"Hundreds of private e-mails and documents hacked from a computer server at a British university are causing a stir among global warming skeptics, who say they show that climate scientists conspired to overstate the case for a human influence on climate change.
The e-mails, attributed to prominent American and British climate researchers, include discussions of scientific data and whether it should be released, exchanges about how best to combat the arguments of skeptics, and casual comments — in some cases derisive — about specific people known for their skeptical views. Drafts of scientific papers and a photo collage that portrays climate skeptics on an ice floe were also among the hacked data, some of which dates back 13 years.
In one e-mail exchange, a scientist writes of using a statistical “trick” in a chart illustrating a recent sharp warming trend. In another, a scientist refers to climate skeptics as “idiots.”
Some skeptics asserted Friday that the correspondence revealed an effort to withhold scientific information. “This is not a smoking gun, this is a mushroom cloud,” said Patrick J. Michaels, a climatologist who has long faulted evidence pointing to human-driven warming and is criticized in the documents.
Portions of the correspondence portrays the scientists as feeling under siege by the skeptics’ camp and worried that any stray comment or data glitch could be turned against them."
The world is being conned into a global carbon tax under the guise of saving the planet. Its a Ponzi scheme created by Al Gore and Ken Lay that all the big polluting corporations support."Hundreds of private e-mails and documents hacked from a computer server at a British... more
In case you were unaware, hackers got into the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (CRU) servers and published hundreds to thousands of documents and private communications from CRU climate scientists that pertain to climate disruption. And the climate disruption denial and conservative blogs have subsequently gone completely apeshit over it. The Wonk Room has a few of the better quotes from the deniers:
“If you own any shares in alternative energy companies I should start dumping them NOW,” says the Telegraph’s James Delingpole.
Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey claims the emails discuss “repetitive, false data of higher temperatures.”
The National Review’s Chris Horner salivates, “The blue-dress moment may have arrived.”
“The crimes revealed in the e-mails promise to be the global warming scandal of the century,” blares Michelle Malkin.
The Australia Herald-Sun’s Andrew Bolt claims the emails are “proof of a conspiracy which is one of the largest, most extraordinary and most disgraceful in moderrn [sic] science.”
So, do these emails and documents represent proof of a “conspiracy” and “scandal”? At this point it seems highly unlikely, and the more that people look at the illegally-obtained emails and documents, the less likely it will become.
More at the link.In case you were unaware, hackers got into the University of East Anglia’s Climate... more
Water evaporation due to climate change is responsible for Lake Titicaca dropping an inch a week. Over two million people depend on this lake fed by glaciers rapidly melting. This is the canary in the coal mine of global warming.
I would also like to know why my picture was removed and why I can now not replace it.Water evaporation due to climate change is responsible for Lake Titicaca dropping an... more
Hover your mouse into the picture to see the difference.
Excerpt:
"Global warming is melting 18,000 Himalayan glaciers — the largest concentration of glaciers outside the great polar ice sheets. If the present melt rate continues, many of these glaciers will be gone by the middle of this century, disrupting the perennial water supply to hundreds of millions of people."
We must act now.
This reminds me of a psychological factor:
We don't act until the last possible minute where danger is about to literally hit us, also mentioned in the Al Gore movie "The inconvenient truth".
Is it part of procrastination or selfishness?
Do we get stuck somewhere between awareness and acceptance/action?
Why?
How do we overcome it?
Airline pollution activists Plane Stupid have made this brilliant, hard-hitting ad to show the impact of global warming. You'll probably never see this ad on the telly, so watch it now.
"We have a problem. We're flying too much, and it's changing the earth's climate. Aviation is the fastest growing cause of climate change. But instead of doing anything about it, the Government is planning more flights and larger airports."
