Extreme weather getting worse - and climate change to blame, studies say

Source: Associated Press

Extreme rainstorms and snowfalls have grown substantially stronger, two studies suggest, with scientists for the first time finding the telltale fingerprints of man-made global warming on downpours that often cause deadly flooding.

Two studies in Wednesday's issue of the journal Nature link heavy rains to increases in greenhouse gases more than ever before.

... The study did not single out specific storms but examined worst-of-each-year events all over the Northern Hemisphere. While the study ended in 1999, the close of the decade when scientists say climate change kicked into a higher gear, the events examined were similar to more recent disasters: deluges that triggered last year's deadly floods in Pakistan and in Nashville, Tenn., and this winter's paralyzing blizzards in parts of the United States.

... Both studies should weaken the argument that climate change is a “victimless crime,” said Myles Allen of the University of Oxford. He co-authored the second study, which connected flooding and climate change in Britain. “Extreme weather is what actually hurts people.”

Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/science/extreme-weather-getting-worse---and-climate-change-to-blame-studies-say/article1910066/

:sarcasm:

Though it has been a bit better lately, the right has so crippled the mainstream that they are afraid to say anything. Who says the argument doesn't go to he who shouts the loudest?

on the right wing radio stations- very disgusting.

The AP finally wakes up?
Very doubtful....

Thanks for the thread, Newsjock.

Butwhaddatheyknow?

:sarcasm:

Women in the work place, women having full control over their own bodies & EVOLUTION being taught in public schools that is the cause of all the bad weather not man made climate change!

GOD IS VERY ANGRY AT US FOR DEFYING HIS LAWS!!

Of course this is what most on the Right think & I clearly do not but I have learned my lesson in the past for not posting a disclaimer so here it is...

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For the baby jesus.

and we should be working on solar batteries!!

End animal-eating for the sake of the planet!

And where does that electricity come from?

Coal fire plants? Nuclear plants?


End animal eating? Humans are omnivores.


Try to stay real, will ya?

It generates much less CO2 than combustion engines in every car. And it has the possibility of being generated by solar or wind.

combo, combined with a small to mid sized battery pack. (50-100 km range)

Add in a bank of supercaps for regenerative braking and a kick in the seat at takeoff and we're really getting somewhere.

Strikes me that this is a far, far better and simpler arangement than any parallel ICE/electric hybrid.

Realistically the entire motive part of a modern vehicle could be reduced to a flat 20-25 cm thick slab with a powered steerable wheel at each corner. And the people carrier a crush proof box filled with airbags and surrounded by crumple zones bolted on top.

Expand the concept all the way out to Tinker Toy motor cars. 1 or 2 turbines (even 0 for a short hop runabout), 2 (+2 aux steering motors) or 4 drive wheels, pick your hub motor power, size your battery to suit your needs. Perhaps even make high efficiency, high capacity (very high price) batteries a hireable accessory for touring. Make it all so bloody simple that even slightly incompetent people could, in an afternoon, completely rebuild their car from a zero emission city runabout to an all day touring car that gets over 100 mpg while running on fracked canola oil or biogas.

If your house is on self-contained solar power, swap house and car batteries over, (keeps the fridge running off grid while you're away) put on the big motors and put in the second turbine if you're towing a caravan or boat. All accomplished with a toolkit smaller than the average purse.

Done right, it would make at least a part of V2G (vehicle to grid) concepts, that I usually pooh-pooh, sociologically as well as practically feasible.

"Even more efficient would be a small high efficiency gas turbine/generator . . ."

Turbine engines have not worked out nearly as well as anticipated, but that may be changing.

"... combined with a small to mid sized battery pack. (50-100 km range)"

That would be about $10-30K of lithium batteries.

"Add in a bank of supercaps for regenerative braking . . ."

The cost of supercaps and their volume is probably going to be a problem.

It's less battery pack than goes into current BEVs.
Supercaps + regen braking is a not uncommon addition to existing experimental EVs.

Mass produced, such a vehicle *should* shit all over something like the Prius for price and ecconomy.

of solar batteries now --

Imagine one day we'll find out that 60 years ago -- or longer -- we had many

alternative energy projects which were closed -- or bought out.

Right now, an electric car powered by the dirtiest coal plant emits less carbon than an equivalent petrol car. As you switch to more renewable sources, it gets even cleaner.

As for meat - we probably should cut down, but probably a more practical solution is to eliminate feedlots. Cows that graze on natural grass are actually carbon negative: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1953692-2,00.html

I agree.
But it's still a band aid of sorts. But anything to help. I'm for much more public transpo, like high speed trains. I live in NC and I should be able to get on a train in Wilmington, and go to Raleigh/Durham, or Greensboro/Winston-Salem or Charlotte (and vise versa) in a matter of a few hours.... and back. What if there was a whoopty-doo classy modern "Orient Express" that went from say Atlanta to LA, or certainly NYC to LA and stopped at places of interest along the way. A sorta "land cruise". Don't you think people would "do" that trip? Whatever happened to the trolley for local travel?


And meat should definitely be minimized. You only need it at 2 or 3 meals a week. Or, like with Chinese cooking, used as a flavoring, or among veggies. All these mega farms should be broken up into smaller units.

Totally agree with that, and its starting to happen. Even car-centric cities like Los Angeles are putting in light rail, and inter-city trains will be next.

As for intercontinental, I think it might be a limited market. High speed rail works best in the 200-500 mile range, where it's approximately the same travel time as airplanes, but cheaper. Anything over 1000 miles and airplanes still beat trains.

and we haven't turned it around yet -- probably a much longer push!

Humans have no need to eat animals -- in fact, we become ill when we are

undereating vegetation and fruits -- Spina Bifida being once such issue --

neural cord disorders!

man does not affect the earth! *sarcasm*

I guess they fell prey to the Snow=Al Gore was wrong meme

I love the one about how everytime it snows Al Gore makes more money which is usually uttered by the same dunderheads who exult capitalism by any means as the only virtuous way of life. If Al Gore makes money off the weather wouldn't that be a good thing?

In the name of "fairness" all the news organizations will invite a scientist (who isn't great at public speaking) and a repuke talking head on air to "debate". Somehow it's lost on cable news channels how you can "debate" scientific fact.

I am SO glad the Corporate Alphas know better than me what they know. A Delta like me could NEVER handle info like that...

broadcasting their sports on right wing radio stations? limbaugh does a regular denial segment and all the rest are on the same page, constantly dissing everything green and pushing oil and gas deregulation, fracking, and nuclear.

those unis need to be shamed by students faculty and community until they find alternatives.

that one reason why he is so anti-green...it's all about cash, the only "green" he truly embraces

i wonder if he's getting paid just for that. be great if anonymous could get into the real contract.

limbaugh would also do it for hate of all things liberal green.

Oh yeah... Oxycontin is white, and Viagra is blue.

I hear all the time that man could not be responsible for this, and every study I see says just the opposite. President Obama should make this a high priority for his administration, but I fear he won't put in the effort to do what's necessary to combat this growing and dangerous problem.

wasn't normal?

:sarcasm: