Starting the week with a bang... Or maybe a whimper...

Louisiana's coast is feeling the sea-level rise.

While state officials continue to argue over restoration projects to save the state’s sinking, crumbling coast, top researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have concluded that Louisiana is in line for the highest rate of sea-level rise “on the planet.” * Indeed, the water is rising so fast that some coastal restoration projects could be obsolete before they are completed, the officials said.
NOAA’s Tim Osborne, an 18-year veteran of Louisiana coastal surveys, and Steve Gill, senior scientist at the agency’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services, spelled out the grim reality in interviews with The Lens. When new data on the rate of coastal subsidence is married with updated projections of sea-level rise, the southeast corner of Louisiana looks likely to be under at least 4.3 feet of gulf water by the end of the century.

The Republicans are getting upset that the Democrats are standing back and letting them fall on their faces. Josh Marshall says it best:

Official Washington is accustomed to having a Democratic safety net — not cash transfers for those who fall through the cracks of the market economy — but that Democrats will come in and solve crises created by GOP government by crisis.

Cheney is afraid of being tried as a war criminal.

No chemicals, no GMO grain, India has record crop:

What if the agricultural revolution has already happened and we didn’t realize it? Essentially, that’s the idea in this report from the Guardian about a group of poverty-stricken Indian rice and potato farmers who harvested confirmed world-record yields of rice and potatoes. Best of all: They did it completely sans-GMOs or even chemicals of any kind

And farmers are demanding control over the seeds:

Vandana Shiva: 'Seeds must be in the hands of farmers',Biodiversity campaigner accuses corporate giants of trying to take over the world's seed supply through genetic engineering,

I have here in my hand... McCarthyism style innuendo doesn't quite work the way it did before YouTube and the internets....

A Sunday slurry...

So my concerns about high fructose corn syrup and the colony collapse disorder with bees have finally connected:

Systemic pesticides, such as neonicotinoids, move up through a plant, producing contaminated pollen and nectar. And after the first frost, when outside food is no longer available, the bee colony is affected by any contaminates in the food they stored from the summer, he explained. Honeybees are also fed by beekeepers, some of whom use sugar. These days, however, many large operations routinely feed bees with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). 

The birds and the bees – and high fructose corn syrup 

A recent study, published last June in the Bulletin of Insectology by Chensheng Lu, an associate professor at Harvard School of Public Health, gives further support to Hackenberg’s suspicions of the neonicotinoids. And Lu’s study brings up another way for bees to consume the pesticides — through the HFCS fed to them by beekeepers.  

In Lu’s study, colonies were fed HFCS treated with one of the nicotine pesticides, imidacloprid, which resulted in the collapse of almost every test hive, all showing the same pattern consistent with the CCD seen by beekeepers. Corn seed, which is still widely treated with the neonictinoids, received extra high doses of the chemical several years ago, just around the time CCD was first being recognized.

Asteroid deciding whether to visit or not...

Common sense gun regulation  and why gun show attendees support it

69 feet of sea level rise

Chris Christie's lack of impulse control.

Weirdness:  the aye-aye and its spooky fingers.

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?

Glub glub blub berbble bubble....

The Greenland ice sheet is losing its mass faster than in previous years and making an increasing contribution to sea level rise, a study has confirmed.

Published in the journal Science, it has also given scientists a clearer view of why the sheet is shrinking.

The team used weather data, satellite readings and models of ice sheet behaviour to analyse the annual loss of 273 thousand million tonnes of ice.

Melting of the entire sheet would raise sea levels globally by about 7m (20ft).

[snip]

Another analysis of satellite data, published in September, showed that of 111 fast-moving Greenland glaciers studied, 81 were thinning at twice the rate of the slow-moving ice beside them.

This indicates that the glaciers are accelerating and taking more ice into the surrounding sea.

Melting on the ice sheet's surface acts as a feedback mechanism, Dr van den Broeke explained, because the liquid water absorbs more and reflects less of the incoming solar radiation - resulting in a heating of the ice.

"Over the last 10 years, it's quite simple; warming over Greenland has caused the melting to increase, and that's set off this albedo feedback process," he told BBC News.

If Cats reported the news

We report from Los Angeles with breaking news! Over to you, PiddyPat!



Um... PiddyPat?

Los Angeles, CA (BANG) - Taylor Lautner was horrified when a middle-aged female fan tried to take off her panties in front of him. The "Twilight: New Moon" star - who was named Best Male Fresh Face at the recent Teen Choice Awards - tried desperately to avert his eyes when the woman began stripping off so he could autograph her underwear.

