Friday, August 10, 2007

Global Warming Will Step Up After 2009 - Scientists

Global warming is forecast to set in with a vengeance after 2009, with at least half of the five following years expected to be hotter than 1998, the warmest year on record, scientists reported on Thursday.

Climate experts have long predicted a general warming trend over the 21st century spurred by the greenhouse effect, but this new study gets more specific about what is likely to happen in the decade that started in 2005.


Speaking of which, Kansas City is in the grip of a nasty heatwave. My usual daily walks have been reduced to furtive, sweaty jaunts. It was a "mere" 100 today; tomorrow (and the day after that) promise worse.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I heard there was a tornado in Brooklynn... is this caused by global warming too?

Anonymous said...

In New England, we've hardly had a summer at all. There have been some hot days, but mostly it's been cool and damp. The leaves are already turning color. It's odd.

Frater nicht, there are tornadoes in the Northeast occasionally, but it is rare and they don't last long. I don't know whether they have been appearing more frequently, though, or if there is any connection to global warming.

Mac said...

It's effectively impossible to take an isolated weather event and determine whether global warming caused it. By definition, global warming is based on world-wide data over a period of years.

Anonymous said...

Again, the Northeast (especially MA) has been amazingly temperate this summer. We've had only a few 90+ degree days and even those didn't push 100. Totally unlike last summer with its two straight months of 90-100+ degree weather from late June through most of August. In fact, right now it's actually in the low 50's here. Unbelievable!

--W.M. Bear

Anonymous said...

Guess I'm redundant after all. Just really READ Anna's post. Stupid moi. Apologies.

--WMB

Anonymous said...

See the latest Scientific American for a good feature article pretty much proving that human activity is primarily responsible for global warming.

Anonymous said...

Furtive? Surreptitiously or by stealth? I'd like to see that!

("He ran furtively from shade tree to tall hedge, and back again, on his sweaty jaunt, stealthily seeking the coolness of the shade, covertly avoiding the merciless sun cruelly beating down from above... occasionally he would quietly throw himself into the nearest swimming pool...") ... ;)

Mac said...

Furtive? Surreptitiously or by stealth? I'd like to see that!

Yep -- furtive. Like the sun's out to get me.