WSJ.com – Science Journal
“If you turn up the sun’s energy output, the atmosphere should warm from the stratosphere to the surface,” says Dr. Santer. “That’s contrary to what’s observed. But greenhouse gases do not produce a uniform warming. They warm the troposphere and cool the stratosphere.” (See the Data) (And the Report)
Another signature is the pattern of warming in the seas. Some 84% of the total heating of Earth over the past 40 years has gone into warming oceans about 1°. (The 84% comes from calculating the heat needed to melt glaciers and warm air and water; oceans, being so huge, suck up most of the heat.) In theory, a hotter sun could be the culprit. But the sun has increased its energy output less than 0.1% over that time, according to satellite data. That isn’t enough to explain even a few percent of the warming, says marine scientist Tim Barnett of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, Calif., who led a 2005 study on ocean warming, published in Science. (More from Woods Hole)
Category: News
Global Warming’s Real Inconvenient Truth
Global Warming’s Real Inconvenient Truth
From 2003 to 2050, the world’s population is projected to grow from 6.4 billion people to 9.1 billion, a 42 percent increase. If energy use per person and technology remain the same, total energy use and greenhouse gas emissions (mainly, carbon dioxide) will be 42 percent higher in 2050. But that’s too low, because societies that grow richer use more energy. Unless we condemn the world’s poor to their present poverty — and freeze everyone else’s living standards — we need economic growth. With modest growth, energy use and greenhouse emissions more than double by 2050.
Just keeping annual greenhouse gas emissions constant means that the world must somehow offset these huge increases. There are two ways: Improve energy efficiency, or shift to energy sources with lower (or no) greenhouse emissions. Intuitively, you sense this is tough. China, for example, builds about one coal-fired power plant a week. Now a new report from the International Energy Agency in Paris shows all the difficulties (the population, economic growth and energy projections cited above come from the report).
The trouble with the global warming debate is that it has become a moral crusade when it’s really an engineering problem. The inconvenient truth is that if we don’t solve the engineering problem, we’re helpless. Coal is predicted to have the biggest increase, but there is promising technology , with more here and some questionable ones.
Wal-Mart Warms to Al Gore
Washington Wire » Wal-Mart Warms to Al Gore
Former Vice President and environmental activist Al Gore is planning to address Wal-Mart Stores Inc. executives next week at the retailer’s quarterly conference on sustainability.
it outfitted its trucks with an alternative power unit that uses 90% less fuel than its engines do while idling. The company created 14 internal networks to explore and implement more environmentally sound business practices. The 14 groups, made up of both Wal-Mart executives and outside experts, focus on different business areas, including operations and logistics, food and agriculture, textiles, global greenhouse gas and jewelry and mining. Called the sustainable value network, the groups meet individually throughout the year. They also hold their own conferences. Last month, for instance, Wal-Mart held a two-day conference on sustainability and textiles. It brought together Wal-Mart executives, environmental consultants and members of nonprofit groups to discuss issues surrounding organic textiles, including certification and standards. Next week’s meeting, held at the company’s home office in Bentonville, Ark., is one of four where all the company’s internal groups working on sustainability issues get together to discuss progress, stumbling blocks and other issues.
Rainbow Family Founder Urges Suit vs. Feds
ainbow Family Founder Urges Suit vs. Feds – Forbes.com
Barry Adams, known in the Rainbow Family as Barry Plunker, told a council circle at the first day of this year’s weeklong gathering at Routt National Forest that federal pressure has gone too far.
Dozens of Forest Service officers, county deputies and Colorado State Patrol officers are manning checkpoints and patrolling camps as thousands of hippies flood the forest about 30 miles north of Steamboat Springs.
Cubans Find Backdoor Route to U.S. Soil
Los Angeles Times: Cubans Find Backdoor Route to U.S. Soil
To leave Cuba legally, Cubans must generally get a visa from the country they’re going to visit, plus a letter of invitation from a citizen of that country. They then must seek an exit visa from the Cuban government, which is sometimes denied. The process can take months.
