Blog sprinkles

Welcome in the Year of the Tiger! Cautiously...

Tengrain of Mock, Paper, Scissors remembers Presidents' Day.

Why words matter. (And why education matters... and why stupid people can be so easily manipulated....)

Speaking of manipulation, Wall Street is using reverse psychology and pretending to WANT regulation! So you will think voting against regulation will hurt the evil banksters! Which is what they want! Oh them cleverish evil doers!

That's why we need a Robin Hood Tax! (video is good, too.)

Via Steve Bates, the Christianists have decided to rewrite history from the school ground up.

Maybe losing their source for caffeine will finally wake up the climate change deniers.

It's clear the next logical step is to WiFi the ENTIRE WORLD!!

The banksters have really gotten out of hand. Bank forecloses on house that was paid for. With cash.

Rachel Maddow holds her own and hits Republican Rep. Schock with the truth. Very satisfying.

One way to deal with state debt? Cancel 12th grade!

I guess we'll finally pay attention when Colorado goes underwater...

U.S. media largely ignores latest warning from climate scientists: “Recent observations confirm … the worst-case IPCC scenario trajectories (or even worse) are being realised” — 1000 ppm

In the last two years, our scientific understanding of business-as-usual projections for global warming has changed dramatically (see “M.I.T. doubles its projection of global warming by 2100 to 5.1°C” and “Hadley Center projects 5-7°C warming by 2100“). Yet, much of the U.S. public — especially conservatives — remain in the dark about just how dire the situation is (see “Gallup poll shows catastrophic failure of media, conservatives still easily duped by deniers“).

Why? Because the U.S. media is largely ignoring the story. Case in point: Where was the coverage of the Copenhagen Climate Science Congress, attended by 2000 scientists, which concluded with this Key Message #1:

Recent observations confirm that, given high rates of observed emissions, the worst-case IPCC scenario trajectories (or even worse) are being realized. For many key parameters, the climate system is already moving beyond the patterns of natural variability within which our society and economy have developed and thrived. These parameters include global mean surface temperature, sea-level rise, ocean and ice sheet dynamics, ocean acidification, and extreme climatic events. There is a significant risk that many of the trends will accelerate, leading to an increasing risk of abrupt or irreversible climatic shifts.

[snip]

The A1F1 scenario takes us to atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide of 1000 ppm in 2100 — otherwise known as the end of human civilization as we have known it. Actually it’s worse than that. The 2001 IPCC report largely failed to model amplifying carbon cycle feedbacks. The 2007 IPCC report, which began to consider such feedbacks, warns that even averaging 11 GtC (billion metric tons of carbon) a year this century could take us to 1000 ppm...

[my bold] ... why isn't this being screamed from the rooftops?

Just remember to buy your inflatable boat.

crossposted at American Street

For those who mock global warming

By pointing to the US's severe winter storm, here's what's happening in Australia:

South-eastern Australia is experiencing its worst heatwave in decades, with temperatures in excess of 43C (109F).

Health officials in South Australia say the searing heat may be to blame for an apparent increase in the number of sudden deaths among the elderly.

In neighbouring Victoria state, bush fires have destroyed at least 10 homes.

Nearly 500,000 people in the state are reported to have lost their power supplies, following severe pressure on the electricity grid.

An explosion was also reported at a substation in Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city.

"It is an extreme week. The system is not made to operate where you've got temperatures in the suburbs of 46C," said the head of Victoria state, John Brumby.

Commuters are facing long delays after the blackouts added to the problems on the rail network. Hundreds of train services were cancelled after the heat buckled tracks.

The phrase global warming is unfortunate as it should really be called climate change. The weather will become more extreme at both ends of the gauge, extreme heat, extreme cold. There will be more droughts, floods, fires. Meanwhile, glaciers are losing their ice and the poles are melting, the oceans are acidifying, creatures are going extinct.





Even if we negated our carbon footprints right now, this shift in climate will still continue for decades. We can thank the Bush administration for eight more years of delay in addressing this.

George Bush surprised world leaders with a joke about his poor record on the environment as he left the G8 summit in Japan.

The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."

He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.

