Electronics & Computers Deals here!
- Related Stories
-
Report: Feds manipulate release of climate change research
March 28, 2007 -
Using solar energy to keep homes cool
March 20, 2007 -
Eco house of the future is no hippie commune
October 25, 2006
Root, a senior fellow at Stanford University, is co-author of a report on climate change that will be discussed at an international conference later this week in Belgium.
The report, "Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability," investigates how global warming is already affecting the animal and plant kingdoms.
In an interview with CNET News.com on the eve of the conference, Root outlined her concerns about global warming as well as how a complex scientific question has been politicized.
Q: How do you think global warming is going to impact the plant and animal kingdoms?
Root: Global warming isn't something in the future; it's already happening. The species that lay eggs in the springtime, they are laying eggs earlier. There are species that migrate back in the springtime, they are coming back earlier, and flowers are blooming. Daffodils are coming up now much earlier than they used to, and the change that has happened is about three weeks in the last 30 years. So it's about a week per decade, and that is quite a change when you only think that we've had a 0.7-degree-centigrade increase in temperature--and we are talking about now that it could possibly go as high as 6 degrees C. That really is quite a concern because that can lead to extinction of various species.
The species that are going to be most vulnerable are the ones that are very, very specialized and the ones that have very small ranges. The ones that are on the top of mountains, for instance right now; as the globe warms, they want to move up in elevation, but there is no place for them to go. So they are going to end up going extinct, and we have already seen some of that happening.
How would we know the tipping point, and when it would be irreversible?
Root: In biology, each species has what you would call a tipping point, and some of them are very close to the tipping point already and some of them are not. The species that are not very close to tipping points right now are things that live with us in our cities, like raccoons and skunks and things like that, but there are several species that are very rare already and that is something to worry about. For some species it certainly has already been the tipping point, for the butterfly that is moving up in Baja California, the tipping point has been reached. For other species that are able to move through Tijuana or San Diego, they are doing fine.
Video: Climate change to increase extinctions
New warnings to come from U.N. climate panel.
So each species has its own different way, and that actually is one of the things that I am most concerned about because the species communities that we know today are not going to move together up north or up in elevation. One species is going to go one way and one species is going to go the other way, and this one is going to go fast, and that one is going to go slow, and one is not going to move at all, and so we have this tearing apart of communities, and it's tearing apart the biotic interactions of the species. So if we have a predator-and-prey relationship, if the predator moves, that's good for the prey because it can go up in abundance. But if the prey is a pest on our crops, then we don't want to have that happen.
How is global warming going to affect the food crops?
Root: When we are talking about crops, there are going to be very many different things affecting our crops that we have to worry about. We could have more pests because the predators are moving out of the way as I just said, then we could also have stress in the crops themselves because it's warmer. We can have stress in the crops because there is not as much water, and so you put all of those things together and our crops could actually be in danger.
What about humans? How would they be affected by global warming?
Root: Well, humans are smart enough to...as a lot of people say, they just go indoors and have their air-conditioning. But that doesn't work. There are lots of people on this planet that do not have air-conditioning. So how are people really going to be affected? There is a whole wide range of things, like disease, that are going to be changing dramatically. We are going to have stresses because we are not going to have enough water. People will be stressed because it's going to be so warm.
Can you specify some of the diseases?
Root: The diseases are a little bit tough to understand because humans have been trying to suppress them, obviously. But now global warming is saying the vectors that are carrying the disease are able to move into new places where they have never been before...With malaria, it's changing; with dengue fever, it's changing; with hantavirus, it's changing. What we need to do is figure out how to control those and encounter what the global warming is doing.
Why do you think there continues to be so much resistance to evidence showing a correlation between carbon emissions and global warming?
Root: We could have done a lot more to work on the connection between the global warming and carbon. But there has been a real strong disinformation campaign that has been out there and has tried to actually confuse the public. People love to be in denial, but we can't have that anymore. A lot of people are going to be hurt monetarily, and we have to worry about that aspect, too.
