Professor Ollier von der University of Western Australia ist einer der führenden Geologen Australiens. Gestern schickte er mir seine Fundamentalkritik von Katastrophenmodellen, die ein baldiges Schmelzen und nachfolgenden Kollaps polaren Schelfeises und Gletscher vorhersagen. Heute habe ich Olliers Text auf CCNet veröffentlicht.

THE GREENLAND-ANTARCTICA MELTING PROBLEM DOES NOT EXIST

Cliff Ollier, School of Earth and Geographical Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia [cliffol@cyllene.uwa.edu.au]

My attention was drawn to a Working Paper by Alan Carlin (1) which was basically about how emissions reductions may be a dangerous strategy to avoid climate change. Much of his perceived threat is based on papers by Hansen (2007) and others who propose rapid melting of the Greenland and West Antarctica (henceforth Antarctica) Ice Sheets that causes a sea level rise of 5 m or more.

RAPID MELTING OF THE GREENLAND AND ANTARCTIC ICE …

Frage: Warum führen die meisten Regierungspläne zu mehr Problemen anstatt sie zu reduzieren? Randal O’Toole gibt eine überzeugende Antwort:

Unlike planners, markets can cope with complexity and change.

After more than 30 years of reviewing government plans, including forest plans, park plans, watershed plans, wildlife plans, energy plans, urban plans, and transportation plans, I’ve concluded that government planning almost always does more harm than good.

Most government plans are so full of fabrications and unsupportable assumptions that they aren’t worth the paper they are printed on, much less the millions of dollars taxpayers spend to have them written. Federal, state, and local governments should repeal planning laws and shut down planning offices.

Everybody plans. But private plans are flexible, and we happily change them when new information arises. In contrast, special interest groups ensure that the government plans benefiting them do not …

Here’s one of the most absurdly ridiculous lines that I’ve read in a long time; it was penned by Alexander Cockburn, writing in the November 5, 2007 issue of The Nation:

“Line up some of the more notorious Nobel Peace Prize recipients, such as Kissinger, and if you had to identify the biggest killer of all it was probably Norman Borlaug, one of the architects of the Green Revolution, which unleashed displacement, malnutrition and death across the Third World.”

Shameful, on so many levels (one of which is that this sentiment drains credibility from the bulk of this article by Cockburn, which attempts to expose Al Gore’s hypocrisy).

By the way, Gregg Easterbrook, in his tribute to Norman Borlaug (from the January 1997 issue of The Atlantic) wrote that

“Perhaps more than anyone else, Borlaug is responsible for the fact that throughout …

The Guardian inveighs against making money off the universe. “The new space race isn’t focused on science or discovery, but is about exploiting lunar minerals”

“I first heard about helium-3 (He-3) from the geologist Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, the only scientist among the 12 Americans who walked on the moon between 1969 and 1972, and a tireless campaigner for a US return. He understood a 21st-century programme would never happen without an economic rationale, and he hoped that He-3, which is deposited on the surface by the solar wind, might provide one. If the necessary fusion technology could be made to work, he said, this compound would be a source of clean energy for Earth.”

But if clean energy is to come from profit-making activity then the price is too high, according to author Andrew Smith.

“At present, nations are forbidden under international treaty from …

Political leaders, tech executives, and academics often claim that the U.S. is falling behind in math and science education. They cite poor test results, declining international rankings, and decreasing enrollment in the hard sciences. They urge us to improve our education system and to graduate more engineers and scientists to keep pace with countries such as India and China.

Yet a new report by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, tells a different story. The report disproves many confident pronouncements about the alleged weaknesses and failures of the U.S. education system. This data will certainly be examined by both sides in the debate over highly skilled workers and immigration (BusinessWeek.com, 10/10/07). The argument by Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOG), Intel (INTC), and others is that there are not enough tech workers in the U.S.

The authors of the report, the Urban Institute’s Hal Salzman and Georgetown …

Last week, Jimmy Carter toured Sudan as part of a group of international celebrities who are calling themselves “the Elders.” Founded by Nelson Mandela, the Elders aim--in the modest words of one member, British billionaire Richard Branson--to address “problems in the world that need a group of people who are maybe...beyond politics, beyond ego, and who have got great wisdom.”

Great wisdom? Let’s just say the group is off to a rocky start. That’s because Carter took the opportunity of his visit to Sudan to criticize the United States for labeling the killing and destruction in Darfur genocide. “There is a legal definition of genocide and Darfur does not meet that legal standard,” Carter lectured. “The atrocities were horrible but I don’t think it qualifies to be called genocide.” He also said, “If you read the law textbooks...you’ll see very clearly that it’s not genocide and to call …

Bis 2020 will die EU 20% des europäischen Energiebedarfs aus erneuerbaren Energiequellen speisen. Das ganze nennt sich 20:20. Jetzt haben die USA eins drauf gesetzt: 25% bis 2025! Und während die CO2 Emissionen der EU unaufhaltsam weiter steigen, ist es den USA im letzten Jahr gelungen, die Emissionen zu senken. Dem alternden Kontinent gehen langsam aber sicher die grünen Trumpfkarten flöten.

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The House of Representatives Tuesday passed a resolution setting a goal to expand renewable energy production in the United States.

The 25 by ‘25 resolution expresses the sense of the Congress that by the year 2025, at least 25 percent of total U.S. energy will come from renewable, domestically produced sources.

Currently, renewable energy sources provide about six percent of the United States’ total energy needs.

The resolution was first introduced in January by House Agriculture Committee Chairman …

Angesichts des Klimawandels und steigender Temperaturen fürchtet die deutsche Forstwirtschaft um die Existenz der Wälder und fordert mehr staatliche Hilfe für deren Rettung. 

Notwendig sei eine «massive Unterstützung der Politik in Bund und Ländern, um die Gefahren für die deutschen Wälder durch den Klimawandel abmildern zu können», teilte der Deutsche Forstverein (DFV) am Mittwoch in Göttingen anlässlich seiner am Donnerstag in Baden-Baden beginnenden 63. Jahrestagung mit. Die Förster wollen vor allem an Erlösen des CO2-Emissionshandels beteiligt werden.

Der Wald leiste einen wesentlichen Beitrag zur Senkung des Kohlendioxid-Gehalts. «Der Gegenwert hierfür beträgt mehrere 100 Millionen Euro jährlich. Diese Gemeinwohlleistung muss dem Wald in Deutschland insgesamt zugutekommen», teilte der Verband mit. Die zuständigen Ministerien hätten im vergangenen Dezember zugesagt, die CO2-Speicherfähigkeit der deutschen Wälder im Rahmen des sogenannten Kyoto-Protokolls anzurechnen.
http://www.co2-handel.de/article311_7023.html