CO2 and Heat Cycle

No time for prose today.

Here is a graph from the European Environment Agency.

Again, it is clear that our climate cycle is consistent. Actually, from a stock analysis view the trend line is down, see the colds are getting colder.

The CO2 spike is from 275 ppm to 375 ppm, which I compute without the aid of any useful devices to be a variance of about 27%, not a doubling as the visual conveys, assuming the data are reliable, but what that data means remains to be seen.

Clearly, the heat spiked before the very recent CO2 blast, so there seems to be an argument that the CO2 did not cause the heat spike. Prior cycles don't indicate the converse - that heat causes the CO2 increase. But, data is too fragile and thin to make any strong argument like that, unless you are a politician.

It just may be that the CO2 and warming are buddies that travel together. And, seriously, what caused the historical spikes in CO2? It wasn't us.

The big problem is what will the near future show? Again, only politicians and researchers with global warming grants venture into this area.

I am most fearful of Dr. Felix's analysis - we are heading into an ice age, which are always preceded by a warming spike. [Don't let his goofy site turn you off - he is a 90 something paleoclimatologist, if I recall correctly]

Now a word from the KGB

One of notions that I issue from time to time that meets a high level of frowning is that the old Soviet Union funded the green, peace, anti-nuclear, and, somewhat the civil rights movement.

Why people are shocked to hear this is evidence of our intellectual malaise and general ignorance of world affairs. It was an obvious tactic that, as you can see below, was put into action by western media. Of course, we do the same.

During my last meeting with Andropov, he said, wisely, "now all we have to do is to keep the Vietnam-era anti-Americanism alive." Andropov was a shrewd judge of human nature. He understood that in the end our original involvement would be forgotten, and our insinuations would take on a life of their own. He knew well that it was just the way human nature worked.

Ion Mihai Pacepa was formerly the acting chief of Romania's espionage service and national-security adviser to the country's president. You may recall the USSR made great use of Romania's murders. He is the highest-ranking intelligence officer ever to have defected from the former Soviet bloc. [Well, that we know of.]

The article starts with a recount of Kerry's testimony before Congress in the 1970s. You know, he saw other soldiers killing the enemy in cold blood, cutting off ears, etc., but never bothered to report any of this - which is a felony. Of course, he was lying in order to make his bones in the leftist movement. Here are the observations of our former enemy on how the KGB ran the anti-american opinion war, which the KGB won. The author is confident Kerry was recycling the language he spread through European circles.

February 26, 2004, 8:28 a.m.
Kerry’s Soviet Rhetoric The Vietnam-era antiwar movement got its spin from the Kremlin.
by Ion Mihai Pacepa

...Or did Senator Kerry merely hear allegations of that sort as hearsay bandied about by members of antiwar groups (much of which has since been discredited)? To me, this assertion sounds exactly like the disinformation line that the Soviets were sowing worldwide throughout the Vietnam era. KGB priority number one at that time was to damage American power, judgment, and credibility. One of its favorite tools was the fabrication of such evidence as photographs and "news reports" about invented American war atrocities. These tales were purveyed in KGB-operated magazines that would then flack them to reputable news organizations. Often enough, they would be picked up. News organizations are notoriously sloppy about verifying their sources. All in all, it was amazingly easy for Soviet-bloc spy organizations to fake many such reports and spread them around the free world.

As a spy chief and a general in the former Soviet satellite of Romania, I produced the very same vitriol Kerry repeated to the U.S. Congress almost word for word and planted it in leftist movements throughout Europe. KGB chairman Yuri Andropov managed our anti-Vietnam War operation. He often bragged about having damaged the U.S. foreign-policy consensus, poisoned domestic debate in the U.S., and built a credibility gap between America and European public opinion through our disinformation operations. Vietnam was, he once told me, "our most significant success."

The KGB organized a vitriolic conference in Stockholm to condemn America's aggression, on March 8, 1965, as the first American troops arrived in south Vietnam. On Andropov's orders, one of the KGB's paid agents, Romesh Chandra, the chairman of the KGB-financed World Peace Council, created the Stockholm Conference on Vietnam as a permanent international organization to aid or to conduct operations to help Americans dodge the draft or defect, to demoralize its army with anti-American propaganda, to conduct protests, demonstrations, and boycotts, and to sanction anyone connected with the war. It was staffed by Soviet-bloc undercover intelligence officers and received about $15 million annually from the Communist Party's international department — on top of the WPC's $50 million a year, all delivered in laundered cash dollars. Both groups had Soviet-style secretariats to manage their general activities, Soviet-style working committees to conduct their day-to-day operations, and Soviet-style bureaucratic paperwork. The quote from Senator Kerry is unmistakable Soviet-style sloganeering from this period. I believe it is very like a direct quote from one of these organizations' propaganda sheets.

The KGB campaign to assault the U.S. and Europe by means of disinformation was more than just a few Cold War dirty tricks. The whole foreign policy of the Soviet-bloc states, indeed its whole economic and military might, revolved around the larger Soviet objective of destroying America from within through the use of lies. The Soviets saw disinformation as a vital tool in the dialectical advance of world Communism.

