Jose Bardelas Climate Change Blog

Will Global Warming Cause the Next Ice Age?

Jose Bardelas Global Warming Causes by Robert F Allison.

One major problem in the debate over climate change is a general lack of knowledge on the subject. People usually don’t think about where their electricity, gasoline, or toilet paper comes from. Part of this acceptance comes from the way industry separates products from the production process…When we turn on lights in L.A., we don’t see the plants and coal mines that generated the power…Only those paying careful attention make the connections. Another part of the problem is that we are reluctant to question science, which has such prestige that people rarely stop to question who is funding research and whether that could compromise findings. (Gibson 17)

Most people also don’t understand how the theory of global warming works. They think that a really cold winter is evidence that global warming is a myth. However, scientists that support the ideas of global warming are referring to long-term climate change. Climate refers to environmental patterns over a long period of time. Weather refers to short-lived events, and can have isolated extremes. One of the predictions of many scientists is that global warming will cause more extreme weather: hotter summers, longer droughts, colder winters, and stronger storms. According to their theories, Europe could be tossed into another ice age because of global warming, not turned into a tropical paradise. This is because of the effect global warming could have on ocean currents.

Skeptics will often find any opportunity to attack the views of scientists based on some isolated weather event, or the lack of such an event. If the scientists predict increasing frequency and intensity of hurricanes, skeptics will point out that this last hurricane season was extremely mild, with the only intense storms hitting Mexico. Ultra-conservative commentator, Rush Limbaugh, doesn’t just consider global warming to be a myth; he calls it a hoax and a religion. “It’s got salvation, got everything in it. It has the primary ingredient of every religion: faith. Because none of it can be proved” (Limbaugh 4). Limbaugh also takes issue with the use of the word “consensus” by global warming activists, and is right to do so. “Consensus and science-I got blue in the face saying this-don’t and cannot mutually co-exist” (Limbaugh 4). If scientists had reached any sort of consensus, this would be a dead issue. Most scientists agree that the temperature of the earth has been gradually increasing, but that doesn’t mean they agree on the possible causes or consequences.

A survey of more than 530 climate scientists from 27 different countries showed that 82% of the scientists agreed that global warming is occurring. Only 2.6% said they “strongly disagree.” When asked if current scientific knowledge can allow for a reasonable assessment of greenhouse gases, two-thirds of the scientists disagreed with the statement.

The question most people are most keen to ask climate scientists is probably “do you agree or disagree that climate change is mostly the result of anthropogenic (man-made) causes?” Slightly more than half (55.8%) of climate scientists surveyed agreed, 14.2% were unsure, and 30% disagreed. Interestingly, more scientists “strongly disagree” than “strongly agree” that climate change is mostly the result of anthropogenic causes. The survey clearly shows that the debate over why the climate is changing is still underway, with nearly half of climate scientists disagreeing with what is often claimed to be the “consensus” view. (Bast 4)

The study goes on to clarify that the question wasn’t whether humans have any effect on climate, but whether they are mostly to blame. It’s certainly quite possible that humans are having at least some effect on the climate, but nothing can be proven with any certainty.

Some skeptics believe that mankind is too insignificant and could not possibly have so much influence on the environment. S. Fred Singer is a well-known climate change skeptic. He has been trying to gain support for the theory that climate change is a natural, cyclical process. He believes the earth has a 1,500-year cycle of warming and cooling, with minor ice ages interspersed with interglacial periods. Singer claims that his research shows this cycle going back at least one million years, often with abrupt changes. At one time, Greenland was quite green, with crops and livestock farming. Warm waters were abundant with fish and seals. There were two thriving settlements, but they were eventually lost to glaciers, malnutrition, and starvation. Dairy farmers were even forced to eat their cows. This was due to a 1.5 degree Celsius drop in average temperatures between 1100 and 1400. “Denmark would not re-colonize Greenland until 1721, when the Little Ice Age was losing its grip on the huge island. Today, 150 years into the Modern Warming, Greenland has 50,000 people” (Singer xii). Singer believes that these cycles are caused by solar changes, not greenhouse gases.

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Global Warming, I’m Causing It?

Humans and Jose Bardelas Global Warming By Muhammad Haidir.

