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Study: Global Warming Will Cause 180,000 More Rapes by 2099

by Myrna Posted on February 28, 2014

Controversial new research predicts that over the coming century, rising temperatures will result in more violent crime. aijohn784/Thinkstock Global warming isn’t just going to melt the Arctic and flood our cities—it’s also going to make Americans more likely to kill each other. That’s the conclusion of a controversial new study that uses historic crime and temperature data to show that hotter weather leads to more murders, more rapes, more robberies, more assaults, and more property crimes. “Looking at the past, we see a strong relationship between temperature and crime,” says study author Matthew Ranson, an economist with the policy consulting firm Abt Associates. “We think that is likely to continue in the future.” Just how much more crime can we expect? Using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s warming projections, Ranson calculated that from 2010 to 2099, climate change will “cause” an additional “22,000 murders, 180,000 cases of rape, 1.2 million aggravated assaults, 2.3 million simple assaults, 260,000 robberies, 1.3 million burglaries, 2.2 million cases of larceny, and 580,000 cases of vehicle theft” in the United States. Ranson acknowledges that those results represent a relatively small jump in the overall level of crime—a 2.2 percent increase in murder and a 3.1 percent increase in rape, for instance. Still, says John Roman, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center, those numbers add up to “a lot of victims” over the course of the century. The study’s results don’t mean that defendants should be able to argue that they were driven to a life of crime by the weather. “The decision to commit a crime is a matter of personal responsibility,” Ranson explained in an email. “Neither higher outdoor temperatures nor reduced police enforcement are valid excuses for individuals to commit criminal acts. Yet, from a statistical perspective, both cause crime to increase.” So why would higher temperatures increase the crime rate? According to Ranson, the answer might vary depending on the type of crime. As shown in the charts below, property crimes, especially burglary and larceny, initially tend to increase as the weather warms but then level off once temperatures reach about 50 degrees. This suggests that cold weather may create obstacles to committing these types of crimes—Ranson cites closed windows, for example—obstacles that disappear when it’s warmer outside. By contrast, the relationship between violent crime and temperature appears to be highly linear—as temperatures keep rising, so does the number of crimes. According to Ranson, this pattern supports the idea that “warmer temperatures increase the frequency of social interactions, some small percentage of which result in violence.” In other words, you’re more likely to mug someone if it’s warm enough to leave your house. But there’s another factor that Ranson suggests may also be playing a role: Past research indicates that as temperatures increase, people tend to become more aggressive. The relationship between temperature and crime. Matthew Ranson/Journal of Environmental Economics and Management Not every expert buys Ranson’s findings. Andrew Holland, a senior fellow for energy and climate at the American Security Project, says that the study seems “tailor-made for a headline” but that “on further analysis, I don’t know what it tells us.” Holland sees climate change as a “threat multiplier” that could, in combination with other factors, exacerbate international instability and contribute to armed conflict. But he cautions against attributing individual events—be they armed robberies or civil wars—directly to climate change. “Just like any war has many reasons for starting, any crime has many factors that go into it,” says Holland. “You can’t convince me that any one rape was solely because of the temperature.” Although attempting to separate out the various factors that contribute to a crime taking place can be “an interesting mathematical exercise,” Holland contends that it isn’t very “useful or helpful.” But the Urban Institute’s Roman argues that the overall conclusion of Ranson’s study makes sense. Police have long operated with the understanding that “the summer is more dangerous than the winter,” explains Roman. “To the extent that climate change causes people to be out and interacting more, there will be more crime.” Roman says the study can help policymakers begin to think about how to adapt their law enforcement practices to a warming world. “There will be more studies in the future that find these effects,” he says. “The concept fits with classic crime theory so neatly that we need to start thinking about how to get ahead of this and respond.” Ranson has already thought about what that response might look like. One option is for communities to spend substantial amounts of money increasing the size of their police forces. Another possibility is that people will simply change their behavior in an attempt to avoid becoming the victims of crime—leaving their homes less frequently in nice weather or locking their windows. Of course, there’s a third alternative—reining in the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing global warming in the first place. Read article here:   Study: Global Warming Will Cause 180,000 More Rapes by 2099 ; ;Related ArticlesIs the Arctic Really Drunk, or Does It Just Act Like This Sometimes?Climate Change “Very Evident,” So Let’s Deal With It, World Panel SaysDot Earth Blog: Global Warming Basics from the U.S. and British Science Academies ;

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Study: Global Warming Will Cause 180,000 More Rapes by 2099

