Does the fact that we just lived through the second-hottest year on record and the hottest decade on record mean anything to you? Or will you keep sticking your head in the increasingly-hot sand? Granted, a single year’s or a single decade’s numbers aren’t solid evidence of anthropogenic global warming but please shut up about global cooling at least. Maybe we need to start arguing that angels are causing global warming…
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
Always a little wary of surveys that seem to come up with some amazing facts like the angel story , I
guess that in the US it very much depends on where the people are who are taking part. How many people
do you know that believe in angels?
Angels, either the Victoria’s Secret kind, or those surrounded by a fiery glow, could certainly be responsible.
Hmmm…according to the article 2009 “was only a fraction of a degree cooler than 2005, the warmest year on record, and tied with a cluster of other years — 1998, 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2007 — as the second warmest year since recordkeeping began”
So global temperature has been pretty much stable for the past 11 years.
There have been ice ages and warm periods. There will more ice ages and more warm periods. Did you hear that it just snowed in Australia (where it is their ‘July’) for the 1st time since record keeping began? That is a fact verified by direct observation. Record lows and record highs for one location can also be an observable and verifiable fact. However, measuring global temperatures seems a little more complicated and political agendas and alterior motives could come into play which put the results into question. I do not believe that last year was the 2nd hottest year on record, and neither should you. But I do believe that it snowed in summer in Australia for the 1st time ever. That is a fact and cannot be disputed.
@Alan: Very few, if any. But there are lots of christians, jews, mormons, etc, and one would think that many of them believe in angels.
@Marj Kibby: Ha!
@Rob and Dave: So, do you guys believe in angels?
@Rob: So we are supposed to be comfortable with the fact that 7 of the last 11 years were the hottest years on record? Because that doesn’t sound good to me.
@Dave: Are you saying that NASA is part of a vast conspiracy to falsely report the temperature? Because I have a tinfoil hat waiting for you to try on…
Also, the fact that there have been ice ages and warm periods in the past does not mean that anthropogenic global warming is not happening. If that is the argument you are making you might as well say that your egg couldn’t have been cooked in the microwave because you have cooked eggs in a pan in the past.
@Dave Yeh it snowed. But a week later we had three days in a row 18c above average. Weather is not the same as climate.
@Dave You sent me looking for some information – http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/change/
“Since the middle of the 20th century, Australian temperatures have, on average, risen by about 1°C with an increase in the frequency of heatwaves and a decrease in the numbers of frosts and cold days.”
I just “love” the people who point to colder-than-average weather as “proof” against global warming. Do they even know what an average means??? It means that roughly half the time, it’s colder than that; and if the weather is colder or even much colder than average only a quarter or third of the time, the average is increasing.
But this just matches news headlines that reveal a lot of people are very, very stupid indeed. Headlines that for some reason shock people, such as those reporting that “Half of students nationwide have below-average IQ.” It’s depressing that so many people are so very, very stupid.
Corey:
You have a tinfoil hat? How long have you been wearing it? Thanks for offering it to mt but you’d better keep it for yourself. It suits you better. Also, whay are you asking about me if I believe in Angels? Are you loking for me to join your self help group for those who do? I think all this cold weather if affecting your cognitive processes bro.
@Dave: No, haven’t been, because you seem that crazy, no such group exists. Also, you are not funny nor are you my “bro.”
And you still haven’t answered my question about if you think NASA is part of a vast conspiracy to falsely report the temperature.
Hi Marj.
I think you might want to review Dan’s definition of average just to be sure you’re not one of the ‘very, very stupid’ people he’s talking about.
I’m glad that you verified that it snowed in Australia in summer for the 1st time since record keeping began. If the last 10 years were the hottest on record then having summer snow for the 1st time in recorded history would not be possible. If it was possible (and obviously it is), then anything is possible, such as the world is getting colder, not warmer.
Corey, thank you for your quick response.
Please give your 1st sentence another try. “No haven’t been.” Have’nt been what? Having been using my brain properly because it’s been so cold outside? “No such group exists?” What ‘group?’ no Angel self help? You could only know that after an extensive and exhaustive global search in a desperate attempt to find one to so you can get the help you need. Let me help you out a bit here. START YOUR OWN (Angel self help group in case your cognitive abilities have dimished to the point where you cannot follow along). Here, I’ll even type slower…
Dan and Marj may want to join your group – if you decide to start one up. (I took 10 minutes to type this last sentence just for you!).
