"BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - Residents of the upper Midwest bundled up or just stayed inside Tuesday as a wave of bitterly cold air barreled south out of the Arctic, following on the heels of a fast-moving blizzard.
Some schools closed because of the cold and temperatures hit the single digits as far south as Kansas and Missouri.

The coldest air spilled across the Canadian prairie into the Dakotas and Minnesota. Grand Forks, N.D., dropped to a record low of 37 degrees below zero Tuesday morning, lopping six degrees off the old record set in 1979, the National Weather Service said.

In northern Minnesota, it was 35 below zero in Roseau and 36 below in Hallock, with wind chills down to 45 below in Hibbing. Just to the north, Winnipeg, Saskatchewan, also hit minus 36, according to Environment Canada.

In North Dakota, the Minot area got 6 inches of snow, on top of about a foot that fell late last week, and Bismarck collected 4. Bismarck, Fargo and Grand Forks all broke snow records for December, each with more than 30 inches."
Sharp cold wave shocks upper Midwest, temps to -36

excon

Hello again, Steve:

Yup, there's a price to pay. And, since it's our collective a$$, we make light of it. But it really IS our collective a$$, and the price is much bigger than that.

I dunno. I'm not Al Gore. I'm not a scientist. I'm not smart.

But, our atmosphere has more CO2 in it than it has for the last 20 thousand years. At the same time, we're chopping down our rain forest as fast as we can. It's the rain forest that cleans the air.

That doesn't bode well for us - even you righty's.

excon

speechlesstx

I don't know, ex. Trying to find reliable data on forest coverage (like anything else regarding climate change) is like finding that needle in the haystack. And what gets me is scientists seem to be surprised when they discover things like all that "extra" CO2 seems to help trees grow and in turn absorb more CO2.

Fifth of World Carbon Emissions Soaked up by Extra Forest Growth, Scientists Find
20/02/2009 by THE GUARDIAN

Trees across the tropics are getting bigger and offering unexpected help in the fight against climate change, scientists have discovered.

A laborious study of the girth of 70,000 trees across Africa has shown that tropical forests are soaking up more carbon dioxide pollution that anybody realised. Almost one-fifth of our fossil fuel emissions are absorbed by forests across Africa, Amazonia and Asia, the research suggests.

Simon Lewis, a climate expert at the University of Leeds, who led the study, said: "We are receiving a free subsidy from nature. Tropical forest trees are absorbing about 18% of the carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere each year from burning fossil fuels, substantially buffering the rate of change."

The study measured trees in 79 areas of intact forest across 10 African countries from Liberia to Tanzania, and compared records going back 40 years. "On average the trees are getting bigger," Lewis said.

Compared to the 1960s, each hectare of intact African forest has trapped an extra 0.6 tonnes of carbon a year. Over the world's tropical forests, this extra "carbon sink" effect adds up to 4.8bn tonnes of CO2 removed each year - close to the total carbon dioxide emissions from the US.

Although individual trees are known to soak up carbon as they photosynthesise and grow, large patches of mature forest were once thought to be carbon neutral, with the carbon absorbed by new trees balanced by that released as old trees die.

A similar project in South America challenged that assumption when it recorded surprise levels of tree growth a decade ago, Lewis said. His study, published tomorrow in Nature, was to check whether the effect was global.

The discovery suggests that increased CO2 in the atmosphere could fertilise extra growth in the mature forests.

Well duh! I learned that in elementary school.

tomder55

back before the asteroid struck , the world was lush and green and had a great deal of C02 floating around.Elevated carbon dioxide levels result in higher productivity, and faster animal and plant growth rates.Both animals and plants were bigger ...much bigger.
Dinosaurs' World Heated By Greenhouse Effect: Study

inthebox

Gore Pulls Slide of Disaster Trends - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com















G&P

George_1950

“Natural living” advocates unveil their latest planet-saving invention - the reusable toilet wipe.
Bottom reached | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

speechlesstx

Just in time for “a mass non-violent civil disobedience” in D.C. called Make Climate Justice History scheduled for today as announced by It's Getting Hot in Here, “between three and 12 inches of snow” blanketed the capitol.

LOL, I do believe God has a sense of humor. Now That's climate change justice.

speechlesstx

In part 2 of today's climate news, Obama's EPA intends to regulate farm dust. OK all you farmers out there, please confine your dust to your property.

speechlesstx

In today's episode of "It's getting hot in here," recent study shows global warming is on hold...even though many have been saying this for some time.

Yes, nature is "conspiring" to ruin the climate change agenda.

excon

Hello again, Steve:

I still can't figure out what you have against the idea of global warming... Do you own energy stocks? Do you work for an energy company? Are you looking for an excuse to keep doing business as usual? Do you LIKE spending $4 for gas? Do you deny that oil is running out? Do you deny that we're going to need an alternate energy source?

Really. I can't figure out, other than it's a Republican talking point, WHY you say what you do?

And, even if global warming is wrong, should we continue throwing our trash into the air? That's really the question I have for you.

If you think so, why don't you just say so, and argue with me that it's ok to do that?

If you don't, then who cares what some crackpot says? If his solution is right, even though his premise is wrong, the result will still be good, no?

excon

speechlesstx

I don’t like being scammed by religious zealots. Do you?

Probably somewhere in my IRA.

Um, no. We do fire and security systems.

Look it up ex, I’ve always stated conservation and a clean environment are good things.

No.

Actually I’m not sure we’re getting the truth.

Of course not. I’d love to install a solar system but it’s cost prohibitive.

You really can’t figure that out? Do you like being lied to? Do you think science should be honest? Is allowing a different opinion a good thing? Should conflicting evidence be considered or should the consensus disregard it out of hand? How do you measure a global ocean rise of a few centimeters? Do you trust computer models, because our weather guys can’t seem to guess what’s going to happen more than a few minutes before it does.

For the thousandth time, clean air is a good thing. Do you think like some extremists do that "global warming deniers" (ie: scientists with different data) should be prosecuted for environmental crimes?

Perhaps you will finally remember all the times I’ve said clean air is a good thing instead?

Wow, after everything I’ve read from you on our rights I’m really surprised you don’t get it. It’s not just some crackpot, it’s a religion, it’s rampant, it’s misleading, dishonest and it seeks to impose some really bad things on the world, like “voluntary human extinction.”

No? Even the beloved Jacques Cousteau said "This is a terrible thing to say in order to stabilize world population, we must eliminate 350000 people per day."

Do you believe ants are more valuable than people?