Thursday, January 15, 2009

The Global Weather Equation

Recent reports that arctic ice is at levels last seen in 1979 should force our climate experts to answer some difficult questions. While the popular scientists may plead the fifth, some possibilities must be taken into account.

1. Our current cool down is a trend that goes against the greater warming trend, and the cooling trend will soon be over.

-or-

2. Our current cool down is a larger trend much like the warming cycle that has been recently seen, and the world may now see below average temperatures for a period.

-or-

3. Humans have cut carbon emissions and taken other measures so successfully that humans have made an immediate impact on the global climate to an unexpected degree with unexpected speed.

Okay, maybe none of these is the correct answer, but you get the picture.

While increasing arctic ice amounts certainly does not end the discussion about global warming, this one aspect of the larger equation has certainly been a media favorite (think of all the polar bear pictures on "melting" pieces of ice that have been floating around.) We'll see if there are any pictures now of polar bears roaming on vast ice formations.

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