I've been involved in atmospheric research for over a decade, and you have a point about CO2 being ... well let's say questionable.
Warming and cooling is also caused by aerosol - that particulate, smoke, smog, or whatever you want to call it. Wildfires and agricultural burning are HUGE sources of aerosol, in addition to volcanoes, etc.
Simple amounts of water in the atmosphere can have a dramatic effect as well - for example, even water in the stratosphere (a reason why global warming seems to have stopped).
I don't think that the IPCC or the models really address concerns about these other possible causes such as aerosol or water. I don't have proof, but I do have my reservations about the whole ball of wax.
How about more taxes and tolls for everyone. Insurance for cyclists. Yes, let's give more money to the insurance companies. How about an OPEC tax for cyclists not buying enough gasoline! How about a tax for posting on here!03-15-2010
Thanks so much, Thomas for the awesome interview. I just saw Vockah Redu and am so excited, my heart can hardly stand it. The New Orleans Bounce Showcase is this Sat., Mar. 20, 8pm-1am, at Submerged, 333 E. Second. This line-up includes: Ms Tee, Magnolia Shorty, Katey Red, Vockah Redu, Partners-N-Crime, DJ Jubilee, Big Freedia! And before all that business, there will be the Day Party in conjunction with (previous Chronicle intern) Aubrey Edwards' bounce photo show, “Where They At,” also Sat., Mar. 20, 1-5pm at the Birdhouse Gallery, 1304 E. Cesar Chavez, Austin, TX. http://www.wheretheyatnola.com03-15-2010
robonnueces said, "I have actually been keeping an informal hash mark count on a note pad in my car, one column for obeys and one for disobeys over the last eight months.."
Rob let me ask you something. Have you ever seen a woman naked?
"I just wanted to respond to MSBusdriver.It is NOT illegal to ride bicycles on Austin's sidewalks."I was about to post this too. It's only illegal to ride on the sidewalks through downtown Austin03-15-2010
I live on Nueces and travel Nueces, Guadalupe and Lamar almost daily. I have actually been keeping an informal hash mark count on a note pad in my car, one column for obeys and one for disobeys over the last eight months of how many times I see bicyclists fail to stop at stop signs, obey traffic signals, ride in between cars when traffic is backed up and generally not obey traffic laws. I also count when they do obey them. My percentage of observed noncompliance over eight months has been an astounding 94.6%. In my opinion as a group they have not earned any special consideration and I am at a loss as to why the city makes such a small percentage of the population such a high priority.03-15-2010
From the use of the phrase "erosion of power" in Amy Smith's March 12 story about the Precinct 4 race, it would seem like Margaret Gomez had lost her re-election campaign.The notion that Gomez saw a "disintegration" of support in South Central Austin is hyperbolic given the context.Although her opponent received support from the Austin Chronicle, Sierra Club, and Central Austin Democrats, Gomez still only lost the 78704 Zip code by a mere 4 percentage points. This included a more than 10 percentage point margin of victory in Pct 461, where she used to live.It may be more accurate to state that these groups that opposed her saw an "erosion of power" in delivering votes for their preferred candidate.Gomez more than made up for her 78704 losses with huge margins east of I-35 (particulary in the vote heavy 78745 Zip code) and in the precinct's rural areas.In 2006, when running against an unknown opponent who raised little money and received no endorsements, Gomez received 57 percent of the vote.This year, against a well-known former elected official who raised $60,000 and won an impressive list of endorsements, she still managed 53.5 percent.Gomez clearly lost support among groups (many of whom are based outside of Precinct 4) but given the strength of the opponent she proved to be remarkably resilient among the one group that actually matters: Precinct 4 voters.This is nothing new, of course. Gomez has a nearly thirty year history of electoral success that is unmatched in Travis County. She is the only local official I can think of who has defeated two different incumbents. How has she done it? The same way she won this year: by outworking her opponent, speaking to voters in every corner of the precinct, and ignoring the conventional wisdom.David Maurodavidwmauro@gmail.com03-15-2010
While I respect TMS, I even follow him on Twitter, I sure with he'd thought up original or at least compelling arguments against OLPC. At this point, he's circa spring 2006 in his rebuttal:1. Why not One Cellphone Per Child instead o a laptop? Hmm.. you read a school book on a mobile phone screen? 2. Why is this sent in from afar? Because Negroponte had the access to the computer manufacturers and money men that no African did.3. How will this impact those who've never seen computers? About the same as with cellphones, only better:http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/kenya/xo_laptops_have_transformed_nt.html.03-15-2010
No one disputes "anthropogenic pollution". There are many scientists however, who dispute that the chief cause of global warming is anthropogenic, or for that matter is even co2. ..also, the cap-n-trade hubbub aint about reducing co2. It's about setting up another taxing structure.
