Scientists Predict North Pole To Be Ice-Free.

And not in 10-20 years or anything but this year

Serreze said it's "just another indicator of the disappearing Arctic sea ice cover" but that it is happening so soon is "just astounding to me."

"Five years ago, to think that we'd even be talking about the possibility of the North Pole melting out in the summer, I would have never thought it," he said.

The melting, however, has been long seen as inevitable, he said.

"If you talked to me or other scientists just a few years ago, we were saying that we might lose all or most of the summer sea ice cover by anywhere from 2050 to 2100," Serreze said. "Then, recently, we kind of revised those estimates, maybe as early as 2030. Now, there's people out there saying it might be even before that. So, things are happening pretty quick up there."

Serreze said those who suggest the Arctic meltdown is just part of a historic cycle are wrong.

"It's not cyclical at this point. I think we understand the physics behind this pretty well," he said. "We've known for at least 30 years, from our earliest climate models, that it's the Arctic where we'd see the first signs of global warming.

"It's a situation where we hate to say we told you so, but we told you so," he said.

Dubya Throws The Troops Under The Bus Re: Abu Ghraib

It's interesting to hear him talk about "passing legislation" and respecting the Supreme Court decision, even though it "goes against the local and appellate court" but the real fun is right at the end when he essentially blames the conditions and situation that presented itself at Abu Ghraib on the soldiers themselves.



Way to support those troops, George.

So, Um, Remember That Taliban Prison Break Last Week?

Yeah, that one?

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Nearly all of an estimated 1,150 prisoners, including some 400 Taliban inmates, fled a prison in Kandahar on Friday after Taliban insurgents blew open the main gate, officials said.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Taliban also fired several rockets at various parts of the mud-built prison in the province, a stronghold of the ousted Taliban movement.

Well it just got worse...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Hundreds of Taliban fighters took over several villages in southern Afghanistan on Monday just outside the region's largest city, and NATO and Afghan forces were redeploying to meet the threat, officials said.

Mohammad Farooq, the government leader in the Arghandab district of Kandahar province, said around 500 Taliban fighters moved into his district and took over several villages.

Arghandab lies just north of Kandahar city — the Taliban's former stronghold — and a tribal leader from the region warned that the militants could use the cover from Arghandab's grape and pomegranate orchards to mount an attack on Kandahar itself.

...

The push into Arghandab comes three days after a sophisticated Taliban attack on Kandahar's prison that freed hundreds of insurgent fighters being held there.

NATO spokesman Mark Laity said NATO and Afghan military officials were redeploying troops to the region to "meet any potential threats."

"It's fair to say that the jailbreak has put a lot of people (militants) into circulation who weren't there before, and so obviously you're going to respond to that potential threat," he said.

Mission Accomplished, right?

Larry Johnson's Fans Jump The Shark: Laugh At Families Whose Children Go To War

And in case I get accused of photoshopping this, here's the original:



(Update) Surely you jest!



Hillary represents the real, grounded in reality Democratic party. I won't argue with that statement, but I will point out that she's not the only one.

What I will argue with, however, is how her "supporters" would say things like what's displayed above, as well as think that the next best thing is to vote for John McCain.

"You Won't Believe What He's Saying"

I just heard the female news anchor for channel 6, WPVI, in a brief right before the news came on, say - with regards to Scott McClellan's new book which takes quite a stab at George Bush and his administration, "You won't believe what he's saying."

Hon, I think it's highly acceptable to believe what he's saying. I mean, shit...

...WE'VE ONLY BEEN SAYING IT FOR HOW MANY FUCKING YEARS NOW!?

Geez - show a little respect for your viewers who actually do have the intelligence to fully believe what Scott McClellan is saying in his book.

Welcome To The Anthropocene

But...but...I thought us humans were merely too insignificant to have any real effect on the Earth?!

Among the major changes heralding this two-century-old man-made epoch:

* Vastly altered sediment erosion and deposition patterns.
* Major disturbances to the carbon cycle and global temperature.
* Wholesale changes in biology, from altered flowering times to new migration patterns.
* Acidification of the ocean, which threatens tiny marine life that forms the bottom of the food chain.

...

As an example, they said, agriculture in Africa "has so degraded regional soil fertility that the economic development of whole nations will be diminished without drastic improvements of soil management."

