Pinball Wizard's Journal: Global warming: perception vs. reality

Whether or not its the humans' fault, global warming is a reality. When you look at the stats, it doesn't seem so bad. The EPA site on global warming states that average temperatures have risen by 1 degree in the last century.

However, my own experience has been that its been worse than that. Where I live(Albuquerque, NM), temperatures haven't increased that much in the summertime - last summer for instance there were only five days it got higher than 94 degrees, which is normal for here. But in the wintertime, it has gotten much warmer on average than it used to be.

Here in Albuquerque, it used to snow every winter. I used to be able to go cross-country skiing out on the mesa. Now, our local ski area way up on the mountain(10,000 ft. altitude) hasn't even gotten enough snow to open, and my prediction is, it will not open at all this year. December and January have been our coldest months - with an average low of 24 degrees F. and frequently dipping into the teens. Now, it barely freezes - our lows have been in the low 30's.

If its not snowing in the Rockies, that spells big trouble. For instance, Southern California gets much of its water from the Colorado River. If there's not enough snow in the wintertime, the rivers eminating from the Rockies don't get replenished. I predict real trouble when Colorado and New Mexico start getting sued by their bigger and richer neighbors(California and Texas). All the water agreements specify specific acre-feet, rather than percentage of flow. If the rivers dry up, Colorado still owes California X amount of water each year.

So, how are things in your neck of the woods? Has global warming affected you in any way?

same here in southwestern Canada

[eugene ts wong]

I noticed that the tulips tend to bloom in January, on a regular basis, there are a few insects flying around every now & then. It kind of spooks me that many flowers would finish their blooming even before spring.

Ski slopes haven't got much snow @ all.

I tend to agree that much of our global warming is due to us, as well as natural fluctuations. There was a time when the streets were virtually empty, probably because we were snowed in [which was also an anomoly]. I couldn't help but notice how clean the air looked. I speculate that much of humanity's contributions to global warming could be stopped if we would just stop driving. Even with electric cars, the energy has to be produced somewhere, & there are always going to be negative side effects when it comes to energy production.

Even if everything were caused by natural anomolies, that doesn't necessarily justify driving. If we can stablize temperatures by driving less or by doing something, then maybe we should.