Global Warming Scientists Meet During Record Cold in California
by Frances Martel 14 Dec 2013,
11:11 AM PDT
The American Geophysical Union--a
group of scientists among whom are many of the most respected names in global
warming studies--held their annual fall meeting in San Francisco this week. The
weather that greeted them had little warmth to boast, however: the Bay Area has
seen dangerous, record-setting cold temperatures this week.
The AGU holds regular seasonal
conferences in which top scientists from all earth and interplanetary science
fields participate. This year's meeting, beginning on December 9th and
concluding on Friday, included several exhibitions on space exploration,
extreme weather events, and studies on the impact of various natural energy
resource gathering techniques on the planet. It also included a panel on the Arctic and the dangers of a "sustained warming trend
in the region," as well as a panel dedicated to the findings of the United
Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change.
The full list of events for the
weekend is on AGU's website.
The panels had varying takes on
the impact of global warming. The panel on the climate changes of the Arctic revealed particularly intriguing information about
the planet's climate. As reported in Time this past summer, "much of the Arctic was cooler than it had been in years," something
conference participant David M. Kennedy called "a bit of a break in 2013
from the recent string of record-breaking warmth." He hastened to explain,
however, that the good news was, as Time puts it, still "a bad one
historically."
Meanwhile, the United Nations
panelists stood out in the conference for what they didn't reveal: information
on how clouds affect climate change; they admitted the scientific community
significantly lacks such research. Other events at the conference attempted to
pinpoint specific solutions for the climate change issue, including how to
reduce methane and other toxic emissions. (The answer? Nuclear power.)
In a classic case of the Gore Effect, these global warming
presentations occurred in a month seeing record colds in the city of San Francisco.
Temperatures in San José
fell to a record-shattering 30 degrees Fahrenheit--so low that it has caused
deaths by hypothermia in the area. The cold also caused serious issues with
black ice on the roads, not something with which the usual Bay Area driver must
contend. The cold weather was not limited to the Bay Area, however. Over 2,000
temperature records were shattered nationwide.
The scientific community has faced
increased problems in explaining the slowing of the global warming trend in the
past several years when their numbers appeared to have predicted a much
steadier increase. Even reports by the IPCC--a group present at the AGU
conference--demonstrate that the globe failed to reach the temperatures
expected due to carbon dioxide emissions this year, as well as how the benefits
of an increase in plant life and crops from a steadying warming trend would
outweigh the harm of climate change. Some studies have even speculated that
humans have a much smaller impact on climate change than previously believed.
The reality of such cold
temperatures amid calls of potential disturbances thanks to record heat are
certainly not ideal for climate scientists. However, what these record cold
temperatures mean for climate change theorists is yet to be seen. Given that
they occurred during this year's AGU meeting, we might expect a study by the
fall meeting in 2014 that attempts to explain this precipitous temperature drop
in the context of larger-scale climate change.
Climate Change
Albert
A. Gore Jr. is the chairman for the Climate
Reality Project.
Note: Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Climate Reality Project.
George
Soros is the chairman for the Foundation
to Promote Open Society.
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