Reference: Fresh form of H1N1 is much more severe, Bangkok Post, August 30, 2009

The warning from the WHO that the H1N1 virus could mutate into fatal pulmonary distress (Fresh form of H1N1 is much more severe, Bangkok Post, August 30, 2009) is curious for several reasons. First, this characteristic of the virus is not new but something that has been known since day one. Why is it being presented as new information? Second, the 1918 Spanish flu also got started in early northern summer and was also relatively mild through the summer but got virulent at the end of August. So is history the scientific basis for the sudden warning of virulence? Third, if the WHO is right why are we rushing to make vaccines against the known mild strain when it is the virulent strain from which we need protection? Finally, a high fatality rate is a tragedy in the short run but a blessing in the long run. Pandemics need their hosts to be alive long enough to walk around and spread the disease. If the hosts die too soon so does the pandemic.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Rising tides threaten Pacific Islands, Bangkok Post, August 30, 2009

Atolls in the South Pacific form when a volcanic island begins to sink by subduction and they remain above water as long as the rate of sinking is less than the rate of coral growth and become indundated otherwise. This process cannot in any way be related to carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and cannot in any way be mitigated by by the various proposals to be put forth in the upcoming Copenhagen meeting on climate change (Rising tides threaten Pacific Islands, Bangkok Post, August 30, 2009). The observed inundation of some of the atolls could not have been caused by sea level rise for that would have affected all atolls equally.

Also, the claim that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels has caused an increase in the severity and frequency of natural disasters - an idea that got started with hurricane Katrina - is contrary to the data for they show no such increase. The 2007 tsunami in the Soloman islands cited in the article as evidence was a volcanic event and therefore unrelated to the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Water crisis in parched northern China, Bangkok Post, August 26, 2009

The Chinese kept meticulous weather records for thousands of years and these records show a recurring pattern of extreme droughts and floods. The most severe drought in recent history was the drought and famine of 1877 - a time when atmosphereric carbon dioxide was under 300 ppm. The aridity of northern China can also be understood in terms of the expanding Gobi desert now encroaching on Beijing. Droughts in China are natural events. They are not caused by carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Mississippi down under crippled, Bangkok Post, August 26, 2009

Southeast Australia is not at all like the lush green state of Mississippi (Mississippi down under crippled, Bangkok Post, August 26, 2009) for it is a semi arid drought prone area with a history of severe droughts during many of which its primary river system had gone bone dry. The current drought down there is part of this weather pattern, not man made, and not caused by carbon dioxide emissions from the use of fossil fuels.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Tilapia exports to be promoted, Bangkok Post, August 25, 2009

The claim that the white meat of tilapia is more healthy than red fish meat (Tilapia exports to be promoted, Bangkok Post, August 25, 2009) is inconsistent with the facts. All fish are not good sources of omega-3 fatty acids but the color of fish meat may not be used to make this distinction. In fact, farm produced tilapia and catfish contain a harmful combination of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids that makes their meat even more risky than pork bacon or hamburger (Popular fish contains potentially dangersous fatty acid combination, Science Daily, July 10, 2008). Sustained consumption of these fish may actually cause rather than prevent heart disease.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

The Copenhagen Protocol

The Montreal Protocol went bust when it became apparent that ozone depletion over polar regions was part of a natural cycle and not man made. Thereafter, the Kyoto Protocol was necessary to ensure continued funding for the Montreal Protocol fearologists. Now that the Kyoto Protocol is about to expire without result, these scaremongering scientists have set the stage in Copenhagen for yet another round of fear-based extortive funding to support the lavish lifestyle to which they have become accustomed.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Global warming impacting Greenlanders' daily lives, Bangkok Post, July 29, 2009

The global warming article about ice fishing in Greenland ("Global warming impacting Greenlanders' daily lives", Bangkok Post, July 29, 2009) is yet another in a long series of fluff AGW press releases put out to ratchet up the hype ahead of the Copenhagen meeting. Fluff AGW articles surreptitiously imply but do not show that choking our economy to reduce CO2 emissions will have any effect on the problem being described. It is sinister propaganda.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Study confirms rising sea levels, Bangkok Post, July 27, 2009

