Brrrrrring on the global warming........

[Vlad Dobrich]

........it's -20C out there and I walk half a mile every morning to get my morning coffee - Sumatran dark roast, soon to be supplanted by Jamaican Blue Mountain!:D

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: Brrrrrring on the global warming........

How was your iced coffee today?

The temperature was minus 26 last night when I was out for my chess lessons. It looks like it is minus 20 or so right now in the heat of the day.

[Frank Dixon]

Re: Brrrrrring on the global warming........

Part of the outcome from climate change is an increased occurrence of extreme events; the ice storm which hit Ontario so hard just before Christmas would be one example of that. We have had mostly mild or very mild winters, and also shorter winters, during the past several years, and in fact the current cold conditions in Eastern Canada are not at all unusual if one examines the weather data from further back. It seems worse because we have gotten used to milder winters. I have been able to ride my bike during an entire winter for local travel in Kingston, a couple of years ago, but this year I put it away in late November. There are a few people persevering with cycling in Kingston, but I think this is just too dangerous with the bad road conditions and narrower streets, due to snowbanks. :)

[Garland Best]

Re: Brrrrrring on the global warming........

I've managed to stay out of this debate for what seens years now, but I guess I can't resist.

Anyone who cites extreme weather conditions as evidence for or against global warming is not helping either cause. Weather is by nature chaotic and somewhere sometime on the planet some extreme weather occurs. Snow falling in Cairo is not evidence against global warming any more than the drought of 2012 was evidence for global warming. Any climatologist will tell you that. Global warming, if it exists, is measured in terms in overall changes averaged worldwide, over decades if not centuries or millenia.

Of all the evidence given so far, the only one that really makes me pause is the artic sea ice levels, which truly are at levels not seen in recorded history. Even there, events like the warming that occurred a thousand years ago, when settlers populated Greenland, indicate that warmings of a similar scale can occur naturally. So unfortunately there is no clear cut smoking gun that someone can point to as undisputed proof of global warming.

Having said that, the worst thing that could happen to us is for global warming to occur on a scale that no one could dispute, because by then it would be too late. The effects would have to be so large that millions of not billions would suffer and perish.

In somes ways we are like a frog in a pot of water that is put onto the stove. As long as the change in temperature is slow enough the poor frog doesn't even know he is being boiled alive. I don't know if we are in said pot of water. However if I suspected the pot I was in was placed on the proverbial stove, I would feel safer knowing I did my part to ensure the stove was unplugged than to deny that the stove could be turned on.

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: Brrrrrring on the global warming........

Ice storms of the intensity which hit Toronto occur in eastern Canada every 10-20 years. Montreal had big ones in 1961 and 1998 - so they shouldn't be unexpected.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: Brrrrrring on the global warming........

Ice storms of the intensity which hit Toronto occur in eastern Canada every 10-20 years. Montreal had big ones in 1961 and 1998 - so they shouldn't be unexpected.

Yes, they (Toronto Hydro) predicted that may happen. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...ticle16118600/
A Toronto Hydro vulnerability study published last year warned that climate change could result in more severe freezing rain storms, increasing the risk of major power outages.

I assume that nothing was done to prevent damages - like trimming trees.

[Bob Armstrong]

Re: Brrrrrring on the global warming........

I've managed to stay out of this debate for what seens years now, but I guess I can't resist.

Anyone who cites extreme weather conditions as evidence for or against global warming is not helping either cause. Weather is by nature chaotic and somewhere sometime on the planet some extreme weather occurs. Snow falling in Cairo is not evidence against global warming any more than the drought of 2012 was evidence for global warming. Any climatologist will tell you that. Global warming, if it exists, is measured in terms in overall changes averaged worldwide, over decades if not centuries or millenia.

Of all the evidence given so far, the only one that really makes me pause is the artic sea ice levels, which truly are at levels not seen in recorded history. Even there, events like the warming that occurred a thousand years ago, when settlers populated Greenland, indicate that warmings of a similar scale can occur naturally. So unfortunately there is no clear cut smoking gun that someone can point to as undisputed proof of global warming.

Having said that, the worst thing that could happen to us is for global warming to occur on a scale that no one could dispute, because by then it would be too late. The effects would have to be so large that millions of not billions would suffer and perish.

In somes ways we are like a frog in a pot of water that is put onto the stove. As long as the change in temperature is slow enough the poor frog doesn't even know he is being boiled alive. I don't know if we are in said pot of water. However if I suspected the pot I was in was placed on the proverbial stove, I would feel safer knowing I did my part to ensure the stove was unplugged than to deny that the stove could be turned on.