The Stockholm conference held annual international meetings up to 1972. In its five years of existence it created thousands of "documentary" materials printed in all the major Western languages describing the "abominable crimes" committed by American soldiers against civilians in Vietnam, along with counterfeited pictures. All these materials were manufactured by the KGB's disinformation department. I would print up these materials in hundreds of thousands of copies each.

The Romanian DIE (Ceausescu's secret police) was tasked to distribute these KGB-concocted "incriminating documents" all over Western Europe. And ordinary people often bought it hook, line, and sinker. "Even Attila the Hun looks like an angel when compared to these Americans," a West German businessman reprovingly told me after reading one such report.

The Italian, Greek, and Spanish Communist parties serviced by Bucharest were much affected by this material and their activists regularly distributed translations. They also handed them out to the participants at anti-American demonstrations around the world.

Many "Ban-the-Bomb" and anti-nuclear movements were KGB-funded operations, too. I can no longer look at a petition for world peace or other supposedly noble cause, particularly of the anti-American variety, without thinking to myself, "KGB."

In 1978, when I broke with Communism, my DIE was propagating the line that Washington's adventure in Vietnam had wasted over $200 trillion. This waste, we warned darkly, would soon generate European inflation, recession, and unemployment.

As far as I'm concerned, the KGB gave birth to the antiwar movement in America. In 1976, Andropov gave my own Romanian DIE credit for helping his KGB do so.

Leftist intellectuals in America now look to Europe — steeped for years in anti-American propaganda from the Soviet Union — for "a sane and frank European criticism of the Bush administration's war policy." Indeed, anti-Americanism in Europe today is almost as ferocious as it was during Vietnam. France and Germany insist we are torturing the al Qaeda prisoners held at Guantanamo Base. The Mirror, a British newspaper, is confident that President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair were "killing innocents in Afghanistan." The Paris daily Le Monde put Jean Baudrillard on its front page asserting that "the Judeo-Christian West, led by America, not only provoked the [September 11] terrorist attacks, it actually desired them."

In June 2002, a documentary film on "U.S. war crimes" in Afghanistan was shown in the German Bundestag by the crypto-Communist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). The film faithfully reincarnated the style of old Soviet-bloc "documentaries" demonizing the U.S. war in Vietnam. According to this 20-minute movie, American soldiers were involved in the torture and murder of some 3,000 Taliban prisoners in the region of Mazar-e-Sharif. One witness in the film even claimed he had seen an American soldier break the neck of one Afghan prisoner and pour acid on others.

During my last meeting with Andropov, he said, wisely, "now all we have to do is to keep the Vietnam-era anti-Americanism alive." Andropov was a shrewd judge of human nature. He understood that in the end our original involvement would be forgotten, and our insinuations would take on a life of their own. He knew well that it was just the way human nature worked.

Oil Buisiness For Idiots

Every so often the nightly, local news will tell us where most of the money paid for gasoline goes. The punch line is always something like - "So, don't hit your gas dealer, the government is driving up the price."

The illustration on the right from the US DOE is a fairly recent break down of where the money goes. Stop to think about it for a second, the governments, which do zero to produce anything, charge you 18% of your gasoline bill. 18%. So, do you think they really care about driving down the pump price?

The "Crude Oil" part is 56%. When winding up to rail at an oil company, you have to figure out what that oil company does. If it not producing the oil, it does not participate in the crude part. If it does, you need to see how much cost is required to produce the oil.

As noted on the left, investment in production and exploration in the U.S. has doubled from 2002 to 2006. Thus, not all the recent rise in revenue has gone to President Bush and his oil barons, as the dim bulbs complain. The theory is - if a price is spiking ,then you want to find more of the product to sell. If you are fast, you will make a quick hit. The magic of the free market is everyone tries to do the same thing, thereby relieving the upside pressure - increasing supply.

A good way to look at the oil business is to compare it with the profit margins of other industries. On the right, you can see the oil industry was under 10 percent in 2006, 3rd Quarter. This is very high for the industry.

As the graph clearly implies the O & G business' ROI is much less than other industries. Sure, sure, I know - all the numbers are a conspiracy. For now, however, lets assume that not everyone on the planet is lying and oil moguls can't buy off the IRS, the SEC, the financial media, banks, the shareholders, and employees.

On a percentage basis, then, there is hardly an argument to be made for obscene profits. It cannot be denied that the oil industry profit margin is up from, say, the normal 5-6-7 percent region. A few years ago, the margin was very low - but no one suggested we subsidize the oil companies, which is the legitimate converse of extra high taxes when returns are 9%.
Here is a representation of the profits made by the oil and gas industry. The numbers are from 2000 - 2005 and show the combined return was 5.9%, slightly higher than ALL industries combined. When looking at this, be sure to glance up and look at the drug business for a comparison of the scope of profitability. That business is almost 4 times more profitable.

