Habs fan here so no Joy in the Caps win for me. We are not having a bad year though. I've given up on a Stanley Cup and remain complacent that we consistently stay ahead of the Leafs.
Weather has been nuts here ever since I posted a thread about it a month ago. Only one significant snowfall and the rest of the time has been mainly plus zero(c) and rain. After the rain it seems to get just cold enough to make it freeze and become treacherous on the roads. Then it warms and rains again.
If you want an extremely interesting read on how humans are and already have effected our wether systems, read Tim Flannery's
The Weather Makers .
I have read a lot of articles and books on both the effects of Global Warming and similar ones debunking it. Flannery's book describes the science in ways that will push you towards the belief side of the argument. It's the most convincing read yet because he combines the theories with science with the history of what has already happened. Most would never have any idea that there are so many millions of miles of our Earth already adversely and irreversibly effected.
The explanations of the domino effect is the particularly scary side. For instance, the melting polar ice caps resulting in more solar energy being absorbed into the earth instead of being reflected, adding to the warming effect. Also, the cold water effects on ocean currents and how the resulting older water won't help balance things because aside from the changing of weather patterns, it also magnifies the effect because it draws up literally megatons of carbon up from the ocean depths where it was once trapped in the colder bottom layers. More carbon = more global warming = more ice caps melting = colder water = more carbon =........
It also gives many sad examples of how many square miles of coral reef have already been lost due to water temp changes and how entire species have already disappeared due to just slight changes in weather.
An interesting example is a particular mountainous region whose area I can't remember at the moment. It's upper portion was almost continuously enveloped in a cool, foggy mist. A temperature change in the region of just a couple of degrees resulted in the mist layer retreating up higher towards the top of the mountains. A completely unique species of a golden forest frog was completely wiped out when it lost it's cool, damp habitat. Just 2 degrees average temperature change and an entire species lost.
A section on Australia's diminishing water supply and the measures the bigger cities have already taken is another alarming chapter. A smaller section on how Australian farmers who tried to move into less parched lands by clearing areas of vegetation, resulted in catastrophe when they realized that the vegetation was holding back tons of salt that was naturally in the soil and that this emerging salt not only made it unfarmable but it also ended up seeping into other water supplies, doubling their problems.
The real scary part is when you realize the book is already 2 years old. What else has happened?
I could ramble on for a while but it's almost the part the apart of my conference call where I actually have to pay attention.
In any case, weather you read it to believe or your read it in the spirit of trying to debunk his theories, I guarantee it's an interesting read that you can't put down.
