That was the headline for a story in the Chicago Sun Times 1-30-05 with the sub heading --
Scientists see proof of global warming, warn of future peril
Here's a summary of the story --
Up and down the icy spine of South America, the glaciers are melting, the white mantle of the Andes Mountains washing away at an ever faster rate.
In east Africa, the storied snows of Mt. Kilimanjaro are vanishing. In the icebound Alps and Himalayas of Europe and Asia, the change has been stunning. From South America to south Asia, new glacial lakes threaten to overflow and drown villages below. Orbiting satellites have helped measure this global trend, though scientists like Rajendra Pachauri have long seen what is happening on the ground.
"Ample" evidence indicates that global warming is causing glaciers to retreat worldwide, reports the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.N.-sponsored network of climate scientists led by Pachauri. Global temperatures rose about 1 degree Fahrenheit in the 20th century. The Bolivian Andes are warming at a half degree Fahrenheit per decade.
The Kyoto Protocol mandate cutbacks in emissions, but the reductions are small and the U.S., the biggest emitter, is not a party, arguing that the mandates will set back the U.S. economy.
In Peru, endowed with vast Andean ice caps and glaciers, 70 percent of the power comes from hydroelectric damscatching runoff, but officials fear much of it could be gone within a decade.
Ohio State University scientist , Lonnie Thompson one of the world's foremost glaciologists said, "What we see in the Andes is happening in Kilimanjaro and in the Himalayas. We've just been in southeast Alaska, and 1,987 out of 2,000 glaciers are retreating."
"It's a very compelling story." The glaciers -- "water towers of the world" -- are the most visible indicators that we are now in the first phase of global warming.
Monday, January 31, 2005
Saturday, January 29, 2005
IRAQI ELECTIONS
The elections start at about 10:00 PM Chicago time and believe they'll go on until 7:00 AM. I don't know which way this is going to go. I really think there's going to be a lot of violence but I'm not sure where the heart of the Iraqi people is. If they react the same way their police and soldiers did this is going to fall apart. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Spending Political Capital on Liars and Torturers
Condoleezza Rice won confirmation as secretary of state Wednesday despite blistering criticism from Senate Democrats who accused her of making misleading statements and said she must share the blame for mistakes and war deaths in Iraq.
The tally, though one-sided at 85-13, was still the largest "no" vote against a secretary of state nominee since 1825.
White House counsel Alberto Gonzales won Senate committee approval Wednesday to be the next attorney general even though all of the panel's Democrats voted against him, complaining that he is too close to President Bush and has countenanced torture of prisoners in the war on terror.
It won't be four more years of the same. It's going to be four more years of HELL !
The tally, though one-sided at 85-13, was still the largest "no" vote against a secretary of state nominee since 1825.
White House counsel Alberto Gonzales won Senate committee approval Wednesday to be the next attorney general even though all of the panel's Democrats voted against him, complaining that he is too close to President Bush and has countenanced torture of prisoners in the war on terror.
It won't be four more years of the same. It's going to be four more years of HELL !
THE ENVIRONMENT
On Wednesday the Bush administration embarked on a renewed effort to replace large sections of the Clean Air Act with the President's more flexible and industry-friendly Clear Skies policies.
The plan would relax controls on power plants and other pollution sources. White House attempts to get a Clear Skies package through Congress in 2002 and 2003 failed. So, with the November elections expanding Republican majorities in the Senate and House, the administration was emboldened to renew its attempt to pass the legislation.
According to Emily Figdor a policy analyst for Clear the Air --
"When it comes to power plant pollution, many of the nation's dirtiest power plants just keep getting dirtier. We know how to solve the problem, but the Bush administration's air pollution bill will set us back decades."
I don't think we have decades!!!!!!!!!
The plan would relax controls on power plants and other pollution sources. White House attempts to get a Clear Skies package through Congress in 2002 and 2003 failed. So, with the November elections expanding Republican majorities in the Senate and House, the administration was emboldened to renew its attempt to pass the legislation.
According to Emily Figdor a policy analyst for Clear the Air --
"When it comes to power plant pollution, many of the nation's dirtiest power plants just keep getting dirtier. We know how to solve the problem, but the Bush administration's air pollution bill will set us back decades."
I don't think we have decades!!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Does he have a vision or is he wearing blinders?
