On Mar 12, 9:15 pm, "00NZB" wrote:
Global Warming Follies

Posted in Follies by tjgavin

March 11 2008

http://gwfollies.wordpress.com/2008/...er-mind-again/

At some point you have to wonder when the press will do a proper job of
being skeptical about claims by the GWers. Last year they reported
unquestioningly that the floods in England were caused by GW and we
should expect more. Now? Well.never mind.

Freak rain, not global warming, blamed for last year's devastating £3bn
floods

The devastating floods that deluged Britain last summer were not caused
by climate change, contrary to the claims of politicians and green
campaigners, scientists have said. '

A major new study says there is no evidence that the "exceptional river
flooding" - which caused more than £3billion damage and left thousands
homeless - was anything other than a freak "100- to 200-year" event.

At the time, there were claims that the floods were the result of
climate change - and a taster of the sort of floods that would become
more common.

Last year, as Gordon Brown visited flood-damaged homes, he blamed the
events on climate change. "We're looking, if you like, at 21st-century
extreme weather conditions," he said at the time.

Remember, Gordon Brown is the same British Prime Minister that had his
claims about plastic bags disproven too. (See earlier post.) Will the
British press put those two facts together? Don't hold your breath.

Warmest Regards

Bonzo

"Attributing global climate change to human CO2 production is akin to
trying to diagnose an automotive problem by ignoring the engine
(analogous to the Sun in the climate system) and the transmission (water
vapour) and instead focusing entirely, not on one nut on a rear wheel,
which would be analogous to total CO2, but on one thread on that nut,
which represents the human contribution." Dr. Timothy Ball, Chairman of
the Natural Resources Stewardship Project (NRSP.com), Former Professor
Of Climatology, University of Winnipeg

Flooded roads and subways, deformed railroad tracks and weakened
bridges may be the wave of the future with continuing global warming,
a new study says.

Climate change will affect every type of transportation through rising
sea levels, increased rainfall and surges from more intense storms,
the National Research Council said in a report released Tuesday.

Complicating matters, people continue to move into coastal areas,
creating the need for more roads and services in the most vulnerable
regions, the report noted.

"The time has come for transportation professionals to acknowledge and
confront the challenges posed by climate change and to incorporate the
most current scientific knowledge into the planning of transportation
systems," said Henry Schwartz Jr., past president and chairman of the
engineering firm Sverdrup/Jacobs Civil Inc., and chairman of the
committee that wrote the report.

The report cites five major areas of growing threat:

* More heat waves, requiring load limits at hot-weather or high-
altitude airports and causing thermal expansion of bridge joints and
rail track deformities.

* Rising sea levels and storm surges flooding coastal roadways,
forcing evacuations, inundating airports and rail lines, flooding
tunnels and eroding bridge bases.

* More rainstorms, delaying air and ground traffic, flooding tunnels
and railways, and eroding road, bridge and pipeline supports.

* More frequent strong hurricanes, disrupting air and shipping
service, blowing debris onto roads and damaging buildings.

* Rising arctic temperatures thawing permafrost, resulting in road,
railway and airport runway subsidence and potential pipeline failures.

The nation's transportation system was built for local conditions
based on historical weather data, but those data may no longer be
reliable in the face of new weather extremes, the report warns.

The committee said proper preparation will be expensive and called on
federal, state and local governments to increase consideration of
climate change in transportation planning and construction.

The report notes, for example, that drier conditions are likely in the
watersheds supplying the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes. The
resulting lower water levels would reduce vessel shipping capacity,
seriously impairing freight movements in the region, such as occurred
during the drought of 1988.

Meanwhile, California heat waves are likely to increase wildfires that
can destroy transportation infrastructure.

The outlook isn't all bad, however.

The report says marine transportation could benefit from more open
seas in the Arctic, creating new and shorter shipping routes and
reducing transport time and costs.

The report was prepared by the Transportation Research Board and the
Division on Earth and Life Studies of the National Research Council.
The groups are part of the National Academy of Sciences, an
independent agency chartered by Congress to advise the government on
scientific matters.

Sponsors of the study were the Transportation Research Board, the
National Cooperative Highway Research Program, the Transportation
Department, the Transit Cooperative Research Program, the
Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers.

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