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Home >> United States & Canada Environment Humans did not do it
Iqbal Latif - 4/29/2008
A journey into where we're from and where we're going... I like what Carl Sagan said, "I don't want to believe, I want to know." Nature has its own path to create balance and ensure survival of the fittest. Some 99.9 percent of all species that ever lived on earth are now extinct. The charges that we humans are causing the next mass extinction - the sixth in the history of life on Earth - are nothing but fiction. A latest study by researchers at Stanford University estimated that the number of early humans may have shrunk as low as 2,000, before numbers began to expand again in early Stone Age... Clock Running Out on Irreversible Climate Change – Part II
Bo Ekman - 4/19/2008
To all intents and purposes, the Kyoto Protocol is dead, and unless urgent actions are taken its successor, the Copenhagen process may turn out to be dead on arrival or comatose. Kyoto never delivered reductions of CO2 emissions, but still binds 174 nations until 2012. Meanwhile, global greenhouse gas emissions have steadily increased since the reference year of 1990. Clock Running Out on Irreversible Climate Change
Jim Hansen - 4/18/2008
Fifty years ago, Yankee Stadium had about 70,000 seats. It seldom sold out, and almost any kid could afford the cheapest seats. Capacity was reduced to about 57,000 when the stadium was remodeled in the 1970s. Most games sell out now, and prices have gone up. Mr. Gore you are robbing Peter, paying Paul
Iqbal Latif - 4/12/2008
More people are expected to die of famine in Africa than imprinting a larger CO2 footprint. 'Al Gore Environmental policies' are aimed at 'Robbing Peter paying Paul.' Green based priorities are creating severe food shortages. Hunger in African will kill faster and will have larger impact on the flimsy structure of the growing under class of the world.Is human life less than a computer driven theoretical reading of rising CO2 emissions? Lets not forget we all make mistakes, computer generated models are far inferior than human complex life, we owe it to our conscious to save every human being. ... Antarctic ice 7 times the size of Manhattan suddenly collapsed
Iqbal Latif - 3/31/2008
A chunk of Antarctic ice about seven times the size of Manhattan suddenly collapsed, putting an even greater portion of glacial ice at risk and an ice shelf about the size of Connecticut is "hanging by a thread," scientists told March 25, 2008. In my humble opinion, this is a grand marketing exercise and an extreme example of ' Voodoo Science of global warming.' Skeptical about Environmentalist Solutions: A Review of Bjorn Lomborg’s 'Cool It'
Nicholas M. Guariglia - 3/26/2008
In Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming, Bjorn Lomborg expands on previously written firestorm articles regarding the state of the environment. His central thesis if contentious to say the least. Lomborg’s writings prior to Cool It had already spawned over 400 articles in major metropolitan papers, and his latest work was no less controversial. But what precisely is it about this Greenpeace-advocate self-described environmentalist Dane that so irks the so-called environmentalist community? Doing Something about Global Warming
Prof. Peter Morici - 2/21/2008
Americans appear poised to act on global warming, but despite the best intentions, we may hasten environmental calamity. The Lieberman-Warner Bill has passed Committee and appears headed to a full Senate vote. It would limit U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2012 to 2005 levels, and reduce those by 70 percent in 2050. Sadly, by encouraging energy-intensive industries to move to developing countries, it would accelerate global warming and harm U.S. industries that could contribute importantly to a sustainable global solution. US Ranks Below India In Report On Environmental Issues And GDP
Angelique van Engelen - 2/18/2008
The US ranks at the bottom of the G8 in the report which was compiled by researchers at the Yale and Columbia Universities. That's below India and only just above China, two countries that have been exempt from stringent climate regulations due to their Third World status. Researchers Show Why Road Traffic Pollutes Worse Than Aviation
Angelique van Engelen - 2/14/2008
A new study into various transport sectors’ contributions to pollution reveals that road traffic is the worst offender. It causes more greenhouse gas emissions than aviation, which is the second-largest pollutor. By contrast, shipping has a cooling effect. Verification of 22 Historic Climate Studies Pinpoints Patterns in Data Errors
Angelique van Engelen - 1/3/2008
