Re: population growth & physics ed

[palmer@sfu.ca (Leigh Palmer)]

> > Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 00:00:26 -0700
> > From: jane.jackson@asu.edu (Jane Jackson)
> >
> >
> > Of course you all know that last year was the warmest year in the 130 years
> > of record-keeping.
>
> False: according to a follow-up in Science News,
> someone forgot to include December '95 in the data.

....and also misleading. Tell me about this 130 years of record-keeping. You
sound as if you believe measuring Earth's temperature has been done in the
same manner for 130 years, and that there is an unbroken record covering the
period of measurements done by that method.

It is my understanding that measurement of Earth's "average temperature" is
a very difficult feat. The best work that has been done has detected a rise
in temperature over this century of about one half degree Celsius (with
large uncertainty). Whether this rise is large or not is seldom mentioned,
but it is not a large rise even by historical standards. It is thought that
a larger excursion occurred in this millenium (I forget the year) which was
so striking it produced what is called "the year without a summer". The lack
of historical perspective evident in the cries of today's most vocal Chicken
Littles is disturbing. I can still remember when "unusual" weather was
always blamed on nuclear testing; now it is blamed on anthropogenic carbon
dioxide. This must have been a very dull world back when there was no bomb
testing, anthropogenic carbon dioxide - or unusual weather!

Leigh