Reference: Warming to wipe out most life on earth, Bangkok Post, February 27, 2009

James Lovelock, of Gaia fame who rose to prominence as a guru of environmentalism in the 1960s, says that by the year 2040 carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels will turn Europe into a desert and that by the year 2100 the entire planet will be dead except for a few isolated oases that will sustain no more than one in seven of us and that the rest of us will perish (Warming to wipe out most life on earth, Bangkok Post, February 27, 2009). He further contends that global warming is now past the tipping point and the earth is hurtling its way to certain death because of the carbon dioxide we have already emitted and that there is nothing we can do about it now. In the last paragraph of the story we find that he came to these frightening conclusions by doing nothing more than reading the 2001 IPCC assessment report. That report did in fact contain the "tipping point" argument but subsequent IPCC assessments in 2005 and 2007 revised those findings and withdrew the tipping point scenario saying that there is still time to save the earth by controlling our CO2 emissions. Further research recommended for Mr Lovelock would be to read these later IPCC reports and to also consider that all of the short term forecasts in the 2001 and 2005 reports that could have been emprically tested in subsequent years have been proven to be false.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Melt in Antarctica much faster, Bangkok Post, February 26, 2009

Global warming scientists report that the melting of Antarctica is more severe than "previously thought" because the melt is not limited to the Antarctic Peninsula but extends to West Anarctica as well (Melt in Antarctica much faster, Bangkok Post, February 26, 2009). These scientists apparently have not read reports by their fellow global warming scientists claiming that the Antarctic melt imposed by man-made global warming was not limited to Western Antarctica but was continent-wide (Global warming hitting all of Antarctica, Bangkok Post, January 23, 2009). What or what was not previously thought is apparently not well understood. Also of note is that a localized melting of a specific glacier located above known volcanic activity underneath the ice ( The fire below, Bangkok Post, April 28, 2008) might be explained in ways other than global warming since one would expect that global warming would be more global in nature.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Divorce hits climate, Bangkok Post, February 25, 2009

Australian authorities are urging married people not to divorce on the basis that living separate lives would increase their carbon footprint and exacerbate global warming (Divorce hits climate, Bangkok Post, February 25, 2009). It is an absurd proposition. There are likely many good reasons to marry and to stay married but surely global warming is not one of them. The global warming hype has become a circus and this character of the movement removes all doubt that their arguments are more theater than substance.

Cha-am Jamal, Thailand

Reference: When the figures don't add up, Bangkok Post, February 13, 2009

The review of the book "The numbers game" describes the so called "Texas sharpshooter" fallacy in science (When the figures don't add up, Bangkok Post, February 13, 2009). It holds that if one shoots randomly in the general direction of a barn, and if after many shots have been fired, a bulls eye is drawn around a naturally formed random cluster of bullet holes, then the random shooter will appear to be a sharpshooter. What it means in terms of scientific research is that hypothesis must be tested by a different set of data than that used to develop them, for otherwise one falls prey to circular reasoningt. The climate model of the IPCC contains this very fundamental scientific flaw because there is only one history. The historical climate data that are used to develop the model and its empirical parameters are the same data that are used to validate the model. Even worse, as new data evolve, the IPCC incorporates them into the model selectively to ensure that their twin hypotheses, that human activity causes global warming and that global warming holds cataclysmic consequences unless mitigated in accordance with the Kyoto Protocol, are not challenged in any way. 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Group floats plan to keep rising sea out, Bangkok Post, November 26, 2007

It has been more than a year now that scientists and climate experts sought a budget of 100 billion baht to build a sea wall 80 kilometers long from the mouth of the Ta Chin river to the Bang Pakong river to protect the city of Bangkok from being inundated by the sea that was projected to rise by 20 cm per year due to man-made global warming (Group floats plan to keep rising sea out, Bangkok Post, November 26, 2007). The following year, the fear factor was further stoked by one of these climate experts with a forecast that sometime during October of 2008, global warming will give us a Nargis-like tropical cyclone that will cause a killer storm surge and devastate Bangkok and Samut Prakarn (Fear of a storm surge in Samut Prakarn, Bangkok Post, August 27, 2008). Happily, as of this date, the sea level has not risen at all let alone by 20 cm; and October of 2008 has come and gone with no cyclone and no storm surge. Sadly, however, the media that had allowed itself to become embroiled in spreading fear have yet to hold their fearologists accountable or to give us a post-hoc report on their prophecies of doom.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

 

Reference: Rohingya ugly, Bangkok Post, February 12, 2009

Asians unfairly target Westerners when in comes to racism often unable to detect accepted social behavior among themselves as racism. As a case in point compare the weeks of turmoil in the Asian media over a reference by Prince Harry to a fellow cadet from Pakistan as "our little Paki friend" to the apparent acceptance of the Burmese junta's persecution and genocidal expulsion of one of their ethnic minorities because they are dark skinned and ugly looking and unlike the Tibeto-Chinese Burmans who are fair and soft skinned (Rohingya ugly, Bangkok Post, February 12, 2009).

