Some news for climate change skeptics

[Dee]

Canadians prove humans are causing climate change

July 23, 2007

TORONTO — Humans are directly affecting global rainfall patterns and have been doing so for most of a century, according to a new study that gives the first solid proof that people are causing critical climate change.

Researchers from Environment Canada say their analysis of global data shows rainfall has effectively shifted away from the region immediately north of the equator — including sub-Saharan Africa, southern India and south east Asia — and moved north to Canada and Europe, and south to the tropics below the equator.

And the main cause behind the global change is human activity, say lead authors Xuebin Zhang and Francis Zwiers, from Environment Canada.

You can read the full article here (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070723.wrainfall0723/BNStory/Science/).

[DaveM]

I don't know about climate change, but for the past week it's been beastly hot here in Northern Minnesota....and it's NEVER hot in Northern Minnesota. Am getting cabin fever since leaving the air conditioning is almost a traumatic experience.

Not sure I like the idea of this becoming an ongoing trend....no, I definitely don't like it one bit.

[Dee]

Warmer air can hold more water and will unleash more energy when the weather turns bad, Grabs said, making storms heavier and boosting rainfall.

That mechanism may well explain an observed rise in flash floods in Europe over the last decade, he said.

Fisherman Schneider said flooded meadows offer breeding fish warmer water and more food, but most people would struggle to find benefit in flooding.

In recent weeks, parts of China have seen the heaviest rainfall since records began, killing more than 400.

Some 770 people have been killed by flooding in South Asia, with hundreds of thousands displaced by flash floods in southern Pakistan.

Thousands of flood victims in Britain last week were clearing chaos and braced for more after floods in northern parts of the country, triggering the country's biggest peacetime rescue effort.

European grain prices have risen to their highest level for around 10 years on fears that bad weather will hit this summer's crops, stoking food price inflation.

Initially, a spring drought caused damage to wheat crops across Europe and in key grower Ukraine.

Since June, heavy rain in western Europe has increased concerns over quality, which may leave bread-makers short of high-grade grain later this year.

'SOMETHING IS CHANGING'

Floods killed more than 7,000 people in the world last year, a recent study by reinsurance group Swiss Re study showed -- roughly a third of all victims of natural catastrophes such as storms, earthquakes, droughts and extreme cold or heat.

Statistics gathered by insurers -- who look at the cost of a catastrophe to measure its severity, not the death toll -- also indicate climate is changing.

"One single event can never be a sign of climate change," said Jens Mehlhorn, who heads a team of flood experts at the Zurich-based company.

"But when you see a series of such events, and that's what it looks like at the moment ... it may be about time to say something is changing," he said.

This year's UK floods were an event statistical models say should happen once only every 30 to 50 years, Mehlhorn says: the floods in 2000 were a 25-30 years event.

Two such events in only seven years are not statistically impossible, but they are unlikely. Other countries have seen similar increases in such disasters.

from: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/floods.force.many.to.face.climate.change.reality/11809.htm

[hoops]

sometimes i wonder if we are so scared we don't know how to deal with it and when that happens we need to just get it out of our heads for a while. i know that isn't the right thing to do, i know it's not the good thing to do, but it can be the real, human thing to do. it's like finding out that there is a serial killer in your area, you want to do something but you are so scared you just don't know what to do. i don't even know why i'm posting this, really, but i am. maybe someone can relate
peace
hoops

[Oak Kitten]

Dee,

You Canadians had better be careful. If you present evidence of climate change, GWB is likely to order up an invasion of Canada. That will be right after he invades the East Coast of the African continent to put a stop to all those hurricanes they keep sending our way. . .

Oak

[Dee]

East Coast Africa. That's where all those slaves got stolen from, right? Or was it West Coast?

Payback is such an ugly word.

:p