I haven't witnessed any differences myself. I live three blocks from the harbor. A lot of people say that sea levels are rising, especially further south, in Miami, but they would rise equally everywhere, wouldn't they? And I haven't seen our harbor's level change at all.
When I lived further inland, I experienced a lot more snow, and because I now live so near the ocean, there is quite a bit less.
@questionWeaver Nebraska was an ancient shallow sea, and all the towers of carved sandstone like Chimney Rock that we see today were tiny islands. We find fossils of ancient sea turtles in the badlands there.
@TheOneyouwerewarnedabout present to me the information and data that it’s not real first. To say it’s a hoax you must have something to counter it. And not some guy who was on Fox News
@wildbill83 No, of course not; and that may not have been the end of "the Ice Age". That was part of a natural cycle and we are still in THE Ice Age (a cycle of cold and warm phases with periods of hundreds of thousands of years).
Whether we are in another interglacial or at the end of the entire oscillation is another matter.
Obviously we can do nothing about those.
The difficulty is that whatever the natural warming rate should be at the moment, only 10 000 to 12 000 years after the last glaciation is considered to have ended, human activities have greatly increased that rate.
There are those who question that, some from genuine scientific concerns but most from political and/or commercial interests; but the scientific consensus world-wide does agree the human effect.
Whether extreme events like the droughts and heat-waves that encouraged the recent fires in California or Australia, or more vague changes like less distinct seasons in temperate regions like the British Isles, really are due to climate change is a moot point. However, they are weather changes, and could well be due to climate change.
What counts though are mean atmospheric conditions and ocean temperatures; and their context against reliable, detailed weather data collected since the 19C when they became possible. (More anecdotal accounts going back centuries are useful too but these lack detail such as actual temperatures.)
It's important to realise the significance when scientists talk of a mean temperature rise in the air or seas of what seems a tiny 1 or 2 degrees Celsius (the scale formerly called "Centigrade"). To gain that rise in temperature , shows the atmosphere and oceans have absorbed a gigantic amount of extraheat energy to drive the climate according largely to latitude, and from that, the regional weather.
Wildfires in California are much, much larger and more destructive than they ever used to be. Wildfires are natural in California and we've always had them, but there are more than ever before and they are bigger, hotter, and more destructive. Of the 10 largest wildfires in California's history, only 2 were in the 20th century, the rest have all been in the last 20 years. Increased frequency of drought makes them even worse and has led to millions of tree deaths, trees that have been standing for decades or centuries. The fire season used to last from June to October; it is now virtually year-round, with huge fires occurring as late as December. My parents have lived in the Napa Valley for a long time and it's only recently that we've had to evacuate our home every freakin' year because of fires. The changed climate is very obvious to me.
The Seasons here in Southern England becoming less marked, with generally milder Winters, but I do not know if significantly or not. It may just be a minor weather-pattern oscillation.
I was on a series of some 10 or 12 holidays in central Norway, spread over perhaps 20 years and all in Summer. The route we used North-East from Bergen climbs from practically sea-level next to a fjord, to a pass at about 1400m altitude. The road across the col used to be fringed with deep snow-banks cut by ploughing (it was closed for much of the Winter); but over the years these disappeared. Also the small road-side lakes lost their ice-floes, and the snow patches on the adjoining mountains retreated to noticeably higher levels.
@hippyjoe1955 I am NOT in a cult and I support free thinking! Including that which underlies science.
Of course scientists are human and they do make genuine mistakes that sometimes lead to accepting theories later proven flawed or completely wrong by review or by new evidence that might have had to wait for better techniques to reveal it.
Yes, it is known for scientists to lie, or perhaps more often bias results to suit commissioning bodies, but they are caught out eventually. More often still, the science is correct but those using or quoting its findings distort them.
Science relies on repeatability, test, re-test, review... so gross errors or wilful lies are soon revealed.
I have done geologic studies ... evaluating temperature changes going back 300 million years ... there has been 10s of thousands of severe shifts in temperature... all long before man started walking and watching news.
Some summers are warmer ... some colder
But, scientifically speaking ... I have not observed any material empirical evidence of a trend in any direction regarding earth's temperature where I live.
Haven’t had a real winter in 4 years....cold snaps but then it warms up quickly...there was a dandelion blooming in my front yard a few days ago & the robins have returned & are mating.
@pennynoodles Sparrows are aggressive breeders. At the car lot where I worked they’d start mating from around the 1st of February if it wasn’t snowing and keep raising babies & having more till about October. Wouldn’t be surprised if they are building nests right now.
