Welcome to The Forum
Before becoming completely comfortable and reading these words think…. How many lights have I left on in the house?
There is nobody actually in the rooms but the lights are on.
Am I heating up the planet for no apparent reason as well? We mostly burn coal and oil for our electricity here.
What about heating and air conditioning?
We Americans have not had to be power conscious. In the winter we heat the home in the summer, we cool it... Simple
BUT we don’t need to heat or cool every room all the time.
These are things that often do not occur to us. We are the products of a consumer lifestyle, of television, of electrical appliances.
We are the children of the computer age, the wielder of magnificent technologies, leader of the wealthy Western World
but
What we do DOES matter. More here than anywhere just for all those reasons.
So how many lights did you leave on, how many appliances, unnecessarily, how many rooms currently being cooled or heated?
You can keep that from me but from yourself will be a little harder.
So, on with the story, ever noticed on a hot, sweltering, summer day when you enter a store or a place to eat (usually a franchise) you need another suit of clothes along with you because…
It is FREEZING.
Now either I am imagining it or there is some kind of method, consensus or policy behind this recommended temperature.
So, if corporations would lead in this regard and mitigate this temperature by just 1 or 2 degrees… think of the energy it would save the World!
Think of the resources it would save the country! Furthermore a wise, profit-inclined company could challenge others to do the same;
Draw attention to their genuine energy consciousness, win hearts and minds, sell product!
Wouldn’t we rather see ads like that instead of the ones we now see?; pictures of CO2 molecules being lovingly eaten up while in reality billions of tons of CO2 are pouring into our atmosphere?
Ideas and suggestions on this welcome
So the year has come and gone.
The decade has come and gone.
Copenhagen has come and gone
We have no binding agreement, you know, but we do have some highlights:
"Al Gore made a mistake!"
He appeared to quite wrongly site the date the Arctic could be ice free as 2016. Even the scientist Dr. Wieslav Maslowski, whose work was referenced, did not back up Mr. Gore (even though he had actually said something very similar).
He seemed surprised. “I would never try to estimate likelihood at anything as exact as this.” Much cause for scorn, revelry, told you sos, laughter, you name it.
Hmmm
Turns out Dr. Maslowski had some news about Arctic ice loss. “This total volume loss, …has been basically twice as fast as the surface loss observed by satellites.”
So let’s pretend we are on the Titanic.
We have hit the iceberg and the captain says “We have only an hour before the ship sinks”
The fool! We have several hours!
Are you REALLY going to spend that valuable time arguing with him and mocking over his inaccuracies Are you REALLY?... but that is what I heard!
Reality Check
You are not going to be concerned with much else or hear any thing else other than the words: ship and sinking.
Other highlights include Senator Inhofe leading a "truth squad" to the Copenhagen climate summit where at a press conference he declared climate change is a fraud perpetuated by the "Hollywood elite."
Perhaps these could be the grandchildren of the Hollywood elite who staged the Moon Landing!
Sarah Palin was another highlight during this Conference. Not that she attended but given that she ties with Secretary Clinton for the most admired woman we must take her statements on climate change seriously.
According to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey men prefer Sarah Palin for President over Clinton 49% to 45%.
Here is Sarah Palin’s assessment of the President’s actions.
(The President) “….instead of staying home from Copenhagen and sending a message that the United States will not be a party to fraudulent scientific practices…
Are we to believe as President Sarah Palin would not have attended Copenhagen on the grounds that Global Warming is merely the product of fraudulent scientific practices?
And as the decade was coming to a close she gave us this quote:
“Copenhgen=arrogance of man2think we can change nature's ways.MUST b good stewards of God's earth,but arrogant&naive2say man overpwers nature”
Sadly in the nuclear age we can effect the earth and nature quite dramatically. Even destroy the surface of it many times over.
I grew up in New Zealand where, in a relatively short time, most of an entire country covered in dense native bush had been turned into farm land.
Deforestation is taking place in nearly every country in the World.