We won't go into that! Over to you, Mr. KittyAngel!

A library in Wisconsin which came under fire for stocking books positively affirming homosexuality has now been branded "discriminatory" and condemned for "not being interested in diversity" because it has refused to stock books by so called ex-gay authors.

West Bend Library was condemned by the Christian Civil Liberties Union in June of this year for stocking Baby Be-Bop, a book aimed at young adults by author Francesca Lia Block in which the main character, Dirk, struggles with his sexuality and against homophobic attacks.

The group petitioned for the book, and books like it, to be removed. They failed. Now a group called the Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays, or PFOX as they are more popularly known (a counter-balance to gay affirming PFLAG), are now claiming the following:

"Many of the gay books promote homosexual behavior to youth and are the subject of protests by concerned parents, whose request to have the books moved to the adult section were denied. Our requests that the Library balance some of its homosexual material for children with material written by ex-gays or with a heterosexual slant have been ignored."

Thank you for that excellent report. PittyPat has not recovered yet, so Mr. Fluffenkins, your report?

Sea levels could rise by up to 59 centimeters (23 inches) by the year 2100, according to a 2007 study by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). But over the past two years many scientists have said the report underestimated the threat posed by rising water levels.

Mark Siddall from Britain's University of Bristol along with other colleagues from Switzerland and the United States last week released a study showing that sea levels could go up between seven and 82 centimeters by the end of the century.

Sounds dangerous! Now for presidential news:

OBAMA WITH BABIES: See Who He's Held Since Becoming President (PHOTOS)

Loving gestures are always appreciated. How's the economy, Zippy?





U.S. Government Stages Fake Coup To Wipe Out National Debt

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."

Why on earth would anyone want to?

Headlines:

NASA: Antarctic Ice Melting Fast, Sea Levels Going Up

Brazilian Amazon Deforestation Rate Accelerates, 1,250 Square Miles Lost In Past 5 Months

Asia To Produce Over 60 Percent Of World's Greenhouse Gas Emissions By 2010

Bird Flu In India Has Spread to Nine Districts Of West Bengal


but then:

Scientific Breakthrough Could Allow Humans To Live For Hundreds Of Years

You've got to be kidding, right?

Can you guarantee there will be a world left to live on? That you wouldn't live in poverty for many of those hundreds of years? That you wouldn't live as a 98 year old with Alzheimer's for five hundred years? And how would your health insurance work? Wouldn't the planet get a little ... crowded?

I think I'll pass....

How long can you tread water?

Not long? Maybe buying that mountain cabin makes more sense now...

Over the past 30 years, temperatures in the Arctic have been creeping up, rising half a degree Celsius with attendant increases in glacial melting and decreases in sea ice. Experts predict that at current levels of greenhouse gases--carbon dioxide alone is at 375 parts per million--the earth may warm by as much as five degrees Celsius, matching conditions roughly 130,000 years ago. Now a refined climate model is predicting, among other things, sea level rises of as much as 20 feet, according to research results published today in the journal Science.

[snip]

Such a sea level rise would permanently inundate low-lying lands like New Orleans, southern Florida, Bangladesh and the Netherlands. Already sea level rise has increased to an inch per decade, thanks to melting ice and warm water expansion, according to Overpeck. And evidence that the Arctic is exponentially warming continues to accumulate. Indeed, in another paper in the same issue of Science, Goran Ekstrom of Harvard University reported a marked increase in so-called glacial earthquakes (seismic events recorded throughout the world when Greenland's glaciers slip past rock) since 2002. In fact, last year alone saw twice as many quakes as in previous years, with most of that increase coming during the summer months.

"We need to start serious measures to reduce greenhouse gases within the next decade," Overpeck says. "If we don't do something soon, we're committed to [13 to 20 feet] of sea level rise in the future."

In other news, Bush says "whatever" to global warming:

President Bush this week called on the world's top emitters of greenhouse gases warming the world to set a "long-term goal" for reducing such pollution, but was vague on how to complete the task.

"By setting this goal, we acknowledge there is a problem," President Bush told representatives of 17 nations attending the Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change held in Washington, D.C., this week.

"Whaddya want?" demanded Georgie as he pouted during his speech,"I'm gonna be outa here in a buncha months. You expectin' anything more? Givin' speeches is hard work!"

I'll repeat my lolcat pic: