If Global Warming wasn't taught in the government schools?

Question

would you notice any difference in the climate?

Global warming is blamed for increasing temperatures 1.6 degrees over the last 100 years. If you're 25 years old, that's just 0.4 degree increase over your lifetime.

How would you notice any change if your government schools didn't tell you?

What changes have you actually observed in your lifetime?

Answer 1

There have been a few changes - migratory species staying North longer, mosquitos hatching earlier, etc....

But that raises the issue of my larger problem - the government schools stopped teaching that much greater shifts occurred 1000 years ago, because that at least on its face contravenes the notion that the 1.6 degrees F (and it's over 120 years, not 100) increase was "unprecedented."

Tree lines were higher in mountain ranges from the Sierra Nevadas to the Alps.     Farming was done at higher latitudes and altitudes.   Lakes that are now used for irrigation and drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people and weren't then dried up then for decades or longer.    Droughts far more severe than the ones we've seen in the last century plagued eastern Africa and the American Southwest.  

There is similar evidence from around the world, in addition to the Viking explorations and the Greenland settlement.    

The history books used to reference the Viking explorations as occurring in part because of a warmer climate - now the history books reference a possibly warmer local climate.    The physical evidence does not support that change.    It wasn't made because the evidence went away, it was made because a globally warmer climate 1000 years ago is perceived to be at odds with unprecedented and dangerous man-made warming now.

The revision of history bothers me even more than the exaggerations as to the severity and certainty-of-causation of the 20th century warming.    They're the real "deniers" - if they want to draw the comparison to Holocaust deniers - because they're the ones denying a historical even that had previously been universally conceded from the time it occurred.

The other thing that bothers me is the constantly moving target.    Below we have "[a]nd all you need to do is look at the storms, droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes, fog, humidity, rains, hail, etc., to know global warming is very real."   Well the droughts were orders of magnitude worse during the MWP that they insist didn't happen, they can't make up their minds whether global warming makes stormes worse or milder, less or more frequent, there is zero connection to tornados, I'm not aware that they've even asserted any connection to fog or humidity, and the human effect on rain is via particulate matter holding water droplets longer, thus making for stronger downpours when the clouds finally break - a human effect on climate, and one that needs to be addressed, but one that has nothing to do with global warming.

Answer 2

Actually there have been other sources outside of government schools that also warns us of global warming and climate change.  And all this even before Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth."

And you are right, we would not be noticing it just by feeling it cause it is so gradual, our bodies would easily adjust to it.  So we wouldn't notice.

But back on topic, as I said, there are other sources that can warn you of global warming.  One source are the weather stations and NASA.  But also movies, television, and even magazines including Popular Mechanics and Popular Science, as well as many, MANY other sources.

Even if you didn't get the warnings from government schools, you can get warnings from other sources.

Answer 3

Not in CLIMATE, but I have noticed it being warmer  sometimes and colder in others. It's a cyclical process that comes and goes.

Answer 4

Sorry for abdicating my responsibilities of responding to the question, but I just have to address the First Lady of the North:

How long have we been recording these "natural disasters" - a couple hundred years or so?

Out of 3-4 BILLION?

Relax, babe.

Answer 5

they taught it at my kids school.  I went to the principal and said that if they didn't teach the other side of the story I would hire a lawyer and sue the school.  The kids we told that other theories exist, no details, but hopefully the kids were not totally brain washed.

The air temp is nothing as compared to the ground and water temps.  These haven't changed.

Answer 6

Yes, global warming is accelerating and events like these would be noticeable:

http://www.barentsobserver.com/hottest-a...

"This winter might become the mildest winter in Northern Norway ever registered. So far the average temperature in parts of the region has been up to eight degrees Celsius above the normal."

Greenland is melting much faster than scientists (including last year's IPCC report) predicted:

"Instead of sea levels rising by about 40 centimetres, as the IPCC predicts in one of its computer forecasts, the true rise might be as great as several metres by 2100. That is why, they say, planet Earth today is in 'imminent peril.'"

http://www.heatisonline.org/contentserve...

"Ground-based surface temperature data shows that the rate of warming in the Arctic from 1981 to 2001 is eight times larger than the rate of Arctic warming over the last 100 years. There have also been some remarkable seasonal changes. Arctic spring, summer, and autumn have each warmed, lengthening the seasons when sea ice melts from 10 to 17 days per decade."

