More on Global Warming

I am actually happy to see people posting and debating and asking questions regarding my blog on global warming.

I would like to suggest people who haven't, read a few general articles regarding global warming. Like this article from Time magazine, written before Al Gore’s movie/book came out. Good information article for the layman.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1176980,00.html

Then read the following regarding snow and global warming, they illustrate that global climate change will have different effects in different parts of the world. It is a complex system, but the general workings of climate are long known and understood. (For example, warmer temps over water equals more ability to hold moisture= more snow. We live in an area where temps go from below 0 to 95+. Global warming of 2 to 5 or even 10 degrees in our area in the winter doesn’t have to mean no snow at all, it may mean MORE snow in fact- snow happens at the freezing point and the Northeast gets a lot of our snow from fronts moving over the lakes).

Warmer temps at the poles though can have different effects than here inland because of the glacial ice melting, ice that is floating in water, which attracts sun’s rays and heats up quicker than land. This is where the problem with the sea levels stems from. There are millions of people that live at or below sea level and flooding of coastal cities can cause major devastation as we saw in New Orleans.

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/22770/story.htm

http://news.com.com/Global+warming+to+bring+heavier+rains,+snow/2100-11395_3-5895784.html

http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/globalwarmA.html

My points about global warming are:

CO2 levels in the atmosphere ARE and HAVE BEEN rising since the industrial revolution.
The more CO2 in the atmosphere, the more “trapped” the sun’s rays become on Earth.

We ARE seeing a global rise in temperature, overall.

(Both of the above have been recorded and you can find the numbers/graphs quite easily if you look)

But regardless

No matter what your belief is about global warming, why it is happening, or even if you think it isn’t…what is the harm in trying to lower our CO2 emissions? What is wrong with better safe than sorry?

MONEY. More important than trying to find cleaner, more efficient ways to fuel our vehicles and heat our homes. More important than anything else….? Not to me. And frankly I hope I am wrong about global warming, but I don’t think I am and I am not taking the chance, so I teach my kids and I speak out, but I try my darndest not to be rude about it. I think everyone is entitled to their opinion and of course is welcome to express it, but it should be constructive and not mean-spirited and preferably be based on some sort of science, not just casual observation and the "feeling" that someone is trying to make our lives more difficult because of some political agenda. I, for one, don't have a political agenda, I just have the belief that we should leave a good place for our children and our children's children to live in.