The Drifting Sea
*
‘Global warming’ has become the grand political narrative of the age, replacing Marxism as a dominant force for controlling liberty and human choices. -- Prof. P. Stott
The modern environmental movement arose out of the wreckage of the New Left. They call themselves Green because they're too yellow to admit they're really Reds. So Lenin's birthday was chosen to be the date of Earth Day. Even a moderate politician like Al Gore has been clear as to what is needed. In "Earth in the Balance", he wrote that saving the planet would require a "wrenching transformation of society".
"The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin." -- Thomas H. Huxley
Al Gore won a political prize for an alleged work of science. That rather speaks for itself, doesn't it?
For centuries there was a scientific consensus which said that fire was explained by the release of an invisible element called phlogiston. That theory is universally ridiculed today. Global warming is the new phlogiston.
Motives: Many people would like to be kind to others so Leftists exploit that with their nonsense about equality. Most people want a clean, green environment so Greenies exploit that by inventing all sorts of far-fetched threats to the environment. But for both, the real motive is generally to promote themselves as wiser and better than everyone else, truth regardless.
Policies: The only underlying theme that makes sense of all Greenie policies is hatred of people. Hatred of other people has been a Greenie theme from way back. In a report titled "The First Global Revolution" (1991, p. 104) published by the "Club of Rome", a Greenie panic outfit, we find the following statement: "In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill.... All these dangers are caused by human intervention... The real enemy, then, is humanity itself." See here for many more examples of prominent Greenies saying how much and how furiously they hate you.
"The desire to save humanity is always a false front for the urge to rule it" -- H L Mencken
Time was, people warning the world "Repent - the end is nigh!" were snickered at as fruitcakes. Now they own the media and run the schools.
Against the long history of huge temperature variation in the earth's climate (ice ages etc.), the .6 of one degree average rise reported by the U.N. "experts" for the entire 20th century (a rise so small that you would not be able to detect such a difference personally without instruments) shows, if anything, that the 20th century was a time of exceptional temperature stability.
Recent NASA figures tell us that there was NO warming trend in the USA during the 20th century. If global warming is occurring, how come it forgot the USA?
Warmists say that the revised NASA figures do not matter because they cover only the USA -- and the rest of the world is warming nicely. But it is not. There has NEVER been any evidence that the Southern hemisphere is warming. See here. So the warming pattern sure is looking moth-eaten.
There goes another beautiful theory about to be murdered by a brutal gang of facts. - Duc de La Rochefoucauld, French writer and moralist (1613-1680)
The latest scare is the possible effect of extra CO2 on the world’s oceans, because more CO2 lowers the pH of seawater. While it is claimed that this makes the water more acidic, this is misleading. Since seawater has a pH around 8.1, it will take an awful lot of CO2 it to even make the water neutral (pH=7), let alone acidic (pH less than 7).
The chaos theory people have told us for years that the air movement from a single butterfly's wing in Brazil can cause an unforeseen change in our weather here. Now we are told that climate experts can "model" the input of zillions of such incalculable variables over periods of decades to accurately forecast global warming 50 years hence. Give us all a break!
If you doubt the arrogance [of the global warming crowd], you haven't seen that Newsweek cover story that declared the global warming debate over. Consider: If Newton's laws of motion could, after 200 years of unfailing experimental and experiential confirmation, be overthrown, it requires religious fervor to believe that global warming -- infinitely more untested, complex and speculative -- is a closed issue
I am not a global warming skeptic nor am I a global warming denier. I am a global warming atheist. I don't believe one bit of it. That the earth's climate changes is undeniable. Only ignoramuses believe that climate stability is normal. But I see NO evidence to say that mankind has had anything to do with any of the changes observed -- and much evidence against that claim.
A "geriatric" revolt: The scientists who reject Warmism tend to be OLD! Your present blogger is one of those. There are tremendous pressures to conformity in academe and the generally Leftist orientation of academe tends to pressure everyone within it to agree to ideas that suit the Left. And Warmism is certainly one of those ideas. So old guys are the only ones who can AFFORD to declare the Warmists to be unclothed. They either have their careers well-established (with tenure) or have reached financial independence (retirement) and so can afford to call it like they see it. In general, seniors in society today are not remotely as helpful to younger people as they once were. But their opposition to the Warmist hysteria will one day show that seniors are not completely irrelevant after all. Experience does count (we have seen many such hysterias in the past and we have a broader base of knowledge to call on) and our independence is certainly an enormous strength. Some of us are already dead. (Reid Bryson and John Daly are particularly mourned) and some of us are very senior indeed (e.g. Bill Gray and Vince Gray) but the revolt we have fostered is ever growing so we have not labored in vain.