Mr Bush, whose second and final term as President ends at the end of the year, then left the meeting at the Windsor Hotel in Hokkaido where the leaders of the world's richest nations had been discussing new targets to cut carbon emissions.

One official who witnessed the extraordinary scene said afterwards: "Everyone was very surprised that he was making a joke about America's record on pollution."

But maybe we can hope:

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore urged President Barack Obama and other world leaders to seal a quick deal to fight global warming despite the pervasive financial crisis.

Gore called Obama "the greenest person in the room" for making environmental funding a big chunk of the $819 billion economic stimulus bill passed by U.S. lawmakers this week.

"I think it's important for the world leaders gathered here to fully appreciate the magnitude of the change in U.S. leadership," Gore said.

The former U.S. vice president and environmental advocate, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, referred to frustration in many countries at the Bush administration's refusal to sign international pacts on reducing emissions of carbon, blamed for global warming.

Repower America

Sign the petition:

As a constituent, I am writing to urge you to champion clean energy in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan.

This economic recovery package contains programs that are important down payments on the path to repowering America. These investments will create high-paying new jobs for millions of Americans, demonstrate the readiness of clean energy across the country, and provide long overdue solutions to the climate crisis.

Tackling our economic, security and climate challenges will not be easy or instantaneous, but the next few weeks are a critical first step.

Whether this first step is taken is in Congress' hands. I hope I can count on your support.

As the climate changes

We're going to see more of this:

Hundreds of Humboldt squid have washed up on northern Oregon beaches in the past few days in a rare die-off attributed to their coming too far north in search of food.

The squid, about 3½ feet long, have been reported as far south as Cannon Beach. Most of the deaths, however, were reported in the Columbia River at Astoria. A number of dead squid also washed onto rocks at the boat basin in Westport, Wash., last week. Because of the large number of squid available, the Aberdeen Daily World reported the state Fish and Wildlife Department lifted its five-squid daily limit for several days.

See an amazing deep sea contact with a Humboldt squid in this video.

When the federal government is run by morons

You turn to the states to make good:

Los Angeles, CA (AHN) - Seven U.S. western states and four Canadian provinces unveiled Tuesday a regional climate initiative that will cut greenhouse gas pollutants through an emission trading system.

Under the so-called Western Climate Initiative, Arizona, California, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington as well as the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec will issue industries permits to pollute but with a cap. The permits could then be traded by the industries among themselves to cheaply cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The initiative also allows participating states and province to offset emissions by planting trees or capturing landfill emissions, which are considered cheaper alternatives than installing expensive equipment to cut fossil fuel burning or switching to cleaner power.

The Western Climate Initiative.

The Los Angeles Times:

"We're sending a strong message to our federal governments that states and provinces are moving forward in the absence of federal action," said California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, adding that the effort would spur renewable energy development and create "green jobs."

California, which passed a landmark global warming law in 2006, is well on its way to curbing emissions. But other states and provinces will have to overcome opposition in legislatures and from influential businesses. And several states have yet to sign on, including Nevada, Idaho, Colorado and Wyoming. Nevada has the fastest-growing population in the nation, and Colorado and Wyoming are booming energy states.

The plan also relies on a complex trading system in which businesses can buy and barter their way out of trimming emissions. Europe has instituted a carbon market, but not without some controversy. And many economists say that a tax on carbon would be a more efficient way to reduce global warming.

The initiative comes as studies suggest that climate change is taking a toll on the Western region of the U.S. and Canada. Scientists say that without dramatic cuts in the global burning of fossil fuels, Western states will suffer disproportionately from water shortages, severe wildfires, coastal flooding and species die-offs.

The Western plan covers about 20% of the U.S. economy and more than 70% of the Canadian economy, affecting power plants, industrial facilities and transportation, among other economic sectors. The seven states are Arizona, California, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington. The Canadian provinces are British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.

Gee. Even our local politicians recognize that before their state begins to look like this...



...people are expecting them to do something. NOW. As in immediately.

Thank you, Governor Gropenator, sir.

Do as I say while I don't do as I said I'd do to make you do what I wasn't going to do in the first place

The Bush administration's mantra.

Officially, the US government says it wants to push in Bali for a climate protection "road map." But SPIEGEL ONLINE has learned that this may not be true. US government officials are already attempting to coordinate with China and India to prevent binding emissions limits.

