Topic: WE'RE STUFFED!!!

[nichi]

I've thought more than a few times, if I had the funds, I'd buy some land and prepare a place in the least inhabited area I could find, but I don't think there is a place that would really provide safety....

Yes about that dream! I've also had that dream.

[Jahn]

I've thought more than a few times, if I had the funds, I'd buy some land and prepare a place in the least inhabited area I could find, but I don't think there is a place that would really provide safety.... and what is life if we have to live it in constant fear. 

The place in mind was perhaps not thought to bring "safety" but connection and solitude together with Nature. I don't know, but I have such a place myself, at least the next years.

[dc_chance]

The place in mind was perhaps not thought to bring "safety" but connection and solitude together with Nature. I don't know, but I have such a place myself, at least the next years.

I've often thought since I was young, that I was born a century or two too late... or even more. I would have loved to be an explorer... I am driven to see what is over the horizon, around the next curve in the road or the next bend in the river.. or over the next hill....

And yeah, my desire to get away from "civil" society is in large part to connect with nature. That is where I connect most readily with Spirit.

A recurring wish the past year or so.. is that I could just walk away from all of the stuff..... and just be a hermit.. years ago, I would not have understood that desire... in me or anyone else, but now I find it would suit me well.

But..........

Something drives me to still connect with people... as hard as that is for someone with a personality like mine to do... I am a loner.... yet I hate the lonesomeness of that.... dichotomy....... yin/yang.. cycle.. turn of the wheel.. balance.. whatever.... but something drives me to want to help others awaken if I am able... part of me thinks as we learn.... we need to pass what we have learned on to others on the path.. or not yet on the path...

Trouble is... I don't know a damn thing that is of much use to me or anyone else...

So.. I am torn.... leave it all and walk into the woodlands and worry about nothing but my evolution.... or stay and fight and try to help others see there are other pathways besides the collective dream.

And truth be told, I won't do a good job at either choice.. but such is life.

[dc_chance]

Yes about that dream! I've also had that dream.

Smiling.... I have walked in a few places where I would dearly love to spend my last days.... reality is, I will probably end my days where I am now.... there is beauty to be found in almost every place I have ever been... if I can only remember to open my eyes and see with my heart....... maybe someday I can do that more easily..... :-)

[erik]

Ancient skills 'could reverse global warming'

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/ancient-skills-could-reverse-global-warming-1055700.html

Trials begin of a technique used by Amazon Indians that takes CO2 and locks it safely into soil

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
Sunday, 7 December 2008

Ancient techniques pioneered by pre-Columbian Amazonian Indians are about to be pressed into service in Britain and Central America in the most serious commercial attempt yet to reverse global warming.

Trials are to be started in Sussex and Belize early in the new year, backed with venture capital from Silicon Valley, on techniques to take carbon from the atmosphere and bury it in the soil, where it should act as a powerful fertiliser.

The plan is to scale up rapidly into a worldwide enterprise to reverse the build-up of carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming, in the atmosphere and eventually bring it back to pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

The ambitious enterprise – which on Friday received its first multimillion-pound investment from California – is the brainchild of two of Britain's most successful environmental entrepreneurs: Craig Sams, one of the founders of the best-selling Green & Black's organic chocolate, and Dan Morrell, who co-founded Future Forests, the first carbon offsetting company.

They aim to grow trees and plants to absorb CO2 and then trap the carbon by turning the resulting biomass into "biochar", a fine-grained form of charcoal that can be buried in the soil, keeping it safely locked up for thousands of years.

The pre-Columbian Indians used biochar to make the poor soils of the rainforest – which otherwise quickly become exhausted – productive for harvest after harvest. It is still there today, many hundreds of years later, forming islands of black fertile earth in the otherwise unpromising ground.

But it is now being widely cited as a possible solution to global warming by scientists shocked at how climate change is taking place much faster than predicted and convinced that the world must now start not just rapidly to reduce CO2 emissions, but to get the greenhouse gas out of the air.

Among them is Professor James Hansen, director of Nasa's Goddard Institute of Space Studies and probably the world's most respected climate scientist, who believes CO2 concentrations must urgently be reduced from its present 385 parts per million to 350 if global warming is not to run out of control. International negotiations – continuing this weekend in Poznan, Poland – are aimed at stabilising them at the higher level of 450ppm.

