Martin,

In his book "Hot, Flat, and Crowded", Thomas Friedman refers to it as 
"global weirding", which I think sums it up quite nicely.  If you have any 
doubts about how we affect our environment, read this book, which is up on 
the BARD site.

Steve

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Martin McCormick" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2011 17:39
Subject: Re: Is everyone on vacation???


> Actually, what you describe is precisely what the experts say
> about global warming or climate change. It isn't just a case of
> everybody's weather getting hotter although it certainly
> happens. It is a case of more extreme weather including extreme
> cold. The over all average temperature is warmer than it has
> ever been recorded but that puts more water in the air and you
> get more rain in some places, less rain in others and snow
> irregularities such as more in some places and lesss in others.
>
> We have a state senator from Oklahoma who is a vocal
> climate-chage denier who was chortling like a maniac a couple
> of years ago when it snowed a lot in Washington, D.C. He
> blathered away on TV about what a hoax it all was and even built
> an igloo to make his point. The experts basically said, "Yup, we
> expected it."
>
> It mostly means nastier weather everywhere, disruption
> to agriculture and bugs and weeds spreading in to areas where
> they weren't known before.
>
> I think climate is changing, but I am not going to get
> in to the argument as to what effect people have on it. There is
> more CO2 thanks to burning oil and forests and it is likely that
> this is having some effect.
>
> The amount of nitrous oxide in the air is higher than it
> was around 1900 due to lots of car tail pipes around the world
> and this actually absorbs radio signals around the AM broadcast
> band and 160 meters so we do have some effect on our environment.
>
> colin McDonald writes:
>> well, we've been having a very wet summer here so far.
>> We're on the prairies, where it is supposed to be somewhat damp in May 
>> and
>> June, then hot and dusty for July and august.
>> We've had so much rain here.  I have never seen this much rain since I've
>> been here; 11 years.  Old timers say they have never seen it rain this
>> much
>> in one year, let alone over the space of two or three months.
>> We haven't yet hit a day time high of 30C which usually happens by the 
>> end
>> of the first week in July.
>> Global warming? not here lol.
>> Last winter was long, and had more days below minus 15C than any winter
>> for
>> something like 40 years.  We had a record snow fall last winter as well.
>> We've got record mosquito populations as well...again, more already this
>> season than anything on record for this region.
>> That is mostly to do with the rain and standing water.  So, it's been
>> rainy,
>> less than hot, and one cannot go outdoors without liberally coating
>> oneself
>> with mosquito repellent.  And, it seems as though the little buggers have
>> mutated to the point where the stuff attracts them instead of repelling
>> them.
>> So send some of that Oklahoma heat up this way.
>>
>> 6M has opened occasionally acording to a couple guys I've talked to.
>> also,
>> 10M has had some nice openings into south america and Europe.
>>
>> I worked the republic of Jorja, 9A7R on tuesday evening on 20M as well as
>> P43E in aruba.
>>
>> We seem to get very good paths on 20 into south america as well this time
>> of
>> year.
>>
>> 73
>