Global Warming. It would be nice if...

[Tiberius]

Originally posted by WarpStorm
Why is Antarctica cooler that it was in 1986? Why does satellite imagery show that the Antarctic icecaps growing?

Now that you brought this up:

The warmest year since records began in 1860 occurred in 1998, according to records maintained by countries that are members of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Nine of the 10 warmest years have occurred since 1990, including 1999 and 2000; only 1998 was warmer than 2001. Average global temperatures have risen by more than 0.6 °C over the past 100 years, although the rise has not been continuous.

[WarpStorm]

Yet Antarctica is cooler (1 degree since 1986 and that is causing ecological havoc), strange, huh?

[Demerzel]

sadly Global Warming is being linked with screwing up the Gulf Stream current, which if it cooled down and stopped flowing would leave most of Northern Europe & east coast of N. America seriously in trouble. IIRC avg. temperatures would drop up to ~10C for countries that relied on the current and would leave most peeps shivering. Scarily for me, apparently Britain might suddenly face Siberian-esque temps - a fair bit of rain is bad enough, -10C is not a pleasant thought

if even a fraction of the Antarctic ice melted then sea levels worldwide would rise enough to raise sea levels a couple of metres which would right royally screw countries like Bangladesh, Holland and leave most low lying areas worldwide underwater - e.g. for Americans say bye bye to LA, etc..

[Tiberius]

Who said that it is (only) Antarctica the problem (better not wait until it becomes one!!). The weather is increasingly extreme, with severe droughts in some places and torrential storms and floods in others.
The climate is changing, and probably (if you asked me, I'd say surely) because of polution.

[Tiberius]

Demerzel is right. Paradoxically, a general global warming may result in a cooler climate in some part of the world, and the reason behind this is the Gulf Stream.

[TheStinger]

I thought it was agreed global warming was happening but the reasons were disputed

[WarpStorm]

What did warm us up from the last ice age (only 10,000 years ago), anyway? In this case I'm pretty sure it's not human pollution.

The formatting on this link is annoying, but...

http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/nerc130k.html

[itsagreenday]

Zachriel

Why would you want to forest grassland after railroad? If it has a bonus resource, mining produces 2 food, 3 shields, without, 2 food, 2 shields, IIRC. Not to mention pollution is cleaned up twice as fast.

[Demerzel]

From http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/nerc130k.html
The unstable nature of the Earth's climate history suggests that it may be liable to change suddenly in the future. By putting large quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, humans are exerting pressure on the climate system which might produce a drastic change without much prior warning. As the geologist W.S. Broecker has said, "Climate is an ill-tempered beast, and we are poking it with sticks".

As it says, the Earth's climate is unstable but we're not exactly helping are we with all the crap thats being pumped into the atmosphere?

That's exactly why we need to cut back on the amount of pollutants that are being emitted. Stupid President Bush. Pity Gore didn't get in, at least he had a foreign policy, could have done a better job so far and couldn't have pissed off the world as much as Bush has.

Hmm mebbe too much anti-American rhetoric, must remember to tone it down in future, it's just that Bush is just so stupid at times.

[WarpStorm]

Why forest? Maybe to slow down invaders.

[Thrawn05]

What I did in my mod, is the oceans can "evaporate" away. Here is how I lad out this system:

Ocean turns to Sea, Sea turns to Coast, Coast turns to Desert.


Pretty nifty uh.


To tell you the truth, I only saw it happened once, but if your willing to play a game for a year (the game years are in the 10000s AD), then in the end, there should all desert and no water.

[Traelin]

Umm...no

Originally I had made this post lengthy, but apparently my session had timed out and my message was erased. A lot of you couldn't be more wrong about global warming. Check out http://www.globalwarming.org/brochure.html for more info. What a lot of you are forgetting is that we have, on a geological timescale, just exited an Ice Age. Of course the temperatures are going to rise in such a scenario!

Also, nothing inflames me more than a bunch of uninformed Euros telling me, an American, why we didn't sign the Kyoto Treaty. Umm, how about doing a bit of research? The U.S. Senate voted 95-0 against signing it because the severest of penalties are put on the DEVELOPED countries, but there are no restrictions on DEVELOPING countries. Hrm OK, so our economy suffers, but the developing countries have no restrictions on their progress?

By the way, I don't think I've ever posted here before, but I'm REALLY sick of people bashing my country. Next time a disaster occurs in Europe, don't come begging the U.S. for help. Like when we rescued France from immiment doom in WW2 and in 1957 (I think that was the year). Or when we send our volunteers to help Earthquake victims in Turkey. For once I'd like to see you all do something to help us, instead of incessantly whining.

'Nuff said.

[Tiberius]

I say Firaxis made it (somehow) right. Turning plains in desert, even if enoying, is pretty much realistic. Too bad they stopped here and let the whole thing unfinished.

[WarpStorm]

Of course the poking with sticks portion of the artcle is inconsistent with the general tone of the whole piece. Only in the next to the last and last sentences (the portion you quoted) does it even mention that mankind could have had anything to do with the major climactic changes in the past 130,000 years. Kind of like a political spin tacked on at the end. It even says that not that long ago (8000-4500 years ago) the earth was warmer and wetter (the Sahara grasslands) than currently.

[Tiberius]

Re: Umm...no

Originally posted by Traelin
The U.S. Senate voted 95-0 against signing it because the severest of penalties are put on the DEVELOPED countries, but there are no restrictions on DEVELOPING countries.

This is the best joke I've heard today. They are against it because the oil companies would suffer from it.

Why don't you take it this way:

If the scientists got it wrong, the only thing the Kyoto agreement will do is to somehow reduce pollution and speed up the use of alternative energy. There is a cost, yes, but
if they are right and we do nothing - we are all finished.