CO2 dissolves in water to form carbonic acid and our oceans are more acidic.
The Earth is measurably warmer. We live in a world with a thin veneer of atmosphere and pump trillions of tons of CO2 into it and expect it will do absolutely nothing?
All thoughts welcome
Meanwhile Lisa Jackson, who leads the EPA, came out with an announcement:
EPA: “Greenhouse Gases Threaten Public Health and the Environment Science overwhelmingly shows greenhouse gas concentrations at unprecedented levels due to human activity
… greenhouse gases (GHGs) threaten the public health and welfare of the American people…
These long-overdue findings cement 2009’s place in history as the year when the United States Government began addressing the challenge of greenhouse-gas pollution.”
May 2010 bring us all closer together!!!!!
SO NOW IT'S GLOBAL COOLING?
The bitter winter afflicting much of the Northern Hemisphere is only the start of a global trend towards cooler weather that is likely to last for 20 or 30 years, say some of the world's most eminent climate scientists. The scientists' predictions also undermine the standard climate computer models, which assert that the warming of the Earth since 1900 has been driven solely by man-made greenhouse gas emissions ... They say that their research shows that much of the warming was caused by oceanic cycles when they were in a 'warm mode' as opposed to the present 'cold mode'.
The mini ice age starts here
By David Rose
Staff writer
The Daily Mail
January 10, 2010
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1242011/DAVID-ROSE-The-mini-ice-age-starts-here.html#
Could we be in for 30 years of global COOLING?
By Daily Mail Reporter
The Daily Mail
January 11, 2010
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1242202/Could-30-years-global-COOLING.html#
Britain's big freeze is the start of a worldwide trend towards colder weather that seriously challenges global warming theories, eminent scientists claimed yesterday.
The world has entered a 'cold mode' which is likely to bring a global dip in temperatures which will last for 20 to 30 years, they say.
Summers and winters will all be cooler than in recent years, and the changes will mean that global warming will be 'paused' or even reversed, it was claimed.
Big chill: Scientists have claimed that the world has entered a 'cold mode' which could last three decades, a theory that challenges climate change
The predictions are based on an analysis of natural cycles in water temperatures in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. They are the work of respected climate scientists and not those routinely dismissed by environmentalists as 'global warming deniers'. Some experts believe these cycles - and not human pollution - can explain all the major changes in world temperatures in the 20th century. If true, the research challenges the science behind climate change theories, and calls into question the political measures to halt global warming. According to the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado, the warming of the Earth since 1900 is due to natural oceanic cycles, and not man-made greenhouse gases.It occurred because the world was in a 'warm mode', and would have happened regardless of mankind's rising carbon dioxide production. A graphic explaining about the changes in our climate
And now oceanic cycles have switched to a 'cold mode', where data shows that the amount of Arctic summer sea ice has increased by more than a quarter since 2007. The research has been carried out by eminent climate scientists, including Professor Mojib Latif. He is a leading member of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
He and his colleagues predicted the cooling trend in a 2008 paper, and warned of it again at an IPCC conference in Geneva in September. Working at the prestigious Leibniz Institute in Kiel University in Germany, he has developed methods for measuring ocean temperatures 3,000ft under the surface, where the cooling and warming cycles start. For Europe, the crucial factor is the temperature in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean. He said such ocean cycles - known as multi-decadal oscillations or MDOs - could account for up to half of the rise in global warming in recent years. Professor Latif said: 'A significant share of the warming we saw from 1980 to 2000 and at earlier periods in the 20th century was due to these cycles - as much as 50 per cent. 'They have now gone into reverse, so winters like this one will become much more likely. All this may well last two decades or longer. 'The extreme retreats that we have seen in glaciers and sea ice will come to a halt. For the time being, global warming has paused, and there may well be some cooling.' Many meteorologists have blamed the current freeze on 'Arctic oscillation' - a weather pattern in which areas of high pressure have pushed the warming jetstream away from Britain. They have insisted this temporary change will have no effect on long-term warming patterns. But another expert, Professor Anastasios Tsonis, head of the University of Wisconsin Atmospheric Sciences Group, said MDOs will continue to determine global temperatures. He said: 'They amount to massive rearrangements in the dominant patterns of the weather, and their shifts explain all the major changes in world temperatures during the 20th and 21st centuries. We have such a change now.' ###
OUR RESPONSE
Yes, I see it is an email framed with a question "SO NOW IT'S GLOBAL COOLING? Rather than actually making a statement.
