Today’s news is mostly a continuation of the debacle regarding the failed rollout of the incumbent's health care tax. Not really worth writing about.
Instead, I found an item on Drudge, headlined “UN drafts dire report on global warming”
The text begins, “Climate change will disrupt not only the natural world but also society, posing risks to the world's economy and the food and water supply and contributing to violent conflict, an international panel of scientists says.”
The warnings in a report drafted by the United Nations-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have been distributed to governments around the world for review, and “could change before it is released in March.”
"We see a wide range of impacts that have already occurred ... on people, ecosystems and economies," said Chris Field, a scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science and co-chairman of the group writing the report. "Looking into the future, we see increasing risks that are more pervasive and more severe with greater amounts of climate change."
The crux of the report, “describes a planet in peril as a result of the human-caused buildup of greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution, where glaciers are shrinking and plants and animals have shifted their ranges in response to rising temperatures. As global warming continues through the 21st century, many species will face greater risk of extinction, marine life will shift toward the poles and seawater will grow more acidic, the report says.
By 2100, hundreds of millions of people in coastal areas will be flooded or displaced by rising sea levels. The arid subtropics will have less fresh water, leading to more competition for resources.”
I then did some web surfing and found that according to Christine Dell'Amore of National Geographic News, “a colder Antarctica may contribute to a rise in sea levels. Colder temperatures mean less snow on the ice sheets, which makes more water stay in the ocean, he pointed out.
Overall, loss of polar ice has contributed about 11.1 millimeters (0.03 feet) to global sea levels since 1992, research shows. Sea levels are rising at a rate of 3.2 millimeters a year.”
Now, if you consider the size of sea level rise since 1992, it will take eons for the increase to have any real impact. But even so. Since rises in sea levels are caused by both rising and falling temperatures, folks on the coasts are going to get wet no matter what happens climatically.
In the meantime however, while scientists argue vehemently on both sides of the global warming subject, and billions upon are spent on the issue, Mother Nature jumped into the picture herself this morning.
Anthony Sagliani, Meteorologist at Accuweather.com, reports that: “With the start of astronomical winter still a little over a month away, it will feel a lot more like December than November across a large part of the Northeast into midweek.
A bitter cold air mass that has been building across Canada has become dislodged from the Arctic, and the bulk of this air will sweep across the northeastern United States starting on Tuesday.
The coldest temperatures will be on Tuesday and Wednesday as the winterlike chill spills into the Northeast behind an arctic cold front.”
So, once again, while credentialed experts in various aspects of science spend billons upon billions to study, examine, review and dissect information and hypotheses, expounding on what the future will bear regarding weather, if you really want to know what to expect climate-wise…open the window and stick your head out.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
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