We're swamped with information about anticipated levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But the indicators vary wildly. A new study compared the historic numbers of 22 trend-setting organizations to actual findings and found out where data fouls up. Melting Ice Sheets Could Result In Sea Level Rise Twice As High As Predicted By IPCC
Angelique van Engelen - 12/23/2007
Sea levels rose as much as 1.6 metres every one hundred years on average the last time the Earth was as warm as it is predicted to be later this century. A new study predicts a six metre rise in the near future. Anthropocentric Global Warming As New Geopolitics Of Energy
Edward Turner - 11/25/2007
Al Gore has an Oscar and a Nobel Peace prize. The British Conservative Party has changed its logo from a fiery torch to a green tree. The Independent newspaper has frequent front page splashes on melting Arctic ice. This article outlines three reasons why carbon emissions are being reduced in the West. None of them have anything to do with the theory of anthropocentric global warming. Because the axis on which all this public and political discussion - and an international legal treaty - spins, the idea of anthropocentric global warming, is itself in orbit around the geopolitics of oil and gas. Crafting a U.S. Response to Global Warming
Prof. Peter Morici - 10/19/2007
The United States appears poised to act soon on global warming. Hopefully, Congress will craft policies that motivate a truly international solution rather than make the problem worse, hurt the economy, and create windfall profits for some regulated industries. Most Americans are convinced that the buildup of green house gases (GHG) in the atmosphere is responsible for warming Artic seas, shrinking mountain ice caps, and 90 degree October heat in New York. Bush's Emissions
Ross Kaminsky - 5/17/2007
President Bush is not and never has been a “conservative” using the traditional limited-government sense of the word. He is a big-government radical who wants to use government for his ends in a way that is little different from Teddy Kennedy’s modus operandi, just with social conservative rather than socialist ideology behind it. In my view President Bush has been a disaster, except for his immediate response to 9/11 and his first term tax cuts. Yesterday, President Bush gave a press conference in response to the recent Supreme Court ruling that the EPA has authority to regulate vehicle emiss... The Global Warming As A Political Movement
Dimitri Kolb - 3/23/2007
Is the Global Warming real? The best way to answer this question would be a thorough scientific study carried out by impartial scientists. However, there are a couple problems with such a study. First, the system under study is exceptionally complex. Simple physical models (like the model of spherical horse in vacuum) cannot not grasp all the complexity and thus are useless. As for complicated models, they have a tendency to predict whatever their creators build into them. Second problem is to find impartial scientists. Whatever they think about themselves, scientists often tend to accept the matearilistic, and therefore, leftist points of view. Global Climate Change: Taking the Battle to the Campus
Richard Levin - 3/3/2007
Climate change is a global problem that demands immediate leadership. Governments debate various capping and taxation measures to reduce fossil-energy use, but ordinary citizens can also take steps to conserve in their own daily lives. As a hub of scientists and future leaders, universities are a natural place for devising innovative strategies for emission reduction and can serve as a powerful example for society, explains Richard Levin, president of Yale University. Strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at Yale include conservation, sustainable construction and support of renewable-e... Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years
Iqbal Latif - 12/6/2006
This is a new book that is bound to be controversial in public policy and environmental circles says that the Earth has a moderate, natural warming roughly every 1,500 years caused by a solar- linked cycle. The current Modern Warming may be mostly due to that natural cycle and not human activity, say the book's authors, well-known climate physicist Fred Singer and Hudson Institute economist Dennis Avery. The authors clearly state that global warming has been with us for millions of years, a natural cycle much more likely caused by solar activity than greenhouse gases. The problem with the curr... Global Warming - A Grave Threat
Imran Khan - 11/22/2006
Kenya hosted United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC) from 6 – 17 November 2006. The main issue was Global Warming, its impacts on the world and how to battle it. The Planet in Peril – Part II
Jim Hansen - 10/26/2006