In recent official statements, Washington has indicated it might be looking for a compromise during negotiations in Bali for a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. But sources say the White House is discreetly searching for partners in Beijing and Dehli to derail the prospects for any binding agreements to curb emissions of greenhouse gases.

In the run-up to the Bali Climate Conference that opened Monday, the administration of US President George W. Bush established contact with representatives of the Chinese and Indian governments in an attempt to curb progress on climate protection initiatives, SPIEGEL ONLINE has learned from a source familiar with the White House's Bali strategy.

In other words: Sorry your island is going underwater, but it didn't have any oil.

Maybe I'll have a beach front property....

If I'm not underwater...

Thailand(AP)-- Cities around the world are facing the danger of rising seas and other disasters related to climate change.

Of the 33 cities predicted to have at least 8 million people by 2015, at least 21 are highly vulnerable, says the Worldwatch Institute.

They include Dhaka in Bangladesh; Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro; Shanghai and Tianjin in China; Alexandria and Cairo in Egypt; Mumbai and Kolkata in India; Jakarta in Indonesia; Tokyo and Osaka-Kobe in Japan; Lagos in Nigeria; Karachi in Pakistan; Bangkok in Thailand, and New York and Los Angeles in the United States, according to studies by the United Nations and others.

More than one-tenth of the world's population, or 643 million people, live in low-lying areas at risk from climate change, say U.S.and European experts. Most imperiled, in descending order, are China, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan, Egypt, U.S., Thailand, and the Philippines.

And speaking of new waterways:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 — For most of human history, the Arctic Ocean has been an ice-locked frontier. But now, in one of the most concrete signs of the effect of a warming climate on government operations, the Coast Guard is planning its first operating base there as a way of dealing with the cruise ships and the tankers that are already beginning to ply Arctic waters.
With increasingly long seasons of open water in the region, the Coast Guard has also begun discussions with the Russians about controlling anticipated ship traffic through the Bering Strait, which until now has been crossed mainly by ice-breaking research vessels and native seal and walrus hunters.
The Coast Guard says its base, which would probably be near the United States’ northernmost town, Barrow, Alaska, on the North Slope coast, would be seasonal and would initially have just a helicopter equipped for cold-weather operations and several small boats.
But given continued warming, that small base, which could be in place by next spring, would be expanded later to help speed responses to oil spills from tankers that the Coast Guard believes could eventually carry shipments from Scandinavia to Asia through the Bering Strait. Such a long-hoped-for polar route would cut 5,000 miles or more from a journey that would otherwise entail passage through the Panama Canal or the Suez.

For a president who loves fart jokes

His speech about emissions had an isolating effect:

George Bush was castigated by European diplomats and found himself isolated yesterday after a special conference on climate change ended without any progress.

European ministers, diplomats and officials attending the Washington conference were scathing, particularly in private, over Mr Bush's failure once again to commit to binding action on climate change.

[snip]

A senior European diplomat attending the conference, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the meeting confirmed European suspicions that it had been intended by Mr Bush as a spoiler for a major UN conference on climate change in Bali in December.

"It was a total charade and has been exposed as a charade," the diplomat said. "I have never heard a more humiliating speech by a major leader. He [Mr Bush] was trying to present himself as a leader while showing no sign of leadership. It was a total failure."

John Ashton, Britain's special envoy on climate change, who attended the conference, said: "It is striking here how isolated the US has become on this issue. There is no support among the industrialised countries for the proposition that we should proceed on the basis of voluntary commitments.

Meanwhile:

Parts of the Arctic have experienced an unprecedented heatwave this summer, with one research station in the Canadian High Arctic recording temperatures above 20C, about 15C higher than the long-term average. The high temperatures were accompanied by a dramatic melting of Arctic sea ice in September to the lowest levels ever recorded, a further indication of how sensitive this region of the world is to global warming. Scientists from Queen's University in Ontario watched with amazement as their thermometers touched 22C during their July field expedition at the High Arctic camp on Melville Island, usually one of the coldest places in North America.

