Wednesday, October 29, 2008

We're running out of time

A new study by WWF reveals that the IPCC study released last year that finally put to rest any final doubt that global warming is already happening and that humans caused it, is way off, and not in a good way:
'Extreme weather events' such as the hot summer of 2003, which caused an extra 35,000 deaths across southern Europe from heat stress and poor air quality, will happen more frequently.

Britain and the North Sea area will be hit more often by violent cyclones and the predicted rise in sea level will double to more than a metre, putting vast coastal areas at risk from flooding.

The bleak report from WWF - formerly the World Wildlife Fund - also predicts crops failures and the collapse of eco systems on both land and sea.
[...]
The agency says that the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - a study of global warming by 4,000 scientists from more than 150 countries which alerted the world to the possible consequences of global warming - is now out of date.

WWF's report, Climate Change: Faster, stronger, sooner, has updated all the scientific data and concluded that global warming is accelerating far beyond the IPCC's forecasts.

As an example it says the first 'tipping point' may have already been reached in the Arctic, where sea ice is disappearing up to 30 years ahead of IPCC predictions and may be gone completely within five years - something that hasn't occurred for a million years.

It could result in rapid and abrupt climate change rather than the gradual changes forecast by the IPCC.
Scary stuff. I wouldn't want to be living on a small island or in a coastal city in the next few decades...

Our kids' future prospects?

Scary data from this CNN article:
Your child is less likely to graduate from high school than you were, and most states are doing little to hold schools accountable, according to a study by a children's advocacy group.
[...]
The numbers are dismal: One in four kids is dropping out of school, a rate that hasn't budged for at least five years.

"The U.S. is stagnating while other industrialized countries are surpassing us," said Anna Habash, author of the report by Education Trust, which advocates on behalf of minority and poor children. "And that is going to have a dramatic impact on our ability to compete," she said.

In fact, the United States is now the only industrialized country where young people are less likely than their parents to earn a diploma, the report said, citing data compiled by the international Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Obama's hope

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., waves to a crowd estimated at over 100,000 people at a rally at Civic Center Park in Denver, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2008.
This was the largest U.S. rally to date for Obama, and hopefully, a harbinger of a landslide victory for this very intelligent, deserving and caring man.

The U.S. and the rest of the world would all be better off with an Obama win next week, so let's hope the Republicans don't successfully steal yet another election.

GO OBAMA!!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

HOPE

I just saw this beautiful video created from a speech given by Harvey Milk, the San Francisco gay rights activist, who was the first gay elected official in California and paid for his beliefs with his life.



I can't wait to see the Milk movie that's coming out soon, directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Sean Penn as Milk.

Friday, October 10, 2008

And then there were 3: Connecticut

I just got this email:
Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Friday, October 10, 2008 -- 12:17 PM ET
-----

Connecticut Ruling Overturns Ban on Same-Sex Marriage

Connecticut's Supreme Court ruled Friday that same-sex couples have the right to marry, making the state the third to legalize such unions.
Great news and time to celebrate.

Unfortunately, not unlike in California, there's a dark cloud on the horizon. On election day, less than a month away, voters will have to decide if there should be a Constitutional Convention to change the state constitution, and this ruling will likely push the majority of voters to vote yes, which would start the process to overturn this historical ruling.

But at least till then, we've won another victory.

YES!!

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Another chip drops

I'm referring to the next developments in alarming global warming signs:
Arctic scientists discover new global warming threat as melting permafrost releases millions of tons of a gas 20 times more damaging than carbon dioxide.

The first evidence that millions of tons of a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere from beneath the Arctic seabed has been discovered by scientists.

The Independent has been passed details of preliminary findings suggesting that massive deposits of sub-sea methane are bubbling to the surface as the Arctic region becomes warmer and its ice retreats.

Underground stores of methane are important because scientists believe their sudden release has in the past been responsible for rapid increases in global temperatures, dramatic changes to the climate, and even the mass extinction of species.
[...]
In the past few days, the researchers have seen areas of sea foaming with gas bubbling up through "methane chimneys" rising from the sea floor. They believe that the sub-sea layer of permafrost, which has acted like a "lid" to prevent the gas from escaping, has melted away to allow methane to rise from underground deposits formed before the last ice age.
[...]
Methane is about 20 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and many scientists fear that its release could accelerate global warming in a giant positive feedback where more atmospheric methane causes higher temperatures, leading to further permafrost melting and the release of yet more methane.
[...]
"The conventional thought has been that the permafrost 'lid' on the sub-sea sediments on the Siberian shelf should cap and hold the massive reservoirs of shallow methane deposits in place. The growing evidence for release of methane in this inaccessible region may suggest that the permafrost lid is starting to get perforated and thus leak methane... The permafrost now has small holes. We have found elevated levels of methane above the water surface and even more in the water just below. It is obvious that the source is the seabed."
Worrisome news indeed.

Article here. More here and here.

Monday, October 06, 2008

Little menace

This article made me feel so sad, primarily for the animals that were killed, but also for the parents of this kid, who have their work cut out for them, and for the kid too, who after all must be seriously disturbed to perform such an act:
A seven-year-old boy has been filmed going on the rampage at a popular zoo in Australia, killing rare reptiles and feeding live ones to a crocodile.

Footage from the security cameras at Alice Springs Reptile Centre caught the child smiling as he killed a total of 13 animals.

During his 30-minute spree, he was seen hurling the animals over the security fence into the crocodile enclosure.
[...]
The attack happened on Wednesday morning after the boy entered the zoo by jumping over the security fence and evading sensor alarms.

Over the next half hour, he bludgeoned some of the animals to death with stones and hurled others over the two fences surrounding the crocodile enclosure.
[...]
Zoo director Rex Neindorf said many of the animals were rare or mature and would be difficult to replace.
[...]
As children under the age of 10 cannot be held accountable for their actions in the Northern Territory, the zoo would be seeking to take action against the parents.

"We'll be looking at suing the parents, who were supposedly in control of him at the time," he said.
I hope they do, after all, the parents were supposed to know where their son was and keep him under control.

I cannot imagine that this was the first ever episode of "craziness" on the part of this child, which means that the parents should have kept a very close eye on him and even sought professional help in dealing with him.

Whatever happens to kid and his parents, the animals are dead and it will cost the town a lot of money to replace them. And for an animal lover like me, they cannot be replaced, since they were unique beings.

Friday, October 03, 2008

Sarah the turtle

Ray sent me this yesterday:
While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75 year old rancher, who's hand was caught in the gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Palin and her bid.

The old rancher said, "Well, ya know, Palin is a Post Turtle."
Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a 'post turtle' was.

The old rancher said, "When you're driving down a country road you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post turtle."


The old rancher saw the puzzled look on the doctor's face so he continued to explain. "You know she didn't get up there by herself, she doesn't belong up there, and she doesn't know what to do while she's up there, and you just wonder what kind of dummy put her up there to begin with."
Very funny.

It would be even funnier if it weren't so true.