Global Climate

One can just imagine the future "Jeopardy" TV quiz show answer: The name of the international conference that took place in early December of 2012 that critics universally panned for accomplishing little despite overwhelming evidence of a global ecological catastrophe on the horizon. "Alex, what is the Doha Climate Change Conference?" would be the winning question and surely worth a lot to the right contestant. After all, the planet is already in "double jeopardy" - not only from climate change but from the continuing failure of the wealthiest nations to do much about it. As President Barack Obama is looking to come up with $60-to-$80 billion to offset the worst effects of Hurricane Sandy, a storm that practically shut down New York City, the world's media center, one would think the call to avoid more such costly catastrophes in the future would be deafening.

Declaring that Maryland's coastal areas are increasingly at risk from a rising sea level, Gov. Martin O'Malley has ordered state agencies to weigh the growing risks of flooding in deciding where and how to construct state buildings. "Billions of dollars of investments in public infrastructure will be threatened if the state of Maryland fails to prepare adequately for climate change," he said in Friday's executive order, which calls for avoiding low-lying sites and elevating new or reconstructed state buildings to avert flooding.

With the recession deepening and numerous other world crises brewing, President-elect Barack Obama may be tempted to postpone any action on global warming until after his first year in office. This would be a huge mistake for a host of reasons, but most particularly because time is running out for mankind to take the needed actions to thwart the most disastrous effects of climate change. The planet is not merely approaching a perilous situation when it comes to the effects of man-made greenhouse gases; that day has already arrived.

In your editorial on Doha's failure ("Global climate talks stall - again," Dec. 11), you wrote: "The people who went to the polls last month knew which candidate favored stronger action in this arena and voted for him. " We voted for President Barack Obama to set sane energy policies, rational environmental policies and logical fiscal policies. Until the House is ready to present him with the sensible fiscal legislation he wants, President Obama should ignore fiscal issues and focus on educating the public on the energy and environmental legislation needed to slow climate change.

Maryland's alcohol tax, one of the lowest in the nation, hasn't been raised in decades. Should the General Assembly raise the tax next year to help close the state's budget shortfall? Yes 46% No 51% Not sure 2% (2,157 votes, results not scientific) Next poll: : Did the global climate conference in Copenhagen accomplish anything important? Vote at baltimoresun.com/vote

Spurred by a recent article in Rolling Stone, some Baltimore television meteorologists are weighing in against global climate change -- and are drawing some criticism for it. WBAL-TV's Tony Pann shared the article, which calls some TV meteorologists "climate crackpots", on his Facebook page. He, along with others like WMAR-TV's Mike Masco and former WMAR meteorologist Justin Berk, argue climate change is an unproven theory. The Rolling Stone article, published Dec. 5 , questions why more TV meteorologists don't agree with global warming.

Signs that global warming is changing patterns of rain, snow and ocean currents that drive the climate system were reported yesterday by scientists monitoring ocean saltiness. According to oceanographer Ruth Curry, sea surface waters in tropical regions have become significantly saltier in the past 50 years, while surface waters at high latitudes in Arctic regions have become much fresher. These changes in salinity seem to have accelerated in the 1990s. "This is the signature of increasing evaporation and precipitation" caused by warming, Curry said, "and a sign of melting ice at the poles.

No proof man is causing Earth's warming trend According to the editorial "A New Year's resolution" (Jan. 2), tens of thousands of scientists like me are "flat-earth types." I guess my doctorate in chemical physics from Johns Hopkins doesn't give me nearly the qualifications to analyze the science associated with the global climate as an editor with an agenda. If we are going to stoop to name-calling, an appropriate name for people with the view The Baltimore Sun endorses could be "Chicken Littles."

Global climate change could undermine efforts to restore the Chesapeake Bay by flooding coastal areas and washing more pollution into the water, a new scientific report warns. The report, issued yesterday by the federal bay program office in Annapolis, notes that scientists have detected significant increases in sea level and bay water temperature over the past century. Further changes are likely, the report says, especially if current emissions of greenhouse gases continue unabated. Coastal flooding is likely if sea level rises 2 to 5 feet, as climate-change models project, the report says.

In your editorial on Doha's failure ("Global climate talks stall - again," Dec. 11), you wrote: "The people who went to the polls last month knew which candidate favored stronger action in this arena and voted for him. " We voted for President Barack Obama to set sane energy policies, rational environmental policies and logical fiscal policies. Until the House is ready to present him with the sensible fiscal legislation he wants, President Obama should ignore fiscal issues and focus on educating the public on the energy and environmental legislation needed to slow climate change.

