Arctic expert predicts final collapse of sea ice within four years

Have we really done this?

"As sea ice shrinks to record lows, Prof Peter Wadhams warns a 'global disaster' is now unfolding in northern latitudes

One of the world's leading ice experts (Cambridge) has predicted the final collapse of Arctic sea ice in summer months within four years."

Appalling.

'Wadhams has spent many years collecting ice thickness data from submarines passing below the arctic ocean.... "I have been predicting [the collapse of sea ice in summer months] for many years. The main cause is simply global warming: as the climate has warmed there has been less ice growth during the winter and more ice melt during the summer." '

Here is your link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/17/arctic-collapse-sea-ice

Politics and honesty

FACT CHECK: Convention speakers stray from reality

Wow, the cynicism of our current poltical leaders and candidates.

Why should they use facts and tell the truth, rather than tell the people what makes them sound best?

If the voters aren't going to call them out on the blatant lying (WMDs anyone?), why should they tell the truth or stick to the facts?  All they have to do is say the right things at the right time and do whatever they want once they're in office.

Actually, once they're in office, then they can continue to push the agenda of the multi-national corporations who have funded their election.

What a broken system.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j-oHGoQbH0RmoY7rNL47-I6BYziA?docId=dc7b2d4bcfab405989965fd9505a1aff

How many people live in Manhattan?

I guess the eyeroll here is the continued attention the press gives to global warming deniers.  Isn't it pretty obvious by now?  How large of a percentage of scientists worldwide need to agree before it is accepted?  And please tell me what percentage of scientists believe current theories in high energy partical physics versus those who have contrary views?

At least science continues carefully, as it should.  This from a rather contrarian and negative Washington Post editorial:

In a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) report released last week, researchers attempted to determine how much they could attribute six extreme weather events last year to human-caused global warming. Even now, months on, some experts worry that drawing conclusions is precipitous. Figuring out what caused a flood in Thailand or a drought in Texas is hard. Doing it quickly is harder.

And the planet is certainly warming. Humans releasing heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere are almost certainly responsible for much, if not all, of that warming; the particular patterns of warming, comparison to the historical record, and the basic precepts of physics all indicate this.

The article that sparked this irritation, was this one about an iceberg the size of 2 Manhattans that has broken off of a glacier in Greenland.  Its pretty sad.

Why is this not a major political issue here in the States?  We're shitting our own bed so that a few old white guys can get rich.  But only a few.  If we're going to rape the planet, at least have it benefit all of the selfish and greedy people worldwide.  Yeah, that'll happen.

It's not Godzilla, but...

Giant mutant slug found near Fukushima
 [original post from Fukushima Diary]

Corporate Profits Just Hit An All-Time High, Wages Just Hit An All-Time Low

The title says it all.  How long will our country (actually, the 99%) acquiesce to the capitalism-above-all-else mentality that is destroying us?  What is it about sane economic policies that make them so hard to enact?  Yes, I know that money rules and determines what Congress decides.

But how much more abuse will the middle class take?  How complacent can they be? 

"If you aren't outraged, you aren't paying attention."

Buy a Trayvon Martin target!

Wow.  There is no other possible response to this than your daily eyeroll.

The Hiller Armament Company of Virginia has been selling "Trayvon Targets" for shooting practice, complete with a black hoodie, Skittles, and an ice tea.

 And..., here's your link: LINK

Icon of environmentalism coöpted to market SUVs

I had forgotten about this piece that was one of the reasons I started thinking about this blog.  One of the green newsletters I get reminded me about it today. Link below.

I suppose the party that deserves the most blame is the Geisel Estate for allowing his creations to be used in this way.  I mean, gross marketing and advertising people really don't have a "floor" for how low they'll go.  It isn't like we should be surprised by them so completely twisting a thing's essence as a means of attracting attention, positive or negative.  The whole 1984 thing, but 18 years later. 

Speaking of, how about this?
"Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?...[B]y the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are having now?... The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact, there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking-not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness."

In my eyes, the one thing Orwell got wrong was that rendering everyone unconscious is most easily achieved not by force and rigidity, but by just appealing to humanity's basic and inate sense of laziness and it's love of spectacle.  That's the part that Pixar got right in Wall-E.

And here is the link to the Washington Post piece on Mazda's use of the Lorax in marketing: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/virginia-schools-insider/post/the-lorax-helps-market-mazda-suvs-to-elementary-school-children-nationwide/2012/02/28/gIQAQhRMiR_blog.html