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| 5/24 |
| 2007/3/5-7 [Science/GlobalWarming] UID:45877 Activity:kinda low 90%like:45874 |
3/5 Global Warming skeptics grow
http://preview.tinyurl.com/22vodw (canada.com)
\_ Aw, the little wingnuts are hitting puberty?
\_ The latest entry is Jasper Kirby--not typically considered a
wingnut.
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/archives/story.html?id=975f250d-ca5d-4f40-b687-a1672ed1f684
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ystlm3 (canada.com)
\_ If you've got nothing to say, personal attack is the way to go.
\_ The Mercury News ran an editorial on this today:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/yu7dwl (mercurynews.com)
\_ "Is it worth destroying our economy and lifestyle based on an
unproven theory which does not correlate with historical
observations?" Are we trying to "destroy" our economy?
\_ The truth is that Global Warming is becoming the consensus
scientific opinion, not that they "grow." Unless you mean
scientific opinion, not that "skeptics grow." Unless you mean
critics amongst the "Fox News" viewer crowd, perhaps.
\_ I thought it already was the consensus opinion. That's what I've
read for years. Except for all those scientists who don't agree
but every single one of them is obviously an oil company shill
divying part of Exxon's $16m/5 years which isn't too smart
considering the billions paid to affirm human caused GW.
\_ No, there are still plenty of good scientists who remain
skeptical of the idea of anthropogenic global warming.
\_ Well, let's pull their tenure and cancel their grants and
make sure their papers and books aren't published. |
| 5/24 |
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| preview.tinyurl.com/22vodw -> www.canada.com/nationalpost/environment/story.html?id=c6a32614-f906-4597-993d-f181196a6d71&k=0 Liberals try to get their groove back Climate change: The Deniers National Post Published: Friday, February 09, 2007 The Post's series on scientists who buck the conventional wisdom on climate science. |
| www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/archives/story.html?id=975f250d-ca5d-4f40-b687-a1672ed1f684 Liberals try to get their groove back Clouded research LAWRENCE SOLOMON, Financial Post Published: Friday, February 23, 2007 Jasper Kirkby is a superb scientist, but he has been a lousy politician. In 1998, anticipating he'd be leading a path-breaking experiment into the sun's role in global warming, he made the mistake of stating that the sun and cosmic rays "will probably be able to account for somewhere between a half and the whole of the increase in the Earth's temperature that we have seen in the last century." Global warming, he theorized, may be part of a natural cycle in the Earth's temperature. Kirkby was immediately condemned by climate scientists for minimizing the role of human beings in global warming. Kirkby by citing scientists who feared oil-industry lobbyists would use his statements to discredit the greenhouse effect. Kirkby's path-breaking experiment -- seemingly a sure thing when he first announced his proposal-- was put on ice. Kirkby was stunned, and not just because the experiment he was about to run had support within his scientific institute, and was widely expected to have profound significance. Kirkby was also stunned because his institute is CERN, and science performed at CERN had never before seemed so vulnerable to whims of government funders. CERN, based in Geneva, is the European Organization for Nuclear Research, a 50-yearold institution, originally founded by 12 countries and now counting 20 country-members. It services 6,500 particle physicists -- half of the world's total -- in 500 institutes and universities around the world. And it is home to Jasper Kirkby's long-languished CLOUD project, among the most significant scientific experiments to be proposed in our time. Kirkby's proposal first saw the light of day, the funding is in place and the work has begun in earnest. The CLOUD (Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets) laboratory experiment, CERN believes, will show the mechanisms through which the sun and cosmic rays can influence the formation of clouds and thus the climate. The CLOUD project will use a high-energy particle beam from an accelerator to closely duplicate cosmic rays found in the atmosphere. This will be the first time this technology will be brought to bear on global warming, the most controversial scientific question of the day. Also for the first time, very basic answers about the drivers of climate change may surface to dispel the general paucity of data on the subject. "By studying the micro-physical processes at work when cosmic rays hit the atmosphere, we can begin to understand more fully the connection between cosmic rays and cloud cover," CERN explains. "Clouds exert a strong influence on the Earth's energy balance, and changes of only a few per cent have an important effect on the climate." Kirkby has assembled a dream team of atmospheric physicists, solar physicists, and cosmic ray and particle physicists from 18 institutes around the world, including the California Institute of Technology and Germany's Max-Planck Institutes, with preliminary data expected to arrive this coming summer. The world of particle physics is awaiting these results with much anticipation because they promise to unlock mysteries that can tell us much about climate change, as well as other phenomena. The world of climate science, in contrast, is all but ignoring the breakthroughs in climate knowledge that CERN is about to reveal. |