The Cubans — who couldn’t simply fly from the Dominican Republic to the United States without a U.S. visa — then paid between $1,500 and $2,000 to be taken by boat to tiny Mona Island. That’s at least $12,000 total for one boatload.
The trip aboard low-slung boats called yolas is hazardous and many have died in the 80-mile-wide Mona Passage between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, where the Atlantic collides with the Caribbean and is often stormy.
An Anti-Addiction Pill?
An Anti-Addiction Pill? – New York Times
A series of recent surveys sponsored by the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence and by Faces and Voices of Recovery, a recovery advocacy group, found that half the public called addiction a personal weakness. Among those who did see addiction as a disease, most put it in a special category of diseases that people get by making poor choices. In a 2004 poll of the general public, two-thirds said they believed that a stigma — usually defined as a thing that disgraces a person or injures one’s reputation — exists for people in recovery from addiction.
The pharmaceutical companies came to San Diego to argue that addiction is a chronic and recurring disease like diabetes or hypertension — and no one, they say, tells a diabetic to try to tough it out without insulin. They don’t discount the importance of environment in inducing addictive behavior or psychosocial interventions as part of the recovery process; in fact, most stress therapy as an essential adjunct to their products. But they insist that medications will stabilize addicts and make the deeper therapeutic and spiritual work more effective. (A long, but balanced article -free subscription required)
Device Burns Fuel with Almost Zero Emissions
Georgia Institute of Technology :: News Room :: Device Burns Fuel with Almost Zero Emissions
Georgia Tech researchers have created a new combustor (combustion chamber where fuel is burned to power an engine or gas turbine) designed to burn fuel in a wide range of devices ― with next to no emission of nitrogen oxide (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO), two of the primary causes of air pollution. The device has a simpler design than existing state-of-the-art combustors and could be manufactured and maintained at a much lower cost, making it more affordable in everything from jet engines and power plants to home water heaters.
Muslims and the West: Antipathy and mistrust
Muslims and the West: Antipathy and mistrust – Europe – International Herald Tribune
Muslims view people from the West, especially the United States and Europe, as selfish, immoral and greedy. People from the U.S. and Europe view Muslims as arrogant, violent and intolerant.
The deep divide between Muslims and the West was clearly illustrated in the findings of a new 15-country poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
Solid majorities in Indonesia (65 percent), Turkey (59 percent), Egypt (59 percent) and Jordan (53 percent) said they do not believe the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States were carried out by groups of Arabs. Even in Britain, 56 percent of the Muslims surveyed did not believe that Arabs carried out the attacks; only 17 percent said they believed it. The results show that many Muslims are still in denial about something that even Osama bin Laden has acknowledged.
Kyoto promises are nothing but hot air
New Scientist News – Kyoto promises are nothing but hot air
Two teams that have monitored concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere say they have convincing evidence that the figures reported by many countries are wrong, especially for methane. Among the worst offenders are the UK, which may be emitting 92 per cent more methane than it declares under the Kyoto protocol, and France, which may be emitting 47 per cent more.
The distance that separates Lula da Silva from Wen Jiabao
The distance that separates Lula da Silva from Wen Jiabao
Jiabao, like his predecessors for the past 15 or 20 years, had learned a lesson that Lula da Silva, like so many other left-wing politicians in Latin America, has not managed to understand fully.
By 1976, the year Mao died, the better-informed Chinese, especially those in the ruling circles of the Communist Party, had already noticed a painful reality that distanced them from the dogmas stubbornly defended by The Great Helmsman: the Chinese in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore were on the road to riches, prosperity and popular development. The Chinese who believed in private property and the market, who had embraced globalization, triumphed. In contrast, those who clung to the superstitions of collectivism and waved the Little Red Book at mass demonstrations lived in misery and scarcity. Continue reading “The distance that separates Lula da Silva from Wen Jiabao”