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Better Get Ready To Tie Up The Boat In Idaho
Better Get Ready To Tie Up The Boat In Idaho For those of you old enough to remember the novelty song "Day After Day" by by Shango, no, I'm not talking about an earthquake that's going to cause California to break off into the ocean. I'm talking about global warming. There's an article in the Wall Street Journal Online from yesterday, that has me very disturbed. I'm posting it in its entirety, in italics, with my comments in regular type. Now, before I post this, let's think about something for a moment. This was published by the Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal! That doesn't mean anything to you? Well, this is a paper that in general is nothing but a tool for big business and the current administration. This is the paper that said a few months ago, if Karl Rove did give up the name of Valerie Plame to reporters, he was within his rights, as she wasn't in the field. This is a paper that goes to bat for anti-conservation measures, as they cost stock holders money. This corporate tool has actually admitted with this article that global warming is real and a problem. Do any of you have any idea how major that is? Is Global Warming Killing the Polar Bears? By JIM CARLTON Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL December 14, 2005; Page B1 Notice, it was written by a staff reporter. It wasn't picked up from Reuters, or the AP, or any other source. One of their own wrote it. Scientists for the first time have documented multiple deaths of polar bears off Alaska, where they likely drowned after swimming long distances in the ocean amid the melting of the Arctic ice shelf. The bears spend most of their time hunting and raising their young on ice floes. In a quarter-century of aerial surveys of the Alaskan coastline before 2004, researchers from the U.S. Minerals Management Service said they typically spotted a lone polar bear swimming in the ocean far from ice about once every two years. Polar-bear drownings were so rare that they have never been documented in the surveys. But in September 2004, when the polar ice cap had retreated a record 160 miles north of the northern coast of Alaska, researchers counted 10 polar bears swimming as far as 60 miles offshore. Polar bears can swim long distances but have evolved to mainly swim between sheets of ice, scientists say. The polar ice caps are retreating. But the Bush administration says there's no such thing as global warming, as their environmental expert is someone from an oil company. The researchers returned to the vicinity a few days after a fierce storm and found four dead bears floating in the water. "Extrapolation of survey data suggests that on the order of 40 bears may have been swimming and that many of those probably drowned as a result of rough seas caused by high winds," the researchers say in a report set to be released today. Yeah, no one ever told them, you're not supposed to swim during a storm. Damn them for getting so far away from land or an ice floe. This was obviously the very first storm in the Arctic Sea, which explains why 40 polar bears never drowned at once before in history and the drownings were so rare they were never documented. While the government researchers won't speculate on why a climate change is taking place in the Arctic, environmentalists unconnected to the survey say U.S. policies emphasizing oil and gas development are exacerbating global warming, which is accelerating the melting of the ice. "For anyone who has wondered how global warming and reduced sea ice will affect polar bears, the answer is simple -- they die," said Richard Steiner, a marine-biology professor at the University of Alaska. Perhaps this should be explained to Bush using plush toys. Soft, cuddly, polar bear toys. And a bathtub with warm water and ice in the shape of floes. As the ice melts in the bathtub and the stuffed polar bears sink to the bottom of the tub, he might understand. Perhaps government researchers should be environmentalists and not people who are taking a vacation from their jobs with Exxon. The environmental group Greenpeace began airing a 30-second commercial yesterday in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and other cities showing an animated adult polar bear and a cub on a cracking ice floe. The two bears, nowhere near land, slip underneath the water. "Polar bears may soon be extinct because of global warming," the voice-over states. It ends with "Global Warming: It's the Real Thing," a takeoff of a Coca-Cola Co. commercial featuring polar bears. I still haven't seen the commercials. Something tells me I'm going to be even more depressed over this when I do. Some experts say that climate change may indeed be shrinking the ice pack, but they dispute that emissions are the main culprit or that significantly cutting greenhouse gases would really make a difference. "Whether humans are responsible for some, most, or all of the current warming trend in the Arctic, there is no proposal on the table that would actually prevent continued warming or reverse present trends," said Sterling Burnett, a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, a