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No, GMOs Won’t Harm Your Health

by ElisaSayers Posted on February 25, 2014

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Dr. Steven Novella argues that many of the fears surrounding genetically modified crops are unsupported. venturecx/Thinkstock With historic drought battering California’s produce and climate change expected to jeopardize the global food supply, there are few questions more important than what our agriculture system should look like in the future. And few agricultural issues are more politically charged than the debate over genetically modified organisms. Even as companies like Monsanto are genetically engineering plants to use less water and resist crop-destroying pests, activists are challenging the safety and sustainability of GM foods. For this week’s episode of Inquiring Minds, I spoke with Dr. Steven Novella, a neurologist at Yale University. Novella is a prominent voice in the skeptical movement, a scientific movement that, as he describes it, focuses heavily on explaining the truth behind “common myths—things that people believe that aren’t true.” So I asked him to help sort out fact from fiction when it comes to industrial agriculture in general—and GMOs in particular. “Almost everything I hear about [industrial agriculture] is a myth,” says Novella. “It’s such an emotional issue—a highly ideological and politicized issue—that what I find is that most of what people write and say and believe about it just fits into some narrative, some worldview. And it’s not very factual or evidence-based.” So where does Novella think the public is misinformed? One myth concerns the novelty of GM foods. Many people think that modifying genes in our food is a 21st-century phenomenon, but according to Novella, humans have been using selective breeding to create more desirable versions of plants and animals for thousands of years. In fact, it was a lone monk, Gregor Mendel, who in the 1800s discovered the laws of inheritance and launched the science of genetics by crossbreeding pea plants. And there are even more questionable genetic modification practices that aren’t subject to anywhere near the same scrutiny as GM foods. Novella points to the increasing popularity of “mutation breeding,” in which chemicals and radiation are used to increase the rate of plant mutations in order to produce favorable traits. “Over 2,000 plants that are the product of this mutation breeding have been released to the public in the last 100 years,” explains Novella. Another important myth surrounding GM foods is that they are somehow unsafe for human consumption. There are two broad types of genetically modified organisms: transgenic and cisgenic. Cisgenic modification occurs between closely related plants—something that might have happened more “naturally” through crossbreeding. Transgenic modification involves transferring genes across disparate species, or even kingdoms—impossible if left to Mother Nature. It’s this second type of modification that gives products the derogatory label of “Frankenfood.” But compared with crossbreeding or mutation breeding, says Novella, genetic modification is “much more precise”—selecting only one gene or a part of a gene and inserting it into the target food. What are people so worried about, then? Some have argued that new allergies could be induced by the creation of new proteins—Novella calls this a “legitimate concern” but says that GM foods undergo testing to prevent this from happening. Some fear that when GM foods are used as feed for livestock, there will be unintended consequences for humans who eat them. But again, there’s no evidence that animals that eat GM foods pose any he alth risks to us. “To date,” says Novella, “the reviews conclude pretty universally that there’s just no health risk.” Indeed, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the research surrounding GM food is “quite clear: crop improvement by the modern molecular techniques of biotechnology is safe.” What’s more, GM foods are more tightly regulated than crops created with other modification methods and have to overcome more safety tests than their counterparts. Novella acknowledges that the complicated nature of genetics means that GM technology could conceivably have “unanticipated consequences,” but, he says, “we’ve been doing this for decades now, and there have been tons of studies looking at the results of genetic modification, and we’re not producing these scary monsters—this so-called Frankenfood. It just hasn’t happened.” Dr. Steven Novella. Dave Fayram/Flickr So if GM foods are safe, what are some of the other issues that people complain about when criticizing agribusiness companies? For one thing, GM opponents often argue that the planting of GM foods is not a sustainable agricultural practice. But according to Novella, that’s the wrong way to look at it.So if GM foods are safe, what are some of the other issues that people complain about when criticizing agribusiness companies? “GM is not agriculture…it is a tool,” he says. “The real question is how is it being used?” Novella points to a commonly used GM crop known as Bt corn, which has been engineered to include a gene from the Bacillus thuringiensis bacterium that produces a pest-killing protein. Unfortunately, Novella explains, the success of these GM crops can create perverse incentives to grow one type of plant exclusively. And just like with antibiotics, overuse of pest-resistant crops can lead to the creation of “superpests”—the agricultural counterpart of superbugs. But according to Novella, the problem here isn’t the GM crops themselves, but rather how they are used. “There’s nothing inherent to…Bt crops that says you have to use them in the worst possible way,” he says. Rather, if farmers mix Bt and non-Bt crops, “it becomes one powerful tool in a box of tools” that can help them increase profits in a sustainable way. “If you’re just focusing on GM, you’re missing the big picture, in that you have to look at farming as a practice, of which genetic modification is just one tool,” he adds. Genetic modification, Novella says, “is not the panacea, nor is it a menace; it’s just one more tool that has to be used intelligently.” So what does Novella think accounts for our distrust of genetic modification? He points to what he calls the “naturalistic fallacy,” or the reverence of “quote, unquote: what is ‘natural’ to an unreasonable degree.” “There’s nothing inherently good or virtuous about the way things were in nature,” he says. “And we’ve been altering them beyond recognition for thousands of years, anyway.” This episode of Inquiring Minds, a podcast hosted by neuroscientist and musician Indre Viskontas and best-selling author Chris Mooney, also features a discussion of the US Olympic team’s new high-tech ski suits and analysis of disturbing new evidence that Americans are increasingly likely to confuse astrology with science. To catch future shows right when they are released, subscribe to Inquiring Minds via iTunes or RSS. We are also available on Stitcher and on Swell. You can follow the show on Twitter at @inquiringshow and like us on Facebook. Inquiring Minds was also recently singled out as one of the “Best of 2013″ on iTunes—you can learn more here.

