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Climate Change

I know that there is a lot of debate on whether or not the planet is warming. Also, if it is warming is it a natural phenomenon or cause by man. 
My opinion is that the planet is getting warmer. I believe that it is a naturally occurring event that is being accelerated by pollution.
Now, I don't need scientists or politicians or anyone else to tell me that it is absolutely getting warmer. I can make these observations on my own in my own backyard. We are about a week away from the average first frost and we are still in the 80's in the day and the lowest temp for the next ten days will be 45 degrees. Our summers in Northern Kentucky are getting longer each year. 
Our winters are not nearly as snowy and cold as they used to be. Now we just seem to get a lot of snow in a few storms rather than consistent snow throughout the winter. 
Spring still seems to come about the same time, though. A little early some years and little late on others. 
As far as gardening goes, it has been nice having a longer than normal season.
Mosquito and other pest insects seem to be getting worse, though.
What about your area of the planet? Have you noticed any changes since you were a kid?
I'm only talking about your local experiences. I'm not really interested in discussing the satellite images and other data and how to interpret that. Just your own observations.
 
I am also in an area that is benefiting from the changes.  Been growing produce for about ten years.  I dont think I should be able to notice something as gradual as climate change, but you are right that we seem to be having longer and longer seasons.  What worries me is that you and I can adapt to a longer season fairly easily.  Yes, we need to vent high tunnels and green houses more.  Sure, some shade cloth would probably help both of us.  But other areas of the world are getting the bad end of the changes.  Have noticed that the main grocery stores are selling more and more locally grown produce and seasonal crops are becoming seasonal again.  Used to be you could buy what ever when ever because they would import or ship from another part of the country.

Not sure where you are in KY, but if I ever get the farm presentable hoping you'll come over for some of the socials I am hoping to host.
 
Yea, I agree that this change is benefitting us well. 
 
It is amazing how fast the change has taken place. Like you said, the change should be so gradual that we don't notice year to year.
I think maybe God is setting up Kentucky as the new Garden of Eden. Not that it's all that far away from it now. :)
 
Owned a New Age book store till about ten years ago.  Had a section on modern prophesy.  One had all sorts of maps detailing the new North America after some catastrophe.  Maybe the earth flipping on its axis.  One of the maps showed the great lakes turning into one, connecting to the East Coast and expanding down to the Ohio River. Kentucky becomes beach front property.  Ye, I would like a beach.
 
Nice. I'm two miles away from the Ohio River. I guess I'll have to hold on to this old house a little longer. 

Keep me updated on the socials also. I'd love to come down for one.
 
here is today's pic of my backyard and it's not white sand.
 

 
being raised on a farm the conversation amongst local farmers always contained phrases like  "indian summer" or "sundogs" with respect to weather. now living in the city i never hear that type of talk only climate change(what was global warming until that phrase wasn't selling). i can remember having 5 feet of snow by christmas some years and getting a toboggan for christmas and not being able to use it due to lack of snow.
 
here is a quote from Leonardo DiCaprio after filming the movie, The Revenent, locally in the lovely Calgary(actually they had to travel to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains for filming):
“We shot at high altitudes in Calgary, and weather conditions were unprecedented. We had fluctuation from hot to cold, and the local people told us that it had never happened before—weather extremes like that—since they’ve lived there".
of course, this happens all the time, so i don't know where these so called locals came from but obviously not locals. in the winter, this area gets a weather pattern known as a chinook. it looks cool, as if someone drew a line in the sky, one side of the sky is dark and cloud covered(not puffy clouds but a large solid mass), the other side bright blue and clear. what comes with a chinook is breezy warm wind and it can melt snow fast as temperatures can rise to above 70F, UPS/FedEx drivers love this as they wear shorts to deliver parcels. the problem, once the pattern stops it can get real damn cold and fast, refreezing what had been melted, road intersections become dangerous fast if auto owners haven't installed winter tires on their vehicles, city sanding trucks have to get out fast.
 
i have also heard reports of the sun not rising in the same place as it use too and stars not being in the same place. for 25 years i have used a computer program called Skyglobe to watch the stars and after all these years, everything is where it should be, nothing has changed. The program is an old DOS based program that one can download for free off the internet. i bought it on floppy and just migrated the program to different media over the years, i run the program on both my Windows computers and Linux machines using a program called DosBox.
 