"With more than half of all soils on Earth now being cultivated for food crops, grazed, or periodically logged for wood, how to sustain Earth’s soils is becoming a major scientific and policy issue," said Duke University soil scientist Daniel Richter.

...

As early as the late 1800s scientists were writing about man's wholesale impact on the planet and the possibility of an "anthropozoic era" having begun, according to Crutzen, who is credited with coining the term Anthropocene (anthropo = human; cene = new) back in 2000. That year, Crutzen and a colleague wrote in the scientific newsletter International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme about some of the dramatic changes:

"Urbanization has ... increased tenfold in the past century. In a few generations mankind is exhausting the fossil fuels that were generated over several hundred million years."

...

In land, water, air, ice, and ecosystems, the human impact is clear, large, and growing,"Alley told ScienceNow, an online publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "A geologist from the far distant future almost surely would draw a new line, and begin using a new name, where and when our impacts show up."

Increasing Efficiency

Al Gore

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- Al Gore, who was criticized for high electric bills at his Tennessee mansion, has completed a host of improvements to make the home more energy efficient, and a building-industry group has praised the house as one of the nation's most environmentally friendly.

The former vice president has installed solar panels, a rainwater-collection system and geothermal heating. He also replaced all incandescent lights with compact fluorescent or light-emitting diode bulbs -- even on his Christmas tree.

"Short of tearing it down and staring anew, I don't know how it could have been rated any higher," said Kim Shinn of the U.S. Green Building Council, which gave the house its second-highest rating for sustainable design.

Now I know he has a big house and lots of money to do the types of things that many of us can't. But even as such, this is pretty impressive:

Gore's improvements cut the home's summer electrical consumption by 11 percent compared with a year ago, according to utility records reviewed by The Associated Press. Most Nashville homes used 20 percent to 30 percent more electricity during the same period because of a record heat wave.

If you remember,

In February, a conservative think tank criticized Gore for using an average of 16,000 kilowatt hours a month for an average monthly bill of $1,206 in 2006. The typical Nashville home uses about 1,300 kilowatt hours a month.

Gore has said the criticism was unfair because the 10,000-square-foot mansion was undergoing extensive remodeling. He said this week that "global warming denier" groups were trying to discredit him because they don't like the attention he has given to climate change.

They got that information by digging through his trash, if I remember correctly but what's amazing is how the work he's been doing on his house has achieved some pretty impressive results.

Electricity usage at the home remains well above regional averages, but Gore's power consumption decreased by 6,890 kilowatt hours, or 11 percent, between June and August, despite the heat wave.

Gore's electric use increased again after he had to take his solar panels off-line in August so his new geothermal system could be integrated into the system. But his natural gas use has dropped 93 percent in the three months since the geothermal pump was activated.

When the Gores' heated pool is hooked up to the system later this month, their energy use is expected to decline more, his spokeswoman said.

Not only does this explain his increased usage that was noted by wingnuts during that particular smear campaign, but in the time since those renovations were made, his power consumption has dropped 11% despite a heatwave and his natural gas is down close to 100%.

How many shrieking wingnuts can claim that?

Al Gore Jr. Turning Out To Be A Bigger Hypocrite Than His Father

The CW, Arkansas

The son of former Vice President Al Gore was formally charged with drug possession following his Independence Day arrest in California.

According to TMZ.com, the Orange County D.A. charged Al Gore III with two felony counts of possession of a controlled substance, two misdemeanor counts of possessing a controlled substance without a prescription, one misdemeanor count of possession of marijuana, and a traffic infraction for driving at a speed greater than 100 miles per hour.

The 24-year-old was pulled over for speeding on a freeway, but during a search of his hybrid Prius, cops found a stash of prescription drugs and marijuana.

Ok. Typical arrest for one of these elitist liberals but more facts have been emerging. Apparently, that Toyota Prius he has, although it's a hybrid and certainly carries the standard of fuel efficieny, clearly isn't the best he could do. There's always biodiesel but more importantly, with all the money Gore has (remember, he does have a 650,000 sq. ft home constructed out of beams carved from Methuselah, shingles formed from endangered Hawaiian Green Turtle shell, windows pressure formed from 9 layers of commercially threatened Chilean Sea Bass fishscales, and in his kitchen, a butcher's dream countertop fashioned out of blood diamonds), surely they could afford a VW Polo Bluemotion:

Volkswagen has continued tweaking their class-leading Polo BlueMotion model to make it even more efficient. When first announced earlier this year, it was rated at 60.3mpg and 102g/km of carbon dioxide emissions. The latest numbers come in at 61.9mpg for the combined fuel economy according the the EU tests and the CO2 emissions are now under 100 at 99g/km.

