The Need for Scientific Investigation
I'm going to take a different tack this time since I've been showing some skepticism lately. I'm coming to realize that a major technological development has probably made it possible even to broach the topic of (untoward) climate change. To wit, we now have remote sensing. Thirty years ago, we started getting enough satellites up there looking at the whole planet at once and could see, easily, for the first time, the big picture. Things like arctic and antarctic sea ice, mountaintop glaciers, and so forth were now more easily and reliably observable. Upper air research has also gained benefit from space probes over the last 50 years. We hardly knew about the Van Allen belts back then. Radiosonde observations probably don't go back much farther. And, to me, this is probably the "$64 Question": How long a period of record do we need before we can assess the true nature of climate change? Ed, I believe we agree perfectly on this, the need for solid scientific inquiry on this matter. Further, the underlying problem of fossil fuel use, is still paramount when it comes to the issue of "climate change" as this stands on its own merits. WE WILL RUN OUT OF OIL, and probably sooner than anyone would like.
Evidence like the well-documented glacial retreat in the Alps, Macquarie Island, and Alaska do show something is happening. Likewise the upward march of alpine and sub-alpine species of life in the highlands worldwide is a common observation.
This IS a big change and it does deserve the attention of the UN, and its constituent national governments. It's not only whether enough land ice would melt to affect sea levels (and lacking any offset to atmospheric moisture from evaporation), it is also about the nature of storm tracks, and whether they change enough to affect agriculture and the food supply. With the population explosion still going on (those old enough to remember when that was the BIG ecological crisis around 1960 will know), anything that takes away arable land is something to reckon with.
Evidence like the well-documented glacial retreat in the Alps, Macquarie Island, and Alaska do show something is happening. Likewise the upward march of alpine and sub-alpine species of life in the highlands worldwide is a common observation.
This IS a big change and it does deserve the attention of the UN, and its constituent national governments. It's not only whether enough land ice would melt to affect sea levels (and lacking any offset to atmospheric moisture from evaporation), it is also about the nature of storm tracks, and whether they change enough to affect agriculture and the food supply. With the population explosion still going on (those old enough to remember when that was the BIG ecological crisis around 1960 will know), anything that takes away arable land is something to reckon with.
