By Larry Bell,
Forbes Online
Global warming (aka “climate change”) has become a religious mantra, a call for action in a crusade against larger evils we have perpetrated against nature, a punishment for our sins. Author Michael Crichton articulated the essence of this creed in a 2003 speech in which he observed:
There’s an initial Eden, a paradise, a state of grace and unity with Nature; there’s a fall from grace into a state of pollution as a result from eating from the tree of knowledge; and as a result of our actions, there is a judgment day coming for all of us. We are energy sinners, doomed to die, unless we seek salvation, which is now called sustainability. Sustainability is salvation in the church of the environment, just as organic food is its communion, that pesticide-free wafer that the right people with the right beliefs imbibe.
Let’s recognize that Crichton was not arguing against the importance of living more environmentally responsible lives that apply resources in sustainable ways, or against the central role that religion plays in guiding most of us, whether we subscribe to a particular orthodoxy or not. But that idyllic view of an Eden in the “good old days” before industrialization and modern technology wrecked everything warrants some objective reflection.
ESRI wants energy subsidies curbed
Source:
RTE News, Ireland
A review of energy policy calls for an end to subsidies for offshore wind and wave electricity generators, and a curbing of subsidies for onshore wind turbines.
The review by the Economic and Social Research Institute also calls for gas from the Corrib field in Co Mayo to be brought ashore urgently, to bolster energy security.
The recession has reduced demand for energy in Ireland, and increased the need to reduce energy costs to Irish businesses and homes.
Another Thing The IPCC Missed
By Dr. David Whitehouse,
The Observatory
The polar regions are the fastest warming regions on our planet. Look at any global map of the way the world has warmed recently and you will see that the reddest regions found anywhere are above Canada and around a bit, and in the Antarctic peninsula.
It is, of course, understandable and indeed predictable. Climate models predict that it will be the polar regions that should the first signs of global warming due to the accumulation of greenhouse gasses.
According to the IPCC this is because “ice has greater reflectivity than the ocean or land. Melting of highly reflective snow and ice reveals darker land and ocean surfaces, increasing the absorption of the sun's heat and causing further warming. There is evidence that climate change is already having observable impacts in the Arctic and in Antarctica. Many of these observed changes are consistent with the expected effects of climate change under a range of climate scenarios.”
Threading the Climate Needle: The Agulhas Current System
Source:
National Science Foundation
The Agulhas Current which runs along the east coast of Africa may not be as well known as its counterpart in the Atlantic, the Gulf Stream. But now researchers are taking a closer look at this current and its "leakage" from the Indian Ocean into the Atlantic Ocean--and what that may mean for climate change
In results of a study published in this week's issue of the journal Nature, a team of scientists led by University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science Oceanographer Lisa Beal, suggests that Agulhas leakage could be a significant player in global climate variability.
The Agulhas Current transports warm and salty waters from the tropical Indian Ocean to the southern tip of Africa. There most of the water loops around to remain in the Indian Ocean (the Agulhas Retroflection), while some water leaks into the fresher Atlantic Ocean via giant Agulhas rings.