Y o u ‘ r e w e l c o m e .
@Dave: I was answering each of your questions from your previous comment in order.
Sorry about your slow typing.
Also, adding heat to a system increases volatility, meaning extremely rapid changes between temperatures and conditions are more, not less, likely.
Finally, Rob, how do you like your company in being a global warming denier?
Corey, glad I could show you how to form a clever response by turning insults around and using them against the insulter, and by bringing others in to the mix to divide alies. Now your next task is to come up with a new tactic all on your own – for copying the tactics of an adversary is an admission that one is an unworthy opponent.
The headline in your blog was atagonistic and taunting. You were looking for a fight and you got one. Unfortunately, you’re not clever enough to do battle. You should be more careful about what you wish for.
Dave you didn’t answer the scientifically valid point that Corey made though – “Also, adding heat to a system increases volatility, meaning extremely rapid changes between temperatures and conditions are more, not less, likely”. What’s the answer to that? Global warmimg will (or is already) destabilise/ing the climate causing one-offs like snow in Australia, the coldest winter in the UK for forty years, floods in other pats of the world. These are all to be expected. I’m genuinely interested why a one-off event is more worthy of my attention than a long-term pattern (eg snowfall in Australia one summer vs a decade of record highs)?
Hi Steve.
Have you taken over for Corey?
Do you think any of your efforts or arguments have ever changed people’s minds, or have they only entrenched people into defending their positions more strongly? I have yet to read on any post or blog where someone has has said, “you know what, you’re right. That last insult really got me thinking and now I’ve changed my position”.
I enter these blogs to amuse myself. Thank you for abliging.
@Dave: Thanks for confirming your troll status.
Folks, feed the troll or not as you wish…I, personally, am amused by him. He’s kind of cute.
Dave, go swivel frankly. i asked a civil question and get abuse. Nice way to put your point across.
No problem Corey. I love my Sunday morning trolls.
Steve, for all I know you might have been yelling when you asked you asked your question. I needed to cover all bases in responding.
By the way, its very chilly outside today. That’s 3 days in a row. I think I can safely say that global warming is not happening out my back door.
Three chilly days is weather.
Weather trends across thirty years or more is climate.
It’s only very, very stupid people who can’t see the difference.
Marj, I realy don’t know what to say. I tried very hard to write a comment so silly that even the simplest of minds would recognize it as sarcasm. You certainly far exceed your own definition of stupid. You’d have to brighten up just to qualify. My oh my…
@Dave: If you have nothing to actually add to the conversation other than insults please refrain from posting here.
Corey, the title of your blog was not meant to invite a civil converstaion. It was meant to antagonize and taunt because you have an axe to grind. You could ignore my posts, but you don’t. Insults are thrown both ways. I will continue to lob a few until those on your side are asked to stop as well. My guess is that you won’t do that, but that is your choice. The fact is that I do not know if the planet is warming or cooling. There will be those who claim they do know and I find it fascinating how far they will go in defending their point. It appears that pride, reputation, credibility, peer pressure, ego, political agendas and the need to be right takes precedence with objectivity and integrity becoming a casuality in this battle of words which no side can ever win. There are reputable Scientists on both sides of this argument. But it appears both sides want to win regardless of the truth. But neither side will. I find it amazing and amusing that, despite this, blogs continue to be posted such as this one which has only one intention: to use new information as a club to smack someone with an opposing viewpoint over the head with, continue to surface. This is why I stopped by. I have the day off and I find this entertaining. I have yet to lose my cool in responding to these posts. Why should I? What would I gain? I cannot say the same about others who seemed to be extremely distraught and as is evident in some of their postings (Marj).
In closing, good luck with your birdwatching.
@Dave: You have no idea what the title of my blog post was meant to invite. You are projecting. While I have no problem with the occasional insult in commenting (as you observe, they are thrown both ways), completely obnoxious comments like your previous one in which the only point was to insult are unwelcome. Marj made a valid point about a stupid observation you made and then you decided to say it was sarcasm, even though there is no way that Marj could have known that considering the stupid things you’ve said from the get-go here.
I think you are an a$$#@*e of a troll and I think anyone reading this thread would agree. You talk of objectivity and credibility but lack either. You argue things one way and then when you are called out on your idiocy you backtrack and claim you are only being sarcastic.
Comments on this post are now closed…can’t let the trolls run loose without adult supervision.