People have some measure of control over how much the climate will change, explains Jim Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. In the second of a two-part series, he makes specific recommendations that do require some sacrifice: Humans must end their reliance on fossil fuels; governments can impose carbon taxes in a way that provides incentives to decrease fuel consumption and changes human behavior; industries and universities can make development of renewable energy sources a top priority. Public awareness is growing about the impending dangers, including species e... The Planet in Peril – Part I
Jim Hansen - 10/23/2006
In Sweden and Norway, the treeline is marching northward and uphill as the snowline recedes. In the Arctic, the polar bear finds its habitat shrinking. Elsewhere in the northern hemisphere, animals are slowly moving north to escape rising temperatures. Behind the silent movement hides a disturbing story that we had better take note of before it is too late. If the present warming trend continues, rising seawater will claim coastal cities all over the world. A Climate of Our Own Making
Prof. Scott Barrett - 5/28/2006
In the history of diplomacy, probably no international negotiation has received as much attention, and achieved as little, as the climate-change negotiations. Atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases have risen every year since negotiations began more than 15 years ago. They will go on rising even as the Kyoto Protocol is implemented. A new approach to negotiation is needed, but governments must also confront the reality of climate change. It is unlikely that concentrations will stabilize within the next several decades. Other kinds of international response are required. After Kyoto: Alternative Mechanisms to Control Global Warming
Prof. William D. Nordaus - 4/2/2006
Abstract: This paper reviews different approaches to the political and economic control of global public goods like global warming. It compares quantity-oriented control mechanisms like the Kyoto Protocol with price-type control mechanisms such as internationally harmonized carbon taxes. The pros and cons of the two approaches are compared, focusing on such issues as performance under conditions of uncertainty, volatility of the induced carbon prices, the excess burden of taxation and regulation, accounting finagling, corruption, and implementation. Although virtually all policies involving ec... Dangerous Climate Change
Tom Athanasiou and Paul Baer - 12/9/2005
We stand, first, with the emerging scientific consensus, which tells us we have very little time to act if we honestly expect to avoid a global (as opposed to a “merely local”) climate catastrophe. Further, we insist, contrary to the pretended realism of those who seek to be “reasonable,” on a rather direct approach. We do not, for example, imagine that carbon concentrations that would quite probably yield 3ºC or 4ºC of warming can reasonably be considered “safe.” 1 Instead, we prefer to stay in the reality-based world of those (the E.U., the Climate Action Network) who draw the line at 2ºC ma... Climate Crisis: Too Much of Nothing
Tom Athanasiou - 8/4/2005
It’s getting harder to hide the climate crisis. February, for example, saw a landmark conference in which leading scientists, one after the other, stepped forward to draw a clear, unambiguous line. No more “uncertainty” for these guys. As John Schellnhuber, director of Cambridge’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change, put it: “We now know that if we go beyond two degrees we will raise hell.” Environmentalists: What do they really want?
Ross Kaminsky - 5/15/2005
At a recent meeting of the Leadership Program of the Rockies, we heard from a very interesting speaker who is an expert in government environmental policy. He had a line which I'll remember for a long time: "If you think of any modern scientific development or use of material or creation of energy, there is a group out there trying to stop it." Bad News About Energy Is Not Based On Facts
Ross Kaminsky - 5/13/2005
Bad news sells. It's obvious from watching television news or reading newspapers, including the Daily Camera giving two separate articles to one pessimistic book, James Howard Kunstler's "The Long Emergency", continues the trend. Modern history has been full of doom-and-gloomers who are proven wrong time and time again. The Ecology of Environmentalism
Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 3/14/2005
The concept of "nature" is a romantic invention. It was spun by the likes of Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the 18th century as a confabulated utopian contrast to the dystopia of urbanization and materialism. The traces of this dewy-eyed conception of the "savage" and his unmolested, unadulterated surroundings can be found in the more malignant forms of fundamentalist environmentalism. |
