Netherlands has another record warm year

[rodeodance]

Netherlands has another record warm year
RELATED ARTICLES

* Global Warming May Put Dutch Skating Race on Ice
* Land temperatures seen warmest in 2007
* Planet Sees Warmest September on Record
* Dutch Windmills at Risk from Climate Change

http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/28281

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The average temperature in the Netherlands in 2007 matched 2006, the warmest year in 300 years, and the Dutch meteorological institute said it was a sign of global warming.

The average temperature in 2007 was 11.2 degrees Celsius (52.16F) which, along with 2006, is highest average since Dutch temperatures were first measured in 1706, the KNMI institute said on Friday. The normal annual average is 9.8 degrees.

"The most important reason for the recent high temperatures is the slow global warming of the climate," KNMI said.

Dutch temperature records are among the oldest in the world.

[shireen]

1. if GW continues, that's gonna change to the other extreme

Most north eastern Atlantic countries keep warm because of the Gulf Stream carrying warm water towards that area of the ocean. If the northern waters get less saline as Arctic ice melts, it will disrupt the dynamics of the conveyor belt, and it's very likely that less warmth will reach those northern areas, creating wicked cold winters and generally cooler temperatures, and that would severely disrupt agriculture. Since the ocean conveyor belt is interconnected, this will have world-wide ramifications. Meanwhile, the Netherlands, with significant land area below sea level will have another headache to deal with: rising ocean level due to Arctic ice melt. They have really amazing ingenious technology (there is a cool National Geographic documentary about it) to keep the North Atlantic out during severe weather, but how long can they fight forces of nature?

Explanation of the dynamics of the conveyor belt at http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_Change/Science/Conveyor.asp

Diagram of Ocean Conveyor belt from http://fermi.jhuapl.edu/student/currents/conveyor.htm



It will be a f*ckiin' mess ....

[Anouka]

2. Thank you for the graphic

and the additional information. It is very informative.

What is the solution?

[shireen]

3. i wish i knew ....

The solution is a fundamental change in peoples' perceptions of what it means to be part of their immediate and extended communities, and taking responsibility for the well-being of this planet. We need to redefine what it means to be human beings, to recognize that we are part of the fabric of nature, not above it.

How to achieve it? I don't know. And I'm pretty pessimistic.


Lately, I've been thinking about this a lot ....


(source: http://www.skyimagelab.com/pale-blue-dot.html )


http://obs.nineplanets.org/psc/pbd.html

Reflections on a Mote of Dust

Carl Sagan (1934-1996)

We succeeded in taking that picture , and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

Excerpted from a commencement address delivered May 11, 1996. Dr. Sagan's book Pale Blue Dot expands on these ideas.
Image from Voyager 1, 1990.

[Skittles]

4. first: get rid of repukes from our government

that would be a start