Humans and Global warming

Most of us have heard about global warming and how it is slowly chewing away into the life of our beloved mother earth, about how it has caused several noticeable changes in the weather patterns due to climate change resulting from the emission of green house gases. It has raised some environmental issues as well, both directly and indirectly from the pollution of these green house gases, be it from the rising sea levels due to the increased in the earth’s surface temperature or the susceptibility of the our health factor due to the irregular heat and cold exposure.

Doing our part, is it enough?

Some of us are doing our part to help the environment through various means from recycling our recyclable products, changing our wasteful habits to installing solar panels and harnessing wind power as an alternative source of energy for our house. Some big corporation and major industries are doing their part as well by promoting and sponsoring awareness campaigns, making sure their waste discharge, by products and their gas emission abide and comply by the health regulatory boards. These discharges go through several processes to be classified as environmentally friendly before being discharge and released into the environment. Some of them have also implemented various tactics, methods and technology to reduce their energy and resources usage. From installing water saving devices to researching new technologies to reduce carbon emission, all these in an effort to reduce our carbon emission the release of more greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.

Renewable energies

Self sustaining and renewable energy sources holds great promises for a greener and cleaner future. Harnessing nature’s forces for our benefits such building dams, wind driven turbines and thermal generator to utilize geysers are just few of the examples. The latest technology introduce into the scene is the ability to be able to harness the energies of waves to generate electricity. Man kind are so desperately seeking alternatives for sources of renewable energy as each passing day we are pushing the supply limits of our natural gas and fossil fuels to the brink of extinction. The supply and demand balance will soon tip greatly as our supplies of energy continue to deplete and individual countries continues to increase their energy consumption.

Taking Turkey as a case study, Kaygusuz (2007) reported that the country have shown energy increased in energy consumption at an average of 4.3% annually since 1990. In comparison to its increased energy usage, its carbon dioxide emission has also whooped up to an alarming figure of 193 million tons in the year 2003. Multiply the figure with all the developed and developing countries and then we fast tracked it 10 years down the road. It is no longer a surprise that we our fossil fuels supplies will be facing depletion sooner then predicted by the experts.

We are to blame?

Are ‘we’ humans really to blame for the rise in the global temperature and the current condition of mother earth. We would question ourselves as we observe for the past few years as headlines in the news showcase stories of cities and countries being hit by early frost, late frost, sudden blitz, ice storms and hail storms. Notice are sometimes displayed and to alert people to prepare and brace themselves with the coming of snow storms, cyclones and many more of such similar examples. This can be used as environmental indicators and evidence as to how distorted our weather patterns have gone. At present carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide are the main Green house gases deemed to be the culprits behind global warming.

However there are several ideologies out there calcimining that this is part of a natural cycle. They explain that as we see the trend in the rise of the global temperature for the past few centuries and how they have declined in recent times. Maybe that explains the unexpected surges in late and early frost.

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Global Warming: A Brief Introduction

Jose Bardelas Global Warming A Brief Introduction By Simon Rosser.

The term Global Warming has been in common usage for some time and usually refers to recent warming of Earth’s atmosphere,which also implies a manmade or human influence.

Earth’s atmosphere comprises many gases: oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide (hereafter abbreviated to CO2) and water vapour, to name a few. These gases are collectively called greenhouse gases and they keep the Earth’s temperature at a comfortable 15°C. Without them Earth would be a freezing -18&degC.

Since pre-industrial times, usually taken to be before 1750, we know from ice-core records that CO2 levels were about 280 ppm,that’s 280 parts of CO2 per million parts of air. As industrialisation got underway humankind started to farm the land more intensely than ever before, which included deforestation for agriculture and settlements. Later – since about 1850 or so – the burning of fossil fuels for energy and transport has added considerably to greenhouse gas levels, particularly CO2.

This has resulted in CO2 levels increasing to about 385 ppm, a rise of about thirty-seven per cent from pre-industrial levels – mainly as a result of burning fossil fuels.

How do we know this?

Well, data from ice-core records that go back at least 650,000 years now show us that CO2 levels have fluctuated naturally during this time between 280 and 300 ppm. CO2 levels have also been measured accurately from the top of Mauna Loa Volcano in Hawaii since 1958, and results show an increase in CO2 levels from 315 ppm to 385 ppm since that time.

