I found this to be an interesting, thought-provoking article:

http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/harris061206.htm

yeah Jeff, but he still invented the internet and no one can take that away .

Doesn't our obligatory global warming debate usually begin in October? Why so early this year? Are there palm trees growing along the Potomac or something?

No, just a few palm seedlings popping up around Lost River.

Roger,
Well, what else can we do to pass the Un-Season?
I mean come on, THIS debate should carry us right into next season!

-Warren-

What is the debate? There is no longer a debate about the fact of global warming (a broad scientific consensus on this), little debate about the contribution of human activity to it (again, a broad consensus), the only remaining debate is what remedial measures to take(institute measures now or kick the can down the road and let others make the hard choices later). This administration seems to want to do the latter, other want to face up to it now. Is that the debate we are having here?

Yes, the climate is warming ( moving out of ice age ), and there's an additional man made component due mainly to production of the proverbial green house gases in industrial production ( also fact ). So what's the debate again?

While in Canada recently, I noticed a few articles in Canadian papers and publications that related to Global Warming. One article was about the North-West passage. Experts now think that, due to the rapid melting of the Polar Ice Cap, the North-West Passage, within 10 years, could be navigable during a significant part of each year. However, there's a disagreement on the legal status of these waters, Canada considers the North-West Passage to be Canadian waters and the US considers the NW Passage to be International waters.

Several Inuit villages in Northern Canada are becoming isolated because they depend on long roads that stretch across the frozen tundra. Due to Global Warming, these roads are turning into soup and goop (and not usable) during much longer periods than what had been the normal pattern.

The caribou herds are dwindling because Global Warming has interrupted their migratory patterns (the tundra perma-frost and lakes are frozen over less now). Also, a variety of insects that seem to bother the caribou have migrated North due to warmer temps.

A few other things to consider: The Winter of 2005-2006 was the WARMEST Winter on record in Canada. The Winter of 2005-2006 was the 5th warmest Winter on record in the lower 48 of the US. Many once famous glaciers are already gone or will be gone in another 10 years. Ocean levels are rising at alarming rate, which is affecting most beach areas world-wide. Corral Reefs are dying off world-wide at a very rapid pace because the water temps are rising faster than the corral can adapt. Of course, pollution probably also plays a role in this.

The only question about Global Warming is it's cause. It's it simply a natural cycle? Does human activity play a role in making the warming more accute? One thing that I'm 100% sure of, the Bush Admin. and the Right-Wing have NO intention doing anything about Global Warming; in fact, it's not even on their radar screen.

What are you talking about? That's not an open question, the data supports a man made component to warming trends. The rate of change or any specific event is open to debate. Long term trends point to a warming with various models suggesting various (poorly understood) outcomes at this time. The time lines vary of course on all this but its not like tomorrow the oceans are going to rise 2 ft, or 10 feet, or whatever. This is a long term trend, stretching out past our lifetimes.

I agree that the data supports a human component to the warming trend. However, some top scientists have recently questioned how much affect human activity has had on Global Warming. At any rate, the weather trends over the next 20 years will provide us much more data. And, by the way, NOAA's long-range weather outlook is calling for the Winter of 2006-2007 to be much milder than normal in the Mid-Atlantic. Of course, long-range weather predictions are often wrong.