But then of course there's the drug problem. Gore Sr. wants to set this great example for everyone about how we can save the environment (like there's a problem to begin with-hmph) but he can't even keep his own son's drug problem green.

Reports are coming out that Gore Jr's. marijuana wasn't even green marijuana. It was a mix of something these strung out drug addicted fascist liberals call Purple Haze and Orange Dream, a particular strain that is more orange than it is even green!

I'm not surprised here. The Gore's are constantly showing their non-green side and it's simply adding fuel to the fire (which adds even more carbon pollution in to the environment, by the way) for those who want to convict them of hypocrisy.

Al Gore and his family need to just stop everything they're doing. The longer they continue blathering about how we're supposedly destroying the planet, the more CO² they themselves release into the environment which, according to Gore Sr., is something he likes to call a "greenhouse gas". This "greenhouse gas", according to Gore, is responsible for heating the planet (the entire planet!!!) like...65 more degrees than it is right now and that this change will occur literally overnight!

Viewers on this side of the aisle know full well that humans simply aren't capable of having that type of impact on the world. After all, the world has only been around for what, 10,000 years? It's still fresh and young, practically a newborn and so to think, as the fear-mongerer Al Gore would like you to believe, that we're quickly causing irreversible changes to the Earth's environment is clearly just the rantings of a drug-smoking, moonbat liberal ranting about his perceived "end of the world".

Everybody knows the world will end when Jesus comes. So why worry about pollution and global warming now? God has a plan and it's in that plan that I trust.

Assorted Media: Music, Pics, Video

I've been slacking with the blog the last few days but I have good reason. I had the entire weekend off, something of a rare occurence and so on Friday and Saturday I was down in S. Jersey visiting with my folks and then on Sunday, I was with my girlfriend and her parents for a family reunion out in the Pottstown area.

So I've got some stuff to show off. You can start here, with my first post from the other day which included some pictures of marine life that I snapped with my cell phone.

Moving right along, here are some pictures of Elliott in Pottstown yesterday.





And to close, I was trying to upload some video of Roger Waters from the Live Earth concert but since it was taking so long, I hopped onto YouTube and found all the Roger Waters Live Earth clips I wanted. Here's some of my favorites.

Money



Another Brick In The Wall Pt. II



Brain Damage/Eclipse

Nancy Pelosi Asks...

"Congress Is Working On Legislation To Address Global Warming - What Would You Like To See Included?"

It's a good question to ask. Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of the common sense and otherwise good and reasonable answers are being downrated so that they're hidden while political jabs are being uprated.

As I read over the answers being left, I see a lot of good responses like further research into alternative fuels and technology like wind, water, and air power. Someone had the idea of federal subsidies for retrofitting homes with this equipment in order to create a massive national power grid that was partly provided by those homes specifically and taking off some reliance on fossil fuels.

Mandated higher MPG's and hybrid vehicles was another good idea, as well as was expansion of mass transit. Although I didn't see it yet, a high speed national rail system would be nice, as well.

Then you have the people who simply close their eyes and think if they stick their fingers in their ears and go "la-la-la-la-la-la-la" long and loud enough, they won't have to defend their ridiculous arguments.

Like:

Nothing, because no one knows if it is real or just a natural Earth climate cycle. No matter what liberal science says. And besides, to think man has enough talent, brains, whatever to think he can change an entire planet is extremely egotistical.

Change an entire planet...pshh! Where would anyone



get the idea



that humans have any talents



brains



or....what-



-ever...



to change the planet!?

That kind of thinking could get someone locked up for a good long time. Better to just keep it to yourself.

The Party Of No Ideas

All together now aaaaaannnd.........smear

This Bear Has Something To Say

Courtesy Colorado Bob

How would you stop global warming?

Barbara Boxer wants to know.

Here's my response:

Here in Philadelphia, we have Philly Car Share:

PhillyCarShare, a non-profit organization, is Philadelphia’s premier car-sharing service. Founded by five Philadelphians, we’ve accomplished greater positive environmental impact in Philadelphia than, well, any car company on the planet!

