Martin W

[Martin W]

In similar vein, there’s a NY Times article on how residents of Maplewood, northeast US, can no longer ice skate as regularly as in the past.

Quote:

For generations of Maplewood residents, the coming of winter meant the return of a tableau worthy of the most clichéd Currier and Ives print. Magically, the township’s public works employees would throw a switch or turn a knob and suddenly water would begin to flow from a creek in Memorial Park into an adjacent low-lying field.

It being winter, the water would freeze quickly, and for the next two to three months the township’s children and their nostalgic parents would have access to one of the joys of living in a snow-belt suburb: a frozen pond for ice skating.
…
The park should have been flooded by now. But township officials don’t flood the park anymore, and while many experts say that you can’t directly attribute localized weather events to global warming, the fact remains that the water rarely freezes and thus becomes just another tourist trap for Canada geese.

The Suburban Life: Global Warming Goes Local

[Martin W]

From the World Meteorological Organization:

Quote:

Weather and climate are marked by record extremes in many regions across the world since January 2007. In January and April 2007 it is likely that global land surface temperatures ranked warmest since records began in 1880, 1.89°C warmer than average for January and 1.37°C warmer than average for April. Several regions have experienced extremely heavy precipitation, leading to severe floods. The Fourth Assessment Report of the WMO/UNEP Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) notes an increasing trend in extreme events observed during the last 50 years. IPCC further projects it to be very likely that hot extremes, heat waves and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more frequent.

The World Meteorological Organization reports on extreme weather and climate events See also an Associated Press item that concludes:

Quote:

As man-made climate change continues, the world will experience more extreme weather, bursts of heat, torrential rain and prolonged drought, they said. "We’re having an increasing trend of odd years," said Michael MacCracken, a former top federal climate scientist, now chief scientist at the Climate Institute in Washington. "Pretty soon odd years are going to become the norm."

2007 a Year of Weather Records in U.S.

(also considers extremes around the globe)

[Martin W]

Some predictions for likely transformations to impact California – surely give some indication of the kinds of radical changes likely in many places:

Quote:

as scientists try to forecast how global warming might affect the nation’s most geographically diverse state, they envision a landscape that could look quite different by the end of this century, if not sooner. Where celebrities, surfers and wannabes mingle on Malibu’s world-famous beaches, there may be only sea walls defending fading mansions from the encroaching Pacific. In Northern California, tourists could have to drive farther north or to the cool edge of the Pacific to find what is left of the region’s signature wine country. Abandoned ski lifts might dangle above snowless trails more suitable for mountain biking even during much of the winter. In the deserts, Joshua trees that once extended their tangled, shaggy arms into the sky by the thousands may have all but disappeared.

Global Warming to Alter Calif. Landscape

[Martin W]

If I remember rightly, one of fights by fearsome heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson was against a guy a pundit described as “Not even a household name in his own household.”

I’m reminded of this through reading of Senator James Inhofe trotting out a report for senate, with quotes and stuff from over 400 “prominent scientists”. Claims to refute science re anthropogenic global warming.

Yet, turns out many of these people aren’t prominent; and goodly number not even scientists – include tv weathermen and economists.
Maybe some non-too knowledgeable people will be hoodwinked by Inhofe, again trying to show there is debate/uncertainty where nothing so significant exists; and his report has been subject of some media reports, and of course picked up by right wing websites.
But, it’s overwhelmingly baloney.

For more on this, see, for instance:
Inhofe (R-Exxon): Truthiness Gift for Christmas

[Martin W]

From AFP:

Quote:

Global warming has caused some of China’s glaciers — a source for many of Asia’s greatest rivers — to have melted by more than 18 percent over the past five years, state media reported Friday.

A survey of nearly 20,000 square kilometres (8,000 square miles) of China’s glaciers showed they were on average 7.4 percent smaller than five years ago, Caijing magazine said, citing a government-funded survey.

Global warming causing China’s glaciers to melt quickly: survey

[Martin W]

No big surprises here, I’m afraid

Quote:

The head of the US environmental protection body ignored advice from staff in rejecting California’s bid to set tough new vehicle emissions standards, it was reported on Friday.

