The Truth About Global Warming

TRUTH: The climate has been relatively stable for the last ten thousand years. In truth, rapid changes are the most dangerous kind. Coastal areas are among the most vulnerable. Plus, our knowledge of how to adapt to these potential changes is limited, as scientists don’t know for certain whether past climate changes happened everywhere at once, as they are expected to in the future.

MYTH: The warming has happened mostly at night, which is less problematic than daytime warming.

TRUTH: The record reveals warming over the past century has affected both the day and the night. Nighttime warming is simply more pronounced. As time marches on, the tendency toward nighttime warming is expected to diminish, thanks in part to the slow heating of the oceans, which should even the score over time. The effects could be negative in some cases. For example, it is believed that nighttime warming might allow the northward spread of infectious diseases.

MYTH: Meteorologists have a tough time predicting the weather a few days in advance. How can they claim to know what will happen a century from now?

TRUTH: Climatology and meteorology are different animals. Meteorology focuses on the specifics of the weather, such as temperature, precipitation, and storm prediction in a particular place on a daily basis. Many scientists believe the theoretical limit to forecasting weather specifics is about one to two weeks. Climatology is the study of long-term averages, sometimes over a large area, like a continent or a planet. Averages over large areas and periods of time are easier to estimate than the specifics of weather. However, global warming scenarios undoubtedly carry with them a degree of uncertainty.

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