The US weather has been "wacky" in 2008 by any standard - is this the result of global warming?

Question

Put aside whether you think that warming is man-made or not - - the question of what warming can in turn cause is a separate question.

And my question is - the rain / floods, the shifting of the jet stream, etc.... - - - can that have been caused by global warming?

Newsweek seems to think so.

If so, how does that square with the fact that in the US it's been cooler than average so far in 2008?

Wouldn't this weather have occurred in the 1990s and early 2000s when it was warmer in the US than it is this year?

Or is this pretty much the La Nina?

Something else?

I'll leave "best answer" open to a vote on this one by the way.

Answer 1

Now this is a hard question to answer because if you do any research you will find a number of possible reasons . Here are a few I've found , There are reports that governments now can alter weather and weather wars are going on now . That the planet earth is about to shift it's poles again as it dose every so often . Also that a rogue planet that orbits the sun at a rate of once every 3600 yrs is now doing so and affecting your planet and the others . There is also increased volcanic activity even under the oceans and warming the ocean waters . An all these could be contributing to the strange weather patterns .

Answer 2

I don't think the advocates understand where your going with this. Yes they know ENSO-PDO's are going to happen. The duration and magnitudes aren't predictable. So that can leave a 20-30year gape in forecasting the next event. It's got to make even the worse extremist, question GW/CC long term negative speculation. This is one area the best of the best stay confused. They can't really down play it as weather, being that land, sea surface temps are tied together, but some have tried.

Answer 3

I think Benjamin gave an excellent answer, so I'm not going to add too much.  You don't want to blame any particular weather event on global warming, although models do forecast an increased number of extreme events due to global warming.  For example, while areas such as California are forecast to get drier in a warming climate, those dry periods are expected to punctuated by stronger storms.  I do see the increase of fire in the west in recent decades as being a symptom of global warming, although fire management also contributes.  I think the fire signal may be more robust because it relies on several years of drought, etc.

When people emphasize "climate change" rather than "global warming," I don't think it is because they think warming has stopped, they are just trying to get people to think about it more broadly.  Some places on Earth won't warm much (like the tropics) while others may warm a lot (like the poles), some places may be wetter while others will be drier. The patterns of shifting rainfall may end up being more important than the temperature change.

Answer 4

No single event can be attributed to global warming. However, global warming will increase the likelihood of extreme storms[1], floods, and droughts.[2]

The term “global warming” is misleading, and “climate change” is not much better.  What we are experiencing around the world could more accurately be described as “global climate destabilization”.

Also please remember that the US represents less than 2% of the world’s surface area. The world is much larger than the happenings of the US.

Edit: This year will probably be cooler than the last (thanks to the la Nina), but 2008 still will be one of the warmest on record.[3][4]

Answer 5

Don't "like" the weather? Talk to "management", GOD.

It's HIS "job"!

My point is quite simple, WE have ZERO effect on the Earth, as far as matters of "climate" go. WE don't make it warmer, WE don't make it colder. ALL this B/S, about US messing up the Planet, is absurd. Just because some "junk scientist" got a Federal Research Grant(free money) to look at some data, is NOT definitive proof of squat!!

IF the Almighty GOD put everything "in order", who the heck are WE, that WE can s***w it up so easily?!?!?

Answer 6

The "weather" has been very normal this year so far-- I really don't know what you are talking about? The Mississippi has been flooding REGULARLY since I was born many DECADES ago! You realize that we cannot "tame" the Mississippi-- but GW advocates want us to "tame" the entire planet!

Answer 7

According to Professor Karen Seto, Chair of the International Project on Urbanization and Global Environmental Change, the weather will continue to be "wacky" for the next thirty years, as the Earth adjusts to the higher rate of CO2 in the atmosphere. What happens after that will largely be up to us. If we can stabilize or reduce the amount of CO2 being released into the air, there could be a stabilizing effect on the weather patterns. At the current rate of fuel consumption, however, weather patterns ahead are going to be quite dire.

One of the biggest mistakes made regarding climate change is the idea that as the Earth warms, the changes in the weather patterns will proceed in a linear fashion. Not true. World temperatures will not simply rise 2 - 3 degrees everywhere. In fact there will be droughts in some places, freezes elesewhere, excessive rain in already lush jungles, hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, etc. In most cases, such as the current flooding in the Mississippi Valley, many of these wather patterns could be (and will be) accepted as 'normal'. What makes them unusual is that they are part of an overall pattern of abnormality.

Take the Amazon rainforest, for example. There is a crushing drought in some parts of that area, with entire hectares facing dry rivers and roaring fires as the formerly lush jungles turn into tinderboxes. There have been droughts there before, of course, but they are happening more frequently.

Or, take the current California drought. The Golden State has endured several droughts in the last 100 years. Last year was a fairly wet one, but the reservoirs are still only 60% - 70% full, and the current heat wave is emptying aquifers faster than normal. Optimistic projections say that California is only 1/3 into what could well be a 15-year-long drought. And that is the optimistic projection!

Climate change is an extremely complex problem which cannot be solved via the application of one particular solution, which frustrates everyone. It would be nice if there was a "magic bullet" which could answer everyone's problems and return the earth to normal. But this is strictly impossible because the primary instigator which produced CO2 overload was the Industrial Revolution, which has since become the primary motivator of human civilization. Moreover, as China and India become economic superpowers they want to raise their own standard of living to American standards; the images they see on cable television show them The Good Life, and they want it too!

You ask, is the shifting of the Jet Stream, the increasing floods, are these caused by Global Warming? Or it just La Nina? It's all related to Climate Change, which is caused by CO2 buildup. And the cause of CO2 buildup is humanity, and the way that humans live.

Or, to make it simpler, Climate Change is proof that humans affect their environment simply by being alive. The question now is, do we take responsibility for our actions?