To make you mad.

You acknowldge at the beginning of the post you have no basis in logic for what you're saying, so why say it? By the way, up here in the Northwest, we are having a record *warm* winter. But, I'm not going to claim that it's due to global warming. However, the fact that the annual snowfall & snowpack levels have been decreasing for 50 years here in the NW may have something to do with global warming. But what do I know?

And if the end result is Alaska gets warmer and Europe gets colder, isn't it all just cancelling itself out? Maybe it should be called "global climate redistribution."

The logic is quite similar to saying "If the Earth is so round, Mr. Science Man, how come when I put a ball on the ground it doesn't roll away?"

As a non-fan of the Precautionary Principle, my advice is: Don't just do something. Stand there.

http://ridingsun.blogspot.com/2005/01/shrinking-polar-icecaps-and.html

Also, two men here in Japan were killed today when the roof of their inn collapsed due to the weight of the snow piled up on top of it.

Check out the National Geographic Society's report on glaciers in Alaska now vs. 100 years ago.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/12/1217_alaskaglaciers.html

Is Warming Causing Alaska Meltdown?

Hillary Mayell
for National Geographic News

December 18, 2001

Alaska's glaciers are retreating, reports glacial geologist Bruce Molnia. Significant glacier retreat, thinning, stagnation, or a combination of these changes characterizes all 11 mountain ranges and three island areas that presently support glaciers.

Alaska is home to around 2,000 valley glaciers, including nearly 700 that are named. Fewer than 20 are advancing, according to a major study presented by Molnia, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist, at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union held December 10 to 14 in San Francisco.

What this means in terms of global warming and human impact on global climate is complex.

"We are certainly experiencing a climatic change that's having a pronounced effect in some areas of the world. But we don't know what component of the change is natural versus what's human induced," said Molnia. "The Earth is not warming uniformly. In Alaska there's no question it's warming, and has been for at least the last five decades. But whether this is a function of natural climate processes or driven by human activities, we just can't say."

Greenhouse gases (e.g. CO2, methane, nitrous oxide),as Bithead suggests, are necessary for trapping the sun's energy--without them the earth would be uninhabitable. They are naturally occuring.

Scientific consensus suggests that human activity over the past century or so has increased the output of these gases and that, consequently, the amount of solar energy trapped in the atmosphere has also incresed. Because atmospheric temperature is an important variable in determining global meterological patters, the increase in atmospheric concentrations of these gases is undoubtedly having an effect on climate.

Because the earth is a climatologically diverse place, the effects of global warming will be different throughout the globe. Thus, extreme temperature shifts--either high or low--could be attributed by aggregate global warming.

One of the problems with the understanding of the issue of climatge change is the poor reporting in the media and a general scientific illiteracy in the US.

The credibility of these reports would be questionable on their own. Then add the timing, as you note, and the whole thing becomes outright laughable.