Remember your high school science where one point on a graph has very little meaning. This is especially true when dealing with climate…. and have we forgotten there is another hemisphere to consider…the entire other half of the world where it is hot and Australia is on a dangerous forest/ bush fire alert.
When you pick and chose data it can be as misleading as picking and choosing scientists which the article next goes on to do.
Climatologists are often criticized for using models to predict the future. Models, after all are often flawed when it comes to projecting the variances of climate accurately; so one cold snap does not an ice age make.
Incidentally it is not a correct statement that it is computer models alone that assert the warming of the Earth has been driven solely by man made green house emissions. (One person's model can be another's folly.) Instead they ascertain that it is man made based more on facts.. like CO2 traps long wave radiation etc.
The actual, natural and documented cycles of the past, the Milankovitch cycles, (not the projected ones) tell us that we should be in an ice age for another 20,000 years or so. Instead the Earth has become measurably warmer.
Personally I find it disturbing experiencing; one freak climate event after another. Just look at the picture attached. it is bizarre to see Britain like this. Not in our lifetimes. I am just getting over seeing massive icebergs breaking off from Antarctica and melting off the coasts of Australia and New Zealand. A long list of changing climate events points to instability with nothing comforting in that.
So, all this talk, meanwhile the polar ice continues to thin and disappear, we have a north west passage, the glaciers melt threatening the water supply of millions, the Earth becomes warmer…but you don't really need me to tell you all this as you already know.
(CNN)-- The first decade of the 21st century was the warmest ever on Earth according to data released by scientists at NASA.
The U.S. space agency's data also revealed that 2009 was the second warmest year since temperature records began in 1880, and only narrowly cooler than 2005, the warmest year ever.
The Vicissitudes of Volcano
Is it not remarkable and somewhat dissapointing that we continue to hear vacuous phrases like "we are far too small to effect the mighty planet or even our vast atmosphere"?
Well, well now we see one little volcano in remote Iceland has effected the entire countries of Europe and closed domestic and international flights!
Now consider what out mighty industrial civilization is doing daily around the planet....and think again
OIL SPILL IN THE GULF
If I were visiting your home and you politely made me a cup of coffee and the conversation became so animated that I placed my cup back on the table too quickly...
THAT would be a spill.
THIS is not a spill.
This is a massive gusher pouring up from the ocean floor that, as yet, nobody really knows what to do with... in spite of a century of oil drilling.
Can we please call it something that will characterize the costs and danger to the environment, to fragile marine life, to the food chain, and ultimately to us?
Is it not important that when we consider our alternative sources of energy (and that would include nuclear power) and their potential dangers to us, we factor in the quite massive potential dangers from our primary sources, like this reality?
It may amuse you to learn that this has coincided with the discovery and announcement from the Max Plank Institute that our DNA holds the living legacy of the Neandertals.
Yes, indeed they are in us. The study indicates this occured about 80,000 years ago and by knowing the human geneome and studying DNA from Neandertal bone the Institute was able to determine earlier humans mated with Neantertals and we are that offspring. Think on that one for a time.
Also interesting to note, in that particular study, subjects from one area did not contain the Neandertal DNA. Those humans were from Africa.
We humans are successful because we have risen above the limitation of our genetic code to capture the wisdom of all who have gone before us and to use education in the race against catastrophe.
Be mindful that the Crisis in the Gulf of Mexico also overshadows June being globally the hottest month in recorded history and the soaring temperatures in Russia in July never before recorded
Now in August we find:
This would be the perfect time to explain to them that there was a snow storm last winter and the global climate is obviously getting colder.
