It is more like Climate Changed than anything else and more is one the way.

What has happened over the last 30 years will pale in comparison to what is in store for the next 100 years.

As I have stated before, like it or not, changes are coming and the best thing to do is to acknowlege reality and start planning for it.

These chanes include, among others,

(1) physical effects, such as droughts, floods, glacial melting, and sea level rise;

(2) biological effects, such as increases in insect and disease infestations, shifts in species distribution, and changes in the timing of natural events;

and (3) economic and social effects, such as adverse impacts on agriculture, tourism, infrastructure, fishing, and other resource uses.

Pleae notice, I have added agriculture which was not on the GAO list.

Everybody needs to eat and the future farmers are going to have the hands full.

According to many Democrats, Bush controls nearly everything on the planet, ranging from 9/11 to the outcome of elections to the weather.

Fortunately, some thoughtful person has provided a tool to make life easier for the paranoid left.
http://www.buttafly.com/bush/index.php

when people stop believing in God, they will believe in anything
GK Chesterton

Right after graduating from college in the 70's I went to work for the Department of Energy as an auditor at a nuclear type contractor in San Diego. During the energy crunch (the Carter sweater years) back then, my DOE bosses told the contractor they needed to "save" energy. The contractor took out every other overhead light to cut down on energy use. But it became so dark in the offices/cubicles (old style building with no windows) that everyone brought in his/her own lamp (including me). Also, had to increase the thermostat setting to around 82 in order to reduce air conditioning use, and then everyone was sweating bullets, so everyone started bringing in their own fan. The following year, utility bill had no change. I won't even go into the 'required' voluntary carpool plan, which turned out to be a huge disaster. The sad thing was that the big contract and which I audited was the Fusion program which if it had been successfully funded, we might not be worrying so much about global warming now. But nuclear power got a bad rap and the government reduced/cut funding, short-term thinking, contracts cancelled, new job, blah, blah.

Maybe when the Mrs. Clinton administration gets in next year, they will stop the climate from changing as well as create world peace and all will be right again.

So much for keeping politics out of this blog. I am waiting for the fun to begin.

BTW Andrew, do you stand on a streetcorner with a megaphone screaming about how the world will end too?

I guess Gore isn't too concerned about the environment either, or does he advocate, "do as I say, not as I do." Click on link:

http://www.drudgereport.com/gore.htm

Most people don't like president Bush. We didn't have much of a choice, it was either him or Al Gore. (I would take Bush any day) Not buying into AGW is one thing that the Bush administration did right!

Here is one question of topic. Does Al Gore has any kind of a climatology degree? I don't see how he can go around crying wolf when he doesn't know what a wolf is. (wolf=AGW) Maybe he saw more $ in AGW than politics? He was right! How much money has this AGW made him? Maybe he should donate it to climate research or fusion research, yeah I did't think so.

"So much for keeping politics out of this blog."

Unfortunately, Jeff it is a political issue whether we like it or not. Of course, since politics seldom deals with reality, it will probably make separating fact from fiction all the more difficult.

Reply: Well said Michael.

Some of these parks are supposed to be maintained as “Forever wild” meaning humans should take no effort to change what happens. Meaning their charge is to prevent human encroachment and what happens, happens. So unless global warming somehow causes a freeway to be built on the bottom of the National Marine Sanctuary in the Keys just exactly what kind of plan to they need?

One begins to run out of superlatives for describing the unadulterated idiocy when reading about AGW.

Jeff as for politics....the AGW insanity is all about politics. Two sides with diametrically opposing views trying to impose theirs on the other. The sad part is my tax dollars are going to be thrown away for no good reason

Lets keep it simple, before man was on the earth, it cooled, it wamed, it cooled, ice ages came and ice ages receded, no human influenced these events. Stop the hysterics and keep politics out of this. Before long we are going to get people claiming we are created solar flares, by the way i think most would choose global warming over an ice age. Remember the earth has been cyclic with warming and cooling for millions of years.

The GAO is about as non-partisan as it gets. Heck, their general was appointed by Bush.

The only politics I see in this thread is those spewed by the posters.

Wow ....here we again! Politics in an environmental blog.....sick real sick.

How does anyone expect to be taken seriously by introducing politics which has continuously corrupted real life occurrences in every facet of our daily lives.

I would really appreciate if these boards would stay on topics with REAL info.

Len,

Unfortunately, I don't think we can keep it that simple; saying that humans haven't caused the climate to change because the climate has changed without our help before is logically equivalent to saying that there were wildfires on Earth before humans were around, so humans haven't caused any wildfires.

Whether your views on global warming are ultimately right or not, the logic just isn't that simple.

The admin of any government has a responsibility to the key share holders whose corporate voice is heard the loudest during any term in office.
Those who point to a difference between the two-party preferred are politically na�ve.
Both parties will have to listen to the major share holders who pay the greatest sums of money just for the service.

The big share holders remain the same regardless of the results of any election.

Democracy is as tangerble as peace is real when both exist only just before a battle for power.

I wonder what more people think could be done by any administration that relies upon consumerism and the wealth that is derived from fossil fuels.

If there was an alternative energy source, both traditional and ne would be put to use and greater wealth and power would be harnessed.

