Love this article from “watts up with that”
A few photos of submarines surfaced at the North Pole to give you the jist:
Skate (SSN-578), surfaced at the North Pole, 17 March 1959. Image from NAVSOURCE
Seadragon (SSN-584), foreground, and her sister Skate (SSN-578) during a rendezvous at the North Pole in August 1962
This one speaks for itself!
Keep an eye on the ice for your self here
Global warming threatens economic chaos in SE Asia-ADB saw this link on Reuters today
“MANILA, April 27 (Reuters) – Southeast Asia is one of the world’s most vulnerable regions to climate change and could face conflict over failing rice yields, lack of water and high economic costs, a major Asian Development Bank report shows.
The region’s economies could lose as much as 6.7 percent of combined gross domestic product yearly by 2100, more than twice the global average loss, according to the ADB’s report on the economics of climate change in Southeast Asia.
“By the end of this century, the economy-wide cost each year on average could reach 2.2 percent of GDP, if only market impact is considered…(to) 6.7 percent of GDP when catastrophic risks are also taken into account,” the British-government funded report said.”
I can’t see why our government are wasting money on this report. While predicting future climate or even tomorrow’s weather with any real accuracy is completely beyond us we now start paying good money to speculate on South East Asia’s economy in 2100. This report seems to presume that what contributes their GDP now will be similar in nearly 100 years . This whole business of speculating on the economy or climate in the distant future is utterly pointless and certainly shouldn’t be the basis of funding decisions. The late great Michael Crichton once said that if you asked people in 1900 what the major issues would be in 2000 it would have been things like “how will they have enough horses for everyone?” and “what will they do with all that horse shit? “ (I’m paraphrasing as I cant find his essay). Our rate of technological development is increasing so its getting harder not easier to predict the future. A further quote from Crichton on the matter gives food for thought:
“Last, I want you to think about what it means to say that we are going to act now to address something 100 years from now. People say this with confidence; we hear that the people of the future will condemn us if we don’t act. But is that true?
We’re at the start of the 21st century, looking ahead. We’re just like someone in 1900, thinking about the year 2000. Could someone in 1900 have helped us?
Here is Teddy Roosevelt, a major environmental figure from 1900. These are some of the words that he does not know the meaning of:
airport, antibiotic, antibody, antenna, computer, continentaldrift, tectonic plates, zipper, nylon, radio, television, robot, video, virus, gene, proton, neutron, atomic structure, quark, atomic bomb, nuclear energy, ecosystem, jumpsuits, fingerprints, step aerobics, 12-step, jet stream, shell shock, shock wave, radio wave, microwave, tidal,wave, tsunami, IUD, DVD, MP3, MRI, HIV, SUV, VHS, VAT, whiplash, wind tunnel, carpal tunnel, fiber optics, direct dialing, dish antennas, gorilla, corneal transplant, liver transplant, heart transplant, liposuction, transduction, maser, taser laser, acrylic, penicillin, Internet, interferon, nylon, rayon, leisure suit, leotard, lap dancing, laparoscopy, arthroscopy, gene therapy, bipolar, moonwalk, spot welding, heat-seeking, Prozac, sunscreen, urban legends, rollover minutes
Given all those changes, is there anything Teddy could have done in 1900 to help us? And aren’t we in his position right now, with regard to 2100?
Think how incredibly the world has changed in 100 years. It will change vastly more in the next century. A hundred years ago there were no airplanes and almost no cars. Do you really believe that 100 years from now we will still be burning fossil fuels and driving around in cars and airplanes? “
Read the full text here
Great article from ihatethemedia.com
I particularly liked:
“Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support…the following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution…by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half….”
• Life Magazine, January 1970
Christopher Brooker of the Telegraph is a rare breed of modern journalist who actually talks sense on a whole range of issues, here are a series of great articles he has written on Climate Change
Nobody listens to the real climate change experts
Why should we pay for the beliefs of others?
