Do Human Activities Contribute to Global Warming?

I posted some thoughts on Global Warming a while back. I think they were a bit unpopular or maybe just unconventional.

 Anyway, today I received an email that brought this article to my attention. Its from Fox's website at http://www.foxnews.com/

Unconventional Wisdom

Climate scientists from three American universities have published peer-reviewed research indicating global warming cannot be affected or modified by controlling the emission of greenhouse gases - and that current greenhouse computer models saying otherwise are wrong.

The report in the International Journal of Climatology of the Royal Meteorological Society was written by professors from the universities of Rochester, Alabama and Virginia.

Lead author David Douglass of Rochester writes - "The inescapable conclusion is that the human contribution is not significant and that observed increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases make only a negligible contribution to climate warming."

The report says satellite data indicates greenhouse computer models ignore the mitigating effects of clouds and water vapor on the warming properties of carbon dioxide.

It says climate change is most likely caused by variations in solar winds and associated magnetic fields.

A senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress tells Cybercast News the study is "radically out of step with the complete scientific consensus".

The American Chestnut

 http://www.uoguelph.ca/~chestnut/novascotia.htm

All right, so my last post about global warming sounded a bit cranky. Well if the truth be told the whole discussion has me a bit irritated.

I like practical solutions to problems rather than knee jerk reactions. Here is a case in point.

There is a beautiful tree called the American Chestnut that is endangered and has been since the 1950’s.

This tree, once called “The Redwood of the East” produces an edible nut and was once the most common tree species in the Eastern United States.

Although Nova Scotia is out of its natural range we do have a handful of these magnificent trees.

Speculation is that when the United Empire Loyalists emigrated here after the American War of Independence they brought the seeds of the American Chestnut with them. You can see from the picture that these trees are big, capable of growing to well over one hundred feet tall with trunks ten feet around.

The lumber is light and strong with a lovely straight grain. It was used to make everything from shingles to furniture.

 Because of the amount of tannic acid in the wood it was especially useful for outdoor applications like making telephone poles.

 http://www.uoguelph.ca/~chestnut/novascotia.htm

We have all heard the song lyric, “chestnuts roasting on an open fire…” well these are the nuts they are talking about. The nuts fed not only people but woodland creatures such as bears, deer, squirrels, raccoons, birds and more counted on their bounty as well.

In the late 1800’s chestnut trees from Asia were imported into North America. I’m not sure why, probably for ornamental reasons. In 1904 a fungus was found to be killing American Chestnut trees in New York. By 1950, about three and a half billion American Chestnut trees were dead. That’s 90 per cent of the species –gone.

Late in the 1980’s a group called The American Chestnut Foundation began working on a way to bring these trees back. They cross bred seed from the survivors with fungus resistant seed from China and then bred the fungus resistant hybrids with pure American Chestnuts.

 By this backcrossing they now have a tree which is a fungus resistant American Chestnut. Well, to be precise I guess its 94% American Chestnut and 6% Chinese Chestnut but still what an amazing accomplishment.

I admire the folks who did this work. Others may have spent their energy pushing for a ban on all ornamental trees or feeding the squirrels displaced by the lack of nuts, I should specify edible nuts when discussing possible reactions.

These folks at The American Chestnut Foundation thought the problem through, decided on a practical and more importantly possible solution, and then quietly set about the work.

They have saved a species. Because of their quiet dedication we, or our children, will someday see the restoration of the natural forests of North America.

They are the sort of folks I'd like to hear more from on issues such as climate change.

Global Warming or Just More Hot Air?

fossil fern

Here is a picture of a beautiful fossil I found in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia.

This fern grew and died in a tropical jungle right here in Nova Scotia over 350 million years ago. Between its germination and the time I picked up its fossilized remains, this small bit of the earth has gone through some astonishing changes.

Here is a quick overview: 350 million years ago Nova Scotia was covered with thick, tropical, swamp forests.

It was the Carboniferous Age when the thick coal beds were laid down that are still mined today.

The province itself was a lot closer to the equator and slowly drifting toward its present position.

 100 million years later saw the Age of Dinosaurs. Many significant dinosaur fossils have been found here.

5 million years later saw the first of a series of extinction events: One at 245 million years ago another at 208 million years ago and a major extinction event at the beginning of the age of mammals, around 66 million years ago.

Nearly 65 million years ago is when the continents were near to their present shapes and locations.

Nova Scotia’s climate was hot and temperate. Around 4 million years ago the ancestors of man, mammals known as Hominids begin to appear on another continent far from Nova Scotia. The climate continues to be hot and temperate until just under 2 million years ago when we enter an Ice Age.

As far as I know, no one has actually declared the last Ice Age to be over quite yet.

I think that when I consider the current news about global warming my reaction is tempered by the knowledge that change is the only constant so far in the Earth’s history.

I also expect as we emerge from an Ice Age that temperatures will vary and weather patterns will become erratic.

In its simplest form, the engine that drives weather is the energy transference between cold air masses and warmer ones, ocean currents are driven by the same forces. So our present, somewhat chaotic weather patterns make sense to me.

 I have no doubt that man can make a terrible mess of his immediate environment.

I do have some doubt that we can cause an ice age to begin or end.

I guess my overall take on the current “crisis” is best summed up in a quote from Andrew over at Green Fatigue, “There is a technical term for this kind of projection of various unrelated ideas onto an ill-defined goal; it's called a pile of bullshit.”