Ho-hum. Just another average YouTube video of a guy trying to cure cancer in his basement with his wife’s pie pans and instead discovering a way to run cars on salt water.
Wait a minute … this could be big ….
This is just like that time I was trying to come up with a new salad dressing and instead found a tasty marinade for chicken. Except I wasn’t trying to cure world hunger when I did it. But it did make the barbecue grill flare up. So, it’s kinda like we’re both heroes. Except this guy is more so.
Sheesh! Talk about putting a lot of pressure on the rest of us to be productive …
One got hot in the ’80s and the other is a white rapper
Despite all the concern about climate change and its impact on glaciers, The News Tribune in Tacoma, Washington has a report about the glacier on Mount St. Helens. The story highlights the problem of cherry-picking facts to support a thesis: the other side can do the same thing.
It seems that the glacier on Mount St. Helens is expanding at a rate of three feet per day.
How can this be happening in an age of unprecedented global warming?
Perhaps a little historical perspective can help…. (more…)
One of the reasons I majored in business in college was because there was only one science course required for Finance majors.
Fortunately, there was a class called Chemistry and Society that was not filled with pre-med students. As far as I could tell, Chemistry for Dummies existed for the sole purpose of allowing regular students to get an “A” in a science-related course.
The course was “taught” by a one-handed professor. The professor had blown off his other hand while demonstrating a chemical reaction to a class of med students some years earlier.
Obviously, the professor had tenure at the time of the explosion (or maybe my alma mater just had a better sense of humor than I give it credit for) because the guy continued to teach introductory chemistry, year after year, to students whose only interest in chemistry was what the perfect formula for a margarita was.
This is all by way of saying that my scientific background isn’t what most people would refer to as “strong” or “extensive.”
I do know that one of the things that both global warming advocates and skeptics alike agree on is that the science surrounding climate change is amazingly intricate and complex.
Starting from that point, I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that the idea of combating global warming by dumping iron dust into the ocean around the Galapagos Islands is not all that brilliant of a scheme. (more…)
A University of Pennsylvania marketing professor has challenged Al Gore to a $20,000 bet on global warming.
I’ve never been prouder of my alma mater.
Scott Armstrong, a marketing professor at Penn’s Wharton School, is also an expert on forecasting methods. He made the bet, which he e-mailed and snail-mailed to Gore, in order to “promote the proper use of science, rather than the opinion-led science we have seen lately.”
One of Armstrong’s students has set up a website: theclimatebet.com to track progress of the bet.
According to the site, Armstrong and fellow forecaster Kesten Green:
… have been conducting research into the global-warming forecasts put out by Gore and organisations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). And they discovered that most climate-change forecasters use bad methodology. They are set to present their findings at an International Symposium on Forecasting in New York on Wednesday. ‘What we have is climate forecasters effectively translating their own opinions into maths’, says Armstrong. ‘Their claims are not built on clear and thorough scientific forecasts but on their own outlooks.’
This is better than watching the World Series of Poker on ESPN.
It’s the upstart professor against the veteran politician/world’s most famous PowerPoint user.
The Canadian Financial Post recently featured an article suggesting that the sun is the most likely primary driver of temperature changes here on Earth.
The article is by R. Timothy Patterson, professor and director of the Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Centre, Department of Earth Sciences, Carleton University. He notes that the field of climate change has experienced significant growth in the past 10 year:
Climate-change research is now literally exploding with new findings. Since the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the field has had more research than in all previous years combined and the discoveries are completely shattering the myths. For example, I and the first-class scientists I work with are consistently finding excellent correlations between the regular fluctuations in the brightness of the sun and earthly climate. This is not surprising. The sun and the stars are the ultimate source of all energy on the planet.
Also of note is Patterson’s citing of a survey that indicates that, contrary to much of the certainty we hear from politicians and actors, the scientific community recognizes the complexity of trying to predict climate change:
“..the science of global climate change is still in its infancy, with many thousands of papers published every year. In a 2003 poll conducted by German environmental researchers Dennis Bray and Hans von Storch, two-thirds of more than 530 climate scientists from 27 countries surveyed did not believe that ‘the current state of scientific knowledge is developed well enough to allow for a reasonable assessment of the effects of greenhouse gases.’ About half of those polled stated that the science of climate change was not sufficiently settled to pass the issue over to policymakers at all.”
The article is an interesting read and part of a longer series.
[tags] global warming, climate change, solar activity, sun, Patterson,
On a recent appearance on Larry King Live, Al Gore was asked by a caller, ” …what issues caused by climate change globally are likely to affect the United States security in the next 10 years?”