Here's a nice H.L. Mencken quote.
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
You're breaking up dude ... you sound like you're trying to talk though a bowl of mac-and-cheese and making horrible farting sounds.
Didja really say that because you need a sweater, that the whole theory, science, and application of climate change and anthropogenic pollution & warming is, like, dead?
Nothing like having the car in front of you change lanes suddenly leaving you in back of a bicyclist you didn't know was there. I have had more than a few "near misses", I assure you, I AM AN OLD LADY and drive slow anyway.Cyclists have a bad, bad attitude, the sidewalks are made for them but they just will NOT USE THEM. Brodie and William Cannon are busy....whyyyyyy cyclists prefer to be low lying fruit, I'll never know.Selfish, ME, I, MY, RIGHTS, etc. People HATE cyclists with reason. GET ON THE SIDEWALK and the City should stop kissing the cyclists padded behinds.Get real here folks.03-14-2010
I find TMS Ruge's concerns about cultural disruption by OLPC, and his other objections, to be misplaced. It is true that the technology comes from outside the community, but so does mobile phone technology. Mobile phones are locked-down, proprietary technology, whereas the OLPC XO computer and its Sugar education software are open for community innovation. Much of the development of localized software and lessons is due to people in the countries concerned. Far more will be in the future. We invite communities, including the Diaspora, to take part and to make sure that the software and content addresses local needs and cultural requirements, and does not merely continue the pernicious, alien imperatives of former colonial masters or current corrupt elites.
The OLPC plan does not leave out parents and other relatives and friends. We know how to reach the children, who can then share with others what they have and what they know. We know that children are teaching their parents to use the Internet, and in some cases to read. We plan much more of that. See, for example, http://www.olpcnews.com/content/ebooks/effective_adult_literacy_program.html
If you are concerned about OLPC, what is your alternative for education, thus jobs, thus ending poverty? Please help us address your concerns. You are welcome to join us in our Wikis, our mailing lists, and elsewhere. It may be that we can answer your objections, and it may be that your objections will open new paths for us to do even better together.
I lived in Hollywood from 1963 until a year ago, when I moved to Austin. I worked amongst 'em as a publicist, screenwriter, playwright and sometimes a director.One correction to your otherwise excellent piece: The sets at Fox were for HELLO, DOLLY...not FUNNY GIRL.03-14-2010
Ingram was mis-quoted. he wouldn't have reffered to Mould as "the wolfiest" but actually would have said he was "the woofiest". "Woof", while sounding more like a dog than a bear is bear slang for a hot guy. A bear might say "woof" under his breath when near a good looking man. most wouldn't even notice it, but another bear might, and would be flattered.03-14-2010
People driving cars impose delays on everyone else every day, all the time, while also threatening their lives, destroying their peace of mind, and poisoning their surroundings. If sticking to existing guidelines means drivers must wait, well... let drivers wait for others for a change. I'm not concerned about that. I'd rather have well-thought-out public transit, but I'll take whatever I can get that makes it easier to opt out from driving.03-13-2010
I had post I put on here but some how its not here anymore. I guess the powers to be don't want to have the other side of the view point aired. Not true reporting if you don't consider everyone's oppinion03-13-2010
Actually, neither the Republicans or the Democrats have a national majority. Each party is comprised of about a quarter to a third of the American voters. A majority of voters don't identify with either party and are independents or "swing" voters.
So in a way I like that, although we've elected some really stinky presidents, congressmen, and so forth. I mean we elected Bush not once, but twice? WTF were we thinking? And Obama, a real good talker, what happened?
So we're not perfect and it's a messy affair, like wrestling pigs. We be dangerous sometimes, LOL.
But having a bicameral, two-party system is nowhere in our Constitution. Indeed, Republican and Democrat parties have morphed so much they are the opposite of what they used to be, and various coalitions of power get consolidated.