Trees and plants soak up carbon dioxide as they grow, but release it again as they are burned or left to rot. But burning them largely in the absence of oxygen, through pyrolysis, reduces the amount of the gas emitted by 90 per cent, and stores the carbon in the charcoal instead. It also gives off energy that can be used as an efficient biofuel.

If the resulting biochar is then buried in the ground it will stay there for some 5,000 years, keeping the carbon out of the atmosphere, and nourishing the soil while it is there. It also cuts down on the use of fertilisers; reduces the emission of methane and nitrous oxides, which are also greenhouse gases, from the ground; filters out pollutants; and retains water, thus combating flooding.

The new enterprise will start with wood grown in Suffolk and with prunings from the Belize cacao trees that supply Green & Black's chocolate. But its founders hope that it will rapidly become a worldwide industry.

Mr Sams calculates that if just two and a half per cent of the world's productive land were used to produce biochar, carbon dioxide could be returned to pre-Industrial Revolution levels by 2050.

He said: "Biomass from trees and plants, which captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, is a treasure to be buried in the earth."

[Jennifer-]

 

[erik]

The more details emerge, the more it all looks like Pak operation. These men seem to have been way too well organised and trained.

The audacious attack which took a year to plan

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/3535801/The-audacious-attack-which-took-a-year-to-plan.html
 
By Rahul Bedi in Bombay and Sean Rayment, Security correspondent
Last Updated: 2:27PM GMT 08 Dec 2008

Ten terrorists dedicated to fighting for an independent Kashmir were selected for an operation from which they were likely never to return.

The tactics were relatively simple: to strike at multiple targets while simultaneously slaughtering as many civilians as possible before going "static" in three of the locations within the city.

But such a plan would require a year of planning, reconnaissance, the covert acquisition of ships and speed boats as well as the forward basing of weapons and ammunition secretly hidden inside at least one hotel.

Nothing would be left to chance. Even the times of the tides were checked and rechecked to ensure that the terrorists would be able to arrive when their first target, the Café Leopold, was full of unsuspecting tourists enjoying the balmy Bombay (Mumbai) evening.

The preparations for the atrocity began a year earlier in a remote mountain camp in Muzaffarabad, in Pakistan- administered Kashmir, according to the interrogation of a 19-year-old believed to be the only member of the terrorist unit to be captured alive.

The Sunday Telegraph has been shown details of the interrogation which provide the first clues to the identity of the terrorists and the amount of detail which went into the planning of the operation.

Qasab has revealed to his interrogators that most of the volunteers spoke his native Punjabi and that all of them were given false names and were discouraged from interacting with each other beyond what was barely necessary.

During the months of training they were taught the use of explosives and close quarter combat. It was ingrained upon every man that ammunition would be in short supply and therefore every bullet should count.

The terrorists were also taught marine commando techniques such as beach landings at another camp at the Mangla Dam, located on the border between Pakistan-administered Kashmir and India's Punjab province.

Qasab revealed that once their training was complete, his team of four travelled to the garrison town of Rawalpindi, where they were joined by another six terrorists, who had been trained at other camps close by.

It was in Rawalpindi that the 10-man team were briefed in detail with digitised images of their prospective targets – the Taj Mahal and Oberoi Hotels, the Jewish Centre and the Victoria Terminus railway station. Each member of the team memorised street names and routes to each location. Qasab told his interrogators that most of the targeting information came from a reconnaissance team which had selected the targets earlier in the year.

From Rawalpindi, the team then moved to the eastern port of Karachi where they chartered the merchant ship MV Alpha and headed for Bombay.

It was during this crucial phase, as the cargo ship headed into the Arabian Sea, that the terrorists appeared to almost lose their nerve. The Indian navy, Qasab revealed, were very active, boarding foreign vessels and searching their holds. The terrorists thought their plan might be compromised so on the night of 15th/16th November, the teams used their inflatable speed boats to hijack a local fishing boat, the Kuber.

Qasab also admitted to his interrogators that three of the Kuber's four crew were immediately murdered, while the ship's captain was ordered to sail for the Indian coast. When the Kuber was within five miles of the coast, the terrorists slit the captain's throat and transferred back into their inflatable speed boats and headed for the lights of Bombay.

