Is global warming even real?

Further information on the changes occurring in the North Slope area...

Climate change refers to change over time either due to natural variability or as a result of human activity (IPCC, 2008). Today the term is mostly used to describe global changes caused by the burning of fossil fuels and the warming effect caused by the transfer of enormous quantities of carbon dioxide from the earth to the air. But climate change also has local implications and communities seek adaptive strategies that encourage wellness and sustainability. The North Slope of Alaska is characterized by permafrost and ice. The wildlife, vegetation and people have specially adapted to live in an environment that is mostly cold and frozen. But because of warming, the environment is rapidly changing and a new Arctic is emerging, characterized by thawing land, open water and a longer warm season. For residents of the North Slope this means new challenges in building and maintaining infrastructure, for providing local services, collecting food and water, and safely navigating the land and seascape.
http://www.north-slope.org/assets/images/uploads/ANTHC_Atqasuk_7-31-14_web_FINAL.pdf
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There is a great deal of information on the effects of global warming in Atqasuk, Alaska - however, no pictures of sinking houses. I imagine that you will hold on to your climate change denial until you see the pictures, at which point you will probably declare them to be fakes or due to "bad planning on the part of the architect". Such is life on the river...

Here are some more links for those actually interested:

These reports describe climate impacts observed in Alaska communities and rely upon the observations, data and traditional ecological knowledge provided by local partners. Additionally, scientific data on environment, health and climate is provided where available. The purpose is to describe changes that are occuring so as to help in the development of adaptive strategies that encourage community health and resilience.

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Climate Change in Atqasuk, Alaska
Strategies for Community Health
July 2014

This report describes an assessment of climate change related health effects in Atqasuk, Alaska a traditional Inupiat community located on the west bank of the Meade River, 60 miles south of Barrow. Atqasuk residents report changes in the timing of the seasons, weather, land, and river conditions. Potential health effects include injury related to unusual travel conditions, damage to health infrastructure related to erosion and permafrost thaw and food insecurity related to changes in wildlife health and harvest success.(view 5.32 MB pdf click here)

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Climate Change in Nuiqsut, Alaska
Strategies for Community Health
July 2014

This report describes an assessment of climate change related health effects in Nuiqsut, Alaska a traditional Inupiat community located on the West bank of the Colville River, 18 miles south from the inlet to the Beaufort Sea. Nuiqsut residents report changes in the timing of the seasons, weather, land, river and sea conditions. Potential health effects include injury related to unusual travel conditions, damage to health infrastructure related to erosion and permafrost thaw, and food insecurity related to changes in wildlife health, harvest success, and thawing of traditional underground ice cellars. (view 5.19 MB pdf click here)

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Climate Change in Wainwright, Alaska
Strategies for Community Health
June 2014

This report describes an assessment of climate change related health effects in Wainwright a traditional Inupiat community located on the Chukchi Sea coast. Wainwright residents report changes in the timing of the seasons, weather, land, and sea conditions. The season for ice-based hunting is decreasing and the community is adapting harvest practices. Potential health effects include injury related to unusual travel conditions, damage to health infrastructure related to erosion and permafrost thaw, food insecurity related to changes in wildlife health, harvest success and thawing of traditional underground food cellars, and water insecurity related to infrastructure damage and loss of underground ice cellars. (view 4.83 MB pdf click here)​

 

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The only thing that ever went wrong here is that the reactionaries and laissez-faire anti-regulationists, and their mouthpieces, particularly those who use this to foster social conservatism, usu. by proclaiming that Earth is Adam's dominion, to abuse as he wishes, are refusing to admit to the evidence:

(1) There is a Greenhouse Effect. [Fourier, 1824]
(2) Carbon dioxide is a Greenhouse Gas. [Tyndall, 1860]
(3) Anthropogenic carbon dioxide is therefore accelerating the rate of global warming, faster than if left to natural causes. [Arrhenius, 1900; Callendar, 1937; Revelle, 1955; Keeling, 1958]
(4) This is old news.

