Sure am!  I went to school back in the day before economics became the primary concern... when history, geograpghy and geology were still taught... when we learnt that all this warming and cooling had happened before... throughout history and prior to the industrial revolution, which 'so-say' is responsible for ecological disasters we're witnessing... also, those to come.

And these meling glaciers are not the cause of totally natural causes, geographical/geological shifts??  I remember seeing a TV documentary years ago that highlighted melting ice dangers a Norwegian team experienced while trying to reach the North Pole, and that was back in the days when steamers and sailing ships were still the norm, so obviously well before industrialisation took its strong hold on the developed world.

Not that I'd know exactly where to find them right now, but I'm sure there are many, many more historical accounts of extreme temperatures (both ways) and 'glacial ice melting due to natural causes.  However, the Bible (one of our oldest historical records) notes several occurences, that at the time were attributed to miracles, which were more likely (from a scientific point of view) to have been extreme natural phenomena... plagues and unusual flooding, etc, due to unseasonal weather conditions. And that's right, yeah, the people of Biblical times joined the industrial revolution by starting mud brick factories to build houses, and industrial fishermen who went out on to the Sea of Gallilee to feed their villages.

It is said that several island states in the Pacific will be below the ocean's surface in just a few years so-say because of 'global warming'.  However, the earthquakes off Indonesia and Sumatra over the last decade or more have caused rifts in the ocean floor, and thus, huge portions of it have been raised several metres, meaning that the water displacement from these totally natural events has played a large part in sea levels rising around the Pacific and other areas.

Thing is, while we have enough gullible people believing the global warming spiel of those of influence, we will have 'global warming' and we'll pay for it through the nose. That's what we get when a buch of scientists get sick of studying the sex life of snails, the predatory life of hamsters... they justify their government/corporate grants by studying something important.  Yup, they study the formation of ice and snow, knock over their thermos flasks on a glacier, and come up with global warming when they discover (man-made) coffee melts (naturally) frozen water... and as a result, our power bills go up by 120% in just 4 years, 'so-say' to enable the electricity provders to produce 'clean' power.  Yeah right...

I don't believe a word of it... nothing will change environmentally, and the power company execs will become far richer than the bankers for our trouble.

Same here too cold and unlikely dense fog. The clmate of Earth is seriously changng still there seems no positive development to check it. The production units only want 'cash' which they will carry to ocean after the meltdown of polar ice... and then they will sell dolphins...

Btw you can wear some winter garmets to keep yourself warm and if you want even more heat then.....

Sit on a heater and power it on. It will raise your temperature and tempo both.

That's about it... if there's a buck to be made, any way at all, the 'production units' will find it.  In other words, everything is a consumable item, including 'global warming, and they will find a way to sell it/profit, no matter what.

It is was always said that the air we breathe is free.... not any longer.  Now we are indirectly paying for clean, breathable air through higher electricity and fuel prices.... courtesy of the ETS.  What a crock of shit that is.

oh fuzzy stop bitching and make yourself a hot milo..........muahhahah

Aw now I see, who consumed those rotting eggs.

Come on over to Boston, and we can give you a real treat, an NHL Hockey rink in Fenway Park, and snow, plenty of it, in fact right up until tomorrow after, it has been snowing since early this morning, but like anything else, being a lifelong New Englander, snow and cold is no big deal, i always look at winter and the snow and cold as a good reason to lay on the couch or use my pc without feeling guilty as their is definitely no yard work or garden to attend to

23 F here and this is what I look out my back door at:

Now that is most picturesque.... far more appealing than what I have over my back fence.  It's a council owned piece of land which is vacant and unkempt, with an open stromwater drain and long grass (sometimes up to a metre or more high) covering the rest.

Yup, I know whose view I'd prefer.

We have snow now. I wouldn't call it picturesque, just annoying.

The village where I live has seven exit roads. When it snows it has just one. Where does all the traffic go? Yup, tomorrow, first day back at work, I'll be stuck in a queue for hours...

Well, that's great. The BBC has just issued it's long term forecast, saying this winter will be one of the more memorable 'proper' winters, and warns that February is usually the coldest month...

Bleh It's only a while ago it was 17°C in February. That was much nicer.

Fuzzy: I remember a winter back in the 80's when my brother went off to Florida for the winter and I stayed in his (very large and expensive) house to look after it while he was away. It got to -17 one night and all the pipes burst and flooded the house. I was up till 5am with the AquaVac trying to clean it up......... Fun!!

