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The Oregonian no longer reporting Pacific Ocean "dead zones" are caused by global warming
Written by Klockarman, Gore Lied   
 
on Sep 11, 2008, 01:45 PM E.S.T.

deadzone-ocean.jpg
DEAD ZONES are hypoxic (low-oxygen) areas in the world's oceans
The Oregonian has been reporting regularly for the past few years on a phenomenon off of the Oregon Coast referred to as "dead zones". Dead zones are areas of the ocean where oxygen levels in the water have sunk to levels that will not sustain ocean life. Fish can apparently swim clear, but crabs, starfish, and other less mobile sea life suffocate from lack of oxygen.

Scientists did not have any clear evidence of what was causing the dead zones, and they were clearly alarmed by the situation. The Oregonian was alarmed too. Therefore the scientists and the journalists resorted to the usual tactic of blaming any unexplained environmental malady on human-induced causes - in this case (as in so many others) it was anthropogenic global warming.
July 6, 2006, The Oregonian reported:

The ocean is behaving strangely along the west coast in the latest of a string of unusual years, with scientists reporting crashing bird populations off California for the second consecutive year and hiccups in the nutrients that feed marine life off Oregon.

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Urban Cold Islands
Written by Ed Ring, EcoWorld   
 
on Sep 11, 2008, 01:24 PM E.S.T.


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In a story today in the Los Angeles Times entitled “To slow global warming, install white roofs,” author Margot Roosevelt reports on a recent study that concludes, if you take it at face value, that all we have to do is paint all of our urban rooftops and pavements white and “the global cooling effect would be massive.”

According to Hashem Akbari, a physicist with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a 1,000-square-foot roof — the average size on an American home — offsets 10 metric tons of planet-heating carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere if dark-colored shingles or coatings are replaced with white material…  Globally, roofs account for 25% of the surface of most cities, and pavement accounts for about 35%. If all were switched to reflective material in 100 major urban areas, it would offset 44 metric gigatons of greenhouse gases.”

It would be interesting to understand exactly what Akbari means by this.  Is this 44 metric gigatons per year?  If not, over what period of time would reflective roofs collectively offset these 44 gigatons?  Considering all the nations of the world combined are still emitting somewhat less than 30 gigatons per year, this is a very impressive statistic, no matter how you slice it.


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It’s Official; Global Cooling Is Real
Written by Rob Port, Say Anything blog   
 
on Sep 11, 2008, 12:50 PM E.S.T.

almanacBecause the Farmer’s Almanac says so:

DUBLIN, N.H. — The Old Farmer’s Almanac is going further out on a limb than usual this year, not only forecasting a cooler winter, but looking ahead decades to suggest we are in for global cooling, not warming.

Based on the same time-honored, complex calculations it uses to predict weather, the Almanac hits the newsstands on Tuesday saying a study of solar activity and corresponding records on ocean temperatures and climate point to a cooler, not warmer, climate, for perhaps the next half century.

“We at the Almanac are among those who believe that sunspot cycles and their effects on oceans correlate with climate changes,” writes meteorologist and climatologist Joseph D’Aleo. “Studying these and other factor suggests that cold, not warm, climate may be our future.”

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Wind Fuels Gas
Written by EDGAR GÄRTNER, Wall Street Journal   
 
on Sep 11, 2008, 12:47 PM E.S.T.

wind_farm4.jpgFollowing Russia's invasion of Georgia, a vital link between Europe and the energy resources of Central Asia, energy security is back at the top of Europe's agenda. For years now, many Europeans thought that a major part of their future energy security might come from wind turbines and solar panels. Industry, too, has suggested that this may be the case: At this summer's World Petroleum Congress in Madrid, most major oil and gas companies presented new plans for big renewable energy projects. But this renewables push, particularly when it comes to wind, is probably just a very clever short-term business strategy that will not improve Europe's geopolitical situation.

Wind turbines generate electricity very irregularly, because the wind itself is inconsistent. Therefore wind turbines always need backup power from fossil fuels to keep the electricity grid in balance. Gas turbines are the best way to do this. They are able to respond quickly and push power production when wind generators stop suddenly. They can be turned on and off almost instantly, whereas traditional coal-fired plants need to be maintained in a very inefficient standby mode if they are to respond to large fluctuations in power demand.

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Shock climate change verdict acquits Hansen’s heroes
Written by Nature.com Blog   
 
on Sep 11, 2008, 12:15 PM E.S.T.

hansens heroes Criminal damage in the name of climate change is not a criminal offence, according to a shock ruling from a British court.

A jury yesterday acquitted six Greenpeace activists [pictured] who claimed that the threat of global warming was a ‘lawful excuse’ for the damage they caused while protesting at a coal power plant (see this blog post for background).

Climate change scientist James Hansen had previously backed the six: he released a statement declaring “We will need our Mercedes-driving lawyer friends to tell us if the verdict has greater significance -- but the jurors were common people, not politicians.

“The main point, that the government, the utility, and the fossil fuel industry, were aware of the facts [of climate change] but continued to ignore them are more generally valid worldwide. It raises the question of whether the right people are on trial.”

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Note to NASA: Fire Dr. James Hansen, now
Written by Anthony Watts, Watts Up with That   
 
on Sep 11, 2008, 12:06 PM E.S.T.


hansen.jpg

I’ve been wrestling with this topic for hours now as to how to best present it in this forum.  I finally decided to simply just write it as I see it.

It has been an ugly day for law and common sense in the world. Vandalism in the name of ecological causes is now “ok” thanks in part to Dr. James Hansen, of NASA GISS coming to the defense of eco-vandals.  See the second story below. Now, encouraged by this “victory” that gives a sanction to eco-vandalism in the UK, how many more shall we see? And if one of these people is injured and kills themselves or others in the process of the next stunt? What then? Who is responsible?

Certainly I want a cleaner world, and better energy resources with focus on the future. But, sanctioning vandalism for these causes is not the way to get there. What do I want from NASA as a taxpayer? Science, solutions, and inspiring ideas turned into reality. I don’t want political activism in the name of science.


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Dangerous human-caused warming can neither be demonstrated nor measured
Written by John Nicol, Canada Free Press   
 
on Sep 10, 2008, 03:15 PM E.S.T.

sun-solarspots.jpgThere is no evidence, neither empirical nor theoretical, that carbon dioxide emissions from industrial and other human activities can have any effect on global climate. In addition, the claims so often made that there is a consensus among climate scientists that global warming is the result of increased man-made emissions of CO2, has no basis in fact.

The results of accurate measurements of global temperatures continue to be analysed by the international laboratories, now with 30 years experience in this process while a large number of scientists continue to perform high quality research.  The results of these activities clearly demonstrate a wide range of errors in the IPCC projections.

Among the more obvious of these errors was the prediction of global warming expected by modelling of climate for the last three years.  The actual measurements of global cooling in 2007/2008, flew directly in the face of these IPCC models.  It would be difficult to find a more definitive illustration of an experimental error.

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