Most of us would not start a company knowing that our rate of return was 6%. For a mature company, that is not too bad, actually, but it is not attractive to fresh capital and dreams of wealth.

Another complaint made against the industry is that "it" takes advantage of a crises. Glossing over the nonsense of there being an "it," let us look at the gross numbers.

As you can see, the rate of growth of socialist programs far outstrip those of the sectors that produce a return on investment.

The "Medical Care' industry is essentially a monopoly protected by the government, the FDA, and AMA, so that would be an example of more governmental failure. If you think the FDA is looking out for you, rather than protecting the drug companies, start looking into the matter.

Oh, look down at gasoline. It has grown in cost at a rate less than food and housing, those bastard oil cartels. No, I don't know the difference between rent and housing. Keep this in mind: a gallon of gasoline costs less than a gallon of spring water.

So, the rate of growth does not reflect any outstripping of the economy. It is a small part of the inflation factors. Further, one can live without driving.

The feds did a study regarding the spike after Katrina, since they live and die by what the news media says is our opinion. The results showed no price gouging. Check the web site, but here is a summary:

The FTC report, released in May 2006, included these findings:

* No evidence that refiners manipulated prices by running refineries below full production capacity, restricting gasoline production or diverting gasoline from the U.S. market to less lucrative foreign markets.
* No evidence to suggest refinery expansion decisions over the past 20 years resulted from either unilateral or coordinated attempts to manipulate prices.
* No evidence to suggest companies reduced inventories to increase or manipulate prices or exacerbate price spikes.
* No situations that might allow one firm – or a small collusive group – to manipulate gasoline futures prices by using storage assets to restrict gasoline movements into New York Harbor, the key delivery point for gasoline.

The U.S. government has investigated gasoline prices about 30 times over the last 20 years but oil companies were never found to have “fixed” prices. [Yes, the Democrats found this to be true.]

A key problem in the US is the failure to build new refineries. It is stupid to import refined gas. It is this pinch in the pipeline, along with regional additive requirements, that can create seasonal spikes.

I recently tried to fill in the caverns in the knowledge of a compatriot regarding our need for gas refineries. I hit a wall when I let slip that the Democrats were the ones blocking the building of new refineries. If I had said it were the Republicans, I am sure I would have won over a convert. This technique works well. Re the GOP's 2005 attempt to build more refineries, a revealing comment:

The legislation is "socialism to help big oil," said Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat.

"It is help to the cronies – that is what this is about," said Boxer, who raised concerns the legislation, if passed, would also have to be merged with a controversial refinery bill approved earlier this month by the House.

The pathological level of illness and rage of this comment forbids counter argument. To argue with a madwoman is to sound like a fool. She ought to see who the shareholders are of "big oil." If anyone doubts it is the Democrats who are blocking the new refineries, just do a simple Google search, unless you now think it is good idea.

The Dems also have blocked the building of new nuclear power plants. This is not entirely their fault as it was a KGB strategy in the 1960's to fund leftists and green organizations to block the plants, so that our economy would start to gyrate and be subject to foreign pressure. The leftists have taken control of the Democratic Party and convinced normal people that these anti-American schemes are somehow "liberal," which has a new meaning. The Russians are better long-term thinkers than we are. More on this, another day.

In President Bush's Energy Plan, yes he had one for years and, I know, you never read about it in the papers, he has been pushing for both more refineries and building of nuclear plants, as well as funding alternative fuel research. Oh, I should have said it was Boxer's plan. Then, you might have believed it was a good idea.

OK, I can't take anymore either.

Bye.

Confused Conga

Not much to report today. Busy with my virtual reality.

I did hear Mr. Gore tell Congress that 4 times in the last 15 years 100% of all scientists in the world signed off on his thesis that humans, not cows, are causing global warming. (It did reach the 40's when Mr. Gore flew in on his private jet.) That was OK, no one expects him to delve into facts or apply logic. Don't have to when you have true believers.


As to the nation's virtual reality, this photo says it all:


America, the land of the inDUHvidual.

I may disagree with what the man's sign, but will defend to the death his right to special education.

Want News?

I have to admit I find the Chinese Xinhua news service to be informative, balanced, and attuned to reporting news, rather than the latest regarding boobs and politicians, which are not always the same thing. I recommend the service as a good source of news, free of US, CBC, and BBC filters.

Below is a news piece offered to show you how real events pop up at Xinhua - important news on positive developments with the evil doers in N. Korea.

I do have to admit, this news has been mentioned in our media, much to my surprise as it means the current administration is doing something good. I am sure we will get back to more important news like whether Carl Rove uses boxers or briefs.

The N. Koreans seem willing to back down and shut down the Yongbyon reactor, if the U.S. will let them have their money back. It seems we blocked accounts, claiming the North Koreans, or as XINHUA refers to them - the DPRK, were engaged in criminal activity, not just state-sponsored terrorism. Maybe we can get Kim (I'm so ronry) Jung Il on tax evasion.