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/eart...

One scientist forecasted last year that the Arctic could be nearly ice free by 2012.  That's dramatically sooner than past estimates.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireSto...

Recently it was suggested that due to reduced snowpack in the Rockies Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam could be unusable for water or power by 2014 (10% probability) to 2021 (50/50 chance).

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/...

One scenario examined by the Pentagon examines the possibility of food riots, anarchy, and possibly nuclear war by 2020.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/...

The evidence I've observed over the past 34 years seems pretty clear at 6000-9000 feet of elevation and above in the Sierra Nevada range (warming of Lake Tahoe, upward migration of species, shorter snow season, higher elevation where snow starts).

I'd love to grab onto any credible excuse to blow the entire topic off, but it would be a pretty crappy move for me to avoid minor costs now and transfer a much bigger problem (with much larger costs and possibly irreparable damage) to my children later.  I have a reasonable amount of greed and self interest, but I'm not that cold.

Manhattan, Miami and Silicon Valley going underwater will cause far more drastic economic impact than replacing a few coal power plants.  If the global economy sneezes when a few U.S. banks make some bad home loans, what will the global economy look like after hundreds of trillions of dollars in real estate and the businesses that inhabit those buildings go under water?  What will the simultaneous impact of failing crops and failing fisheries be, as world population is crossing 9, 10 or 11 billion?  

Improvements in paleoclimatology are enabling us to understand more about role of resource depletion and climate change in the collapse of past human societies.  For perhaps the first time in human history we have the ability to anticipate and prevent our own societal collapse.  Whether or not our greed exceeds our capacity to act proactively remains to be seen.

Answer 7

People who are afraid of global warming are irrational. Theres a lot of more dangerous things than it getting a little warmer. Those grassroots liberals are mostly vegetarian stoners. That means that they are starving and have the munchies. Pick one guys, either eat real food or stop smoking something that makes you need some food. Anyway, it is a lot of paranoid bull and a lie that is propagated by the socialist elite to land grab, raise taxes, and give up sovereignty. No, the world will not flood if it gets hotter.  

Answer 8

It should be taught in ALL schools. But since those in government schools are disadvantaged and have a lower quality of education, they should at least be taught how to be less of a parasitic burden on the world. Perhaps mandatory schools programs to clean our beaches, parks, and other littered areas would also be a nice lesson in responsibility.  And all you need to do is look at the storms, droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes, fog, humidity, rains, hail, etc., to know global warming is very real. Anyone with half a brain - and even a public education - can comprehend that.

Answer 9

its a political tool

Answer 10

Jello what really gets me on so many of the comments made on this forum is the huge amount of very bad information so many people seem to have on this subject even skeptics to some extent. First it was hotter in the 1930s than it is now and there is no current sign it is going to get even close to previous optimums during the current interglacial. Because solar cycles can vary from 11 years to 50 years we can have huge normal climate shifts when several solar and earth cycles come together inconveniently. Point being the little ice age where there were 4 solar minimums, two of them extreme over a period of 500 years that led to a much colder than average climate through that period.

Then we have the Skandic/MWP warm cycle where for over 600 years it was a much warmer climate average noticeably higher than the two short peaks we have experienced during the current warming cycle. These two peaks lasted only about 10 years instead of the normal 50 or more! So all climates need to be evaluated not just against recent 30-year spans, but also against previous spans. For instance for the last two years here in Los Angeles they have had to go back to the 1920s to find equivalent low temperature records. In the 90s they had to go back to the 30s to find equivalent highs.

Last Glacial Maximum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Glacia...

Holocene Climate Optimum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_cl...

Roman links

http://raymondpronk.wordpress.com/2007/0...

15th temp spike

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news...

MWP data references

http://newsisaconversation.blogspot.com/...

Warm periods historical references

http://www.kolumbus.fi/tilmari/some200.h...

http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba516/

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/counterpo...

Answer 11

Well I am 77 and have never saw any change if anything it has got better. The thermometers they used to calculate that no. were not calibrated. If U tried to establish an accuracy of the data it is possible worse than plus or minus 2 deg. F.