| preview.tinyurl.com/ystlm3 -> www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/archives/story.html?id=975f250d-ca5d-4f40-b687-a1672ed1f684 Liberals try to get their groove back Clouded research LAWRENCE SOLOMON, Financial Post Published: Friday, February 23, 2007 Jasper Kirkby is a superb scientist, but he has been a lousy politician. In 1998, anticipating he'd be leading a path-breaking experiment into the sun's role in global warming, he made the mistake of stating that the sun and cosmic rays "will probably be able to account for somewhere between a half and the whole of the increase in the Earth's temperature that we have seen in the last century." Global warming, he theorized, may be part of a natural cycle in the Earth's temperature. Kirkby was immediately condemned by climate scientists for minimizing the role of human beings in global warming. Kirkby by citing scientists who feared oil-industry lobbyists would use his statements to discredit the greenhouse effect. Kirkby's path-breaking experiment -- seemingly a sure thing when he first announced his proposal-- was put on ice. Kirkby was stunned, and not just because the experiment he was about to run had support within his scientific institute, and was widely expected to have profound significance. Kirkby was also stunned because his institute is CERN, and science performed at CERN had never before seemed so vulnerable to whims of government funders. CERN, based in Geneva, is the European Organization for Nuclear Research, a 50-yearold institution, originally founded by 12 countries and now counting 20 country-members. It services 6,500 particle physicists -- half of the world's total -- in 500 institutes and universities around the world. And it is home to Jasper Kirkby's long-languished CLOUD project, among the most significant scientific experiments to be proposed in our time. Kirkby's proposal first saw the light of day, the funding is in place and the work has begun in earnest. The CLOUD (Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets) laboratory experiment, CERN believes, will show the mechanisms through which the sun and cosmic rays can influence the formation of clouds and thus the climate. The CLOUD project will use a high-energy particle beam from an accelerator to closely duplicate cosmic rays found in the atmosphere. This will be the first time this technology will be brought to bear on global warming, the most controversial scientific question of the day. Also for the first time, very basic answers about the drivers of climate change may surface to dispel the general paucity of data on the subject. "By studying the micro-physical processes at work when cosmic rays hit the atmosphere, we can begin to understand more fully the connection between cosmic rays and cloud cover," CERN explains. "Clouds exert a strong influence on the Earth's energy balance, and changes of only a few per cent have an important effect on the climate." Kirkby has assembled a dream team of atmospheric physicists, solar physicists, and cosmic ray and particle physicists from 18 institutes around the world, including the California Institute of Technology and Germany's Max-Planck Institutes, with preliminary data expected to arrive this coming summer. The world of particle physics is awaiting these results with much anticipation because they promise to unlock mysteries that can tell us much about climate change, as well as other phenomena. The world of climate science, in contrast, is all but ignoring the breakthroughs in climate knowledge that CERN is about to reveal. |
| preview.tinyurl.com/yu7dwl -> www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/16836601.htm reprint or license this Scientific consensus' on global warming doesn't exist By Robert Cohen The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change summary, released Feb. More recent comments in various media outlets have focused on a scientific consensus which supports the panel's conclusions. Those who question this consensus have been compared to Holocaust deniers, and some have been threatened with job dismissal. I do not agree with all of the IPCC conclusions and know through peer discussions that the idea of a consensus in the meteorological community is false. The IPCC was formed under UN auspices, and while each expert contributed a few pages of the report, the final publication was vetted through