Saturday, June 10, 2006
Al Gore film: "An Inconvenient Truth"
From my niece, Jessica, quite obviously a concerned thinker.
Date:
Sun 06/04/06 09:33 AM
Last night I saw "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore's documentary about global warming. I encourage everyone to see it. I think it opens next week in smaller cities. It is extremely informative (there's more to know than I previously thought), and it's pretty well done. I'm impressed that he chose to make a movie to put forth his political platform! It's smart, and I hope it can begin to move mountains. . .
Website below.
http://www.climatecrisis.net/
A RESPONSE FROM HJ
What follows is from the above website. I have added my comments in italics
WHAT IS GLOBAL WARMING?
Carbon dioxide and other gases warm the surface of the planet naturally by trapping solar heat in the atmosphere. This is a good thing because it keeps our planet habitable. However, by burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil and clearing forests we have dramatically increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere and temperatures are rising.
Quite true! I have addressed that fact and proposed a very workable solution in my book, “The SUPER Hydrogen Economy.” My very practical solution could be fully implemented in as little as ten years and with substantial benefits to both the environment and our economy. It would mean ALL our energy sources would be generated within the US with no need for foreign oil. I have sent letters and copies of my book to members of Congress, State officials, environmental groups and a few energy intensive corporations. I have been interviewed about my book on the radio in Florida. The book is completely non-political in its presentation. I have received no response from any environmental group. I had a very unresponsive and totally self serving response from one Hydrogen fuel cell organization. I received two favorable responses from Republican members of Congress and have since been following up and answering their questions. I received no response from any Democrat. I received responses and requests for further information from all but one of the energy corporations I contacted. I received a phone call and an inquiry from an official of the Chinese Communist government. What conclusions would you draw from this about who is truly concerned about global warming and is willing to do something about it?
The vast majority of scientists agree that global warming is real, it’s already happening and that it is the result of our activities and not a natural occurrence. The evidence is overwhelming and undeniable
Also quite true, but misleading! What is not mentioned is that thus far, the human contribution to global warming and climatic changes are infinitesimally small compared with those occurring due to natural forces including orbital changes of the earth, variation in the output of the sun, normal fluctuations in global air and water movements and other effects.
We’re already seeing changes. Glaciers are melting, plants and animals are being forced from their habitat, and the number of severe storms and droughts is increasing. (See “Facts” at the end of this article.)
The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years.
This is well within the range of variation of numbers of hurricanes already recorded. Many storms we now track were not recorded in the past because of great improvement in the technology of tracking and recording hurricanes.
Malaria has spread to higher altitudes in places like the Colombian Andes, 7,000 feet above sea level.
Quite obviously, this has been going on continuously for at least the last ten thousand years as the earth has been emerging from the last ice age.
The flow of ice from glaciers in Greenland has more than doubled over the past decade.
True, but only in southern Greenland. Many Northern Greenland glaciers have actually been growing in volume.
At least 279 species of plants and animals are already responding to global warming, moving closer to the poles. If the warming continues, we can expect catastrophic consequences.
Quite obviously this has been going on continuously for at least the last ten thousand years as the earth has been emerging from the last ice age. These “catastrophic consequences” have been going on continuously for at least the same period of time with little or no help from humans. Ask the wooly mammoths.
Deaths from global warming will double in just 25 years -- to 300,000 people a year.
A ridiculous statement on its face with absolutely no basis in fact.
Global sea levels could rise by more than 20 feet with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and Antarctica, devastating coastal areas worldwide.
Melting of all shelf ice, that floating in the ocean, will not raise ocean levels one tiny bit. A simple law of physics demonstrates that.
Heat waves will be more frequent and more intense. Probably, so what?
Droughts and wildfires will occur more often. Certainly not provable!
The Arctic Ocean could be ice free in summer by 2050.
So what? That too would not cause the oceans to rise at all due to the same law of physics mentioned earlier. It would certainly be a boon to northern hemisphere shipping.
More than a million species worldwide could be driven to extinction by 2050.There is no doubt we can solve this problem. In fact, we have a moral obligation to do so. Small changes to your daily routine can add up to big differences in helping to stop global warming. The time to come together to solve this problem is now – (end of web page)
Correct observation! Very wrong conclusion! Extinction of species is certainly a worldwide reality of monumental proportions and devastating effects. However, global warming will have virtually no effect on this tragedy. Expansion of human population and resultant destruction of wild habitat is totally responsible for all but a tiny fraction of a percentage of these unbelievably rapid extinctions. That is the real human crime against all nature - wild plants and animals. This is the true human crisis. How about addressing that?
