Global Warming
 Photo courtesy of felice9992000 |
I am no expert on global warming, but it appears to be clear from the evidence that I've seen that the planet is getting hotter. For a good review of the data watch "An Inconvenient Truth" which I just saw this weekend. Although it is clear that the temperature of the earth is increasing, one thing that I remained unconvinced of is the role of humans in that process. The movie, as far as I noticed, only claimed that population was increasing in a way that seemed to match temperature increases. Correlation, however, is not causation. Anyway I haven't decided on the role of humans in global warming yet. The article below makes the point that at least a part of the warming is being caused by increasing temperatures on the sun. Regardless of the cause however, we have a vital interest in decreasing global warming. How we go about that though may depend a lot of the causes. BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Sunspots reaching 1,000-year high "A new analysis shows that the Sun is more active now than it has been at anytime in the previous 1,000 years. Scientists based at the Institute for Astronomy in Zurich used ice cores from Greenland to construct a picture of our star's activity in the past. They say that over the last century the number of sunspots rose at the same time that the Earth's climate became steadily warmer. This trend is being amplified by gases from fossil fuel burning, they argue." |
(Stuff That Matters) Permanent Link made 5:05 PM | TrackBacks (0)