I guess what I am saying is: winter in England is like a box of chocolates..... you never know WHAT you are going to get! B[]

My comment was related more to the scenery than snow/weather condition... and Jim's view is considerably better than the scruffy, unkempt Council block behind me.  Summer or Winter, doesn't matter, I'd take his scenic view any day.

Anyhow, back to the weather....

The key phrase there is "proper winters"... it refers to a return to more normal Winter weather than has been experienced in recent years.  My relatives in the UK have all commented on how mild the Winters have been in the last decade or so, as compared to those of the 50's, 60's and early 70's.  Shoot, I can even remember the Winters of the 60's in Devon... snow and ice, temperature below zero, that in the North Winters were even more bitter.

Thing is, several (UK/European) meteorologists who do not contribute to this global warming bunk have stated that the recent warmer Winters have followed historical patterns and predict a return to a more seasonal climate for Northern Europe fror the next 30 years or more.

Same applies here in Oz, several of our weather forcasters, those who contribute to this global warming guff, have been sprouting about rising temperatures and the hottest Summers on record, yet Australian writers such as Henry Lawson, Banjo Patterson and others all wrote about events such as massive bushfires, blistering hot Summers, droughts and unseasonal storms that brought widespread flooding. 

Sounds famailiar, don't it... it's what we're experiencing now, but that was back in the 1800's, before industrialisation and the high energy usage now being attributed to global warming.  Again, what we are experiencing now is a cyclic weather pattern... it has all naturally happened before... it's the stuff of the Aboriginal Dreamtime... and in another half century or so it will happen again.  Trouble is, a few greedy individuals have siezed upon the opportunity to get even more filthy stinking rich by playing to the fears of the uneducated and gullible.... and *sigh* it's that simple they don't even need a Hollywood script writer to help pull it off.

I've never once seen any evidence presented by an AGW denier to back up their claims. MWP and LIE are local events to here caused by fluctuations in the Atlantic conveyor, so a cold winter here does not suggest there is no global warming. The shift in currents usually happens quite quickly, burying any long term trend. So you can get prolonged periods like MWP and LIE, where the switch doesn't reverse, or the odd cold winter like we have now.

This is from my local station, showing a rise of 1°C in the last 120 years.

Global warming needs action taking now. Regretably a few people burying their heads in the sand and pretending everything is ok will be the downfall of the planet. Throughout history there have been deniers, but never before have they been capable of losing the planet.

La la la, I'm not listening, la la la, the world is flat, la la la, let's burn anyone who says it isn't...

Anyway, I don't care either way. A few warm summers aren't going to do me any harm. I won't be around long enough to see the real effects of global warming.

Anyone see the irony in this?

Not hugging a tree (although some probably are deserving)....but H sap. has been altering things (ie CO2, heat production, etc.) radically over the past 100 years, and to deny that has an effect is not admitting that by altering a system things are going to happen.

Whether (pun?) or not that's accentuating a natural trend or pushing things where they aren't going to be beneficial (to us) going is a moot point, I think. We've got to try to start minimizing our effect on the planet, not maximize it.

Here's a tree worth hugging, mates!

Is that a pair tree Doc???

The thing is, fuzzy, I'm not disputing the fact that mankind needs to pollute less and cut down far fewer forests/trees.  What I am saying, however, is that a few individuals have devised a way to gouge even more hard earned cash from the paying public, simply by exploiting its fears.

As for proof, well I don't need to post any... and even if I did, somebody would post graphs/charts to the contrary... because, at the end of the day, science is subjective and in part theory, which often times will have several arguments to dispute who's ever findings. 

The thing is, we all know that corporations seek to profit... well they never seek NOT to, do they; we all know about the subterranean earthquakes in the Pacific causing sea levels to rise; we all know that hotter weather makes certain areas more prone to bushfires... and we also know that these and other extreme conditions have historically happened throughout the centuries.  What is happening now is that these powerful/influential individuals have weighed all this up and see an opportinity to profit from it.

My (and millions of other Aussies) paying 120% to 130% more for our electricity over just 4 years is not going to make one iota of difference to the greater scheme of things regarding global warming.  No, this is more about increasing profit margins than producing 'clean' energy... I'll bet my balls on it.  So no, we don't need to be paying the large corporations even more to behave appropriately... but rather that large corporations are environmentally responsible by being far less greedy and wasting far fewer resources.

And that's the truth too, Fuzzy. There'll always be someone to make a mint off a disaster.

Glad You got a kick out of that one Jim!

-5 were i'm From

26c where I am today... would be nicer around 21 -22c, though.

Hot and windy here, the sun is red and smoke is everywhere.

Fire season has started. 

440 volt 100c near girls' hostel.

i hear siberia is nice at this time of year   lol