On Wednesday Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Stephen Johnson denied California’s request because the state did not meet certain legal requirements for being permitted its own emissions limits.

But Friday The Los Angeles Times cited several sources inside and outside the agency as saying that EPA staff who had studied the issue for months had advised Johnson that the opposite was true.

“California met every criteria … on the merits. The same criteria we have used for the last 40 years on all the other waivers,” one EPA staff member told the Times. “We told him (Johnson) that. All the briefings we have given him laid out the facts.”

California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols told the Times she had learned from EPA staff that they were over-ruled by Johnson.

Nichols said the decision showed that President George W. Bush’s administration “ignores the science and ignores the law to reach the politically convenient conclusion.”

US environment chief ignored advice on Cal. emissions: report

[Martin W]

Here’s a letter I recently had published in the South China Morning Post, in response to an opinion piece from the grandiose sounding International Policy Network.

Quote:

I am writing regarding the article “Alarmism is not the way to tackle climate change”, by Kendra Okonski, of the International Policy Network. Finding the article highly unbalanced, I checked re the network, and learned it has received over US$390,000 from ExxonMobil – surely the most infamous supporter of global warming “sceptics”.

Given this, Okonski’s claim of “biases” – towards global warming “alarmism” – resulting from funding by “powerful interest groups” is ludicrous. Her piece is riddled with cherry picked facts, half truths, or worse.

It’s immensely deceptive to claim, “The science of climate change remains hotly contested.” No, it does not; witness the standpoints of august bodies such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Britain’s Royal Society, and our own Hong Kong Observatory. Among all but a tiny minority of actual scientists, there is no longer debate over whether warming due to greenhouse gases is real – instead, any debates are now over just how severe it will be, and what measures are needed to ensure we don’t devastate the world as we know it.

Okonski asserts the International Government Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) “is also biased towards alarmism” – which is curious, given that some of the more alarming forecasts of scientists have been removed during the editing process. She appears oblivious to the fact that some observed changes – such as melting of Arctic ice, and expansion of the Tropics, have proceeded more swiftly than in even some of the more alarming forecasts.

While noting the number of people killed by weather disasters has fallen since good records began, Okonski fails to mention vastly improved warning systems, and Oxfam’s report that the number of number of natural disasters has increased fourfold since two decades ago.

With no scientific foundation whatsoever, Okonski claims the best thing to do about climate change is adapting, while helping people create wealth. Here, she is seemingly blinded to the obvious: if the worst of climate change predictions come true, adaptation will prove impossible for countless people, and there will be widespread economic reversals.

Overall, it seems Okonski’s piece stems from fear of doing the right thing, and adopting measures that economists have suggested could cost 1 percent of world income. With climate change real, the outcomes uncertain yet potentially devastating, it is alarming to read calls for yet more procrastination.

[Martin W]

From The Times:

Quote:

The Emperor penguins which won the hearts of millions of children in the film Happy Feet have suffered a devastating population slump in the last 50 years, according to a report.

Many colonies have fallen in size by 50 per cent as the penguins have been squeezed by the effects of climate change and overfishing, the WWF said in its report, Antarctic Penguins and Climate Change.
…
Sea ice on the western peninsula of Antarctic has retreated 40 per cent in the last three decades and is thought to be partly to blame for huge falls in the stocks of krill, a shrimp-like creature eaten by the penguins. Another factor is overfishing by humans.

The quantities of krill, which live under the ice where they feed on microscopic plant life, are estimated to have fallen 80 per cent in the last decade alone in part of the conbtinent’s western peninsula.

Warming in the Antarctic western peninsula is taking place about five times faster than other parts of the planet.

Nesting sites are destroyed by the the melting ice and the emperor penguins have suffered more thyan any other species in Antarctica.

Gentoos and chinstraps are being forced further south by the warming temperatures and this is putting extra pressure on the emperors and Adelie species.