Spurred by a recent article in Rolling Stone, some Baltimore television meteorologists are weighing in against global climate change -- and are drawing some criticism for it. WBAL-TV's Tony Pann shared the article, which calls some TV meteorologists "climate crackpots", on his Facebook page. He, along with others like WMAR-TV's Mike Masco and former WMAR meteorologist Justin Berk, argue climate change is an unproven theory. The Rolling Stone article, published Dec. 5 , questions why more TV meteorologists don't agree with global warming.

One can just imagine the future "Jeopardy" TV quiz show answer: The name of the international conference that took place in early December of 2012 that critics universally panned for accomplishing little despite overwhelming evidence of a global ecological catastrophe on the horizon. "Alex, what is the Doha Climate Change Conference?" would be the winning question and surely worth a lot to the right contestant. After all, the planet is already in "double jeopardy" - not only from climate change but from the continuing failure of the wealthiest nations to do much about it. As President Barack Obama is looking to come up with $60-to-$80 billion to offset the worst effects of Hurricane Sandy, a storm that practically shut down New York City, the world's media center, one would think the call to avoid more such costly catastrophes in the future would be deafening.

Climate forecasters canceled an El Nino watch Thursday, with the climate phenomenon no longer expected to arrive this winter. Recent updates had already indicated El Nino was growing less likely, but the probability it will form has fallen to below 50 percent starting in December. In a monthly outlook published Thursday, the U.S. Climate Prediction Center wrote that while El Nino cannot be ruled out, onset is increasingly unlikely over the next six months. The change in forecast may disappoint snow lovers in Maryland, as El Nino winters are associated with above normal snowfall here.

Conservatives have been howling for the last week that the backlash against Chick-fil-Aafter President and COO Dan Cathy expressed opposition to gay marriage amounts to an attack on the First Amendment. Yes, people who serve, eat or profit from the sale of those tasty, Southern-style chicken-and-pickle sandwiches are perfectly entitled to express their political views. But Mr. Cathy's defenders seem to be confused about what the First Amendment guarantees. It provides him with a right to express his views.

I have a lot of respect for Mike Tidwell, but I was disappointed in his op-ed piece, "The sky really is falling" (Feb. 14). In my opinion, it was a classic piece of Chicken Little journalism. No matter what weather we have -- snow, drought, heat or cold -- virtually anything that is out of the normal is blamed on global warming. Match a single extreme weather event with a single facet of a complex, multifaceted theory, and the conclusion is, "Aha! Proof! The sky is falling!" In fact, the global climate is an extremely complex, interrelated and incompletely understood system, affected by much more than air pollutant emissions from human activities.

Maryland's alcohol tax, one of the lowest in the nation, hasn't been raised in decades. Should the General Assembly raise the tax next year to help close the state's budget shortfall? Yes 46% No 51% Not sure 2% (2,157 votes, results not scientific) Next poll: : Did the global climate conference in Copenhagen accomplish anything important? Vote at baltimoresun.com/vote

Climate forecasters canceled an El Nino watch Thursday, with the climate phenomenon no longer expected to arrive this winter. Recent updates had already indicated El Nino was growing less likely, but the probability it will form has fallen to below 50 percent starting in December. In a monthly outlook published Thursday, the U.S. Climate Prediction Center wrote that while El Nino cannot be ruled out, onset is increasingly unlikely over the next six months. The change in forecast may disappoint snow lovers in Maryland, as El Nino winters are associated with above normal snowfall here.

NEW YORK -- From Costa Rica to Peru, a fungal epidemic fueled by global warming may have wiped out dozens of frog species in otherwise pristine environments, a new study concludes. Within the past 20 years, about two-thirds of Central and South America's 110 brightly colored harlequin frog species have vanished. A killer fungus with a worldwide range and an affinity for amphibian skin had previously been indicted as a prime suspect in their disappearances. But a study that will be published today in the journal Nature concludes that the fungal epidemic has been stoked primarily by global warming, a finding that may have broad implications for at-risk species around the world.

No proof man is causing Earth's warming trend According to the editorial "A New Year's resolution" (Jan. 2), tens of thousands of scientists like me are "flat-earth types." I guess my doctorate in chemical physics from Johns Hopkins doesn't give me nearly the qualifications to analyze the science associated with the global climate as an editor with an agenda. If we are going to stoop to name-calling, an appropriate name for people with the view The Baltimore Sun endorses could be "Chicken Littles."

With the recession deepening and numerous other world crises brewing, President-elect Barack Obama may be tempted to postpone any action on global warming until after his first year in office. This would be a huge mistake for a host of reasons, but most particularly because time is running out for mankind to take the needed actions to thwart the most disastrous effects of climate change. The planet is not merely approaching a perilous situation when it comes to the effects of man-made greenhouse gases; that day has already arrived.