"This was exceptional for a place where the normal average temperatures are about 5C. This year we frequently recorded daytime temperatures of between 10C and 15C and on some days it went as high as 22C," said Scott Lamoureux, a professor of geography at Queen's.

"Even temperatures of 15C are higher than we'd expect and yet we recorded them for between 10 and 12 days during July. We won't know the August and September recordings until next year when we go back there but it appears the region has continued to be warm through the summer."

The high temperatures on the island caused catastrophic mudslides as the permafrost on hillsides melted, Professor Lamoureux said. "The landscape was being torn to pieces, literally before our eyes."

Other parts of the Arctic also experienced higher-than-normal temperatures, which indicate that the wider polar region may have experienced its hottest summer on record, according to Walt Meir of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado.

"It's been warm, with temperatures about 3C or 4C above normal for June, July and August, particularly to the north of Siberia where the temperatures have reached between 4C and 5C above average," Dr Meir said.

Don't know much about geography

Don't know much trigonometry...

But try and calculate this: What if your house, your county, your country is destroyed by weather, water, war, terrorist acts, nukes? What rights do you have?

What if the rest of the world did not want you? Where would you go? You are the new 'climate refugees'.

Introducing the Tuvalu islands:

International legal experts are discovering climate change law, and the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu is a case in point: The Polynesian archipelago is doomed to disappear beneath the ocean. Now lawyers are asking what sort of rights citizens have when their homeland no longer exists.
Shuuichi Endou is photographing every single citizen in a country. It may sound ludicrous but it is entirely plausible. After all, the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu only has about 11,000 inhabitants, and the 41-year-old Japanese photographer has already captured the images of the 340 people who live on the Nukulaelae atoll. By the time next year's G-8 Summit in Japan rolls around, the other 10,500 portraits should be finished. Endou wants to use them to give the rich and powerful a jolt, so that they finally understand the need to reduce emissions and stop global warming.

The photographs of the Tuvaluans are meant to give climate change a human face. They are a people whose country is doomed to disappear. The group of islands lies just 10 centimeters (roughly four inches) above sea level; if the average sea level continues to rise, in just 50 years there will be nothing here but waves.

Some of the islands are already uninhabitable; the ocean nibbles at the narrow landmass from all sides. Nine islands totaling just 26 square kilometers (10 square miles) in area make up the fourth-smallest country in the world. There's hardly any industry, no military, few cars and just eight kilometers of paved roads.

The majority of the people make their living from fishing and agriculture. The country is so small that there is only a rough division of labor, with people acting as cooks and captains, ice cream salesmen and politicians.

Environmentalists have long worried about the fate of this tiny Pacific state. Now, however, international legal experts have also taken up the topic of its imminent demise. A nation's "territorial integrity" is one of the paramount legal principles. It's unprecedented, however, for a country to completely lose its territory without the use of military force.

If we realized that all of us are on this planet together, that working together benefits all of us rather than killing each other for resources and space, it truly would be a wonderful world:

Should we be worried about this?

Especially if it gets bigger or starts traveling towards the coastline?

As clear as the clearest lakes on the planet, salty as ocean waters, and roughly the size of the Mediterranean – this, say researchers, is the clearest and most lifeless patch of ocean in the world. And it is in the middle of the Pacific.

"Satellite images that track the amount of chlorophyll in ocean waters suggested that this was one of the most life-poor systems on Earth," explains Patrick Raimbault of the University of the Mediterranean, in Marseille, France [snip].

In October 2004, Raimbault and colleagues set out to study the remarkable patch of ocean water on a three month cruise – called BIOSOPE – that left from Tahiti in French Polynesia, passed by Easter Island and ended on the Chilean coast. Along the way, they sampled the water's chemistry, physics and biology.

Marc Tedetti, also from the University of the Mediterranean, was on the expedition to investigate the water's clarity. He was struck by the colour of the water, which he describes as closer to violet than to blue (see image, [bottom]).

Beautiful but barren

Tedetti returned having found "unequivocally" the clearest ocean waters on the planet. "Some bodies of freshwater are equally clear, but only the purest freshwater," Tedetti told New Scientist. "For instance, researchers have found equivalent measurements in Lake Vanda in Antarctica, which is under ice, and is really extremely pure.

