Based on the snake's size, the team was able to calculate that the mean annual temperature in equatorial South America 60 million years ago would have been about 91 degrees Fahrenheit, about 10 degrees warmer than today, Bloch said.
According to Nature.com, snakes are poikilotherms (cold-blooded) that, unlike humans, need heat from their environment to power their metabolism. Therefore research suggests that at the time the region would have had to be no less than 86 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit for the snake to have survived.
okay ........ how can we 10 degrees cooler than we were back then, and everyone freaking out about "warming" up ?
seems to me we've cooled down .... global cooling has been in effect for 60 million years ..... so IF we're getting a bit warmer, we still have 10 degrees to go before we get to where we were
Yeah, but what you don't know is that fossil was found inside the fossile of a huge, gas guzzling SUV, parked outside a fossilized coal burning power plant.
This whole topic is replete with lessons in how NOT to think, how NOT to argue, how NOT to do science, how NOT to set government policy. It is an object lesson in the weakness and fallibility of human beings.
The first step in this public debate must be to settle the terms of discussion and to distinguish between separate ideas. As I see it there are three distinct issues: (1) climate change, (2) global warming, and (3) greenhouse gases. These are separate and distinct issues. Climate change includes both warming and cooling. Climate change further includes changed rainfall distribution. Global warming is a very specific kind of climate change. Greenhouse gases come into the picture as a theoretical agent of global warming. Even if climate change is occuring (a question not answered at this point), even if the climate change that is occuring is global warming, the question remains what would be causing this hypothetical global warming -- one theory is that elevated levels of CO2 due to combustion of hydrocarbons is the culprit. It doesn't take a very astute observer to discern that these separate ideas are thrown around with no discrimination in the media and in political discourse. Without observing these distinctions, thinking and rational deliberation are simply not possible: end of story.
Supposing that the necessary distinctions were observed, the next failing in the consideration of these topics is the entire lack of quantification. When Al Gore says the sea level could rise by 200 feet and inundate New York City, what is the probability associated with that particular scenario? Let's see the numbers. They aren't there. I mean, is this particular scenario more likely than a large astroid hit that will extinguish the human species (sorry to break it to you, but the probability of a large astroid hit that wipes out and destroys all human life on earth approaches 100% in long time frames -- like over 100 million years or over 200 million years).
Other problems exist, such as failure to acknowledge the immaturity of climate science, the reliance on imperfect simulations and models, the very dubiousness of the data used and how to use it. I just hope we don't tie an virtual anvil around everyone's neck -- in the form of CO2 emissions quotas -- that cripples our economy and then find out that "Oh! Never mind! We were mistaken! Actually, this is all just a transient temperature flux due to the after glow of climbing out of the Little Ice Age. In fact we are now embarquing on a long slow slide into the next Ice Age. Stock up on those down parkas, now!"
Suppose "Human generated CO2 gas motivated global warming" is ultimately repudiated -- at some point in the future, based on more analysis and data and understanding -- I do have hope that the people who threw away the standard tools and guides to thinking and reasoning are held accountable and are thoroughly discredited -- scientists, media pundits, and politicians would be on my A-list for this accountability.
okay ........ how can we 10 degrees cooler than we were back then, and everyone freaking out about "warming" up ?
Sea level was something like 100 meters higher back when that snake was alive than it is now. That's one thing that some people are freaking about. But then, look at all the fresh beach front property we'd have around the world.
okay ........ how can we 10 degrees cooler than we were back then, and everyone freaking out about "warming" up ?
Sea level was something like 100 meters higher back when that snake was alive than it is now. That's one thing that some people are freaking about. But then, look at all the fresh beach front property we'd have around the world.
I think the real point here is the cause of warming, and how we should spend our resources dealing with it. It is so obvious to me that it is not a man made phenomenon, and that focusing on one gas (co2) which has such a minimal effect on climate is a waste of resources. With the left's transparent attempts to use global warming as a tool for social manipulation, I am convinced that Al Gore and company are deceiving the world. "Carbon Offsets" for example, are ridiculous, where as real research in dealing with the change of temperature are needed badly. But that money isn't going to be found anytime soon. Instead of trying to figure out how we can still have Florida in 30 years, we are looking at global treaties that will transfer our wealth to third world countries, with no real impact on the climate.
You betcha concerned because of the upcoming trillions of dollars that will be spent on it ...... it being Global Warming when according to science, we've globally cooled 10 degress in the past 60 million years.
I dont give a crap about carbon footprints, icebergs or polar bears, all I know is, we aint seen over +25 degrees here in NY, in 2 months, and this is SOUTHERN NY!. Can any of you "greenie weenies" explain that?.
Man I cant wait to get the hell outta this frozen liberal waste land, is there still room left in Texas?
BTW whatever happen to the "ozone layer"
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Folks, it's sick out there, and it's getting sicker.
-Bob Grant
global warming - I laugh in your face !