On landing the 10-man team, stripped off their orange wind breakers and began hoisting large heavy packs onto their shoulders.

Kashinath Patil, the 72-year-old harbour master, who spotted the boats moor alongside the harbour wall was immediately suspicious and asked them what they were doing. "I said: 'Where are you going? What's in your bags?'" Mr Patil recalled. "They said: 'We don't want any attention. Don't bother us."

The terrorists then split into two-man teams and launched their attacks.

Major General RK Hooda, the senior Indian commander, acknowledged the group, the Deccan Mujadeen, were better equipped and had a better knowledge of the battleground than India's soldiers.

After the battle, one member of India's National Security Guard, who led one of the assault groups against the terrorists occupying the Taj Mahal hotel, said they were the "best fighters" he had ever encountered.

He said: "They were obviously trained by professionals in urban guerrilla fighting. They used their environment and situation brilliantly, leading us (the NSG) on a dangerous chase through various tiers of the hotel which they obviously knew well. Their fire discipline too was excellent and they used their ammunition judiciously, mostly to draw us out.

"It was amply clear they came to kill a large number of people and to eventually perish in their horrific endeavour," he said. "Negotiating with the Indian authorities or escaping was not an option for them."

[erik]

This article is interesting as it attempts to talk about "environmental justice". Poor countries say: "We did not cause the climate change, why punish and tax our economies? It is a rich man's problem, we only want to be as well off as they are."

That thought struck me. Miguel Ruiz and Kris Raphael say that one should not be that depressed because of the state of the world as it is no fault of any given individual. This article says that it might not even be the fault of poorer countries. Thus...continuing this way, we could reach the point where one can say - it is nobody's fault. It just is like it is. We did not live at the times of industrial revolution and dark times, it's a fault of those who lived then that the world has taken a direction it follows today.

Reincarnation theory posits a different view. There are deeds and there are seeds, and there are subsequent incarnations.

Wetter and wilder: the signs of warming everywhere

In the third part of our series on the eve of the Poznan conference, we look at how climate change is already changing ordinary people's lives from Australia to Brazil

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/dec/10/poznan-brazil-climate-change-environment

    * John Vidal in Immaculada, Brazil
    * The Guardian, Wednesday December 10 2008
    * Article history

Joao da Antonio's eyes are full of tears. If good rains do not come, he says, he will pack his bag, kiss his wife and two children goodbye and join the annual exodus of young men leaving hot, dry rural north-east Brazil for the biofuel fields in the south.

Da Antonio, 19, can earn about £30 a month for 10 hours gruelling work a day cutting sugar cane to make ethanol, and more than a million small farmers like him migrate south for six months of the year because the land can no longer support them. Tens of thousands a year never return, forced to move permanently to Sao Paulo or another of Brazil's cities in search of work.

"Life here is one of suffering," Da Antonio said. "I will do anything to earn some money. None of us want to die, but the lack of water here will kill us. "

Around the world, millions of people like Da Antonio are feeling the force of a changing climate. As UN negotiations towards a global climate deal continue in Poznan, Poland, this week, evidence is emerging of weather patterns in turmoil and the poorest nations disproportionately bearing the brunt of warming.

While rich countries at the talks seek to set up global carbon trading, using financial markets to tackle - and profit from - climate change, poor countries want justice. They are seeking environmental justice: money to adapt their economies to climate changes they did not cause, and technology and resources to allow them to escape poverty while preserving their forests and ecosystems.

The fast and unpredictable shifts in weather are not threats for the future, but happening right now. "The frequency of heatwaves and heavy precipitation is increasing; cyclones are becoming more frequent and intense; more areas are being affected by droughts; and flooding is now more serious," says Sheridan Bartlett, a researcher with the International Institute for Environment and Development in a new study looking at the effects of climate change on children.

"Increasingly unpredictable weather now affects hundreds of millions of farmers, resulting in food and water shortages, more illnesses and water-borne diseases, malnutrition, soil erosion, and disruption to water supplies," she says. Such changes confound the received wisdom of how to live on the land.