Penguins in decline due to global warming

[Martin W]

US Committee on Oversight and Government reform has produced damning report on Bush administration’s attempts to distort and downplay climate science.
Summary:

Quote:

The evidence before the Committee leads to one inescapable conclusion: the Bush Administration has engaged in a systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and mislead policymakers and the public about the dangers of global warming.

Includes:

Quote:

In 1998, the American Petroleum Institute developed an internal “Communications Action Plan” that stated: “Victory will be achieved when … average citizens ‘understand’ uncertainties in climate science … [and] recognition of uncertainties becomes part of the ‘conventional wisdom.’” The Bush Administration has acted as if the oil industry’s communications plan were its mission statement. White House officials and political appointees in the agencies censored congressional testimony on the causes and impacts of global warming, controlled media access to government climate scientists, and edited federal scientific reports to inject unwarranted uncertainty into discussions of climate change and to minimize the threat to the environment and the economy.
The White House Censored Climate Change Scientists

The White House exerted unusual control over the public statements of federal scientists on climate change issues. It was standard practice for media requests to speak with federal scientists on climate change matters to be sent to CEQ for White House approval.

Committee Report: White House Engaged in Systematic Effort to Manipulate Climate Change Science

[Martin W]

At ThinkProgress, there’s an article re couple of Republican candidates for US election and their somewhat zany views re global warming, inc Thompson’s rather curious notions:

Quote:

The extremists are the ones who want to do drastic things to our economy before we have more answers as to how much good we can do and whether people in the other parts of the world are going to contribute. It’s the fact that our entitlements are bankrupting the next generation.

Led to bunch of responses, from those who believe we should act re global warming, others who say we shouldn’t. Among latters’ comments is one that includes:

Quote:

Just don’t for a minute think that you are going to be allowed to legislate any changes to my lifestyle in the name of curtailing global warming. No way. I love my SUV and I will be keeping it. I also prefer traditional light bulbs because they simply provide better quality light. Additionally I’ll purchase and use whatever natural resources I so chose and I won’t tolerate some pinhead environmentalist extremists telling me otherwise.

I posted response, inc:

Quote:

Seems to me that with the science settled (and, never mind lists of links, it is – as much as plate tectonics, or evolution; and we all know it’s obvious really: CO2 etc are known greenhouse gases, we’re adding more to atmosphere, so not rocket science to predict outcome [predicting exactly, now that’s different]), problem now with such crass selfishness, people who don’t give a rats-a about rest of the planet and the future – which far more prevalent than just CWIAS. And, problems with a bunch of scaredy-cats; just too darn scared to do the right thing.

Huckabee And Thompson: Global Warming Is ‘Overblown’

[Martin W]

from Associated Press report on the Bali Declaration:

Quote:

another petition spokesman, Andrew Pitman of Australia, said some scientists declined to sign the declaration, “on grounds that we need to cut much more deeply.”

‘Fed-up’ climate scientists join business leaders in calling for strong climate action

[Martin W]

Time has article on Presidential Climate Action Plan (PCAP), an ambitious to-do list on global warming for the next Administration.
Includes:

Quote:

A recent report by McKinsey found that the U.S. could achieve vast cuts in greenhouse gas emissions at a cost to the economy of less than $50 a ton — lower, if we take advantage of the reduced costs energy efficiency would bring.

The Global Warming Playbook

[Martin W]

One of the best rude remarks by an MP in Britain’s Houses of Parliament was that being (verbally) attacked by him was, “Like being worried by a dead sheep.”

Al Gore might be thinking much the same, after woeful commentary in Wall Street Journal by one Holman Jenkins Jr (who he?).
The piece is supposedly some sort of critique of global warming science, yet it is totally lacking re actual science, indeed shows no understanding whatsoever of science; and you can be darn sure there’s no mention of the IPCC (which shared the Nobel with Gore) and the many scientists who contribute to its reports, or of the over 200 scientists who have signed the Bali Declaration out of concerns the situation is becoming critical, and action is needed.
Jenkins puff piece includes;

Quote:

Scientists are human; they do not wait for proof; many devote their professional lives to seeking evidence for hypotheses (especially well-funded hypotheses) they’ve chosen to believe.

since we’re talking science here, where’s Jenkins justification for this sweeping generality?

Quote:

a consensus apparently suffices as proof of itself.

what complete and utter bollocks

Quote:

With politicians and lobbyists, of course, you are dealing with sophisticated people versed in the ways of public opinion whose very prosperity depends on positioning themselves via such cascades. Their reactions tend to be, for that reason, on a higher intellectual level.

Is Jenkins for real? This seems more like he’s considering a career as a stand up comedian.
The Science of Gore’s Nobel

[Martin W]

New York Times environment reporter Andrew Revkin has blog post asking if words can lead to action needed to combat climate change
Cites email from Tom Lowe, a research associate at the Center for Risk and Community Safety in Melbourne, Australia, inc:

Quote:

In the absence of physical evidence that something bad is going to happen, people tend to ‘wait and see.’
…
A common reaction to this stand-off is for risk communicators to shout louder, to try and shake some sense into people. This is what I see happening with the climate change message. The public are on the receiving end of an increasingly distraught alarm call. The methods used to grab attention are so striking that people are reaching a state of denial.

also says:

Quote:

Another troublesome trait is the tendency to normalize a bad situation.

Various responses; I posted:

Quote:

Words are vital in the climate fight.

Vital partly to counter righties such as Inhofe, and their obfuscation. I today had short email correspondence w someone who wrote to me that he wasn’t sure carbon is leading to warming – figures it could be sun cycle. This, I reckon, stems from info from sceptics brigade, but not scientists.

I shall ever remember someone (editor at major magazine – which can help shape opinion, but has even run piece saying why warming will be good for us [!]) telling me, “I don’t believe in global warming; I’m a conservative.” [or something much like this]
To me, mind boggling.

Yet such views important, and – frustrating though it is given the science – it’s crucial to keep on with counter arguments.

Images important too, of course: a starving, skeletal polar bear on small ice floe among saddest I’ve yet seen.
Yet must also show that warming is not just out there, someplace – which has been big factor in US I think. It’s where you are; it’s effects are gonna get larger, and will be everywhere; no one will be unaffected.

“gonna” I’ve written here; not a normal word for me, a Brit.
But words for the fight must be chosen, used with care, strategically. Here, I’m writing for blog in US – albeit highly erudite readership/contributors, some of whom may never say “gonna”.

We need words to take this complex issue, and show key points. Greg Craven, in How It All Ends, has made a big contribution here – gone viral.
Otherwise, can be well meaning, but too dull; and maybe lapse into jargon (AGW, ghg … – tho yes, this blog is for those who know).

Indeed need this major issue to get coverage it deserves.

Reading comments here, also need to cover as a global issue; here, I’m seeing US-centric views.

As for me, I’ve blog/forum re warming (climate change, climate collapse…); ideas for documentary or two on the issue – we can all do what we can to get those words out.

[Martin W]

From Associated Press:

Quote:

More than 3,000 flying foxes dropped dead, falling from trees in Australia. Giant squid migrated north to commercial fishing grounds off California, gobbling anchovy and hake. Butterflies have gone extinct in the Alps. While humans debate at U.N. climate change talks in Bali, global warming is already wreaking havoc with nature. Most plants and animals are affected, and the change is occurring too quickly for them to evolve. "A hell of a lot of species are in big trouble," said Stephen E. Williams, the director of the Centre for Tropical Biodiversity & Climate Change at James Cook University in Australia. "I don’t think there is any doubt we will see a lot of (extinctions)," he said. "But even before a species goes extinct, there are a lot of impacts. Most of the species here in the wet tropics would be reduced to … 15 percent of their current habitat." … With warmer weather, 60 percent of plant and animal species are migrating, breeding and blooming earlier in the spring, Parmesan said. But not all are, and that could upset relationships between birds and the insects they feed on as well as insects and the flowers they pollinate.

Global Warming Wreaks Havoc With Nature

[Martin W]

Al Gore will talk at Bali, and will show petition calling on world leaders to take action. You can sign the petition at:
Join Al Gore in Bali

[Martin W]

No real surprise in this story from Xinhua:

Quote:

Chinese photographers said the South China tiger on digital pictures, released by forestry authorities and widely discussed on the Internet, is a fake.