Therefore CO2 is now at eighty ppm more than it has been for at least 650,000 years of Earth’s history. It is a known scientific fact that higher levels of greenhouse gases will lead to higher temperatures, which appears to be happening now. The world has warmed by an average of 0.74 degrees during the last 100 years or so. As a result of this warming, polar ice has started to decrease and melt, and so have Earth’s land-based glaciers. This in turn is causing sea levels to rise, which is putting low-lying islands at risk of flooding or total submersion, and will eventually threaten more and more of the world’s coastal cities and regions.

Things may get worse, however, because once Earth’s atmosphere starts to warm, the warming itself may cause further positive feedback mechanisms to kick in. A warmer atmosphere holds more water vapour, which is itself a powerful greenhouse gas. This will in turn cause further warming, and so on.

Melting ice results in more sunlight being absorbed by the surrounding ‘darker’ water and land, and that results in further warming, and more melting ice. Methane deposits currently held in a frozen but stable state under the sea and under the permafrost may be released as the oceans warm and permafrost melts, which will cause further warming. This is very worrying as methane is a potent greenhouse gas and around twenty times more powerful than CO2 when talking about it’s ability to warm the Earth’s atmosphere.

This is global warming in a nut shell, however there are of course far more complex issues involved as global warming will not affect the whole planet in the same way at the same time. Some parts will experience more drought, some parts more rainfall, and some parts more extreme weather such as floods and heatwaves.

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How is Food Waste Adding to Global Warming and Poverty?

Dr. Jose A. Bardelas Jr. MD Global Warming and Poverty By Stephen William Moore

There’s a simple way to reduce global warming and save money at the same time – don’t waste food.

In his book, ‘Waste – The Global Scandal’, Tristram Stuart, calculates that British households consign 5.4 million tonnes of edible food to the bin each year. That’s 25% of all the food that Britons eat at home. It hits them in the pocket as well. That means that it costs each British household, on average, £8 ($14) a week.

Stuart quotes some more amazing British food waste statistics. Among other other perfectly-edible items that go in the bin annually are:

- 2.6 billion (yes, billion!) slices of bread;

- £370 million worth of bananas;

- 1.6 billion uneaten apples;

- 484 million opened pots of yoghurt.

Unfortunately, the message of food waste has been passed to our children – about a third of school packed lunches end up in the bin.

The repercussions of this waste are serious on a global scale. The developed countries’ demand for food pushes up global food prices. In 2007, average global food prices rose by 23 per cent. By the following year, prices had gone up by a staggering 54 per cent.

This matters. The result of increased food prices is that up to an estimated 100 million extra people were pushed into chronic hunger. Chronic hunger in turn increases the child mortality rate amongst this group. It’s estimated, according to Stuart, that the rate has risen to 25 per cent.

And waste food contributes to the pressure on scarce land resources. 8.3 million hectares of land are needed to produce just the products wasted in the UK and the US. That’s seven times the amount of Brazilian rainforest that was destroyed in 2008 to produce food.

As food prices rise, the greater the financial incentive to deforest the rainforests. But they’re vital to deal with global warming.

So what can you do to reduce your food waste?

Don’t buy too many meat and dairy products at once. These products are more perishable than other foods and take up to four times more land to produce and result in more greenhouse gas emissions (particularly from cattle).

Use a shopping list. With the massive variety of foods available in the supermarkets, it’s easy to make impulse purchases. Make a list and stick to it. Only buy ‘buy one, get one free’ deals if it’s something that you regularly use and will finish.

Keep an eye on what’s in the fridge. Much food is wasted because we’ve forgotten that it’s in the fridge or cupboard.

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Global Warming – Fact Or Fantasy?

Dr. Jose A. Bardelas Jr. MD Global Warming Facts By Duane Flowers

In this article I’d like to look at global warming and whether in reality it is fact or fiction or fact or fantasy, as indeed the case may be.

There have been a lot of reports in the newspaper over the last few years about global warming and frankly I just don’t see it. Looking around me for the last two years, we’ve had the shortest summers that we’ve had in a long time and while the winters may have little less snow than I remember as a kid they are far from anything resembling the doom and gloom being prophesied.

This year we barely had a summer August which is generally our hottest month surrounded by September and July being pretty hot themselves, this year it just didn’t happen. We had a couple weeks of what I’d call summer, reminiscent of the hot and humid summers of 10 years ago, but it basically it just wasn’t there and now it seems we skipped directly into winter.