After sustained criticism from skeptical scientists the global warmists have revised their forecast for the rise in sea levels by the year 2100 from several meters to 38 cm give or take 20 cm (Study confirms rising sea levels, Bangkok Post, July 27, 2009). In releasing the rather innocuous new figure the warmists had to try extra hard to maintain the scare level saying that the lower figure does not mean we are safe and that things could turn out to be much worse and we should maintain our fear level and stay scared. Their motivation is that a loss in the fear level could put at risk their economically suicidal mitigation programs that they expect to sell in Copenhagen during a time of economic stagnation.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Why the media likes global warming scare stories

In his book "Myths, lies, and downright stupidity", reporter and media man John Stossel writes as follows: "The people who bring us story ideas are alarmed. Then we get alarmed, and eager to rush the news to you. We know that the scarier and more bizarre the story the more likely it is that our bosses will give us more air time or a front-page slot. The scary story, justified or not, will get higher ratings and sell more papers. Fear sells." So there it is right from the horse's mouth. Now we know the genesis of a media awash with global warming scare stories and insufficient reference to inconvenient scientific details and rational debate.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Flash floods from heavy monsoon rains claim 36 lives, Bangkok Post, July 21, 2009

Since the beginning of this year global warmists have been warning us that climate change will weaken and delay the monsoon in South Asia with devastating results including crop failure and hunger (Climate change to affect monsoon in South Asia, USA Today, February 27, 2009; Bangkok Post, March 20, 2009) and yet the 2009 monsoon in South Asia is right on time and not at all weakened and whatever devastation there is in it is in terms of heavy rains and floods not droughts (Flash floods from heavy monsoon rains claim 36 lives, Bangkok Post, July 21, 2009; Heavy monsoon rain claims 26 lives in Pakistan, Bangkok Post, July 20, 2009). Somebody ought to point out to the Secretary of State now visiting Asia to peddle the climate change agenda that global warming scientists have made many short term forecasts that can be checked with subsequent weather data and none - not one - of these forecasts has been proven true. Asians are rightly wary of her message as it is unlikely that they would want to commit economic suicide just to play the flawed climate change game of the rich nations.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Ireland in dire straits, Bangkok Post, April 21, 2009

Earlier this year columnist Paul Krugman wrote that Ireland had been hit particularly hard by the global financial crisis and that it serves as a canary in the coal mine for the rest of the world to see what's coming down the pike as this crisis unfolds (Ireland in dire straits, Bangkok Post, April 21, 2009). If that is true, I have bad news for those on their toes awaiting an allegedly imminent recovery. At the time Krugman's column was written, the Bank of Ireland's GDP growth forecast for 2009 was 4%, up from -3% in 2008 and heading for recovery. Since then, the Bank has progressively reduced this estimate in stages back into negative territory and all the way down to -8.5% with five months of growth forecast revisions yet to come. The Bank's forecasters are now saying that their economic growth rate will stay in the red through 2011. The alleged imminent recovery has now been postponed even by forecasters who have a history of making rosy forecasts and then revising them downwards. The canary appears to be telling us that the much awaited economic recovery is not imminent and we really don't know how long this thing is going to last or how deep it's going to get.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Energy and earthquakes, Bangkok Post, July 15, 2009

Your article on geothermal energy states that interest in this technology is driven by the Obama adminstration's support for renewable energy (Energy and earthquakes, Bangkok Post, July 15, 2009). The economically feasible rate of heat extraction in geothermal plants, given the high cost of drilling and the high cost of insurance against environmental damage, will greatly exceed the rate at which the site can be naturally re-heated and therfore these sites will eventually become functionally depleted. The total amount of energy that would be available worldwide with this technology is rather large and geothermal energy could theoretically provide all our energy needs for hundreds of years but it is not renewable. An exhaustible energy source, no matter how long the useful life, cannot be considered to be renewable. The issue is a deeply sensitive one mostly because it determines whether the geothermal industry can benefit from funds that have been earmarked by the US federal government for renewable energy development.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Argentinian glacier defies global warming, Bangkok Post, July 8, 2009