A preparatory digital picture appraisal center under the China Photographers Society, released the results on Sunday after a team of photographic experts assessed the 40 digital pictures provided by NetEase, a Chinese Internet company.

The center said technological analysis from last Tuesday through Sunday showed the South China tiger on the 40 pictures was not real and could not serve as evidence for the existence of the wild animal.

The pictures must have been taken by people with photographic experience or under guidance and could not be done independently by a person without any photographic experience, claimed experts.

Photographers: South China tiger pictures are fake
Even so, officials not all ready to omit the error:

Quote:

Chinese government officials have refused to concede photographs of a rare South China tiger in the wild are fake, a day after the China Photographers Society confirmed the images were not real.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, State Forestry Administration spokesman Cao Qingyao reserved judgment on the authenticity of the controversial pictures which have caused a storm on the Internet, saying more concrete evidence was needed.

Government officials refuse to accept South China tiger photos are fake

[Martin W]

No sign of an inadequate PR company at work (or corporate funding being spent) on videos by US science teacher Greg Craven. Loaded onto youtube, they’ve gone “viral” – with some millions of hits, plus discussion nurtured, and message re need for action re warming spread. According with point I made above, Craven argues there’s need for policy changes.
From thestar.com:

Quote:

The Most Terrifying Video You’ll Ever See contains no fake blood, vampires, creepy talking dolls or spooks hiding in television sets. It’s a 10-minute lecture on global warming, delivered by a high school science teacher from Oregon, and it has swept the Web, generating millions of hits on multiple sites.

It’s low-tech, low-quality and low-budget – Greg Craven, a 38-year-old father of two, shot it himself at his home in Monmouth, Ore., hopped up on Red Bull and Little Caesars pizza.

“It’s my midlife crisis and my magnum opus, and my nervous breakdown and my enlightenment experience all rolled into one,” he says.

Armed with a black marker and a whiteboard, Craven made an academic argument that went viral after he posted it on YouTube in June, generating nearly 3 million hits on the site. It now ranks among the most popular videos in the news and politics category.
…
After completing his first video, he sifted through 5,000 critical comments to come up with a revised video, called How It All Ends, which links to five hours of explanatory videos.
…
He spent $400 on energy drinks and another couple of hundred on pizza and McDonald’s $1 cheeseburgers. He filmed the segments at home with a camera on a tripod and his Mac.

“He was definitely following his passion,” says his wife, a former primary school teacher who quit to stay at home with the kids. “He is the world’s most doting father and loves being with his kids more than anything in the world. He did it so that their world would be a better place, and I understood that.”

U.S. science teacher is a Web sensation
You can find How It All Ends and other videos via:
[irl=http://www.wonderingmind42.com/]WonderingMind42[/url]

[Martin W]

Associated Press report, on another change that’s evidently underway, and faster than computer models had predicted:

Quote:

Earth’s tropical belt seems to have expanded a couple hundred miles over the past quarter century, which could mean more arid weather for some already dry subtropical regions, new climate research shows. … The newest study, published Sunday in the new scientific journal Nature Geoscience, shows that by using the weather definition, the tropics are expanding toward Earth’s poles more than predicted. And that means more dry weather is moving to the edges of the tropics in places like the U.S. Southwest. …

Climate scientists have long predicted a growing tropical belt toward the end of the 21st century because of man-made global warming. But what has happened in the past quarter century is larger and more puzzling than initially predicted, said Dian Seidel, a research meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lab in Silver Spring, Md. She is the author of the newest study. "They are big changes," she said. "It’s a little puzzling." …

climate scientists Andrew Weaver of the University of Victoria and Richard Somerville of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography said Seidel’s work makes sense and that computer models have consistently been underestimating the ill effects of global warming. "Every time you look at what the world is doing it’s always far more dramatic than what climate models predict," Weaver said.

