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Excerpt from "Global Warming, Climate Change and the Fly Angler" by Frank Wood as seen in the winter issue of Fly Fusion

 

It was exactly ten years ago that I read my first story about Global Warming and the potential effects it would have on our coldwater fisheries. It was a well-written article complete with maps displaying forecasted habitat loss. As shocking as these predictions were, I read the story, marked the pages, and ended up filing it away with my other magazines of interest. At the time I recall thinking that this was still

way off in the future, and we still had time to prevent it from coming true.

 

As often happens in my life, other concerns set in – and I completely forgot about the story. That is until a little over a year ago while reading a Web Forum post referring to Global Warming. It hit me that I had not seen any new material relating to freshwater fisheries since that first story, so I decided it was past time to see what new information was out there.

 

Although I was able to locate a mountain of reference material, as far as freshwater fisheries are concerned - we are still in the process of modelling valid impact scenarios. I suspect that this is partly due to fish having to compete with many other species for a finite amount of research funding. From the point of media coverage, it is also more difficult to connect with the intended audience at the same emotional level as you could showing a polar bear swimming in an ocean (seemingly) devoid of offshore ice. This is unfortunate, as fish species and their communities are excellent indicators of the overall health and well being of the aquatic ecosystems in which they are found.

 

Regardless of perceptions and incomplete data sets however, we are already currently experiencing the effects of climate change. The problem facing scientists is that fisheries are complex ecosystems with variables affecting them that we still do not fully understand. This means that accurate forecasting models are difficult to create...........

 

..........Societies across the world have a long record of adapting and reducing their vulnerability to the impacts of weather and climate related events such as floods, droughts and storms. Nevertheless, additional adaptation measures will be required at regional and local levels to reduce the adverse impacts of projected climate change and variability, regardless of the scale of mitigation undertaken over the next two to three decades. Adaptation alone is not expected to cope with all the projected effects of climate change, especially not over the long term as most impacts increase in magnitude.

 

We are already behind the eight ball in the fight to preserve and protect our freshwater fisheries. While the debate over whether Global Warming is occurring or not has been laid to rest, we are still struggling to determine what the actual effects will be - with limited available data. Once we know the impacts, we still have to determine the best means to adapt to, or mitigate them.

 

It also doesn’t help that the aquatic ecosystems are complex, resulting in resistance from governmental departments in investing their limited budgets to study them. And yet study them we must, for if we don’t, we will not understand how to fix them.

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I think that part of the problem is that Governments and their agencies use all kinds of excuses to delay decisions that may appear to be an admission that this is even an issue. If I look back say 45 years I can see that if we had erred on the side of caution many things would have turned out for the better. Political methodology seems to be to wait for a definitive answer, argue with anything put forward, ask for a more definitive answer and then try and act when it is too late. Thalidimide and Cod stocks come to mind. I am not sure if it is our nature to self destruct or if we can actually do anything to eefect change in the machine that runs the country(ies) and the world.

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Guest Sundancefisher
Excerpt from "Global Warming, Climate Change and the Fly Angler" by Frank Wood as seen in the winter issue of Fly Fusion

 

It was exactly ten years ago that I read my first story about Global Warming and the potential effects it would have on our coldwater fisheries. It was a well-written article complete with maps displaying forecasted habitat loss. As shocking as these predictions were, I read the story, marked the pages, and ended up filing it away with my other magazines of interest. At the time I recall thinking that this was still

way off in the future, and we still had time to prevent it from coming true.

 

As often happens in my life, other concerns set in – and I completely forgot about the story. That is until a little over a year ago while reading a Web Forum post referring to Global Warming. It hit me that I had not seen any new material relating to freshwater fisheries since that first story, so I decided it was past time to see what new information was out there.

 

Although I was able to locate a mountain of reference material, as far as freshwater fisheries are concerned - we are still in the process of modelling valid impact scenarios. I suspect that this is partly due to fish having to compete with many other species for a finite amount of research funding. From the point of media coverage, it is also more difficult to connect with the intended audience at the same emotional level as you could showing a polar bear swimming in an ocean (seemingly) devoid of offshore ice. This is unfortunate, as fish species and their communities are excellent indicators of the overall health and well being of the aquatic ecosystems in which they are found.