 

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And so you support your nonsense by referring to someone else who badly failed at ordinary comprehension? Are you intending humor? It's hard to make jokes like that on a text forum. It looks completely sincere.

Nothing Trippy posted implies less snowfall in all of Alaska - that's another issue entirely, may or may not happen. Nothing about failing to drop below 0 Farenheit implies a shortage of snowfall - anyone familiar with Minnesota weather is familiar with the fact that warmer winter temps often accompany heavy snowfall at high latitudes. No one would be surprised to see that pattern over large areas of Alaska, if that's how it plays out. Amar sounds like he was dealing in Centigrade, anyway (his post makes absolutely no sense otherwise).

Meanwhile: sod often forms over permafrost. There are areas of this planet in which the permafrost starts quite deep - meters down - and entire landscapes with dirt and everything have formed on top of it. The shelters built by the dwellers thereon can be made of anything - rocks, sod, hides, whalebones, even wood in fortunate places. The problems of modern houses, which require foundations, do not afflict these temporary dwellings put up by seasonally or yearly or decadic nomadic folks. Their designs fit the locations - or used to.

Which is not the same thing as seeing extremely loaded events like "catastrophes" less often, or less immanent.

 

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Agreed. Your post is a good example of this - trying to attack the source (they are just "high school students" so what do they know?) instead of dealing with the issue rationally.

 

wasn't attacking
just clarifying

 

The Atqasuk area has a long history as a hunting and fishing ground for the Inupiaq people, with historical sod houses, ice cellars, and a gravesite testifying to this use. In World War II the area was mined for coal to be burned in Barrow and a small settlement was maintained under the name “Meade River” and had a post office from 1951 to 1957 (DCCED, 2014). The population did not grow significantly until the 1970s when an influx of people migrated to the village site from other communities across the North Slope, particularly Barrow.

Residents report having to travel farther for good berries and berries suffering in quality due to the strange weather patterns

a couple pages later:
Blueberries are growing closer to town (Mary Kay Bodfish)

During development of Atqasuk in the 1970s, some community members attempting to build ice cellars, but soil conditions were not favorable, and many of these ice cellars failed when ceilings or walls collapsed (Molly Ahkivgak; Cora Simmonds).

Methane gas seeps have been reported upriver of Atqasuk active enough to prevent river and lake ice from freezing (Paul Bodfish Sr.) Residents wonder whether the source is coal gas or instead methane produced from decomposition of material exposed by thawing permafrost. Traditional seep areas are well known but new sites can pose hazards for travelers crossing frozen rivers and lakes.

And then I quit reading.

You dont wonder if maybe the reason they have to travel further to gather berries/hunt is because they have overused the land? And yes, constant rains during the blueberry pollination time will impact the size/number of berries on a bush. Happened to me last summer. In Wisconsin.

And a (as in one) gravesite? Without a date/carbon test. So we dont know if this is another example of a people who moved on/disappeared around 1,000 a.d.

Go to google maps and type in Atqasuk AK. Then look at the rivers around. Notice the river beds have changed, and its obvious multiple shifts of the river bed. Its not a stable landscape around their city. Sorry but I remain unconvinced that this is a climate change issue, rather its the Monte Python Swamp Castle or maybe better described as a great place to camp but I wouldnt want to live there.

 

Yet the climate is changing, and has been since the last glaciation. So obviously this part of the world has been in a constant state of flux since then. And now, since anthropogenic CO2 has accelerated the Greenhouse Effect, it stands to reason that this part of Alaska is undergoing a more rapid warming trend.

Without any other empirical evidence, short of Fourier's 1824 discovery of the Greenhouse Effect, and Tyndalls's ca 1860 discovery of the heat absorption of CO2, we can reasonably establish that this region in Alaska is experiencing climate change, accelerated by human industry. And unfortunately, short of some of cataclysm, you would be hard pressed to come up with facts to support the belief that this part of Alaska is not feeling the harmful effects of climate change/global warming, accelerated by human industry.

