Starting to see the effects of global warming

Well today was quite a day in the city of Bogotá! First, my house almost flooded and it hailed like crazy but then after watching the news I realized how bad a day it had become for some people! I’ll let the pics talk for themselves.




This weather is the first I’ve ever seen in my couple of long stays in this region… As I, most people where caught by surprise. Some people suffered from hypothermia including a child (not clear if boy or girl) which had to be pulled out of a street which was flooded with icy water.
The last time something like this happened was 3 years ago. But it wasn’t nearly as extreme or dangerous.
I already got all my winter weather gear together just in case I have to try to keep the water out of my house any time soon!

*Edit for those who don't know, it doesn´t snow or hail like that down here AT ALL. Look at this!



[edit on 3-11-2007 by TheDarkFlame]

global warming is a myth. less than 1/3 of the the whole WORLD'S environmental scientists support that bogus theory.

i majored in environmental biology in college, this is what i remember the earth goes through natural cycles it gets hot for a while then it gets cold for a while. it gets wet some times it gets dry some times.

floods are caused by over development not global warming.

ill spell it out. lets say you have 10 acres of woods, this soaks water and trees hold the earth so you dont have mud slides.

then you decide for what ever reason you are gonna pave over that 10 acres of woods, and that 10 acres gets 3in of rain fall where is the water gonna go. that makes floods not the mythical global warming..


i will say its unseasonably cold here in the south carolina. it was 37 last night and it usually dont get that cold till after christmas

[edit on 15pmu92007 by DaleGribble]

check out global dimming as well (www.globalissues.org...), some seriously bad news plus the fact that some scientists (as far as i remember) were paid to say global warming was a load of bs. plus the fact that a lot of people claim its all a natural process (ices ages and all) when in my honest opinion cutting down vast areas of rain forests, breeding cattle (for milk and meat) and polluting the air with our machinery really isnt helping the natural cycle. Seems like any old excuse is acceptable so we can continue with the destruction of earth =[

Thing that worries me the most, its our children and their children (and so on) that will suffer more so than us.


[edit on 3-11-2007 by rapturas]

reply to post by DaleGribble


I agree with you on this. I work at the weather bureau (in Oz) and our climate records only go back 110 years or so. So in reality we dont know if global warming is a fact or not because there is not enough historical data to suggest that the earths temperature has been dramatically increasing due to human intervention. I do believe that we have had a major impact on the ozone layer, but global warming, in my opinion hasnt been confirmed be occuring

reply to post by OzWeatherman & post by DaleGribble
So do you have the same opinions about global dimming as well?

reply to post by rapturas


Yes, i do as a matter of fact. There just isnt enough proof on which we can make a factual decision on. Im not saying that they are occuring, but im also saying that they arent occuring for anyone who thinks i disagree with these concepts

The problem is that you have people like Bill Maher (who I am a huge fan of) using Katrina and the recent Socal fires as evidence of global warming. Katrina would have been nothing had we not been dumb enough to build a city in a bowl and then use 3rd world levees to protect it. Thank poor construction with New Orleans. Socal fires? I didn't realize that arson was caused by global warming. Apparently most of the large fires (including the ones a few years ago) were started by arsonists. I don't care what the CO2 level is. If you have idiots setting fires during the Santa Ana conditions you are going to get fire storms. Wind from the desert + arson is a deadly problem.

reply to post by Indy


Good point. It seems every time you get a natural disaster global warming is to blame......although it is true that recently (well here anyway) that we are getting fewer storm and rain events......but the intensity of them is much higher

In the tropics this year you had two significant storms. People will use the existence of two cat 5 storms as proof. They were two cat 5 storms because they formed and moved through an area of low sheer and through and area that is always ideal for strengthening due to high sea surface temps. The Western Caribbean is prime real estate for breeding massive storms. Notice however that the rest of the tropics would be called a huge disappointment this year. We had nothing but weak storms all year long. If we had a cat 5 hurricane crossing the middle of the Atlantic in June then I'd say we have a problem :-)

Although there may not be sufficient evidence (as you say) I for one would not like to continue the way we have been just in case you are wrong. That’s my 0.01p (going by the current fx rates lol)

reply to post by Indy


I can almost guarantee that we up in Northern Australia are in for a hell of a cyclone (hurricane) season this year. The water is already extremely warm at the moment, so we may even get some early storm systems coming through

Originally posted by rapturas
Although there may not be sufficient evidence (as you say) I for one would not like to continue the way we have been just in case you are wrong. That’s my 0.01p (going by the current fx rates lol)

I have a bit of a rant in the "Boing" thread about the hole we have dug ourselves into. If Global Warming is real it may have accelerated us into an ice age. And it would have done so at the onset of a peak oil crisis and we have no real alternate energy plans in the works. Brilliant huh? That is about as brilliant as peeing in your own drinking water which humans do. And we make fun of animals. Go figure.

reply to post by OzWeatherman & post by DaleGribble
Just sent you both a u2u for your opinions on computer models and what not =]

reply to post by rapturas


Well thats the problem. You cant predict long term scenarios using computer models. Short term forecasts of up to 4 days are fine, but anything over that strats becoming unreliable and its true for predicting climate change to. Thats why I would rather rely on historical data and observations to predict climate change if it was possible. The fact is, we just dont have enough data going back far enough to do this. Any scientist that says that have evidence that global warming/ dimming is happening just speculating in my opinion

imho I don’t think we should tempt fate (or speed fate up), that’s my opinion at least =]

so why then is greenlands ice caps growing at 3cm a year? global warming is a farce brought to you by Al GOre the same man who claimed to have invented the internet..

.

[edit on 15pmu112007 by DaleGribble]

that article was from 20 Oct. 2005, is there a more recent study?

Edit, and your statement could be seen as misleading, it was melting in some places and growing elsewhere =]

[edit on 3-11-2007 by rapturas]

Originally posted by rapturas
that article was from 20 Oct. 2005, is there a more recent study?

Edit, and your statement could be seen as misleading, it was melting in some places and growing elsewhere =]

[edit on 3-11-2007 by rapturas]

yeah thats why i removed it im looking for one now but i had to reply to your u2u..

i jumped the gun and posted the first thing i found...

www.brightsurf.com...

here is a host of websites that support both our views ill leave it to the readers to decide which are legit.

[edit on 15pmu112007 by DaleGribble]

While Greenland is losing ice, it's also acquiring some new ice through precipitation. Scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., used Grace to determine that ice losses far surpass ice gains. A new way of analyzing the data allowed them to get a picture of regional changes. While snow added 60 cubic kilometers (14 cubic miles) of ice mass to Greenland's interior each year between 2003 and 2005, the low-lying coast areas of Greenland lost nearly three times as much ice - 172 cubic kilometers (41 cubic miles) - each year during the same period.

www.nasa.gov...

Greenland is losing more ice than it is gaining. Early data during the 90s showed little change, but newer data using improved techniques clearly shows it is losing ice overall.

I'm surprised about how much I've learned from you guys... Actually I'm more the type of person that waits and observes the changes so I guess will all know when it's here or in case it never happens. Anyway I think global warming is a good excuse to get the masses concerned with protecting our environment!

Also for a person who isn't an expert on this, it's a little frightening how strange our environment can become sometimes...

Well my 2 cents are that in either case we have 2 options. Adapt or become extinct!