Is global warming ruining your sailing?

Absolutely.
The Doom Mongers who are so keen to spout statistics always pass straight on when those particular statistics are brought up.
They never address that issue.
 
I'm a bit torn here. On the one hand, I can understand that a small percentage change in CO2 to a system already pretty much saturated COULD make a disproportionately large difference. I am also somewhat concerned that pretty much all the science contradicting the widely accepted view on this is funded by the large oil companies...

On the other hand, it's true that it's a wonderful cosh for the politicians to keep us in line with (and raise plenty of revenue)! Perhaps the Western World's politicians have realised that our days of lording it over the developing nations are rapidly coming to a close. IF so, it would be "convenient" to prevent us buying goods that had been made half way round the world, while at the same time developing low carbon technology to sell to the developing economies of China and India! And for evert scientist whose funding comes from an oil company, there must be tens, if not hundreds whose funding comes from governments wnating them to prove the opposite! It would all be much easier for me to swallow if it hadn't come from a government that has, in the past told me things like "British beef is perfectly safe", "A-levels are NOT getting easier", "Speed cameras save lives" and "Iraq was bristling with weapons of mass destruction that could be on our doorsteps in 45 minutes"!
 
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Absolutely.
The Doom Mongers who are so keen to spout statistics always pass straight on when those particular statistics are brought up.
They never address that issue.

[/ QUOTE ]

And how often do we see the diehards addressing the overwhelming mass of evidence in support of the theory of man's impact on global warming?
 
So everything's fine? Seeing the first ever hurricanes in the southern hemisphere is just spin on a grand scale, the polar caps melting before our eyes is just hot air, and Bush doing a complete about-face on the issue is just him saving face?

So you're cynical about politicians? Does that mean you think we aren't too? And does it justify simply cherry picking what you're going to believe? That's what my daughter's RE teacher calls The Holiday Brochure approach to the truth. "That looks nice and restful. I think I'll go there..."

So who exactly (within the past year) is saying that global warming is a myth? Post a link please to an authoritative source. Let's not just hear gossip from the Yacht Club Bar: "Global warming? Just another excuse to put up my taxes!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7T7beACtQs

BTW I'm in complete agreement with anyone who says that the £10 carbon emission levy on flights is just a cynical way of raising money - no-one is going to cancel their holiday for the sake of £10, and I doubt that money will go towards planting trees! (See? We're cynical about politicians too).
As I said earlier, I think it's too late and we're screwed. And I'm amazed that there's still people who think that it's all just hot wind. So - you still think smoking does you no harm...? It's just politicians again...?
 
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If politicians' answer to climate change/DW/whatever wasn't to tax it, and they wore the hair shirt their taxes imply we should adopt then we might be a bit less cynical...

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Exactly!

And as to the fact that everything is our fault: we fly too much, we drive too much, we leave the TV in stand-by too much, ...
We are talking marginal percentages here!

What even the greenies can not deny - the largest, single generators of greenhouses gases (a third) are cows/animals and their farts.
What are we going to do? Force those peskie vegetarians to do their bit?

I'm having steak for lunch to combat global warming - what are you doing?
 
Completely agree with you.

Do we have two different debates going here by any chance...? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
As I said you need to get a grip, it's a modern "how many angels dance on the head of a pin" argument.
I think one of the other replies is nearer the truth. The truth being that easy energy and food supply is coming to an end. Much of global trade is driven by differentials in wealth between the western and third world. Global warming is happening and what will be coming is large scale poverty for millions of previously relatively well off people and even greater poverty for the poorer. It's a situation that governments are trying to keep a lid on. One way is to pretend they are in control of it.

Coming back to the original question. There is an apparant concensus over the contention that the weather is worse than it was with more gales and storms. Given the cyclic nature of climate would it not be possible to suggest that we have gone from a peiod of benign weather to weather that is more normal.
 
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So who exactly (within the past year) is saying that global warming is a myth? Post a link please to an authoritative source.

[/ QUOTE ] As usual, forumites pick on things they thought they read.

I have never denied that there is Global Warming/Climate Change. Never.
 
Don't damn the doom-mongers - they apply pressure for real investigation, however unbalanced they may be. Remember Aunt Ada Doom in Cold Comfort Farm, who was always going on about how she saw something nasty in the woodshed. Undoubtedly Flora Post got round to having the woodshed demolished.
 
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I have never denied that there is Global Warming/Climate Change. Never.

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No, but you deny it is man made. Still, even if it was not man made, it would still be worth trying to slow it down, would it not? And why not try cutting down on emissions, hey, it might just work, who knows?
 
Interesting question: I suspect it depends on the area you sail in. For instance, I believe that the average wave height in the North Atlantic has increased over the last thirty years whereas this is not true in the North Sea.

(Puts on tin hat...) Possibly the effects of the marginally worse weather we may be experiencing each season are offset by the increase in accuracy of the weather forecasts?

In answer to your question I'd say generally that comfort has suffered but safety has not.

Now, on the question of Global Warming and Climate Change: I don't believe it matters if this is due to man-made or natural causes. It looks as though there is a fair amount of evidence that it is a real effect. Therefore we should worry about it!

I have doubts that anything the human race does to limit the amount of CO2 emitted will be effective in reducing the overall amount in the atmosphere enough to have a significant effect. What we should be doing, on a global scale, is planning on how we are going to best cope with the effects. We are already seeing sea levels rise (whatever the cause) and the prudent assumption is that this will continue. The same applies to extremes of weather.

At my age I doubt if I'll be personally inconvenienced to any great extend (unless we move to a flood plane or a hurricane risk area) but we owe it to subsequent generations to take the question seriously.
 
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[even if it was not man made, it would still be worth trying to slow it down, would it not? And why not try cutting down on emissions, hey, it might just work, who knows?

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I can't imagine that if we haven't had any effect on causing Global Warming, that altering our behaviour will make a jot of difference.

However, I do think that conserving our finite resources is a Good Thing.
So for different reasons to the Carbon Warrior, I think that air travel is wasteful, that plastic bags and bottles are a curse and that transporting foodstuffs all around the planet is a whimsical pursuit.
 
Pop down the road and have a look at some of the pretty little clinker dayboats that Andy Seedhouse has for sale in Woodbridge.
A lovely day sailing alternative to planned cruises.

(I'm sure you can recognise a pearl amongst swine, if you get my drift.)
 
Nasa announced in Feb 2007 that the temperature on Mars increased by 0.5 degrees Celcius in 2006. A few days ago they announced that the temperure on Pluto has also increased by 0.5 degree last year. Guess what? the temperature increased by 0.5 degree C last year on our own little planet.
" Global warming: It's the Sun Stupid"
 
In short yes.

Should have taken holidays in April this year.

We always pick June for sailing holiday, and this is the first year I have had to postpone that date. Just hoping August will be better.

I am told that El Ninio is responsible for crazy weather over all of the world, not just UK.

My 2p's worth on global warming is that whilst it is hard to positivley link man's activities to global warming, it cannot be sensible to release the millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, where it took millions of years for plants and animals to capture this gas and make oil and coal out of it.

Global warming has been going on for at least 200 years in this particular cycle.

M|J
 
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