nongovernment organization based in Dallas. "The question is how to adapt to future changes in climate, regardless of the direction or the cause." Gee, isn't Dallas a right wing stronghold and a big oil town? Of course he can't say emissions are at all responsible for global warming! He does make a bit of sense though. We really do have to figure out how to adapt to future climate changes, as a lot of the damage has been done, we already know it can't be reversed in our lifetime. However, while we adapt, we have to figure out how to stop doing more damage and perhaps heal the planet for future generations. In addition to documenting polar-bear deaths, the Minerals Management Service researchers, Chuck Monnett, Jeffrey Gleason and Lisa Rotterman, also found a striking shift in the bears' habits. From 1979 to 1991, 87% of the bears spotted were found mostly on sea ice. From 1992 to 2004, the percentage dropped to 33%. Most of the remaining bears have been found either in the ocean or on beaches, congregating around carcasses of whales butchered by hunters. In the past, polar bears were rarely seen at such kill sites, because they spent their time hunting their favorite meal -- seals -- on sea ice. But the good news is, with the seals main natural predator dying off, their numbers will increase, meaning one day they'll be off the endangered list and seal skin coats can make a comeback! Get those clubs ready! Marine experts consider the findings -- to be presented at a marine-mammal conference this week in San Diego -- an ominous sign. Some have warned for years that a rapid thawing of the Arctic from global warming could endanger species like the polar bear. Already, a warmer Alaska over the past half-century has been linked to increased erosion of rivers and streams, insect infestations and the undermining of pipelines and roads as the permafrost thaws. For those of you who don't get what this means, permafrost isn't supposed to thaw. It's supposed to remain frozen, until the sun swells into a red giant and engulfs the planet. Permafrost thawing is not a good sign. It's a very bad sign. But hey, in a few years, you'll be able to take that winter's beach vacation in Alaska! Great for sun worshippers! Alarmed by the swift changes, the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council, a consortium of the state's tribes, earlier this month passed a resolution urging that the U.S. government enact a mandatory program to reduce global warming. They must not have been hired to work for the oil companies that are drilling up in Alaska. Or their attitude would be different. Not to mention, I guess no one told them that last week, Harlan L. Watson, the chief American negotiator at the Kyoto treaty conference in Montreal walked out after the United States came under fire from all the other wealthy industrialized nations at the talks. You know, the United States and China are the only ones who have refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol and work on reducing global emissions. The US and China are also the leaders in greenhouse gas emissions. Yet when I say anything about this to right wingers, I get called a commie. But here is the Bush administration, acting just like those damned commies in China. No wonder the rest of the world hates this country. Some scientists predict polar bears could become extinct within the next century because they have adapted over the millennia to only hunting on ice. If they try to swim in disappearing ice conditions to catch seals, more are likely to tire and drown, scientists say. Polar bears that stay onshore aren't adapted to hunting land animals like caribou, which are preyed upon by more-aggressive grizzly bears. Polar bears also require more fat intake than most food on land offers them, experts say. "As the sea ice goes, that will direct to a very great extent what happens to polar bears," said Steven Amstrup, a polar-bear specialist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Anchorage, Alaska. Wait, a government employee saying this? He must be left over from the Clinton Administration. The ice caps are not melting. Ice floes aren't disappearing. Hasn't anyone told him global warming stopped existing on January 20, 2001? Another study set to be released at the marine-mammal conference shows what might happen to the Alaskan polar bears over time. Researchers from the USGS, the University of Wyoming and the Canadian Wildlife Service found that the population of polar bears in Canada's western Hudson Bay -- near the southernmost habitat for the bears in the world -- fell to 935 in 2004 from 1,194 in 1987, a 22% drop. Researchers said the decline -- the first recorded for these bears -- came in tandem with an extension by nearly a full month in the time it takes for Hudson Bay to ice over after the summer. This is going to kill tourism in the Hudson Bay area too. Polar bear watching is a big industry there. But hey, if they want a tourist industry, I guess they shouldn't rely on wildlife. Or be Canadians. A 22% drop in the population of anything in that short a time is a major warning sign. But hey, it's Canada, so who cares? They're all liberals up there anyway, with their socialized