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Talk addresses myths and truths about worldwide climate change
By Ana McKenzie
A 2.5-degree rise in the temperature today would be difficult to note, but the permanent and slight increase in temperature over a span of 40 years would produce severe consequences for the environment, said the dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences at a Friday discussion on global warming.
A packed auditorium in Welch Hall fell silent as geosciences dean Eric Barron began his lecture, explaining the relationship between an increase in greenhouse gas emissions and a rise in the overall temperature of the earth. But Barron admits there are some "facts" about global warming that should be ignored by the general public. "There's an awful lot of misinformation out, and that makes discussing global warming difficult," Barron said before his lecture. "A lot of things look glitzy and look professional, but don't have the scientific foundation they need." For example, blaming global warming for stronger tropical storm systems is a difficult prediction to prove because, according to some experts, there are limits to what temperature can be maintained in the eyewall of a hurricane, he said. Some other uncertainties include exactly how much the earth will warm due to an increase of greenhouse gases emitted by humans and how fast the temperature will rise. Coincidentally, the United Nations also discussed climate change this weekend in Valencia, Spain. "We need to set the stage for a comprehensive agreement that tackles climate change on all fronts, including adaptation, mitigation, deforestation, clean technologies and resource mobilization," United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at the High-Level Event on Climate Change this September in New York. But some experts think global warming doesn't exist. John Coleman, founder of the Weather Channel, recently released a letter calling global warming "the biggest scam in history." "Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long-term scientific data back in the late 1990s to create an illusion of rapid global warming," Coleman wrote in an opinion letter posted on the Internet. "Other scientists of the same environmental wacko-type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the 'research' to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a The Texan strives to present all information fairly, accurately and completely.
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The Bell Jar
posted 11/19/07 @ 10:21 AM CST
Estimados Longhorns,
As I was reading about the diversity of the State of Texas , in wikipedia, I came upon this paragraph that caught my attention and I wanted to share it with the Daily Texan readers. (Continued…)
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