Earth ChangesS


Bell

Scientist Tells U.S. Congress: Earth in 'CO2 Famine'


Environment and Public Works Press Blog
Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:57 UTC
Children should not be force-fed propaganda, masquerading as science

Washington, DC - Award-winning Princeton University Physicist Dr. Will Happer declared man-made global warming fears "mistaken" and noted that the Earth was currently in a "CO2 famine now." Happer, who has published over 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers, made his remarks during today's Environment and Public Works Full Committee Hearing entitled "Update on the Latest Global Warming Science."

"Many people don't realize that over geological time, we're really in a CO2 famine now. Almost never has CO2 levels been as low as it has been in the Holocene (geologic epoch) - 280 (parts per million - ppm) - that's unheard of. Most of the time [CO2 levels] have been at least 1000 (ppm) and it's been quite higher than that," Happer told the Senate Committee. To read Happer's complete opening statement click here.
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Sun

First February 2009 Cycle 24 sunspot appears


An Honest Climate Debate
Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:13 UTC
Solar Cycle 24 sunspot 1013 Feb 2009
© SOHO

Finally a new Cycle 24 sunspot has appeared high in latitude in the northern hemisphere. It has been numbered 1013. Pictures are below.

We will have to see if this thing decides to grow larger. This ends the spotless streak and is the first Cycle 24 spot since Jan 9th.
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Red Flag

Global warming may cause ice age: UN scientist blames humans

Scott Thill
Alternet
Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:32 UTC
Last week, the heaviest snowfall since the '90s blanketed the U.K., disrupting bus, rail and air transportation and costing areas like London a cool billion in lost revenue.

Meanwhile, in Australia, a punishing, record drought was worsened by the nation's worst heat wave and worst wildfires, wherein over 400 conflagrations killed over 200 people (and counting), torched a thousand homes and renewed calls for a country with its environmental head up its ass to finally launch its still-hibernating national warning system.

Those who would argue that these are isolated events do so at their own peril. The more time passes, the more both examples of extreme weather resemble two sides of the same fearsome coin known as catastrophic climate change.
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Better Earth

Earliest 'human footprints' found


British Broadcasting Corporation
Fri, 27 Feb 2009 04:11 UTC
footprint
Laser scanning was used to plot the exact dimensions of the prints
The earliest footprints showing evidence of modern human foot anatomy and gait have been unearthed in Kenya.

The 1.5-million-year-old footprints display signs of a pronounced arch and short, aligned toes, in contrast to older footprints.

The size and spacing of the Kenyan markings - attributed to Homo erectus - reflect the height, weight, and walking style of modern humans.

The findings have been published in the journal Science.

The footprints are not the oldest belonging to a member of the human lineage. That title belongs to the 3.7 million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis prints found in Laetoli, Tanzania, in 1978.
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Better Earth

UK Met Office: Coldest Winter in over a decade


UK MetOffice
Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:38 UTC
Mild weather is expected to see out what remains of winter. Despite this, it is expected to be the coldest UK winter since 1995/96, according to provisional Met Office figures.

The low temperatures have also been accompanied at times by heavy snow. During early February, the heaviest snowfall for 18 years was experienced over many areas of the UK.

Comment: It is apparent that the UK Met Office employees have gotten their orders from headquarters.

How many times can the psychological reinforcement of "Global Warming" be injected into the minds of the reader?

It would have been a really bad winter if it wasn't for all that man made global warming!

Natural variability means we can still have cold weather but you should continue with the expectation we have told you to have that winters are going to become milder and milder.

Don't expect to have a really severe winter for at least a thousand years.

How many times can the psychological reinforcement of "Global Warming" be injected into the minds of the reader?

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Network

Ice Age or global warming?

Alister Doyle
Reuters Blogs
Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:33 UTC
Norway Newspaper dumping snow at sea
© unknown
It looks more like an Ice Age than global warming.

There is so much snow in Oslo, where I live, that the city authorities are resorting to dumping truckloads of it in the sea because the usual storage sites on land are full.

That is angering environmentalists who say the snow is far too dirty - scraped up from polluted roads - to be added to the fjord. The story even made it to the front page of the local paper ('Dumpes i sjøen': 'Dumped in the sea').

In many places around the capital there's about a metre of snow, the most since 2006 when it was last dumped in the sea. Extra snow usually gets trucked to sites on land, where most of the polluted dirt is left after the thaw. Those stores are now full - in some the snow isn't expected to melt before September.
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Chess

Australian MP: Humans not causing climate change


Australian Associated Press
Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:28 UTC
An opposition MP says humans are not causing climate change, and pointed to Adolf Hitler as an example of how scientists can be wrong.

Liberal MP Dennis Jensen's comments come days after his leader Malcolm Turnbull promised a greener climate change policy than the government's.

Dr Jensen cast doubt on the apparent scientific consensus that humans are affecting the climate.

"Albert Einstein was very much criticised by Hitler, and Hitler actually had a group of 100 top scientists in Germany write a book called 100 scientists against Einstein," Dr Jensen told reporters in Canberra.
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Snowman

Japanese scientists: Global warming isn't man-made

Andrew Orlowski
The Register
Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:10 UTC
Japanese scientists have made a dramatic break with the UN and Western-backed hypothesis of climate change in a new report from its Energy Commission.

Three of the five researchers disagree with the UN's IPCC view that recent warming is primarily the consequence of man-made industrial emissions of greenhouse gases. Remarkably, the subtle and nuanced language typical in such reports has been set aside.

One of the five contributors compares computer climate modelling to ancient astrology. Others castigate the paucity of the US ground temperature data set used to support the hypothesis, and declare that the unambiguous warming trend from the mid-part of the 20th Century has ceased.

The report by Japan Society of Energy and Resources (JSER) is astonishing rebuke to international pressure, and a vote of confidence in Japan's native marine and astronomical research. Publicly-funded science in the West uniformly backs the hypothesis that industrial influence is primarily responsible for climate change, although fissures have appeared recently. Only one of the five top Japanese scientists commissioned here concurs with the man-made global warming hypothesis.
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Bizarro Earth

4.8 Earthquake Rattles Surigao del Sur

Mike U. Crismundo
Tempo
Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:00 UTC
Residents of Surigao del Sur, a province in Mindanao facing the Pacific Ocean, went into panic when a 4.8 magnitude earthquake struck Wednesday afternoon, raising fears of a tsunami.

But Officials of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) reported yesterday that no one was reported hurt and that the tremor caused no damage in the province.

State seismologists reported that what struck at 3:51 p.m. Wednesday was an undersea quake located some 80 kilometers east-northeast of Butuan City with a depth of 80.7 kilometers.
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Bizarro Earth

4.1 Earthquake Rattles Nerves in Southwest Oregon


KTVL Channel 10
Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:45 UTC
An early morning earthquake measuring 4.1 in intensity rattled nerves from Williams to Gold Beach to south of Coos Bay Thursday.

The USGS reported the earthquake at 1:52 a.m. with an epicenter 23 miles below ground about 30 miles west-northwest of Grants Pass. According to USGS Web sites, it was most strongly felt in a cluster around Grants Pass from Glendale to Williams and Rogue River. Reports also came in from Brookings, Gold Beach and Coquille.

The epicenter was in a remote mountainous area of few residents. No damage or injuries have been reported.
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