As usual, the former next President, didn’t let the facts get in the way of a good story. Gore responded: (more…)
A few days ago we featured an article in the Financial Times by Czech President Vaclav Klaus, one of the few politicians who has not been swept up in the tsunami of climate change hysteria to “do something.”
In that article, Mr. Klaus offered to respond to questions submitted by readers. He did so in a wide ranging session in today’s Financial Times.
It takes up absurd amounts of time and space, it’s pretentious and elitist and, despite $500 worth of lessons, I can’t shoot better than 105.
On top of everything else, if this story from the Reno Gazette-Journal is any indication, golfers may be bigger contributors to global warming than a caravan of Exxon oil trucks.
It seems that a golfer at the Wildcreek golf course near Reno hit a bad tee shot that landed well into the rough. That’s when the fun started. According to the article:
When he tried to play back to the fairway, his club struck something that created a spark that started the fire.
The resulting brush fire burned close to 20 acres, required six fire engines to control and, even worse, backed up tee times for nearly seven hours.
It’s just this kind of environmental carelessness that ruins thing for other golfers. It won’t be long before country clubs start raising membership dues and adding an extra charge to cover a contingency fund for carbon offsets.
Plus, you know this guy is going to ask for a bunch of additional strokes on his handicap the next time he plays.
This is what makes golf so interesting. Just when you think you have it mastered, something happens to surprise you.
And just when you go through a full pack of matches trying to fire up your backyard barbecue, some clown comes along and starts a multi-acre conflagration with a set of titanium clubs from Wal Mart.
Inspired by no less a world figure than UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, we’re having our first ever Environmental Talk Contest.
The Game: Six Degrees of Global Warming
The Object: Link any problem in the world to global warming.
How To Play: Start with a problem. Link it to global warming through any kind of rigorous or tortured chain of logic you can come up with in a maximum of six steps. The problem can be one from the list provided below or it can be a problem of your choice. No problem is too big; no problem is too insignificant. Enter as often as you like.
Judging: A hand-picked panel of judges (me and the voices in my head) will select the Top 10 entries submitted this month. The 10 finalists will then be determined by popular vote.
Rules: Submit your entries either by typing them into the comments section of this post or by sending them to me directly by clicking on the Contact Me link on the right hand side of this page. Enter as often as you like. Entries will be judged on creativity, humor and penmanship.
Prizes: The winning entry will receive a three-book prize pack of global warming books consisting of: An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore
Shattered Consensus, by Patrick Michaels
The Sky is Falling: A Global Warming Survival Guide, by Cal Orey and Mark Jabo
Plus, we’ll post a picture or avatar (suitable for framing) of the winner.
Disclaimer: Void where prohibited by law. Past results do not guarantee future performance. Contents may have settled during shipping. Contest may cause muscle cramps, dizziness and, in some rare cases, stroke, rash or impotence. Consult your physician before attempting this, or any, contest. Contest should not be attempted by women who are pregnant or may become pregnant or by men who are dating or may at some point wish to date. Decision of the judges is final, unless they change their mind. Celebrity judges are compensated for appearances. Caution: Flammable. Contest is recommended by 4 out of 5 dentists. Not suitable for children under 10 years of age. All entries become property of New York City Department of Waste Management and cannot be returned without getting really gross. Mix ‘em..match ‘em..trade ‘em with your friends. May contain traces of peanuts or peanut by-products.
Some suggested topics to link global warming to (or choose your own):
- The Chicago Cubs’ extended failure to win the World Series
- Why there are no good roles in Hollywood for older actresses
- Lindsay Lohan’s drinking problem
- Why your car won’t start
- Misogynistic rap lyrics
- This weird rash on the back of my leg
- The decline of print media
- The alarming increase in amateur porn
If you’re a movie fan, you’ve probably played the trivia game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon at some point in your life. It’s that game where you try to connect any actor in Hollywood back to Kevin Bacon based on shared movie links.
Turns out that game is sooooo last century. The new, hip game is Six Degrees of Global Warming, where you connect anything bad that is going on in the world to global warming.
This week, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon decided to join the fun by linking global warming to the genocide in Darfur.
I’ve never really paid close attention to how the UN Secretary General is picked. I can only assume that the process starts by scouring the globe for anyone who has basic reasoning or problem-solving skills and then eliminating them from contention.
To say that global warming is responsible for tribal genocidal atrocities in Darfur both distracts from the real causes of the conflict and trivializes the devastation to advance a political agenda.
I’ll suggest that this type of silly rhetoric does nothing to help bolster the climate change cause because it simply highlights the opportunism and tortured logic these type of claims.
Hey, as long as we’re on the subject, let’s blame global warming for teen pregnancies, Paris Hilton’s legal problems and your kid flunking his latest math test.
