The Last Frost

Climate change, visually.

Grinnell Glacier from Mt. Gould 1938 – 2005

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The US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has held hearings on the accusations that the White House has been "asserting it's will" on climate science. What they've found is that it's true, there are documented cases of so called 'editing' by White House aides. The goal of this editing process is to filter the information from the scientists in order to align it with the policies of the Bush administration before the information reaches the public. 

One of the defenders of the practice, Phil Cooney who was the chief of staff at the White House's Council on Environmental Quality and now conveniently works for ExxonMobile. So what were the specifics? In 10 years, 181 edits to highlight scientific uncertainties, 113 edits to diminish the role of humans in climate change.

Here's an example from the New Scientist article (which I encourage everyone to read):

For example, Cooney replaced "will" with "may" in the sentence: "Warming temperatures will also affect Arctic land areas." He also deleted this sentence: "Climate change has global consequences for human health and the environment." [New Scientist Environment, 2007]

Is this the way America conducts scientific research now? It's certainly not the behavior of the America I was raised to love.  

US fudging of climate science – details revealed – [New Scientist Environment]

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.

"It appears there may have been an orchestrated campaign to mislead the public about climate change" [Rep. Henry Waxman via CNN.com]

Well you don't say! I mean seriously, does this really surprise anyone? Disturbing, yes, surprising? Not in the least. 

Lawmakers hear of interference in global warming science – [CNN.com]

Imagine an energy system that runs constantly, requires no fuel, has a minimal environmental impact, produces no waste other than worn out machinery, and is available almost everywhere on Earth. It's geothermal energy and a panel from MIT suggests it may be the answer to the energy woes of the United States.  

MIT-led panel backs 'heat mining' as key U.S. energy source – [MIT News Office]

How the oil companies swindle all of us out of $300,000 annually with a small amount of cash that adds up over time. 

Gasoline Prices: Why $2.189 and not $2.19; Why The Third Decimal Place? – [TheTaoOfMakingMoney.com]

The journal Nature has reported that Bush is actively in the business of suppressing information pointing to the true severity of global warming. Specifically a report on the link between current warming trends and stronger and more intense hurricanes. 

He's avoiding a political backlash due to his hardline support for industries that causes this problem. So who do you think Bush is working for now? Certainly not the American public… but we already knew that.

'US blocking global warming report' » [The Times of India]

With increased attention towards the issues surrounding human induced climate change, the nuclear option has been steadily gaining support. The reason is that the nuclear plants themselves produce nothing but steam as a byproduct… oh except for that pesky nuclear waste. 

Nuclear waste remains toxic to living things for 250,000 years. Think about that… a quarter million years. How do you manage something that toxic for a quarter million years? Who knows… we still haven't found a solution. Sure we could store it in a geologically quiet mountain for that time period but who will guard that mountain for 250,000 years? How will we ensure it doesn't fall into the hands of terrorists in that quarter million year time period (now I'm just being silly)? The nuclear waste problem is a ridiculously good example of the limits of human ingenuity meeting pure human stupidity.

50 years ago scientists dove head first into the nuclear power trend figuring that we could store the stuff in tanks for 50 years until we figured out a permanent solution to the problem. "Surely in 50 years we will have figured it out" they thought.  Well we still haven't figured it out. We now are stuck with leaking nuclear waste dumps all over our planet because of it, and it's a risk to us all.

Until we find a real solution for the nuclear waste issue we have no business making the waste problem bigger than it already is. Oh and the article barely mentions the waste as an issue, they attack the amount of greenhouse gases that are produced during the mining, refinining, and enrichment of the fuel that these so called clean power plants use. Read on, but know this… nuclear power sucks. 

Not green clean or cheap »   [True Local]

This article has shown us the need for an 'obvious' category.

Stephen Hawking has said that humans must leave Earth if we are to have any hope of survival. The interesting thing is what he mentions in his list of what might do us in if we stay. Top of the list, according to Sploid, is sudden global warming. 

Whenever people discuss global warming effects they either speak of the relatively minor effects we see now, or the still relatively minor effects we will see in the 'next century'. Anyone who's studied climate science for more than 15 minutes should know that when it comes to our planet's future climate, we don't know jack. Go see the Day After Tomorrow and realize that although that movie is based on Hollywood silliness, that magnitude of change is more than possible, maybe not overnight but certainly less than a century from now. The potential for destruction simply makes the issue of global warming too risky to ignore.

We. Must. Leave. Earth. » [Sploid]