tagged w/ Human Race
-
The New York Times
December 21, 2010
A Scientist, His Work and a Climate Reckoning
By JUSTIN GILLIS
PART ONE…
MAUNA LOA OBSERVATORY, Hawaii — Two gray machines sit inside a pair of utilitarian buildings here, sniffing the fresh breezes that blow across thousands of miles of ocean.
They make no noise. But once an hour, they spit out a number, and for decades, it has been rising relentlessly.
The first machine of this type was installed on Mauna Loa in the 1950s at the behest of Charles David Keeling, a scientist from San Diego. His resulting discovery, of the increasing level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, transformed the scientific understanding of humanity’s relationship with the earth. A graph of his findings is inscribed on a wall in Washington as one of the great achievements of modern science.
Yet, five years after Dr. Keeling’s death, his discovery is a focus not of celebration but of conflict. It has become the touchstone of a worldwide political debate over global warming.
When Dr. Keeling, as a young researcher, became the first person in the world to develop an accurate technique for measuring carbon dioxide in the air, the amount he discovered was 310 parts per million. That means every million pints of air, for example, contained 310 pints of carbon dioxide.
By 2005, the year he died, the number had risen to 380 parts per million. Sometime in the next few years it is expected to pass 400. Without stronger action to limit emissions, the number could pass 560 before the end of the century, double what it was before the Industrial Revolution.
The greatest question in climate science is: What will that do to the temperature of the earth?
Scientists have long known that carbon dioxide traps heat at the surface of the planet. They cite growing evidence that the inexorable rise of the gas is altering the climate in ways that threaten human welfare.
Fossil fuel emissions, they say, are like a runaway train, hurtling the world’s citizens toward a stone wall — a carbon dioxide level that, over time, will cause profound changes.
The risks include melting ice sheets, rising seas, more droughts and heat waves, more flash floods, worse storms, extinction of many plants and animals, depletion of sea life and — perhaps most important — difficulty in producing an adequate supply of food. Many of these changes are taking place at a modest level already, the scientists say, but are expected to intensify.
Reacting to such warnings, President George Bush committed the United States in 1992 to limiting its emissions of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide. Scores of other nations made the same pledge, in a treaty that was long on promises and short on specifics.
But in 1998, when it came time to commit to details in a document known as the Kyoto Protocol, Congress balked. Many countries did ratify the protocol, but it had only a limited effect, and the past decade has seen little additional progress in controlling emissions.
Many countries are reluctant to commit themselves to tough emission limits, fearing that doing so will hurt economic growth. International climate talks in Cancún, Mexico, this month ended with only modest progress. The Obama administration, which came into office pledging to limit emissions in the United States, scaled back its ambitions after climate and energy legislation died in the Senate this year.
Challengers have mounted a vigorous assault on the science of climate change. Polls indicate that the public has grown more doubtful about that science. Some of the Republicans who will take control of the House of Representatives in January have promised to subject climate researchers to a season of new scrutiny.
One of them is Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California. In a recent Congressional hearing on global warming, he said, “The CO2 levels in the atmosphere are rather undramatic.”
But most scientists trained in the physics of the atmosphere have a different reaction to the increase.
“I find it shocking,” said Pieter P. Tans, who runs the government monitoring program of which the Mauna Loa Observatory is a part. “We really are in a predicament here, and it’s getting worse every year.”
As the political debate drags on, the mute gray boxes atop Mauna Loa keep spitting out their numbers, providing a reality check: not only is the carbon dioxide level rising relentlessly, but the pace of that rise is accelerating over time.
“Nature doesn’t care how hard we tried,” Jeffrey D. Sachs, the Columbia University economist, said at a recent seminar. “Nature cares how high the parts per million mount. This is running away.”
CONTINUED…The New York Times
December 21, 2010
A Scientist, His Work and a Climate Reckoning... more
-
-
-
Sea City
A global system of these structures can easily accommodate many millions of people and relieve the land based population pressures. They can provide the inhabitants with information and serve as natural sea aquariums without artificially enclosing marine life.
http://www.thevenusproject.com/technology/cities-in-the-seaSea City
A global system of these structures can easily accommodate many millions... more
-
-
In Victoria, the bushfire apocalypse of the last few days has brought a curious response from politicians, who are keen to be seen and heard about everything except the elephant in the room: climate change.
Last Sunday when Victoria erupted into flames, it was the hottest day on record at 46.4C in Melbourne and 48.8C was recorded in Hopetoun, following almost immediately after 35 days without rain. This is beyond all lived experience in this part of the world.
Record temperatures and more extreme events are consistent with the projected impacts of global warming, and the horror of the last few days with up to 200 people likely to have lost their lives may be a grim warming of life in the Australian countryside with elevated temperatures, less rain and generally drier conditions, and more extreme events.
Twice in the last two weeks the Victorian premier has told us that two separate extreme weather events are "one-in-1,000-year or one-in-500-year" events.
But his chief climate change advisor, Prof. David Karoly politely corrected him on the first occasion, noting that the 43C+ temperatures of 28-31 January would be "much more like the normal experience in 10 to 20 years".
By today premier Brumby was recognizing that: "There is clear evidence now that the climate is becoming more extreme. Those people that doubted it... we have had temperatures of 48 degrees.''
We know from the research that what we now find extraordinary will become almost every day in a heated world, and then it will be too late.
As the highlighted article in this story demonstrates Australia as in the United States the focus of our attention is on what is affecting our daily lives today. If we continue on the illogical sleepwalk of our present course and if our political masters don’t wake up and smell the roses, our planet of the future will be a barren waste land. Our children will be left to search for ways of survival.
Forget the financial crisis of today there are 'no jobs' there is 'no money' and 'no future' on a dead planet.