Perhaps we should not be surprised that someone who grew up under communism has a better grasp of freedom than many Americans.
Vaclav Klaus is the president of the Czech Republic and grew up in that country under the totalitarian government that was in power there until the Velvet Revolution in 1989.
Maybe it’s just me, but the ideas appear eminently reasonable, especially when contrasted to much of the alarmist rhetoric that characterizes the current global warming debate.
Klaus offers up the following propositions:
- Small climate changes do not demand far-reaching restrictive measures
- Any suppression of freedom and democracy should be avoided
- Instead of organising people from above, let us allow everyone to live as he wants
- Let us resist the politicisation of science and oppose the term “scientific consensus”, which is always achieved only by a loud minority, never by a silent majority
- Instead of speaking about “the environment”, let us be attentive to it in our personal behaviour
- Let us be humble but confident in the spontaneous evolution of human society. Let us trust its rationality and not try to slow it down or divert it in any direction
- Let us not scare ourselves with catastrophic forecasts, or use them to defend and promote irrational interventions in human lives.
As I’ve noted on this site before, much of what I disagree with about the climate change discussion has to do with the endgame of how political power is wielded.
Mr. Klaus phrases this more elegantly when he says, “The issue of global warming is more about social than natural sciences and more about man and his freedom than about tenths of a degree Celsius changes in average global temperature.”
Both from Maine. One has eyes that move independently, the other goes good with melted butter
The only thing I know about Maine is that it’s famous for lobsters and Stephen King. They’re both creepy, but there’s another eerie story coming out of the Pine Tree State today that’s creating a bit of a stir…
It seems that some fourth graders were given an assignment to do a project about global warming. Well, maybe not given an assignment so much as directed to produce a report that repeated some of the most extreme assertions made by climate change doom sayers.
There seems to be some question as to whether these children of the con actually wrote the report they are claimed to have authored.
Decide for yourself if the following excerpts are indicative of a fourth-grader’s grasp of the issues and a 10-year-old’s writing style:
“The United States is the leading contributor to the global-warming crisis, producing one-third of the total greenhouse gases in the world, more than South America, Africa, Asia and Australia combined.”
“Greenland and the Arctic ice shelf are melting faster each year and will disappear in our lifetime if our fossil fuel usage continues unchecked.”
“Because the United States contributes one-third of the carbon dioxide emissions worldwide, here are seven sensible ways to save our seven beautiful continents”
“All the facts we have presented are true, real, and will shape our future unless decisive action is taken.”
In fourth grade I very clearly remember telling my homeroom teacher, Mrs. Caulder, “If Bobby’s hostilities toward me remain unchecked, I will be compelled to take decisive action.”
Jesus! Even Charles Dickens didn’t write like that in fourth grade.
I have to be honest, I hate these situations where kids are force-fed some dogma whether it’s global warming, intelligent design or that the purple Teletubby is a homosexual.
Elementary school should not be used to groom kids to be platform-spouting Democrats or Republicans.
How about teaching kids the basic skills they need in order to be able to think? Then, let them make up their own minds as they get older, acquire more knowledge and make the mistake of adding their names to a political fund raising mailing list.
While we’re at it, let’s leave scaring children to the experts - the people who make anti-drug ads.
I’ll be the first one to admit I don’t understand soccer. I’ll also be the first one to admit that I don’t understand a lot of the hysteria surrounding global warming.
So, you can imagine how confused I am about the latest invention that combines soccer and concern about global warming. ET’s favorite sports blog, With Leather, broke this story yesterday, so I’ve had a whole day to try to figure it out.
It seems someone has invented a soccer cleat that releases fertilizer into the pitch every time a player takes a step. Somehow, this is supposed to be better for the environment since it will help the grass grow after the players have chewed it up after 90 minutes of running around and not scoring.
It should also help offset the carbon footprint of 175,000 fans throwing burning seat cushions and empty sangria bottles at the end of every game.
About the only way to make soccer more interesting would be to play the first half with standard rules and fertilizer spikes and then play the second half with no rules and razor sharp aerating cleats.
It would be like soccer and bullfighting all wrapped up into one violent, foreign-speaking spectacle.
Last chance to bring in American viewers
At least then soccer might have a chance at getting picked up by Spike-TV.
Environmental Talk is a blog that attempts to do the impossible . . . which is to have a reasoned and nuanced approach to the science and issues surrounding global warming. At the same time, we are not above taking the occasional potshot at the extremists and posers on both sides of the topic.
As a global warming agnostic, blogger/moderator Mark Jabo attempts to come down squarely on the side of finding humor in what is, too often, a needlessly contentious topic.
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global warming, climate change, Big Oil, little seawater, Prius, obsolete, 