medicine, social welfare system. gay marriage and the fact they have such relaxed marijuana laws. God is punishing their tourist industry because of that. Look at what he did to New Orleans for being so progressive. "Our findings may foreshadow how more northerly populations will respond to projected warming in the Arctic ecosystem," wrote Mr. Amstrup, a co-author of the report. Previous studies by the U.S. and Canadian governments support a link between the decline in sea ice in the Arctic and the ways polar bears try to adapt to their surroundings. For example, researchers say polar bears in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska and Canada used to spend most of their lives jumping from ice floe to ice floe in pursuit of seals. Only pregnant bears would occasionally wander onto the mainland, in search of a den. But weekly aerial surveys by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service show that, over the past five years, an unusually large number of bears have congregated along the beaches. Between the coastal town of Barrow, Alaska and the Canadian border, about 300 miles east, researchers counted as many as 200 bears on land, said Scott Schliebe, director of the Fish and Wildlife's polar-bear project. Many bears could be seen gathered around whale carcasses near villages like Kaktovik, which lies in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge where the Bush administration is pushing for drilling. Hey, it's a win-win situation! The polar bears all drown and the wildlife refuge will be that much less populated! Which means, they can drill away! Scientists measured the distances from where the bears were gathered to the nearest ice sheets at sea and found this correlation: The farther the ice was from shore, the larger the number of bears were found on land. Am I the only one who considers this a no brainer? Scientists estimate there are 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears world-wide, including about 2,000 that frequent the Beaufort Sea off Alaska. The latest population study by federal officials, in 1997, suggested the Alaskan bear population wasn't endangered. An update is expected by the end of next year. Yeah, the update will come out next year and what do you want to bet the Bush administration says there's no need to panic over it, there are still plenty of bears? It isn't just the bears that are affected as the polar ice caps melt. The poles reflect 80% of sunlight back into space, keeping the planet temperate enough to support life. As the ice caps melt and things heat up, is life going to adapt? Of course not. If this keeps going on, Venus really will be our sister planet, even in climate. Why do conservatives insist that global warming doesn't exist? Why aren't we looking for other energy sources? Why aren't more power plants following the lead of Sacramento, which has been using solar power for years? In the UK, there are conservatives who are screaming that windmill power plants are going to destroy the looks of the landscape, can't we all just go nuclear? I know Bush, Cheney, Rove and the rest of them have oil stocks in blind trusts. They're not allowed to play with their portfolios while they're in charge of the country. But they know what stocks they owned before they took office. Therefore, to do anything that might put oil companies in jeopardy is to shoot themselves in the foot. Screw future generations, they want to retire with more money than God. Besides, they didn't buy into Microsoft or Apple on the ground floor. You know, with the damage already done, the irreversible damage, the Bahamas and Manhattan are going to be under water in roughly 200 years. There is no fixing that at this point. As the climate changes, it doesn't just affect wildlife. It affects farming too. In the Rockies for instance, the snow and ice tends to melt slowly come spring, giving farmers a natural irrigation system. As things warm up, farmers are going to find themselves with flooded, unusable fields. So the food supply is in danger too, not just wildlife. There have been changes in sealife in the last 50 years too. That is a major danger sign. As go the oceans, so goes the land. Sealife dying because of hydrogen levels changing in the sea means that's going to happen on land too. It will just take a bit longer for the air supply to change, as water is denser than air. Yeah, I know none of us are going to be around to see any of this happen. But the people who seem to care the least are the ones who have and who are screaming at their that they want to be grandparents before they die. They don't care about their own future generations, just they want to see them before they die? They want their to have so they can see them, but they don't give a fuck what happens to those once they're dead? What is wrong with people who refuse to see what's in front of them? |
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12/15/2005 1:12 pm |
what can be done missann? thats what I'd like to know coz this is some serious shit here and its just so sad how man does not care about the world in which we live but he does care about lining his pockets with more loot than they can spend in a lifetime,assholes.
