EU Study Confirms that Alps Experiencing Record Warmth; Ski Areas Suffer Impacts

[ski_resort_observer]

I have never insulted you or anyone else in this forum and I resent what you wrote. I was trying for a little tongue in cheek humor that would help make my point. That is all.

This isn't the Dak forum :wink:, with us you have to put a "wink" icon there so we know your kidding as I, until you explained it, thought the Jerry Falwell reference was hitting alittle below the belt.:smile:

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

http://wjz.com/topstories/local_story_266212513.html

It's the end of the world as we know it. :wink: :lol: :wink: :lol:

This isn't the Dak forum :wink:, with us you have to put a "wink" icon there so we know your kidding as I, until you explained it, thought the Jerry Falwell reference was hitting alittle below the belt.:smile:

That's why I gave you 4 smiles in my last post. I'm not taking any more chances. I'm not a natural wink guy, I have to remind myself to use them.

 

[riverc0il]

I'm not a natural wink guy, I have to remind myself to use them.

i swear this is an unspoken invitation to nick name HPD "winky." :lol: i mean... we can help remind HPD, right? public service and all....

 

[ajl50]

too much conversation about men winking at each other. Moving on...

 

[Marc]

too much conversation about men winking at each other. Moving on...

 

[theguy10]

Here is my take on GW. I believe that humans have added to the amount of greenhouses in the atmosphere, however not to the extent that we are affecting the weather or climate. CO2 levels have been on the rise for several hundred years, long before the industrial revolution.

Secondly, I (half-heartedly) welcome the melting of polar ice. Here is why... The ice caps are fresh water. The Northeast is kept warm by the Atlantic water that travels in a clockwise direction.

Warm seawater expands and is thus less dense than cooler seawater. Saltier water is more dense than fresher water because the dissolved salts fill interstices between water molecules, resulting in more mass per unit volume. Lighter water masses float over denser ones (just as a piece of wood or ice will float on water). In order to take up their most stable positions, water masses of different densities must flow, providing a driving force for deep currents. The dense water masses formed by these processes flow downhill at the bottom of the ocean, like a stream within the surrounding less dense fluid, and fill up the basins of the polar seas. Just as river valleys direct streams and rivers on the continents, the bottom topography steers the deep and bottom water masses.

What this means is, if you melt the ice caps, you lower the salinity level in the upper oceans which decreases the gradient which slows the rotation of the oceans.

An Atlantic that doesn't bring warm water to the coast off of NE means a colder New England. This is a short term effect in climate terms (200-300 years). After that all bets are off because you form more ice caps with the cold water and cold air near the arctic now. This means that the currents will be again sped up and the poles will get colder again and New England gets warmer again which then drives another cycle.

Sorry to put it so wordy but the thermohaline circulation which i described plays a huge part in the climate and can be affected by global warming (real global warming, not the stuff that environmental groups push to get money to push their agendas)

 

[dmc]

Said the sheep as they where led to their slaughter.

Hey... Waddaya gonna do... I know what I think I know... But I can only do what I can do... The topic is too embeded into our current political culture... The day that we walked away from the Kyoto Treaty I knew it was going to happen...

It's a no win for us that believe that man is accelerating global warming in this current culture...

I really feel bad for the polar bears..

 

[loafer89]

Our planet is also still rebounding from the last cooling period, the Little Ice Age (LIA) and alot of the ice and snow that has melted off of alpine glaciers did form during this global cooling period that lasted from 1250 - 1850. This cooling period had a catastrophic effect on world events, causing a severe drought in North America, the abandonment of settlements in Greenland, and famine in Europe.

Alot of alpine glaciers formed in the American and Canadian Rockies during this time period, and some are just in their final melting stages today. This global cooling period ended in a very short period of time between 1846-1850. Most scientists agree that the warming period between 1850-1950 was naturally occuring global warming, but diverge on the sources for the more rapid pace of warming since that time.

 

[dmc]

(real global warming, not the stuff that environmental groups push to get money to push their agendas)

wow.... what if their agenda is to help the planet?

 

[loafer89]

I really feel bad for the polar bears..

Yes, I feel bad for the Polar Bears as well as they are my favorite animal and reports are showing them drowning because of the vast distances that they must now travel between areas of hunting icepack. The reproductive rate is down due to envionmental stress and the species may be extinct in the next 100 years

 

[theguy10]

wow.... what if their agenda is to help the planet?

Maybe I am just jaded.

 

[dmc]

Maybe I am just jaded.

maybe... I think some have personal agendas but many just really want to help the environment.. (myself included)...

 

[from_the_NEK]

goldsbar Asked:How long are you willing to wait?

It appears that some people in here are willing to wait until we pass a possible threshold of no return. I think people that claim that humans are not having a negative effect on the atmosphere need to be a little more open minded. We can study things to death. There is nothing that will absolutely prove the current warming of our atmosphere is a result of human activity. I say that based on pretty convincing research that humans are having an effect. Don't give me a bunch of bologna about siting my sources. It should be fairly general knowledge at this point that human activities are a part of the warmup. Whether or not you choose to accept that is up to you. Obviously some choose not to accept that. Whatever.

Hopefully we don't cross that threshold that trends Earth in the direction of being Venus like.

Venus' atmosphere is composed mostly of carbon dioxide. There are several layers of clouds many kilometers thick composed of sulfuric acid. These clouds completely obscure our view of the surface. This dense atmosphere produces a run-away greenhouse effect that raises Venus' surface temperature by about 400 degrees to over 740 K (hot enough to melt lead). Venus' surface is actually hotter than Mercury's despite being nearly twice as far from the Sun. There are strong (350 kph) winds at the cloud tops but winds at the surface are very slow, no more than a few kilometers per hour.
Venus probably once had large amounts of water like Earth but it all boiled away. Venus is now quite dry. Earth would have suffered the same fate had it been just a little closer to the Sun. We may learn a lot about Earth by learning why the basically similar Venus turned out so differently.

That would be BAD for winter sports
My pot stirring is complete.

 

[loafer89]

I passed a Connecticut depatment of works snowplow truck on I-291 this afternoon, which ordinarily would not be worthy of posting except for the fact that the driver had his window rolled down and was wearing a shortsleeve shirt:-o