The first year-by-year study of the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the world's oceans since the industrial revolution confirms a disturbing trend: Oceans are struggling to keep up with all the carbon humans are spewing into the atmosphere, with the proportion of emissions absorbed declining as much as 10% since 2000. The study, led by Samar Khatiwala from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, has been published in the latest edition of Nature, but this is the gist of it:
The study examines the accumulation of industrial carbon in the oceans going back to 1765 and continuing up through 2008. Starting in 1950 there was a large increase in the amount of emissions being absorbed by the oceans, but it wasn't until 2000 that the the percentage of emissions started declining -- even though in absolute terms the tonnage absorbed continued to increase. Last year oceans set a new record for carbon absorption, taking up 2.3 billion tons of CO2.The first year-by-year study of the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the world's... more
"A report following a catastrophe-heavy year in 1991 found that the death rate among females was 71 per 1000, compared to 15 per 1000 for men. Beyond fatality, disasters also have more of a lingering impact on women in the country—they destroy both the agricultural landscape and the homes in which they work."YPNation Contributor Nikki Gloudeman highlights a recent report from the UN Population... more
Move over CO2youve been ousted, along with methane, as the biggest offenders of global climate change. According to a new a study by Purdue University and NASA, the major chemicals most frequently cited as leading to climate change, namely carbon dioxide and methane, are actually outclassed in their warming potential by compounds receiving less attention. The majority of greenhouse gases are created by humans.Move over CO2youve been ousted, along with methane, as the biggest offenders of global... more
HAARP is a WMD being used against other countries and even our own. Think of Tsunamis, Katrina, more common earthquakes. We are attacking our enemies with the weather and then using HAARP to convince everyone that Global Warming is happening. The movie 2012 talks about water beneath the surface heating up because microwaves from the Sun are boiling it. Predictive programming has been going on for a long time and most blockbusters are just that. Other countries now have similar technologies and are also using it. By 2012 we will create a scenario similar to what happens in the movie but it won't be from the Sun, it will be from our sick, corrupt government officials, corporations, and the banksters. It's all about profit and the love of money. Where are you going to spend it when everything is gone?HAARP is a WMD being used against other countries and even our own. Think of Tsunamis,... more
Senate Democratic leaders said Tuesday they would put off debate on a big climate-change bill until spring, in a sign of weakening political will to tackle a long-term environmental issue at a time of high unemployment and economic uncertainty.
Legislation on health care, overhauling financial markets and job creation will be considered before the Senate takes up a measure to cap emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases linked to climate change, Senate Democratic leaders said Tuesday.
Climate legislation will be taken up "some time in the spring," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said Tuesday after a Democratic caucus meeting.
The delay was "just a matter of reality, they can't get anything done at this time," said Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.), who has previously supported climate legislation. He has said he wouldn't support the current Senate proposal because of disagreements over its handling of nuclear energy.
The climate-bill delay sidetracks one of President Barack Obama's top domestic priorities. Mr. Obama has said action to curb greenhouse gases would unleash investment in clean-energy technology and create jobs.
White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said Tuesday Mr. Obama was working with lawmakers to move the legislation as quickly as possible.
"This is an economic opportunity for the nation that will create millions of clean energy jobs while reducing our dangerous dependence on foreign oil, and it's an opportunity that other countries like China and India are racing to take advantage of," Mr. LaBolt said in an email.
Momentum for a climate bill has been undermined by fears that capping carbon-dioxide emissions -- the inevitable product of burning oil and coal -- would slow economic growth, raise energy costs and compel changes in the way Americans live.
More @ linkSenate Democratic leaders said Tuesday they would put off debate on a big... more
The numbers aren't looking good--more and more Americans are ceasing to believe in the very real, scientifically proven threat of global warming. There are plenty of theories as to why this is--Americans' growing distrust of science, the powerful lobbying arms of the oil, coal, and manufacturing industries' documented ability to manufacture doubt, or a genuine inability of people to comprehend the concept of climate change. Whatever the case, a new approach seems to be in order--like hearing about the impacts of global warming from someone who's risked his life because of its effects? This California firefighter talks about the growing dangers of unmitigated global warming he sees every day.
We're going to have to start focusing more on testimonials like these--the sort of apocalyptic world-is-ending rhetoric has (perhaps justifiably) become ineffective. People need to know how global warming is going to effect their region, not the world, and in the next few years, not in 100. For Californians, this means more deadly wildfires every year. Climate change is an urgent problem, and that urgency is being whittled away by commercial and political interests who would rather not see things change to protect their capital--it's time to start listening to the people who matter.
A short one about hope-en-hagen,dope-en-hagen,grope-in-hagen, quote from one viewer, "That does, indeed, about sum it up."A short one about hope-en-hagen,dope-en-hagen,grope-in-hagen, quote from one viewer,... more
When global leaders gather in Copenhagen three weeks from now, the concerns of the world’s youth will be impossible to ignore.
Young adults and teens know that if their parents’ generation fails to stop climate change, they will be the ones left to contend with the ensuing nightmare. So, what they lack in deep pockets, the climate change generation is making up for in determination and the media savvy.
