Bet you won't see this on the nightly news
Posted by Jerry Scharf
Common Sense and Wonder
"The Sun may have minimally contributed about 10 to 30
percent of the 1980-2002 global surface warming," the
researchers said in a statement today.
<<<
Study: Sun's Changes to Blame for Part of Global Warming
(Robert Roy Britt-LiveScience.com Managing Editor)
Increased output from the Sun might be to blame for 10 to 30 percent of global warming that has been measured in the past 20 years, according to a new report.
Increased emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases still play a role, the scientists say.
But climate models of global warming should be corrected to better account for changes in solar activity, according to Nicola Scafetta and Bruce West of Duke University.
The findings were published online this week by the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Scientists agree the planet is warming. Effects are evident in melting glaciers and reductions in the amount of frozen ground around the planet.
The new study is based in part on Columbia University research from 2003 in which scientists found errors in how data on solar brightness is interpreted. A gap in data, owing to satellites not being deployed after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, were filled by less accurate data from other satellites, Scafetta says.
The Duke analyses examined solar changes over 22 years versus 11 years used in previous studies. The cooling effect of volcanoes and cyclical shifts in ocean currents can have a greater negative impact on the accuracy of shorter data periods.
"The Sun may have minimally contributed about 10 to 30 percent of the 1980-2002 global surface warming," the researchers said in a statement today.
Many questions remain, however. For example, scientists do not have a good grasp of how much Earth absorbs or reflects sunlight.
"We don't know what the Sun will do in the future," Scafetta says. "For now, if our analysis is correct, I think it is important to correct the climate models so that they include reliable sensitivity to solar activity. Once that is done, then it will be possible to better understand what has happened during the past hundred years."
>>>
As a rather unskilled gardener I must rely heavily on books to direct my activities. One of the books I use most often is called "Northern California Gardening - A month by Month Guide" by Katherine Grace Endicott. How does this relate global warming you might ask. Well, on page 247 (October) is the following: "Smog Belching Trees".
"For your Halloween amusement we have the specter of smog
belching trees. Trees generate a higher percentage of
hydrocarbon emissions than do airplanes and trains
combined. Nevertheless, the beneficial qualities of trees
far outweigh their contribution to pollution.
In Southern California, a study funded by the South Coast Air Quality Management District ranked trees by the quantity of hydrocarbons given off in a twenty-four -hour period. For gardeners concerned about the smog generated in their own gardens, the following is a list of trees ranked by units of hydrocarbon emissions from the least to the most. Crape myrtle (0), Camphor (1), Deodar cedar (10), Monterey pine (30), Brazilian pepper (43), Ginkgo (100), Liquidambar (1,233), Carrot wood (1,633)."
Here are some interesting facts about U.S. forest growth:
data from
bugwood.org
The nation's forest land area is still about two-thirds
the size it was in the year 1600, in spite of the
conversion of 370 million acres of forest land to other
uses, principally to agriculture.
More trees are growing in America's forests today than at
any time since the early 1900's.
In 1900, forest growth rates were a fraction of harvest.
Today, overall annual forest growth exceeds harvest by
37%.
Net annual forest growth has increased 62% since 1952,
and total growth per acre has increased 71%.
Nationally, standing timber volume per acre in U.S.
forests is 30% greater today than in 1952.
On a per acre basis, net annual tree growth in the U.S.
is 52 cubic feet compared with 27 in Canada and 24 in
Russia.
If you include volcanic activity, it would seem the slice of global warming attributable to the dreaded automobile is shrinking faster than the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz. Come to think of it, there's a lot of similarity between the global warming crowd and that movie. I say let's pull back the curtain and expose their sorry rear ends.
commonsensewonder.com |