Praying Mantis

The praying mantis here in Japan has always been a good indicator of what’s to come, at least as far as natural indicators go, in that they lay their eggs on the ground when they are expecting a mild winter and they lay their eggs high up in the trees when they’re expecting colder winters. The higher up they go the colder the winter they’re expecting and for the first time in many, many years the praying mantis has laid its eggs up high in the trees which means this winter is going to be a cold one.

So with the new influenza peaking right about now and winter right around the corner with the old influenza coming on its heels I think the especially cold winter that’s coming is one to be very careful about and it also tends to goes against all these warnings of doom and gloom and global warming, at least from the evidence I’ve seen so far.

Michael Crichton

The latest and unfortunately last Michael Crichton book called “State of Fear” talks about global warming from a very interesting aspect. In my opinion Michael Crichton was a genius, he really understood science and medicine and all the things he wrote about. He actually understood them more deeply than most of us. For those not familiar with the name right off the bat Michael Crichton wrote “Jurassic Park”, “Rising Sun”, “Timeline”, “Congo”, “Sphere” and a slew of other bestsellers that became blockbusters as well.

The thing with the movies is that a lot of the science was taken out, the research the technical details, etc. were all made into something that non-technical movie watchers would enjoy. But if you read the books you’ll find all that detail. In Jurassic Park you can learn all about DNA and details about how that kind of DNA cloning is theoretically quite possible.

But in his latest book, “State of Fear” he goes deeply into the research about global warming. He suggests that many of the facts that are out there about Global Warming are just wrong and are not at all based on the research. The doctors and/or scientists that are putting forward a lot of this research are basically quacks, which is basically what he is saying, and that many of them are the kind of researchers that will write whatever you want if they’re paid enough. Whether this is true or not I don’t know in that I haven’t read any of the research myself, but for someone like Michael Crichton to suggest it, it is definitely food for thought.

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Global Warming is Real and We Can Do Something About It

Dr. Jose A. Bardelas Jr. MD Global Warming Issues By Cheryl Forbes

It is time that we care about Mother Earth. Anything that happens to her, happens to all of us. Nobody is spared. This might be grim but it is the truth. One of the greatest worries of Mother Earth is global warming. Kids are taught about Global Warming in school. It can also be seen at children television shows. Integrated with the show’s theme. Even parks and museums show the devastating effects of global warming, informing not only the kids but the adults too.

Global warming is a large responsibility for one man to carry alone. But if all of us would care enough to change our lifestyles, then it would make a difference. Change it in such a way that our lifestyle will no longer contribute to the rising temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere. We can make it happen. We can make a difference especially if we do it together.

A few of the effects of global warming are the increase in sea levels because of the melting ice over at the Antarctica region, erratic changes in the weather, floods, typhoons, hurricanes, forest fires, etc.

We need to be shaken awake from the deep slumber that we are in because even if we have been informed of the effects and causes of global warming. It would seem that we do not care enough to change our ways. Simple change in our lifestyle is all that would take to gradually decrease global warming. The past is behind us and we can no longer do something about it. The future we can still change. So let us do our part and be responsible not only to ourselves but to others too.

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Global Warming – Myth Or Reality?

Dr. Jose A. Bardelas Jr. MD Global Warming Myths By Niraj Chandra

Many prominent scientists and engineers claim there is no such thing as man-made global warming. One engineer, living in Canada, goes so far as to say human responsibility for global warming is a “stunning whitewash of reality”. On the other hand, environmentalists like Al Gore and Dr David Suzuki claim the very opposite.

Faced with these conflicting views, I did a little research of my own. I found that belief in man-made global warming is much like belief in god – there is lots of evidence but no absolute proof, and we will not know for sure until we are dead.

The skeptics claim that the human contribution to environmental pollution is negligible; nature generates far more greenhouse gases than human activity. They question the science behind climate change because different computer simulation models produce different results. They point out that ice ages have occurred in the past even when there was no industrial activity.

The supporters of man-made global warming, on the other hand, point out that the recent increase in levels of carbon dioxide is far greater in the last couple of hundred years than at any time before, and there has been a dramatic increase in global temperatures during this time. This cannot be just a coincidence.