Perhaps the mistake so many people made (other than forgetting about the warming conditions in the Southern Hemisphere) was equating the snowstorm to cold rather than wet. In fact warming global conditions do indeed add more moisture to the atmosphere.
For those that consider this our grandchildren's problem ( and not ours) we recommend a visit to Pakistan for what is left of the summer holidays:
Pakistan has been hit by tragic floods the likes of which have never been seen before with literally thousands of villages being washed away.
Makes you wonder at which point anomaly becomes a norm.
It gave me pause to reflect on Shakespeare's Macbeth and his death. "When Burnham wood comes to Dunsinane." Macbeth need fear nothing till such an anomaly should occur.
My old science teacher was telling me recently ( and I have heard this many times of course) that because the ice is melting it melts into the ocean. Ice on water will not be changing sea levels. The ice already was displacing the water so when it melts it will not raise sea levels.
We would only need to worry if ice were melting from land! ...O you mean like Greenland for example?
(CNN)-- A piece of ice four times the size of Manhattan island has broken away from an ice shelf in Greenland, according to scientists in the U.S.
The 260 square-kilometer (100 square miles) ice island separated from the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland early on Thursday, researchers based at the University of Delaware said.
Macbeth's enemy soldiers slowly crept up to his castle wrapped in bark and branches disguised as the woods themselves.
Burnham Wood did come to Dunsinane
“Environmental Refugees”?!
There is no international consensus as to what constitutes “Environmental Refugees” only, of course, that we have millions of them!
We all know that natural disasters have displaced people for centuries but today’s world population increases the scale and impact.
In one recent example alone a series of record cyclones during this decade has wiped out human habitat for 6 millions of people along Bangladesh’s Bay of Bengal coast and its inland mangrove forests and deltas. Dhaka, Bangladesh; 200,000 people 30 years ago is now the fastest-growing city in the world and has 15 million residents as a result of the flooding. Most of the population increase has been driven by villagers deserting coastal homelands after cyclones and tidal flooding.
The European Union's European Commission for the Environment has stated:
"Environmental refugees already number some 25 million, and it is estimated that by 2020, some 60 million people will move from desertified areas in Sub-Saharan Africa towards Northern Africa and Europe. But this south-north migration is nothing, compared to internal migrations within Africa itself. Most internal refugees settle in bloated megacities, a trend that -- given the scarce water resources -- is regarded as a potential disaster. Trapped in a deteriorating environment without access to freshwater and plagued by rising food prices, refugees and locals alike may be prone to poverty, disease, and unrest."
Human resourcefulness and human compassion triumph through every crisis but.…just how many environmental refugees are you willing to bring home?
and wouldn't you know it, just when we thought we knew everything.....
CNN has just reported:
Scientists baffled by unusual upper atmosphere shrinkage
An upper layer of Earth's atmosphere recently shrank so much that researchers are at a loss to adequately explain it, NASA said on Thursday. The thermosphere, which blocks harmful ultraviolet rays, expands and contracts regularly due to the sun's activities.
As carbon dioxide increases, it has a cooling effect at such high altitudes, which also contributes to the contraction. But even these two factors aren't fully explaining the extraordinary contraction which, though unlikely to affect the weather, can affect the movement of satellites, researchers said.
"This is the biggest contraction of the thermosphere in at least 43 years," John Emmert of the Naval Research Lab was quoted as saying in NASA news report.
We really do not know just how fragile our thin veneer of an atmosphere is.
As carbon dioxide gradually builds up, "we expect every solar minimum to be a little lower, and then this solar minimum comes along, but instead it's a lot lower. And that's pretty surprising," said Stanley Solomon, a senior scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
An international team of climate scientists led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has confirmed that climate change is "undeniable" and clearly driven by the "human fingerprints" of greenhouse gas emissions. The findings are based on new data that was not reviewed during the most recent 2007 report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The Financial Times reported that the NOAA study drew on 11 different indicators of climate, and "found that each one pointed to a world that was warming owing to the influence of greenhouse gases."