 

Regardless of perceptions and incomplete data sets however, we are already currently experiencing the effects of climate change. The problem facing scientists is that fisheries are complex ecosystems with variables affecting them that we still do not fully understand. This means that accurate forecasting models are difficult to create...........

 

..........Societies across the world have a long record of adapting and reducing their vulnerability to the impacts of weather and climate related events such as floods, droughts and storms. Nevertheless, additional adaptation measures will be required at regional and local levels to reduce the adverse impacts of projected climate change and variability, regardless of the scale of mitigation undertaken over the next two to three decades. Adaptation alone is not expected to cope with all the projected effects of climate change, especially not over the long term as most impacts increase in magnitude.

 

We are already behind the eight ball in the fight to preserve and protect our freshwater fisheries. While the debate over whether Global Warming is occurring or not has been laid to rest, we are still struggling to determine what the actual effects will be - with limited available data. Once we know the impacts, we still have to determine the best means to adapt to, or mitigate them.

 

It also doesn’t help that the aquatic ecosystems are complex, resulting in resistance from governmental departments in investing their limited budgets to study them. And yet study them we must, for if we don’t, we will not understand how to fix them.

 

I am not sure if you are for or against the whole concept of climate change. I would say climate change is meaningless to our fisheries but rather habitat degradation is the only real problem facing us (next to poor management and over fishing).

 

To bring up climate change stirs the debate. Is the Earth warming? Is the Earth cooling? Is the Earth doing both? The IPCC has admitted although not making a big deal about it (not surprising as this is there source of income) that the Earth's temperature has actually gone down in the last 10 years. It is buried in the data. Over a year ago a Canadian scientist said hey...let's just double check them numbers the IPCC is using to say we are in an upswing hockey stick profile global warming event. OPS...the IPCC "forgot" to include the Earth's ocean data. So what did that say? Well for recorded history the dirty thirties was the warmest...and low and behold we are getting colder.

 

So then that begs the question. Are we just as concerned about global cooling? Should we now be increasing our rate of CO2 release to compensate and boost the Earth's temperature like a household thermostat?

 

Not surprisingly, the global warming business has not skipped a beat. They continually pump out "projected" studies based upon "what if" the Earth's temperature rises? They say that the Earth's populace will starve as the temperature rises...except that history has shown that warmer weather means more productive crops versus colder weather. They say that glaciers will melt... If you recall the Antarctics glaciers are being eradicated at an alarming speed. A research scientist has shown that yes glaciers are moving and melting but strangely enough the air temperature is cold and air temperature was excluded as a factor. Turns out now the theory is tectonics is causing that change. I inquired with a scientist who said that many glaciers are shrinking. I asked him how many glaciers were in his study area. It was like 20. I asked how many glaciers in the world...there are thousands... What about them? Not in his study area. In fact a scientist took a quick look at glaciers and found some are growing...while some are shrinking and some are staying the same.

 

Kind of like what you would expect.

 

They blame hurricanes and predicted the worst ever year a while back which never materialized. A meterologist said that big storms are caused by wide ranges between warm and cold air masses. In the scenario of global warming you get a unifying global warming event which in fact cancels out the colder air masses and leading to smaller storms. Ultra cold air from the north mixing with warm air in the south causes tornados for instance. Warm air from the north mixing with warm air from the south creates a nice vacation spot.

 

Storms in the world are instantly given a global warming bent. Funny how no one ever says...wow this is a cold winter...must be global warming. They always wait until a storm...like there were never storms before. Dinasaurs got swept away in massive river floods due to storms and collected in the bone beds of Drumheller. It was warm back then...much warmer. Global warming did not cause the heat back then either.

 

So now we attempt to blame the Earth's temperature for the fish population dropping. Not stream bank erosion from road building, farming, cattle grazing, ATV crossings... We don't blame the 100,000 fishermen plowing the streams. Adaptation has nothing to do with it. We all to often think out short term on this Earth is the end all and be all.

 

This whole topic has been supercharged with emotional religious fervor...that reason does not even get heard anymore.

