Global Warming, the benifits.

[Whatssnew]

NASA...

December 9, 2004

GLOBAL WARMING GOOD FOR CORAL REEFS: RESEARCH
Coral reefs around the world could expand in size by up to a third in response to increased ocean warming and the greenhouse effect, according to Australian scientists.

“Our analysis suggests that ocean warming will foster considerably faster future rates of coral reef growth that will eventually exceed pre-industrial rates by as much as 35 per cent by 2100,” says Dr. Ben McNeil, an oceanographer from the University of News South Wales.

EO News: Global Warming Good for Coral Reefs: Research - December 9, 2004

National Geographic...

"The warmer climate will have a definite positive effect on Greenland's economic possibilities and development,"

Global Warming Good for Greenland?

Arrhenius, who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, calculated that the release of carbon dioxide -- or carbonic acid as it was then known -- through burning coal, oil and natural gas would lead to a significant rise in temperatures worldwide. But, he argued, "by the influence of the increasing percentage of carbonic acid in the atmosphere, we may hope to enjoy ages with more equable and better climates," potentially making poor harvests and famine a thing of the past.

Arrhenius was merely expressing a view that was firmly entrenched in the collective consciousness of the day: warm times are good times; cold times are bad.

During the so-called Medieval Warm Period between about 900 and 1300 A.D., for example, the Vikings raised livestock on Greenland and sailed to North America. New cities were built all across Europe, and the continent's population grew from 30 million to 80 million.

The consequences of the colder temperatures that plunged civilization into the so-called Little Ice Age for several centuries after 1300 were devastating. Summers were rainy, winters cold, and in many places temperatures were too low for grain crops to mature. Famines and epidemics raged, and average life expectancy dropped by 10 years. In Germany, thousands of villages were abandoned and entire stretches of land depopulated.

The shock produced by the cold was as deep-seated it was long-lasting. When temperatures plunged unexpectedly once again in the 1960s, many meteorologists were quick to warn people about the coming of a new ice age -- supposedly triggered by man-made air pollution. Hardly anyone at the time believed a warming trend could pose a threat.

It was not until the rise of the environmental movement in the 1980s that everything suddenly changed. From then on it was almost a foregone conclusion that global warming could only be perceived as a disaster for the earth's climate.

Global Warming: Not the End of the World as We Know It - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

Pictures of a polar bear floating precariously on a tiny iceberg have become the defining image of global warming but may be misleading, according to a new study. A survey of the animals' numbers in Canada's eastern Arctic has revealed that they are thriving, not declining, because of mankind's interference in the environment.

In the Davis Strait area, a 140,000-square kilometre region, the polar bear population has grown from 850 in the mid-1980s to 2,100 today.

"There aren't just a few more bears. There are a hell of a lot more bears," said Mitch Taylor, a polar bear biologist who has spent 20 years studying the animals.

His findings back the claims of Inuit hunters who have long claimed that they were seeing more bears.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...9/wpolar09.xml


There is much more out there. It would seem Global Warming therories are more of a religion than fact based findings. If you can argue these points please do. And if you want more sound info I suppose I can look it up and enter a new post.

[gela]

Global warming would be very very bad for Australia.
We're already hot and dry enough as it is thanks.
However, if the ocean currents all changed due to global warming, and it actualy resulted in more rain or cooler temperatures then it would be very economical..
Im still against it though - millions of species and ecosystems would be destroyed.

[sevendogs]

It is not difficult to realize that global warming will impoverish terrestrial diversity on the planet, which is important for many of us. Most densely populated industrial lands will be permanently under water. This will cause biblical scale catastrophes and re locations, conflicts and wars. Yes, places, which are not polar deserts, if not flooded, will "benefit economically". May be ocean life will increase, but humankind will suffer for quite a while, may be even become extinct.

[Whatssnew]

Also as a person that has to shovel a couple inches of global warming off my car every morning (snow) and is surrounded by two story piles of it, it may be easier to see the benifits of it. As for Austrialia, I havn't looked it up, however warm tempratures could mean more presipitation. As for land going bad, thats a glass half full statement. During the mini Ice Age a couple hundred years ago tepratures changed and many people died. Why? because crops could no longer grow. For example, grapes could no longer grow in France (at least as well as they used too,) and England took over because they had the right climate. So for places like Canada, Greenland, Russia, global warming could be very favorable. Also, I am not too familiar with the subject, but I have heard that at one time there was a tropical rainforest on Antartica. Who knows, in a hudred years maybe it will be warm enough to support some plant-life. The earth is ever changing, and many species were very close to extinction before the industrial revolution. If not us, a warm year, a cold year, a extended el-nieno effect, or some other un-usuall event could have done them in.

[Nemiroff]

We may change from pluto like poles and a pleasant equator, to pleasant poles, and a Venus like desert equator. I doubt the temp extremes will be as cold as pluto or as hot as Venus, whose insane greenhouse effect will hopefully never happen here, just using the planets to show how alien those parts of the world may seem.

[ShadowFox]

Well, there are some benefits, yes, yet the warm temperatures may not last. I'm sure you have heard the theory that global warming could cause an ice age. I know what your thinking: Global Warming = Ice Age? Well, to explain it simply, what will happen is yes, the worlds temperatures increase allowing some climates to flourish. Yet the theory states that due to the melting of the polar icecaps due to global warming will cause the oceans rise. This will lower the average temperature as the oceans expand, engulfing more dry land.These lower temperatures would cause another ice age. Also, for the bears, the growth of population doesn't necessarily mean it was due to global warming. If it is an endangered species then it would be protected. There may be benefits, yet there may also be consequences.