It is rumored, by me, that DPRK is actually afraid of Team America-World Police flying in to take out the government. [Lets put the "F" back in Freedom.] In any event, its nice to see that the communist North is using leverage, the threat of thermonuclear destruction, to get capitalist money.

Finally, they got it!

Check out the site. Click on the headline above. If you poke around, you will find pages where the events are reported as they happened, then, below, are links to the Chinese reactions, then other government reactions. What a bizarre way to report on world news.

By way of contrast, CNN's page this day had pictures of "People" protesting the US being in Sadr City (the people were curiously all males 18-30). CNN didn't seem to find a picture to use regarding the use of chlorine gas by the murderers, oh, insurgents in three attacks. Probably, because there were only a few dead and 350 with seared lungs. Or, as they put it, 350 injured.

There was one sentence on U.S. troops killing two gangsters setting up a roadside bomb. Superb balance.

FROM Xinhua:

BEIJING, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Kim Kye-Gwan, top negotiator of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), arrived here Saturday morning for the six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.

Kim Kye-Gwan, top negotiator of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), arrived in Beijing Saturday morning.(Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

The DPRK would not shut down the Yongbyon nuclear reactor if the United States did not first lift financial bans on DPRK accounts in the Banco Delta Asia (BDA), a Macao-based bank, Kim told reporters upon his arrival in Beijing for a new round of the six-party talks scheduled to open on Monday.

Kim, DPRK's vice foreign minister, said the DPRK has not received any notification regarding the lifting of financial sanctions yet.

He said it is "unnecessary" for the DPRK and the United States to set up liaison offices. Concerning the HEU (Highly Enriched Uranium) issue, the DPRK is willing to cooperate with the United States, and the DPRK would like to explain if the U.S. side provides evidence, Kim said.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced on Wednesday a plan to resolve the financial dispute with the DPRK by formally barring U.S. financial institutions from dealing with the BDA.

The United States slapped sanctions on the BDA in 2005 and put it on a money-laundering blacklist, prompting Macao to freeze the 24 million dollars believed to belong to the DPRK. In return, the DPRK boycotted the subsequent six-party talks for more than one year.

As part of the nuclear deal reached during the six-party talks in Beijing on Feb. 13, the United States agreed to settle the financial dispute with the DPRK within 30 days. The United States has accused the DPRK of using the bank to launder illegal earnings and the DPRK has urged the United States to lift the sanctions.

Related:

DPRK reported to have started preparations for shutting down Yongbyon facilities

Bee Aware

Its now mid-March madness, the Ides having passed in favor of the Irish, and the bee problem seems worse than previously imagined.

Sure, you probably don't keep up on the bees, but there is serious stuff afoot. There was concern in January that the the honeybee population was going to be off dramatically. Indeed there is a name for the drop off: CCD, Colony collapse disorder.

When an anagram is devised and spread through a specialists' community, aka CCO or community continuation order, you know something is going on. You always name something you don't really understand, so it looks like you have some control over the chaos.

As a Hindi might say, you nama the rupa. You give names to define the perception, thereby creating the delusion that you actually know something.


Below is an article/press release that spells out the problem, though it jumps to a conclusion that there is a "die off." In addition to that overview written in January, note that as the bee keepers started looking to see how their colonies were in February and March, they are finding them gone.

Not a few, most of the entire colonies in the orange states in the map have left their hive location. There are, as we speak, some $14 billion in crops in jeopardy, as they require massive cross-fertilization. Honey bee colonies are used on the commercial basis. Regular ordinary bees just out for a lark won't do the trick. God didn't seem to design the gadfly bees right or something.

The honey bees in question are not confirmed dead as I read the reports. The are gone and there are no bodies of insects left in the colony hives. No bodies to study for infection. They are just gone! No one knows the wherefore or where. This has happened suddenly and broadly and the experts don't have an answer, so don't bother to attend a long conference. Keep an eye out for a gaggle of bees.

Not wanting to miss a conspiracy theory, it is said that Osama bin Laden's folks control the bee industry in the East. I can't quite figure out the conspiracy, but I don't doubt it. It does seem suspicious that the orange states in the map of bee emigration are close to the blue states during the past few elections. Coincidence! I think not.

Perhaps, the CCD is, as hypothesized, a leading indicator of some sort of collapse. Seriously, as well as not.

PS: apiculture is a real word. Click on the title of this blog entry to go to a site offering more information.

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Current News Releases Search News Releases

PSU | CAS | ICT | News | News Releases | Release You are here.

January 29 , 2007

HONEY BEE DIE-OFF ALARMS BEEKEEPERS, CROP GROWERS AND RESEARCHERS

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- An alarming die-off of honey bees has beekeepers fighting for commercial survival and crop growers wondering whether bees will be available to pollinate their crops this spring and summer.

Researchers are scrambling to find answers to what's causing an affliction recently named Colony Collapse Disorder, which has decimated commercial beekeeping operations in Pennsylvania and across the country.