The supporters also point out that climate change models can reproduce the observed temperature trends with reasonable accuracy only when the effects of greenhouse gases are included in the computations. Different climate change models do produce different results, but this is generally true of all computer simulations. The supporters also point out that there is almost unanimous consensus amongst climatologists about man-made global warming.

I found that belief in global warming varies from region to region. Most of the world believes in it, but many North America “think tanks” totally deny man-made global warning. There are also “think tanks” that state that even if global warming exists, the most cost effective approach is to do nothing about it right now and simply adapt, as future technologies will be more cost efficient. This is called the adaptive model of global warming. Further investigation reveals that many of these “think tanks” are funded by big businesses including oil companies that have a vested interest in preserving the status quo.

To me the “do-nothing” approach appears to be the most inappropriate. Ignoring problems does not, in general, solve them, and delayed action is inevitably much more expensive than tackling issues early on. The “do-nothing” viewpoint helps only large corporations to delay the inevitable a little longer. This is similar to the disinformation campaign used by tobacco companies a few decades ago.

Does the greenhouse effect really exist? To find out, I observed the outside temperature conditions during a recent flight to New Delhi, India. This city is known for its high air pollution levels.

As the airplane lost altitude during its descent, the outside air temperature increased from minus 60 deg.C at cruising altitude, to plus 32 deg.C at a height of about 3000 feet above the airport. Then, surprisingly, the temperature started dropping again, until we touched down at the airport with an outside temperature of 29 deg.C.

Hence, the temperature was highest about 3000 feet above ground level, creating a temperature inversion layer. This was, indeed, the greenhouse effect occurring in a localized area, due to air pollution. No matter what the deniers may say, to me this is clear and simple proof that pollutants generated by human activity do indeed cause warming.

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Learning More About Global Warming

Dr. Jose A. Bardelas Jr. MD About Global Warming By Raechelle Greene

It has already been established by scientists that our world is suffering from Global Warming due to global pollution. A lot of people are aware about this Global Warming, but how many really understand how it happens and what simple solutions can we do to preserve the environment?

Global Warming happens mainly due to air pollution, and the most dangerous and dominant air polluter is said to be carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is emitted from different sources, and accumulates in the atmosphere. This accumulated carbon dioxide damages the ozone layer, making certain gases pass through it and cause the earth to warm up more than it should be.

Carbon dioxide comes from a lot of sources, some of which we as individuals are directly responsible for. Sprays that we use at home, our cars, fireplaces, almost everything that we do every day contribute to the accumulation of carbon dioxide and other harmful gases.

Presently, Mother Nature has been reminding us that we are not being grateful for our environment and she has been sending out dangerous signals that we have to be better citizens of the world to be worthy of the planet we’re living in. Heat waves, massive melting of ice in the Arctic, the ocean warming up, sudden forest fires, and natural disasters have been suddenly occurring over the years.

There are a lot of greener ways to live, information being provided by a lot of sources, we just have to learn to follow them, one day at a time. We can do it. It is possible for us to preserve our environment, we just have to be dedicated.

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Eco Friendly Office Ideas

Dr. Jose A. Bardelas Jr. MD Eco Friendly Office Ideas By Acline Wyle

The office is one of the most effective and accessible places where you can go green and really make a difference. This is because oftentimes, one business uses an entire building and employs hundreds of people. Therefore, if everyone at the workplace began making more eco friendly choices, the positive impact would cause the entire company to save energy and save money.

The Benefits of Going Green in the Workplace

The amount of energy that is regularly wasted in any given business place would most likely shock you. Since energy wasted is money wasted, offices can really reap the economic benefits of going green because of how much money can be saved every month. For example, lighting is responsible for 10-20% of the lighting costs of commercial buildings. This means that even something as simple as switching to energy saving light bulbs can really cause a company to save a lot of money in the long run.

Carpooling is another great idea. I’m sure I don’t have to go into details about how expensive gas can be. This is especially true if you live in a metropolitan area such as Los Angeles where traffic is such a huge issue. By carpooling, not only does everyone save gas money, they also save time because they can use the carpool lane!

Another helpful suggestion is to recycle as often as possible. This really applies to big corporations that go through countless amounts of paper everyday. The great thing about recycling is that it can go both ways because you can recycle the ink and paper products in your office, and then you can go out and buy recycled products when you run out.

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