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Meet the Next Michele Bachmann

by EileenRubinstei Posted on February 3, 2014

Mother Jones

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Liberals rejoiced when Michele Bachmann announced her intention to retire from Congress at the end of 2014. Bachmann will no longer be around to carry the Tea Party banner in Congress. But she’s almost guaranteed to be replaced by another far-right conservative. Minnesota’s 6th congressional district skews heavily Republican—voting 56 percent for Romney in 2012. Whichever GOPer emerges from the primary should easily waltz to a general election win in November. And that successor could either be a Bachmann clone or Minnesota’s own version of Grover Norquist.

The race is between two candidates from diverging wings of the Republican party: There’s Tom Emmer, the social conservative who hews closely to Bachmann and Phil Krinkie, a small-business owner whose mission in life is to block tax increases. A key vote for the nomination comes this week. Minnesota’s primary isn’t until August, but candidates are traditionally handpicked at summer conventions by the state party, while the primary is a mere formality. Local precincts will hold caucuses on Tuesday to elect delegates to the state convention, determining which candidate has the edge.

Emmer, a failed gubernatorial candidate from 2010, closely replicated the Bachmann model. For his first major bill after he entered the Minnesota House in 2005, Emmer proposed that the state medically castrate sex offenders. That was just the beginning of a career defined by extreme views. He’s unsure when quizzed about evolution. He favors harsh immigration laws—Arizona’s punitive 2010 law was a “wonderful first step.” He thinks a minimum wage for restaurant staff is a silly concept: “With the tips that they get to take home, they are some people earning over $100,000 a year,” Emmer said during his 2010 campaign.

Exempting Minnesota from federal laws was Emmer’s pet cause as a legislator. He proposed the Firearms Freedom Act, an implausible bill that would have declared Minnesota exempt from federal gun laws. He then took that a step further, introducing a bill that said Minnesota must ignore any federal law unless a supermajority approved each measure. “A federal law does not apply in Minnesota unless that law is approved by a two-thirds vote of the members of each house of the legislature and is signed by the governor,” his bill read. None of these measures succeeded, but they charmed the Bachmann wing of Minnesota’s Republican Party.

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UN Climate Chief Calls for Tripling of Clean Energy Investment

