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For the extreme weather all over the world, and since Americans are rather self-centered, in the United States. There, that should get people's attention -- this could affect YOU.
Consider for a moment - a Category 5 storm churns through Central America. Thankfully, the death toll is minimal. Meanwhile, rainstorms are swamping the Midwest. So far, 22 people have died. More deaths there than from the Cat 5. Being a Midwestern, I keep close attention on how weather might be affecting friends and family. It's pretty frightening. And disconcerting.
Bloggers and I have discussed in length the validity of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" and frankly fans and foes each have sound arguments. Thus, I'm trusting what I see. I see the Midwest under water. I see a Cat 5 storm mosey across Central America and wander toward Mexico.
I'm not a scientist, but I believe my eyes. Something ain't right, folks.
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and population.
Gee, Lallen; How many people lived in Oklahoma with the ability to communicate their instant weather conditions in 1650? How many people lived in Central America right in the coast in 1100 to tell us about hurricanes?
The reason for the increase in wild weather is mass communication, not that it happens any more often. Give this a break. There is NO WAY to normalize the occurrence of so-called extreme weather events to take into account the growth in population, the concentration of population in coastal and other more risky areas like river valleys and flood zones, AND instant, mass communications. When the good land gets taken, people go to the less desirable land.
Lisa, just look around Beaufort. Where did the indigenous indians put their settlements around here? Not on Hunting or Hilton Head - they lived INLAND. Why? In the first instance because they could. But the real reason was to be safe from storms.
The midwest is not 'under water.' A VERY small area of Ohio around Findlay was flooded by a mesoconvective complex which did not move. This is due to the high pressure and low steering currents. Toldedo is not flooded, Cleveland is not flooded, this is small concentrated area. Again, a very SMALL area of a part of east central Oklahoma had the same problem. Then, the issue happened in a dry wash - an area that usually is dry - people lived there. They should not have lived there. There is a reason why there are broad 'dry' washes across that part of the nation. Look on a topogrpahic map and you will a series of undulating troughs and ridgelines - they were caused by melting ice. They were old wide, broad rivers. So, when you get excessive rainfall - they start to fill.
The floods in Findlay, OH are as bad as they were in 100 years - they were worse 100 years ago. What does that tell you? That it has been worse in the past. It is not 'unprecedented.'
I will not buy this chicken little reaction that since we have not seen weather like this, it must be due to global warming, cooling or whatever it is. The Earth's cycles last hundreds of years some times - there are no humans alive who can tell us what the weather was like in 1885 or 1585 in Oklahoma. Moreover, humans have a timespan of about 40 years - their working years. After you have the 'Storm of the Century' in 1994 bringing SNOW to Atlanta [ remember that one? Yet, according to Al gore the 1990's were the warmest in history - warmth and snow just do not go together in my life experience] is the storm of the last half of the 20th century. How many reporters are around from 1912 to tell us about snow in Atlanta? If there was snow in Atlanta, no one tried to 'drive' in it - they just stayed home til it melted the next day. No panic, no press reports of paralyzing snow falls - no one really cared. It was weather, and it changed from day to day.
Think Jesus Christ would have had a greater impact with CNN/FOX and CBN than he had preaching to hundreds and thousands at a time?
Even recorded history is not even an eyeblink in geological time. We simply do not know of the weather patterns over long periods of time. We do speculate that there are recurring patterns, but the only recurring patterns that we are familiar with are those in recent history. There are general patterns that oocur over millions of years, such as the ice age and then there are smaller cycles within those longer cycles.
In recorded history, we can read about anecdotal stories of patterns that were significant enough to be recorded. Even in some of the stories we can read since the Europeans settled the US will have stories of torrential rains, droughts and severe storms.
It has only been about a hundred years since the midwest went though a long drought. Stories were recording of farmers resettling because of the drought and dust storms. That pattern changed and now we have more rain, including flooding in some areas.
Even locally, in my lifetime, 73 years, I have seen rainy summers and drier summers. The 1960's was a rainy and very cold period. I had never seen snow until the late 1960s, then some in the '70s and some in the 1980s. Probably about every 10 years. This spring and summer has been very dry.
Statistically, they figure a hurricane in this area about every 20 years, but even that is not accurate.
I don't buy into Al Gore's campaign, simply because there is too much debate among notable scientists. If the evidence were clear, they would all be signing on.
Meanwhile, we will all observe the weather, debate the patterns and talk about it when we have nothing else to discuss. It's a subject we can talk about, even to strangers.
Again, you guys took the words right out of my mouth.
Al Gore's Tunnel Vision seems to be contagious among those who don't (or refuse to) see the Big Picture regarding the ever-changing weather patterns over the centuries -
Thanks for pointing out the obvious!