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The following facts are supported by the immutable laws of physics. (laws even the most clever politicians cannot change. Controlled by a higher power?):
Marine records of sediment oxygen isotope compositions show that the Earth's climate has gone through a succession of glacial and interglacial periods during the past million years. Though these effects are highly speculative, the trends and implications are unmistakable. Here we use a coupled model of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets and ocean temperatures, forced to match an oxygen isotope record for the past million years compiled from 57 globally distributed sediment cores, to quantify both contributions simultaneously. We find that the ice-sheet contribution to the variability in oxygen isotope composition varied from ten per cent in the beginning of glacial periods to sixty per cent at glacial maxima, suggesting that strong ocean cooling preceded slow ice-sheet build-up. The model yields mutually consistent time series of continental mean surface temperatures between 40 and 80° N, ice volume and global sea level. We find that during extreme glacial stages, air temperatures were 17 °C ± 1.8 °C lower than present, with a 120 m ± 10 m sea level equivalent of continental ice present.
Were the earth to be void of all water ice, the net increase in the ocean levels would be no more than 8 meters. Compare this to the approximately 120 meters lower the ocean levels were just a few thousand years ago. A large part of the water from that ice would end up as water vapor in the atmosphere. Depending on the average atmospheric temperature, that water vapor could actually reduce the ocean levels by a large percentage of the increase brought about by the melting of ice now supported by land. Of course, it would also place a lot more energy into the atmosphere with many possible but very unpredictable consequences.
Opinion: It is my opinion that this film and the associated effort is merely one more political ploy aimed strictly at garnering support through the incitement of fear. It is so typical of politicians who, with great displays of concern, distort the truth, ignore facts that don't support their agenda and flat out lie, just to enhance their image, hoodwink their constituents and, hopefully, gain power. I see it as unrealistic and damaging to good positive human efforts strictly for political gain. It is jousting at windmills while the real enemies of the earth, and indeed of all life on this planet, including humans, continue in their relentless path of ignorant destruction. I see virtually no one - in politics on either side of the aisle, on college campuses, in churches, in corporations, in the media, in fact in any positions of power - who are not willing to sacrifice the earth and all that lives on it to satisfy their own greed and lust for power. Apparently, not only does power corrupt, but the mere lust for power brings about the same corruption.
Modern progressive humans may despise religions and see atheism as the only way of the future, but listening and thinking deeply about what one solitary man said and asked of us, “love one another!” - and the example he set two millennia past - is a path that could lead us to far better things than Godless self-service. ¶ 11:01 AM
Date:
Sun 06/04/06 09:33 AM
Last night I saw "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore's documentary about global warming. I encourage everyone to see it. I think it opens next week in smaller cities. It is extremely informative (there's more to know than I previously thought), and it's pretty well done. I'm impressed that he chose to make a movie to put forth his political platform! It's smart, and I hope it can begin to move mountains. . .
Website below.
http://www.climatecrisis.net/
A RESPONSE FROM HJ
What follows is from the above website. I have added my comments in italics
WHAT IS GLOBAL WARMING?
Carbon dioxide and other gases warm the surface of the planet naturally by trapping solar heat in the atmosphere. This is a good thing because it keeps our planet habitable. However, by burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil and clearing forests we have dramatically increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere and temperatures are rising.
Quite true! I have addressed that fact and proposed a very workable solution in my book, “The SUPER Hydrogen Economy.” My very practical solution could be fully implemented in as little as ten years and with substantial benefits to both the environment and our economy. It would mean ALL our energy sources would be generated within the US with no need for foreign oil. I have sent letters and copies of my book to members of Congress, State officials, environmental groups and a few energy intensive corporations. I have been interviewed about my book on the radio in Florida. The book is completely non-political in its presentation. I have received no response from any environmental group. I had a very unresponsive and totally self serving response from one Hydrogen fuel cell organization. I received two favorable responses from Republican members of Congress and have since been following up and answering their questions. I received no response from any Democrat. I received responses and requests for further information from all but one of the energy corporations I contacted. I received a phone call and an inquiry from an official of the Chinese Communist government. What conclusions would you draw from this about who is truly concerned about global warming and is willing to do something about it?
The vast majority of scientists agree that global warming is real, it’s already happening and that it is the result of our activities and not a natural occurrence. The evidence is overwhelming and undeniable
Also quite true, but misleading! What is not mentioned is that thus far, the human contribution to global warming and climatic changes are infinitesimally small compared with those occurring due to natural forces including orbital changes of the earth, variation in the output of the sun, normal fluctuations in global air and water movements and other effects.
We’re already seeing changes. Glaciers are melting, plants and animals are being forced from their habitat, and the number of severe storms and droughts is increasing. (See “Facts” at the end of this article.)
The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years.
This is well within the range of variation of numbers of hurricanes already recorded. Many storms we now track were not recorded in the past because of great improvement in the technology of tracking and recording hurricanes.