President Bush, in his press conference today, said he has this vision to spread democracy throughout the world. Freedom is every man's dream. To a certain extent I would have to agree with that. I, personally, would prefer freedom to tyranny. I suppose I have a few questions regarding his vision.
Why are we spending unbelievable amounts of money and lives in Iraq when the money and human resources could be better served in Sudan and the Asian area where the tsunami struck? In Iraq we are killing people in a quest for freedom. In Sudan we can help the people who are being killed in what , I suppose, borders between ethnic cleansing and genocide. We sent 350 million dollars for relief efforts after the tsunami. Money spent in this region in the amounts we're spending in Iraq would energize this region out of poverty. I may be wrong but doesn't it make more sense to save lives and rebuild than it does to destroy lives, create a breeding ground for terrorists, line the pockets of companies like Halliburton (I believe Halliburton would be rebuilding the tsunami struck area in Asia if Bush had control of the finances for reconstruction), jam "democracy" down the throats of Iraqis and put everyone in jeopardy that has anything to do with Americans?
While all this money is being spent our economy is in jeopardy. Our deficit is huge and 1/3 of it is owned by China. China, by the way, has been growing it's economy at our expense and the expense of the rest of the tech world. China pirates big time. Their software, dvds, and other computer components are copied from others and sold for pennies on the dollar compared to what we sell it for. Whether they know it or not, they are positioning themselves to be one of the next great superpowers at our expense. President Bush puts the environment and global warming on the backburner with the logic that it would hurt the economy. By his approach it won't be long before we have neither an environment or an economy.
Bush speaks of spreading freedom like he was going fly up in a crop duster and sow the seeds of freedom throughout the land. Seriously, if you listen to his speeches he speaks in very broad terms. Condoleeza Rice is the right person for the job because she is just a good person and the right person for the job. Her confirmation hearings gave specifics from Democrats as to why she should not be confirmed -- she lied to get us into Iraq, remember the smoking gun being a mushroom cloud, faulty intelligence that she took for gospel. Alberto Gonzales -- he's a good man and the man for the job -- how about the guy that wrote the opinion that allowed the torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, defined torture as coming just short of organ failure or death.
I guess I just don't think you can have much of a vision when you have two empty paper towel tubes over your eyes when you see your vision. And that's what I think.
Why are we spending unbelievable amounts of money and lives in Iraq when the money and human resources could be better served in Sudan and the Asian area where the tsunami struck? In Iraq we are killing people in a quest for freedom. In Sudan we can help the people who are being killed in what , I suppose, borders between ethnic cleansing and genocide. We sent 350 million dollars for relief efforts after the tsunami. Money spent in this region in the amounts we're spending in Iraq would energize this region out of poverty. I may be wrong but doesn't it make more sense to save lives and rebuild than it does to destroy lives, create a breeding ground for terrorists, line the pockets of companies like Halliburton (I believe Halliburton would be rebuilding the tsunami struck area in Asia if Bush had control of the finances for reconstruction), jam "democracy" down the throats of Iraqis and put everyone in jeopardy that has anything to do with Americans?
While all this money is being spent our economy is in jeopardy. Our deficit is huge and 1/3 of it is owned by China. China, by the way, has been growing it's economy at our expense and the expense of the rest of the tech world. China pirates big time. Their software, dvds, and other computer components are copied from others and sold for pennies on the dollar compared to what we sell it for. Whether they know it or not, they are positioning themselves to be one of the next great superpowers at our expense. President Bush puts the environment and global warming on the backburner with the logic that it would hurt the economy. By his approach it won't be long before we have neither an environment or an economy.
Bush speaks of spreading freedom like he was going fly up in a crop duster and sow the seeds of freedom throughout the land. Seriously, if you listen to his speeches he speaks in very broad terms. Condoleeza Rice is the right person for the job because she is just a good person and the right person for the job. Her confirmation hearings gave specifics from Democrats as to why she should not be confirmed -- she lied to get us into Iraq, remember the smoking gun being a mushroom cloud, faulty intelligence that she took for gospel. Alberto Gonzales -- he's a good man and the man for the job -- how about the guy that wrote the opinion that allowed the torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, defined torture as coming just short of organ failure or death.
I guess I just don't think you can have much of a vision when you have two empty paper towel tubes over your eyes when you see your vision. And that's what I think.