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

 

Reference: Australia must go greener to prevent fires, Bangkok Post, February 13, 2009

The scare scenario used by global warmists depends on what's making the news. After Hurricane Katrina, they scared us with hurricanes. After floods in China, they scared us with floods. After a drought in Africa they scared us with droughts. And now, right after the tragic forest fires in Australia, they are scaring us with forest fires (Australia must go greener to prevent fires, Bangkok Post, February 13, 2009). They have an uncanny ability to relate any and all natural disasters to greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels as if natural disasters were unnatural and therefore man-made.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: New sudy warns of climate time bomb, Bangkok Post, February, 16, 2009

It is reported that nature could emit 1000 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere from the Arctic permafrost and unleash climate change devastation upon us (New sudy warns of climate time bomb, Bangkok Post, February, 16, 2009). In comparison, the 10 billion tons per year of carbon dioxide we emit from fossil fuels seem irrelevant. The global warmists appear to have over-reached once again in their scare strategy; for faced with overwhelming natural forces that would kill us anyway, we would be less motivated to continue funding the Kyoto Protocol and its future incarnations. In 2007, scientists had announced that global warming had reached a "tipping point" - some kind of point of no return - and that we were doomed; that even if we cut carbon emissions climate change was now irreversibly upon us and there was no escape. Realizing their tactical error they soon released a revised assessment saying that there was still time for scientists, properly funded, to save the earth (Still time to avert the worst, Bangkok Post, September 27, 2007). There exists an optimal degree of scariness that maximizes funding and exceeding the optimal degree could itself become a tipping point for global warming researchers.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Australia must go greener to prevent fires, Bangkok Post, February 13, 2009

The attempt by global warmists to link every large scale every human tragedy with global warming (Australia must go greener to prevent fires, Bangkok Post, February 13, 2009) surely erodes their credibility and does more harm than good for their cause particularly since they have yet to redeem themselves from their Katrina misadventure. Australia has a history of bush fires and it has been determined that this particular one was a work of arson. It is a scandalous thing to use such a tragic event to hype global warming. 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Birds shifting north global warming cited, Bangkok Post, February 11, 2009

It is reported that from 1966 to 2005 the annual surface temperature in the United States went up by an average of 3 Celsius degrees due to global warming and that as a result half of the 305 species of migratory birds studied that fly south for winter compensated for the increased temperature by cutting short their southward migration by an average of 56 km (Birds shifting north global warming cited, Bangkok Post, February 11, 2009). These findings are inconsistent and incomplete. It is not possible to compensate for 3 Celsius degrees of warming by moving only 56 km northward. Also the report fails to explain why the other half of the 305 species was left out of the study and whether the findings are biased by this omission. 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Diamonds back theory of earth impact before cooling, Bangkok Post, February 11, 2009

It is claimed, in an article about another alleged mass extinction event, that a 10 km wide meteor struck the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico 65 million years ago and caused the mass extinction of dinosaurs (Diamonds back theory of earth impact before cooling, Bangkok Post, February 11, 2009). It is true that in Chicxulub, Mexico, there is a crater that measures 180 km across and is about 65 million years old, and that, coincidentally, dinosaur bones can be found in geologic formations dating back about 65 million years and older but not since. It is tempting to conclude that climate change induced by a meteor caused a mass extinction of dinosaurs until you take a closer look at the data. There is at least a 300,000 year gap between the supposed meteor event and the last of the dinosaur bones and no one can come up with a good reason for climate change to take that long to cause mass extinction; or for meteors to take that long to cause climate change. Mass extinction theory is full of holes and is not as universally accepted as scientific fact as this article implies. 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

What global warming scientists can learn from greenhouse operators

Carbon dioxide is called a "greenhouse gas" because it is injected into greenhouses for the purpose of feeding the process of photosynthesis. A greenhouse is a heated building made of transparent material in which vegetables such as tomatoes are grown during weather when it would be too cold to grow these plants outside. Specially designed greenhouse heaters are used to keep the greenhouse warm. The heating requirement during daylight hours is computed as heat losses through the walls and ventilation less the heat gained by solar radiation. 

Carbon dioxide injection is used to maintain a CO2 level in the greenhouse of anywhere from 500 ppm to 5000 ppm according to the amount of solar radiation available for photosynthesis and other factors. If global warming scientists are right, that a change in atmospheric carbon dioxide from 300 to 380 ppm can cause a significant increase in heat entrapment, one would think that the heating requirements of greenhouses during daylight would be different for different CO2 levels. Yet, ceteris paribus, the heating requirement of greenhouses does not change measurably over a large range of carbon dioxide concentraton. In other words even at 5000 ppm, CO2 does not cause greenhouse warming.