by CoyHargrove Posted on January 14, 2014

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Christiana Figueres says $1 trillion a year is required for the transformation needed to stay within 2C of warming. Video produced by Tim McDonnell, Climate Desk. The United Nations climate chief has urged global financial institutions to triple their investments in clean energy to reach the $1 trillion a year mark that would help avert a climate catastrophe. In an interview with the Guardian, the UN’s Christiana Figueres urged institutions to begin building the foundations of a clean energy economy by scaling up their investments. Global investment in clean technologies is running at about $300bn a year – but that is nowhere where it needs to be, Figueres said. “From where we are to where we need to be, we need to triple, and we need to do that – over the next five to 10 years would be best – but certainly by 2030,” she said. The International Energy Agency said four years ago it would take $1tn a year in new infrastructure projects by 2030 to make the shift from acoal- and oil-based economy to the cleaner fuels and technologies that would help keep warming below the dangerous threshold of 2C. But investment has lagged far behind. “What we need to have invested in the energy sector and in the green infrastructure in order to make the transformation that we need in order to stay within 2C is one trillion dollars a year and we are way, way behind that,” Figueres said. Figueres and leading Wall Street figures will urge global investors to step up their clean energy investments at a meeting at the UN on Wednesday organised by the Ceres investment network. The biggest investors – pension funds, insurance companies, foundations and investment managers – control about $76tn in assets, according to OECD figures. But by Figueres’s estimate, those institutional investors were committing less than 2% of the funds under their control to clean energy infrastructure – compared to 10% or 15% that was still going into coal and oil. “Last year, we had $300bn, and in the same year we had double that amount invested in exploration and mining in fossil fuels. So you can see that the ratio is not where it needs to be. We need to be at the opposite ratio.” The UN climate official said she hoped to make her case by showing the opportunities in clean tech investment – but also the financial risks of sticking with coal and oil. The UN’s climate panel, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said for the first time in its blockbuster climate report last September that there was a finite amount of carbon that could be burnt to stay within 2C warming. About half of that carbon budget is already spent – which means much of the remaining coal and oil can not be burned without crossing into dangerous warming. “There is no doubt that most of the fossil fuel reserves we have world-wide will have to stay in the ground” to avoid warming beyond 2C, Figueres said. “Two-thirds of the fossil fuels we have will have to stay in the ground.” She argued those realities would eventually erode the value of oil and coal holdings. Climate experts have already taken to referring to such carbon stores as “stranded assets”. “There is study after study coming out saying beware we are invested in assets that are already and will soon be losing value,” she said. Diplomats hope this week’s investor summit will energise efforts to reach a global emissions-cutting deal in 2015. The gathering is the first of a number of big climate-themed gatherings set for 2014, culminating with an invitation to world leaders by the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, to a summit in September to try to get the outlines of that deal in place. In Washington, meanwhile, Barack Obama is expected to finalise new limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants – a critical step if the US is to reach its pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions 17% by 2020. But global investment is still not keeping place. Bloomberg New Energy Finance put global investment in clean technology at just $281bn in 2012 – and the figures for 2013, due for release at the investor summit on Wednesday, are expected to fall even lower. That would mean a quadrupling of clean tech investment – instead of the tripling in investment that Figueres estimates. “Cost competitive renewable technologies and attractive investment opportunities exist right now, but we’re still not seeing clean energy deployment at the scale we need to put a dent in climate change,” said Mindy Lubber, the president of Ceres, which organised this week’s summit. “We need to find a way to get more institutional investor capital into this space.”

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UN Climate Chief Calls for Tripling of Clean Energy Investment

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A Poison Aficionado’s Guide to 6 Killer Chemicals