* 2,100 cars off Philadelphia's streets
* More walking, biking, use of transit

* 10 million fewer miles driven since inception
* 53% reduction in miles driven - each member drives about 130 fewer miles per month, on average
* Members who got rid of a car more often walk (38%), take transit (36%), take a taxi (19%), or bike (17%)

* 95% reduced auto emissions, from driving hybrids, driving less, owning fewer cars, and making fewer cold starts
* 440,000 gallons of gas saved
* 80% of members preferring residential locations near PhillyCarShare pods, thus strengthening the city
* $4,000 saved annually by each former car owner

In 2004, the City of Philadelphia joined PhillyCarShare, becoming the first government worldwide to share cars with local residents in a major fleet reduction effort. The pioneering project has helped eliminate over 330 municipal vehicles, saving Philadelphia taxpayers $2 million annually.

How about offering a tax credit to anyone who has given up their own personal automobile to take advantage of a program like this in an effort to increase the visibility and benefits of such programs and how much impact they could have on a national scale?

Sigh...

Commenter "Mike" on global warming, today, January 30th, 2007:

It IS just a hoax! Perpetrated by those who are looking for capital funding from the US Govt who loves to hand out millions to junk scientists to carry out their idiotic tests on the atmosphere. How arrogant of you all to think we little peons have the ability to change the immense globe in a mere 150 years when its been around, CHANGING ON ITS OWN, for 5+ billion years. Dont believe ME, then read other sites disputing it, like:
http://www.discussglobalwarming.com
and search Google for GLOBAL WARMING HOAX and you find TONS of sites who dont agree with your BS.

Yahoo News, via AP today, January 30th, 2007:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Democratic chairman of a House panel examining the government's response to climate change said Tuesday there is evidence that senior Bush administration officials sought repeatedly "to mislead the public by injecting doubt into the science of global warming."

...

The groups presented a survey that shows two in five of the 279 climate scientists who responded to a questionnaire complained that some of their scientific papers had been edited in a way that changed their meaning. Nearly half of the 279 said in response to another question that at some point they had been told to delete reference to "global warming" or "climate change" from a report.

The questionnaire was sent by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a private advocacy group. The report also was based on "firsthand experiences" described in interviews with the Government Accountability Project, which helps government whistleblowers, lawmakers were told.

Couple hints for Mike.

#1. "You all" is not an effective target in an argument.

#2. Perhaps you think it's arrogant to think "we little peons" could possibly effect the entire globe, but when you factor in human population growth in just the last 50+ years, I beg to differ:

#3. Don't like world population estimates? How about something a little closer to home, then. Between July 1, 1900 and July 1, 1999, the estimated population of the United States saw an expansion of 196,596,813 people. Given that large an increase just in this on country, I think that yes, we could have quite an effect on the planet and that being unable to even lend any credence to that idea with even a slightly open-mind is sheer lunacy.

#4. Although you don't like them, facts are your friends. Here's another fact you should become aware of:

As of late 2006, the world population reached 6.5 billion.[1] In line with population projections, this figure continues to grow at rates that were unprecedented prior to the 20th century, although the rate of increase has almost halved since growth rates reached their peak in 1963.

#5. OK. So maybe you don't those pesky little facts getting in the way of your reading. Maybe you'd like another chart, instead? This one is of the rough population levels from 10,000 BC up to 2,000 AD. I know, I know...it goes totally against the idea that the Earth is only between 6,000 and 10,000 years old but just work with me here and we might be able to get past this.

I feel no need to further address the idea of whether or not "we little peons" have the ability to change the globe in a "mere 150 years." Clearly, we do.

Then again, perhaps you're right and it is all just a big hoax. Yet regardless of whether the spewing of toxic chemicals by the millions of tons into the atmosphere actually could cause the relative temperature of the planet to gradually, or quickly increase, thus causing irreversible levels of harm to man, animal, and the entire planet, do you think it's OK to spew millions of tons of toxic chemicals into the air to begin with?

Here. Read up on where air pollution comes from. Then read about what it does, especially in accidents like India and the Bhopal Disaster or for a better example, the Great Smog of 1952 in London where pollutants from an increase of coal use at a time of cold weather became trapped by a low fog.

Around 12,000 died. And while London provides a good comparison of the science behind global warming (the trapping of gases within an area), the science and understanding of global warming has had 55 years to advance, adjust, test and learn from.

Let me leave you with this to think about. What has happened in the last 55 years since the Great Fog of London as a direct result of a doubling of the entire world population?

