Forums → WEPR → Hot EARTH.

@Strop and shermzx: El Nino and La Nina (The second n in both of those should have a tilde on top, but I forgot how to type that) are both climactic weather cycles that occur semi-regularly. La nina is a smaller version of El Nino, IIRC. (La nina may be the opposite effect... someone should look this up). The reason they are important is they affect global weather patterns by screwing with atmospheric conditions over the south Pacific.

@ the OP: Just because the weather is hotter or colder one year doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. Climate scientists look at changes over long periods of time, like decades at a time. when you look at things on that scale, we've been warming a few degrees over the past few decades.

True, the earth was warming before this, for a number of reasons (we are still coming out of the little ice age, after all). However, the increase has been much sharper in recent years due to the effects of humans.

Someone upthread pointed out that but for our atmosphere, we could be melting lead like Venus or freezing our tails off like Mars. This is fairly true.

@Carlie: It is true that global warming puts more energy into the system, thereby causing more extreme weather shifts in areas.

Of course, as my uncle likes to point out, climate change will be bad for some people (Like the American Southeast, where we're having a drought) but good for others (like Canada, which is experiencing bumper crop yields due to higher temperatures, longer growing seasons, and higher rainfall). Personally, I think humans shouldn't try to modify the environment too much, because we've only got one planet for the time being, and I don't want to screw it up.