by Myrna Posted on January 10, 2014

Science journalist Deborah Blum explores the homicidal—and, the environmental—ways that chemistry can do us in. Steve and Sara Emry/Flickr As a writer, Deborah Blum says she has a “love of evil chemistry.” It seems that audiences do too: Her latest book, The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York, was not only a bestseller, but was just turned into a film by PBS (you can watch it for free here). The book tells the story of Charles Norris, New York City’s first medical examiner, and Alexander Gettler, his toxicologist and forensic chemist. They were a scientific and medical duo who brought real evidence and reliable forensic techniques to the pressing task of apprehending poisoners, who were running rampant at the time because there was no science capable of catching them. “When Norris came to office in 1918, the same year, the city of New York actually published a report saying that poisoners could operate with impunity in New York City,” explains Blum on the latest episode of the Inquiring Minds podcast [stream below]. Arsenic, cyanide, chloroform—such were some of the favorites of poisoners in the 1920s. Detecting each one presented a different scientific challenge. Take arsenic: “It’s tasteless, so you can put it into anything and your victim doesn’t know,” says Blum. “It’s odorless. They can’t find it that way either. It mimics the symptoms of a natural illness…and, you can’t find it in the body. So even if you’re suspicious, you can’t prove that that person was poisoned. So no wonder it was a golden age for poisoners.” Deborah Blum. Forensic chemistry has come a long way since then, and poisoners don’t exactly run rampant any longer. But poisoning still happens. And as Blum notes in the other branch of her writing—reporting on environmental chemistry for the New York Times—environmental contaminants are, in effect, poisons as well. So on the podcast, Blum helped us to compile this list of the six most worrisome modern day poisons, whether environmental or otherwise, chosen both for their prominence and for the danger they pose. Here they are, progressing from the environmental to the, er, homicidal: 1. Lead. Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum has documented just how deleterious this naturally occurring heavy metal is to us. Lead is particularly dangerous to children, because it acts as a neurotoxin that can stunt brain development. And it’s all around us: Naturally occurring in the soil, but also in substances ranging from paint in older houses, to pipes, to lipstick (the latter in very small amounts that the FDA says are safe). “As a poison, there’s not one redeeming thing you can say about lead. It’s just bad,” says Blum. “And I like to remind people, it’s still around, we’re still exposing ourselves to it, and everyone’s at risk.” For more comprehensive information about lead risks in your home, see this infographic or click here. Native arsenic from the Natural History Museum, London. Aram Dulyan/Wikimedia Commons 2. Arsenic. Another naturally occurring heavy metal, arsenic may not be the favored tool of criminal poisoners that it once was. But its environmental presence remains a serious hazard, in both food and water. “Arsenic is also unambiguously bad for you,” says Blum. “It’s bad at a high dose, and it’s bad at a very low dose.” Because arsenic is naturally found in the Earth’s crust, it makes its way into groundwater, and some of us drink it in dangerous concentrations. One risk arises when people dig their own private wells. Arsenic is also a by-product of industrial activities like mining and smelting, and it makes its way into our food: Rice products are a particular concern. Long-term exposure can lead to various types of cancer, among other health threats. 3. Carbon Monoxide. “I do Google alerts on poison and poisoning, and there are some days where my dose of 10 news stories about people made sick or dead are all carbon monoxide,” says Blum. “Especially in the winter. Especially after a big storm, or in cold temperatures.” Carbon monoxide is a gas that has no color or odor, but that can kill quickly if it is allowed to reach high concentrations in an enclosed space. It results from combustion in gas appliances, chimneys, heaters, generators, and cars. According to the CDC, 400 Americans die each year from carbon monoxide poisoning. Carbon monoxide detector. Judy van der Velden/Flickr Notably, none of these hazards—lead, arsenic, carbon monoxide—represent some fancy new chemical innovation. Rather, they’re enduring poisons, to which we continue to live in close proximity. “They’re a reminder that we are smarter than we were, about poisonous things, in the days of Gettler and Norris,” says Blum. “But we’re not as smart as we should be.” And then there are the substances that malicious poisoners tend to turn to today. Intentional poisonings are not nearly so rampant as they were in the 1920s, but they’re still out there. Here are some of today’s poisoners’ favorite tools: 4. Ethylene Glycol (Antifreeze). Ethylene glycol is the top ingredient in antifreeze, among other chemical substances. And “it’s actually one of the number one homicidal poisons in the United States,” says Blum. The reason is that ethylene glycol has a sweet taste, a perfect quality in the hands of a poisoner. Plus, buying antifreeze is not generally seen as a suspicious activity. The Poisoner’s Handbook. PBS Here’s one ethylene glycol case: A Georgia woman named Lynn Turner was convicted in 2004 of murdering her husband, and later her boyfriend, by serving them antifreeze, apparently in Jello and other foods and drinks. Here’s another: A doctor in Houston was indicted last year for allegedly placing ethylene glycol in a colleague’s coffee and claiming it was an artificial sweetener, Splenda. (The case is awaiting trial.) “You see people turn to it a lot,” says Blum. “It’s a very nasty poison. It metabolizes to form these very sharp crystals, calcium oxalate crystals, that will slice and dice your kidneys.” Also at risk are animals, says, Blum: Ethylene glycol is “the number one choice” when angry neighbors decide to poison a pet. 5. Ricin. In April of last year, an envelope was received at the US Capitol containing a “white granular substance.” The letter had been sent to the office of Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker. Upon analysis, the substance turned out to be ricin, an extremely deadly, naturally occurring poison that is found in castor beans and can be created from by-products of the making of castor oil. Ricin can come in various forms, including powder or mist, and when inhaled or ingested, causes cell death. This wasn’t the first time there was an attempt to send it through the mail: In 2003, two ricin letters were found at postal facilities in South Carolina and Tennessee; one was addressed to “The White House.” Ricin has long been a favored bioterror agent; for a thorough review of its history and biological effects, see here. An FBI-released image of a ricin letter addressed to the White House in 2003. FBI/Wikimedia Commons 6. Polonium-210. Finally, we come to the really hi-tech poisoning. The radioactive isotope Polonium-210 decays and releases alpha particles; if it does so inside your body, it can be lethal even in small amounts, bringing on death by radiation poisoning. Polonium-210 has been in the news because of charges (unproven ones, Blum thinks) that it was used to murder Yassir Arafat; before that, a Russian dissident, Alexander Litvinenko, was confirmed to have been killed with Polonium-210 in 2006. But unlike antifreeze, this one is hard to get your hands on: You need a nuclear reactor to make it in deadly amounts, though it also occurs naturally in the Earth’s crust and thus, is present in small quantities in the environment. Poisoners who actually try to wield substances like these are undoubtedly “creepy, cold, and calculating,” as Blum puts it. But the real takeaway lesson from her writings and research on poisoning, she thinks, is a different one. “Most of us are surrounded by these really bad things, and we don’t try to harm people with them,” Blum says. “Most of us really want, I think, to see our chemical world be one that makes people safer. And so it’s a really interesting way to explore our history and who we are.” You can stream the full Inquiring Minds interview with Deborah Blum here: This episode of Inquiring Minds, a podcast hosted by best-selling author Chris Mooney and neuroscientist and musician Indre Viskontas, also features an interview with Quartz meteorology writer Eric Holthaus about whether global warming may be producing more extreme cold weather in the mid-latitudes, just like what much of America experienced this week. To catch future shows right when they are released, subscribe to Inquiring Minds viaiTunesorRSS. You can also follow the show on Twitter at @inquiringshow and like us on Facebook. Inquiring Minds was also recently singled out as one of the “Best of 2013″ shows on iTunes—you can learn more here. Taken from: A Poison Aficionado’s Guide to 6 Killer Chemicals ; ;Related ArticlesBrrrr: Incredible Photos of the Polar VortexWhy the Arctic Is Drunk Right NowAntarctic Sea Ice Increase is Because of Weather, Not Climate ;