Hi Garland:

Very well-put, from the agnostic perspective.

You also suspect we'd better treat it as a problem, and start dealing with it. Surely our remedial improvements will not be too crucifying!

Bob A

[Bob Armstrong]

Re: Brrrrrring on the global warming........

...A Toronto Hydro vulnerability study published last year warned that climate change could result in more severe freezing rain storms, increasing the risk of major power outages....[/I]

Interesting that Toronto Hydro, a major energy company, accepts without doubt, the cause of the more extreme weather, being "climate change".

Bob A

[Gary Ruben]

Re: Brrrrrring on the global warming........

Whose responsibility is it to have preventive tree trimming done? The Hydro company or the city?

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: Brrrrrring on the global warming........

Whose responsibility is it to have preventive tree trimming done? The Hydro company or the city?

From 2007 http://www.torontohydro.com/sites/co...e/TH_oper.html
To reduce tree branch contacts with overhead lines, we have developed a proactive tree maintenance program, particularly in those areas where our lines are located in backyards, or on heavily treed streets.

Thus I assume both.

[Bob Gillanders]

Re: Brrrrrring on the global warming........

I've managed to stay out of this debate for what seens years now, but I guess I can't resist.

Anyone who cites extreme weather conditions as evidence for or against global warming is not helping either cause. Weather is by nature chaotic and somewhere sometime on the planet some extreme weather occurs. Snow falling in Cairo is not evidence against global warming any more than the drought of 2012 was evidence for global warming. Any climatologist will tell you that. Global warming, if it exists, is measured in terms in overall changes averaged worldwide, over decades if not centuries or millenia.

Of all the evidence given so far, the only one that really makes me pause is the artic sea ice levels, which truly are at levels not seen in recorded history. Even there, events like the warming that occurred a thousand years ago, when settlers populated Greenland, indicate that warmings of a similar scale can occur naturally. So unfortunately there is no clear cut smoking gun that someone can point to as undisputed proof of global warming.

Having said that, the worst thing that could happen to us is for global warming to occur on a scale that no one could dispute, because by then it would be too late. The effects would have to be so large that millions of not billions would suffer and perish.

In somes ways we are like a frog in a pot of water that is put onto the stove. As long as the change in temperature is slow enough the poor frog doesn't even know he is being boiled alive. I don't know if we are in said pot of water. However if I suspected the pot I was in was placed on the proverbial stove, I would feel safer knowing I did my part to ensure the stove was unplugged than to deny that the stove could be turned on.

Great post Garland. :)
When I first started researching this topic, I was truly undecided "was man made climate change (global warming) real or a hoax"? It took a while, the science is complex, but eventually I concluded it was real. Each subsequent debate has only further confirmed my conclusions.

[Bob Armstrong]

Re: Brrrrrring on the global warming........

From 2007 http://www.torontohydro.com/sites/co...e/TH_oper.html
To reduce tree branch contacts with overhead lines, we have developed a proactive tree maintenance program, particularly in those areas where our lines are located in backyards, or on heavily treed streets.

Thus I assume both.

In rural areas (all I know about), Hydro One is on an 8 year cycle clearing dangerous trees from underneath/close to hydro wires. I know - Hydro One has a legal right of way within 10 feet of Spirits' Den, all along the frontage of our 100 acre property. They came last Spring and clear cut it (!!??) and took out a whole outside row of over 100 20-year old cedars on me (which were far enough away to be no danger at all)!??

Bob A

[Gary Ruben]

Re: Brrrrrring on the global warming........

From 2007 http://www.torontohydro.com/sites/co...e/TH_oper.html
To reduce tree branch contacts with overhead lines, we have developed a proactive tree maintenance program, particularly in those areas where our lines are located in backyards, or on heavily treed streets.

Thus I assume both.

Sounds to me like the actual removal of the tree branches overhanging the wires is the responsibility of the hydro company.

In this area I think they are hiring a company to trim the trees overhanging the wires. I think it's once every three years.

From what I'm reading the biggest damage was from the broken branches falling on wires rather than the ice on the wires. I don't think there was enough ice to break the poles.

The stuff I worked on about 50 years ago was different. The ice formed on the wires. The wind made the wires swing. (It was a 5 wire transmission line from what I recall.) The weight of the ice on the swinging wires snapped the poles. Lots of poles. If there would have been a sunshine list, I'd have been on it that year. ;)