Posted on July 23rd, 2008 by admin
Phoenix Business Journal - June 25, 2008
John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for US President, is deriding the Executive branch for their suggestions to curb energy prices as well as the Democratic leadership for its plans. (Follow the feed link to read the rest of the story).
Mr. McCain is proposing more aggressive investment in “clean” coal plants and nuclear energy. Personally, I am not sure there is such a thing as a clean coal plant but I am all for it if we can make one! I also think that we need to step up our reliance on nuclear energy and deal with the disposal issue which haunts that technology.
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McCain wants $30B for clean-coal research, 45 new nuclear reactors
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Filed under: Getting warmer, Greenhouse gas, Politics, Technology
Posted on July 21st, 2008 by admin
The Independent - June 27, 2008
There is a very real chance that there will be no ice at the North Pole this summer. This is probably being caused by a “perfect storm” of several events including a slight warming of the Arctic Ocean, a slight warming of the air above the ocean, a change in ocean currents, a change in prevailing winds and possibly even the ozone layer. It is important to note that this does not mean that there is no ice in the Arctic Ocean as it appears that the water off the coast of Canada and Greenland will be ice covered.
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Scientists warn that there may be no ice at North Pole this summer
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Click here to read the full post (389 words, 1 image, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)
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Filed under: Getting warmer
Posted on July 20th, 2008 by admin
www.tech-know.eu - July 14, 2008
A group of 13 prominent scientists have written a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon requesting him to “redress the lack of scientific integrity of the UN’s Climate Change Panel (IPCC) and to stop making reactionary and futile ‘Climate Change’ recommendations that hold back the developing world.”
I am not going to reproduce the entire letter here as it is freely available in PDF format. I will point out that these are not lightweight scientists. Evidently the signatories are below and they include at least one Nobel Prize winner.
- Piers Corbyn Astrophysicist & forecaster, WeatherAction, UK
- Vincent Gray IPCC Expert Reviewer, Climate Consultant, NZ
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Filed under: Natural, Not getting warmer, Politics
Posted on July 19th, 2008 by admin
Washington Post - July 17, 2008
Mr. Al Gore recently gave a speech in Washington DC regarding energy. While many in the blogosphere will call Mr. Gore “Pope Gore” and refer to environmentalists as a religion, in this case, I don’t think that Mr. Gore makes many of the outlandish comments which I have chastised him about. Most of his comments are regarding energy independence, the status of the technology of alternative fuels, and the balance of power.
He does make a few global warming references which are a little hard to defend. He implies that the fires in California are caused by manmade global warming - this is probably not true since California has been enjoying an unusually wet climate for several decades and it appears that this current drought is simply going back to status quo.
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Filed under: Getting warmer, Human fault, Politics, Technology
Posted on July 18th, 2008 by admin
Breitbart.com - July 10, 2008
This is quite concerning. Most of the instability in the ice shelves in Antarctica have been during the summer. Now it appears that this shelf is in danger even though the continent is currently undergoing winter. There have been a rash of shelves collapsing and Nobel Prize winner, Al Gore, spoke of this in his film “An Inconvenient Truth”. It is not conclusive why ice shelves collapse but it is important for us to explore these situations.
It appears that this shelf is being “eroded” underneath by warm waters. This is likely the cause of the rapid failure of the other shelves as well. Interestingly, some of the other shelves exhibited water pooling on the surface before their collapse but there is no mention of this situation in this article.
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Filed under: Getting warmer
Posted on July 17th, 2008 by admin
July 8, 2008 - USA Today
The reasons that a glacier grows or shrinks are not solely due to air temperature (regardless of what Mr. Gore implies). This story in the USA Today is a prime example of proving this false. Unfortunately, this mountain seems to be the only mountain in the lower 48 states of the USA that has growing glaciers.
Due to Mt. Shasta’s elevation and proximity to the Pacific ocean with its prevailing winds, the area is seeing an increase in precipitation in the form of snow. This snow is forming glaciers.
This does not mean that global warming doesn’t cause glaciers to shrink! This just means that the formation and the maintenance of glaciers is more complicated than just ambient temperature.
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Filed under: Getting warmer, Weather science
Posted on July 16th, 2008 by admin
July 12, 2008 - Wall Street Journal
The Bush administration continues to struggle with what to do with global warming and carbon dioxide as a pollutant. The Supreme Court ruled that carbon dioxide is a pollutant resulting from the burning of several fossil fuels. This has caused the EPA to try to figure out what to do with this new authority without destroying the economy.
As with most issues that revolve around Washington DC, this one is embroiled in politics with both major Presidential candidates chiming in.
The Bush administration published a government blueprint to reduce the U.S. output of global-warming gases, but at the same time rejected the document out of hand — saying it relied on “untested legal theories” and would impose “crippling costs” on the U.S. economy.
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Filed under: Getting warmer, Greenhouse gas, Human fault, Politics
Posted on July 14th, 2008 by admin
Crooks and Liars - July 13, 2008
This story is all over the web right now but the best coverage that I found was on Crooks and Liars as they include the video as well as a transcript of the interview. Other versions of the story only include a snippet of the actual interview (a lot like what I have done).
STEPHANOPOULOS: How much of that is due, do you think, to global warming, to climate change?
SCHWARZENEGGER: Well, it’s very hard to say. I mean, one thing we know for sure, and that is we have had a drought for two years in a row now. … And I think that we just have to be aware of those changes. I’m sure, partially, that it has something to do with global warming, also, because we have just now broken a record.
This is a preview of
Schwarzenegger slams Bush administration on global warming - calls Bush efforts bogus
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Filed under: Getting warmer, Greenhouse gas, Politics
Posted on July 10th, 2008 by admin
Environment News Service - July 7, 2008
The degradation of coral life has been happening for quite some time. I remember multiple articles on the effects of water pollution on coral life back in the 70s and 80s (before the Internet so I can’t point to those articles - sorry).
This article now includes global warming in that threat. Since this is coming from the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium and the organization reportedly meets every 4 years then the problem is at least 44 years old!
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Filed under: Getting warmer, Greenhouse gas, Human fault
Posted on June 25th, 2008 by admin
KUSI
John Coleman spoke before the San Diego Chamber of Commerce on the subject of global warming. Mr. Coleman is not your typical weatherman! Some say he is the father of the weatherman on TV (not likely) but at the very least he is one one of the most successful. A full profile is available for him on Wikipedia but among his many accomplishments, he was the first weatherman on the national morning talk shows (remember David Hartman?) and also founded The Weather Channel.
Mr. Coleman is pretty adamant that the current global warming trend (which many question actually exists) is most likely natural in origin and has little to do with the influences of man.
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Filed under: Getting warmer, Natural, Not getting warmer, Weather science