"During the last three months of 2006, we began to receive reports from commercial beekeepers of an alarming number of honey bee colonies dying in the eastern United States," says Maryann Frazier, apiculture extension associate in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. "Since the beginning of the year, beekeepers from all over the country have been reporting unprecedented losses.

"This has become a highly significant yet poorly understood problem that threatens the pollination industry and the production of commercial honey in the United States," she says. "Because the number of managed honey bee colonies is less than half of what it was 25 years ago, states such as Pennsylvania can ill afford these heavy losses."

A working group of university faculty researchers, state regulatory officials, cooperative extension educators and industry representatives is working to identify the cause or causes of Colony Collapse Disorder and to develop management strategies and recommendations for beekeepers. Participating organizations include Penn State, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the agriculture departments in Pennsylvania and Florida, and Bee Alert Technology Inc., a technology transfer company affiliated with the University of Montana.

"Preliminary work has identified several likely factors that could be causing or contributing to CCD," says Dennis vanEngelsdorp, acting state apiarist with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. "Among them are mites and associated diseases, some unknown pathogenic disease and pesticide contamination or poisoning."

Initial studies of dying colonies revealed a large number of disease organisms present, with no one disease being identified as the culprit, vanEngelsdorp explains. Ongoing case studies and surveys of beekeepers experiencing CCD have found a few common management factors, but no common environmental agents or chemicals have been identified.

The beekeeping industry has been quick to respond to the crisis. The National Honey Board has pledged $13,000 of emergency funding to the CCD working group. Other organizations, such as the Florida State Beekeepers Association, are working with their membership to commit additional funds.

This latest loss of colonies could seriously affect the production of several important crops that rely on pollination services provided by commercial beekeepers.

"For instance, the state's $45 million apple crop -- the fourth largest in the country -- is completely dependent on insects for pollination, and 90 percent of that pollination comes from honey bees," Frazier says. "So the value of honey bee pollination to apples is about $40 million."

In total, honey bee pollination contributes about $55 million to the value of crops in the state. Besides apples, crops that depend at least in part on honey bee pollination include peaches, soybeans, pears, pumpkins, cucumbers, cherries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries.

Frazier says to cope with a potential shortage of pollination services, growers should plan well ahead. "If growers have an existing contract or relationship with a beekeeper, they should contact that beekeeper as soon as possible to ascertain if the colonies they are counting on will be available," she advises. "If growers do not have an existing arrangement with a beekeeper but are counting on the availability of honey bees in spring, they should not delay but make contact with a beekeeper and arrange for pollination services now.

"However, beekeepers overwintering in the north many not know the status of their colonies until they are able to make early spring inspections," she adds. "This should occur in late February or early March but is dependent on weather conditions. Regardless, there is little doubt that honey bees are going to be in short supply this spring and possibly into the summer."

A detailed, up-to-date report on Colony Collapse Disorder can be found on the Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium Web site at http://maarec.org.

###

EDITORS: Contact Maryann Frazier at (814) 865-4621 or by e-mail at mxt15@psu.edu. Dennis vanEngelsdorp can be reached at (717) 772-5225 or by e-mail at c-dvanengl@state.pa.us.

Writer/Editor
Chuck Gill
Phone: 814-863-2713
E-mail:cdg5@psu.edu

The Polar Bear Lie

The UN folks have been busy in their press office. Now, the "thousands" of unnamed scientists seem have declared Polar Bears are just about extinct. You know 2050. Time to wear a sandwich board: THE END IS NEAR.

I know this is not so, from reading about them before the media had a new bone to gnaw, leaving scraps for the masses. IN FACT: Polar Bear populations likely increase in warmer condition.

I won't even bother bemoaning the lack of journalistic work etc etc. It is obvious that journalists need not apply. The reports are cool aid drinking. I will just refer you to other data:

Artic Ice (not Antarctic - I am tired of talking about the misinformation about the South Pole, let's go north)

A study commissioned by Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans examined the relationship between air temperature and sea ice and concluded, "the possible impact of global warming appears to play a minor role in changes to Arctic sea ice." Rather, the Canadian study found that changing wind patterns are the primary cause of changing sea ice distributions. Moreover, while sea ice has decreased in the Arctic, it has remained relatively constant (or even increased slightly) in the Antarctic since 1978.

Is Global Warming Killing Polar Bears?

Though polar bears are uniquely adapted to the Arctic region, they are not wedded solely to its coldest parts nor are they restricted to a specific Arctic diet. Aside from a variety of seals, they eat fish, kelp, caribou, ducks, sea birds and scavenged whale and walrus carcasses. In addition, as discussed above, Arctic air temperatures were as high as present temperatures in the 1930s and polar bears survived.

