A Glacier Meltdown – The Himalayas and climate science.
An excellent opinion in the Wall Street Journal. It is absolutely amazing that there are so few media companies that try to get the story straight.
READ MORELast November, U.N. climate chief Rajendra Pachauri delivered a blistering rebuke to India’s environment minister for casting doubt on the notion that global warming was causing the rapid melting of Himalayan glaciers.
“We have a very clear idea of what is happening,” the chairman of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) told the Guardian newspaper. “I don’t know why the minister is supporting this unsubstantiated research. It is an extremely arrogant statement.”
New Priorities For Our Energy Future
Boone Pickens and Ted Turner are well respected businessmen (the former a big investor and the latter a media mogul and founder of CNN). Both have a history of speaking their mind on public issues and both have a history of making huge sums of money.
While I certainly do not begrudge this gentlemen the right to speak their mind, I wonder if this message (that may be good for America) also is good for their business interests. Mr. Pickens is renown in the energy sector and a large scale switch to natural gas would likely help his wallet. Mr. Turner is a very large landowner in the western States and my gut is that he has found large deposits of natural gas under some of his holdings.
READ MOREScientists find bigger than expected polar ice melt
There is no question that our climate has changed slightly compared to 20 years ago. Most of the data points to increases of temperature and the most significant (and obvious if you are in the Arctic) is the diminished amount of ice in the Arctic Ocean. While there is some question as to the cause of this melting (see my ocean currents article), there is little question that it is occurring.
This article discusses some of the observations that scientists have seen regarding the ice melt and some possible repercussions. The article is somewhat refreshing though in that it focuses on what can be observed rather than focusing on what might be causing the warming. Since it was so evenly reported, I felt it was of significant interest to my readers.
READ MOREThe accomplishments of George W. Bush
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 – Papah?naumoku?kea 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
Scientists warn that there may be no ice at North Pole this summer
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 MOREGore Delivers Remarks on Energy and the Climate
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.
READ MOREPolar Bear Cartoons
Cartoons tend to be some of my most popular posts. I guess everyone likes to laugh!
Here are some cartoons that I found. They are displayed small so that you will click through to the original site to see the full display.
Did you know that you can have these articles emailed to you? Click on the Subscribe to email link in the upper right corner, fill out the details, and you are set. No one will see your email address and you won’t get more spam by doing this.
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