North-east Brazil has always known droughts, but they are becoming longer and more frequent, say scientists and farmers. "Climate change is biting. It is much hotter than it used to be and it stays hotter for longer. The rain has become more sporadic. It comes at different times of the year now and farmers cannot tell when to plant," says Lindon Carlos, an agronomist with Brazilian group Acev.

Brazilian scientists have recorded changes in the lifecycles of plants, greater oscillations in temperature and more water shortages, all consistent with the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predictions of a devastating 3-4C rise in temperatures within 60 years if climate change is not halted. "All the research points to it becoming drier [in north-east Brazil]. In the last 30 years temperatures have risen by 1C. There is more very heavy rainfall over short periods and more evaporation," says Eneida Cavalcanti, a desertification specialist at the Joaquim Nabuco foundation in Recife.

On the other side of the world, the changing climate is wreaking havoc in a different way on low-lying and populous Bangladesh. There, government meteorologists this year reported a 10% increase in intensity and frequency in major cyclones hitting the country - two of the most powerful cyclones ever recorded have hit the country in the last three years.

"We are getting too much water in the rainy season and too little in the dry season. All this has implications for food security," says Raja Debashish Roy, Bangladesh's environment minister.

"We are learning about climate change," said Anawarul Islam, chair of the Deara district of about 2,500 people in the far south of the county. "This village is experiencing more rainfall and flooding every year. It has led to more homeless people and more conflict. "

"It's far warmer now," says one villager, Selina. "We do not feel cold in the rainy season. We used to need blankets, but now we don't. There is extreme uncertainty of weather. It makes it very hard to farm and we cannot plan. We have to be more reactive. The storms are increasing and the tides now come right up to our houses."

The balmy Caribbean is also being churned up with increasing frequency and ferocity. This year, the region experienced eight hurricanes and five major hurricanes, the second highest ever, and the hurricane season lasted a record five months.

"A warmer climate poses in some cases insurmountable challenges to the region. We face more hurricanes, coral bleaching and flooding," said Neville Trotz, science adviser to the Caribbean community climate change centre.

Across the Atlantic, in Africa, the theme unfolds further: climate change turning already bad situations in poor countries into potential catastrophe, and driving people to absolute poverty. Alexandre Tique, at Mozambique's national meteorological institute, says: "Analysis of the temperature data gathered in our provincial capitals, where we have meteorological stations that have kept continuous data over the years, shows a clear increase in temperature. Extreme events are becoming more frequent. We now see many more tropical cyclones that bring flooding, destruction and loss of lives."

Other African communities are suffering. In the village of Chikani, in Zambia, the farmers last year prepared their fields for planting in November, as they have always done, but the rains were very late for the third year running.

"We waited, but the first drop didn't fall till December 20. After a day, the rains stopped. Three weeks later, it started to rain again. But then it stopped again after a few days. Since then, we have had no rain. We have never known anything like this before," says Julius Njame.

From the plains of Africa, to mountaintop Nepal, where there is no respite from the weather in flux. Villages like Ketbari expect a small flood to wash off the hills every decade or so, now they seem to be annual and getting more serious.

"We always used to have a little rain each month, but now when there is rain it's very different. It's more concentrated and intense. It means that crop yields are going down," says Tekmadur Majsi, whose lands have been progressively washed away by the Trishuli river.

Nepalese villagers observe the minutiae of a changing climate. Some say that forest pigs now farrow earlier, others that some types of rice and cucumber will no longer grow where they used to. The common thread is that the days are hotter, some trees now flower twice a year and the raindrops are getting bigger.

The anecdotal observations of farmers are backed by scientists who are recording in Nepal some of the fastest increases in temperatures and rainfall anywhere in the world. Many lakes in Nepal and neighbouring Bhutan, which collect glacier meltwater, are said by the UN to be growing so rapidly that they could burst their banks.

Melting glaciers are creating anxiety about water supplies across the Earth. In Tajikistan, at current rates of change, thousands of small glaciers will have disappeared completely by 2050, causing more water to flow in spring followed by what is expected to be a disastrous decline of river flow in most rivers. In Peru, temperature increases have led to a 22% reduction in the total area of its glaciers in the last 35 years.