Scientists have politics too -- sometimes extreme politics. Read this: "This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism... I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child." -- Albert Einstein
Imagine the terror when he woke up to find himself in an indistinct world. His brain no longer functioned properly. Vagueness had settled upon him. Gripped him, almost, as the fog settled around the hedges. The sky was a tumbling grey. What made it worse, more frightening, was that everything around him was indistinct, as if they had suddenly been made out of a different material, or had been displaced slightly in time, so that he was seeing everything out of disconnect with this universe. Muffled echoes. The muffled physical realm. He tried to reach out to touch an object, and nothing was there. He was drowning in some sort of fluid, and nothing was real. Oh, Canibasta, please help me, he cried, and nothing happened, a dead cat bounce, his screams elongated into the silence.
There was the fervent rustling and the impulse to write, and that was it. How clear the world had seemed then, everything poignant, vibrant, crystal clear in its intensity. No shadows here. Every pain a real pain. Every movement a dark cloud. Every hurt a personal anguish. Every escape a blessed relief. They played down at the dead end, away from the house, away from their parents, and he crept forward and said to her: I am real, I am worthy, I want your blessing and absolution. Halleluyah. She's a bum. But no ditty was going to save him. The beach was so real, so concrete, so bright. He couldn't believe how impossible his life had become, how impossible they had become. He cringed in the shadows.
Today is Tambar and a long drive and the kids are going over to their mother's for the first time in months. We were shattered. We were held in low self esteem. The choir was not operating in unison. He admitted mistakes. Old men clustered on the steps. Books lined the shelves and his body blew up to the size of the universe. He began reading the World's Great Books from front to back, cover to cover, he tried to drink in all the world's greats. How complicated they were. Aristophanes. Aristotle. Outside the rustling of the leaves grew louder and louder, more demonic. They hid from their parents. The odd stab of affection was lapped up with greed, but the old people were getting out of control. A terrible sadness locked down over the house.
The budgerigar feather caught in the sunlight, and he was writing about that place, those incidents, that appalling moment in time, all over again. The kookaburra swooped and their much loved budgerigar was gone in a flash. The sun streaked down though the giant gums, down to the mystic floor, the jumping ants, vicious, stinging little things that jumped from the bushes, and bull ants, aggressive giant black ants who reared on their hind legs as you approached, and who's sting hurt beyond measure and lasted for about 20 minutes, as they ran screaming and crying back to the house. There was calomine lotion to ease the sting, its pinky clay clinging to their skin. John F Kennedy was killed. Even out here, in this remote place, the news transfixed them.
Everything was changing out there in the big world, they could feel it. But at the same time it never occurred to them that the world was not all exactly like them, deeply suburban, the family secrets, the games, the things that lay behind closed door, all in the silent green depths. It's sick making. They laughed. Rin Tin Tin ran in the evenings at 5.00, and they ran home to watch it. Television was the brightest part of the day, as good as the Enid Blyton books he was always buried in, and he was utterly captivated. Perhaps that was why they limited their television watching to half an hour today. The doctor grimaced. We parents have a lot to answer for, she said.
What is the solution? What is the way forward? Are we really going to tangle like that? He dropped his daughter to work at Baker's Delight, in Glebe, in the suburb where they should have been living, protecting the inheritance of their great grandfather, who had shorn horses there as a young man. So many things had gone wrong in their lineage. Alcoholism had eaten every thing. The family gene. Oh please be fair, oh let me survive. He did want to stand on his own two feet. He didn't want to be protected any more. Salvage salvation. Find comfort. Curl about the children. Oh very very humble sir, as his grandfather placed the piece of cardboard over his drink to keep it fresh. Summer was coming to a hotel near you. The heat was incredible.
THE BIGGER STORY:
http://antigreen.blogspot.com/2008/09/melting-melting.html
Greenie Watch:
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Melting, Melting ... Well, Not Exactly
Predictions of an ice-free Arctic prove to be just a lot of hot air
With the "meltdown" on Wall Street, it looks like global warming is striking the financial markets. Don't laugh. It must have gone somewhere because it's not doing as the left and the media had warned. Just a few months ago, supposedly responsible journalists were telling us that the Arctic could be ice free this summer because of the dreaded realties of warming.
