Major Global Warming in Alberta Last Week

Hey TBC,

Long time no post, eh?

...speaking of the weather...
I live in one of the regions in Canada with the most variable weather patterns in the country - that is - we have winds called "chinooks" over here. This means we can have freezing temperatures one day (and we just did, last week) and within 12 or less hours, be feeling spring-like temperatures.

Last week was severe. We've had snow on the ground for several weeks now - bad weather, snow flurries and icy temperatures. Right in the middle of all that, last week, we had - I KID YOU NOT - SUMMER temperatures as high as 30 celcius (peak high temperature, only for a few hours on 1 day)...but only for a limited time.

Though I've lived in this region most of my life, this is still the most severe temperature fluctuation I think I've experienced. One night, when I went to sleep, I had been heating up my place with a space heater right before bedtime. In the morning when I woke up (unaware of the warming weather), I got my boots, scarf, sweater, coat and mitts on to go to the store...and stepped out of the house

AND COOKED - had to come back inside and change not only my outerwear but the layers of clothing I was used to wearing during the freezing weather from the past week.

Usually, the chinooks/warn winds are awesome because they allow you to leave your scarf and mitts off and your jacket open but this one day last week almost DEMANDED that people wear shorts!

More Global Warming and Climate Change thoughts

Okay, I'll bite, TBC... (good topic, btw)

I'll counter you on this one just for the sake of good old debate.

Firstly, is it highly possible or no - that in the midst of all this debate about Global Warming, the focus is centred far too much on 'people,' and not enough focus is based truly on 'climate' and 'geo' studies at all?

What I mean is - drastic, long-term climate changes occurred before mankind was ever an
issue. Thousand-year long and longer freezing and heating periods have occurred long before
the industrial revolution - indeed - long before scientists think that 'man' ever walked the
earth. The earth is still here - and yes, I do agree that mankind is polluting the
environment - but is there a need to attribute ALL of the 'climate changes' to mankind and
to 'global warming' issues that point a finger almost exclusively at man? Do we all really think that we have been powerful enough and important enough to collectively ruin the earth and cause a catastrophic almost-to-occur-in our lifetime event? (Sounds a lot like Abraham stories to me, verging on the birth of a new religion to me).

Secondly,
When we hear the terms 'experts agree that' and 'overwhelming consensus is that' - are these
phrases coming from media sources and 'advocacy' groups - or truly from intelligent, highly
skilled analysists, experts, and people who are truly qualified to make such statements. Some are. Some aren't. We should check, shouldn't we? We should examine different sources before we go making strongly voiced arguments, shouldn't we?

Heck - even one of my favourite environmentalists and scientists, David Suzuki, has even
been criticized for having an 'agenda' not directly attached to the REAL truth about global
warming. (ie...reputation is a helluva motivation factor).

Lastly,
Do we NEED to take a side here?

I won't...

YET.

I won't say that "Yes, Global Warming is happening and it is because of man."
I won't say, "No, Global Warming is not happening - mankind is fine in the way that mankind
treats the environment."

What I will say is:

Global Warming is happening and nobody knows why yet.

and

Mankind is abusing the environment in a completely heinous way.

The action that I can take is to check reports and sources until I find that I have enough
information to decide what I believe before I go voicing strong and loud arguments.

The proposed 'plans' (like the Kyoto agreement, for one) that 'experts' have drummed up
don't convince me at all that mankind will solve mankind's abuse of the environment with
'harm reduction' methods. Even if such propositions ARE THE ANSWER...there doesn't seem to
be any decent ENFORCEMENT of the plans so that they can be effective in correcting any
global environment situation that we believe might be cause, in part by mankind.

Again - Mankind will not solve problems caused by Mankind when Mankind cannot even implement what looks like a good plan of action for solving problems.

Then again - I come back to this...are we sure that all the global warming problems are, indeed, caused by man? What if the ideas proposed (ANYWHERE, by ANYONE) for global warming would ONLY WORK if global warming is only caused by mankind's abuse of the environment. These ideas would never WORK if implemented against a causal agent that is not really the cause of the problem. That would be like sending out policemen to respond a crime in Boston but giving the policement a Detroit address.

What about 'cycles' that have been going on forever and the fact that the earth was here for millions and millions of years before mankind every got mankind's dirty little money-grabbing, oil hoarding, polluting, abusive hands on her?

I think it might help to continue to treat the issues separately and study them separately for just a little while longer...like maybe for another day or so.

Maybe it's just the Canadian in me, saying "Don't Act Yet before all the facts are in."

Abuse of the environment is a big TOPIC with many branches of issues...
Environmental changes is a big TOPIC with many branches if issues, too...

Perhaps if we don't lump them together just yet - and we learn as much as possible about each myriad of issues within each topic, we'll find some better answers than we are currently hearing about in our media...

The scariest question: What if the earth is supposed to 'cycle' and do what it is doing, no matter WHO is or is not on earth?

I guess I haven't solved any problems today - but I sure did argue with TBC a lot, huh?

Whoops - I meant - SuperTBC!

Glad you're back.

;)