The scientists confirmed that seven of the indicators are rising, including air temperature over land, sea-surface temperature, marine air temperature, sea level, ocean heat, humidity, and tropospherictemperature in the “active-weather” layer of the atmosphere closest to the earth’s surface. Four other indicators were declining: Arctic sea ice, glaciers, spring snow cover in the northern hemisphere, and stratospheric temperatures.
Hmmmm but I wonder what they really think?
Released Friday, a joint report by the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science finds that the number of so-called "dead zones" in U.S. waters is 30 times more expansive today than it was in 1960.
You mean we do not even need oil gushers to do this?
The tragedy of the miners/ alternative fuels and nuclear energy
The San Jose Mine is a gold and copper mine but speaking as a descendent of miners who had many family fatalities .....
"As we dismiss the modern safety standards of succesful nuclear power plants operating through out much of the western world as being "too dangerous" please do contemplate some of the dangers inherent in mining and non-nuclear plants."
.
....and now the 6 million dollar question..... what is really to blame? My goodness can it be Americans Wasting Food!?
A team of researchers recently revealed in their study report, that Americans waste so much quantity of food that if they stop this wastage completely, the nation will be able to save at least 350 million barrels worth oil annually (2 percent of nation’s yearly energy budget).
The study was conducted by the researchers, Michael Webber and Amanda Cuéllar, from the University of Texas at Austin.
They found out that about 1.4 billion barrels of oil equals to nations’ 8 to 16 percent annual energy consumption.
To arrive at this startling conclusion, both researchers analyzed the amount of energy it takes to produce, pack, prepare, preserve and distribute food in the country through out the year.
Commenting on the study findings, Michael Webber, associate director of the university's Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy, stated, "As a nation we're grappling with energy issues. A lot more energy goes into food than people realize."
Even the U.S. Department of Agriculture has estimated that Americans waste nearly 27 percent of their food. 
Remarkable updates of record breaking weather this year, 2010:
Click on the link here http://www.extremeweatherguide.com/updates.asp
Just a taste of what you will find:
OCTOBER 2010
Oct. 26 Lowest barometric pressure reading on record for any USA Midwest location: 28.21"mb at Bigfork, MN
SEPTEMBER 2010
9/27 Los Angeles, CA: All-time hottest temperature on record: 113°
SEASONAL RECORDS; Summer June 1, 2010-August 31, 2010
Hottest summer on record at the following locations:
Washington D.C (National Airport). avg: 81.3° (old record 80.0° summer of 1943)
Washington D.C. (Dulles Airport): avg: 77.8° (old record 76.8° summer of 2007)
Richmond, VA: avg: 81.3° (old record 80.0° summer of 1994)
Atlantic City, NJ: avg: 77.5° (old record 75.8° summer of 2005)
Philadelphia, PA: avg: 79.6° (old record 78.9° summer of 1995)
NYC (Central Park) avg: 77.8° (old record 77.3° summer of 1966)
Trenton, NJ: avg: 77.7° (old record 76.5° summer of 1898)
Wilmington, DE: avg: 77.8° (old record 77.7° summer of 1900)
Baltimore, MD: avg: 79.2° (old record 79.1° summer of 1943)
Norfolk, VA: avg: 81.1° (old record 80.0° summer of 1994)
Tampa, FL: avg. 84.5° (old record 84.2° summer of 1998)
Asheville, NC: avg. 75.4° (old record 75.1° summer of 1952)
Greenville, SC avg. 81.0° (old record 80.2° summer of 1952)
Lakeland, FL: avg. 84.6° (old record 84.4° summer of 1987)
Coldest summer on record at the following location:
Santa Barbara, CA: avg: 61.9° (old record 62.2° summer of 1955)
Just suppose for a moment...
that the below study were true:
"Wi-Fi Radiation Harms Trees, Study Says "
"As Mac World reports, the study was commissioned five years ago by the Dutch city of Alphen aan den Rijn, after officials noticed that many trees in the area were exhibiting inexplicable abnormalities, including bleeding and fissures in their bark. Such symptoms didn't seem connected to any particular bacteria or virus, leading some to suspect that wireless networks may be to blame.
