Greetings from West Virginia. I took a few days off while the kids are out of school for teacher work days and went leaf watching. Except the leaves really are bi-polar this year. Some are green, some of the right color, some trees are half and half and some have lost all leaves. There is no consistency. I have seen nothing spectacular.
October just ended and it was a warmer than usual month–again. The past 8 months have, on average, shown temperatures 2.5 degrees above normal, according to the national weather service. October was 2.7 degrees above normal October temperatures. The report was released just a few hours before the first freeze warning of the year.
Tonight there will be frost. I think it is already below freezing where I am. I can remember 30 years ago we had always had frost by Halloween. Flowers weren’t still blooming this late in the year. It was generally freezing on Halloween night. What is causing this? Why has our growing season extended by nearly a month?
By the way, the internet sucks and my cell phone doesn’t work.
ho hum. some years it’s a little warmer, some years a little colder. glaciers once extended down to the ohio river; when they retreated they left us the great lakes. the whole manmade global warming scam is nothing more than another way for big government to circumvent the constitution and gain ever more power and control over us. ergo, cap and tax or whatever other boondoggle they concoct. universal healthcare is another. al gorleone the high priest of global warming is the biggest hypocrite on the planet, his mansion down in nashville consumes more energy than ten of his neighbors combined, and he flies around the globe in a private gulfstream. did you know newsweek magazine in the 1970s was predicting global cooling and the approaching ice age?
It was too dry this year for the leaves to have a lot of color – that’s my take on it.
I give up trying to say what’s going on or not going on with global warming. I have no idea. Weather patterns change over time, go through cycles, etc. Who knows what’s really happening.
I would probably agree with Gainesville. Who knows. I am not a scientist. However, research certainly indicates there is a distinct possibility we do have global warming going on. My observations tell me something is going on. I am old enough to notice patterns.
My common sense tells me that it is highly unlikely that mankind can continue to dump all the crap into the atmostphere without inmpact on the environment.
If volcanoes can cause snow in July…..it stand to reason unless we change drastically, strange and unpredictable things are bound to happen–with or without Al Gore.
@e, nothing partisan in your statement, eh? Its statements like yours that cut out all discussion and polarize everyone.
I’ll not get into the scientific debate (there are plausible arguments on both sides) but will add that Al Gore is the Bernie Madoff of the global warming movement. In 2004, he co-founded Generation Investment Management LLP (GIM). Gore and GIM are among the biggest global warming advocates and proponents of trading carbon rights, as embodied in the cap and trade (aka, cap and tax) legislation.
Have a look at their website, http://www.generationim.com/. In particular, see the page on climate solutions under investment strategies, stating the importance of, “Carbon Markets and Climate-Related Financial Services.” Gore’s crusade has made him incredibly wealthy already. GIM will be a key (perhaps the biggest) broker in trading carbon rights if this legislation is fully enacted. Cap and trade would make Al Gore wealthier than his wildest imaginations.
One of the key rules of investing is not to take advice from someone if taking that advice makes more money for the person giving it than the one taking it. Anyone who buys into Al Gore’s scam will fare no better than Madoff’s victims did.
@NTK
I believe there is a huge difference between Madoff and Gore, even if you hate Al Gore, which I don’t. Madoff stole money from old people, Jewish charities, etc.
They entrusted their life savings to him. He pimped and ponzied them.
Regardless of how one feels about Gore personally or politically, he has a long history of being concerned about the environment. He is no Johnny come lately. I would never accuse him of dishonesty. Boredom on the subject yes, dishonesty no. I can’t say the same for Madoff. I believe much of the ‘science’ I hear nowadays is because Gore is a Democrat.
“Al Gore is the Bernie Madoff of the global warming movement” – that made me laugh out loud! Good one.
Is it possible to discuss global warming without mentioning Gore’s big house and air plane rides, please! He played GW to the max, Oscar and Nobel in one fell swope. A jerk, IMHO. But, please, let him lie.
GA – glad you enjoyed! I don’t reject all of the research that suggests that humans may play some part in climate change. However, I don’t accept the extreme views that maintain that human action alone has the ability to change the world’s climate in some fundamental way either. As GA wrote, climate cycles and other factors play a role also.