But give us some credit for being more complex than just voting with the party group-think. Some of us are true independents, greens, libertarians of a dozen kinds, Tea Partiers, hippies, religious nuts, downright apolitical, and all different kinds.
MSBusDriver:It is NOT illegal for cyclists to ride on Austin's sidewalks.From the city Ordinance:Every person riding a bicycle upon the streets of the city shall be subject to provisions of all laws and ordinances applicable to the driver of any other vehicle, except those provisions of laws and ordinances which, by their very nature, can have no application03-13-2010
I just wanted to respond to MSBusdriver.It is NOT illegal to ride bicycles on Austin's sidewalks. From the city ordinances:Every person riding a bicycle upon the streets of the city shall be subject to provisions of all laws and ordinances applicable to the driver of any other vehicle, except those provisions of laws and ordinances which, by their very nature, can have no application03-13-2010
Licenses for bikes?? Taxes and safety classes for bikes? What about skateboards and rollerskates? What about a fee for putting on running shoes? You Henny-Pennys are absurd.03-13-2010
Have you ever heard the line about ours being a very bad form of government but that all the others are so much worse? How about the one about building a better mouse trap and the world will beat a path to your door?
Unless you can offer us a better mouse trap, then the trap we have is what we're going to have.
Comprenez?
Michener's proposal is a classic American "one extreme to the other" approach. And his approach is also a classic display of perhaps an idea all youth share, but certainly is a typical idea of American youth. That idea is, of course, that there is no such thing as "corporate memory;" practical experience has absolutely no value at all; and nothing of any importance happened before I arrived on the scene.
What we have is rotten and in serious need of repair. What Michener proposes, having a bunch of inexperienced neophytes ambling about aimlessly and reinventing the wheel every two years would be better?
I am a schoolbus driver for AISD. I am on the road 6 hours a day in the bus and see so many bicyclists ignoring the rules of the road. Is it not illegal for a bicyclist to ride on the sidewalk?? Is it illegal for a bicyclist to ride going the wrong direction of traffic?? Is it illegal for a bicyclist to run the loading/unloading lights of a school bus?? But yet I see this all day long and not by a few bikers but by almost all the bikers I come across. There are a few, usually the ones dressed in racing gear clothing obey the rules of the road but every other Tom, Dick and Harry do not. Also, now we have this 6 feet rule that we as drivers are not to cross but yet if I am sitting at a traffic light or stop sign it is OK for the bicyclist to violate the 6 feet rule and go around me?? If bikers want to have the respect of the road they must be educated for the road. Lets mandate a license rule for bicyclists that choose to use Austin Streets. Lets mandate manditory traffic ticket classes for bicyclists and enforce the laws on them. I have had bicyclist to actually weave through my elementary kids while they are crossing the street and almost running them over. I have had bicyclist almost get run over at an intersection because they are on the sidewalk and going the wrong direction of the traffic and I pull out on to a oneway access road and realize that they were on the sidewalk going to cross in front of my bus without even slowing down!!! I don't want to live with the tradgedy of killing someone by running over them with my bus, but who is going to look like the guilty one. Me of course because I am the bus driver but all along its the bicyclist that disobeyed the laws of the road. If they want to share the road then they need to share the responsibility of the road and be taxed or licensed for using the road and ticketed accordingly.03-13-2010
If there was a problem with the IPCC it was that the models were not sensitive to predict near-term issues such as:
- the rapid break-up or Arctic sea ice and possible reopening of the NW Passage
- huge methane releases in parts of northern Alaska and Siberia
- icebergs the size of a small state busting off the Antarctic on the warm side of that large continent
I follow Dr. Jeff Masters of the Weather Underground and so far, last January was one of the warmest ever, averaged globally and using tuned satellites. El Nino was a partial explanation (just as the North American Oscillation or NAO was the cause of cold weather in the Northeast, and the intense warming of the waters off western Africa, hottest ever!).
Now Dr. Masters is a weatherman, but the amount of greenhouse gases being pumped out from mankind is humongous especially is prescribed and some intentionally set wildfires are included. Matter of fact, the burning season in Latin America is fixing to start in several weeks.
So to say that anthropogenic sources (man-made that is) do NOT have an impact on climate is rather silly. Of course it does, especially the carbon dioxide, nitrous, and methane.
As to a "scientific consensus," many scientists do believe in the basic principle but are NOT experts at paleoclimatology, climatology, atmospheric chemistry, and dispersion modeling.
But at the end of the day, while "global warming" might have taken a break as to the rate of average annual global warming, the models did kind of suck.
They totally UNDERESTIMATED the near-term effects in certain area as I mentioned, like the Arctic. The ice models really sucked. Hey, at least directionally they were right ... the IPCC is looking into all this stuff again.
First, the only reason that NASA labeled 1880 as the beginning of the warming trend is because that was when modern recordkeeping began. The instrumentation required to precisely measure temperature trends wasn't available prior to that. Even if this weren't the case, however, it hardly supports your view, since by 1880 the developed world was well into the fossil-fueled Industrial Revolution.
Second, if the human fingerprint on global warming is as faint as you claim, how do you account for the fact that 82% of 3,146 earth scientists polled last year agreed that human activity is a significant contributing factor in changing mean global temperatures?
Third, Private Corporations would not have reduced emissions were it not for the initiatives set by the EPA such as the Climate Leaders Program.
Fourth, I don't doubt that there are "many, many scientists" with varying viewpoints on the issue; after all, a 16-million-dollar-effort spread over 12 years has the capacity to create a lot of noise. However, when the ExxonMobil payroll is taken out of the equation, there is very little credibility on the side of the doubters. This is proven by the fact that the architects behind this frivolous lawsuit had to resort to hacked e-mails to prove their point. No matter how loud these politically-motivated dissenters want to yell, I prefer to side with the National Academy of Sciences.
Ah I see ... by Swells | hide/show
Warming and cooling is also caused by aerosol - that particulate, smoke, smog, or whatever you want to call it. Wildfires and agricultural burning are HUGE sources of aerosol, in addition to volcanoes, etc.
Simple amounts of water in the atmosphere can have a dramatic effect as well - for example, even water in the stratosphere (a reason why global warming seems to have stopped).
I don't think that the IPCC or the models really address concerns about these other possible causes such as aerosol or water. I don't have proof, but I do have my reservations about the whole ball of wax.
=sammie
03-15-2010fearAndLoathinginAustin said... | hide/show
The Sissies Shall Bounce!!!!! by Kate X | hide/show
and the loooooooooooser is!!!! by LouDobbs | hide/show
Rob let me ask you something. Have you ever seen a woman naked?
03-15-2010FACEBOOK_NancyHelton said... | hide/show
FACEBOOK_NancyHelton said... | hide/show
Bike riders ignoring traffice signs/rules by robonnueces | hide/show
dmauro said... | hide/show
OLPC has a valid role by FACEBOOK_WayanVota | hide/show
The Earth Warms and Cools and warms and cools. by LouDobbs | hide/show
Here's a nice H.L. Mencken quote.
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
03-15-2010Hey Lou Whatcha Sayin' by Swells | hide/show
Didja really say that because you need a sweater, that the whole theory, science, and application of climate change and anthropogenic pollution & warming is, like, dead?
Naw it's gotta be them farty noodles.
03-14-2010FACEBOOK_TmsRuge said... | hide/show
GET ON THE SIDEWALK on BRODIE!!!!! by mildred_m | hide/show
Misplaced concerns over OLPC by FACEBOOK_EdwardMokuraiCherlin | hide/show
The OLPC plan does not leave out parents and other relatives and friends. We know how to reach the children, who can then share with others what they have and what they know. We know that children are teaching their parents to use the Internet, and in some cases to read. We plan much more of that. See, for example, http://www.olpcnews.com/content/ebooks/effective_adult_literacy_program.html
If you are concerned about OLPC, what is your alternative for education, thus jobs, thus ending poverty? Please help us address your concerns. You are welcome to join us in our Wikis, our mailing lists, and elsewhere. It may be that we can answer your objections, and it may be that your objections will open new paths for us to do even better together.
Mokurai
Mokurai@earthtreasury.org
Earth Treasury
http://www.earthtreasury.org/
03-14-2010
Brings Back Memories by Druxy | hide/show
FACEBOOK_GaryPrott said... | hide/show
Paul Whiteman. by LouDobbs | hide/show
Rocket Fuel by Scat | hide/show
Scat is getting the distinct feeling that you're of that era, a simpler time if you please.
03-14-2010Woof by eggwards | hide/show
Motorists make everyone wait by Chalo | hide/show
Scared to post my account! by MsBusdriver | hide/show
it's the independents, stupid by Swells | hide/show
So in a way I like that, although we've elected some really stinky presidents, congressmen, and so forth. I mean we elected Bush not once, but twice? WTF were we thinking? And Obama, a real good talker, what happened?
So we're not perfect and it's a messy affair, like wrestling pigs. We be dangerous sometimes, LOL.
But having a bicameral, two-party system is nowhere in our Constitution. Indeed, Republican and Democrat parties have morphed so much they are the opposite of what they used to be, and various coalitions of power get consolidated.
But give us some credit for being more complex than just voting with the party group-think. Some of us are true independents, greens, libertarians of a dozen kinds, Tea Partiers, hippies, religious nuts, downright apolitical, and all different kinds.
And we bad, we nationwide.
03-13-2010Reply to MS Bus Driver by jsmith2112 | hide/show
jsmith2112 said... | hide/show
Lighten up Frances by LouDobbs | hide/show
Hey shhs97 by oldsquid | hide/show
Have you ever heard the line about ours being a very bad form of government but that all the others are so much worse? How about the one about building a better mouse trap and the world will beat a path to your door?
Unless you can offer us a better mouse trap, then the trap we have is what we're going to have.
Comprenez?
Michener's proposal is a classic American "one extreme to the other" approach. And his approach is also a classic display of perhaps an idea all youth share, but certainly is a typical idea of American youth. That idea is, of course, that there is no such thing as "corporate memory;" practical experience has absolutely no value at all; and nothing of any importance happened before I arrived on the scene.
What we have is rotten and in serious need of repair. What Michener proposes, having a bunch of inexperienced neophytes ambling about aimlessly and reinventing the wheel every two years would be better?
03-13-2010New Bike City by MsBusdriver | hide/show
(singsong) money-money-money-money by LouDobbs | hide/show
Give Rocknesta a Break by Swells | hide/show
- the rapid break-up or Arctic sea ice and possible reopening of the NW Passage
- huge methane releases in parts of northern Alaska and Siberia
- icebergs the size of a small state busting off the Antarctic on the warm side of that large continent
I follow Dr. Jeff Masters of the Weather Underground and so far, last January was one of the warmest ever, averaged globally and using tuned satellites. El Nino was a partial explanation (just as the North American Oscillation or NAO was the cause of cold weather in the Northeast, and the intense warming of the waters off western Africa, hottest ever!).
Now Dr. Masters is a weatherman, but the amount of greenhouse gases being pumped out from mankind is humongous especially is prescribed and some intentionally set wildfires are included. Matter of fact, the burning season in Latin America is fixing to start in several weeks.
So to say that anthropogenic sources (man-made that is) do NOT have an impact on climate is rather silly. Of course it does, especially the carbon dioxide, nitrous, and methane.
As to a "scientific consensus," many scientists do believe in the basic principle but are NOT experts at paleoclimatology, climatology, atmospheric chemistry, and dispersion modeling.
But at the end of the day, while "global warming" might have taken a break as to the rate of average annual global warming, the models did kind of suck.
They totally UNDERESTIMATED the near-term effects in certain area as I mentioned, like the Arctic. The ice models really sucked. Hey, at least directionally they were right ... the IPCC is looking into all this stuff again.
sammie
03-12-2010RE: Rocknesta by Ciaran | hide/show
Second, if the human fingerprint on global warming is as faint as you claim, how do you account for the fact that 82% of 3,146 earth scientists polled last year agreed that human activity is a significant contributing factor in changing mean global temperatures?
Third, Private Corporations would not have reduced emissions were it not for the initiatives set by the EPA such as the Climate Leaders Program.
Fourth, I don't doubt that there are "many, many scientists" with varying viewpoints on the issue; after all, a 16-million-dollar-effort spread over 12 years has the capacity to create a lot of noise. However, when the ExxonMobil payroll is taken out of the equation, there is very little credibility on the side of the doubters. This is proven by the fact that the architects behind this frivolous lawsuit had to resort to hacked e-mails to prove their point. No matter how loud these politically-motivated dissenters want to yell, I prefer to side with the National Academy of Sciences.
03-12-2010