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Will Congress Go Another Year Without Designating New Wilderness?

by Myrna Posted on January 3, 2014

The only thing Congress has preserved in the last four years is its record dry spell. Al_HikesAZ/Flickr WASHINGTON — This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, the law that created a new designation for public lands that retain their “primeval character and influence.” Yet the only thing Congress has preserved in the last four years is its record dry spell, having designated no new areas of the country for protection under that law since 2009. The 112th Congress, in 2010 and 2011, was the first since the law’s passage to fail to designate any new wilderness. And now, halfway through the 113th Congress, it’s unclear whether any more will be designated this session, either. The lack of new designations “speaks to the broader dysfunction of Congress,” said Paul Spitler, director of wilderness campaigns at the Wilderness Society. “They seem to have lost the ability to compromise and move forward.” While there are other designations for public lands, such as parks, national forests and wildlife refuges, wilderness is the highest protection that can be given to wild lands. Such areas are off-limits to drilling, logging, roads and most motorized vehicles. The Wilderness Act of 1964 defined the areas it sought to protect simply: “A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” To keep reading, click here. Originally from:  Will Congress Go Another Year Without Designating New Wilderness? ; ;Related ArticlesBill Nye Wants To Wage War on Anti-Science Politics, Make a Movie—And Save the Planet From AsteroidsAntarctic Sea Ice Increase is Because of Weather, Not ClimateFor the Birds (And the Bats) ;

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Will Congress Go Another Year Without Designating New Wilderness?

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Dear Donald Trump: Winter Does Not Disprove Global Warming

