Warm Weather Conflicted

I heard a brief note on the news that January to June 2010 is the warmest on record. A rather brief statement that doesn’t have any details as to when they started keeping records, is it everywhere or just in the US and what does it mean. I researched it (meaning I googled it) and this is what I found out:

• They started keeping records in 1880.

• It was actually cooler than average in June in Scandinavia, parts of China and the northwest part of the US.

• They claim that global temperatures have been rising in the last 100 years.

Ok…the first statement. 1880 was only 130 years ago. It has been around 2,010 years since Christ was born and the world was around for a long time before that. So stating that the first six months of this year are the warmest on record is a wholly inaccurate statement. To only have data for 130 years is like basing a test result on how someone writes their name on the top of the test. 130 years isn’t enough time on which to base those kind of doomsday insinuations.

So it was cooler than average in some parts of the world. So the weather was different in different parts of the world. There is some news for you.

The last statement may just make sense. After all, we are emitting a huge amount of gases into the atmosphere. That has to have an impact on our air, our world and the environment. That just makes sense.

I do believe in global warming. I think that our weather will continue to be more erratic and extreme the more we destroy the environment. We need to pay attention to this and cut back on our driving, our waste and our destruction. But making vague statements that are essentially only a doomsday insinuations only hurts the effort to stop global warming. If you really believe in this, then make statements that can’t be picked apart and criticized so easily.

Such as – Global warming is wholly evident in the extreme weather we are experiencing and if we continue on the path we are on, we will eventually destroy our world. In addition, since we don’t have the technology and capability to move to a different planet (and, based on our behavior, destroy that as well), we need to take care of the planet on which we are living. That makes more sense than “Oh NO….it is warmer out than it was 130 years ago.” Please. Let’s keep hysterics at a minimum and try to help and not hinder.