 

Chill I say to everyone...just chill :-)

 

Sun

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Interesting info. I can say that from what I have personally seen over the years that glaciers in the Canadian and American Rockies and the Selkirks are definitely shrinking. I can even name the specific ones and have photos to compare. I spent many years mountaineering, travelling over glaciers and saw it and continue to see it first hand. It would be great if those glaciers could at least hold their own---they are the main water sources here. It would be nice to know where on the planet any glaciers are actually growing. Mostly, from articles on I read about mountains, it seems that on every continent they are shrinking.

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Guest Sundancefisher

The global warming priests will always spin it.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2006...s.climatechange

 

http://www.skepticalscience.com/himalayan-...ers-growing.htm

 

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/100/story/53884.html

 

http://iconicmidwest.blogspot.com/2008/02/...rs-surging.html

 

Lot of stories.

 

Historically...glaciers grow...glaciers shrink... Once upon a time the ice age had glaciers covering most of Alberta. Now they are much smaller... Once upon a time there were no glaciers at all...dinosaurs roamed the province.

 

Time will tell but the Earth has cooled and not warmed in the last 10 years as stated but hidden by the IPCC.

 

The more you read about the conjectures, what ifs, maybe, could be, possibly be, seen in computer models to show, etc... all points to one thing. People trying to make a square block fit in a round hole. There is no true science on global warming. You tell me one thing about anything and I can legitimately argue another point unless you have a quantifiable study that can be duplicated. Not a single computer model gives the same result each time. Not a single computer model has been designed that can even predict back dated proven weather conditions. NOT A SINGLE COMPUTER MODEL CAN PREDICT WITH ACCURACY THE WEATHER IN 5 DAYS. So please...how can a computer model become the religious bible for the global warming conspirators? Because...this topic has become a cult to those who believe. It is perpetuated by the contant bogus claims of linkages to any weather in the world. They promote fear that the Earth is ending...famine is approaching...heats waves will kill, storms will drown...chaos will rein...

 

Well...my computer predicts that our bank accounts will be over drawn to pay this bogus problem...it predicts world hunger will get worse as we chase our tails...it predicts people will panick over the slightest thing related to weather... I predict an ice age is coming :-)

 

Sun

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  • 6 months later...
The global warming priests will always spin it.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2006...s.climatechange

 

http://www.skepticalscience.com/himalayan-...ers-growing.htm

 

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/100/story/53884.html

 

http://iconicmidwest.blogspot.com/2008/02/...rs-surging.html

 

Lot of stories.

 

Historically...glaciers grow...glaciers shrink... Once upon a time the ice age had glaciers covering most of Alberta. Now they are much smaller... Once upon a time there were no glaciers at all...dinosaurs roamed the province.

 

Time will tell but the Earth has cooled and not warmed in the last 10 years as stated but hidden by the IPCC.

 

The more you read about the conjectures, what ifs, maybe, could be, possibly be, seen in computer models to show, etc... all points to one thing. People trying to make a square block fit in a round hole. There is no true science on global warming. You tell me one thing about anything and I can legitimately argue another point unless you have a quantifiable study that can be duplicated. Not a single computer model gives the same result each time. Not a single computer model has been designed that can even predict back dated proven weather conditions. NOT A SINGLE COMPUTER MODEL CAN PREDICT WITH ACCURACY THE WEATHER IN 5 DAYS. So please...how can a computer model become the religious bible for the global warming conspirators? Because...this topic has become a cult to those who believe. It is perpetuated by the contant bogus claims of linkages to any weather in the world. They promote fear that the Earth is ending...famine is approaching...heats waves will kill, storms will drown...chaos will rein...

 

Well...my computer predicts that our bank accounts will be over drawn to pay this bogus problem...it predicts world hunger will get worse as we chase our tails...it predicts people will panick over the slightest thing related to weather... I predict an ice age is coming :-)

 

Sun

 

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/08...e-hot-july.html

 

 

I don't think anyone is spinning this issue; there are countless examples that anthropogenic climate change is a real problem.

 

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Guest Sundancefisher
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/08...e-hot-july.html

 

 

I don't think anyone is spinning this issue; there are countless examples that anthropogenic climate change is a real problem.