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12/15/2005 1:15 pm |
Very informative and scary. Again, I agree with you. How much longer until we have a new administration? Argh!!!!
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PLEASE stick to writing about sex... Yes, "Global Warming" is real... The earth has heated up an astonishing 1.5 degrees over the last 100 years... WOW! The same 1.5 degrees it rose in the previous 100 years - before cars and industrialization. If you think one man, or one administration can destroy a ten million year old planet in five years, you're attributing to them powers beyond the scope of the Greek Gods... Besides, the warming and ice cap thinning also took place during Clinton's eight years in office... Was it HIS fault then???? And why didn't HE save humanity??? For the same reason. Just as one man can't HURT, one man can't HELP... It's NATURE!!! Guess what? Ozone is created by Mr.Sun... the only way to destroy the Ozone layer is to turn the sun off! The dirty little secret that the uninformed and emotionally-only driven environmental wackos don't want to hear, let alone admit, is that the earth heats and cools in scientifically predictable cycles... caused MOSTLY by the earth's wobbling on it's axis and relative distance from the Sun. That creates the warming & cooling at the same time it causes fluctuations in the Ozone layer... they're interconnected with the sun's radiation... The planet Mercury is hotter because it's closer to Mr. Sun while Saturn is cooler because Mr. Sun is farther away... GET IT??? We are actually at the end of the Third Ice Age and the warming is SUPPOSED to happen... In a few hundred thousand years, it'll start cooling again, don't worry! Oh, and by the way, while surface temperatures have risen that horrible 1.5 degrees, ATMOSPHERIC temperatures are stable and, in some years, DROPPING! Check NASA/Satelite data... As to the Polar Bears... I'm sorry when any species suffers, but the truth is that over 98% of all species that ever existed on earth are extinct... Species come & go... As will humans - through NO FAULT OF OUR OWN!!! Pleasing women in unbelievable ways for 45 years... You could be next...
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I don't know about you guys, but I kind of dig having more arsenic in my public water supply, or getting a tax benefit for driving some ridiculous huge SUV. I also dig that Bush has opened the nation's largest national park and forest, the Tongren, (which was set aside as a national park by Nixon, btw) to truckers and oilmen. I also, btw, prefer to take the words of scientists who have spent their entire adult lives researching the environment and the human impact on it over the word of some casual magazine reading layman or some twit-can't-even-find-oil-in Texas-politician. But that's just me.
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12/15/2005 5:40 pm |
brilliant blogg scary though silky xxxxxxxxxxxx
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digdug, it also has to do with their religious beliefs. They honestly believe the end times are upon us and future generations won't be around. caressme, depends on what we all get for Fitzmas. The investigation continues, with a new grand jury. All we need is one indictment against Bush and another against Cheney and they have to resign. Bush actually said, anyone indicted in the Plame case has to resign. desleeped, I was talking about how we're one of only two industrialized nations that refuse to sign the Kyoto Treaty. Bush had promised to sign when he was elected the first time and then balked. He also wants to drill for oil on protected land and doesn't want to look at alternate energy for even power plants. Coal is in, yet a good portion of Sacramento is getting power from a solar energy plant. If Sacramento can do it, why can't other places? It isn't just gasoline, it's business emissions, coal emissions, etc. Ptalk, I beg to differ. It was under the Nixon adminstration that the EPA was born, the Clean Air Act was adopted and chlorofluorocarbons were forced to be removed from aerosol cans produced in this country. Now, every other rich industrialized nation has signed the treaty. While China is a hold out, they're not exacty rich. Yet. Give those crappy Wal*Mart products a few more years and that company alone will make China filthy rich. Big business said the same thing about the Clean Air Act and the EPA and not being allowed to just dump industral waste anywhere. Satyr, every time you open your mouth, you prove yourself to be an even bigger idiot. Shouldn't you be over at Free Republic telling women there how they shoudn't hold jobs and should be having