See more CNET content tagged:
Terry Root,
species,
global warming,
crop,
conference
1. As the paper states, the estimated global warming is around .7c.
Certainly, there are regions that are warmer as well as cooler. Getting a global average is a complex issue that can only be done with minimal precision. .7c is well within the margin of error and the temp might actually have cooled.
2. There has been unusual solar activity over the last 50 years, which does affect global temps.
3. We have only been recording temps for a little over a hundred years now. For all we know, it may have cooled .7c the century before.
4. Science magazine (Dec. 10, 1976) warned of "extensive Northern Hemisphere glaciation." Science Digest (February 1973) reported that "the world's climatologists are agreed" that we must "prepare for the next ice age." Christian Science Monitor ("Warning: Earth's Climate is Changing Faster Than Even Experts Expect," Aug. 27, 1974) reported that glaciers "have begun to advance," "growing seasons in England and Scandinavia are getting shorter" and "the North Atlantic is cooling down about as fast as an ocean can cool." Newsweek agreed ("The Cooling World," April 28, 1975) that meteorologists "are almost unanimous" that catastrophic famines might result from the global cooling that the New York Times (Sept. 14, 1975) said "may mark the return to another ice age."
The temperature rise precedes the CO2 rise by about 600-800 years -- Facts my dear, facts. Why is that? Because CO2 is not the cause it is the result of the sun warming the solar system. Else why would other planets and moons be melting as well. The author needs to study more science and stay out of politics. The global warming scam is a hoax, simple as that.
If you want to regulate CO2 as a greenhouse gas, don't stop there. 95% of all green house gases is water vapor -- clouds.
I am sick of overconstruction!!! I am sick and tried of every available piece of land having to be built on in the city and suburbs whch just destoys property value and pollutes the neigherbood. Makes kids fat because they stay on video games and don't play outside and explore! That's CHILD ABUSE. How can parents be blamed when the townships are at fault for overconstruction so they can just reap more property taxes? You're all fat and out of shape because you annihilated your neighborhoods.
It doesn't bring any more value to the neighborhood except more toilets and pollution.
Stop making excuses for operpoulation and immigrant influx because you're to lazy to help India modernize so people want to build resorts and hotels there instead of here all the time. We have too much of everything and are SPOILED! It's because of reactionary isolationists Conservative AND Liberal that we now have these problems overseas and here!
Stop looking at the world from a snap shot view! There is a forest (not to mention forest fossils)... so stop analyzing just a single tree.
The source of all this change? It's complex but we think it has to do with greenhouse gases. The obvious solution therefore is to reduce the gasses at their source. Since the largest source is Mammoth farts we plan to hunt Mammoths to reduce their numbers and hopefully forestall this impending doom.
The point? Global warming occurred about 15,000 years ago and indeed changed the balance all over the earth which resulted in mass extinctions and massive rises in sea levels.
Now the question: What caused the ice age to end since it was much more dramatic a change in global climate than is being forecast now?
Given that the *normal* state of this planet is for it to have huge ice sheets (warm periods are short vs how long the cold ones last) why is another small increase in temperature so frightening?
Why are the alarmists ignoring the fact (as shown by their own data) that at several times in the last few thousand years it's been even warmer than today?
Why are we worried about glaciers in Greenland melting when we see evidence of human settlements now being exposed by those retreating glaciers? Doesn't that point out a simple fact that the glaciers first moved forward onto those settlements before retreating again?
Why are all these so-called scientists ignoring data which correlates much more closely to the actual changes in temperature than CO2 levels? Why are they fixated on CO2?
Wait... The other planets are getting warmer, too? The Mars icecap is melting sooner?
Oh... Never mind.
warming is the elimination of greed and tribalism. No wonder
there is such a lack of credibility with the "sky is falling" crowd.
I agree with anyone who wants to limit the amount of junk we
pump into the air, water and earth. But infusing the debate with a
bunch of socio-babble does not help solve this problem.
Tribalism...huh?
However, would not go as far as you and do not believe I should be forced to.
End result desired? A centralized government with a new nobility, a priviledged class calling the shots and collecting all the loot.
The people who denied the Killing Fields of Cambodia are also pushing "Humans Cause Global Warming". Support them, and become one with Nature, prematurely.