The admin is already spending 6b on cc carbon sequestration research and nuclear power, while the building of oil gas and coal fired power stations continues. Bio fuel farms are providing a growing source of future fuel while work is being done to make the most of woodchips in the biofuel industry.
All efforts are going into delivering alternative energy before the impact of peak oil raises the costs of mobility out of the reach of surburban home owners.

no efforts are being made that will reduce fossil fuel burning.

Clean coal technology will not be ready for another 40 years and will increase generating costs by 50% while increasing the burn by 50% as well.
nuclear power will take 20 years to supply only one or two cities . Bio fuel relies on good yields in great seasons which cannot be governed by any administration.

What can you expect?

Hope?

Nuclear power = great idea We would have been oil free by now if leftist greenies hadn't undermined this technology. Oh, by the way, how many named storms and actual hurricanes that will hit the US this year? My count is one named storm and zero hurricanes actually touching US soil. Oh! What about last year? 2 or 3 named storms and zero storms that hit the US soil at hurricane force! Well this must be really upsetting to the Gore supporters who predicted horrific storms the last few years without success. Still Accuweather continues to predict too many storms and is highly inaccurate. The oceans have risen 1/4 inch in 100 years maybe? The temp has risen 1/2 of one degree in 100 years, well within normal flucuations. The evidence pointing towards an historically evil hoax to direct anger and hatred towards an otherwise most kind and caring nation is apparent. Don't be part of this. Science should remain just that!

Simon, that's a good deduction, thank you.
Now for more "real" news about global warming...
"Global warming fanatics insist that "the science is settled" regarding this contentious issue and they're right � two German scientist have settled it once and for all by proving conclusively that there is no such thing as a "greenhouse effect" in global climate.

They've also proven that there can be no way of accurately measuring average global temperature in the way it is now done. CO2 cannot play the role attributed to it by the supporters of the global warming theory, and the very idea violates the laws of thermodynamics."
More: http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/8/6/104929.shtml?s=lh

Osama agrees with the Dems-

"The life of all mankind is in danger because of the global warming resulting to a large degree from the emissions of the factories the major corporations.

"And despite this brazen attack on the people [referring to global warming], the leaders of the West -especially Bush, Blair, Sarkozy and Brown - still talk about freedom and human rights with a flagrant disregard for the intellects of humans?"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/08/wbinladen108.xml

Apparently the reason Al Qaida is torturing and killing tens of thousands of Iraqi women and children is to defend them against global warming and protect them from Bush.

C'mon President Bush - wave that magic wand and make 'global warming' go away.

An imaginary solution to an imaginary problem - sounds appropriate.

Travis - the logic isn't that simple, I agree. But natural variation is a perfectly acceptable explanation for the changes we see. The burden falls upon proponents of AGW to measure and demonstrate the effects of their posited cause. They can't.

It just goes to show you how unsettled the science is.

You people who keep on complaining that this is an evrionmental blog and politcs should be left out are clueless. The Global Warming Fraud is NOT about the envrionment, the trees, the polar bears and the children, but is all about politics. Dreamed up by a bunch of 1960s "we must live as one" agenda driven "scientists" with an ax to grind against captialism and the economic workings of this country. It's all politics stemming from the craziness that is the political left. It always has been. As for the GAO not being partisan, let's see, John Kerry, a died in the wool wealthy liberal from New England who did not do one thing to earn the money he has (except marry into more morey), and John McCain, a pseudo-republican. Oh, yeah, right, no partisanship there!

DENY DENY DENY THE GLOBAL WARMING LIE!!!!!

It is no surprise that the Cheney-Bush administration will produce lies about their own actions, or about weather. The Downing Street Memo proves that they and Tony Blair completely concocted the lies about WMD which they used as their justification for the occupation and decimation of Iraq. Don't forget Spencer Abraham, their Secretary of Energy. He sponsored a bill two years before his nomination for SoE where he sponsored a bill in the U.S. to elminate the DOE. No surprise, that as secretary he used the vast budget of the DOE to undermine the Congressional mandate it was given when established. Only Senator McCain seems to have a handle in the Republican Party about priorities: he has said many times that the #1 political issue in the world is water. Cheney-Bush think it is "terrorism", which means violence they don't approve of. Dropping the Mother of All Bombs on the Everglades in March 2003 as Shock and Awe obviously is not terrorism.

When we think of governments instituting policies and laws, think short term with lots of money spent and new departments and kingdoms being created within the government structure.

Look back on 200 years of world politics and show me any policy or legislation that has not been changed or watered down or is now non-existant because it was either wrong, did nothing, became irrelavent, or a major war took center stage.

Times change, governments change, borders change, beliefs change, science changes....etc...etc.

Don't expect too much long-term anything from any government of any country.

Look back on 200 years of world politics and show me any policy or legislation that has not been changed or watered down or is now non-existant because it was either wrong, did nothing, became irrelavent, or a major war took center stage.

Exhibit A: Social Security Act (1935)

Exhibit B: Fair Laber Standards Act (1938)

The fundamentals of each of these have, by and large, remain unchallenged. These have been tuned and updated. By and large, however, they remain largely as they were envisioned when passed.

The GAO? Impartial? LOL!

Ok, here we have the epitome of the AGW debate, accountants accusing a politico of not doing something. Notice the entire lack of science, but then that has been a hallmark of the AGW position since day one or further back when it was the Ice Age Is Coming crowd.

BT, are you saying neither one of your exhibits have changed?