By galvanizing large numbers of people around the world to call for climate change action, young people are making a bigger impact on the global political scene than ever before.
Amid its commitments to increase cooperation in developing renewable energy and electric vehicles, the U.S.-China clean energy agreement announced Tuesday by Presidents Barack Obama and Hu Jintao seeks greater collaboration on so-called “clean coal” technologies.
China and the U.S. are by far the world’s largest users of coal power, accounting for more than half of global use. As countries with vast coal deposits, they also have been leading the search for cleaner ways burn the notoriously polluting energy source.
I've come to dread the words 'New Report'. News items that start with those words never end up like "New Report: Puppies Making People Happier Than Ever" or "New Study: Researchers Determine All is Well in World". No, more often they bring contents more similar to our subject today: according to a new report by the Global Carbon Project, despite the worldwide recession, carbon emissions have continued to rise. And a 6 degree Celsius rise in temperatures looks to be headed our way.
Science Daily reports that the "strongest evidence yet that the rise in atmospheric CO2 emissions continues to outstrip the ability of the world's natural 'sinks' to absorb carbon is published November 17 in the journal Nature Geoscience." They've found that emissions have risen globally by 29% since 2000, with an annual increase of between 2-3% despite the economic woes.
This growth in emissions is attributed to a number of factors, chief among them being developing nations. While rich countries' emissions levels more or less plateaued due in part to economic stress (and are already on average much higher), developing nations continue to emit more and more greenhouse gases every year.
Also responsible are our vanishing carbon sinks like forests and marine life. Science Daily reports that
"over the last 50 years the average fraction of global CO2 emissions that remained in the atmosphere each year was around 40 per cent -- the rest was absorbed by the Earth's carbon sinks on land and in the oceans. During this time this fraction has likely increased from 40 per cent to 45 per cent, suggesting a decrease in the efficiency of the natural sinks.
The Global Carbon Fund has found that continuing this trajectory will land us with a rise of 5 or 6 degrees Celsius in temperatures--making the next couple years our last serious opportunity to quell the worst of climate change. I hope Obama, Mr. Hu Jintao, and especially the US Senate are paying attention.
For centuries, many peoples around the world have had to gather bundles of firewood for cooking ... a process that not only produces carbon emissions but has a significant effect on health.
Smoke and fumes cause respiratory diseases killing an estimated 1.6 million people a year worldwide.
But as the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference approaches, one Norwegian inventor believes he has refined a simple technology that could have a major impact for ordinary people, their environment and the world. It's called the Kyoto Box.
Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons reports.
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I think that deforestation has a lot to do with droughts, it certainly results in desertification in many parts of the world.
What I like about these solar cookers, apart from the fact that they spare trees, do not emit carbon nor produce smoke and fumes that are bad for the health, they also liberate the women from the strenuous job of finding and gathering firewood, having to go further and further afar to do so, thus taking up a great deal of the women's time and energy.
Solar cookers plus simple solar stills in the Rift Valley of Kenya (where ground water is usually brackish) would solve a great deal of problems for the people living there.For centuries, many peoples around the world have had to gather bundles of firewood... more
Six months is all it took to flip Europe’s climate from warm and sunny into the last ice age, researchers have found.
They have discovered that the northern hemisphere was plunged into a big freeze 12,800 years ago by a sudden slowdown of the Gulf Stream that allowed ice to spread hundreds of miles southwards from the Arctic.
Previous research had suggested the change might have taken place over a longer period — perhaps about 10 years.
The new description, reminiscent of the Hollywood blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow, emerged from one of the most painstaking studies of past climate changes yet attempted.
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“It would have been very sudden for those alive at the time,” said William Patterson, a geological sciences professor at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada, who carried out the research. “It would be the equivalent of taking Britain and moving it to the Arctic over the space of a few months.”
His findings, published at a recent conference, reinforce a series of studies suggesting that the earth’s climate is highly unstable and can flip between warm and cold very rapidly with the right trigger.
Most such research is based on analysing cores drilled from ice or from the sediment found at the bottom of oceans or lakes. In such cores the ice or sediment is found in layers whose composition shows what the climate was like at the time they were laid down.
Ice cores drilled from the Greenland ice cap have already shown that the big freeze of 12,800 years ago — known as the Younger Dryas mini-ice age — happened fast but lacked the detail to pin it down precisely.
