Global Warming and Sundry
Calling Aesop
Compelling piece from Time Magazine:
As they review the bizarre and unpredictable weather pattern of the past several years, a growing number of scientists are beginning to suspect that many seemingly contradictory meteorological fluctuations are actually part of a global climatic upheaval. However widely the weather varies from place to place and time to time, when meteorologists take an average of temperatures around the globe they find that the atmosphere has been growing gradually cooler for the past three decades. The trend shows no indication of reversing. Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age.
Telltale signs are everywhere –from the unexpected persistence and thickness of pack ice in the waters around Iceland to the southward migration of a warmth-loving creature like the armadillo from the Midwest.Since the 1940s the mean global temperature has dropped about 2.7° F. Although that figure is at best an estimate, it is supported by other convincing data. When Climatologist George J. Kukla of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory and his wife Helena analyzed satellite weather data for the Northern Hemisphere, they found that the area of the ice and snow cover had suddenly increased by 12% in 1971 and the increase has persisted ever since. Areas of Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, for example, were once totally free of any snow in summer; now they are covered year round.
But the piece is from 1974, and it's talking about the coming ice age. The parallels between the 1970s climate-change alarms and today's alarms--the idea that wild weather fluctuations point to a coming catastrophe, a fixation on the size of the ice caps--are remarkable. It doesn't mean global warming isn't occurring (over the past ten years, it clearly is, but over the past five . . . not sure), but it sure as hell means we're well-advised to view the weather "experts" with a jaundiced eye. The testimony of an expert, Marshall McLuhan used to say, is like a bright flashlight aimed at one's eyes.
The people who are concerned about global warming should take a gun out and shoot the scientists from the 1970s who promoted the coming ice age idea. Maybe if the bodies of a few bogus scientists showed up in the East River, I'd begin to believe scientists again. For now, consider me officially ataraxic.
Miscellaneous
The global recession has hit everywhere, but some countries have done a pretty good job of holding their own: Brazil, Peru, Australia, China, India, The Philippines, Indonesia, Indonesia, Norway, France, Canada, Egypt, Qatar, Lebanon.
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[caption id="attachment_10732" align="alignleft" width="340" caption="Coincidence?"]
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Two pretty good Conans:
Yesterday, former President Clinton gave a speech to a group from Haiti and he urged them not to give up hope. Clinton said, “Things can start to look bleak and then all of a sudden you're on an airplane with two hot Asian chicks.”
Sonia Sotomayor is now a Supreme Court Justice. Now that she has joined the Supreme Court, one third of the Justices are now from New York City. This explains why the customary opening of a court session has changed from “All rise” to “Hey – I'm judgin' over here!”
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Yet another bust in America's asinine euphoria last November:
On Nov. 4, the hope and happiness seemed boundless for supporters of President-elect Barack Obama, leading some to speculate, with a wink and a nod, that in nine months there would be a virtual Obama baby boom -- a celebratory uptick in the national birthrate.
But now, 40 weeks later -- the average human gestation period -- MSNBC is reporting the prediction has largely been nothing more than, well, false hope. In reality, experts said, a generation is not borne from one night.
In Chicago, ground zero for Obama's election celebration, area hospitals confirm that they have not seen a noticeable surge in births.
Link.