The developing nations on the climate frontline will argue strongly in Poznan that rich countries should pay to help them adapt to climate change. But development groups such as Oxfam and Tearfund say that almost all the money pledged so far has come out of existing aid funds. With a worldwide recession, many analysts expect rich countries to resist paying more.

The UN has established two funds - the Least Developed Countries and Special Climate Change funds - to raise money for the poorest countries to adapt, but the G8 countries have only pledged $6bn (£4bn). All the money is to be diverted from existing aid money.

"Every [official development assistance] dollar that goes to climate adaptation would mean a dollar less for health and education [programmes] in developing countries," said Antonio Hill, a senior policy adviser at Oxfam.

The scale of what is needed for adaptation is immense. Bangladesh says it needs £250m over three years to adapt, Ethiopia £450m, and other countries similar amounts. Development groups estimate that a minimum $50bn a year is needed worldwide.

"The resources currently available for adaptation are grossly inadequate to meet the needs of the least developed countries who bear the brunt of increased climate variability and unpredictability resulting from climate change," said Bangladesh's finance minister, Mirza Azizul Islam.

Back in north-east Brazil, the Pernambuco state environment minister, Aloysio Coasta, says: "In 20 years' time we could be a desert region. In some communities there are no young people left at all. This is an emergency. Food production is going down in many areas."

Joao da Antonio's wife, Luiza, is resigned to becoming a "drought widow". Clearly distressed, she says: "If there is no water, then he must leave."

[erik]

Nice graph - click on various circles and see the stats:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/interactive/2008/dec/09/climatechange-carbonemissions

It's official: China is the world's bigger polluter
A new global dataset confirms China as the most prolific producer of carbon dixoide

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2008/dec/08/carbonemissions-climatechange

We like stats at the Guardian, so we're delighted to be the first to publish – today – the Energy Information Administration's latest round of global emissions figures, covering the year 2006. So much so, in fact, that we created this rather amazing graphic to put the figures into perspective.

The most interesting fact contained in the new data is the change at the top of the list. China, with 6.01 billion tonnes of CO2, has finally overtaken the US, with 5.90 billion tonnes.

It was fairly clear that this was going to happen. Indeed, last year we reported on analysis by the Netherlands Environment Agency that made the same claim. But only now has China's top-spot status been confirmed as part of a complete, globally recognised dataset.

The two main sources for emissions data – the Energy Information Administration (EIA), a US government body, and the International Energy Agency (IEA) – each spend around eighteen months collating and crunching the CO2 figures for every year of data.

I didn't see it mentioned anywhere in the press, but the IEA published its most recent figures a few weeks ago. By its reckoning the US still had the number one spot in 2006, with 5.70 billion tonnes compared to China's 5.61.

It's not entirely clear from the documents I have, but as I understand it, these figures are lower because only the EIA data includes the flaring of fossil fuels. This small difference aside, the two datasets show exactly the same trend: American emissions down 2% compared to 2005, with China's up 11%. So it's fairly obvious that China with be the number-one emitter in both lists when the 2007 numbers are released in a year's time.

The EIA and IEA figures both focus exclusively on emissions of CO2 from oil, coal and gas, the burning of which causes around 57% of total global greenhouse emissions according to the 2007 IPCC report. As such, they exclude CO2 emissions from deforestation and cement production as well as methane and nitrous oxide emissions from agriculture and industrial process.

Complete, up-to-date global figures for these non-fossil-fuel emissions don't exist – at least not for the developing world – but it's likely that China would remain firmly at the top of the list even if they were factored in.

Of course, Chinese emissions per person are still much lower than those of the US or the rest of the developed world. Using the EIA figures I calculate these as 4.6 tonnes of CO2 per Chinese citizen in 2006, compared to almost 20 tonnes for the average American in the same year. And that's before you consider that a large slice of Chinese emissions are the result of manufacturing goods destined for the American market.

The difference between China and the US is even more stark if you look at each country's total historical contribution to global warming. According to figures from the WRI, the US has emitted 1088 tonnes of CO2 since 1850 for each of today's Americans; this compared to just 68 historical tonnes for each living Chinese person.

So while today's new emissions figures are interesting and important, we mustn't use them to obscure the fact that global warming is primarily the responsibility of Western countries. China may finally have been confirmed as the modern world's biggest carbon emitter, but does that make it the climate change demon that some commentators like to describe?