So why even argue a moot issue? Rising CO2 levels accelerate global warming. Why is that key fact constantly being buried, and why is settled science so hard to understand, among the pro-laissez faire and socially conservative pundits who keep attacking climate science and the related fields (such as biology) which are constantly reporting evidence of the harmful consequences ?

 

This from the guy who thought that "permafrost" meant surface soil was frozen year-round.

There was a good post above - "It seems that when people get emotionally invested, they are less prone to inculcating new knowledge if that new knowledge flies in the face of their assumed positions. And, consequently more defensive about those positions." My recommendation - get a little less defensive, discard your political prejudices and learn the basic science behind what you post about before you make errors like the one above. You may learn something.

 

You should re-read what I asked you. I asked you (basically) how they could build sod houses if it was frozen all the time.
1000 years ago...

Its not permanently frozen, I am well aware of that. Its me whos not surprised some of these houses sink into the permafrost areas and I credit that to bad planning rather than 'climate change'.

http://commerce.state.ak.us/dnn/dcr...geRelocationHistory/NewtokHistoryPartOne.aspx

Its not uncommon in N. America for government to decide a nomadic/semi-nomadic people should settle onto some patch of land and become 'civilized'. It has not turned out well for many of these peoples. Can you answer the questions I ask?

You dont wonder if maybe the reason they have to travel further to gather berries/hunt is because they have overused the land nearby?

And a (as in one) gravesite? Without a date/carbon test (in the article). So we dont know if this is another example of people who moved on/disappeared around 1,000 a.d. We also do not know via the article posted whether the sod houses were winter camps like in Newtok. We just dont know by the information presented.

 

If what was frozen all the time?
A very odd question: They built them by carefully stacking cut-out chunks of sod - the stuff that was growing in that area, in the active layer ecologically characteristic of that part of the world. What is puzzling about that?

 

circa 1960
Some person of unknown mental illness built a shopping center partially on reclaimed swampland in northeastern Illinois.
Within a few short years, one end of the building slowly sank into the soil, such that the windows that started out 4 ft above ground were even with the pavement at that end of the building.
Today, in another location, some other person looking for a convenient talking point might blame that on global warming.
Rather than accept personal responsibility for really poor planning, some folks will grasp at any vague excuse that might find a gullible audience.

Locally, it is well known that rivers flood from time to time, and people still build in floodplains, then want some government agency to bail them out after a natural event and really poor decision making. ("But it was so pretty")

....
stray thought
Is there a significant difference between "likely" and "most likely" ?

 

-22c here
I want my promised global warming and I want it now

 

Unfortunately, most human habitation is near coastlines and rivers. And in some countries, a significant portion of the land is only a few feet above sea level. Like Florida. I know it would have been better to never inhabit Florida, but that's hardly something we can undo easily.

 

You got it.

 

Yes, you did - which reveals a pretty basic misconception you had about what permafrost is. Not a big deal; we all make mistakes. However, it looked like you were doubling down on your mistake with some sort of "no, I know exactly what permafrost is! What I really meant was . . . "

Again, there was a good post above about how defensive some people get about their positions once they get emotional about them. They start just trying to prove themselves right at all costs and they stop learning. That's unfortunate - but common here.

 

Fly south like birds do. It's hot as hell down there right now.

Be sure to photograph the massive die-offs, where spring arrived too early and the birds starved to death.

Then maybe you won't wish for a warmer winter.

 

Nobody has done anything like that around here. Where is this hypothetical location where there is no reality supporting the global warming observations?

Graph the temperature drops overnight, as you rediscover that winter in January is often cold. It's like developing a negative - the picture emerges as if by magic.

This may be the first January in many years in which it does not rain in central Minnesota - we would need another 120 or so non-raining Januaries to average the current streak of raining ones since the 90s and restore the historical statistical status quo (1/7).