Comments on: How will climate change affect your state?

By: a p garcia

a p garcia — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:55:40 +0000

I really don’t know how it will affect me or the state. If you are talking about “Global Warming”, then I can say that this year has been cooler by about 2 degrees than it has been in several years. Oh yes, my therometer has a HI/LO memory. Remember I saw the first measureable snowfall in 100 years and it wasn’t warm when it snowed. It was a “White Christmas” and cold. Remember it will always be “HOT” during the summer and I lived in Phoenix so I know what “heat” is. Yes, it has been “HOT”, but I have live through hotters,dryer summers in Texas. The forecast for the next 1000 years in Phoenix is that it will be “HOT (110-120 degrees) and “DRY” during the summer.

By: deborahbyrd

deborahbyrd — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 08:53:11 +0000

Sam, yes, the idea that we can import sand to maintain the shoreline is an expensive fantasy. Nature is simply much more powerful than we are.

By: sam

sam — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 04:17:46 +0000

deborah, an item close to my heart. peolple that live along the coast seem to believe that noone should be able to walk along their shore since they make enough to own a beachouse. yet they cry cry cry that the govt should pay for beach sand renourishment when a storm erodes their shoreline. barrier islands are ever changing and historicaly effected by storms tides ect.i say that beach erosion and building are part of gaias plan and that mother earth wants change.i could go on and on about this topic since i live in a state that is the most effected by it.i look forward to other opinions on this.

By: Deborah Byrd

Deborah Byrd — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 02:13:49 +0000

Hello George! Good point about the airports.

Often, when we science journalists report on scientific data, as I did in this post, we use a kind of shorthand. So we say things like “in San Antonio the temperature decreased” instead of “according to some measurements, which may or may not have been taken with utmost care - and which may or may not have agreed with other measurements taken nearby (or over time) via similar techniques (or dissimilar techniques) - the temperature in San Antonio was seen to decrease over the last century.”

If we could get across anything about science, it would be that - as Earth & Sky says on its about page - science is a process, not a body of facts …

It’s a way of looking at and thinking about the world.

We don’t get the process of science across very well. Maybe someday I’ll figure out how to convey it better.

By: George Curtis

George Curtis — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 21:19:34 +0000

You have to be cautious about conclusions from long-term weather bureau data. As airports proliferated, the weather offices moved there. Then, airports enlarged, better telemetering became available, and they moved again. Often, the temperature at the site was a little different. At Honolulu, the relocation of the master thermometer to an area with more black paving went unnoticed for maybe a year, and a lot of uncorrected data are in place. That happens in many other places, of course.

I would not be very sure about the change in San Antonio.

By: Deborah Byrd

Deborah Byrd — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 16:54:05 +0000

I feel the same, Gretchie. Just remember … no one really knows what will happen. These are predictions, based on computer modeling.

By: Gretchie

Gretchie — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 16:47:18 +0000

I am so glad to see someone can give me some information on what might happen in my area. You hear about global climate change but no local information is readily available. Let’s hope this can help politicians plan for our future.

And I loved the photo and link to “Bush on Climate Change -Translated.” So true, so true.