After exposing trees to varying degrees of radiation for three months, researchers from TU Delft University, Wageningen University and several other institutions found that trees sitting closest to Wi-Fi radios exhibited a "lead-like shine" on their leaves -- a sign, apparently, that the leaves are dying. Similar reactions were observed in samples from across the Western world; in the Netherlands, a full 70-percent of all trees in urban areas were visibly affected by Wi-Fi radiation, compared with just 10-percent five years ago. Trees in densely forested areas, on the other hand, were hardly affected. "
and just suppose that flying jet aircraft through the upper atmosphere may damage the ozone layer.
Would you:
never fly again?
allow yourself to be bathed in Wi-Fi radiation 24 hours a day?
Did you answer truthfully? Would you really change your current behavior just to save yourself and the planet?
These hypothetical, but troubling questions, raise the issue of what are we really willing to sacrifice if we really need to.?
Some related news; China has just broken the high speed rail record.;
481.1 km/hr
Such a speed actually competes with air travel.
As the end of the year draws nigh the world has the benefit of a great deal of infromation previously kept from it, including cabels, files, a new pronoun, noun and now sometimes verb; ASSANGE. Do not forget the Wikileaks debut in what would come to be called "climategate".
Three investigations were instigated by UK officials, and concluded that they could not find any reason to believe that scientific malpractice had taken place. Of course recently Wikileaks revelations cast doubt on another official UK investigation; the Chilcot probe.
How this all plays out will have at least a profound effect on literature.
When I went to school I was asked this question in my English class:
Find a rhyme for the following poem;
"There was a young boy with an orange....."
Can you think of a word, any word in the English/ American language that rhymes with orange?
Can you?
After centuries now we have one: Assange.
On a less lighter note:
(CNN) -- The chemistry of the world's oceans is changing at a rate not seen for 65 million years, with far-reaching implications for marine biodiversity and food security, according to a new United Nations study released Thursday.
"Environmental Consequences of Ocean Acidification," published by the U.N. Environmental Program (UNEP)," warns that some sea organisms including coral and shellfish will find it increasingly difficult to survive, as acidification shrinks the minerals needed to form their skeletons.
Link to Scripps Institution of Oceanography
So... the year ends as it begins; with our heart felt joy at cooling frigid temepratures gripping the US across to our allies and friends in bone chilling Europe. Clearily the Earth is not heating up!?
Well, as much as I hate dressing up as the grinch, I must mutter in a very quiet voice; "Extremes of temperature can indeed be symptomatic of Global Warming." While we ignore the sizzling temperatures in most of the Southern Hemisphere we must also be conscious of the tranmission of these cold tempertures through the Gulf Stream.
The Gulf Stream, as you may know, is responsible for Britain and parts of Europe actually being warmer than we would expect from their northern latitude.
We don't want changes to the Gulf Stream.
There is no solace in extreme weather
continued on
ExtremeWeatherGuide.com
So this new year began with all those 1s in the titile 01/01/2011. It was almost binary and a beautiful metaphor to our high-tech, digital world.
Iin very short order, however, it didn't take long before many of our technophiles began using phrases like " a flood of biblical proportions!" This was , of course, to describe the devastation in Australia and this was mostly because the flooded area was the size of several countries.
Suffice to say if the self reliant, unflappable, hard bitten, usually thirsty Australians were used to seeing such waters they would not be using such phrases...
... or Americans such phrases as:
As Arctic melts, U.S. ill-positioned to tap resources
Washington Post January 2011 link
As Arctic melts, U.S. ill-positioned to tap resources
Cold air rushed through the open cargo door as some musk oxen and the occasional walrus passed below.