There are 1.74 million reasons why that didn't happen. That's how many square miles of ice are still standing after Arctic ice hit its low point for the season.
On July 28, NBC's Anne Thompson was the one on ice patrol. "But this summer, some scientists say that ice could retreat so dramatically that open water covers the North Pole, so much so that you could sail across it." She's probably right. You could sail across it - in a sleigh.
A Sept. 16 National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) report said ice loss was less than in 2007. "On Sept. 12, 2008, sea ice extent dropped to 4.52 million square kilometers (1.74 million square miles). This appears to have been the lowest point of the year, as sea has now begun its annual cycle of growth in response to autumn cooling," according to the organization.
It's a far cry from how "Today" host Lester Holt described the story. He called it "surprising and, frankly, alarming news from the scientific community, a new report that says the North Pole could soon be ice-free."
To put what actually happened in perspective, there are only a handful of nations larger than the ice at its low point. It's more than twice as large as Mexico and about 10 times larger than Iraq. That's a pretty big error. One journalists are almost guaranteed to repeat until they get the facts they want.
Shortly after Thompson's report, on July 30, ABC weatherman Sam Champion repeated the warning about Arctic ice. He scared the "Good Morning America" audience that Arctic ice loss was at an all-time rate. "Every summer we're on a record pace for losing it last summer and this summer we're at the exact same pace."
Except that isn't accurate either. The final total for 2008 was 9.4% more than the record-setting 2007 minimum. The left will claim it's still part of a trend, but they don't know either. We've only been tracking satellite imagery of the Arctic since 1979 - not a huge amount of time given the age of the planet.
Is it any wonder that Americans are tuning out the entire global warming agenda? According to Gallup, the environment/global warming ranked dead last on a 22-category list of "most important reasons why you would vote for a preferred candidate."
Last. Behind international affairs, behind healthcare reform or even education. None of those issues matter to voters this election. And every one of them scored higher with voters than global warming.
Remember Al Gore's much ballyhooed We Campaign to bully Americans into backing climate change legislation? Politico dubbed it a "$300 million, bipartisan campaign to try to push climate change higher on the nation's political agenda." It debuted with fancy ads featuring Pat Robertson and Al Sharpton or Newt Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi together declaring their abiding love for the global warming agenda. And it's been a miserable flop. The We Campaign ran smack dab into harsh fiscal realities of a declining stock market. It's had a wee impact.
Maybe that's because people have begun to tune out the green propaganda as journalists link everything from allergies to bigger storms to climate change. Even global warming hype machine Time magazine doesn't embrace all of the silly claims any more.
A recent Time issue explained that increased storm impact is manmade, just not the way Al Gore and his disciples would claim. "But there is another inconvenient truth out there: We are getting more vulnerable to weather mostly because of where we live, not just how we live," wrote Time.
Last year's cold winter has raised even more concerns that global warming advocates might be way off in their predictions. Investor's Business Daily reported that August was "extraordinary." "For the first time in nearly 100 years, the sun created no visible spots. The last time that happened: June 1913." Based on sunspot history, the sun may be "entering a down cycle."
Even the Old Farmer's Almanac is raising questions about a new "big chill" or little ice. "The next 20 years, it's going to be colder," Sarah Perreault, of the Old Farmer's Almanac, told Reuters. Maybe we'd be better off paying attention to old farmers instead of old media.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-09-27-voa22.cfm
No Clear Winner in US Presidential Debate
By Kent Klein
Washington
27 September 2008
Both U.S. presidential candidates were claiming victory following the first of three scheduled debates. Commentators, analysts and bloggers appeared split on who may have gained an advantage from Friday's debate. Many believe that both Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama performed well, but neither walked away the clear winner. VOA's Kent Klein reports from Washington.
Experts seem to agree that neither Barack Obama nor John McCain made any serious mistakes. NBC political analyst Chuck Todd said on Saturday's Today show he thinks it was a good night for both candidates.
"They were both very good at doing what they do well, Obama being a little more direct than he usually is, but still expansive, and the format helped him there, McCain being very direct, showing a lot of energy," he said.