Malaria has spread to higher altitudes in places like the Colombian Andes, 7,000 feet above sea level.
Quite obviously, this has been going on continuously for at least the last ten thousand years as the earth has been emerging from the last ice age.
The flow of ice from glaciers in Greenland has more than doubled over the past decade.
True, but only in southern Greenland. Many Northern Greenland glaciers have actually been growing in volume.
At least 279 species of plants and animals are already responding to global warming, moving closer to the poles. If the warming continues, we can expect catastrophic consequences.
Quite obviously this has been going on continuously for at least the last ten thousand years as the earth has been emerging from the last ice age. These “catastrophic consequences” have been going on continuously for at least the same period of time with little or no help from humans. Ask the wooly mammoths.
Deaths from global warming will double in just 25 years -- to 300,000 people a year.
A ridiculous statement on its face with absolutely no basis in fact.
Global sea levels could rise by more than 20 feet with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and Antarctica, devastating coastal areas worldwide.
Melting of all shelf ice, that floating in the ocean, will not raise ocean levels one tiny bit. A simple law of physics demonstrates that.
Heat waves will be more frequent and more intense. Probably, so what?
Droughts and wildfires will occur more often. Certainly not provable!
The Arctic Ocean could be ice free in summer by 2050.
So what? That too would not cause the oceans to rise at all due to the same law of physics mentioned earlier. It would certainly be a boon to northern hemisphere shipping.
More than a million species worldwide could be driven to extinction by 2050.There is no doubt we can solve this problem. In fact, we have a moral obligation to do so. Small changes to your daily routine can add up to big differences in helping to stop global warming. The time to come together to solve this problem is now – (end of web page)
Correct observation! Very wrong conclusion! Extinction of species is certainly a worldwide reality of monumental proportions and devastating effects. However, global warming will have virtually no effect on this tragedy. Expansion of human population and resultant destruction of wild habitat is totally responsible for all but a tiny fraction of a percentage of these unbelievably rapid extinctions. That is the real human crime against all nature - wild plants and animals. This is the true human crisis. How about addressing that?
– 0 – – 0 – – 0 – – 0 – – 0 – – 0 – – 0 – – 0 – – 0 – – 0 – – 0 – – 0 – – 0 – – 0 – – 0 –
The following facts are supported by the immutable laws of physics. (laws even the most clever politicians cannot change. Controlled by a higher power?):
Marine records of sediment oxygen isotope compositions show that the Earth's climate has gone through a succession of glacial and interglacial periods during the past million years. Though these effects are highly speculative, the trends and implications are unmistakable. Here we use a coupled model of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets and ocean temperatures, forced to match an oxygen isotope record for the past million years compiled from 57 globally distributed sediment cores, to quantify both contributions simultaneously. We find that the ice-sheet contribution to the variability in oxygen isotope composition varied from ten per cent in the beginning of glacial periods to sixty per cent at glacial maxima, suggesting that strong ocean cooling preceded slow ice-sheet build-up. The model yields mutually consistent time series of continental mean surface temperatures between 40 and 80° N, ice volume and global sea level. We find that during extreme glacial stages, air temperatures were 17 °C ± 1.8 °C lower than present, with a 120 m ± 10 m sea level equivalent of continental ice present.
Were the earth to be void of all water ice, the net increase in the ocean levels would be no more than 8 meters. Compare this to the approximately 120 meters lower the ocean levels were just a few thousand years ago. A large part of the water from that ice would end up as water vapor in the atmosphere. Depending on the average atmospheric temperature, that water vapor could actually reduce the ocean levels by a large percentage of the increase brought about by the melting of ice now supported by land. Of course, it would also place a lot more energy into the atmosphere with many possible but very unpredictable consequences.
Opinion: It is my opinion that this film and the associated effort is merely one more political ploy aimed strictly at garnering support through the incitement of fear. It is so typical of politicians who, with great displays of concern, distort the truth, ignore facts that don't support their agenda and flat out lie, just to enhance their image, hoodwink their constituents and, hopefully, gain power. I see it as unrealistic and damaging to good positive human efforts strictly for political gain. It is jousting at windmills while the real enemies of the earth, and indeed of all life on this planet, including humans, continue in their relentless path of ignorant destruction. I see virtually no one - in politics on either side of the aisle, on college campuses, in churches, in corporations, in the media, in fact in any positions of power - who are not willing to sacrifice the earth and all that lives on it to satisfy their own greed and lust for power. Apparently, not only does power corrupt, but the mere lust for power brings about the same corruption.
Modern progressive humans may despise religions and see atheism as the only way of the future, but listening and thinking deeply about what one solitary man said and asked of us, “love one another!” - and the example he set two millennia past - is a path that could lead us to far better things than Godless self-service. ¶ 11:01 AM