governmental committees before release, where significant changes could be made. The documents signed by the contributing experts note that they agree with the pages they contributed, but not necessarily the complete report nor its conclusions. The most glaring is that the models on which the conclusions depend do not agree with various sets of observations. Following are a few specific examples: The summary notes an increase in mean sea level of 7 inches during the 20th century, with a forecast rise of an additional 7 to 23 inches by 2100. Observations, however, do not agree with these predictions. Stockholm, which has the world's longest sea level measurement record of about 1,200 years, has shown increases in sea level of only plus-or-minus 006 inches per year, with an average very close to zero; these observations are well below the model predictions. The Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu , barely above sea level, has requested permission to move its people to Australia or New Zealand, based on the predicted sea level rise. However, satellite data and sea level measurements indicate falling sea level at the island. The models predict that temperature increases will appear first at the poles. However, data published after the release of the IPCC Summary indicate that temperatures in the Antarctic have not increased during the previous 50 years. Those data frequently quoted in the media of increasing temperatures are only from a small region occupied by scientists; the Antarctic region as a whole does not show rising temperatures. Away from the earth's surface, models predict that temperature trends should show a strong increase with height, particularly in the tropics. However, observations indicate upper atmosphere temperatures showing flat or decreasing temperature trends. Research has also shown that slight changes in energy from the sun can significantly affect the earth, particularly in terms of clouds, which are a weak link in the global warming models. The level and amount of cloud can determine whether temperatures will warm as the cloud layer limits heat dissipation to space or whether temperatures will cool as the sun's incoming energy is reflected back to space before reaching the Earth's surface. Temperature has fluctuated significantly in the past, with shorter-term cooling and warming trends of about 1,500 years superimposed on long-term cycles of ice ages and glacial melting. The 1,500-year cycle includes the Medieval Warming Period and the Little Ice Age, which together extended from about 900 to 1850 AD During the former, literature and archaeology provide evidence that the Vikings found grapes in Newfoundland, naming their new settlement Vinland. The Little Ice Age was associated with major diseases which were rampant, due at least partially to the cold weather. As the Arctic ice edge advanced, Inuit hunters in kayaks were observed as far south as Scotland around 1700. It has yet to be determined whether we are in a warming period which is part of the normal climate cycle. Is it worth destroying our economy and lifestyle based on an unproven theory which does not correlate with historical observations? |
| mercurynews.com -> www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/ Sharks Get First Win in Western Finals Evgeni Nabokov finally got a victory over his former backup. He also got the San Jose Sharks back in the Western Conference finals. Arnold Schwarzenegger released a $103 billion plan for restoring California's financial health Thursday that calls for cutting spending in all departments and services but backs away from some of the most painful reductions he proposed in January. Rumsfeld: No cover-up of abuses Hoping to contain a spreading scandal, Defense Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld went to the Abu Ghraib prison camp and insisted the Pentagon did not try to cover up abuses there. Canada's team Sharks face a frenzy in Calgary Oh sure, we like our Sharks. A lot of people are very passionate about the San Jose team. On game day, there are thousands of team jerseys worn in town. A few people even have Sharks flags attached to their car. Brotherly bond SJSU'S FRANDSEN INSPIRED BY CANCER-STRICKEN SIBLING Senior third baseman Kevin Frandsen, told by several colleges that he wasn't good enough to merit a scholarship, is one hit from breaking San Jose State's career record. But the true marvel is that his brother DJ is alive to see it. Opening this weekend "Troy" abounds with buff bodies, epic battle scenes and Greek history lessons, "Breakin' All the Rules" is "Pillow Talk" for the hip-hop generation, "Twilight Samurai" creeps into your affections with admirable stealth, and "James' Journey to Jerusalem" is a wise, clever Israeli film. Google to place ads with images In a key departure from its text-only advertising strategy, search engine leader Google said Wednesday that will it begin to accept the banner-like image ads that are common on other parts of the Internet. |