The Myth of the 1970s Global Cooling Consensus

[brunota2003]

http://marineecology.wcp.muohio.edu/cli ... lbedo.html

I'm not here to debate whether GW is man made or natural. Or if the 1970s was filled with people thinking whether or not we were going into global cooling. Instead, I wonder if part of the warming is much simpler than we think.

First off, we were coming out of the Little Ice Age, so warming was bound to happen, anyways. Secondly, the world has undergone a LOT of change since the early 1800s. I think this change very well may cause some of the warming, but it is not because of CO2, or any other green house gas. Back in the 1800s, much of America and the world was forested, or covered in grasslands. Today, much of America and the world is covered with buildings and asphalt. The albedo rate (how much sunlight the object reflects) of forest/grassland is higher than buildings (especially those with dark roofs) and asphalt.

This effect can be seen in cities around the world, where the "heat island effect" can cause a city to be 10F to 15F warmer than the surrounding countryside. This "trapped" heat doesn't just magically vanish, it has to go somewhere...wouldn't it, in the long term, cause a rise in temperatures worldwide? While simplifying this, the thing I can think of would be putting a heat lamp over a shoe box. If you color the bottom white, the box will warm a lot slower than if the bottom is painted black. A solar cooker works the same way. You are supposed to darken the inside to help trap the sunlight and spike the temperatures up. There's no "greenhouse" gas there that increases or decreases.

We have taken our "shoe box", and in the last 200 years, have quickly been painting the bottom dark with asphalt, buildings, etc. While this wouldn't account for everything, the amount of asphalt across the world has skyrocketed, and after every snow the roads must be cleared immediately! How much sunlight that would have otherwise been reflected by the snow, is trapped by our constant clearing of roadways? Metal on buildings does an excellent job of trapping heat, melting snow that otherwise would have still been on the ground.

I think this is something that should be looked deeply into, it is something I've never heard mentioned before (all I hear about is CO2)...I think we overlook the simple things, and look too hard at the much more complicated things, as causes.

Thoughts?

[Hybridstorm_November2001]

I've wondered on and off for the past twenty years if anyone has ever done a study on the effects of the increased density of the Africa Rainforest on Global Climate. While most areas in the South America have developed and thus depleted their rainforests many African countries have collapsed, for various reasons, over the course of the past half century. For example the DRC, Africa's largest country, had less rainforest in the early 1960s' than in does today.

[MGC]

The urban island is keeping the heat traped resulting in warmer minimum temperatures. The 1930s still hold most of the record highs across America. If it were getting hotter, having more heat waves the probility that incidence of record maxium temperatures would show a corresponding increase. Humanity has changed the local environment which has skewed the daily highs and lows......MGC

[gigabite]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTiH6Itu_aQ

This is a well produced 5+ minute video about Solar Cycle 24.

[Sanibel]

That heat island theory is disproven by the ice melt. I'm pretty sure the record high global averages being measured are an accurate reflection of an increasing average world temperature.


This week Savannah had the latest occurring 90 degree temperature for October. It is now having record lows and South Carolina has had its earliest occurring snowfall. These swings in extremes in the shoulder seasons are right in line with the increased energy seen in the atmosphere from manifesting global warming.

[Sanibel]

Jacksonville smashed its record low of 30* with a 24* reading last night.

[MGC]

Yep, 90 degrees in Savannah in October has no more revelance than 25 degrees on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in mid November. The climate has been warming since the end of the Little Ice Age. A few record highs or lows don't prove a thing. AGW is the biggest hoax ever perpetrated IMO. Hope I have a huge heat wave this winter......MGC

[NDG]

What the alarmist have not giving a clear explanation is to why the South Pole saw record level sea ice coverage this year.
To me is very simple, mother earth at the end balances itself, we have been seeing less ice coverage at the north pole while the south pole has been very cold and sea ice has been above average.

[Sanibel]

What the alarmist have not giving a clear explanation is to why the South Pole saw record level sea ice coverage this year.
To me is very simple, mother earth at the end balances itself, we have been seeing less ice coverage at the north pole while the south pole has been very cold and sea ice has been above average.

That's clearly against science and ignores the verifying melt rates of ice like in Greenland and global glaciers. There's no 'balancing' involved in that. It's a one way formula. I'm sorry but I can't see that as anything other than being dishonest. If such is occurring in the south it is due to shifts in weather patterns and not any kind of science-violating 'balance', since all the other indicators are clearly coming in on the side of verifying warming. Last I heard ice is melting down there too. You can't ignore the predictable science of taking stored CO2 from underground and injecting it by the megaton into a closed system atmosphere. Deniers have already dropped their global cooling claims.


Anchorage just closed out on the warmest year since 1926.

[Sanibel]

Yep, 90 degrees in Savannah in October has no more revelance than 25 degrees on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in mid November. The climate has been warming since the end of the Little Ice Age. A few record highs or lows don't prove a thing. AGW is the biggest hoax ever perpetrated IMO. Hope I have a huge heat wave this winter......MGC

I take this as political science and not factual. This is a grossly oversimplified statement that ignores the sophisticated science of global warming-caused amplitude. The actual weather records are showing annual events like this with a rising mean average. Record extremes, especially in the shoulder seasons. Sorry, but this website calls for higher levels of analysis and scientific objectivity.


I believe the record shows that the average has been steadily rising.