Why? see http://zerogreenhouseemissions.blogspot.com/ and ask the guy on the right.In Victoria, the bushfire apocalypse of the last few days has brought a curious... more
-
-
Professor Stephen Hawking is an unlikely celebrity. He achieved international fame with the publication of the scientific bestseller A Brief History of Time. He is disabled by a condition that has left him almost completely paralyzed.
CNN's Becky Anderson has a rare interview with Professor Stephen Hawking.
Stephen Hawking: I see great dangers for the human race. There have been a number of times in the past when its survival has been a question of touch and go. The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1963 was one of these. The frequency of such occasions is likely to increase in the future. We shall need great care and judgment to negotiate them all successfully. But I'm an optimist.
Becky Anderson: Do humans have a moral obligation to learn about space?
Stephen Hawking: I don't think the human race has a moral obligation to learn about space, but it would be foolish and shortsighted not to do so. It may hold the key to our survival."
Becky Anderson: What expectations do you have of the space flight you hope to be on next year?
Stephen Hawking: The Zero G flight last year was wonderful. After 40 years in a wheelchair, it was so good to be floating free. But the flight was just a warm up for space. The real thing should be much better, and last much longer. Professor Stephen Hawking is an unlikely celebrity. He achieved international fame... more
-
-
Zeitgeist: Addendum !!!
The video posted is a trailer for what you are about to watch.
This is one of the most powerful and informative films ever !!!!
Watching the FULL VERSION will definitely IMPACT the way you THINK and will give you the info NEEDED to understand OUR WORLD TODAY !!!!
Take the time to watch it !!!! I truly believe that we can Save our race and our planet by finding out the truth of what is going on....and THE LAST HOUR OF THE FILM IS ABOUT SOLUTIONS !!!!!!
If you doubt, or think you know about this topic.... then watch it, and then we'll debate...
Here is the Link for the FULL VERSION !!!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912&ei=g7LqSKmtKpryqAOaz_HVDw&q=Zeitgeist+Addendum
Zeitgeist: Addendum !!!
The video posted is a trailer for what you are about to... more
-
-
What will humans look like a thousands of years from now, or million of years from now...?
A blend of all cultures, making one unihuman. Will we have any culture left?
Essentially the reason so many people fight, will no longer exist.
What will we fight about then?
Take a look at our future heirs. What will humans look like a thousands of years from now, or million of years from... more
-
-
Morrissey of THE SMITHS A well known Brit-Band, Once said in the lyric of one of his many,heartfelt song's-(I know it's over)-Quote's-"Love is natural and real,but it take's witts to be gentle and kind,Love is natural and real,but it take's strength to be gentle and kind"........We as people should have more compassion,love and forgiveness with otherss and especially yourself...with those three Element's Positivity is relevant...."Love is a Flower let it shine on through".."Bless you brother/sister God is watching you"..."Think it over,-Oooww,life is a four leaf clover"..Quoted from the song(Flowers)...by:The Emotion's....Think about it everyone no matter what...Hhhhmmmm..Morrissey of THE SMITHS A well known Brit-Band, Once said in the lyric of one of his... more
-
-
In light of the Federal "Anti-Hate" crime bill, I see the need to bring some perspective to the discussion. My response to an article entitled; " Man Indicted for Driving with Noose in Jena" was; ' I also agree that there's too much racism in America. However, if he's going to be indicted for a hate crime against blacks, then it's only fair that the same laws apply to the blacks when they commit a hate crime against the Hispanics or Whites. Otherwise, the only message being sent is; ' if you're black, and want to slander 'whitey', it's okay, because that's your constitutional right, but 'whitey' can't do or say anything back, because that's a hate crime. Well . . . that's also bullshit!' "
For decades the Federal government has said that morality is "un-legislatable", and that theme was used throughout the process of separating Church from State in direct reference to the Ten Commandments, and their former place in our society. ( I was actually alive and witnessed THAT failure of American democracy, first hand! ) But all of a sudden, the Federal government seems to have been bitten by the "morality bug", in that it actually thinks it can assume jurisdiction over the human will! Not even GOD can do that, so who do these sub-human bums think they are? The morality police perhaps?
Racism isn't something that can be dealt with through the legislation of law, the law in and of itself is inadequate in governing morality. The way to properly deal with racism, is to educate those who are racially ignorant, in the fact that we are all a part of something much bigger than race in its "fragmented" misrepresentation. We are all in fact a part of the HUMAN race, and there is NO law on earth that can convey that reality in it's proper context. It must be accepted,and lived by, and thats called; "the power of free will".The racism problem in America, is nothing more than a polictical agenda that gives the Federal Government jurisdiction in a geography that it has no jurisdiction in, and that geography is the area of "moral judgment".
The so-called "Anti-Hate Law" is therefore nothing more than a hate crime in and of itself, promoting another spineless, weak-minded, money-motivated attempt, by the Federal Government in its continuing pretension of being a god, by imposing another anti-freedom-of-the human-will, " socialist " law against its citizens. This law simply gives them the jurisdiction to make criminals out of as many people as possible, so they can "legally" use jack-booted thugs like the FBI, ATF, and U.S. Marshall's to terrorize US citizens and take away our rights. I don't consider myself some "super-patriot " by no means, however, it will be a cold day in hell before I allow the Federal government to dictate to me what I can or cannot say, or to have any influence in my decision-making processes. ( And NO, I am not a racist, defending a perverted ideology in the misrepresentation of racial equality! )
I appreciate any feedback to this commentary that I can get, because terrorism doesn't necessarily wear a bomb vest . . . especially in the United States of America! And by the way, some of the most patriotic and important influences in my life, has come through African Americans! Thank you Sirs and Ma'am s for your courage, wisdom and insights!In light of the Federal "Anti-Hate" crime bill, I see the need to bring some... more
-