..... and Greenland has always been a source of iceburgs in the north atlantic, just ask the Titanic ......another Dicprio moment.
 
The Solar system is getting warmer. other planets and moons have show more gas activity and melting water on Mars, so its not just local.
Besides that we all know how wonky the weather has been. We had our first snow on the 5th, Winter has come at least a Month early, Snow is showing up all over this area, couple feet in the Foot hills etc
 
I've been noticing this a LOT lately, super mild winters the last few years, this summer was one of the hottest (breaking records even) early on, and now we likely won't see the first frost until after October in north Missouri.  With how crazy summer was though, I'm kind of expecting us to either have almost NO snow, or shit loads of snow.  I feel that this winter is going to be nuts, but it might be one of the most mild winters I've seen in my life, only time will tell!  
 
We've had a couple milder winters the last couple years. I moved into a new house almost a year ago and the snow didn't come for good till after Christmas. Go figure...we got our daughter a sled. But then we get dumped on with gobs of snow over a couple blizzards.

I've been told we haven't had a real WI winter since I was a little kid...I don't remember anything spectacular. I imagine we're due. I think I still have a year or two warranty left on my snowblower so I imagine the heavy stuff will stay away until the warranty expires.
 
I'm having the opposite experience. When I grew up in the 90s the winters were mild but in the last few years it has been much colder with temperatures consistently under 0 °C for long periods. The summers are less obvious but I have the feeling we're getting less rain.
 
Thinking the politicians will keep arguing on what is causing the wonky weather and the gardeners will continue to improvise and overcome.  When I can, I keep working on water catchments.  Having lots of clay helps.
 
Natural.....
 
Earth was 97-98% water and started drying before we created pollution.....
 
Grand Canyon dried up before our pollution.....
 
Etc etc etc
 
Yes pollution is bad for living things health, is it the main reason for Global Warming like politicians with agendas claim?....I highly doubt it....
 
only126db said:
Natural.....
 
Earth was 97-98% water and started drying before we created pollution.....
 
Grand Canyon dried up before our pollution.....
 
Etc etc etc
 
Yes pollution is bad for living things health, is it the main reason for Global Warming like politicians with agendas claim?....I highly doubt it....
That also support for why I think folk should focus on mitigating.  As far as I know, the earth is a sealed system.  None of that water went away.  Instead, it moved somewhere else.  Sounds like what much of the produce farms on the West Coast need to do.  That or figure out a way to use sea water. 

There is so much talk about climate change and so very little being done to mitigate.  Its like the house is on fire and they would rather talk about who started it then put some damn water on it.
 
I live in Australia and we're in like a 20 year drought at the moment, on the plus side, We've had the longest and coldest winter in years this year and our summer is only getting a few hot days above 45C/113F :D
 
only126db said:
Natural.....
 
Earth was 97-98% water and started drying before we created pollution.....
 
Grand Canyon dried up before our pollution.....
 
Etc etc etc
 
Yes pollution is bad for living things health, is it the main reason for Global Warming like politicians with agendas claim?... I highly doubt it...
While I don't think that pollution is causing climate change, it doesn't mean that pollution is acceptable. It's not. But this thing that you speak of with "drying" - it's a fallacy. We live in a closed loop. Water isn't being sucked out into space. Instead, you seem to be confusing land masses emerging from the oceans, after being pushed up from the shifting tectonic plates. It's the same volume of water, but with different features at the surface.
 
only126db said:
Natural.....
 
Earth was 97-98% water and started drying before we created pollution.....
 
Grand Canyon dried up before our pollution.....
 
Etc etc etc
 
Yes pollution is bad for living things health, is it the main reason for Global Warming like politicians with agendas claim?....I highly doubt it....
No idea what you mean by 97-98% water.. It's not and never has been either by volume or coverage. And as for the Grand Canyon drying up.. Earths continents are constantly on the move, therefore all land goes through natural cycles of wet and dry depending on the position of the land on the globe at any given time. The fact that the Grand Canyon was once wet, but is now dry as a result of continental drift should not be confused with the climate change we are seeing now.

