It is unbelieveable to me that the national media can talk about
unprecedented rain in Washington DC, and not mention a possible connection to
global warming. The Al Gore documentary was quite clear that a warming of
the oceans would produce dramatic climate including unusually heavy
rainfall. I understand that Bush etc would not want to connect the
never-before closing of major monuments because of flooding to global
warming. But why is there no connection made in the media? Perhaps I
am wrong about the connection?
Here is article I found on the exact subject:
The problem is that single seasons or events don't make the case for global warming because there are natural fluctuations in temperature and rainfall. The best case is made by looking at the dramatic long-term change in temperature, and its correlation with C02 emissions over the past 100 years.
The conservatives are good at picking on the more historical science (e.g., evolutionary biology), because the processes aren't amenable to controlled experimentation as they are in the "harder" sciences. Because there is more theory at work in the historical sciences, and most people aren't familiar with the theories, it's easy to say "That's just a theory, and mine says differently!" If you are ignorant of the field, that sounds quite reasonable.
Posted by: Eric | July 04, 2006 at 09:27 AM
I urge everyone to see "An Inconvenient Truth" - the Al Gore documentary. It is very convincing, using studies over hundreds of years, that earth and oceans' temperatures are rising, with devastating effects only years off. The news reports of recents floods etc. do no analysis other than what's happening that day. And that's sad, in my opinion, because the public continues to remain uninformed about a problem that may be too late to correct. I do not think there is a dispute among scientists anymore re the fact of global warming, but how it affects our day-to-day lives is just not coming across.
Posted by: kmader | July 04, 2006 at 10:31 AM