Based on the comments here its pretty obvious there is no consensus at all. Plenty of rational folks, including very respected scientists, have looked at the global warming hoax and realized it for what it is. Enough that its pretty clear that the debate really is now over...
...there's NO consensus.
Ms. Root, if all human based emission ceased, ALL, at 2400 hours tonight, when would global warming stop?
http://video.google.com/videoplay?
docid=4340135300469846467
Some of the scientists interviewed are:
"Richard Lindzen, professor of meteorology at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Patrick
Michaels, professor of Environmental Sciences at the
University of Virginia; Nigel Calder, former editor of
New Scientist; John Christy, professor and director of
the Earth System Science Center at University of
Alabama; and Paul Reiter of the Pasteur Institute."
From Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
The_Great_Global_Warming_Swindle
Consider the relationship between CO2 and global
warming. Have a look at some facts (from
Wikipedia):
http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Earth's_atmosphere
"Earth's atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding
the planet Earth and retained by the Earth's gravity.
It contains roughly 78% nitrogen, (normally inert
except upon electrolysis by lightning[1] and in
certain biochemical processes of nitrogen fixation),
21.12% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.04% carbon dioxide, and
trace amounts of other gases, in addition to about 3%
water vapor. "
http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Greenhouse_ gases
"The major natural greenhouse gases are water vapour,
which causes about 36-70% of the greenhouse effect on
Earth (not including clouds); carbon dioxide, which
causes 9-26%; methane, which causes 4-9%, and ozone,
which causes 3-7%."
"Water vapor is a naturally occurring greenhouse gas
and accounts for the largest percentage of the
greenhouse effect. Water vapor concentrations
fluctuate regionally, but human activity does not
directly affect water vapor concentrations except at
very local scales."
Doesn't it seem very strange that a gas that forms
only 0.04% of Earth's atmosphere, and is considered to
cause only 9-26% of Earth's natural greenhouse effect,
is suddenly supposed to have a massive and negative
effect on our climate, when it has never done so in
the past? Doesn't this seem like a very irrational
concept?
Throughout Earth's history, rises in Earth's temperature predate
corresponding rises in CO2 levels by roughly 800 years.
Consequently, carbon dioxide cannot be the cause for global
warming.
- GEL Initiative: true engineering solution to environmental problems
-
by Alexander Bell
April 3, 2007 12:36 PM PDT
- While heated debates still persist about Global Warming problem/resolution mainly focused on presumed GASEOUS contamination, there is one particular heavily-overlooked issue of Global Environmental Contamination by the SOLID STATE WASTE coming from improper Batteries disposal. This issue is REAL and URGENT as the need for ENERGY STORAGE components (currently ? Batteries) will continue to grow.
-
Reply to this comment
-
-
See all 161 Comments >>Full ENERGY consumption cycle includes not only Generation, but also STORAGE, Transmission and Conversion. True Engineering solution should not be just focused on and limited to the first stage (Energy Generation), but also take into consideration other parts, i.e. Energy STORAGE. Green Electricity (GEL) Initiative, addressing this issue and proposing the comprehensive systematic solutions, which include the replacement of the Batteries with Ultracapacitors (A.K.A. Supercapacitors) in conjunction with alternative renewable primary energy sources, is detailed at:
http://www.alexanderbell.us/Initiative/GEL.htm
http://www.alexanderbell.us/Project/GreenElectricity.htm
Modern technology has all necessary prerequisites for the transition to the Battery-free Ultracapacitor-based Energy storage systems. Capacitors are mostly RoHS-compliant (while most of Batteries are not) and have operational life (charge-discharge cycles) several orders of magnitude longer than Batteries. The solution is rather universal, applicable to any type of portable, automotive and stationary applications. What is also very important ? this is true engineering solution in nature, based on the fundamental time-tested physical principles and mature technology, proven to work.
Such revolutionary technological transition from Battery-to-Capacitor Energy storage on a massive scale requires coordinated efforts of many industries and should be taken into serious consideration by technology leaders and decision makers on every level all over the world.
Read the ?GEL Initiative? folks (it?s now topping Google? search list) and discover plenty of meaningful engineering ideas on how to make the planet cleaner and safer.