The global warming hysteria reminds me of the old movie, “In Like Flint.” Some readers might be too young to remember it, but it was one of the 1960s take-offs of James Bond. Some mad scientists had invented a machine that could control the world climate, weather, earthquakes and such at their will. Derek Flint had to save the world from them.
The mad scientists in the movie weren’t trying to get rich, however. Their goal was to blackmail governments to bring about world peace. They had been co-opted by bad guys who did want to get rich and dominate the world.
That’s sort of how I see Al Gore. Legitimate scientists came up with research that we should consider seriously. However, those scientists have been co-opted by people who do want to get rich and control the world, such as Al Gore.
Moon – I remember that you like Gore. We’ll agree to disagree on this one. By the way, I don’t “hate” Al Gore, Corey Stewart, or any other person I’ve criticized on the blog. I don’t wish personal harm to any of them. However, Al Gore brings visions of scam artist to mind for me, and that’s the connection I see with Madoff.
Why is it so hard to imagine that the chemicals that we pump into the air could be polluting the air beyond natures ability to clean the air. This pollution in the air will definitely affect our climate. Just think back a few years ago, when the pollutants were pumped into the rivers and streams – the pollution went some where, in our case, to the Chesapeake Bay – since they have curtailed alot of this dumping, the CB is on its way back to being a thriving waterway. How about the runoff from the landfills – Why would the air be any different?
There are many people, however, who hate Gore along party lines. I dislike Madoff intensely because he preyed on others and so many people were harmed by him. I have no idea of his political affiliation.
I like Moderate Republicans like Christy Todd Whitman, Swartzenegger, etc. They are rapidly approaching extinction.
@Pat.Herve
Not denying that at all. My problem is with politicians who push measures such as cap and trade, which would grind the sluggish economic recovery to halt, further reduce our standard of living, give an additional edge to countries such as China and India (who are exempt from carbon caps under the proposed international agreements), put more power into the hands of the Federal Government and enrich con men like Al Gore.
@NTK,
I don’t think the timing was right on cap and trade, without even going into the merits or demerits of the issue. I don’t know what you do about countries that are just filthy. I don’t know how you get them to buy into change. I have a friend who nearly died because of poor air quality in Egypt during a visit. He is asthmatic.
@Moon-howler
Moon – Madoff is one of the few people to whom I might apply the term “hate.”
I’m not a GW fan but I don’t begrudge any company that wants to push a green angle to drive business to them.
If Wegmans wants to give me a free bag so that I’m green and it happens to have Wegmen’s on it’s side so that people:
1. Know that I’m “green”
2. Know that Wegman’s supports being ‘green’
3. Free advertising for Wegman’s
I’m all for it. Capitalism at work.
If you want a *revenue neutral* carbon tax, fine. That’s a worthy discussion. Cap & Trade is just begging for a derivative scam, though. Imagine the Goldmans/JP Morgans/Morgan Stanleys of the world securitizing carbon paper. C&T is just asking for another trillion in fraud, just ask the guys who tried it in the Eurozone.
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2272258/eu-plans-clamp-carbon-trading
I could come up with a thousand other links like the above.
I am not arguing for cap and trade. I am arguing that we should not dismiss the idea of global warming. I also don’t know what the answer is to the dirty countires dumping pollutants in the seas and atmosphere that impacts all of us.
Perhaps that is where we should start. World incentives.
@Moon-howler
The solution lies in democratic capitalism and free speech. Under Soviet rule, the Eastern Bloc countries had some of the most polluted air, water and environments in the world. Now, the situation in those countries is vastly improved (but not as good as it could be yet). Enhance economic opportunity and give people a voice in how they will live their lives, and the world becomes a better, cleaner place.
For the environment, local action by concerned citizens is far more effective than political power plays at the national level. As readers can gather from my other posts in this thread, I am not a fan of cap and trade. This legislation is nothing but a power play by national politicians and the corporate greed that supports them (need I say Al Gore, Generation Investment Management LLP and similar fraudsters again?)