Earth’s Tropics Belt Expands

[Martin W]

Another idea for reducing CO2 in the atmosphere; again, I think, looking fanciful – helps get publicity for researchers’ projects, ao maybe good for grant money, but doubt this will save us all (in fairness, not touted as great cure).

Quote:

The technology, invented by Kurt Zen House, a PhD candidate at Harvard’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and co-workers, involves electrochemically removing hydrochloric acid from the ocean, neutralizing it by reaction with silicate rocks and returning it to the sea. By increasing ocean alkalinity, the process would enhance the absorption of atmospheric CO2. Over time, the CO2 would mix throughout the ocean and eventually precipitate as calcium carbonate in ocean sediments.

Nature’s cure

[Martin W]

UN Development Programme likewise expressing massive concerns re climate change.
Press release begins:

Quote:

Brasilia, 27 November 2007—With governments preparing to gather in Bali,
Indonesia to discuss the future of the Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations Development
Programme’s Human Development Report has warned that the world should focus on the
development impact of climate change that could bring unprecedented reversals in
poverty reduction, nutrition, health and education.
The report, Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a
divided world, provides a stark account of the threat posed by
global warming. It argues that the world is drifting towards a
“tipping point” that could lock the world’s poorest countries
and their poorest citizens in a downward spiral, leaving
hundreds of millions facing malnutrition, water scarcity,
ecological threats, and a loss of livelihoods.
“Ultimately, climate change is a threat to humanity as a whole.
But it is the poor, a constituency with no responsibility for the
ecological debt we are running up, who face the immediate and
most severe human costs,” commented UNDP Administrator
Kemal Dervi_.
The report comes at a key moment in negotiations to forge a
multilateral agreement for the period after 2012—the expiry
date for the current commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.
It calls for a “twin track” approach that combines stringent
mitigation to limit 21st Century warming to less than 2°C
(3.6°F), with strengthened international cooperation on
adaptation.
On mitigation, the authors call on developed countries to
demonstrate leadership by cutting greenhouse gas emissions by
at least 80% of 1990 levels by 2050. The report advocates a
mix of carbon taxation, more stringent cap-and-trade
programmes, energy regulation, and international cooperation
on financing for low-carbon technology transfer.
Turning to adaptation, the report warns that inequalities in
ability to cope with climate change are emerging as an
increasingly powerful driver of wider inequalities between and
within countries. It calls on rich countries to put climate change
adaptation at the centre of international partnerships on poverty
reduction.
“We are issuing a call to action, not providing a counsel of
despair,” commented lead author Kevin Watkins, adding,
“Working together with resolve, we can win the battle against
climate change. Allowing the window of opportunity to close
would represent a moral and political failure without precedent
in human history.” He described the Bali talks as a unique opportunity to put the interests of the world’s poor at the
heart of climate change negotiations.

you can obtain this and other press releases and info, including the report, from
Human Development Report Office

[Martin W]

Wired News has item on some guff from Rush Limbaugh – who’s evidently a right wing ranter who’s famous in the US – inc comment that, “we are so insignificant. We couldn’t cause global warming; we couldn’t cause global cooling; we can’t do diddly-squat. We’re just inhabitants here.”
Rush Limbaugh Takes On Quantum Physics (and Global Warming)

I’ve added comment, including:

Quote:

If we humans are “just inhabitants”, wonder what Limbaugh might reckon to bacteria – heck, you can’t even see em, so what are those pinko liberal leftie scientists doing saying they transformed the early atmosphere and still have a huge impact? Sheesh!
…
this is not just being something theoretical to chat about: global warming an issue to affect everyone, no matter their political persuasion (one of dumbest things I’ve heard anyone tell me, was from woman saying she didn’t believe in global warming as she’s a conservative…)

[Martin W]

from AFP report:

Quote:

More than four times the number of natural disasters are occurring now than did two decades ago, British charity Oxfam said in a study Sunday that largely blamed global warming.

“Oxfam… says that rising green house gas emissions are the major cause of weather-related disasters and must be tackled,” the organisation said, adding that the world’s poorest people were being hit the hardest.

