tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7673758362916429937.post2659221010475633338..comments2024-03-22T20:18:45.865+11:00Comments on Jack Lacton: Scorching Heat vs Devastating Cold - the battle ragesJack Lactonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07297939283546740918noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7673758362916429937.post-6767641045596455452008-07-27T05:59:00.000+10:002008-07-27T05:59:00.000+10:00Cold kills. Warmth brings life. - it takes a reall...<I>Cold kills. Warmth brings life.</I> - it takes a really special kind of idiot to say something so utterly stupid. Are you really too thick to know what heat waves and tropical diseases are?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7673758362916429937.post-45860139770419180102008-07-24T13:38:00.000+10:002008-07-24T13:38:00.000+10:00Important information from the source article (NAS...Important information from the source article (NASA):<BR/><BR/>The image also shows that this La Niña is occurring within the context of a larger climate event, the early stages of a cool phase of the basin-wide Pacific Decadal Oscillation. The Pacific Decadal Oscillation is a long-term fluctuation of the Pacific Ocean that waxes and wanes between cool and warm phases approximately every five to 20 years. In the cool phase, higher than normal sea-surface heights caused by warm water form a horseshoe pattern that connects the north, west and southern Pacific, with cool water in the middle. During most of the 1980s and 1990s, the Pacific was locked in the oscillation's warm phase, during which these warm and cool regions are reversed. For an explanation of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and its present state, see: (jisao.washington.edu/pdo/)Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and (esr.org/pdo_index.html) Earth and Space Resarch: Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) index. <BR/><BR/>“This multi-year Pacific Decadal Oscillation 'cool' trend can intensify La Niña or diminish El Niño impacts around the Pacific basin," said Bill Patzert, an oceanographer and climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "The persistence of this large-scale pattern tells us there is much more than an isolated La Niña occurring in the Pacific Ocean." <BR/><BR/>Sea surface temperature satellite data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also clearly show a cool Pacific Decadal Oscillation pattern, as seen at: (cdc.noaa.gov/map/images/sst/sst.anom.gif)The shift in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, with its widespread Pacific Ocean temperature changes, will have significant implications for global climate. It can affect Pacific and Atlantic hurricane activity, droughts and flooding around the Pacific basin, marine ecosystems and global land temperature patterns. <BR/><BR/>“The comings and goings of El Niño, La Niña and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation are part of a longer, ongoing change in global climate,” said Josh Willis, a JPL oceanographer and climate scientist. Sea level rise and global warming due to increases in greenhouse gases can be strongly affected by large natural climate phenomenon such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the El Nino-Southern Oscillation. “In fact,” said Willis, “these natural climate phenomena can sometimes hide global warming caused by human activities. Or they can have the opposite effect of accentuating it.” <BR/>(jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008)<BR/><BR/>(The scientists behind the research come to quite a different conclusion than Easterbrook, it's important to look beyond the headlines.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com