Industry has had to keep up.....

(I've included 'Darwin Award Nomination' as a category to this post for obvious reasons.)

Mayor Street: Iraq War Increases Violence In Philadelphia

As well as Will Bunch points out the passing of the buck when it comes to getting a handle on the crime situation in Philadelpia, anyone living in this city can think of some reasons that, being much closer to home, might contribute to crime in the area.

Some of those, as noted in the comments section of his post, involve how simply having more police isn't necessarily the be all fix all solution, although with regards to managing the drug trade and gang activity, police activity as a detterent certainly can help.

Another good comment was something along the lines of having more police alone isn't enough without a strategic approach to combat the problem overall.

If you want my opinion, though, it's clearly not Iraq. It's global warming. Living in this city for 6 years now, it's fairly obvious that in the summertime, as the mercury rises, so does the violence. My plan, along with an increase of police activity in certain neighborhoods, paired with an invigorating education program, combined with an all new job placement organization would be to add giant air conditioners all over the city that detect anger and imminent gun battles and then upon detection, would instantly blast the area in 30 degree air that would make everyone too cold to go out in a blaze of glory, only to die on a really cold concrete street which, as I'm sure you all know, is very uncomfortable when compared to dying in a pool of your own blood on a street that's roughly 70-75 degrees and receives partial Western sunlight.

...

How's that for correlation, Mayor Street?

Global Warming Is Just A Hoax

Besides, this stuff, you know, like...happens all the time. Really, all the time. No shit.

No reason to believe so called "greenhouse gases" or "warmer ocean temps" have anything to do with these types of natural occurences.

Besides, when people talk about collapsing ice shelves and the consequences of those collapses, they always make the mistake of using geologic time instead of biblical time. As in the true age of the Grand Canyon, where people think it was caused by glaciers and then thousands of years of wind and water when it was actually caused by Noah's Flood...

So...if ice shelves appear to be disintegrating at a quickening pace, air and ocean temperatures are going up, and as a result, weather patterns around the world are changing...

...maybe God has a fever?

Random Global Warming Thought

I'm on the side that global warming is real and that man is predominantly responsible due to our population explosion in the last 200 years, the industrial age, and our continued lack of prevention to monitor and stop global pollution, dumping, and poor economy standards, to name a few contributing factors.

What amazes me are the number of people who shrug off the science with the belief that since the Earth is just so big and gigantic and immense in overall size, that we little humans couldn't possibly have that significant an effect on the atmosphere of the entire planet yet we can obliterate all known topside life with nuclear weapons in the blink of an eye.

This concludes today's random thought on global warming.

The Pollutosphere

Insanity

If the sun warms the Earth too dangerously, the time may come to draw the shade. The "shade" would be a layer of pollution deliberately spewed into the atmosphere to help cool the planet. This over-the-top idea comes from prominent scientists, among them a Nobel laureate. The reaction here at the U.N. conference on climate change is a mix of caution, curiosity and some resignation to such "massive and drastic" operations, as the chief U.N. climatologist describes them.

The Nobel Prize-winning scientist who first made the proposal is himself "not enthusiastic about it."
"It was meant to startle the policy makers," said Paul J. Crutzen, of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Chemistry. "If they don't take action much more strongly than they have in the past, then in the end we have to do experiments like this."

...

When I want to fertilize my flowers, I don't take a shit on them. Sure it might work but really, there's got to be a better way to do it.

Global Warming? Feh. How Absurd!

Ice Ice...Maybe
Glacier National Park could be due for a name change

Photographs like these might soon be all that's left of Grinnell Glacier, seen at left in 1938 and at right in 2005, globally the hottest year on record. The 7,000-year-old ice monolith, located in Montana's Glacier National Park, has shrunk by 70 percent in the past century or so. "Virtually all the glaciers of the world are retreating," says ecologist Daniel Fagre of the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, stationed in the park. "It's clear evidence of global climate change. They don’t retreat for any other reason." If temperatures continue to climb at current rates, the last of the park’s glaciers will vanish by 2030. Visitors, Fagre says, are conscious of the deadline: "We hear more often that people want to come see the glaciers before they disappear."

How absurd. As if humans could ever affect the planet in such drastic measures. Obviously, this is a sign that the rapture is coming, and hell is heating up for the blood and souls of countless liberals to be cast within.