GLOBAL WARMING
Antarctica
Under the surface of this vast white emptiness are profound and potentially troubling changes taking place, and at a quickened pace. It seems there has always been a certain comfort in the stories that global warming problems won't manifest the themselves for generations to come. It's seeming more and more urgent with temperatures climbing in parts of Antarctica in recent years. Melt water seems to be penetrating deeper and deeper into ice crevices, weakening immense and seemingly impregnable formations that have developed over thousands of years.
As a result huge glaciers are thinning and ice shelves the size of American states are disintegrating. Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey reported in December that in some parts of the Antarctic Peninsula large growths of grass are appearing in places that until recently were hidden under ice.
Free floating ice in the sea does not raise sea level. The ice just melts and displaces no more mass as water or as ice. But a glacier, which rests on land, can raise the global sea level if that vast volume of ice slides into the sea at a high rate. Research and striking changes that are visible to the naked eye, all point to the disturbance of climate patterns thought to be in place for thousands of years.
According to a recent study published in Geophysical Research Letters, the discharge rate of three important glaciers still remaining on the Antarctic Peninsula accelerated eight-fold from 2000 to 2003. Ice is thinning at the rate of tens of meters per year on the peninsula, with glacier elevations in some places having dropped by as much as 124 feet in just six months.
In a story out of London an international climate-change task force warns that global warming is approaching the point of no return, after which widespread draught, crop failure and rising sea levels will be irreversible.
The task force on Monday called on the Group of 8 leading industrial nations to cut carbon admissions, double their research spending on technology and work with India and China to build on the Kyoto Protocol for cutting emissions of "greenhouse gases."
The independent report was created by the Institute for Public Policy Research in Britain, the Center for AmericanProgress in the United States, and the Australian Institute.
Stephen Byers, co-chairman of the task force, said it is vital that U.S. cooperation in tackling climate change is secured. President Bush has rejected the Kyoto accord, arguing that the carbon emission cuts it demands would damage the U.S. economy. In my opinion this administration is destroying this economy with an ill-planned, unnecessary war in Iraq, tax cuts and enormous deficit, etc.
In a question presented to meteorologist Tom Skilling on Wednesday regarding if it were possible for the entire world to be flooded, he said.
"Let's assume all the water bound up as ice on land were released into the sea. Then snow and glaciers would contribute about 2 feet of ocean rise; the Greenland icecap, 21 feet; the Antarctic icecap, 223 feet. Total potential rise: 246 feet -- a worldwide catastrophe, surely but not annihilation. That's certainly comforting.
Under the surface of this vast white emptiness are profound and potentially troubling changes taking place, and at a quickened pace. It seems there has always been a certain comfort in the stories that global warming problems won't manifest the themselves for generations to come. It's seeming more and more urgent with temperatures climbing in parts of Antarctica in recent years. Melt water seems to be penetrating deeper and deeper into ice crevices, weakening immense and seemingly impregnable formations that have developed over thousands of years.
As a result huge glaciers are thinning and ice shelves the size of American states are disintegrating. Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey reported in December that in some parts of the Antarctic Peninsula large growths of grass are appearing in places that until recently were hidden under ice.
Free floating ice in the sea does not raise sea level. The ice just melts and displaces no more mass as water or as ice. But a glacier, which rests on land, can raise the global sea level if that vast volume of ice slides into the sea at a high rate. Research and striking changes that are visible to the naked eye, all point to the disturbance of climate patterns thought to be in place for thousands of years.
According to a recent study published in Geophysical Research Letters, the discharge rate of three important glaciers still remaining on the Antarctic Peninsula accelerated eight-fold from 2000 to 2003. Ice is thinning at the rate of tens of meters per year on the peninsula, with glacier elevations in some places having dropped by as much as 124 feet in just six months.
In a story out of London an international climate-change task force warns that global warming is approaching the point of no return, after which widespread draught, crop failure and rising sea levels will be irreversible.
The task force on Monday called on the Group of 8 leading industrial nations to cut carbon admissions, double their research spending on technology and work with India and China to build on the Kyoto Protocol for cutting emissions of "greenhouse gases."
The independent report was created by the Institute for Public Policy Research in Britain, the Center for AmericanProgress in the United States, and the Australian Institute.
