Earth's Tropics Belt Expands

December 2, 2007 By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

(AP) -- Earth's tropical belt seems to have expanded a couple hundred miles over the past quarter century, which could mean more arid weather for some already dry subtropical regions, new climate research shows.



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  • zbarlici - Dec 02, 2007
    • Rank: 2.5 / 5 (4)
    the naysayers to the global warming better take their heads out of the sand. If what is said about computer models CONSISTENTLY underestimating the ill effect of global warming, then they should not be trusted. or before you kno it y`all ameri-cans be movin up north of the 49th cuz you cant stand it cuz its too dam hot.

    You may not care about it now, but its not just my children, but yours as well, will be the ones to bask in whats to come. Thanks for what you`ve given me dad!
  • jyro - Dec 02, 2007
    • Rank: 3 / 5 (5)
    Why does man have to be responsible for all the changes in the weather? Didn't weather change in the 3.9 billion years before man?
  • fredrick - Dec 02, 2007
    • Rank: 3.8 / 5 (4)
    Why does man have to be responsible for all the changes in the weather? Didn't weather change in the 3.9 billion years before man?


    No scientist has ever suggested that man is responsible for all the changes in the weather...
  • roguetrekker - Dec 02, 2007
    • Rank: 4.5 / 5 (4)
    Don't worry. 250 years from now they'll all be worried about the Earth getting colder again and that will of course be caused by all of the new technology of flying cars. The Earth heats and cools. Correct me if I'm wrong, but from the research I've done, apparently we experience a mini ice age every 500 years or so and it directly correlates with solar activity. It was about 225 years ago that the all time low of the "Little Ice Age" occurred and of course, we've been heating up ever since. As far as I'm concerned, keep believing man is ruining the environment. Get rid of your SUVs and be more aware. That never hurts. We don't do the best job at picking up after ourselves, but the Earth was here long before us and will do just fine after we're long gone. (Hopefully in space, not the whole mutual annihilation thing...)
  • wesgeorge - Dec 03, 2007
    • Rank: 3 / 5 (5)
    Computer climate modelling is an oxymoron, the fact that climatologists can't give accurate probabilities on future climate scenarios is the dirty little secret of climatology.

    If it weren't so then every bank in the world would be rushing to build computer models of the equity exchanges, which are far less complex systems then the biosphere. But the banks don't bother, because their unbiased experts have already discovered it is a waste of money.

    So climatologists, many with a vested career interest in finding evidence for AGW, splash out anecdotal claims in the form of press releases every few weeks, because that is all they have. The science to back up their claims is thin and full of contradictions and often so close to fraudulent that if they were a business they'd have the SEC on their backs.

    Last year it was the 2007 hurricane season, it was going to be a killer, full of super cyclones driven by AGW. In fact, it was the calmest year since the 1970's. Climate model total failure. No one has a clue to what is forcing the climate, but everyone's got an opinion.

    This summer it was the new Artic ice minimum world record. Of course, the record is only a few decades long and no one was touting the world record ice maximum that occurred in Antarctica this year. Wonder why southern hemisphere is cooling, thought it was suppose to be GLOBAL warming?

    Now the tropical belts have widened and the climatologists have left their Occam's Razor at home. Could it be part of naturally occurring climate variation? Nope, must be evidence that lusty human greed is destroying the planet with poisonous CO2. Just ask Zbarlici, he knows. Americans are simply bad for the climate.

  • gmurphy - Dec 03, 2007
    • Rank: not rated yet
    The 2007 hurricane was above average "http://en.wikiped...eason", get your facts straight before you start proclaiming polemics to the masses, idiot.
  • wesgeorge - Dec 04, 2007
    • Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
    gmurphy,

    Perhaps before you hurl insults you should do some homework beyond wiki.

    The accumulated cyclone energy index (ACE) from July to November was the lowest on record since 1977 and the 4th lowest in 50 years. Clever pointing to the mountain of data overload at wiki, all of which if condensed would reveal as much.

    The number of named storms was only "slightly above average" according the National Hurricane Center but that's because with satellites they can now count storms that reach cyclonic strength far from land for only a few minutes, night or day. One can't compare modern satellite storm counts with ship and land based counts from 1985 back, because mini T-storms often went uncounted.

    Moreover, the Anthropogenic Global Warming theory demands super ACE seasons because T-storms are the climatic mechanism by which heat is dispersed from the tropics towards the poles. Thus 2007 was suppose to spawn a swarm of killer hurricanes. More warming MUST lead to a higher ACE Index.

    Not only was the 2007 T-season a flop for AGW theory's predictive value, but the accumulated cyclonic energy levels were at near record lows, which indicates Atlantic COOLING.

    Go figure.

    http://www.coaps....ropical/

December 2, 2007 all stories

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