The Last Frost

A documentary made by the UK's Channel 4 called "The Great Global Warming Swindle" has lived up to it's namesake by attempting to swindle unsuspecting viewers into believing what is essentially a work of fiction. 

The documentary has conjured a heated reaction from many including an MIT scientist who says his views were misrepresented and manipulated in the piece and is considering litigation.

I was tipped off about this unfortunate story by the good folks at The Campaign against Climate Change (http://www.campaigncc.org/) and I've decided to pass the guts of their message straight onto you.  Basically it's a list of inaccuracies in the documentary. I don't care what side you're on, just look at all the facts, after the jump.

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China is poised to take the title of top emitter of greenhouse gases away from the United States either this year or in 2008, and boy did they catch up fast.

This is just one reason why Kyoto has taken so much flak from the conservative right. China is exempt from the Kyoto Protocol, so what sense does it really make? Their argument is that it hurts our economy in relation to developing countries. There are a lot of good arguments on both sides actually.

I guess my point is that this latest news shows how Kyoto really isn't and was never the answer to our problem of global climate change. It's too exclusive and it's not aggressive enough. We need a binding international agreement to lower greenhouse gas emissions EVERYWHERE and in much larger quantities than ever previously considered. If the US shut down all emissions tomorrow, there would still be China, and soon there will be India and the rest of the developed world who will go on polluting. The problem is massive and it needs a massive solution.

Otherwise we may be doomed to witness the graph depicted in the image above becoming reality. (Image borrowed from chinahousing.mit.edu)

China: Top generator of greenhouse gases - [FreeMarketNews.com]

If there's one thing airports know about, it's the power of the wind and how to harness it. Philadelphia International Airport is dropping nearly a quarter million dollars every year for the next five, towards the purchase of environmentally friendly wind power. The power will amount to about seven percent of the total power consumption for the airport. 

Philly Airport to Spend $1 Million on Wind Power [Environmental Leader]

A memo sent to The New York Times seems to show an obvious attempt to control the flow of information regarding climate change and polar wildlife by this administration. It was circulated at the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service and require a "spokesman" be named before any trip is conducted for the sake of climate change. The idea being that only people who agree with a certain view will be allowed to speak out on the issues.

Certainly sounds like a roundabout way of gagging federal employees who don't agree with the current administrations view, disturbing stuff.

Memos Tell Officials How to Discuss Climate [New York Times]

It's disturbing, but it seems like the so called conservative movement (in the U.S. at least) has whole heartedly latched onto the recent theory that the recent warming on Mars proves global warming is natural and not man-made. I think the picture to the left illustrates this best. I feel like the one on the left when I read about things like this.

Our old pal Senator Inhofe from Oklahoma is reported to have handed out flyers at this years CPAC that say Mars is experiencing global warming even without SUVs. CPAC is the Conservative Political Action Conference and was held last week in Washington D.C. I'll cover more about the events at this conference in a later post.

So, Habibullo Abdussamatov purports to have proven that there is an unequivocal link between the warming here on Earth and the warming on Mars. So being the free thinking skeptic that I am, here are a few reasons why any intelligent human being should take this man's "theory" with a grain of salt.

1. The theory is being proposed by a man who isn't even a climate scientist, he's the head of an astronomical observatory in Russia.
2. His work is not accepted as accurate by the majority of his peers.
3. Abdussamatov even denies the existence of the greenhouse effect, which is very well known, absolute scientific fact and the reason you're alive and reading this.
4. We hardly understand what's happening with our own climate much less the climate of a rock between 36 and 250 million miles away from us.
5. Even on the off chance that he is correct, it does not negate the mass of widely accepted scientific research that suggests otherwise.

I can go on and on, but the truth is that this idea should be taken for what it is… an idea and not much more.

This is a very interesting idea and it could have an element of truth to it. The sun could certainly be responsible for part of the warming trend we've been seeing on our own planet.

Just because two things follow a similar trend, doesn't mean that they're connected or caused by the same thing. Global warming skeptics have used this very same argument against the link between atmospheric CO2 levels and global temperature, which is now widely accepted as fact. Although it's possible there is a connection between warming on Mars and Warming on Earth, that does not negate the accepted fact that Human activities here on Earth are warming the Earth as well.

Mars Melt Hints at Solar, Not Human, Cause for Warming, Scientist Says [National Geographic.com]

Winning for Best Documentary Feature, well deserved for sure.

The award is presented around 3:10 in the video.

Al Gore Get's An Oscar - [You Tube] 

California is considering it but Australia is announcing it.

They're releasing legislation in 2009 to ban the sale and use of incandescent light bulbs. Compact florescents and LED bulbs will be the more energy efficient replacements.

The move will save massive quantities of energy. 

World First? Australia Switches Off Incandescent Bulbs [TreeHugger]

Image from: ServiceLighting.com 

A sweet little site with the goal of planting 8 million trees in the shape of a heart right in the heart of one of the poorest countries in the world, Niger.

I'm hoping this is a legit thing, but I'm not entirely sure yet. I haven't heard much about the organization, and I have yet to see any pictures or tangible evidence of them actually doing what they claim. I also wonder how they plan on keeping those 8 million trees alive in the desert. It seems like they have chosen tree varieties that can survive the extreme arid climate, but with the threat of climate change, especially for the African continent, will their long term goals be feasible? 

I noticed that one of the trees they chose to plant was a Baobab tree, which they charge 75 Euros to plant. I have actually attempted to grow a Baobab tree in my apartment a few times, and it's worked for about the cost of a Starbucks coffee.

The problem is after about 6 months it only had 4 leaves and was about 3 inches tall. It looked like a bean sprout. Much to my dismay, I eventually killed the thing due to a prolonged weekend away from it.

The Baobab's they show in their example are fully mature and may be hundreds or thousands of years old, impossible to know since Baobabs don't produce growth rings. So I wonder what the 75 Euros is for, the seeds can't cost more than a few cents. How much care are they going to give to the trees over their 1,000 year period of maturation?

Their domain isn't even a .org, neither is ours but then again we don't solicit donations. The average price of planting a tree with these guys is 32.5 Euros, times 8 million, equals 2.6 Billion Euros. It's either a very ambitious environmental project or a potentially very lucrative scam. 

Enough already, I want to believe, I really do. I'm going to keep an eye on these guys and perhaps buy a tree if they give me a solid reason to trust them.

Tree-Nation

China to promise cuts in greenhouse gases [New Scientist Environment]
    China has goal to reduce G.H.G. emissions by 10% over 5 years. 

Top 10 Largest Databases in the World [Business Intelligence Lowdown]
    #1 is interesting.

Wis. could become second state to require fewer greenhouse gases [Chippewa.com]
    CA was first.