Bruce Miroff, a professor of political science at the State University of New York at Albany, says John McCain was particularly comfortable in the foreign policy portion of the debate.
"McCain had had a rocky two weeks on the economy. He was back on his ground of foreign policy, and he probably reassured his supporters that he was still in command of his campaign," he said.
On the other hand, Miroff says Barack Obama held his own with McCain on foreign policy.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24408166-5013871,00.html
Matthew Franklin, Chief political correspondent | September 27, 2008
JULIA Gillard has tried marijuana. But it was a long time ago. And she didn't like the drug.
The Acting Prime Minister revealed her university experimentation yesterday after Malcolm Turnbull admitted on Thursday night he had tried marijuana, but now believed it was a mistake.
In what has become a stock question for aspiring politicians, the Opposition Leader, appearing on ABC television, admitted to having tried cannabis as a young man.
"Yes, I've smoked pot," Mr Turnbull told the ABC's Q&A television program. "There you go. It is a serious issue. It was a mistake to do so."
Ms Gillard, interviewed on ABC radio, joined the confession brigade yesterday. "At university," she said. "Tried it, didn't like it.
"I think many Australian adults would be able to make the same statement, so I don't think it matters one way or the other."
Asked whether it was important whether Mr Turnbull had smoked pot, Ms Gillard said it did not matter in any shape or form.
Mr Turnbull's admission could bring down the curtain on the ritual questioning of politicians over the issue, and signal the passing of the baton to a new generation.
While political leaders of the generation of former prime minister John Howard might have been scandalised if they had encountered illicit drugs, even during their university days, Mr Turnbull and Ms Gillard seemed to indicate the presence of cannabis was commonplace when they were young, as highlighted by Ms Gillard's statement that most Australian adults would have encountered the drug.
Cabinet members Wayne Swan and Peter Garrett have confessed to having smoked cannabis.
However, Kevin Rudd apparently defies the trend. The Prime Minister told an interviewer last July he had "a unity ticket" with Mr Howard.
"Let me answer that directly in case you think I'm ducking, weaving - never, never, never," Mr Rudd said.
Jan Copeland, director of the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre in Sydney, said Mr Turnbull's candour was credible, responsible and not typical of politicians.
Additional reporting: AAP
‘Global warming’ has become the grand political narrative of the age, replacing Marxism as a dominant force for controlling liberty and human choices. -- Prof. P. Stott
The modern environmental movement arose out of the wreckage of the New Left. They call themselves Green because they're too yellow to admit they're really Reds. So Lenin's birthday was chosen to be the date of Earth Day. Even a moderate politician like Al Gore has been clear as to what is needed. In "Earth in the Balance", he wrote that saving the planet would require a "wrenching transformation of society".
"The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin." -- Thomas H. Huxley
Al Gore won a political prize for an alleged work of science. That rather speaks for itself, doesn't it?
For centuries there was a scientific consensus which said that fire was explained by the release of an invisible element called phlogiston. That theory is universally ridiculed today. Global warming is the new phlogiston.
Motives: Many people would like to be kind to others so Leftists exploit that with their nonsense about equality. Most people want a clean, green environment so Greenies exploit that by inventing all sorts of far-fetched threats to the environment. But for both, the real motive is generally to promote themselves as wiser and better than everyone else, truth regardless.
Policies: The only underlying theme that makes sense of all Greenie policies is hatred of people. Hatred of other people has been a Greenie theme from way back. In a report titled "The First Global Revolution" (1991, p. 104) published by the "Club of Rome", a Greenie panic outfit, we find the following statement: "In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill.... All these dangers are caused by human intervention... The real enemy, then, is humanity itself." See here for many more examples of prominent Greenies saying how much and how furiously they hate you.
"The desire to save humanity is always a false front for the urge to rule it" -- H L Mencken
Time was, people warning the world "Repent - the end is nigh!" were snickered at as fruitcakes. Now they own the media and run the schools.
Against the long history of huge temperature variation in the earth's climate (ice ages etc.), the .6 of one degree average rise reported by the U.N. "experts" for the entire 20th century (a rise so small that you would not be able to detect such a difference personally without instruments) shows, if anything, that the 20th century was a time of exceptional temperature stability.
Recent NASA figures tell us that there was NO warming trend in the USA during the 20th century. If global warming is occurring, how come it forgot the USA?
