Back again

I find myself back in Davis again. The past 5 weeks somehow slipped past, and New York City is again something of a dream thatI think I might have had. That said I do remember very clearly the 100 year record-breaking blizzard that I witnessed firsthand from my friend’s loft apartment near SOHO. I awoke to see the city a white wonderland, and people playing in the streets as if we were in a vacation area in the wilderness… at least until the street cleaners came through and cleared the streets of snow. I also got to witness the record amounts of snow melt and disappear in mere days.

I can’t tell you the number of times that I heard people blame the entire week on global warming. It seems that if any of the science establishments media drives has actually gotten through to the populus general, it’s global warming. Even with the onslaught of naysayers like Michael Crichton, the public has latched on to the idea of the heating of the earth, and the changes that it might cause for our weather patterns.

Now, I personally am still on the fence with regards to what is actually causing said warming because the evidence for natural warming versus human causes still seems weak in either direction. However, the evidence does seem to point to one general trend at the moment. The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is increasing, the oceans and atmosphere are warming, and the glaciers are melting, hence it seems that global warming is occurring.

One of my minions sent a link last week that was originally from the Wall Street Journal with a really interesting article about the current debate about global warming that’s going on within the normally closeknit community of hurricane researchers. Really a fascinating read with some insight into how much the issue of who or what is to blame for the current state of the atmosphere is affecting the world of scientific research.

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