Interestingly, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), an international organization that has worked for 50 years to protect endangered species, has also written on the threats posed to polar bears from global warming. However, their own research seems to undermine their fears. According to the WWF, about 20 distinct polar bear populations exist, accounting for approximately 22,000 polar bears worldwide. As the figure shows, population patterns do not show a temperature-linked decline:

• Only two of the distinct population groups, accounting for about 16.4 percent of the total population, are decreasing.
• Ten populations, approximately 45.4 percent of the total number, are stable.
• Another two populations — about 13.6 percent of the total number of polar bears — are increasing.

The status of the remaining six populations (whether they are stable, increasing or decreasing in size) is unknown.

Moreover, when the WWF report is compared with the Arctic air temperature trend studies discussed earlier, there is a strong positive (instead of negative) correlation between air temperature and polar bear populations. Polar bear populations are declining in regions (like Baffin Bay) that have experienced a decrease in air temperature, while areas where polar bear populations are increasing (near the Bering Strait and the Chukchi Sea) are associated with increasing air temperatures. Thus it is difficult to argue that rising air temperatures will necessarily and directly lead to a decrease in polar bear populations.

Bush Causes Global Cooling

The facts are in. Because George Bush caused Global Warming, he is trying to make it up to his co-conspirators - those big oil people who need to sell heating oil.

The word on the street is that Bush has used some of the technology that the black helicopter pilots stole from Tesla and Bush has caused Global Freezing by turning the Interocitor dial too far to the right!

No, I am not talking about -8 degrees F here last night, a week before the St. Paddy's Day parade, no I am talking about the entire month of February. I am also not talking about the Antarctic, which I hope you understand by now, had its coldest year in recorded history in 2006. Nope. It is time to panic, just like Time Magazine said in 1975 - we are going into Global Cooling!

Read on from the Toronto Star, a paper that blames Bush for an off day by the Blue Jays.

February was coldest in 28 years

Mar 05, 2007 12:13 PM

Curtis Rush
Staff Reporter
If you thought February was particularly cold, you were right.

Frigid conditions made the month the coldest February in 28 years, according to Environment Canada’s senior climatologist David Phillips.

Not since 1979 has February dished up such bone-rattling conditions.

The average temperature was -8.4C, which was three degrees colder than normal.

That also made it the fifth coldest February since 1937 when weather records were first kept at what is now Pearson International Airport.

It followed an unusually mild January.

The month was also distinguished by a lack of rain.

Usually in February, the temperature rises enough that we get some rain.

However, this was the first February since 1978 and only the second ever when we didn’t get one drop of rain.

"This was winter at its worst," Phillips said.

Today’s weather will be cold, but there is the promise of spring around the corner.

Environment Canada is predicting temperatures will rise to 3C by Friday.

And although we have had snowfalls right through May in some years, the law of averages suggests we may have had our last snowstorm of the season.

In the months of March, April and May, there is only a 21 per cent chance of any snow falling, according to Phillips.

Environment Canada is also calling for normal temperatures through March, April and May

Oh, you say, "This is just anecdotal and a small snapshot."

Yes, it is. Just remember that when you start talking about Global Warming and dozens of giant hurricanes.

PS: The Interocitor is from This Island Earth

NASA: No Global Warming in Antarctica

From NASA's Earth Observatory, a recent media alert that there is no evidence of Global Warming in Antarctica - indeed it has been historically cold. See prior entry on the increasing arctic ice.

Say, did you see this information on TV?

Google searches will show Harper's, San Francisco Chronicle, and many others reporting in May of 2006 that temperatures were rising 3 x faster in Antarctica. Completely wrong, on the macro scale. Completely uncorrected.

Get it yet?