Note the purple patch in the Pacific near South America:

So who needs winter anyway?

Now we can grow things year round! (Ignore the killer heat waves and the drought in Romania....)

Last autumn-winter season was Europe's warmest for more than 700 years, researchers say.
[snip]
Separately, the temperatures experienced during autumn 2006 and winter 2007 are likely to have been the warmest in 500 years, they say. But the sequential combination of two such warm seasons is a still rarer event – probably the first since 1289.

In that year, people in western and central Europe wrote accounts of what they viewed as extremely unusual events.

"Documents report for instance that strawberries were eaten at Christmas, and the [vineyards] produced leaves, stock and even blossoms in the middle of January, and in Vienna fruit trees were flowering like in May," Luterbacher told New Scientist, adding: "This was really extreme, so maybe it can be compared to today in western and central Europe."

Similar unusual events have also been noticed in this recent warm period. For instance, hazel trees and snowdrops in Germany blossomed a full 30 days earlier than at any time in the last 50 years in spring 2007. And in 2006, horse chestnut trees in Switzerland blossomed twice instead of their usual once. "This is really an exceptionally rare event," says Luterbacher.

Exploring the deep

Finding out about our oceans before we boil them to death:


(pic taken from article)

Scientists have begun the first detailed exploration of a vast underwater valley the size of the Grand Canyon - just off the coast of Portugal - and it has yielded a series of surprises.

Using Britain's ISIS robot submarine - a van-sized bundle of high-technology - researchers are for the first time able to view previously hidden features up to 5km (three miles) deep in the Nazare Canyon.

The canyon extends out into the eastern Atlantic from the seaside town of Nazare, north of Lisbon - long plotted on maps but until now never properly studied.

[snip]

For Professor Paul Tyler, a marine biologist, the expedition is a chance to establish a baseline of data about this undersea world - so the effects of climate change can be assessed.
"We've seen signs of change at the surface and in other parts of the deep ocean at 5,000m; so we need to see what's changing here.
"There is nowhere on the planet that is immune from climate change."

As I have posted before, we're seeing a lot of deep sea creatures recently.

Greenland is melting

Time to sell your coastline property...

Greenland has long been seen as an important canary in the coalmine when it comes to global warming. As the Earth's climate heats up, the ice sheet which covers the mega-island melts faster and faster. Already, according to scientists measuring the glacier's melting rates, Greenland sheds enough ice every day to supply New York City with water -- 30 times over.

But according to a new report in the scientific journal Current Biology, melt-water isn't the only clue Greenland provides the world when it comes to climate change. Scientists from Denmark's National Environmental Research Institute, affiliated with the University of Aarhus, have found that spring in Greenland now starts much earlier than it did just a decade ago with some plant, animal and insect species welcoming the warm season up to 30 days prematurely.

That's a lot of ice....

Weird weather continues for California....

As we break records for the hottest May.... Found a site (no permalinks so the post is Monday, May 07, 2007) that describes what we're going through:

It seems it has been just a strange, strange winter season in California.

Tops on that of course is the lack of rain. Downtown Los Angeles is still very much on track to having the driest rainfall season on record. Much of California has been much drier than normal as well.

Back in January there was the BIG FREEZE, and accompanying that was snow in very unusual places. It snowed in the hills around Malibu with several inches of accumulation. There was also several inches of snow at less than 1,000 feet above sea level in the Inland Empire across southwest San Bernardino County. A devastating freeze hit the agricultural community all across central and southern California, but especially the citrus industry in the San Joaquin Valley. Fresno had 19 straight nights of freezing, or below freezing temperatures. Some of the coldest parts of the Valley dipped into the middle and upper teens on three consecutive nights. This freeze devastated the citrus that was heavily laden on all the trees.

Just a couple weeks later it was record heat the returned to southern California with highs well into the 80s, and even some lower 90s, for a couple of days the first week of February.

Now we have Santa Ana winds in May. Santa Ana winds developed through and below passes and canyons of southern California Saturday night and Sunday morning and continued today. I have lived in this area for the past 10 years and cannot remember a Santa Ana wind event this late in the season. It certainly has to be quite rare. This has helped temperatures spike well into the 90s today with very low humidity and Red Flag Warnings out.

