Several readers of this blog have asked me to provide a summary of my views on global warming.
In response to these requests, I spent most of my Friday podcast on this issue – so check it out (you can access the podcast below or through your favorite podcast service).
For those who don’t like podcasts, let me give you my final lines:
1. Greenhouse gases (such as CO2 and methane) are increasing and human emissions are the main cause of the increase.
2. The planet has warmed by about 1°C over the past century and most, but not necessarily all, of that warming is due to an increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
3. Greenhouse gases increasingly affect some extremes (e.g. heat waves), but not others (such as the intensity of winter storms hitting the Northwest)
4. The extreme changes due to global warming today are relatively small and often obscured by natural variability. Extreme changes (such as heat waves) will intensify by the end of the century.
5. Global warming is not an existential threat to humanity but will reduce the rate at which humanity becomes richer.
6. Humanity can significantly adapt to climate change, averting most of its human and economic impacts.
7. There are high hopes for reducing global warming using innovative energy technologies (e.g. nuclear power, renewable energy, replacing coal/oil with natural gas, industrial better storage technology) and pull CO2 out of the atmosphere (separation).
8. Improved weather prediction and adaptation efforts have significantly reduced humanity’s vulnerability to the effects of global warming. The number of deaths from extreme weather has decreased by 95% over the past century.
In short, global warming is a serious, but manageable problem that needs technological solutions.
Forecast (more on my podcast).
There will be showers this weekend and dry conditions on Sunday, with temperatures remaining below normal. Showers and cool conditions will continue into next week.
One big change is that more rain will fall on California, which is illustrated by the total rainfall over the next week (see below). More about forecasting in my podcast.
Again…. I’ll be doing a special online session with my Patreon supporters at 10am tomorrow (Saturday).
Some of the main podcast hosts:
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