(cue the music)

Well, they have changed their tune. In their 2007 report, Climate Change: An Information Statement of the American Meteorological Society (http://www.ametsoc.org/policy/2007climatechange.html accessed 26 August 2007), here is one example of the 180 degree change: "Global mean temperatures have been rising steadily over the last 40 years, with the six warmest years since 1860 occurring in the last decade." (Anecdotally or if you have been watching the weather including the dramatically large number of wild fires around the earth, 2007 will be the hottest year on record.) In addition, this paragraph comes in the very beginning of the report:

"Why is climate changing?"

Climate has changed throughout geological history, for many natural reasons such as changes in the sun’s energy received by Earth arising from slow orbital changes, or changes in the sun’s energy reaching Earth’s surface due to volcanic eruptions. In recent decades, humans have increasingly affected local, regional, and global climate by altering the flows of radiative energy and water through the Earth system (resulting in changes in temperature, winds, rainfall, etc.), which comprises the atmosphere, land surface, vegetation, ocean, land ice, and sea ice. Indeed, strong observational evidence and results from modeling studies indicate that, at least over the last 50 years, human activities are a major contributor to climate change.

I've mentioned earlier my personal criticism of The Weather Channel as a huge player in the Global Warming discourse that has also been extremely cautious about "climate change." Now they are running "Storm Stories" that include mini-documentaries about climate change. This is good news.

I'll bet Bob Reiss got a lot of negative feedback when he had the courage (?!) to publish his book "way back" in 2001, The Coming Storm: Extreme Weather and Our Terrifying Future (Hyperion. 2001. 323 pages.) This is amazing coming about 7 years ago:

Journalist Reiss takes us to the front lines of some of the decade's most destructive storms and describes global warming through the eyes of those most involved—researchers, meteorologists, and the families that have been affected. A frightening, enlightening, and fascinating portrait of climate changes and its impacts. Check price/buy book.

Source: World Future Society Book Store, http://www.wfs.org/bkblurbs.htm#malthus, accessed 26 August 2007.

I posted this because I was on the WFS web site, but it's probably a better idea to post books that try to discount or refute global warming, because those authors and their followers are unlikely to pursue lifestyle changes that all of us need to proactively begin to change.