[Jahn]

Nice graph - click on various circles and see the stats:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/interactive/2008/dec/09/climatechange-carbonemissions

Thaks for the link.
However we in Sweden get a good score (better than the Norwegians) it is not any true figure. That is a common fault with these popular charts and figures. It says that we have 6.4 ton CO2 per capita while the true figures is more close to 9 ton. If we include all traveling by jetplanes, workrelated and tourist travel, we pass 10 if not 11 ton per year.

[TIOTIT]

Over 650 Scientists Challenge Global Warming "Consensus"
Twelve times more than those that put their names to the IPCC report
      


Over 650 scientists have put their names to a US Senate Minority report that challenges the contention of the UN's International Panel on Climate Change that there is a scientific "consensus" on the causes of global warming.

Set to be released within the next 24 hours, the report features contributions from hundreds of prominent researchers, including current and former IPCC scientists, who are now speaking out in opposition of the UN's stance on climate change.

The Senate report is an updated version of a 2007 release, with over 250 more names added, highlighting how widespread dissent continues to grow in the scientific community to the alleged “consensus” that the modern warming is primarily man-made and is a crisis.

In comparison, twelve times fewer - just 52 scientists - participated in the much touted IPCC Summary for Policymakers meeting in April 2007. Climate scientists allied with the IPCC were recently caught citing fake data to make the case that global warming is accelerating.

The new Senate report will feature new peer-reviewed scientific studies and analyses refuting man-made warming fears.

Of course the fact that the establishment likes to engage in regular mass public deception by claiming the debate about global warming is over and any dissent is tantamount to holocaust denial doesn't bode well for potential media coverage of the report, unlike the ongoing UN climate conference in Poznan which is being lavished with endless media attention about the need for a global carbon tax to save the planet from the evils of plant food (CO2).

The self-proclaimed "consensus" behind man-made global warming is one enforced by threats, intimidation and ignorance, as highlighted by media coverage of last year's UN meeting in Bali, where skeptical climate scientists were shunned and ignored for daring to express an opposing viewpoint.

Following the Bali resolution to impose a global carbon tax, over one hundred prominent scientists signed a letter dismissing the move as a futile bureaucratic scheme which would diminish prosperity and increase human suffering.

Hundreds more skeptical scientists met in Manhattan last February at the first International Conference on Climate Change to discuss the side of the climate change debate that the establishment media prefers to pretend does not exist.

Did the mainstream media even acknowledge these events? Not at all, because they challenge the sacred cow that scientists uniformly agree on man-made global warming.

As we have previously reported, less than half of all published scientists endorse what has been dubbed the "consensus view".

However, President-elect Barack Obama yesterday vowed to end global warming "denial".

The following quotes, listed on the website of the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, provide a taster of what will be contained in the upcoming Senate report:

    “I am a skeptic…Global warming has become a new religion.” - Nobel Prize Winner for Physics, Ivar Giaever.

    “Since I am no longer affiliated with any organization nor receiving any funding, I can speak quite frankly….As a scientist I remain skeptical.” - Atmospheric Scientist Dr. Joanne Simpson, the first woman in the world to receive a PhD in meteorology and formerly of NASA who has authored more than 190 studies and has been called “among the most preeminent scientists of the last 100 years.”

    Warming fears are the “worst scientific scandal in the history…When people come to know what the truth is, they will feel deceived by science and scientists.” - UN IPCC Japanese Scientist Dr. Kiminori Itoh, an award-winning PhD environmental physical chemist.

    “The IPCC has actually become a closed circuit; it doesn’t listen to others. It doesn’t have open minds… I am really amazed that the Nobel Peace Prize has been given on scientifically incorrect conclusions by people who are not geologists,” - Indian geologist Dr. Arun D. Ahluwalia at Punjab University and a board member of the UN-supported International Year of the Planet.

    “The models and forecasts of the UN IPCC "are incorrect because they only are based on mathematical models and presented results at scenarios that do not include, for example, solar activity.” - Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera, a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico

    “It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that makes it seem there is only a fringe of scientists who don’t buy into anthropogenic global warming.” - U.S Government Atmospheric Scientist Stanley B. Goldenberg of the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA.