 

LOL but very little spin on the fact the last year and a half has been the coldest in Canada in 20 years. Global warming fanatics hide during the cold spells and shout like chicken little when the sun shines... With only 100 years of recorded...and only since probably the last 60 years with some accuracy the temperatures in various parts of the Earth...it does not surprise me that in places temperature still rise and fall.

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LOL but very little spin on the fact the last year and a half has been the coldest in Canada in 20 years. Global warming fanatics hide during the cold spells and shout like chicken little when the sun shines... With only 100 years of recorded...and only since probably the last 60 years with some accuracy the temperatures in various parts of the Earth...it does not surprise me that in places temperature still rise and fall.

 

 

There are mountains of reputable / journal reviewed science concerning Global Warming / Climate Change. There are different opinions of how to deal with it; a recent opinion I heard was to accept that the change cannot be stopped, and we must learn how to deal with it.

 

It is a fact that there is more C02 in the atmosphere now than there ever has been during the last several hundred million years and it will be detrimental to several life forms; there are several reliable geological methods to prove facts such as this.

 

The best the GW deniers have come up with is bunk docs like 'The Great Global Warming Swindle' etc. Come on!

 

What bugs me most about the topic is that the deniers only think with their wallets; it is all about the economy, oil companies, and their rights; it is not about the world they will leave to future generations. I really find it quite despicable. Renewable energy, and even Nuclear energy is a better option. A Nuclear plant produces considerable more energy than a coal plant with about as much waste per year to fill a large truck. A coal plant produces enough C02 in one year that if compressed into a solid would be bigger than Mt. Everest. And C02 in the amounts industry is producing IS toxic to our environment.

 

Nobody has ever denied temperatures rise and fall; of course they do, however, they are rising at an unprecedented rate. Large sections of perma-frost on Baffin Island have melted this year; this is not normal....perma meaning 'permanent'. Some interesting views on Climate Change and our planet as a whole can be read in some of James Lovelocks works (Gaia).

 

I don't think the world will end, but the changes that we will make because of the climate change threat will do a lot of good. We need to have a society based on renewable resources, not oil. We need to do this for future generations.

 

I personally don't care about peoples greed and denial based solely on their oil company corporate jobs. It is a real joke. They deny climate change, drive huge vehicles, live in houses big enough for a small village, and when it comes down to it, care only about themselves and their money.

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[

It is a fact that there is more C02 in the atmosphere now than there ever has been during the last several hundred million years and it will be detrimental to several life forms; there are several reliable geological methods to prove facts such as this.

 

Where did you get that? Did anyone measure the CO2 levels 65 million years ago? I just hate faulty science. What about the Maunder Minimum or for that matter the Dalton Minimum? And how much money is tied up in the enviromental activist industry? What is Greenpeace's budget? Who does it really benefit? We really should worry more about water seeing that only 3% of the earths water is fresh and only 0.3% is available. What happens when that gets used up? The average Calgarian uses 7000 L per month. Want to do something that really impacts the environment, conserve water.

 

 

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There are mountains of reputable / journal reviewed science concerning Global Warming / Climate Change. There are different opinions of how to deal with it; a recent opinion I heard was to accept that the change cannot be stopped, and we must learn how to deal with it.

 

It is a fact that there is more C02 in the atmosphere now than there ever has been during the last several hundred million years and it will be detrimental to several life forms; there are several reliable geological methods to prove facts such as this.

 

The best the GW deniers have come up with is bunk docs like 'The Great Global Warming Swindle' etc. Come on!

 

What bugs me most about the topic is that the deniers only think with their wallets; it is all about the economy, oil companies, and their rights; it is not about the world they will leave to future generations. I really find it quite despicable. Renewable energy, and even Nuclear energy is a better option. A Nuclear plant produces considerable more energy than a coal plant with about as much waste per year to fill a large truck. A coal plant produces enough C02 in one year that if compressed into a solid would be bigger than Mt. Everest. And C02 in the amounts industry is producing IS toxic to our environment.

 

Nobody has ever denied temperatures rise and fall; of course they do, however, they are rising at an unprecedented rate. Large sections of perma-frost on Baffin Island have melted this year; this is not normal....perma meaning 'permanent'. Some interesting views on Climate Change and our planet as a whole can be read in some of James Lovelocks works (Gaia).