sex when their husbands want it and spitting out at least a baby a year? For one, you obviously haven't read any of my blog, beyond this. I don't tend to write about sex. But I do suddenly have a fantasy about you in the stocks and me with a steel tipped cat-o-nine tails. For another, don't talk down to me, you imbecile. I've seen you in action in the rooms, telling women they have an obligation to fuck your tiny, skanky dick because your wife won't and they're local enough that you can stop by on the way home from work, or at lunchtime or whatever and then getting pissed off when they tell you to get lost. You are a legend in your own mind. Now, I know you're a right wing Republican who is cheating on his wife and feels women should be beaten, because the bible says it's ok to beat women. You are a charmer all around. Although, didn't anyone tell you that mini-flogger in your profile picks is actually a cock whip? Now, you can believe whatever the oil concerns tell you, or what Reagan/Bush funded studies have told you. We are not at the end of a third ice age and I prefer to believe scientists over you. This debate has been going on for years. As far as the ozone layer goes, we know the damage has been done, as it takes 50 years for the air to rise and cause the damage. We also know that chlorofluorocarbons in aerosol cans did the damage. Nixon made them illegal in this country in the early 70s, other countries followed suit, but cans made in China, Thailand, Taiwan, they still have them. Silly String even has the warning that the can contains chloroflorocarbons, which are known to damage the ozone layer. However, you don't have to worry about your spray on hair, or the White Rain hairspray to make it look like you have more than you do. Those cans are made in this country, they contain no CFCs. However, as we do know it takes 50 years for those CFCs to reach the ozone layer, there will be no healing of the ozone layer for at least another 20 years. Then it will be wait and see to see if it does come back. But it's been evaporating due to CFCs since at least the 60s, so the repair will take longer. This isn't a Hollywood trend on my end. When I was 10, I wanted to join Nader's Raiders. You're older than I am, my dear. Surely you remember rivers catching fire from pollution. Yet you want to go back to those good old days, it would seem. Now, I'm glad you made it to a children's astronomy site and learned a few things. However, you might want to start reading things like New Scientist, Scientific American, Discover, etc, if they're not over your head. But I think even Popular Science might be too high a grade level for you. Environtmental concerns are not Hollywood, I don't even know who's on the bandwagon there. I do know this is something I've been watching since childhood. You also don't seem to understand the ramifications of that 1.5 degree climb per year. If you did, you would know as the poles melt, the plant is going to heat up and stop supporting life. Growing hydrogen levels in the sea are starting to kill sea life. But hey, doesn't bother you. You're from the Hamptons, you don't care if lobster gets to $100 a pound, it just means it's something those peons won't be able to afford, yet something else to set you apart from the lower classes. Now, why don't you just go sit in the corner and learn a few things, instead of telling women what they should and shouldn't write about? I do know that's the blogging equivilent of get back in the kitchen and cook for me, whore. Cause, did you know that arsenic in your water supply is most likely coming from the local cemetery? They used to preserve bodies with arsenic, not use the concrete vault and as the body and wood decomposed, the arsenic seeped into the ground water. There is also formaldahyde doing the same thing. Which is why now, it's the law that there has to be a concrete vault. Now, don't insult the SUV Satyr got the tax break for. It's making up for the size of his penis. Now, as far as everything else you said, it's quite true. But we're getting the Reagan/Bush line. All born agains, who are waiting for the Rapture. In 1981, James Watts told a Congressional subcommittee that we no longer needed environmental laws, because the Rapture is upon us and our children and grandchildren won't be around to enjoy the planet. Reagan told Congress trees cause more pollution than industry. Bush also has these religious beliefs. Scary that they're using their religion to claim that the environment isn't important. Thanks silkysmooth. If you do the research, it gets even more scary. Especially when you have people who would rather believe what business tells them above what scientists tell them.