By local action, I mean endeavors such Elena, other supporters, and I have been involved in for years in Prince William County. If we stop Corey Stewart, Wally Covington, Mike Lubely and others from despoiling the Rural Crescent with unrestricted development as they want to do, we preserve forest and open space that absorb excess carbon. In the same deal, citizens and taxpayers of Prince William County pay less in taxes as tax revenue negative growth is inhibited, and the increase in congestion is stopped. No one is denied their property rights either. Establishment of the Rural Crescent put into law that landowners can develop ten-acre parcels by-right. Some of the greedier landowners might want more, but we must balance the interests of everyone in a free-market system.
Cap and trade will do nothing but further empower Federal bureaucrats and politicians, make most of us poorer, and enrich the corporate con men such as Al Gore.
Apply these principals globally and you get the same results. Egypt, the nation Moon mentions, is a dictatorship. The rulers there do not have to respond to the needs and interests of their citizens as leaders in democracies must. Just as the developers and their lawyers/lobbyists buy politicians to get their way here, greedy special interests do the same there. The difference is that in dictatorships they get their way more often. We can vote Corey, Wally, etc. out next year. Mubarak will not allow a free election that would threaten his power.
NTK, I think I have to totally disagree. I remember all sorts of environmental disasters that were near misses beause greed. There needs to be a balance between capitalism, greed, and an agency that cares about the good of all. The agency is usually a government agency.
I totally don’t trust individuals or corporations to go unwatched.
Its just too tempting.
Buffalo……Primeval trees.
Predictions of a cold winter.
The Super La Nina and the Coming Winter
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-super-la-nina-and-the-coming-winter/?singlepage=true
Start driving your SUV’s more. I like warm weather.
@Moon-howler
That’s a different point and I agree completely. Regulatory agencies have an important role to play. Safety and emissions standards, etc., should be encoded into law and enforced, just like speed limits. It’s all a matter of public safety and health.
If a factory is dumping toxic waste into a river, or cancerous emissions into the atmosphere, government should act. The impact of carbon emissions, however, does not pose an immediate threat, and the longer-term hazards are unclear. Moreover, even if we accept that the longer-term hazards are real, currently proposed legislation and treaties do not distribute the burdens fairly or adequately.
I think that what I wrote above is entirely consistent with your view.
My problem, again, is something like cap and trade, which invests broad new powers into the Federal government, with the potential for enormous fraud at the expense of taxpayers and to the advantage of those who have manipulated the system to exploit it (back to Al Gore again).
Those positioned to profit from trading carbon rights will become incredibly wealthy while the rest of us pay much higher rates for gasoline, to heat our homes, etc. It will grind any job creation to a halt. Cap and trade will be the greatest transfer of wealth from the middle-class to the rich we have ever seen, all for some dubious, ill-defined benefits.
which invests broad new powers into the Federal government, with the potential for enormous fraud at the expense of taxpayers and to the advantage of those who have manipulated the system to exploit it – we call them lobbyists, and in every industry, the lobbyist is the one that the elected official listens to – even in PWC.
Look at what the Koch brothers have done with Formaldehyde – one would think it was a safe chemical if you listened to them. And, they want less regulation of this cancer causing chemical.
People keep trying to make GLOBAL warming a local issue which it is not–it is a GLOBAL phenomenon. As someone else pointed out, local weather waxes and wanes–warm this year, cold next. La Nina/El Nino have their own effects, but the whole thing is that GLOBAL warming is just that GLOBAL–an overall rise in the temperature. Those crawling out from under their rocks and denying it should crawl back under their rocks since the temperature there is more or less steady.
As to temperature and leaf color changing–they have nothing to do with each other. Color change is the result of the change in the amount of sunlight the leaves get. The fact that frost and leaf color change happen about the same time is serendipitous. We have a riot of color right here on the road I live on–didn’t have to go to the mountains to go leaf peeping–just look out the window or stroll down the street with my old dog.
Moon–if you went back to the same place in WV where you know the internet cell phone connections suck, I must ask, “Why the hell go there?” Doing so approaches the definition of insanity–doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results 😉