North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Betty Mayfield <bmayfield@opusnet.com>]

To the list,

In an article in January, the Wall Street Journal reported that Alpine
ski resorts are having to use snow cannons to supply artificial snow,
sucking up water supplies.

"Swiss ski resorts, which tend to be at higher elevations and have
reliable snow cover, still have relatively few snow cannons, covering
around 19% of all slopes. That compares with 50% coverage in Austria and
100% in some Italian ski areas. Across the Alps, snow-making machines now
suck up nearly as much water as Vienna, a city of 1.7 million people,
says Josef Essl, in charge of land-use planning and nature conservation
at the Innsbruck-based Austrian Alpine Association. . .

"Snow cannons take water, supercool it and spray it out over the ski
runs. You need to build pipes up the mountainsides to bring water to
cement storage tanks, and pipes to take it to the snow cannons.
Scientists predict that lower resorts will have to be abandoned by 2030
anyhow, as rising temperatures lift the snowline and make it harder for
snow machines to operate. The skiers will leave, but not the pipes and
cement."

Betty Mayfield
northwest Oregon




At 12:36 PM 3/28/2009, Kevin Moore wrote:
> This a very concise and
> well-worded explanation. I would only add one thought: The carbon that
> was laid down as fossil deposits was pulled out of the atmosphere over
> the course of millions of years, but is being reintroduced over the
> course of a couple of hundred years. Very possibly too much too
> fast.
>
>
> From: Stephen Sadler
> <Docshiva@Docshiva.org>
> To: North American Fruit Explorers
> <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2009 2:30:54 PM
> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Weather
>
> Early on in the last decade I was among the scientists who thought that
> solar cycles should be closely examined for their role in so many years
> of highest-recorded worldwide temperatures.  I’ve kept up with the
> research, and find 100% agreement among climatologists (I’m not one,
> but feel trained and adept at understanding published studies) that this
> is a carbon-based fuel use phenomenon, not a solar one.  The
> arguments are more than persuasive; they are neat, elegant, logical,
> clear, repeated, validated, and scientifically irrefutable.  Read
> them rather than taking my word for that.
>
>  
>
> One of the many explanations for the global climate change phenomenon is
> that during the Cambrian period atmospheric carbon was much higher. 
> This led to very high global temperatures, incompatible with human
> life.  The plant species of the time evolved to use the high levels
> of CO2, and that carbon was further utilized by the animals that ate
> those plants.  Carbon was drained from the atmosphere; perhaps by
> consumption alone, or in tandem with other events.  Those animals
> and plants died in a rapid and massive extinction event (very likely
> caused by climate change).  Their carbon settled deep into the earth
> over time (which is why fossils are dug up, not found on the surface),
> thus sequestering the carbon - making it unavailable to the
> atmosphere.  We call their remains and their carbon “crude
> oil.”
>
>  
>
> We are taking the carbon from that climatologically different – and much
> hotter – time an and burning it, placing the carbon back into the
> atmosphere and recreating Cambrian levels.  You simply can’t burn
> the amount of carbon that we do at the pace that we do without creating
> global climate change..
>
>  
>
> There are many models of how this will manifest.  Warming may set
> off a chain of events that could lead to a rapid ice age, for
> instance.  Storms may be warm hurricanes or freezing
> superstorms.   Weather will certainly continue to be different
> than it has ever been in human history.   Species extinctions
> are at a rate comparable with other mass extinction events; we are
> experiencing a mass extinction event right now.  The only question
> is which species will survive, and what we can do to slow or reverse
> climate change. 
>
>  
>
> Many climate change naysayers site 2008s coolness relative to the
> previous dozen years as evidence that climate change is not
> occurring.  2008, though, was the ninth hottest year ever recorded;
> it just seemed cool because of the string of previous years of record
> global high temperatures.  
>
>  
>
> Back on topic – over thee past decade I’ve been able to grow zone 10
> plants comfortably in my nominally zone 8 region.  This is not at
> all a reasonable sampling of others’ experience; but locally here in
> California’s central valley my bananas and Kaffir lime are doing quite
> well.  Got too hot for my guava last summer, though.
>
>  
>
> ~ Stephen 
>
>  
>
> From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
> [
> mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of John
> Barbowski
> Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2009 10:34 AM
> To: North American Fruit Explorers
> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Weather
>
>  
>
> In the years gone by, temps were cooler; in the years gone by, temps were
> warmer; In the years gone by, temps were cooler; in the years gone by,
> temps were warmer;
>
> In the years gone by, temps were cooler; in the years gone by, temps were
> warmer; ...
>
> Doesn't this somehow remind one of a cycle?
>
> We were in a warming cycle until 1998. Just look at the glaciers in the
> Canadian rockies; at the turn of the 1900, they were almost a mile longer
> than they are today. Anecdotal evidence yes, but still a piece of the
> puzzle.
>
> In the 70's, I recall scientists 'predicting' a mini ice age because of a
> couple of cooler years. The last 8 years have indicated a cooling trend.
> What can a trend be? 5 yrs, 10 yrs, 50, 100? Only history will
> tell.
>
> The real question I believe is: What is the cause? I suggest that the
> only common factor in all this is that big fiery ball in the sky. Man can
> have an influence on our global climate, however, I believe it to be
> minuscule in comparison to the sun.  
>
> The explosion of Krakatoa in 1883 influenced the worlds climate; people
> called it the year without summer. A catastrophic event, yes, as were the
> meteors that struck the earth and, as some scientist claim, 
> influenced on our climate and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. But
> mother earth came back primarily because its consistent
> modifier.
>
> The sun reigns supreme and constant - the driving force - 'weather' we
> like it or not. (Yeh I know it should be whether)
>
> jmb
>
> sorry 'bout this - it has been bothering me for years.
>
>
>
> On Sat, Mar 28, 2009 at 12:45 PM, Kevin Moore
> <aleguy33@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
> Sorry guys, but you seem to be confused about what global warming is and
> how it affects the weather. I blame the anti-global-warming petroleum
> conspiracy for confusing so many people about what's really going on. The
> truth is that virtually every reputable scientist on the planet has been
> in agreement about global warming for more than a decade. 
> The petro PACs turned up at a scientific convention once and got a whole
> bunch of random people to sign a statement that global warming was a
> myth. It turns out, most of the people who signed it were dentists or
> medical doctors or something along those lines, and most of them signed
> it after being misled about what it actually was.
> Today, even the oil companies don't dispute the reality of global
> warming. Now they're trying to confound the public on another equally
> devastating secret. We have passed Hubbert's Peak for world oil
> production, and are heading into a period of severe fuel shortages and
> huge price increases.. If you can't work out why they want this kept
> hushed up, well . . .
>
>  
>
>  
>
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