February 15, 2007 ANTARCTIC TEMPERATURES DISAGREE WITH CLIMATE MODEL PREDICTIONS A new report on climate over the world's southernmost continent shows that temperatures during the late 20th century did not climb as had been predicted by many global climate models. This comes soon after the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that strongly supports the conclusion that the Earth's climate as a whole is warming, largely due to human activity. It also follows a similar finding from last summer by the same research group that showed no increase in precipitation over Antarctica in the last 50 years. Most models predict that both precipitation and temperature will increase over Antarctica with a warming of the planet. David Bromwich, professor of professor of atmospheric sciences in the Department of Geography, and researcher with the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University, reported on this work at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at San Francisco. "It's hard to see a global warming signal from the mainland of Antarctica right now," he said. "Part of the reason is that there is a lot of variability there. It's very hard in these polar latitudes to demonstrate a global warming signal. This is in marked contrast to the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula that is one of the most rapidly warming parts of the Earth." Bromwich says that the problem rises from several complications. The continent is vast, as large as the United States and Mexico combined. Only a small amount of detailed data is available – there are perhaps only 100 weather stations on that continent compared to the thousands spread across the U.S. and Europe. And the records that we have only date back a half-century. "The best we can say right now is that the climate models are somewhat inconsistent with the evidence that we have for the last 50 years from continental Antarctica. "We're looking for a small signal that represents the impact of human activity and it is hard to find it at the moment," he said. Last year, Bromwich's research group reported in the journal Science that Antarctic snowfall hadn't increased in the last 50 years. "What we see now is that the temperature regime is broadly similar to what we saw before with snowfall. In the last decade or so, both have gone down," he said. In addition to the new temperature records and earlier precipitation records, Bromwich's team also looked at the behavior of the circumpolar westerlies, the broad system of winds that surround the Antarctic continent. "The westerlies have intensified over the last four decades of so, increasing in strength by as much as perhaps 10 to 20 percent," he said. "This is a huge amount of ocean north of Antarctica and we're only now understanding just how important the winds are for things like mixing in the Southern Ocean." The ocean mixing both dissipates heat and absorbs carbon dioxide, one of the key greenhouse gases linked to global warming. Some researchers are suggesting that the strengthening of the westerlies may be playing a role in the collapse of ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula. "The peninsula is the most northern point of Antarctica and it sticks out into the westerlies," Bromwich says. "If there is an increase in the westerly winds, it will have a warming impact on that part of the continent, thus helping to break up the ice shelves, he said. "Farther south, the impact would be modest, or even non-existent." Bromwich said that the increase in the ozone hole above the central Antarctic continent may also be affecting temperatures on the mainland. "If you have less ozone, there's less absorption of the ultraviolet light and the stratosphere doesn't warm as much." That would mean that winter-like conditions would remain later in the spring than normal, lowering temperatures. "In some sense, we might have competing effects going on in Antarctica where there is low-level CO2 warming but that may be swamped by the effects of ozone depletion," he said. "The year 2006 was the all-time maximum for ozone depletion over the Antarctic." Bromwich said the disagreement between climate model predictions and the snowfall and temperature records doesn't necessarily mean that the models are wrong. "It isn't surprising that these models are not doing as well in these remote parts of the world. These are global models and shouldn't be expected to be equally exact for all locations," he said. ## Contact: David Bromwich Ohio State University 614-292-6692

July 2006: Coldest recorded in Antarctica

I meant to put this up a while ago. Just a little more on "Global Warming" from the NSF. Its sort of a throw away article, as you probably know, if you follow this blog, the Antarctic is cooling and producing more sea ice than ever recorded. Sea ice is a moderator of warming. It is especially important in the (probably waning) period of solar flare activity.

Note the old record low for July was some 25 degrees warmer than this past January! This is no minor variation. As Al Gore says, 100 percent of all the scientists in the world agree with this.

Now, back to Sweet 16.

Of note, I think one of the guys on the right is Scott.
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Coldest July Ever Recorded At South Pole

National Science Foundation by Lynn Simarski

While some parts of the United States have been sweltering under the summer sun, the South Pole just recorded the coldest July ever. The average monthly temperature for July at the U.S. Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station was -66 degrees Celsius (-86.8 degrees Fahrenheit), breaking the record of -64.3 C (-83.7 F) set in July, 1965. The lowest temperature recorded during this past July was -77.9 C (-108.2 F). Temperature records have been kept continuously since January, 1957.

"These very cold days provide the best conditions for astronomical observations--clear skies and low wind. On the down side, power usage is at a maximum and vehicle operation is almost impossible." South Pole meteorologist Matt Wolf, one of 28 people spending the winter at the research station, noted.

The year-round research station, run by the National Science Foundation, supports on-going studies in astronomy, astrophysics, atmospheric sciences, and other disciplines.

----

[Notice the obligatory introduction that its a hot summer at home. One finds this bow to correctness in every report now that does not support the Global Warming model. You don't want to lose your funding source. New evidence will be reported, with the caveat, "but this does not disprove the Global Warming model."]

Antarctica 9 Degrees F Colder

Assume:
1. We are making the Ozone Hole in Antarctica bigger by sniffing freon.
2. We are making the earth warmer by growing methane spewing forests and raising farting cows.

Conclusion: Tilt, Tilt!

Sorry, these a axioms don't lead anywhere right now as they are mutually exclusive.

In a recent report bemoaning the huge hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica, there is a reference to the understsanding that it is unusual cold that causes the hole to grow so large. When the southern hemisphere warms up, the hole shrinks.

From Science Daily

...The temperature of the Antarctic stratosphere causes the severity of the ozone hole to vary from year to year. Colder than average temperatures result in larger and deeper ozone holes, while warmer temperatures lead to smaller ones. The NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) provided analyses of satellite and balloon stratospheric temperature observations. The temperature readings from NOAA satellites and balloons during late-September 2006 showed the lower stratosphere at the rim of Antarctica was approximately nine degrees Fahrenheit colder than average, increasing the size of this year's ozone hole by 1.2 to 1.5 million square miles.

I located a graph that represented the average temperature to 1988 at the South Pole. Funny thing is I can't find anything on the average yearly temperature there for the past few years. Curious.

Indeed, NASA reports the Ozone hole is repairing itself, assuming we know what it is supposed to be like since we only discovered it in 1985: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/26may_ozone.htm

I will keep looking for the graph after 1988. Bet you a quarter that if the average showed a warming trend, the graph would not be so hard to locate.

