Re: nuclear power: abundant? and cheap?

["Frohne, Vickie" <VFrohne@BEN.EDU>]

        Actually, yes, there is quite a bit of peer reviewed evidence that
there is a real global warming effect. There isn't any one definitive
"in-your-face" experiment that proves global warming is there, but rather a
preponderance of evidence using many different lines of reasoning. For
example, evidence has been obtained from ocean surface temperatures, global
weather/climate temperature records, chemical & isotopic analysis of ice
cores in Greenland and Antarctica, ocean sediment cores, isotopic analysis
of old biological materials (coral, tree rings, etc.), maps of northward
shifts in the observed ranges of many species of plants/trees and wildlife,
the frequency of El Nino events, rates of melting of glaciers & icecaps, the
measured seasonal extent of sea ice, measurements of the rise of the ocean
levels, etc. etc. and so forth. It is the consistency of the evidence from
many sources that shows global warming is real, and that human activity
accounts for a lot of it.
        My recollection may be faulty, but I seem to remember that there's
been a temp. increase on the order of 2 degrees C over the past 50 years.
Although this change has been difficult to distinguish from normal
short-term fluctuations, a true global warming of this magnitude is
considered to be a lot by climatologists. Modern weather temperature records
only go back to around 1900, which is considered "short-term" when
discussing climate changes. However, in the search for global warming over
the last 30 years, the temperature record has lengthened, and the other
lines of evidence have become available, so that last year (or a few years
ago? My recollection is fuzzy) Science magazine declared that global warming
is indeed happening.
        The question to debate is no longer "Is the globe warming due to
human activity?"  It is. Unanswered questions now include, "How warm will it
get?,"  "What are the ecological, environmental, economic, and political
consequences?", and "What can/should we do about it?"

Vickie

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Green [mailto:JMGreen@SISNA.COM]
Sent: Friday, August 09, 2002 10:06 AM
To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
Subject: Re: nuclear power: abundant? and cheap?


> Another view:  ".... But is that what we'd be doing? In fact, many
scientists
> admit that we can't be sure how much of an impact human activity has on
global
> temperatures."    Really?

Well, I have the same question: Is there any (peer reviewed) evidence that
CO2 et al has any real effect on average global temperature -- or are we
just still coming out of the most recent glaciation?

Lightweight snippets like this one don't count:

> http://www.heritage.org/views/2000/ed120400.html


Jim Green
mailto:JMGreen@sisna.com
http://users.sisna.com/jmgreen
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