Stephen Byers, co-chairman of the task force, said it is vital that U.S. cooperation in tackling climate change is secured. President Bush has rejected the Kyoto accord, arguing that the carbon emission cuts it demands would damage the U.S. economy. In my opinion this administration is destroying this economy with an ill-planned, unnecessary war in Iraq, tax cuts and enormous deficit, etc.
In a question presented to meteorologist Tom Skilling on Wednesday regarding if it were possible for the entire world to be flooded, he said.
"Let's assume all the water bound up as ice on land were released into the sea. Then snow and glaciers would contribute about 2 feet of ocean rise; the Greenland icecap, 21 feet; the Antarctic icecap, 223 feet. Total potential rise: 246 feet -- a worldwide catastrophe, surely but not annihilation. That's certainly comforting.
Sunday, January 23, 2005
From Sponge Bob to the Economy
It's the first post of the new year and my points will not necessariily be in chronological order but will cover events of the past few weeks of the new year.
Sponge Bob Square Pants
OK, so Sponge Bob Square Pants(SBSP) holds hands with his friend Patrick, and this is to prom0te homosexuality. Then, when that wascally wabbit Bugs Bunny kissed Elmer Fudd smack on the lips -- that must have promoted bestiality . . .
Freedom Rings
According to Bush's inauguration speech we are looking to spread freedom throughtout the world. But in some ways it seems this administration wants to redefine freedom as we are doling it out. I can't help but think as 'we' talk freedom to other countries we are losing our own. Case in point Juan Padilla, an American Citizen, arrested at O'Hare Airport in Chicago not being allowed due process. If I let that go it means it could also be me.
Bush -- Person of the Year
Bush being made Person of the Year really did make sense to me. When you consider the qualifications it makes perfect sense. You need to have made an extraordinary impact on the world. If this shmuck doesn't qualify I don't know who does.
Sponge Bob Square Pants
OK, so Sponge Bob Square Pants(SBSP) holds hands with his friend Patrick, and this is to prom0te homosexuality. Then, when that wascally wabbit Bugs Bunny kissed Elmer Fudd smack on the lips -- that must have promoted bestiality . . .
Freedom Rings
According to Bush's inauguration speech we are looking to spread freedom throughtout the world. But in some ways it seems this administration wants to redefine freedom as we are doling it out. I can't help but think as 'we' talk freedom to other countries we are losing our own. Case in point Juan Padilla, an American Citizen, arrested at O'Hare Airport in Chicago not being allowed due process. If I let that go it means it could also be me.
Bush -- Person of the Year
Bush being made Person of the Year really did make sense to me. When you consider the qualifications it makes perfect sense. You need to have made an extraordinary impact on the world. If this shmuck doesn't qualify I don't know who does.
- takes huge surplus and transforms it into a huge deficit
- takes world support for the U.S. after 9/11 from a world united behind us to a world looking at us with disdain and disgust.
- rewrote the Geneva Conventions to his administration's needs. How do we denounce their beheadings when we accept torture. It's not that they're doing worse than us. It's that we are better and more humane -- at least that's what we're supposed to be all about, right?
- Mr. "Moral Values" "Compassionate Conservative" 'Leader of the Free World' waits three days to acknowledge the fact that said "Free World" (also known as planet earth), experienced a disaster of "biblical" proportions.
- Once this disaster is acknowleged we offer the lowest financial relief , per capita, of almost any other nation. But, on the up side for some troops, the USS Abraham Lincoln (the same carrier that Bush declared "mission accomplished") was headed to Indonesia to help in the relief effort. Needless to say, they were much more upbeat on that mission.
The U.S. Economy
We are suffering from financial dependency. Our debt-financed growth and growing imbalance in the trade deficit leave us dangerously indebted to rival nations. And this is happening during a real quagmire in Iraq not to mention a crises situation in energy prices. Bottom line -- I don't think we could stand another "IRAQ" otherwise known as "IRAN" "SYRIA" "NORTH KOREA" and on and on . . .
$40,000,000 on inaugural festivities while . .
170,000 + die from tsunami disaster
troops in Iraq are dealing with no armor or "hillbilly armor"
genocide in Sudan
global warming and the environment
the $40,000,000 did not include all the security needed to protect these festivities from the wrath of . . .
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