Patterson, however, obtained mud deposits from Lough Monreagh, a lake in western Ireland, a region he says has “the best mud in the world in scientific terms”.
Patterson used a precision robotic scalpel to scrape off layers of mud just 0.5mm thick.Each layer represented three months of sediment deposition, so variations between them could be used to measure changes in temperature over very short periods.
Patterson found that temperatures had plummeted, with the lake’s plants and animals rapidly dying over just a few months. The subsequent mini-ice age lasted for 1,300 years.
What caused such a dramatic event? The most likely trigger is the sudden emptying of Lake Agassiz, an inland sea that once covered a swathe of northern Canada.
[more at the story link above]Six months is all it took to flip Europe’s climate from warm and sunny into the last... more
The Cross-Country Bicycle Ride that's collecting different environmental perspective along the Southern Tier of the United States finds itself leaving Tempe, AZ heading for New Mexico.
First stop is at the San Carlos Apache tribe reservation, home of the 10th largest Indian reservation in the United States. There is something about a Native American perspective that will be crucial to a documentary series collecting environmental perspective. Meet the Tribal Chairman on the Apache Rez and hear what he thinks and where we are headed environmentally.
After 1 month on the road the bike ride that left from Newport Beach arrives at the New Mexico State Border. Jeff and Mike meet up with an old friend for a day of riding. Luckily their friend Zain is a Doctor of Pain Management and he came prepared to heal the aching bodies that are pulling 75 pounds of weight on a trailer attached to a bicycle across the country.
After crossing an 8000 foot peak in freezing conditions the bicyclists meet up with two people who show them 2 different approaches to building an environmentally friendly home.
Nestled in the hills of the Gila National Forrest is the Black Range Lodge a cozy bed and breakfast where aside from the beautiful setting guests come hear to learn about building a house out of Straw Bales. Catherine Wanek, the owner of the Black Range Lodge shows us how people can build with straw bales and tells us why this approach could be so beneficial to people, communities and the planet.
Episode 2-2 wraps up the straw bale segment and heads to Las Cruces NM to learn about building with another environmentally friendly material, Adobe. Just like a straw bale Adobe's homes are super insulators. Pat Taylor who restores historical Adobe buildings, teaches us some simple approaches to making adobe.
Jeff and Mike cross the border into the massive state of Texas. The bike riders take a deep breath and take an in depth look at Air Quality. That should be easy to do in El Paso, TX because 2008 marked the first year that they hit the air quality goals set by the EPA. El Paso and it's border city Juarez have worked together to clean up the air quality. How did they do it? You'll meet Jesus Reynoso and Bob Currey to learn about Air Quality and Health, major contributors to bad air pollution, and what you can do to clean up the air that we are all helping to pollute.
Episode 2 closes with a segment about the Poo Poo Choo Choo rolling into Sierra Blanca, TX. That's Right! In the 1990's the Clinton Administration banned dumping toxic waste in the Ocean. The unintended consequences of this good action was that the toxic waste had to go somewhere. As a result this meant that states could now transport toxic waste domestically.
Nearly 2100 miles away from Sierra Blanca, TX a train carrying toxic poop left on a journey to deliver its load into the backyards of the residents of Sierra Blanca. Hear from 2 local people that tell us how things were for them back in the 90's when Poo Poo Choo Choo dumped 250 tons on them per day.
Project: Southern Tier 2-2 from Jeff Hyland on Vimeo.
A look at some other pests that are benefiting or could benefit from global warming:
—Ticks that transmit Lyme disease are spreading northward into Sweden and Canada, once too cold for them.
—Giant Humboldt squid have reached waters as far north as British Columbia, threatening fisheries along much of the western North American coast.
—Malaria-carrying mosquitoes are now found in South Korea, the Papua New Guinea highlands, and other places previously not warm enough for them.
—Bark beetles reproducing more quickly in warming climates and expanding their ranges have devastated forests across western North America. In British Columbia they have laid waste to an area twice the size of Ireland.
—A microscopic parasite is spreading a deadly disease among salmon in Alaska and British Columbia. Researchers say rising water temperatures are partly to blame.
—The U.S. government warns that such invasive plants as the common reed, hyacinth and purple loosestrife are likely to spread to northern states.
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Several years ago, the Asian Tiger mosquito (photo above) entered Europe, and has been slowly spreading northwards as the climate, and winters, have been getting progressively warmer.Pests on move worldwide as climate warms
A look at some other pests that are... more
