Save the itchy algae!

It's a small sample size, but in the 4 years I've lived here this is the rainiest day I've seen and it's only 9:30

I have to head out in a couple hours, will take some pictures if I can.

The airport has been just east of the heaviest axis of precipitation, though it's catching up now. In west Knox I've past 4 inches in the rain gauge this morning alone. It's excessive. For locals: The entrance and exit to I-40/75 @ Campbell Station rd is underwater and impassible. Lovell Road is still passable. I-40/75 itself has standing water on the left lane, there are many emergency vehicles out Turkey Creek has flooded its banks along Campbell Station rd, the bridge at Turkey Creek rd is almost breached as well as the bridge at Kingston Pike.

The sun has far more power on our planet than CO2, it borders on ridiculous to suggest otherwise. That study is not powered well, and I'm pretty sure that institution has been known to push agendas for funding purposes in the past. The only thing that has a remotely higher impact on us than the sun are things like drastic changes in oceanic composition and planetary events like super volcanoes and meteors. I don't mean to come across too critical, you just seem too set in your ways.

If that's what you got from the comment then you have more pressing concerns than climate change. But to bring it down to level, yes the climate is always changing. And yes, the earth has been generally warming for 10-12,000 years so one would expect ice core samples to reflect that trend. Per the other guy's point, the sea ice is not currently adequately reflecting a period of warming and thus (per the other other guy's point) there is more to the process than what our current understanding is. A lot of what has been posted recently here in the form of articles is mainly an example of politicking and hubris.

What you said had no bearing on my comments at all. Of course the ice is lowest now, its the latest in a long warming period, that's what you would expect. It's irrelevant to the point I made.

This is true. That said, it's important to keep what 'historical norms' are in perspective as well. The time frame we are speaking of is smaller than a blip on the radar in terms of global climate. I'm not saying that we haven't played a role in warming things a bit (of course we have), but the big picture impact is likely overstated, and it might not even be a bad thing really anyway. We have no idea what the climate is going to be like in 2040, '50, whenever. Let's just say that we go through a stretch in a couple years where things freeze up nicely, 'like they used to'. This is entirely possible based on some projections that are about as meaningful as those saying we'll be ice free. Come the new decade, the new 30 year averages will be from 1991-2020. This will include the biggest years of the brief warm up. The next thing you know the observed trends will be a mirror opposite of what we were seeing earlier this decade, and it will look like an impending relative ice age. This is what happens when humans over emphasize their lifetime on a global scale. Awareness is key of course. I'm not saying that you are being this way but some here are beating drums so loudly that they are unknowingly contributing to complacency.

I wish we could keep the discussions of human induced climate change and human induced mass extinction separate. I am a huge believer in trying to address the latter, while I think the former is mainly political. Combining them will alienate those that don't like BS, there are a lot of them out there, and we need all the help we can get to slow the extinction event.

Has the sea ice started growing again? It looks like its reached its nadir and might be turning up. Seems a little early for that, but the times are changing!