The ‘Global Warming Three’ are on thin ice
Rise of sea levels is ‘the greatest lie ever told’
best quote from this one:
“One of his most shocking discoveries was why the IPCC has been able to show sea levels rising by 2.3mm a year. Until 2003, even its own satellite-based evidence showed no upward trend. But suddenly the graph tilted upwards because the IPCC’s favoured experts had drawn on the finding of a single tide-gauge in Hong Kong harbour showing a 2.3mm rise. The entire global sea-level projection was then adjusted upwards by a “corrective factor” of 2.3mm, because, as the IPCC scientists admitted, they “needed to show a trend”.”
Yet more mind-boggling figures on global warming
‘Save the planet’ rhetoric soars to crazy new heights
Climate ‘denial’ is now a mental disorder – can I get time off “on the sick” for that?
Check out all his stuff here
Great article and interview from climate depot
“Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.” Andre Gide
“Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true. [paraphrased]” Buddha
“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive and unrealistic” JFK
“If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.” Mark Twain
“In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.” Mark Twain
I wont pretend to have any real grip or understanding of the Israel/Palestine/middle east situation, how many people really do and who can view the situation in an unbiased manner on either side when the press is rarely balanced on the issue. The walkout at Durban was accompanied in the press by the usual mass condemnation of Iran and support for Israel in the British media. Here is some of what the Iranian President said:
“Many years passed by before nations rose up and fought for their liberty and freedom, and they paid a high price. They lost millions of lives to expel the occupiers and proclaim their independence. However, it did not take long that the coercive powers imposed two wars in Europe which also plagued a part of Asia and Africa. Those horrific wars claimed about 100 million lives and left behind massive devastation. Had lessons been learned from the occupations, horrors, and crimes of those wars, there would have been a ray of hope for the future. The victorious powers called themselves the conquerors of the world while ignoring or downtreading the rights of other nations by the imposition of oppressive laws and international arrangements.
Ladies and gentlemen, let us take a look at the U.N. Security Council, which is one of the legacies of World War II and World War I. What was the logic behind their granting themselves the veto rights? How can such a logic comply with humanitarian or spiritual values? Could it be in conformity with the recognized principles of justice, equality before law, love, and human dignity? [Applause] Or rather, with discrimination, injustice, violation of human rights, or humiliation of the majority of nations and countries?
That Council is the highest decision-making world body for safeguarding the international peace and security. How can we expect the realization of justice and peace when discrimination is legalized and the origin of law is dominated by coercion and force rather than by justice and the right?
Coercion and arrogance is the origin of oppression and wars. Although today many proponents of racism condemn racial discrimination in their words and in their slogans, a number of powerful countries have been authorized to decide for other nations based on their own interests and at their own discretions. And they can easily ridicule and violate all laws and humanitarian values, as they have done so.
Following World War II, they resorted to military aggression to make an entire nation homeless on the pretext of Jewish sufferings. And they sent migrants from Europe, the United States, and other parts of the world in order to establish a totally racist government in the occupied Palestine… [Delegates walk out in protest. Applause] And in fact in compensation for the dire consequences of racism in Europe… Okay, please. Thank you. And in fact in compensation for the dire consequences of racism in Europe, they helped bring to power the most cruel and repressive, racist regime in Palestine. “
Full text can be found here.
While what he said is certainly inflammatory I cant help but think that walking out rather than allowing an equal expression of views defeats the object of a conference on racism. I think that it is clear that their is racism inherent on both sides of the Israel/Palestine dispute and only by understanding both sides can a resolution begin. Israel have made more inflammatory statements in the past but with far less outcry in the Western media.
“[The Palestinians] are beasts walking on two legs.” -Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, “Begin and the ‘Beasts,”‘ (New Statesman, June 25,1982).
In particular I found the comments about the UN security council very interesting. When we in the West are trying to preach democracy to other nations the very undemocratic veto system is ridiculous.
Interesting developments in the search for 911 truth, read the article here