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MissAnn... Nowhere in my responses did I resort to the type of name-calling, insults and mean-spirited hate speech you do. It's SO typical of those who have no facts, just emotion, fear, and hate to launch personal attacks when they are confronted by reason. For all your self-righteous posturing, you don't state one proveable FACT.... just a lot of "estimates", supposition, and anecdotal evidence that proves nothing. The fact that you were a "Nader Raider" only means that you are easily influenced into group-think. And, for the record, I don't oppose or object to your passion about saving our resources... I just object to the politicizing of every argument and the effort by the rabid, extreme, left-wing environmental wacko fringe to blame every ill on capitalism and America, and to turn this country into a mid-18th century feudal socialistic society. EVERYTHING I put in my responses I can back up with scientific evidence, bibliographed and footnoted... I just didn't want to waste space & time... But I will if you like. BTW, I'm nowhere near a right-wing Republican... I'm firmly a Libertarian who doesn't like the damage either major party is doing to this country... If you bothered to read my other response, you would see I'm deeply troubled by the destruction that normal human existance does to the planet... The exact arguments YOU state regarding CFC's and other contaminants goes to the SAME point I was making... That at least we have and use our technology to begin to reverse the damage, and other countries DON'T - like China, Thailand, and Taiwan as you state. YOU'RE MAKING MY POINT!!! As a surfer and former fisherman and mate on both commercial and private fishing boats in these waters, I see the harm done... the same that was done to the Buffalo and other species for no reason. I see the depletion and inbreeding of the deer population out here as we build, build, build and raise the water table to where we're forcing runoff from septic systems into our ground and drinking water... I DO, however, believe it is within the rights of humans to use our planet's resources - animal, vegetable, and mineral - as long as we replace them and return things to the way they should be! And, as an aside, you mention a Reagan-era tree study... I lived in Houston in the 90's (Clinton-era) and there was a huge tree planting and beautification project that was going to be started... It had to be halted when the EPA's study showed that the projected planting would add too many hydrocarbons to the atmosphere and raise the pollution index above allowable tolerances. As far as my sexual preferences go, and my treatment of women in general, all you have to do is read any of my posts - or my wife's as she posts occasionally in my blog - and you will see that that vile, evil, senseless attack you made on that level is as wrong as you are on your other points. I don't need to insult, demean, or degrade you to agrue a point, as you seem to. that just reinforces to me the weakness of your atgument and intellect. Pleasing women in unbelievable ways for 45 years... You could be next...
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Oh, yes... And I don't have an SUV... I have a 1994 chevy pickup that got 24.5 MPG when I bought it and now, by constantly working on it, gets 28.8MPG... And when I take it for inspection, the O2, NOx, HC's are all still within not just legal levels, but the original factory tolerances... My other vehicle is a motorcycle that now gets over 50MPG due to some mods I made. My next vehicle WILL probably be an SUV - one of the Ford Escape Hybrids... It's very clear that you're not the environmental Mother Theresa you'd like to make yourself believe you are... you're just another dime-a-dozen radical left-wing ideolog/hack who wouldn't agree that it's cold in AntArctica unless one of your heroes like Mikhail Gorbachev said it. I don't have any need to "compensate" for anything... especially with a car... While I abhorr personal attacks, if anyone is "compensating", it's a 4'11" BBW that, unlike most of us, NEEDS this site to get laid! Pleasing women in unbelievable ways for 45 years... You could be next...
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12/18/2005 10:08 am |
I love Polar Bears. This makes me even more sad. Interesting information and comments. warm wishes & eggnog
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Global warming is real and going to get worse even if the US and China agreed to the kyoto protocol. Recent studies on ice core samples show more CO2 in the atmosphere than any time going back 600,000 years. Ocean front property is not going to seem such a smart investment in a few years... Of course we may get taken out by an asteroid first... Why I am in favor of lots of sex, while we ruin our planet...
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MissAnn, have you been following the latest events with Alaska oil? Careful inclusion of ANWR drilling into the defense budget and neatly wrapping it with Hurricane Katrina relief programmes to ensure that the bill will go through.
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