Footnote: It should be noted that CO2 is normally generated by burning fossil fuels, and then fed to the greenhouse plants as a nutrient. In that way carbon from fossil fuels is recycled into living matter in the plant. A part of the weight of a hothouse tomato used to be a fossil fuel. And out here in the atmosphere with all that fossil fuel injecting CO2, our food chain surely contains carbon derived from fossil fuels. Part of your body weight used to be oil. 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: The WAIS is melting

Recently global warming scientists have renewed their old story with new vigor that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels is causing the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to melt and that its complete melting will raise sea levels by seven meters unless we do something about greenhouse gas emissions (Maybe it's time to heed the warnings, Bangkok Post, February 8, 2009). These reports omit the effect of sub-glacial volcanic activity in a highly localized phenomenon that is absent from the bulk of Antarctica. A reference to the under-ice volcanic activity may be found at the Science Daily website at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080120160720.htm. It includes the following statement: "The subglacial volcano has a 'volcanic explosion index' of around 3-4. Heat from the volcano creates melt-water that lubricates the base of the ice sheet and increases the flow towards the sea. Pine Island Glacier on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is showing rapid change and BAS scientists are part of an international research effort to understand this change."

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Maybe it's time to heed the warnings, Bangkok Post, February 8, 2009

A Bangkok Post editorial says that if the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) were to melt in its entirety, the sea level would rise by seven meters and cause a great inundation of Biblical proportions (Maybe it's time to heed the warnings, Bangkok Post, February 8, 2009). The statement is a hypothetical truism. The relevant information has not been provided. We don't know if the WAIS will melt and if so how long that process would take and we don't know whether our selection of energy source would make a difference. The further claim that climate change will turn California into a desert by reducing snowfall in the Sierra Nevada takes no measure of the role of the Colorado River in irrigating what used to be a desert into an agriculturally productive area or of recent trends in snowfall in the Sierra. My guess is that the real purpose of these allegedly scientific reports is to serve a marketing function ahead of the Copenhagen meeting that will likely decide the fate of the global warming agenda and its financial benefits to the scientists engaged therein.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Three factors for good putt, Bangkok Post, February 8, 2009

The time that the average Thai golfer takes these days to line up a putt is absurd. I imagine that this practice derives from a desire to imitate Tiger Woods (Three factors for good putt, Bangkok Post, February 8, 2009). That in itself is fine and good; but something must be done about the extreme slowness of play that it encourages. 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: India already hit by rising temperatures, Bangkok Post, February 3, 2007

It had been reported for some time right up until 2007 that carbon dioxide emission from the use of fossil fuels is melting so much ice and causing so much thermal expansion of the oceans that the consequent rise in the sea level has inundated 2 out of 104 islands in the Sunderbans mangrove forests that straddle India and Bangladesh (India already hit by rising temperatures, Bangkok Post, February 3, 2007). These reports have now ceased. The Sunderbans form the delta of three giant rivers - the Ganges, the Meghna, and the Brahmaputra - and although there is river erosion that destroys existing islands, in the net, the millions of tons of silt end up making more islands than erosion takes away. The delta is not a static thing but ever changing and  always growing by virtue of the amount of silt the rivers bring and deposit in the delta. That two out of 104 islands were taken by the rivers is not an unusual occurrence and in the net since then there are more islands in the delta than there were when the IPCC issued the alarm that global warming was flooding the delta. 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: India already hit by rising temperatures, Bangkok Post, February 3, 2007

For about two years from 2005 to 2007 the IPCC and its entourage of global warmists raised a hue and cry saying that carbon dioxide from fossil fuels was causing the Gangotri glacier in the Himalayan mountains to melt and retreat at an accelerating rate (India already hit by rising temperatures, Bangkok Post, February 3, 2007). The rate of retreat in 2001 was estimated to be 34 meters/year compared with 19 meters/year in 1971. This rate of acceleration was projected forward and we were told that catastrophe and devastation were only a decade away for hundreds of millions of people who depend on rivers fed by the glacier and that the retreat of the Gangotri was a clarion call for their cause.

This clarion has now gone silent possibly because the rate of retreat did not accelerate but slowed to 12 meters/year in 2006 and by 2008 it had stopped altogether. No reason was given for such a big difference between forecast and reality. Instead, the Gangotri glacier, once the darling of the IPCC, was simply forgotten and the global warmists went elsewhere to fish for data that would support their cause.

In the period since data collection began, most of the recorded retreat occurred between 1780 and 1933 well before atmospheric carbon dioxide began to rise.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

A letter to President Obama

Mister President

Global warming is a scam. A correlation between x and y in historical survey data does not establish causality because it could mean that x causes y or that y causes x or that a third unobserved variable causes both x and y or even that the correlation is spurious and it does not contain any causality information whatsoever. Causality may only be inferred from controlled laboratory experiments and there has been none. Please don't let the global warming junk science derail your economic stimulus plan. Please take a good unhyped unhysterical cold logic look with that well-wired brain of yours at what the global warming people are saying. It will not make sense. What's worse, they are actually cheering on the economic meltdown because it will lower greenhouse gas emissions. These people are the enemy of your economic revival plan. Please do not trust people who are happy about recession to help you in your efforts to revive the stalled economy.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Stoking the fear factor in India, Bangkok Post, February 1, 2009

To defend Islamic extremism and terrorism by pointing fingers at Hindu and Sikh extremists is communal bigotry at its worst (Stoking the fear factor in India, Bangkok Post, February 1, 2009). Nothing positive can be achieved for Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, for India, or for humanity at large by this kind of narrow minded communalism. Let the Hindus clean their house. Muslims must clean theirs.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand