Monday, June 23, 2008
I am still waiting for Solar Cycle 24 to kick into gear. So is everybody else. (the image on the left is a "live" image of the sun. As I write this - solar activity is minimal)After NOAA had no consensus as to the start or magnitude of cycle 24 - I've basically placed my bet on this being another minimum cycle for no other reason than I find the thought of a natural reversal of global warming comforting. Well, this paper was influential on my thinking - it's why I continue to pay close attention to sunspots on this site.
In other news Jim Hansen is calling for oil execs to be jailed for crimes against humanity.
(Can't we start with the lawyers and politicians first? We can then work up to the CEOs and out to everyone that has ever drove faster than 65mph, and once all those people are busy building more prisons and stamping license plates, start arresting the people than ran their air conditioners too long, or insist on using a dual SLI PC. After that, criminal penalties for using hair dryers and curling irons are in order...)
I haven't, incidentally, found where he said that, but perhaps what he writes here is an indication of the Democratic policies to come. ¶ 4:54 PM
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Here's a tidy quote for ya;
"As far as there are any guides for science fiction writers wanting to make their near-future societies credible, the rules of thumb that have proved most reliable in my experience are these," lectured John Brunner near the end of his life. "Take it for granted that the government will disregard long-term dangers such as those affecting the environment in order to cling to power; that the citizenry will do the same because thinking is too much like hard work; and when the handful of Cassandras are proved right, they will be held to blame and very likely stoned or shot."
That's about it.
I honestly don't give a crap what folks who are wishing climate change away have to say about anything. I have been alive for a while now, and spent a bit of that time, more than most 'outdoors'. I know what I have seen. I can no longer drink from the streams I used to be able to drink from. That alone, damns this culture. All by itself.
Hansen, for what it's worth. does this for a living. His detractors, detract from him for a living. Who benefits?
Everyone I know, and I know quite a few, quite a few indeed, who are involved in what we call 'natural resources' talk about their work in terms of 'documenting the decline'. I first heard that over 20 years ago.
It's more true today. Will be even more true tomorrow.
And yes, the concept of 'scientific rigor' was kinda lost on me about the same time that gmos were released into the environment, and all the promises about how they couldn't spread, proved to be completely baseless. Even I could see that was crazy talk. But the phds said it was safe. So much for scientific rigor.
Brunner was actually wrong on a few points. For instance, some whales still live. Right now, there is a summit underway in Santiago Chile to decide the fate of those that remain. Japan's 'research' program puts whale meat into the markets. Fact. There's your scientific rigor.
Now, since it seems to actually be true, what the cassandras say concerning what constitutes the make up of the ocean gyres is actually true. Oh? you don't know about that? That the gyres, all of them have more trash and plastic than biomass? That some of them, the north pacific gyre are pretty much devoid of biomass altogether, relatively. It's now called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. But the dying of the oceans doesn't really mean anything. It's just the base of the food chain, so who cares? I'm sure Monsanto will fix it. Or more nuclear power plants, or revitalised interest in SUVs, or bigger and better WallMarts.
Some folks in the scientific community are already referring to 'now' as the anthropocene. Q.E.D.
(this is me being dismissive)
"As far as there are any guides for science fiction writers wanting to make their near-future societies credible, the rules of thumb that have proved most reliable in my experience are these," lectured John Brunner near the end of his life. "Take it for granted that the government will disregard long-term dangers such as those affecting the environment in order to cling to power; that the citizenry will do the same because thinking is too much like hard work; and when the handful of Cassandras are proved right, they will be held to blame and very likely stoned or shot."
That's about it.
I honestly don't give a crap what folks who are wishing climate change away have to say about anything. I have been alive for a while now, and spent a bit of that time, more than most 'outdoors'. I know what I have seen. I can no longer drink from the streams I used to be able to drink from. That alone, damns this culture. All by itself.
Hansen, for what it's worth. does this for a living. His detractors, detract from him for a living. Who benefits?
Everyone I know, and I know quite a few, quite a few indeed, who are involved in what we call 'natural resources' talk about their work in terms of 'documenting the decline'. I first heard that over 20 years ago.
It's more true today. Will be even more true tomorrow.
And yes, the concept of 'scientific rigor' was kinda lost on me about the same time that gmos were released into the environment, and all the promises about how they couldn't spread, proved to be completely baseless. Even I could see that was crazy talk. But the phds said it was safe. So much for scientific rigor.
Brunner was actually wrong on a few points. For instance, some whales still live. Right now, there is a summit underway in Santiago Chile to decide the fate of those that remain. Japan's 'research' program puts whale meat into the markets. Fact. There's your scientific rigor.
Now, since it seems to actually be true, what the cassandras say concerning what constitutes the make up of the ocean gyres is actually true. Oh? you don't know about that? That the gyres, all of them have more trash and plastic than biomass? That some of them, the north pacific gyre are pretty much devoid of biomass altogether, relatively. It's now called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. But the dying of the oceans doesn't really mean anything. It's just the base of the food chain, so who cares? I'm sure Monsanto will fix it. Or more nuclear power plants, or revitalised interest in SUVs, or bigger and better WallMarts.
Some folks in the scientific community are already referring to 'now' as the anthropocene. Q.E.D.
(this is me being dismissive)
If we're gonna crucify some group, please, oh please include those who write those interesting user-interfaces to databases. I'll bring the guns and the ammo.
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