http://climate.weather.com/blog/9_11684.html?cm_ven=one_deg_blog&cm_ite=one_deg_commentary&from=one_deg_commentaryA lot has happened during the past year with respect to climate change in everything from science to politics to popular culture, even including -- get this -- Dr. Michael Shermer, the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine and the Executive Director of the Skeptics Society, reaching a "flipping point" and becoming an ex-global warming skeptic.
Nevertheless we find ourselves with many people still of the point of view that the current warming is mainly if not all natural, and that includes people with a scientific background and even many meteorologists (as opposed to climate scientists).
If you're in that camp and are thinking I'm somehow looking down on you, that's not the case. It'd be pretty hard for me to be holier-than-thou, because I was in the exact same boat up until not all that long ago. I speak from experience. I am a meteorologist, and yet I was stuck on the train going down what from my current perspective was the wrong track.
http://www.weather.com/blog/weather/8_8372.htmlLet me be clear: the change from hard-core skeptic to my current way of thinking was not a sudden, reactionary thing based on a single warm day! It was a looong journey, based on trying to assimilate all the information I could.
how many daily record low temperatures have you seen reported on TWC or elsewhere during the past few years? How many record highs? I thought so. Haven't paid that much attention? Or you have but want numbers? Here they are as calculated in an informal tabulation by one of my coworkers: since 2000 (through November 2005), there have been 7544 daily record lows in the U.S. Record highs? 17,845. You do the math and draw your own conclusions.