Nothing like a little overreaction
I'm an armchair meteorologist. I watch The Weather Channel more
frequently than most. I was one year into a meteorology degree at the
University of Oklahoma before finding out that a full-time job, wife
and new child wouldn't leave me enough time to finish the program. I'm
a trained storm spotter and amateur radio operator. I have just enough
knowledge to make me more of an expert than most, but not an expert at
all.
However, there is one area of meteorological/climatological discussion
that I will not budge on, nor will I listen to the "experts." That area
is global warming. I don't see how scientists can reasonably say that
global warming is a certainty, when the actual data pool is less than
100 years old. Don't bring up the paleoclimatological data either,
because it may or may not be accurate. There is no way to test it, so
don't use it.
Now, finally, to the point of this. I read an
article
today about how a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric
Research brought up the idea that there should be a Category 6
classification on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale. Now, I don't
doubt Mr. Holland's intelligence, nor his authenticity. I truly believe
that these people are 100% convinced that global warming is occurring.
Take this paragraph for instance:
But because of man-made global warming, most hurricane scientists say
now we will probably be getting Category 4 and 5 hurricanes more
frequently in the coming decades.
Followed later in the article by this one:
How well did the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration do a
year ago in predicting the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season? Not so well,
and the relatively new and unfamiliar factors of manmade global
warming, say some scientists, may be part of what threw last year's
predictions off.
The writer of this article, Bill Blakemore, expresses nothing but
certainty that global warming already exists and is wreaking havoc on
the world's weather. How else to explain this:
In fact, says Greg Holland, the world already has seen far more
frequent Cat 4s and 5s. He points to several studies published over the
past 12 months which "indicated the frequency of Category 4 and 5
hurricanes had almost doubled around the world in the period since
1970."
Wow, doubled since the 1970s. Can it be that we have better tracking
than at any other point in history, probably even since the 1970s?
There are more tornadoes reported now than have been in the past. Is
that because of global warming? No, it's because there is better
technology to be able to track these storms, and more people in areas
that were not developed before. Who knows how strong some of the
hurricanes in the past have been? We didn't have a way until about 20
years ago to track them out over the ocean like we do now.
The bottom line is, people should not be talking like global warming is
an absolute certainty, because it isn't. Should we reduce emissions of
the "greenhouse gases" in order to save our environment? Absolutely,
it's a good idea, but don't force me to do it because you want to feel
better about spotted owls. Global warming is still a theory, no matter
what Al Gore says.
He just invented the Internet. He can't be an expert on everything.