Climate change is not caused solely by pollution. There are many natural events that can add vast amounts of CO2 and methane to the atmosphere. However as others have mentioned, humans are adding at a constant pace with no sign of slowing down anytime soon.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this yet, but humans have totally changed the landscape. Around 40% of land is now farmland/crops and this has vastly impacted the planets ability to absorb and store CO2 from the atmosphere. Earths natural 'buffer' against climate change has been crippled over night (in geological time).

I mean how do 'climate change deniers' argue that we can cut down half of the worlds trees, dump billions of tons of pollutants into the atmosphere, land and oceans, and yet somehow believe that humans can't have a major roll in the changing climate?? It simply doesn't add up.

The earth isn't that big, we can travel around it in a couple of days aboard a 747. People that think earth is too big for us to influence the climate are not being realistic.

Imagine you were playing a computer game called 'earth' where you got to watch earth evolve naturally. One day you get bored watching and decided to make changes and see what the effects would be. You type in the first command: "delete half of the trees" the immediately the second command: "add lots of pollution for 300 years"... What do you think would happen? Nothing?

http://www.livescience.com/52070-global-tree-census-human-impacts.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/12/1209_051209_crops_map.html

http://geology.com/articles/age-of-the-grand-canyon.shtml
 
Jase4224 said:
No idea what you mean by 97-98% water.. It's not and never has been either by volume or coverage.

Climate change is not caused solely by pollution. There are many natural events that can add vast amounts of CO2 and methane to the atmosphere. However as others have mentioned, humans are adding at a constant pace with no sign of slowing down anytime soon.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this yet, but humans have totally changed the landscape. Around 40% of land is now farmland/crops and this has vastly impacted the planets ability to absorb and store CO2 from the atmosphere. Earths natural 'buffer' against climate change has been crippled over night (in geological time).

I mean how do 'climate change deniers' argue that we can cut down half of the worlds trees, dump billions of tons of pollutants into the atmosphere, land and oceans, and yet somehow believe that humans can't have a major roll in the changing climate?? It simply doesn't add up.

The earth isn't that big, we can travel around it in a couple of days aboard a 747. People that think earth is too big for us to influence are not being realistic.

http://www.livescience.com/52070-global-tree-census-human-impacts.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/12/1209_051209_crops_map.html
I didnt mean made of water, I meant covered by water (97-98% covered at one time)
 
Jase4224 said:
No idea what you mean by 97-98% water.. It's not and never has been either by volume or coverage.

Climate change is not caused solely by pollution. There are many natural events that can add vast amounts of CO2 and methane to the atmosphere. However as others have mentioned, humans are adding at a constant pace with no sign of slowing down anytime soon.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this yet, but humans have totally changed the landscape. Around 40% of land is now farmland/crops and this has vastly impacted the planets ability to absorb and store CO2 from the atmosphere. Earths natural 'buffer' against climate change has been crippled over night (in geological time).

I mean how do 'climate change deniers' argue that we can cut down half of the worlds trees, dump billions of tons of pollutants into the atmosphere, land and oceans, and yet somehow believe that humans can't have a major roll in the changing climate?? It simply doesn't add up.
First off, I didn't quote the 97-98% water, and I don't have the energy to argue it. But the fact is, by simple topography, the Earth is, in all likelihood, a lesser percentage of water by surface coverage. Looking at the way mountains and continents were formed, there can be little argument on that, so we push on.

Secondly, yes, mass production farming methods are highly problematic, with land tilling and deforestation leading to massive problems with soil tilth, and release of so-called "greenhouse gases". It is plant life with undisturbed soil that helps sequester nitrogen, methane, and carbon in the soil, thus producing rich, black, earth. Once you rip the earth open, however, now you are stuck with artificially replenishing nutrients - and you introduce all other manner of nasties. (phosphate runoff being one of the worst, IMO)
 
And it's pretty hard to escape the fact that putting up concrete jungles with paved surfaces are not going to do much good for absorbing UV and dissipating heat.
 
But seriously, the talking point was pollution.
 
Solid7.. I never said you quoted the percentage of water on earth. The quote was copied from only126db's response.

And no I'm not interested in arguing either. In fact I agree with the rest of what you have to say.

only126db I apologise if my response seems to be putting you down that is not how I meant it.
 
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