Posted on January 19th, 2009 by admin
The blog “I think, therefore I rant” just put out a list of 100 accomplishments of the George W. Bush administration. Actually, it went over 100 and did 112 just to be safe.
I thought my readers would be interested in the following:
48 – Katrina
51 – Drilling for oil
54 – National forest cleanup
57 – Carbon sequestration
58 – Mercury emissions
59 – Nuclear power
61 – Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument
62 – Polar bear endangered list
66 – Kyoto treaty
68 – Ethanol production
83 – Law of the Sea Treaty (affects how we work with the Arctic Ocean if it has less ice on it).
93 – Interstate air quality
94 – Clear skies initiative Read more... (193 words, estimated 46 secs reading time)
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Filed under: Politics
Posted on January 14th, 2009 by admin
There has been some talk in the press and on some of the blogs that it is too cold in the last couple years to have a global warming trend. Some even say that the warming trend is reversed and it is now going to get colder. There are a variety of people that discuss that the ice caps are re-freezing after having melted which signals that global warming is reversing. Some talk of a local low record that was set at some airport.
The reality is that much of this talk is about weather and not about climate. It is not possible to measure climate within a couple year span. It takes much longer than that to eliminate the various highs and lows from the trend so most climatologists suggest 5-10 years (or longer) before anything is really called climate. Read more... (255 words, 1 image, estimated 1:01 mins reading time)
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Filed under: Weather science
Posted on January 5th, 2009 by admin
CNN – December 16, 2008
This story about the rapid melting of ice in the major cold areas of the world (Greenland, Antarctica, and Alaska) needs to cause everyone concern. While the story doesn’t convincingly discuss the causality of the situation, it does point out that increased melting accelerates the planets warming due to loss of reflectivity of the “white” ice.
The article goes on to point out the increase of pine beetles which is theorized to be attributed to a warmer environment. It even goes so far as to predict the increase in sea level (ala Al Gore) by the end of the century based on this loss of ice. Read more... (304 words, estimated 1:13 mins reading time)
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Ice melting across globe at accelerating rate, NASA says
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Filed under: Getting warmer
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. Read more... (391 words, 1 image, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)
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Scientists warn that there may be no ice at North Pole this summer
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Filed under: Getting warmer
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. Read more... (350 words, 1 image, estimated 1:24 mins reading time)
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Filed under: Getting warmer
Posted on May 16th, 2008 by admin
Junkscience.com – May 15, 2008
I was about to write a review of John McCain’s recent speech. I was reading other comments on it first to make sure that I had my thoughts put together and I found Steven Milloy’s review. He has done an excellent job of discussing the speech.
I am going to pull the highlights from Steven’s article. Click through at the end to read the whole commentary.
Next to solar power, however, wind power is the most heavily subsidized form of energy. Taxpayers cough up an astounding $23.37 per megawatt hour of electricity produced, according to the Wall Street Journal. In contrast, coal and natural gas are only subsidized to a tune of $0.44 and $0.25, respectively. Read more... (512 words, 1 image, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)
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Filed under: Politics
Posted on May 15th, 2008 by admin
The US has just listed the Polar Bear as a Threatened Species. It is claimed by some that this is the first species that has been declared threatened by global warming.
I really don’t know if this is good or bad. The arguments from both sides seem quite convincing, in different ways. The pro-endanger side says that since global warming is going to melt the ice that polar bears hunt on, they will start to rapidly decline in numbers and need our protection. The con-endanger group says that there is no evidence to date that polar bears are dying due to ice loss so we are rushing the effort and the polar bear population has increased since the elimination of controlled hunting of the bears. A great discussion of this can be found at The War Over the Polar Bear. Read more... (587 words, 1 image, estimated 2:21 mins reading time)
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Filed under: Politics
Posted on May 6th, 2008 by admin
ScienceDaily – May 6, 2008
A team of University of Washington scientists has been studying the insect population of the tropics and concluded that an increase in temperature could many species at risk of extinction. I give more credence to these types of studies to articles on climate models since, in this case, it is possible to do some true cause and effect analysis as well as maintain a control group. The problem with climate models is that they are simply mathematical equations that are developed by mathematicians and then run on moderately powerful computers.
I wrote about Brazilian ants several months ago. This new study seems to be in contrast to the conclusions of that article. This is not unusual in science that different studies with different techniques results in different conclusions. Read more... (409 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)
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Trouble In Paradise: Global Warming A Greater Danger To Tropical Species
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Filed under: Getting warmer
Posted on April 30th, 2008 by admin
Nature – April 29, 2008
Once again, we see an example of how the climate models that are predicting the end of the world, as we know it, have not taken into account some important factors. Granted, this particular article is discussing another model (or at least calculation and prediction). It still points out that our models are far from complete and we need to spend more money and effort to increase this capability.
Recovery of the ozone hole above Antarctica could warm the Antarctic and cause more ice to melt in coming decades, researchers say. As the ozone hole heals, wind patterns that shield the interior of the polar region from warm air may break down, causing warming in the Antarctica as well as warmer and drier conditions in Australia. Read more... (424 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)
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Filed under: Greenhouse gas, Technology, Weather science
Posted on March 28th, 2008 by admin
GUEST ARTICLE:
By Julee Mitchelsin
With all of the fervor these days about the dangers of global warming many people are concerned about the fate of Antarctica. The fears are that the ice that makes up the continent is melting faster than normal and not freezing back as it usually does with a very even ebb and flow. The concerns are that this will eventually raise the sea level enough to put major cities and land masses under water and leave millions of people homeless and/or even dead. Read more... (568 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)
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Filed under: Getting warmer, Natural, Weather science