 

I don't think the world will end, but the changes that we will make because of the climate change threat will do a lot of good. We need to have a society based on renewable resources, not oil. We need to do this for future generations.

 

I personally don't care about peoples greed and denial based solely on their oil company corporate jobs. It is a real joke. They deny climate change, drive huge vehicles, live in houses big enough for a small village, and when it comes down to it, care only about themselves and their money.

 

 

two thumbs up on this..............Wolfie

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[

It is a fact that there is more C02 in the atmosphere now than there ever has been during the last several hundred million years and it will be detrimental to several life forms; there are several reliable geological methods to prove facts such as this.

 

Where did you get that? Did anyone measure the CO2 levels 65 million years ago? I just hate faulty science. What about the Maunder Minimum or for that matter the Dalton Minimum? And how much money is tied up in the enviromental activist industry? What is Greenpeace's budget? Who does it really benefit? We really should worry more about water seeing that only 3% of the earths water is fresh and only 0.3% is available. What happens when that gets used up? The average Calgarian uses 7000 L per month. Want to do something that really impacts the environment, conserve water.

 

not sure but i think that climate change helps to increase the melting of our polar ice caps, aswell as glaciers both of these are made of fresh water. maybe slowing climate change would help

aswell as getting a low flow toilet.

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The present 30 year time window use by alarmists is absurd. There is nothing global about climate. One example is the record levels of sea ice in the antarctic in 2009 while the arctic ice has gone down. The arctic ice has made a solid rebound in the past 2 years but the alarmists idiots like Gore continue to tell us that it will disappear as ealry as 2008 (oops) or 2009 (oops).

 

As for climate change, it has always changed and there is certainly nothing unusual about the less than one degree shift in the past century and a half. The earth's temperature has declined for the past decade, but mainstream media has bought into the immoral AGW concept so badly they can't change now. The idiotic AGW business has become so large now that it is all but impossible to stop. The AGW politics and eco fascists will be screaming 'bad carbon' centuries from now when glaciers have one again covered Toronto, Washington and London.

 

As for alan2 telling us he personally can bear witness to the glaciers melting. Sure allan2. Okay, you da man. Please tell us what the glaciers were like during the medieval warm period when it was warmer than today and tell us what it was like in 1750 and 1850 and 1950.

 

And allan2 if you bothered to study glaciers at all you may come across information about two ice sheets that covered virtually all of Canada and a lot of the northern US states. They melted in a few centuries. What caused that melt allan2? Buffalo farts?

 

Climate change and its impact on the

Himalayan glaciers – a case study on

the Chorabari glacier, Garhwal

Himalaya, India

Ravinder Kumar Chaujar

Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehra Dun 248 001, India

Glaciers and small ice caps in temperate environments

are sensitive indicators of the change in climate.

Mountain glaciers provide a valuable tool for reconstruction

of Holocene climate changes. The present

work, thus, deals mainly with climatic change and its

impact on the Himalayan glaciers based on the dating

of lichens, developed on loops of moraines formed due

to various stages of advance and retreat of the glacier.

Here it has been shown that the date of the largest

lichen on the loop of moraine that indicates the position

of maximum advance of the glacier is 258 years. It

shows the period when the Chorabari glacier started

receding from the point of its maximum advancement

in this part of the Himalaya. Earlier work in the Dokriani

Bamak (glacier) has shown that the period of retreat

in the respective part of the Himalaya is around

314 years. Research on various glaciers of the northern

and southern hemisphere has shown that most of

them started their retreat in the mid-eighteenth century,

thereby indicating the end of the Little Ice Age

maximum. These results suggest that climatic changes

in the world started during early to mid-eighteenth

century, though this needs further work for confirmation.

There is every possibility that its effect was sensed

first in the zone close to the equator by the northfacing

Himalayan glaciers such as the Dokriani

Bamak.

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  • 1 month later...

From the VERY eco left the BBC in England ..click here.

 

And this has nothing to do with the fact that it is minus 24°C in Waterton this morning...that is just weather. No chance of one last fling at Police this year. And it was still snowing a lot in May and freezing well into June. But that is just weather, eh?

 

The fact is the world has cooled for the past decade and now the BBC has come out of the closet and admitted it.

 

 

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