Warmists say that the revised NASA figures do not matter because they cover only the USA -- and the rest of the world is warming nicely. But it is not. There has NEVER been any evidence that the Southern hemisphere is warming. See here. So the warming pattern sure is looking moth-eaten.
There goes another beautiful theory about to be murdered by a brutal gang of facts. - Duc de La Rochefoucauld, French writer and moralist (1613-1680)
The latest scare is the possible effect of extra CO2 on the world’s oceans, because more CO2 lowers the pH of seawater. While it is claimed that this makes the water more acidic, this is misleading. Since seawater has a pH around 8.1, it will take an awful lot of CO2 it to even make the water neutral (pH=7), let alone acidic (pH less than 7).
The chaos theory people have told us for years that the air movement from a single butterfly's wing in Brazil can cause an unforeseen change in our weather here. Now we are told that climate experts can "model" the input of zillions of such incalculable variables over periods of decades to accurately forecast global warming 50 years hence. Give us all a break!
If you doubt the arrogance [of the global warming crowd], you haven't seen that Newsweek cover story that declared the global warming debate over. Consider: If Newton's laws of motion could, after 200 years of unfailing experimental and experiential confirmation, be overthrown, it requires religious fervor to believe that global warming -- infinitely more untested, complex and speculative -- is a closed issue
I am not a global warming skeptic nor am I a global warming denier. I am a global warming atheist. I don't believe one bit of it. That the earth's climate changes is undeniable. Only ignoramuses believe that climate stability is normal. But I see NO evidence to say that mankind has had anything to do with any of the changes observed -- and much evidence against that claim.
A "geriatric" revolt: The scientists who reject Warmism tend to be OLD! Your present blogger is one of those. There are tremendous pressures to conformity in academe and the generally Leftist orientation of academe tends to pressure everyone within it to agree to ideas that suit the Left. And Warmism is certainly one of those ideas. So old guys are the only ones who can AFFORD to declare the Warmists to be unclothed. They either have their careers well-established (with tenure) or have reached financial independence (retirement) and so can afford to call it like they see it. In general, seniors in society today are not remotely as helpful to younger people as they once were. But their opposition to the Warmist hysteria will one day show that seniors are not completely irrelevant after all. Experience does count (we have seen many such hysterias in the past and we have a broader base of knowledge to call on) and our independence is certainly an enormous strength. Some of us are already dead. (Reid Bryson and John Daly are particularly mourned) and some of us are very senior indeed (e.g. Bill Gray and Vince Gray) but the revolt we have fostered is ever growing so we have not labored in vain.
Scientists have politics too -- sometimes extreme politics. Read this: "This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism... I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child." -- Albert Einstein
Imagine the terror when he woke up to find himself in an indistinct world. His brain no longer functioned properly. Vagueness had settled upon him. Gripped him, almost, as the fog settled around the hedges. The sky was a tumbling grey. What made it worse, more frightening, was that everything around him was indistinct, as if they had suddenly been made out of a different material, or had been displaced slightly in time, so that he was seeing everything out of disconnect with this universe. Muffled echoes. The muffled physical realm. He tried to reach out to touch an object, and nothing was there. He was drowning in some sort of fluid, and nothing was real. Oh, Canibasta, please help me, he cried, and nothing happened, a dead cat bounce, his screams elongated into the silence.
There was the fervent rustling and the impulse to write, and that was it. How clear the world had seemed then, everything poignant, vibrant, crystal clear in its intensity. No shadows here. Every pain a real pain. Every movement a dark cloud. Every hurt a personal anguish. Every escape a blessed relief. They played down at the dead end, away from the house, away from their parents, and he crept forward and said to her: I am real, I am worthy, I want your blessing and absolution. Halleluyah. She's a bum. But no ditty was going to save him. The beach was so real, so concrete, so bright. He couldn't believe how impossible his life had become, how impossible they had become. He cringed in the shadows.
Today is Tambar and a long drive and the kids are going over to their mother's for the first time in months. We were shattered. We were held in low self esteem. The choir was not operating in unison. He admitted mistakes. Old men clustered on the steps. Books lined the shelves and his body blew up to the size of the universe. He began reading the World's Great Books from front to back, cover to cover, he tried to drink in all the world's greats. How complicated they were. Aristophanes. Aristotle. Outside the rustling of the leaves grew louder and louder, more demonic. They hid from their parents. The odd stab of affection was lapped up with greed, but the old people were getting out of control. A terrible sadness locked down over the house.