    “Even doubling or tripling the amount of carbon dioxide will virtually have little impact, as water vapour and water condensed on particles as clouds dominate the worldwide scene and always will.” – . Geoffrey G. Duffy, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering of the University of Auckland, NZ.

    “After reading [UN IPCC chairman] Pachauri's asinine comment [comparing skeptics to] Flat Earthers, it's hard to remain quiet.” - Climate statistician Dr. William M. Briggs, who specializes in the statistics of forecast evaluation, serves on the American Meteorological Society's Probability and Statistics Committee and is an Associate Editor of Monthly Weather Review.

    “For how many years must the planet cool before we begin to understand that the planet is not warming? For how many years must cooling go on?" - Geologist Dr. David Gee the chairman of the science committee of the 2008 International Geological Congress who has authored 130 plus peer reviewed papers, and is currently at Uppsala University in Sweden.

    “Gore prompted me to start delving into the science again and I quickly found myself solidly in the skeptic camp…Climate models can at best be useful for explaining climate changes after the fact.” - Meteorologist Hajo Smit of Holland, who reversed his belief in man-made warming to become a skeptic, is a former member of the Dutch UN IPCC committee.

    “Many [scientists] are now searching for a way to back out quietly (from promoting warming fears), without having their professional careers ruined.” - Atmospheric physicist James A. Peden, formerly of the Space Research and Coordination Center in Pittsburgh.

    “Creating an ideology pegged to carbon dioxide is a dangerous nonsense…The present alarm on climate change is an instrument of social control, a pretext for major businesses and political battle. It became an ideology, which is concerning.” - Environmental Scientist Professor Delgado Domingos of Portugal, the founder of the Numerical Weather Forecast group, has more than 150 published articles.

    “CO2 emissions make absolutely no difference one way or another….Every scientist knows this, but it doesn’t pay to say so…Global warming, as a political vehicle, keeps Europeans in the driver’s seat and developing nations walking barefoot.” - Dr. Takeda Kunihiko, vice-chancellor of the Institute of Science and Technology Research at Chubu University in Japan.

    “The [global warming] scaremongering has its justification in the fact that it is something that generates funds.” - Award-winning Paleontologist Dr. Eduardo Tonni, of the Committee for Scientific Research in Buenos Aires and head of the Paleontology Department at the University of La Plata. # #

[TIOTIT]

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA - December 8, 2008
 
Rare 50 year Arctic Blast Sets Sights On Southern California.

With a week away, and a sure sign of things to come, OWSweather.com is making preparations on the server to handle the traffic from this next event. UJEAS is in line with the majority if not all the other models in keeping a near historical arctic air mass into the Southern California region.

With a warm November, Southern California is finally ready for cold storms to make their way in. Resort level snow will be likely next week, and in pretty hefty amounts if things stay on track. OWSweather.com Meteorologist Kevin Martin predicts a 50 year event. While Martin is usually conservative on these events, the pattern highly favors it. "We are in a pre-1950 type pattern, "said Martin. "We know we are due for a winter storm sometime this year. The type we may be dealing with will be ranked up there with the known years before 1950, which set record low daytime temperatures into the forecast region. With this, may come low elevation snow."

Forecaster Cameron Venable is seeing very cold temperatures in the Los Angeles areas as well. Torrance is not usually known for winter weather, thus making this an interesting event for Venable to track.

"Temperatures in Siberia, Russia will be -81 degrees this week, "said Martin. "With those type of temperatures the arctic air mass has to spill somewhere. Our answer of the exact track will become more clear this week. All residents in the mountain communities should prepare this week for very cold, winter weather, with snow."

Indications are a second, colder storm could hit near the 18th-22nd time-frame. The details on that will have to be sorted out.

[Jennifer-]

Maine is well known for weather shifts, the elders often laugh and say.. "wish to know what the weather is.. wait a moment and it will change" but Ive been witness to this in a most dramatic and different way over the past few years..

Yesterday it was 5 degrees with windchills dipping much lower with snow flurries.. today.. 47 degrees and raining.

[erik]

Tio, where was that article questioning climate change published?

[TIOTIT]

Alex Jones Info Wars....


http://www.infowars.net/articles/december2008/101208Warming.htm