globally warmed snow, no doubt!

That was yesterday, today it is twice as much - 25" snow! Time for the big boys' toys like the plough in front of the Unimog!

I can hear them warming up, the sceptics!

The visitor stays the same.

Merry Christmas!

Carpe diem!

postponing and impeding...

Copenhagen certainly is needed but to my mind it is missing the point; tackling "global warming" alone is like trying to get rid of a cough while the heart is under attack.

Like the raindrops fill the oceans it needs pouring thoughts to describe and understand our problem.

There are some elements of our human tradition worthwhile remembering which listening to independent, experienced and potentially wise people is one of. So don't think you waste your time following (possibly a second time) Sir David Attenborough and his Horizon Special on BBC; or click your way through below YouTube feeds.



Remember... "getting bored is postponing but impeding the answer ".

Carpe diem!

expert foxes for the climate targets of the geese?!

BBC: Expert team to advise on Scottish climate targets

picture from...

We all know that in Copenhagen currently a massive number of experts are discussing of how to avoid an increase of the global temperatures of more than 2°C; this 2°C figure is a guess, an estimate at best; in reality it is the lowest common denominator of what is made up of 'hope times ignorance multiplied globally'.

However, there is help: Scotland's Government has secured the advice of theee experts on achieving its climate targets. Expert from BT, SSE, Lloyd's Bank, Royal Mail, Stagecoach, FirstGroup, etc.

This is spot on; spot on as 'asking the fox to keep the geese'.

Carpe diem!

Obama

The Telegraph: Barack Obama given powers to cut GHGs

EPA Press release

During the last weeks mainstream media driven by the wave of tuned e-mail messages on climate figures built up the idea of Obama (and Gore) not making it to Copenhagen; he'd fail to set ambitious targets; he and his fellow citizens would not care less. There were voices that wanted Gore and Obama return their prices to Oslo. Well, now Barack Obama gives the answer, again and against all odds.

The news dramatically improves the prospects of reaching a new agreement to combat global warming at the climate summit which opened in Copenhagen on Monday.

His administration formally declared that the gases "endanger the public health and welfare of the America people" empowering its Environment Protection Agency to regulate them across the country under the country's Clean Air Act, without having to get a hotly-contested climate bill through the US Congress.

I believe, if it is man made, man can reverse it; if it is not man made, man must take the necessary precautions; common sense dictates that; it includes discussion, scepticism and passion.

Carpe diem!

if it was simple it would be easy to fix!

More than a year ago NEW SCIENTIST published a report that is worthwhile to mention again: "How our economy is killing the Earth."

The quintessence is to not reduce the impact discussion to headlines like "CO2", "Global Warming", "Climate Change" or "Copenhagen". You might want to read the report here or just inhale the below charts - there is much more to sustainability than reducing GHGes:

and more...

Lot's of food for thought; for sceptics, too.

Carpe diem!

knowledge, faith and scepticism

MetOffice

Imagine, you sit in your car driving pretty fast up the autobahn; your cooling water temperature gauge moves closer and closer towards the red sector; you feel uneasy and after first ignoring it as casual as possible you are now tempted to stop and take a look; but then ‘what do I know’, so you consider to take the car into the next possible gas station to ask for advice, help... a solution.

This describes what an average reasonable intelligent person would go through watching that temperature gauge. But then there are those that travel with faith; they might make it! Same for the ones deciding this stupid gauge to be the problem; the practical ones wished they had two or three measuring systems, preferably independent and separated from each other. That can be helped:

To understand changes and variations in our climate it is essential to know how the surface temperature changes — from month to month, up to decade to decade. Global-average temperature records provide this vital information.

From these records we can see how warm specific months, years or decades are, and we can discern trends in our climate over longer periods of time. Global records go back about 160 years, giving a long period from which to draw conclusions about how our climate is changing.

There are three centres which calculate global-average temperature each month.

• Met Office, in collaboration with the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UK)
• Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is part of NASA (USA)
• National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (USA)

These work independently and use different methods in the way they collect and process data to calculate the global-average temperature.

So, they are lucky, those sceptics, here is what one gauge and two more indicate:

…, the results of each are similar from month to month and year to year, and there is definite agreement on temperature trends from decade to decade (Figure 1). Most importantly, they all agree global-average temperature has increased over the past century and this warming has been particularly rapid since the 1970s.

Well, no!

I don't want to discuss what makes it warmer; we have masses of highly trained and paid scientists to do that; should they take bribes, fail, err or cheat: fire them, head first! There are more waiting for a chance, a job...

The gauge still climbs; the problem remains unsolved; there is a possibility that the trip on the autobahn might end early.

Carpe diem!

affinities with living creatures? no!

Put one ♀ and one ♂ rat

into a big, beautiful, blue and self contained cage;
feed and treat both well,
comfort them,
supply panem et circenses for the children
Play Stations and Viagra for the children's children,
cheap transport, fast food and multi media distraction,
democratic shine and social feelings,
industrial lobbies and political parties,
professional politicians and plebeian tribunes.

Forget moral, ethics and faith.

Watch!

p.s.
Do we learn from it?
What was the end?
Oh, we did not learn from it!


Our cage... and we keep on arguing about vanities
like tinted e-mails, sponsored surveys, lobbied media and politics...?

Carpe diem!