EnviroLink Forum

If Earth is warming, and winters are becoming less severe, then those who live in the northern tiers should be looking forward to not having as much snow to shovel in the wintertime, shouldn't they?

I hope so. Who likes shoveling snow? I have read where the growing season in Minnesota is a month longer that 20 years ago. This year people were actually able to swim for prolonged periods in the ocean off the coast of Maine. Several oil drilling companies and countries can't wait for the Northwest Passage to stay clear of ice.
However, it seems that the downside is that climate fluctuations are more numerous. Earlier frost sometimes, later frosts in the spring, flooding, drought, more powerful storm systems, heat waves, cold waves, dust storms and wildfires increasing. You may not shovel one winter, then another be buried. Odd stuff like bugs being where they shouldn't be, migration changes, and die offs of species from areas they were predominant. Invasive species moving in. Crop growing areas moving, but the farms and vineyards not moving, or unable to move. Methane releases from melting tundra and even now deep from ocean warming. Of course, things built on the tundra are destabilizing. Increased desertification of former growing areas and forests cut down unable to return. The changing of the ocean chemistry.
It is generally concluded that the changes are happening too fast for adaptation and will become genuinely malevolent if CO2 from human burning and land clearing practices is not cut around 90% in a decade.
Most climate scientists say that if we can do that, it will slow down the warming and eventually stop before too many species go extinct and the biosphere is still benevolent. A number of others say that even with quick CO2 reduction, the temperature will rise another 6*F by 2100 with ocean rise around 3'. A few still try to convince people that human fossil fuel burning and horrendous numbers aren't the cause, and everything is just a natural rhythm. The economists that try to run the world do everything they can to delay or do too little with the environment. The politicians tend to just gum up the works, maybe do one good thing while allowing another bad thing to continue--effectively neutralizing any good. Children are the guinea pigs of this huge experiment in ecocide. They will pay the brunt of what is or is not done today or soon. They will pay with misery for those who previously died fat and happy. They are in for a wild and deadly ride because of the greed, stupidity and excesses of the past 100 years. Climate change to malevolent will eventually be the determining factor of our species' extinction in the long term that few can see. Can it be stopped in time? We should give it our best attempt at mitigation, ASAP. The "good" effects are fleeting and localized.

Grim.

I can't believe all the spammers invading!!

I find it utterly annoying, Johnnie. Half my post here now are to 'cover up' ad-posts. The FMB board (Another board I post at) doesn't seem to have anywhere this problem.