by rakil23 Posted on January 3, 2014

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Weather isn’t climate, people. A Bostonian trudges by Government Center as Winter Storm Hercules’s snows begin. Nicolaus Czarnecki/METRO US/ZUMA An intense blizzard, appropriately named Hercules, is about to blanket the Northeast. Antarctic ice locked in a Russian ship containing a team of scientists—en route, no less, to do climate research. Record low temperatures have been seen in parts of the US, and in Winnipeg, temperatures on December 31 were as cold as temperatures on…Mars. So as is their seasonal wont, here come the climate skeptics. Exhibit A: This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit has got to stop. Our planet is freezing, record low temps,and our GW scientists are stuck in ice — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2014 And Trump isn’t the only one. A similar reaction came from Congressman John Fleming, a Louisiana Republican: “Global warming” isn’t so warm these days. http://t.co/gOqr2RiuNJ — John Fleming (@RepFleming) January 2, 2014 And RedState.com’s Erick Erickson also piled on, blending global warming dismissal with religion: The difference between people who believe in the 2nd coming of Jesus and those who believe in global warming is that Jesus will return. — Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) January 2, 2014 Meanwhile, the front page of the Drudge Report listed a variety of cold weather news items under the heading, “Global Warming Intensifies…” Drudge Report/Climate Desk Rush Limbaugh also weighed in, noting that the Green Bay Packers may face San Francisco in subzero temperatures at home this weekend: LIMBAUGH: I would love to see Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Hillary sitting outside on the 50 yard line of Green Bay the whole game, and then afterwards do a presentation for us all on global warming. Sit there the whole game outside. And last but not least, Fox Business‘s Stuart Varney used the Antarctic ice story to claim that “we’re looking at global cooling, forget this global warming.” All of this is all wrong in ways that have all been explained before. So just a few brief observations: Statements about climate trends must be based on, er, trends. Not individual events or occurrences. Weather is not climate, and anecdotes are not statistics. Global warming is actually expected to increase “heavy precipitation in winter storms,” and for the northern hemisphere, there is evidence that these storms are already more frequent and intense, according to the draft US National Climate Assessment. Antarctica is a very cold place. But global warming is affecting it as predicted: Antarctica is losing ice overall, according to the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. However, sea ice is a different matter than land-based or glacial ice. Antarctic sea ice is increasing, and moreover, the reason for this may be climate change! (For more, read here.) Finally, just one last thing. When it’s winter on Earth, it’s also summer on Earth…somewhere else. Thus, allow us to counter anecdotal evidence about cold weather with more anecdotal evidence: It’s blazing hot in Australia, with temperatures, in some regions, set to possibly soar above 120 degrees Fahrenheit in the coming days.

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Dear Donald Trump: Winter Does Not Disprove Global Warming

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Dear Donald Trump: Winter Does Not Disprove Global Warming

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For the Birds (And the Bats)

by gop Posted on January 3, 2014

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The Crochet Answer Book – Edie Eckman

Wouldn’t it boost your confidence to have an experienced and confident crocheter on call, day and night, offering assistance when needed? Most of us aren’t fortunate enough to have that kind of aid, but now there is help available 24/7 with The Crochet Answer Book. Being a “good” crocheter is not about making perfectly stitched, elaborate […]

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Inside of a Dog – Alexandra Horowitz

The bestselling book that asks what dogs know and how they think, now in paperback. The answers will surprise and delight you as Alexandra Horowitz, a cognitive scientist, explains how dogs perceive their daily worlds, each other, and that other quirky animal, the human. Horowitz introduces the reader to dogs’ perceptual and cognitive abilities and then draw […]

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Codex: Tyranids (Enhanced Edition) – Games Workshop

From the cold darkness of the intergalactic void comes a race of ravenous aliens known as the Tyranids, a numberless horde of super-predators governed only by the instincts to hunt, kill and feed. Each Tyranid is a living weapon, perfectly adapted to its designated function, but each creature is no more than a single cell in a vast gestalt entity controlled […]

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Following Atticus – Tom Ryan

After a close friend died of cancer, middle-aged, overweight, acrophobic newspaperman Tom Ryan decided to pay tribute to her in a most unorthodox manner. Ryan and his friend, miniature schnauzer Atticus M. Finch, would attempt to climb all forty-eight of New Hampshire’s four thousand- foot peaks twice in one winter while raising money for charity. It wa […]

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Penny Saving Household Helper – Rebecca DiLiberto

This handy guide resurrects the fine art of frugal housekeeping with over 500 tips on saving money throughout the home and garden. Learn creative ways to cut back, pinch pennies, reduce, recycle, and re-use. Want to save on the grocery bill? Buy the whole chicken rather than individual cuts. Get more wear out of your wardrobe? Add a dash of salt to the washe […]

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The Knitting Answer Book – Margaret Radcliffe

Every avid knitter has faced this dilemma: deep into a project at midnight, just trying to finish one more row, and, then . . . oh no, a dropped stitch three rows back! Help! If only there was a 24-hour hotline to answer every question a knitter might encounter. Well, now there is, with The Knitting Answer Book . The expert authors, Margaret Radcliffe and Ed […]

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Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team (Interactive Edition) – Games Workshop

Not all battles in the 41st Millennium are massed engagements between lumbering armies and towering war machines. In the shadows of these epic conflicts, squads of elite soldiers clash – their missions no less vital, their foes no less deadly. Designated as Kill Teams by the Imperium, or by a myriad of different names for their alien and daemonic counterpart […]

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What the Dog Did – Emily Yoffe

Dave Barry meets The Secret Lives of Dogs in Emily Yoffe’s funny and insightful look at all things canine. Filled with adventures of heroic dogs, lovable and lazy dogs, malodorous dogs, phlegmatic and incontinent dogs, What the Dog Did delivers some of the most outlandish and certainly the funniest dog stories on record.