The world suffered about 120 natural disasters per year in the early 1980s, which compared with the current figure of about 500 per year, according to the report.

“This year we have seen floods in South Asia, across the breadth of Africa and Mexico that have affected more than 250 million people,” noted Oxfam director Barbara Stocking.

“This is no freak year. It follows a pattern of more frequent, more erratic, more unpredictable and more extreme weather events that are affecting more people.”
…
Floods and wind-storms have increased from 60 events in 1980 to 240 last year, with flooding itself up six-fold.

But the number of geothermal events, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, has barely changed.

Natural disasters have quadrupled in two decades: study

[Martin W]

Haven’t checked eBay here for ages; but just seen there’s now an English Beta page. I see from this there’s a sign up page, with Chinese and English instructions; and note on the right saying:

Quote:

Thank you for registering on
the new eBay.com.hk English beta site. Additional site functionality & communication will launch in the coming months.

– so at least it’s possible to sign up, maybe start doing things!

You can reach this via English link near top right of:
eBay

[Martin W]

Boston Globe has column re US administration’s foot dragging, and behind the times attitude, re global warming. Includes:

Quote:

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calling on the United States and China to take global warming as the “challenge of our age.” In his address that accompanied the release of the IPCC report, Ban said, “The world’s scientists have spoken, clearly and with one voice. In Bali, I expect the world’s policy makers to do the same.”

Ban listed several threatened world “treasures,” such as melting Antarctic ice and the drying out of the Amazon rainforest into a savanna. He talked of children wearing protective clothing for ultraviolet radiation in Punta Arenas, Chile, under the hole in the ozone layer. “These scenes are as frightening as a science fiction movie,” Ban said. “But they are more terrifying because they are real.”

Bush officials treat this as fiction. The United States reportedly tried to eliminate a part of the report that detailed possible outcomes of global warming, such as a melting of ice sheets more rapidly than originally thought. The prospect of melting is considered so dire that it “would make it not just difficult, but impossible to adapt successfully” to climate change, Princeton scientist Michael Oppenheimer said in The New York Times.

Yet, when queried as to what level of global warming the White House found acceptable, senior environmental adviser James Connaughton said incredibly, “We don’t have a view on that.”

Here at home, many governors with a longer view, both Democrat and Republican, are taking matters into their own hands.
…
In dire scenarios of climate change, many islands will be swamped. The White House is the last island of ignorance in a fast-rising sea.

Hesitance on the warming front

[Martin W]

Another winter arrives, another report of dead wild bird with H5N1. Little egret mostly resident here; Tuen Mun an urban area, near some places w farms (where can wonder if receive smuggled poultry, toss any that die into nearby creeks, where might be scavenged).

Quote:

A little egret found in a Hong Kong park has tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus, the government said on Saturday. The bird was collected at the Tuen Mun Park in the New Territories on Nov. 18, the city’s agriculture, fisheries and conservation department said in a brief statement.

Hong Kong finds egret with bird flu in city park

[Martin W]

The farmer and Shaanxi officials involved in the tiger photo may be ruing the day they went public with the images.

Now, seems the tiger in the shot’s a dead ringer for a tiger that appeared on a poster. From Reuters:

Quote:

Chinese Internet users have pointed to a Chinese New Year poster as proof that a controversial photograph of a tiger purportedly snapped in the wild is fake, local media reported on Monday.
…
The emergence online of a commemorative Chinese New Year’s poster of a tiger reclining on a rock produced in 2002 has been cited as proof that Zhou faked the image.

The poster’s manufacturer was quoted by local media reports as saying that the tiger’s “stripes, bearing and motion are exactly the same as the New Year’s poster.”

Luo Guanglin, general manager of Yiwushi Vista Print Packing Co Ltd, told Reuters by telephone that the tiger on the poster his company produced was “very similar” to Luo’s.

“I can’t say whether Zhou’s tiger is the same. That’s for experts to decide… But it is very similar, over 90 percent similar,” Luo said.

While the tigers are placed in different settings — Zhou’s in a forest, and Vista’s on a rock in a gushing stream — the stripes and pose of the tiger look similar to the naked eye.

