Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Chuck Cooper - Global Warming - What, Me Worry?
Now that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued its report that the likelihood is between 90% and 99% that human generated greenhouse gas has been the dominant cause of observed global warming over the last 50 years, I have decided to quit listening to the nuts and give a little thought to how it will affect me. I decided to limit my worries to the next 20 years or so, as my children are both worriers and will be able to carry on by themselves.
In Waco, where there is usually at least 30 days over 100 degrees, and several at 108, I have decided that an extra 4 or 5 degrees won’t matter much, and in fact may be offset by the increased range and frequency of the hurricanes. We usually get some rainfall from those, and once in a while a doosy. My spell checker thinks that should be “dooly”, but we almost never get those. So ok there. Some people worry about the increased tornados, but obviously don’t understand odds.
In Evergreen (actually Kittredge to be exact) it used to be dry until May, which was the snowiest month. The reason is the rain shadow from the Rockies. When it was cold it caused the clouds to unload on the western side. The last few years have had much more snow in the mid winter, and have been wetter. This year was very wet and the snows came heavy early. The forests here are reminiscent of those of the Cascades, in that you have mostly Douglas Fir on the west side, and mostly Ponderosa Pine on the east side. Doug likes more water than Ponder. Here we have currently about 90% Ponder and 10% Doug. As we get wetter, as the Rockies get warmer in the winter, I would expect the ratio to shift in favor of Doug. I personally like Doug more anyway, so I should be all right here also. If I start seeing mangrove, I plan to write my Congressman to see if the government shouldn’t join the rest of the countries in the world in recognizing the problem and trying to take some action. Well, to be fair, it isn’t just the Bush administration, France is with us on that one. Gives you kind of a warm feeling.
In Waco, where there is usually at least 30 days over 100 degrees, and several at 108, I have decided that an extra 4 or 5 degrees won’t matter much, and in fact may be offset by the increased range and frequency of the hurricanes. We usually get some rainfall from those, and once in a while a doosy. My spell checker thinks that should be “dooly”, but we almost never get those. So ok there. Some people worry about the increased tornados, but obviously don’t understand odds.
In Evergreen (actually Kittredge to be exact) it used to be dry until May, which was the snowiest month. The reason is the rain shadow from the Rockies. When it was cold it caused the clouds to unload on the western side. The last few years have had much more snow in the mid winter, and have been wetter. This year was very wet and the snows came heavy early. The forests here are reminiscent of those of the Cascades, in that you have mostly Douglas Fir on the west side, and mostly Ponderosa Pine on the east side. Doug likes more water than Ponder. Here we have currently about 90% Ponder and 10% Doug. As we get wetter, as the Rockies get warmer in the winter, I would expect the ratio to shift in favor of Doug. I personally like Doug more anyway, so I should be all right here also. If I start seeing mangrove, I plan to write my Congressman to see if the government shouldn’t join the rest of the countries in the world in recognizing the problem and trying to take some action. Well, to be fair, it isn’t just the Bush administration, France is with us on that one. Gives you kind of a warm feeling.
# posted by Chuck Cooper @ 11:03 AM 