If you look back at a prior entry, you will see the Antarctice sea ice is increasing.

Global Climate Cycle

This graph from the European Environment Agency should put things in perspective.

Say, where did all that CO2 come from back 125,000 years ago?

Bush's Ranch - Model Green Home

You have heard about Al Gore's utility bill. The idea behind the bill jibe is "Holy Hypocrite" Batman, which may be interesting character evidence to be used when judging his message, but it is still not a rejection of the message. Ad hominem attacks should be avoided or, at least, kept to a side bar.

I suppose most people would be surprised a bit about Gore since we don't teach in school his family made its money in the Tea Pot Dome scandal and VP Gore rewarded Occidental Petroleum with the $100/acre Dome land diversion.

If you missed the utility dig, here is a teaser:

Al Gore's 'Inconvenient Truth'? -- $30,000 utility bill

ABCNews">

(2/27/07 - NASHVILLE, TN) - Back home in Tennessee, safely ensconced in his suburban Nashville home, Vice President Al Gore is no doubt basking in the Oscar awarded to "An Inconvenient Truth," the documentary he inspired and in which he starred. But a local free-market think tank is trying to make that very home emblematic of what it deems Gore's environmental hypocrisy.

Armed with Gore's utility bills for the last two years, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research charged Monday that the gas and electric bills for the former vice president's 20-room home and pool house devoured nearly 221,000 kilowatt-hours in 2006, more than 20 times the national average of 10,656 kilowatt-hours. Etc etc etc.

[Tenn. has one of the lowest electrical rates in the US, thanks to the TVA- Ed]

OK, True Believers will think their Bishop is allowed to light his cathedral because, after all, he is bringing religion to the world. After all, Kerry has his private jet and SUVs. The demi-gods don't have to do what they say. Just like the Communist Party in Russia had big limos driving special lanes in Moscow and fancy dachas in the country.

Perhaps, but check out the following, thanks to Irene, my major news service. Notice the article is from April, 2001, so it is not recent spin.

Chicago Tribune

Bush loves ecology --at home

April 29, 2001

By Rob Sullivan. Rob Sullivan is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles

The 4,000-square-foot house is a model of environmental rectitude.

Geothermal heat pumps located in a central closet circulate water through pipes buried 300 feet deep in the ground where the temperature is a constant 67 degrees; the water heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer. Systems such as the one in this "eco-friendly" dwelling use about 25% of the electricity that traditional heating and cooling systems utilize.

A 25,000-gallon underground cistern collects rainwater gathered from roof runs; wastewater from sinks, toilets and showers goes into underground purifying tanks and is also funneled into the cistern. The water from the cistern is used to irrigate the landscaping surrounding the four-bedroom home. Plants and flowers native to the high prairie area blend the structure into the surrounding ecosystem.

No, this is not the home of some eccentrically wealthy eco-freak trying to shame his fellow citizens into following the pristineness of his self-righteous example. And no, it is not the wilderness retreat of the Sierra Club or the Natural Resources Defense Council, a haven where tree-huggers plot political strategy.

This is President George W. Bush's "Texas White House" outside the small town of Crawford

According to David Heymann, the house's architect and associate dean of the University of Texas architecture department, Heymann designed the house so that "every room has a relationship with something in the landscape that's different from the room next door. Each of the rooms feels like a slightly different place."

In a USA Today interview, Heymann said, "There's a great grove of oak trees to the west that protects it from the late afternoon sun. Then there is a view out to the north looking at hills, and to the east out over a lake, and the view to the south . . . out to beautiful hills."

OK, one for the Bush side. He is a guy who quietly has gone off-grid. You would think his personal enemies would give him a little credit. It doesn't look like it, after I visited a few links following a Google search on "Bush's ranch heat sink."

Get this, one article called President Bush a hypocrite! This one has me scratching my head. the theory seems to be he had the green ranch built that way because he knew from his evil friends that oil would be unaffordable.

Another venomous writer said Bush probably had an architect design the place. What? First of all, its true, as the architect is often quoted, but what does the writer mean? If you hire someone to build an off-grid home with a heat sink, you are still evil because you didn't follow plans from Mother Earth magazine? I guess it is supposed to mean Bush is so stupid he had to hire a superb expert to build his green ranch, using the money he earned from putting together a consortium to by the Texas Rangers. That dope.

A long piece by "Off-Grid" opened piece, I put the link above, with all manner of canards about the evil Bush and throughout the article gets in its slug fest, but buried deep:

“By marketplace standards, the house is startlingly small,” says David Heymann, the architect of the 4,000-square-foot home. “Clients of similar ilk are building 16-to-20,000-square-foot houses.”
The narrow porch stretches across the back and ends of the house. At one end, it widens into a covered patio off the living room.

The Bush ranch is the kind of place we’d all like to live. Too bad his environmental policies are moving the rest of the country in exactly the opposite direction.

So, now you know the rest of the story.