The budgerigar feather caught in the sunlight, and he was writing about that place, those incidents, that appalling moment in time, all over again. The kookaburra swooped and their much loved budgerigar was gone in a flash. The sun streaked down though the giant gums, down to the mystic floor, the jumping ants, vicious, stinging little things that jumped from the bushes, and bull ants, aggressive giant black ants who reared on their hind legs as you approached, and who's sting hurt beyond measure and lasted for about 20 minutes, as they ran screaming and crying back to the house. There was calomine lotion to ease the sting, its pinky clay clinging to their skin. John F Kennedy was killed. Even out here, in this remote place, the news transfixed them.
Everything was changing out there in the big world, they could feel it. But at the same time it never occurred to them that the world was not all exactly like them, deeply suburban, the family secrets, the games, the things that lay behind closed door, all in the silent green depths. It's sick making. They laughed. Rin Tin Tin ran in the evenings at 5.00, and they ran home to watch it. Television was the brightest part of the day, as good as the Enid Blyton books he was always buried in, and he was utterly captivated. Perhaps that was why they limited their television watching to half an hour today. The doctor grimaced. We parents have a lot to answer for, she said.
What is the solution? What is the way forward? Are we really going to tangle like that? He dropped his daughter to work at Baker's Delight, in Glebe, in the suburb where they should have been living, protecting the inheritance of their great grandfather, who had shorn horses there as a young man. So many things had gone wrong in their lineage. Alcoholism had eaten every thing. The family gene. Oh please be fair, oh let me survive. He did want to stand on his own two feet. He didn't want to be protected any more. Salvage salvation. Find comfort. Curl about the children. Oh very very humble sir, as his grandfather placed the piece of cardboard over his drink to keep it fresh. Summer was coming to a hotel near you. The heat was incredible.
THE BIGGER STORY:
http://antigreen.blogspot.com/2008/09/melting-melting.html
Greenie Watch:
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Melting, Melting ... Well, Not Exactly
Predictions of an ice-free Arctic prove to be just a lot of hot air
With the "meltdown" on Wall Street, it looks like global warming is striking the financial markets. Don't laugh. It must have gone somewhere because it's not doing as the left and the media had warned. Just a few months ago, supposedly responsible journalists were telling us that the Arctic could be ice free this summer because of the dreaded realties of warming.
There are 1.74 million reasons why that didn't happen. That's how many square miles of ice are still standing after Arctic ice hit its low point for the season.
On July 28, NBC's Anne Thompson was the one on ice patrol. "But this summer, some scientists say that ice could retreat so dramatically that open water covers the North Pole, so much so that you could sail across it." She's probably right. You could sail across it - in a sleigh.
A Sept. 16 National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) report said ice loss was less than in 2007. "On Sept. 12, 2008, sea ice extent dropped to 4.52 million square kilometers (1.74 million square miles). This appears to have been the lowest point of the year, as sea has now begun its annual cycle of growth in response to autumn cooling," according to the organization.
It's a far cry from how "Today" host Lester Holt described the story. He called it "surprising and, frankly, alarming news from the scientific community, a new report that says the North Pole could soon be ice-free."
To put what actually happened in perspective, there are only a handful of nations larger than the ice at its low point. It's more than twice as large as Mexico and about 10 times larger than Iraq. That's a pretty big error. One journalists are almost guaranteed to repeat until they get the facts they want.
Shortly after Thompson's report, on July 30, ABC weatherman Sam Champion repeated the warning about Arctic ice. He scared the "Good Morning America" audience that Arctic ice loss was at an all-time rate. "Every summer we're on a record pace for losing it last summer and this summer we're at the exact same pace."
Except that isn't accurate either. The final total for 2008 was 9.4% more than the record-setting 2007 minimum. The left will claim it's still part of a trend, but they don't know either. We've only been tracking satellite imagery of the Arctic since 1979 - not a huge amount of time given the age of the planet.
Is it any wonder that Americans are tuning out the entire global warming agenda? According to Gallup, the environment/global warming ranked dead last on a 22-category list of "most important reasons why you would vote for a preferred candidate."
Last. Behind international affairs, behind healthcare reform or even education. None of those issues matter to voters this election. And every one of them scored higher with voters than global warming.