Yup. High 90s. In May. My yard will look like this:

Whatever it is, it doesn't look healthy

Another deep sea creature searching frantically for cooler seas?



Like the other 'monsters' that we've seen recently?

April temperatures hottest on record for Britain since 1659

What does this mean for summer?

The provisional mean temperature for the UK is 10.0C (50.0F), beating the previous historical high of 9.2C (48.6), recorded in 1943.

Forecasters say this month is on course to set new records in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The average temperature for the UK over the past 12 months is also shaping up to record a new high of 10.4C (50.7F)

Meteorologists also expect this month to be the warmest April in central England for more than 300 years.

The provisional mean figure in the region for April 2007 is 11.1C (52.0F) - that is 3.2C (5.8F) above the long-term average.

Present day Noah's Ark

The Italians have the right idea:

ROME, April 6 (UPI) -- Italian environmentalists are drafting a plan to protect the country's biodiversity.

The World Wide Fund for Nature and the Environmental Protection Agency are working together on the plan, which will be used to protect Italian plants, animals and ecosystems.

The two groups will focus on key "eco-regions" -- the Alps and the Mediterranean -- ANSA reported. The Alps, one of the last surviving natural areas in central Europe, are home to 13,000 plants and 30,000 animals.

The WWF says the Mediterranean has 25,000 plants, 62 species of amphibians and 179 kinds of reptiles.

The WWF is coordinating Italy's efforts with groups from Germany, Austria and Switzerland to protect areas that cross international borders. ANSA said 20 different groups are targeting the Mediterranean region.

A recent report said over 45 percent of Italy's vertebrates, 40 percent of its plants and 30 percent of its natural environments are threatened.

As do the Norwegians:

Norway is building a Doomsday bunker that has every known crop seed in the world.

So... will we stop denying the coming catastrophe or continue trying to ignore it?

The {UN} report claims that global warming will lead to desertification, droughts and rising seas and that those living in the tropics will be the worst hit -- from sub-Saharan Africa to the Pacific islands. Billions could face water shortages, and ocean levels might rise for centuries to come. It could lead to a sharp drop in crop yields in Africa and bring heatwaves to Europe and North America. Europe's Alpine glaciers will disappear and much of the coral that comprises Australia's Great Barrier Reef will die from bleaching.
The scientific conclusions -- based on 29,000 sets of data -- also said that up to 30 percent of the Earth's species faced a higher risk of vanishing if global temperatures rise 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above the average in the 1980s and '90s. "The urgency of this report prepared by the world's top scientists should be matched by an equally urgent response from governments," said Hans Verolme, director of the global climate change program at the conservation organization WWF. "Doing nothing is not an option."

I also have a bridge I'd like to sell you

Honest!

Washington/Brussels-US officials Friday said their country is already helping developing countries prepare for the drastic effects of global warming and insisted the US has lead the world in mitigating greenhouse emissions blamed for global warming. Sharon Hays, a key science advisor to US President George W Bush, and other administration officials made their remarks after approval by more than 100 countries of an important UN report on climate change in Brussels earlier in the day.

Hays led the US delegation to the meeting.

Update: How very strange....:

In negotiations over the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released on Friday, the United States and China “managed to eliminate language in one section that called for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.” The original draft read: “However, adaptation alone is not expected to cope with all the projected effects of climate change, and especially not over the long run as most impacts increase in magnitude. Mitigation measures will therefore also be required.” But the second sentence does not appear in the final version of the IPCC Summary for Policymakers.

Riiiiiiight

Just keeping to the agenda:

WASHINGTON, March 9 The head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said protocol is the reason employees going to meetings about the Arctic are not to discuss climate change.

The New York Times reported that agency Director H. Dale Hall said memos stating that two employees traveling to international meetings on the Arctic would not respond to questions about climate change, polar bears and sea ice are consistent with staying with our commitment to the other countries to talk about only what's on the agenda.The memorandums stating that the employees would not to discuss climate change were reported Thursday in the New York Times and on the Web site of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Just don't mention these:

Or this:

Or this:

I suppose they aren't allowed to respond to the question, "What weather we're having!" or "Hot enough for ya?" either.