Like the rest of the 5.4-million-square-mile area at the top of the world, this chunk of the U.S. Arctic is melting quickly because of accelerated climate change. The prospect of newly thawed sea lanes and a freshly accessible, resource-rich seabed has nations jockeying for position. And government and military officials are concerned the United States is not moving quickly enough to protect American interests in this vulnerable and fast-changing region...
You will be heartened to learn that we, The Global Concern, did indeed mention this to military and government officials in Washington a year ago...
and now for something completely different:
Just like an episode from The Outer Limits or the Twighlight Zone or the further adventures of Star Trek, NASA has this to say:
"NASA: Storms blast antimatter into space
Certain lightning flashes produce terrestrial gamma ray flashes, which indicate the presence of antimatter, said Michael Briggs, a member of the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor team at the University of Alabama at Huntsville. The team works with NASA's space-based Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.
Strong electrical fields near the top of a storm blast electrons upward a NASA article explains. When they're deflected by air molecules, the electrons emit gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light.
Some gamma rays pass near the nuclei of atoms and are transformed into electrons and positrons, or antimatter, and shoot off into space, the article says. When the positrons smack into electrons on the orbiting Fermi, they change back to gamma rays, providing evidence of their existence.
The Alabama team has detected gamma rays with energies of 511,000 electron volts, a signal indicating an electron has met its antimatter counterpart, a positron.
"These signals are the first direct evidence that thunderstorms make antimatter particle beams," said Briggs, who presented the findings this week during the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle, Washington.
Why does antimatter matter? Physicists believe that the interaction of matter and antimatter produces pure energy with zero waste - energy that one day could be harnessed and put to use."
Even though the juggernaught of our oil/coal based civilization continues down the current myopic path there are a plethora of possibilities in our yet unappreciated universe. Does the choice have to be between pouring trillions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere or waiting for a puff of wind or a sunny day?
Humanity has always managed to survive by its wits. Why should today be any different? R&D is the key.
Never Anger An Amazon
The fascinating thing about the Amazon, a major carbon sink for the planet, is that ...
...in drought years, the Amazon region changes from being a net absorber of carbon dioxide into a net emitter.
The 2005 drought had been termed a "one in a century" event.
Researchers report in the journal Science that the 2010 drought was more widespread than in 2005 - the last big one - with more trees probably lost.
Last year's drought in the Amazon raises concerns about the region's capacity to continue absorbing carbon dioxide, scientists say.
You know it is always wise to have an Amazon on your side.
to read the article click here
We hear a great deal about the role of electronic communication, Wikileaks and social media in the widespread unrest in the Middle East but there is another very real factor. Add this ingredient to the many justified grievances and you have an explosive situation.
Global Food Prices are at Record Highs
The last peak like this occurred in 2008 and created riots around the globe.
This is a reminder of how fragile our ecosystem and financial systems really are. We would do well to consider the effects from even minor changes.
JUST A THOUGHT
It is important how we deal with issues collectively.
If the best we can do for a man who clearly needs help is to be entertained. Then we, as a nation, are in a great deal more trouble even than Charlie Sheen.
Amid the catastrophe and tragedy in Japan extremely brave management and workers are risking their lives in a battle with nuclear forces that may well determine Mankind's future:
Despite the safety and ubiquity of nuclear plants, these colossal forces required to compromise them, the age of these plants, even the dissimilarity with Chernobyl, public opinion may well shy us away from nuclear power in the near future just when we do not have a high energy alternative to coal and oil.
The Benefits of Nuclear War?
Could a Nuclear War mitigate the effects of Global Warming?
This recent article considered the possibilites of perhaps only a small, limited Nuclear War and its potential beneficial effects on Global Warming....now, after only a taste of a far away nuclear situation.... any other bright ideas?
The Earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan, followed by the horrendous Tsunami, should underscore at least one thing to us:
We, and our civilization, are fragile. These are only the mild forces of the Earth why should we feel confident that exacerbating the force of the Sun and its effect on us will somehow turn out better?
Gary S. Schofield