Climate change is a fully natural thing. All we humans do is slightly modify it. Otherwise we'd be tipping the earth into an ice age and causing the magnetic poles to reverse both prematurely.
@butterflybaby75 You may be relieved to know that whatever we may or may not be able to do the climate, we cannot possibly affect the Earth's magnetic field.
It does reverse at times - I can't remember the intervals but I think in millions of years - but the planet's inner workings are far beyond humanity's influence.
We are in an ice-age, which is a climatic oscillation from warm to cold and back, either still warming from the last cold phase or in fact still emerging from the entire cycle... If the latter you and I can take comfort from knowing we won't be around to see it happen.
We rarely have the frosts we used to have and I can count the number of days we've had in the past 5 years settling snow on the fingers of one hand. In earlier years we could expect at least a 2/3 months with freezing weather as well as a good dollop of snow from time to time. Now winters are wet and mild and summers very much hotter than before.
I knew you were from the U.K. without looking. I think we have noticed more of a difference over here than other countries. Our seasons are no longer clearly defined as they were 20 years ago. @Frank52
Though I am not sure if the Summers are that much hotter overall or if instead they now have more intense hot spells. They seem certainly drier, with the rains more in random, heavy spells than fairly evenly spread and more moderate episodes.
The only other times of very unusual weather I recall were 1959's very hot, dry Summer; 1962-3 Winter's deep snow even in the South; and the mid-1970s with one or two very wet Winters between very dry Summers. These though were short-term events (at most 2 or 3 years).
The British Isles climate and weather are unique due to their location. In one corner of an ocean bringing us relatively warm water that moderates the weather, gives us lots of rain and keeps even the Norwegian coast largely ice-free. Yet also tucked into an alcove formed by a land-mass extending Southwards to the Sub-tropics, and Eastwards for about half the Earth's circumference at our otherwise chilly latitude.
None. Only climate change and fluctuations which I believe has been happening since the beginning of time. No-one living today was on earth 2,000 or 500 or even 200 years ago, so it's hard to compare with any rock solid legitimacy. I believe there will be four seasons until the end of time and earth as we know it.
The mountain pine beetle moved up from the south into British Columbia and wiped out millions of trees. In the past, they were controlled by the cold in the winter. 20 days of -20 and their population couldn't survive.
That doesn't happen anymore, and now they flourish.
Well there is a difference in when the flowers are coming up but I meant that it's not usually mild enough in January to be considering pottering in the garden in this way. Each year we have less and less snow. Winters are now more like autumns, springs are more like summers.......I've really noticed the change from when I was a child. @yeronlyman
@pennynoodles thee is defo evidence from phenology (the study of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena, especially in relation to climate and plant and animal life.)
Human behaviour is changing around climate change too
The following page lists the nearly 200 worldwide scientific organizations that hold the position that climate change has been caused by human action. from NASA-Ca Govt http://www.opr.ca.gov/facts/list-of-scientific-organizations.html
@TheSirfurryanimalWales You both, like me, do live on the British Isles, and we are in the middle of Winter! :-) (We had a hard frost here last night, on the Dorset coast.)
And that alone does not indicate any climate change in either direction - unless the average frosts we have now are less or more severe than 50 years and 100 years ago.
@JAYS21 It's nothing to do with party politics, but is a matter of serious concern and debate for all countries world-wide... despite the USA's current President officially refuting it.
(The USA is practically alone in its present Government taking that stance, though NASA at least ignores it and contributes to the research that has led to the international consensus.)
Oh, and the Nazis' modern adherents are Right-wing, not Left, extremists! Not that there is much to choose between them.
I am fortunate to live in a region whose temperatures are rarely more than a few degrees below 0ºC or much above 25ºC, and then usually for fairly short periods; but I am perfectly well aware many live with much harsher weather, very hot or very cold, very wet or arid; or swinging seasonally between extremes.
Lack of rain, or fairly frequent but moderate precipitation replaced by flood-inducing deluges at long intervals, are the more serious problem here.
It shouldn't be political, but unfortunately governments of both Left and Right, and international organisations and treaties, make it political. However, I appreciate we may have different definitions of "Left" and "Right".
Melting permafrost, shrinking glacier, low temps I remember hitting constantly from my childhood now occurring once every few years, weird seasonal changes, changes in wildlife, drastic reduction in insect populations, huge increase in frequency and severity of forest fires...
I can go on forever. Any idiot can chart out temperature over time and see the trends.