Global Warming

[Locutus]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists say critical ice in the Arctic Ocean melted to record low levels this overheated summer.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center reported Monday that the extent of Arctic sea ice shrank to 1.58 million square miles and is likely to melt more in the coming weeks. That breaks the old record of 1.61 million square miles set in 2007. Figures are based on satellite records dating back to 1979.

Data center scientist Ted Scambos says the melt can be blamed mostly on global warming from man-made emissions of greenhouse gases.

Scientists say Arctic sea ice — ocean water that freezes — helps moderate temperatures lower on the globe and is crucial for polar bears. Greenland has also had record melt this year.

[Locutus]

Good thing global warming is a lie. 

[Henry Hawk]

Good thing global warming is a lie. 

just the man-made part

[Exterminator]

From Chris Mooney:

What accounts for the "smart idiot" effect?
For one thing, well-informed or well-educated conservatives probably consume more conservative news and opinion, such as by watching Fox News. Thus, they are more likely to know what they're supposed to think about the issues—what people like them think—and to be familiar with the arguments or reasons for holding these views. If challenged, they can then recall and reiterate these arguments. They've made them a part of their identities, a part of their brains, and in doing so, they've drawn a strong emotional connection between certain "facts" or claims, and their deeply held political values. And they're ready to argue.

What this suggests, critically, is that sophisticated conservatives may be very different from unsophisticated or less-informed ones. Paradoxically, we would expect less informed conservatives to be easier to persuade, and more responsive to new and challenging information.

In fact, there is even research suggesting that the most rigid and inflexible breed of conservatives—so-called authoritarians—do not really become their ideological selves until they actually learn something about politics first. A kind of "authoritarian activation" needs to occur, and it happens through the development of political "expertise." Consuming a lot of political information seems to help authoritarians feel who they are—whereupon they become more accepting of inequality, more dogmatically traditionalist, and more resistant to change.

So now the big question: Are liberals also "smart idiots"?

There's no doubt that more knowledge—or more political engagement—can produce more bias on either side of the aisle. That's because it forges a stronger bond between our emotions and identities on the one hand, and a particular body of facts on the other.

But there are also reason to think that, with liberals, there is something else going on. Liberals, to quote George Lakoff, subscribe to a view that might be dubbed "Old Enlightenment reason." They really do seem to like facts; it seems to be part of who they are. And fascinatingly, in Kahan's study liberals did not act like smart idiots when the question posed was about the safety of nuclear power.

Nuclear power is a classic test case for liberal biases—kind of the flip side of the global warming issue–for the following reason. It's well known that liberals tend to start out distrustful of nuclear energy: There's a long history of this on the left. But this impulse puts them at odds with the views of the scientific community on the matter (scientists tend to think nuclear power risks are overblown, especially in light of the dangers of other energy sources, like coal).

So are liberals "smart idiots" on nukes? Not in Kahan's study. As members of the "egalitarian communitarian" group in the study—people with more liberal values–knew more science and math, they did not become more worried, overall, about the risks of nuclear power. Rather, they moved in the opposite direction from where these initial impulses would have taken them. They become less worried—and, I might add, closer to the opinion of the scientific community on the matter.

You may or may not support nuclear power personally, but let's face it: This is not the "smart idiot" effect. It looks a lot more like open-mindedness.

[Bo D]

It looks a lot more like open-mindedness.

You have to have a mind to be open-minded. 

[Locutus]

You have to have a mind to be open-minded. 

[Bo D]

For those of you who can comprehend .....

Experts: Global warming means more Antarctic ice
http://www.rdmag.com/news/2012/10/experts-global-warming-means-more-antarctic-ice?et_cid=2892062&et_rid=54725525&linkid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.rdmag.com%2fnews%2f2012%2f10%2fexperts-global-warming-means-more-antarctic-ice

[The Troll]

For those of you who can comprehend .....

Experts: Global warming means more Antarctic ice
http://www.rdmag.com/news/2012/10/experts-global-warming-means-more-antarctic-ice?et_cid=2892062&et_rid=54725525&linkid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.rdmag.com%2fnews%2f2012%2f10%2fexperts-global-warming-means-more-antarctic-ice

  The Old Shell Back would probably ask.  If all that ice gather on the South Pole would that make the earth turn upside down and the poles change?    Just saying.   

[Palehorse]

12:45PM EDT October 19. 2012 -

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — A massive dust storm swirling reddish-brown clouds over northern Oklahoma triggered a multi-vehicle accident along a major interstate Thursday, forcing police to shut down part of the heavily traveled roadway amid near blackout conditions. . .

http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2012/10/19/dust-storm-shuts-down-interstate-in-northern-okla/1643851/

Here we go. . .

[The Troll]

12:45PM EDT October 19. 2012 -

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — A massive dust storm swirling reddish-brown clouds over northern Oklahoma triggered a multi-vehicle accident along a major interstate Thursday, forcing police to shut down part of the heavily traveled roadway amid near blackout conditions. . .

http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2012/10/19/dust-storm-shuts-down-interstate-in-northern-okla/1643851/

Here we go. . .

  I have wondered what would happen then those greedy farmers out there in Oklahoma cut down those trees.  Thousands of trees the government planted in wind rows to keep another dust bowl from forming again.     The greedy bastards wanted a few more acres of wheat than some trees to cut down the speed of the wind.   

  Maybe they shouldn't have cut instead of cut, plow, reap and get a dust bowl.  You reap what you sow.   

[Palehorse]

Sandy is starting to affect us here in South Florida.  Interesting comments from the weather people about its future track and potential collision with a winter storm coming in from the west, and an arctic air mass sweeping down from the north.  It'll be interesting to see how this one plays out.  It seems eerily like The Perfect Storm. 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49546844/ns/weather/#.UIlK1rSifoF

An excerpt states:

For the U.S., the threat keeps increasing for "a major impact in the Northeast, New York area," said James Franklin, chief specialist at the National Hurricane Center. "In fact it would be such a big storm that it would affect all of the Northeast."

Cisco noted the 1991 "Perfect Storm" didn't hit as populated an area and is not comparable to what the East Coast may be facing. Nor is it like last year's Halloween storm, which was merely an early snowstorm in the Northeast.

This has much more mess potential because it is a combination of different storm types that could produce a real whopper of weather problems, meteorologists say.

"The 'Perfect Storm' only did $200 million of damage and I'm thinking a billion," said Jeff Masters, meteorology director of the private service Weather Underground. "Yeah, it will be worse."

Cisco said the chance of the storm smacking the East jumped from 60 percent to 70 percent on Wednesday.

Masters was somewhat skeptical on Tuesday, giving the storm scenario just a 40 percent likelihood, but on Wednesday he also upped that to 70 percent. The remaining computer models that previously hadn't shown the merger and mega-storm formation now predict a similar scenario.

While this was posted elsewhere on the forum, I am quoting it here as yet another example of the extreme weather events driven by global warming.

[Locutus]

A Perfect Storm.  It will be interesting to see if the models play out like they're showing and these three systems conjoin to produce a monster storm.  I wouldn't want to be in the New York or Boston areas this weekend.  I'll be just fine watching the news from way down south here in Florida. 

[Sandy Eggo]

Sandy is starting to affect us here in South Florida.

Lies and slander

[Locutus]

Lies and slander

[The Troll]

just the man-made part

  Why don't you reach up your ass and pull out your brain.  Let it get some sunshine and air and send it to a good scientific college.  When you make a statement like that you have to have your brain stored up in your ass, Skippy.