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Global warming affects Texas

Published: Monday, June 14, 2010

Updated: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 23:06

sumersafety

File----The Battalion

It is not just Texas; it is global. The rising temperatures that have afflicted the state are only part of a larger problem. Earth's temperatures are rising at an alarming rate, rates unseen for thousands of years.

"The warming that has occurred in the last 100 years seems to be very unusual," said Gerald North, professor of atmospheric sciences and oceanography. "We do not see warming changes like that for 10,000 years. The rate at which it is going up has not stopped."

Even though the global rise in temperature is small, 3 degrees Celsius over a period of 100 years, the implications of such warming
are large.

"3 degrees Celsius is about 5.5 degrees Fahrenheit, and if you ask most people, they would say that it does not sound like very much," said Andrew Dessler, professor of atmospheric sciences and oceanography. "If you look at the global average temperature, it really varies a small amount."

Dessler said what seems like a small change in the global average actually corresponds to extremely large changes in the global climate.


"For example, in the last ice age there was 3000 feet of ice over Boston, the oceans were 300 feet lower than they are today and that was five to eight degrees Celsius cooler than it is today," he said. "So if you lower the global temperature five to eight degrees Celsius, which is about 12 degrees Fahrenheit, you end up with an ice age."

Global climate changes are having equal effect on Texas‘ climate, which is part of the reason for the increased temperatures over the summers.

"Texas temperatures are going up pretty much like the earth's temperatures are," North said. "Generally speaking, the global average temperature changes about the same as in Texas, so it is probably going to be warmer in Texas in the next 50 to 100 years. Last summer was a really hot summer, and while I say that is a fluctuation, it does probably indicate things that we might expect in the next 20 or 30 years. And what you can expect in the next 50 years is that the heat we experienced last summer is going to be the average summer temperature."

 

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16 comments Log in to Comment

Kenneth Hammes
Sun Aug 8 2010 22:18
I'm glad to see that someone brought up the Medieval Warm Period.

Not being a scientist or having a degree in science, just using the logic I learned as a English major... wouldn't it be normal for temperatures to rise after the "Little Ice Age" that ended somewhere in the mid to late 19th century? So wouldn't the current warming trend be relative to the previous cooling trend? Just curious.

gayle gabriel
Sun Aug 8 2010 04:45
at the time of the interviews, neilsen-gammon was unavailable for comment.
Anonymous
Fri Jun 25 2010 16:45
Anon, that's a youtube video delivered with unlabeled graphs written by a conspiracy theorist. Even so, it's one set of data. We are talking about the consensus. Like the consensus on how gravity works, even if some minor points are still contradictory/unknown.

Do you go to A&M to learn how to filter information, or just pick up random tidbits whenever it happens to suit your foregone conclusion that science is never right?

Anonymous
Thu Jun 17 2010 19:33
Oops. Wrong again. You might want to check this out for a little perspective. The earth is clearly in a long, slow cooling trend in the current interglacial. Data courtesy NOAA. www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFbUVBYIPlI&feature=player_embedded
Mike '10
Thu Jun 17 2010 14:31
I'm sorry, but do we all go to Baylor Uni? Liberty Uni? No, we go to Texas A&M, one of the universities that *surprise* adheres to the fundamental principles of scientific rigor. Most of these comments are cringe-worthy.

Did none of you pay attention the first day of your intro science classes? You don't foam at the mouth and demand professors with degrees you wish you had re-prove the scientific consensus.

The intellectual curiosity of the student body is pathetic based on this representation. Why don't you guys whine and demand professors drop everything and reprove evolution to satisfaction as well? Since apparently attending an accredited university has ill-equipped you to explore the evidence of a topic yourself.

Anonymous
Thu Jun 17 2010 14:31
Why wouldn't the Batt bother asking the Texas State Climatologist about these facts? Dr. Nielson-Gammon is, after all, right there on campus and no one on the planet is more qualified in the realm of climatology in Texas.

BTW, he would have nixed everything I see North and Dessler are quoted as saying. Hmmm, or maybe he was interviewed...but his answers were not favorable.

(B. S. atmospheric science, '04)

OlePeep
Thu Jun 17 2010 13:12
Fundamental errors abound. What an embarrassment for your newspaper and school.
Roald A
Thu Jun 17 2010 12:57
Article writer Gayle Gabriel apparently is not aware of numerous peer-reviewed science journal-published papers concluding that the Medieval Warm Period existed as a worldwide event, proving the present temperatures are not unprecedented.
KidQuantum
Thu Jun 17 2010 12:41
Another example of professors filling student's brains full of mush. I call on Professor Dressler to post ANY study that shows a 3C temperature rise in the last 100 years. This is a complete exaggeration and untrue.

The largest rise I have seen is .8C over the last 130 years. And that's from Jim "The Sky is Falling" Hansen from NASA (also famous for his Climategate involvement).

slimething
Thu Jun 17 2010 12:20
Propaganda should always have an element of truth. This article doesn't even have that.

It is blatant journalistic malpractice.

Anonymous
Thu Jun 17 2010 11:06
Virtually every number in this article is wrong. There was no fact checking at all...
Anonymous
Thu Jun 17 2010 10:51
Did anyone fact check this article ?

The amount of warming in the last 100 years is supposed to be .7 ° C not 3 ° C. That is even using GISS's bloated numbers, parking lots and all.

The recent warming is not unusual at all. It has happened 3 times since the invention of the thermometer.

Anonymous
Wed Jun 16 2010 10:23
I like the idea of interviewing all the faculty in the relevant departments. What do the faculty at TAMU think about this? Do are faculty think global warming is a real issue that we need to deal with, or a minor issue that we don't need to worry about? Why have articles on global warming without talking to some of the world's leaders in climatology?
Anonymous
Wed Jun 16 2010 10:19
AggieJonof87 says You'd have to be an imbecile to beleive in Global Warmin as a man caused climatic event. The science is so completely disproving this THEORY that anyone still clinging to this is ehter A) insane, B) lying, or C) benefitting financially from posing this garbage.

AggieJonof87: You are a liar. This statement is demonstrably false. I call on the Battalion to interview EVERY faculty member of the Texas A&M University Geology Department and ask them if AggieJonof87 is correct, or if he is simply a fool spreading oil company propaganda.

Nicholas J. Green '80
Wed Jun 16 2010 07:08
AggieJonof87:

First point: Neither Gabriel nor North claimed the climate changes were human-caused. Second point: Please submit your credentials for qualification to submit credible comment regarding climate change.

AggieJonof87
Wed Jun 16 2010 00:07
You'd have to be an imbecile to beleive in Global Warmin as a man caused climatic event. The science is so completely disproving this THEORY that anyone still clinging to this is ehter A) insane, B) lying, or C) benefitting financially from posing this garbage. But let's just take this for a minute that Global Warming just MIGHT be true (a laughable prospect) then please. ANYONE prove WHY it is a BAD thing. This winter we saw temperatures near school so cold they killed many plants that had survived without issue for decades. This is Warming? Last year Texas was about the ONLY place with high temps. Are we to judge the WORLD by regional temperature shifts?
Seriously. Can we consider this garbage for anything more than a plan to make Al Gore a billionaire while destroying our economy for the false god of Global Warming? Gerald North.... YOU should be ashmed to publish this type of tripe.

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