Climate Change Debate

I recently got an email from another volunteer for Nancy Skinner's campaign containing a link to Peter Sinclair's blog "Climate Crocks." He featured Skinner's 11:11:1 video on his blog, but like with everything else, there was a rebuttle.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce to you Lenar Whitney.

Now, she doesn't say specifically that she is anti-Nancy, but you can tell that she is. She says Climate Change isn't actually a thing, and "Global warming is an hoax...A Specter is haunting America. It is perhaps the greatest deception in the history of mankind..." Woah, woah, woah. I've had enough. In the picture I have attached, it is a graph from Nasa that shows how much the CO2 level has increased throughout the years since about 400,000 years ago.

Whitney then continues on how a 10 year old can invalidate their (scientists) thesis with a thermometer.

Pause.

When Scientists talk about the temperature, and climate change. They are talking about in general. Sure, we've had a pretty bad winter, but i remember the winter in 2013, there was hardly any snow! I picture it this way. Picture a graph. On your y-axis, you have temperature, and on the x-axis you have the years. The winter of 2014 would be way below, but if you would look in previous years, the average, keyword, AVERAGE temperature would stay in the same general area. Maybe a couple degrees above, or below. As my statistics teacher would call it, the temperature for the winter of 2014 would be an outlier.

According to climatecentral.gov they say that "Winter warming accelerated almost everywhere since 1970, and all states have warmed since that time. Nationwide since 1970, winters warmed more than four-and-a-half times faster per decade than over the past 100 years." as well as "Since 1912, states with average winter temperatures below 32°F warmed three times faster than states with average temperatures above 32°F. Since 1970, winter warming has accelerated almost everywhere and states that previously cooled began to warm in winter. Yet, the coldest states (below 32°F) have still warmed nearly twice as fast as the rest of the country on average. And during that time, winter nights in the coldest states warmed up to five times faster than those in warm states." Okay. Let's continue.

She then goes on and says that last summer, Antarctica reached the coldest temperature in recorded history, with record sheet ice and a 60% rise of ice in the Arctic sea.

Sheet ice really isn't that durable. It's about 1-2 feet thick. If your average person stepped on it, it would probably break. The sheet ice breaking due to the rise in climate is most likely the cause of the 60% rise of ice in the Arctic sea.  Let's continue.

She then brings up Polar Bears. "Polar Bears are forced out of their habitat because of overpopulation."

First off, Polar Bears are endangered due to the increased climate change causing their habitats to melt. They are forced out of their habitat, yes, but not because of overpopulation, but because everything is melting away. Yes they are endangered, but if you think about it, if there is less room, then it would seem crowded. The polar bears are not overpopulated, they're just crowded. Think about it this way. You have a tent that can fit 10 people. If you have 5 people, then you will feel just fine because you have alot of room. If you try to fit those same 5 people into a 3 man tent, you will feel crowded. The ice is the tent, and it can only hold so much.

David Mizejewski is a Naturalist from NWF (Natural Wildlife Foundation) who states that "There is one critical thing that Polar Bears need to survive--Ice." To paraphrase, he basically says that there is one time of food that Polar Bears primarily depend on--Seals. The only way for the Polar Bears to hunt these Seals is to hunt them on the sea ice. Without the ice, Polar Bears can't hunt, which will cause them to starve, which can ultimately lead to extinction. As Mizejewski puts it: Ice+Seals=Healthy Polar Bear.

The article then goes on and says that the U.S Geological Survey predicts that 2/3 of the Polar Bear population will be gone by the year 2050. That's a little over half!

Also according to the U.S Geological Survey states this:

• Arctic sea ice extent for January 2011 was the lowest in the satellite record for that month.
• The winter's maximum Arctic sea ice extent tied for the lowest on record. The year saw the second lowest Arctic ice levels since 1979 when observation began.
• A female polar bear reportedly swam for nine days - nonstop-across the Beaufort Sea before reaching an ice floe, costing her 22 percent of her weight and her cub