Comments on: Rainforest Destruction – Greater and More Concentrated

By: Cynthia McPherson

Cynthia McPherson — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 06:12:57 +0000

After spending hours on the Internet doing research on climate change, I’ve concluded we won’t be able to stop the catastrophes predicted to occur. It’s just happening too fast, there are too many feedback cycles, and people are too disinterested to learn about it and take action. I’ve been hitting my relatives over the head about it; I’m passionate about it but they are just not interested enough to research it or try to do anything constructive about it. On AOL posts, most people are unbelievably ignorant about it. If people– the whole planet– became involved, we could do something to stop it. But society is not getting involved as they should. Leaders– even Obama, our Last Hope, is crawling at snail’s pace. By the time they realize it’s for real, it will be too late. I actually cried today when I realized.

By: Ed Ring

Ed Ring — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:33:44 +0000

“Pielke Sr is wrong to see land use as a greater climate forcer than CO2.”

The person who just wrote this seems to think – like most people – that this is settled and we need to move on. Having carefully studied the work of Pielke Sr., Spencer, Cristy, Lindzen and others, I don’t think the issue is nearly settled. Land use changes are definitely having regional climate impact – in some cases this impact is severe. In my opinion the case for tropical deforestation having a deleterious effect on regional if not global climate is far more settled than whether or not anthropogenic CO2 is something we need to concern ourselves with.

http://www.ecoworld.com/category/climate/

By: kenlevenson

kenlevenson — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:55:45 +0000

Paul K,
I’ve grown to read you as the “crazy uncle” – so I did laugh. Sorry, it cuts both ways.
But at the same time I feel Joe’s frustration at your relentlessness!

An aside: I find blog comments an even worse purveyor of humor than dreaded email humor. Nothing drains the humor from a pithy or subtle remark like email or blog comments. Like an M. C. Escher illustration, you can read the line one time and it’s funny and the next moment it’s insulting….more often than not the medium is unflattering to the humorist….
If there is the slightest subtlety, or double meaning, to the joke – I always suggest the dreaded emoticon. (If overused in this post.) I hereby conclude this infomercial for emoticons….yes, one last time….

By: llewelly

llewelly — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 18:23:50 +0000

Pielke Sr is wrong to see land use as a greater climate forcer than CO2. However – land use is indeed a substantial climate forcer (as Joe Rohm has covered in his book, and here as well), but it does so in part through large emissions of CO2 and methane.

By: Paul K

Paul K — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:50:00 +0000

john,
I’m pretty sure all I’ve said about Pielke Jr. is that Joe’s differences with him are outweighed by their areas of agreement and that it is more fruitful to find common ground than to argue in large part over semantics. As far as I can tell, Pielke Sr. believes land use is a greater climate forcer than CO2. The IPCC cites both in the same sentence.

By: john

john — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:22:12 +0000

Paul:
That Pielke bit was humor? You’ll have to forgive us — it was nearly identical to posts you’ve made about Pielke that were intended to be serious. I guess when your sarcasm is nearly the same as your attempts at factual posts it says something — either about your facts or your sense of humor.

At any rate, it was too subtle for me by a half — I thought you were serious.

By: Paul K

Paul K — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 14:48:39 +0000

Joe,
It’s ironic that you, so adept at sharp wit and sarcasm, are put off by a minor bit of teasing. I’d like to see more posts about land use, a topic largely ignored at climate progress.

By: Joe

Joe — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 11:38:45 +0000

Paul — Your one-liner blurts that have no basis in fact are getting tedious. Deforestation is a major contributor to global warming. Saying so does not make Ken into Roger Pielke Jr’s father!

By: Paul K

Paul K — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 02:55:36 +0000

This post is very much in line with Pielke Sr. who is not held in very high regard here at climateprogress.

By: David B. Benson

David B. Benson — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 02:40:52 +0000

“Avissar and Werth (2005) found that deforestation of tropical regions, through teleconnections similar to those produced during El Niño events, has a significant impact on the rainfall of other regions. In particular, they found that the U.S. Midwest is the continental region the most negatively affected by the deforestation of Amazonia and Central Africa during spring and summer, when rainfall decrease could severely damage agricultural productivity in that region.”

from

http://www.nap.edu/ openbook.php?record_id=11175&page=60