Poster heats up China “paper” tiger debate

Xinhua also carried the story, in report headed:
Farmer returns to wilderness to prove tiger photo genuine
– might reckon farmer Zhou will be best advised to stay in the wilderness, at least till he photographs a real tiger or the furor dies down! 😆

[Martin W]

A few days ago, I noticed on Google News an item with speech by Nigel Lawson – father of luscious cook Nigella, and former UK chancellor – to a New Zealand business group, in which he ridiculed global warming. Can’t find his speech text just now; but remember it had something re IPCC saying warming would cause only v small slowdown in rate of global economy rise: something which surprised me, and which I can’t find in IPCC synthesis report (which does, however, suggest wouldn’t slow economy much to take measures to mitigate against warming: I’m not sure if Lord Lawson hadn’t confused this with effect of warming).

Also, he suggested that IPCC scenarios set warming in next hundred years as no more than 4C; actually, can find 6.4C as highest figure. He had puerile way of suggesting a 3C rise (cherry picking the average forecast) by saying we can live in places from Helsinkin to Singapore: smacks of stupidity as well as smugness, with no notion of effects on ecosystems, which are already showing strains w far smaller warming; and of fact the IPCC says warming to continue for centuries: so if old farts like Lawson have their way, many generations of people will have to deal with warming impacts.

New Zealand Herald quoted Lawson as saying:

Quote:

The more one examines the current global warming orthodoxy, the more it resembles a Da Vinci Code of environmentalism. It contains a grain of truth – and a mountain of nonsense.

“We appear to have entered a new age of unreason, which threatens to be as economically harmful as it is profoundly disquieting.

– yes, and Lawson has clearly staked his place on the side of unreason, aiming to discount concerns of scientists who actually know about climate, ecosystems and so forth, while trying to tell business people that it’s ok to keep on as we are – after all, Lawson can expect to be dead and gone by the time the main climate change impacts are felt.

Guardian website has long blog post criticising Lawson for his stance. Includes:

Quote:

Lawson’s concern is that nothing interferes with globalisation, but he ignores the fact that climate change could destroy more demand-and-supply chains around the world than new government policies ever could.

More importantly, however, the callousness underpinning the argument is reprehensible. The losers in this case won’t pay with their stock options, houses and retirement income. They will pay with their lives. And the winners might yet join them.

Lawson’s line is the worst kind of self-satisfied I’m alright Jack and good luck to the rest of you argument I’ve heard in a long time. He talks of adapting and of building seawalls to stop the rising tides, safe in the knowledge that his personal wealth and the wealth of his home nation will protect him from the worst of any climate disaster.

Learn to swim

Climate change sceptics can no longer argue with the evidence that the planet is warming. Instead they say we’ll just have to adapt

[Martin W]

“permanent relationship between migratory birds and bird flu has yet to be proven beyond a doubt”
– in case of H5N1, evidence is powerfully to the contrary.

Gotta wonder to what extent the “migratory birds did it” notion stays alive not because of science – which suggests otherwise – is due to corruption by poultry industry. Corruption of “science” itself; and perhaps even financial corruption.
Seems a little akin to global warming scepticism; take away energy industry money, and much of this would evaporate.

[Martin W]

Well, there’s much debate re authenticity of the photos; and begins to look like they’re fakes.

The Times has article, inc:

Quote:

Some internet critics cited irregular effects of lighting and focus, saying that the colour of the tiger’s fur looked unreal and too shiny to be authentic.

Fu Dezhi, a botanist from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, voiced doubts about the vegetation in the photograph, saying that it would be unusual to find a leaf of a size similar to the one that obscured much of the tiger’s head. “I have never discussed whether this is a real tiger because that issue is not my specialty,” he wrote in a blog. “But based on my botanical expertise . . . this is just a ‘paper tiger’.”

First picture of endangered cat in 30 years may be a paper tiger

So, how would you take a fake shot, that actually shows a paper tiger? See this page – informative and entertaining even if you can’t read Chinese:
http://digi.163.com/07/1031/11/3S4M0MV8001618EE.html

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