Remember Al Gore's much ballyhooed We Campaign to bully Americans into backing climate change legislation? Politico dubbed it a "$300 million, bipartisan campaign to try to push climate change higher on the nation's political agenda." It debuted with fancy ads featuring Pat Robertson and Al Sharpton or Newt Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi together declaring their abiding love for the global warming agenda. And it's been a miserable flop. The We Campaign ran smack dab into harsh fiscal realities of a declining stock market. It's had a wee impact.
Maybe that's because people have begun to tune out the green propaganda as journalists link everything from allergies to bigger storms to climate change. Even global warming hype machine Time magazine doesn't embrace all of the silly claims any more.
A recent Time issue explained that increased storm impact is manmade, just not the way Al Gore and his disciples would claim. "But there is another inconvenient truth out there: We are getting more vulnerable to weather mostly because of where we live, not just how we live," wrote Time.
Last year's cold winter has raised even more concerns that global warming advocates might be way off in their predictions. Investor's Business Daily reported that August was "extraordinary." "For the first time in nearly 100 years, the sun created no visible spots. The last time that happened: June 1913." Based on sunspot history, the sun may be "entering a down cycle."
Even the Old Farmer's Almanac is raising questions about a new "big chill" or little ice. "The next 20 years, it's going to be colder," Sarah Perreault, of the Old Farmer's Almanac, told Reuters. Maybe we'd be better off paying attention to old farmers instead of old media.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-09-27-voa22.cfm
No Clear Winner in US Presidential Debate
By Kent Klein
Washington
27 September 2008
Both U.S. presidential candidates were claiming victory following the first of three scheduled debates. Commentators, analysts and bloggers appeared split on who may have gained an advantage from Friday's debate. Many believe that both Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama performed well, but neither walked away the clear winner. VOA's Kent Klein reports from Washington.
Experts seem to agree that neither Barack Obama nor John McCain made any serious mistakes. NBC political analyst Chuck Todd said on Saturday's Today show he thinks it was a good night for both candidates.
"They were both very good at doing what they do well, Obama being a little more direct than he usually is, but still expansive, and the format helped him there, McCain being very direct, showing a lot of energy," he said.
Bruce Miroff, a professor of political science at the State University of New York at Albany, says John McCain was particularly comfortable in the foreign policy portion of the debate.
"McCain had had a rocky two weeks on the economy. He was back on his ground of foreign policy, and he probably reassured his supporters that he was still in command of his campaign," he said.
On the other hand, Miroff says Barack Obama held his own with McCain on foreign policy.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24408166-5013871,00.html
Matthew Franklin, Chief political correspondent | September 27, 2008
JULIA Gillard has tried marijuana. But it was a long time ago. And she didn't like the drug.
The Acting Prime Minister revealed her university experimentation yesterday after Malcolm Turnbull admitted on Thursday night he had tried marijuana, but now believed it was a mistake.
In what has become a stock question for aspiring politicians, the Opposition Leader, appearing on ABC television, admitted to having tried cannabis as a young man.
"Yes, I've smoked pot," Mr Turnbull told the ABC's Q&A television program. "There you go. It is a serious issue. It was a mistake to do so."
Ms Gillard, interviewed on ABC radio, joined the confession brigade yesterday. "At university," she said. "Tried it, didn't like it.
"I think many Australian adults would be able to make the same statement, so I don't think it matters one way or the other."
Asked whether it was important whether Mr Turnbull had smoked pot, Ms Gillard said it did not matter in any shape or form.
Mr Turnbull's admission could bring down the curtain on the ritual questioning of politicians over the issue, and signal the passing of the baton to a new generation.
While political leaders of the generation of former prime minister John Howard might have been scandalised if they had encountered illicit drugs, even during their university days, Mr Turnbull and Ms Gillard seemed to indicate the presence of cannabis was commonplace when they were young, as highlighted by Ms Gillard's statement that most Australian adults would have encountered the drug.
Cabinet members Wayne Swan and Peter Garrett have confessed to having smoked cannabis.
However, Kevin Rudd apparently defies the trend. The Prime Minister told an interviewer last July he had "a unity ticket" with Mr Howard.
"Let me answer that directly in case you think I'm ducking, weaving - never, never, never," Mr Rudd said.
Jan Copeland, director of the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre in Sydney, said Mr Turnbull's candour was credible, responsible and not typical of politicians.
Additional reporting: AAP
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