Friday Blues

We're all gonna die!

A connection between obesity and antibiotics?

Yellowstone, more exciting than we think?

Glaciers collapsing.

Murdering hope.

I've always wondered just exactly why

Global 'warming' denialists are so adamant in declaring rapid climate change a liberal plot. I mean... WHY?

Well... I get comments.

SmarterThanYou tells me:

You pompous fools. Looking down your nose at the rest of the world while true science (aka GEOLOGY) shows there are natural reasons for any climate shifts. These consistent & tangible geological trends are nothing new. This has been well documented for decades but nooooooo, you phenoms are just so much more intelligent. Fools.

This one is from last week:
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/02/22/scientist-retracts-paper-rising-sea-levels-errors/

This one is from 2001:
http://nodnc.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=60

Guess what?!?! They both state that sea level isn’t rising which implies the ice caps aren’t melting. Gee, I sure hope us silling wingnuts can wrap our heads around these findings by your beloved scientists.

Oh and now the heavy winter is your reasoning? I find that interesting b/c a few years ago when we had a mild winter, THAT Was the proof of Global Warming. Don’t believe me? Well here is one of those crazy conservative websites that shows soundbites illustrating my point.
http://www.floppingaces.net/2010/02/12/no-snow-global-warming-too-much-snow-global-warming/

You morons are willing to tax our industry to death with your “Green credits” over bad science. It’s b/c of fools like you that this country can’t keep industry within our own borders.

Ok. You cite geology as the one true science. Great, I know geologists and have taken geology. So... what do geological websites say about rapid climate change?

“The United States faces the potential for abrupt climate change in the 21st century that could pose clear risks to society in terms of our ability to adapt. A new report led by the USGS makes several conclusions about the potential for abrupt climate changes from global warming during this century.” Quoted from the USGS.

Twenty or so links to different articles within the last few years follow that quote.

So why on earth would you choose geology as the most reliable science above all others? Atmospheric sciences, Meteorology, Climatology, Oceanography? And then I found this. One meeting where global warming deniers could actually get their foot in the door and be heard. Apparently all other scientists and sciences were disproved by this one hilarious meeting. The fact you both quote geology as a true science yet then mock education and other sciences is truly illuminating. Geology follows the dictates and procedures of all other sciences.

So I suppose showing you satellite photos of glaciers in full retreat, or ice sheets snapping and floating away or Greenland's coastline appearing for the first time in centuries won't impress you? Telling you about the rising sea levels threatening North Carolina or Thailand or the Florida Keys or the islands of Tuvalu won't change your mind? The changing salinity of the oceans won't help?

No? Well, we'll just agree to disagree.

You really think acknowledging global warming will mean a loss in jobs? Really? It actually will mean a jobs increase. Besides cutting down on the need for foreign oil, why wouldn't being energy wise be a good thing in general?

But clearly that doesn't matter either. You finally get to the heart of the issue. It's all about beating up Mr. Smarty-pants Science guy, isn't it?

This actually exposes more about you than you realize. Have you asked yourself why?

The sad thing is.... those who are educated know more than those who look down on education and feel that knowledge is a weakness. Or said more correctly, educated people know they will always need to learn more, know how to accept new facts without dismay, know how to study a problem through the scientific process, how to combine two disparate concepts, work through a pile of incoherent data to find a kernel of truth. These people engineer your buildings, make your medicine, design your appliances, protect your food. You live with what scientists and educated people do every day.

Human beings will make mistakes, be in error, look backward, forget history, ignore advice. And, being human, of course scientists have been wrong, will be wrong. But those who understand and respect how science and education can evolve and shift with new facts will help people work with understood theories and concepts. These people will be able to look to the future and project incoming problems and events.

These are the people who will help humanity. Not those who mock the quest for knowledge.

And science is saying there is too much data out there showing that something of great import is happening right now.

Why ignore it?

Blub blub blub....

GENEVA – Antarctic glaciers are melting faster across a much wider area than previously thought, scientists said Wednesday — a development that could lead to an unprecedented rise in sea levels.

A report by thousands of scientists for the 2007-2008 International Polar Year concluded that the western part of the continent is warming up, not just the Antarctic Peninsula.

Previously most of the warming was thought to occur on the narrow stretch pointing toward South America, said Colin Summerhayes, executive director of the Britain-based Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research and a member of International Polar Year's steering committee.

But satellite data and automated weather stations indicate otherwise.

"The warming we see in the peninsula also extends all the way down to what is called west Antarctica," Summerhayes told The Associated Press. "That's unusual and unexpected."

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.

Imagine a world where the sea level is rising

And glaciers are disappearing. No drinking water for millions. Welcome to 2035.

Last year the UN environment programme and the WGMS jointly published data for 1,800 glaciers on all seven continents, which warned losses had been accelerating globally since the mid-1980s, so that the annual average decline for 1996-2005 was double that of the previous decade, and four times that of the decade before. Last week China Dialogue, a London-based organisation dedicated to debate on China's environment issues, launched a campaign to highlight the same trends in melting in the Himalayas and on the Tibetan plateau.

Those glaciers feed all the main river systems in Asia, depended on by the estimated 40% of the world's population that lives in northern India, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, said Isabel Hilton, China Dialogue's editor.

"In a region that is already fractured and unstable, the melting of the 'third pole' glaciers is one of the most important challenges facing humanity in the 21st century," she said.

In December the US Geological Survey also warned that sea-level rise could be even worse than feared, as much as 1.5 metres by the end of this century, partly due to increased melting of the volume of water stored in glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland.

The Water Wars are upon us.

Maybe that's why nobody takes Canada seriously

They have less gravity then we do:

If it seems Canadians weigh less than their American neighbours, they do – but not for the reasons you might think. A large swath of Canada actually boasts lower gravity than its surroundings.

Researchers have puzzled for years over whether this was due to the crust there rebounding slowly after the end of the last ice age or a deeper issue involving convection in the Earth's mantle – or some combination of the two.

Now, ultra-precise measurements taken over four years by a pair of satellites known as GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) reveal that each effect is equally responsible for Canada's low gravity. The work could shed light on how continents form and evolve over time.