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How to Raise the Perfect Dog – Cesar Millan & Melissa Jo Peltier

From the bestselling author and star of National Geographic Channel’s Dog Whisperer , the only resource you’ll need for raising a happy, healthy dog. For the millions of people every year who consider bringing a puppy into their lives–as well as those who have already brought a dog home–Cesar Millan, the preeminent dog behavior expert, says, “Yes, […]

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Codex: Inquisition – Games Workshop

The Inquisition is the most powerful organisation within the Imperium. Bound by no Imperial law or authority, its agents – Inquisitors – operate in a highly secretive manner and answer only to themselves. Inquisitors use whatever means are necessary in order to safeguard the Imperium from heretics, mutants and aliens. It is not without good reason that Inqui […]

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For the Birds (And the Bats)

Posted in alo, Citadel, eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, Monterey, ONA, OXO, PUR, solar, solar power, Uncategorized, Vintage, wind energy, wind power | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on For the Birds (And the Bats)

Antarctic Sea Ice Increase is Because of Weather, Not Climate

by Myrna Posted on January 3, 2014

Rapid build up of ice that trapped the research vessel Academik Shokalskiy tells us very little about global warming. NASA Goddard Photo and Video/Flickr The predicament and subsequent rescue of 52 passengers – both tourists and scientists – on the Russian ship Academik Shokalskiy has gripped media around the world. The smooth rescue was impressive and a great relief, although the vessel itself and its crew are still stuck – and now one of the icebreakers sent to help in the rescue, the Chinese ship Xue Long, is itself stuck in the ice. Some commentators have remarked on what they describe as the ‘irony’ of researchers studying the impact of a warming planet themselves being impeded by heavy ice. With some even suggesting that the situation is itself evidence that global warming is exaggerated. In fact, the local weather patterns that brought about the rapid build up of ice that trapped the Academik Shokalskiy tell us very little about global warming. This is weather, not climate. To keep reading, click here. Originally from: Antarctic Sea Ice Increase is Because of Weather, Not Climate ; ;Related ArticlesBill Nye Wants To Wage War on Anti-Science Politics, Make a Movie—And Save the Planet From AsteroidsFor the Birds (And the Bats)Antarctica’s Poet-in-Residence ;

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Antarctic Sea Ice Increase is Because of Weather, Not Climate

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Antarctica’s Poet-in-Residence

by Myrna Posted on January 3, 2014

Here’s what she wrote. Rita Willaert/Flickr The National Science Foundation sent Jynne Dilling Martin to Antarctica this winter (the austral summer) as an artist-in-residence. Below are two poems she wrote from there. “Am Going South, Amundsen” An oil painting of a jaguar eating an emperor penguin is the start of a daydream in the Royal Society library. Nineteen ponies wedged in narrow wooden stalls sail south; they will soon go blind from miles of radiant snow, lap at volcanic ash for a last smack of salt, be shot and fed to dogs. For now they sway this way, sway that. The magnetic needle dips. Only afterwards we ask if it cost too much. Will this species be here tomorrow or not? says the scientist to her assembled team. The ponies eat oats in silence, the instruments keep ticking, the icy water washes on and off the deck. A bell abruptly rings a warning: oxidative stress, methane concentrations, too much heat. The dragonfish lays her pearlescent eggs beneath the ice and for ten months stands guard. The sea-stars sway this way, sway that. We all hope for the best. The adaptive might survive, the needy will not. Then again, the adaptive likely won’t either. Sorry we realized too late: we wipe reindeer hair from our eyes, the glaciated passages too dazzling to quite see clearly. To keep reading, click here. Visit link: Antarctica’s Poet-in-Residence ; ;Related ArticlesBill Nye Wants To Wage War on Anti-Science Politics, Make a Movie—And Save the Planet From AsteroidsAntarctic Sea Ice Increase is Because of Weather, Not ClimateFor the Birds (And the Bats) ;

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Antarctica’s Poet-in-Residence

Posted in alo, Citadel, eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, Monterey, ONA, OXO, PUR, solar, solar power, Uncategorized, Vintage | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Antarctica’s Poet-in-Residence