A climate change scientist evaluates the rapid advance of a glacier in Argentina as follows: "We are not sure why this happens. But not all glaciers respond equally to climate change" (Argentinian glacier defies global warming, Bangkok Post, July 8, 2009). In other words, they don't take data to test the hypothesis because their hypothesis is deemed correct by definition. They take data to test the data. If the data support their theory the data are deemed to be good. Otherwise the data are deemed spurious and additional theories are needed to explain how these observations could occur in the age of global warming. In this kind of science, the man-made global warming hypothesis cannot be proven wrong no matter what the data.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: The naysayers are betraying each one of us, Bangkok Post, June 30, 2009

The oped column arguing on the side of the global warmists (The naysayers are betraying each one of us, Bangkok Post, June 30, 2009) appears to have the same kind of desperate tone one finds in all global warming articles these days as we get closer and closer to the Copenhagen meeting and as data to support the man made global warming hypothesis become harder and harder to come by. For example, the only piece of data offered in the column is that the ice caps are melting even as recent measurements reveal that they are not (see for example The Australian, April 18, 2009). As usual, the author falls back on ad hominem and what is hyped as "scientific consensus". Unlike democracy, science is not made with consensus but with a skeptical mind, critical thinking, and unbiased data collection and analysis.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: It's going to be hot, wet and costly, Bangkok Post, June 21, 2009

The article on global warming says that the excessive emphasis on the impact of global warming on poor countries was a mistake and that they need to find new ways to bring the horror of global warming home to the citizens of the rich countries in order to ensure the passage of the post Kyoto AGW mitigation measures they will present in Copenhagen in December (It's going to be hot, wet and costly, Bangkok Post, June 21, 2009) saying that if you want voters to support the global warming agenda "it helps to make clear precisely how their own homes might be affected". Is there a reasonable and rational person out there who still thinks that the global warming hype is unbiased scientific inquiry and not an exercise in unabashed scare mongering?

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Greenpeace calls for coal plant rethink, Bangkok Post, July 24, 2009

Coal fired power plants can emit harmful pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides, and particulates that pose health hazards for us and our fellow creatures and these plants should be designed to minimize the emission of pollutants. However, the fact that power plants also produce carbon dioxide (Greenpeace calls for coal plant rethink, Bangkok Post, July 24, 2009) is not a pollution consideration for carbon dioxide is not a pollutant but rather an essential ingredient in the cycle of life. We are carbon based life forms that got started from carbon dioxide and sunshine. If carbon dioxide is a pollutant so are we. Those who promote carbon sequestration by power plants should sequester themselves as well for the sake of the planet.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: White House has climate sea change, Bangkok Post, June 18, 2009

First we were told that the problem is "global warming". Some years down the line the wording was changed and the new problem description was touted as "climate change". And now the the words have been changed yet again. This time it's "global change" (White House has climate sea change, Bangkok Post, June 18, 2009). Sadly for the rest of us they are not playing games with just words. They are also playing games with the data to ensure that they are presented in a way that serves their purpose. From the start we were told that the man-made global warming era began in 1979 and yet, when necessary, they feel that a point can be made by comparing the year 2007 with the year 1958 without any consideration of the intervening years or of post 2007 data or of what is or what is not the fossil fueled global warming period in question and the reference periods to which it should be compared to detect the effect of fossil fuels. Ever since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the global warmists have been trying very hard to find some kind of increasing trend in frequency and severity of extreme weather but there is no such trend and no correlation between fossil fuel consumption and extreme weather.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Asia emissions to rise by 40%, Bangkok Post, June 17, 2009

Its title notwithstanding, the article says that Asia now emits 40% of the world's carbon dioxide from the use of fossil fuels (Asia emissions to rise by 40%, Bangkok Post, June 17, 2009). The charge, even if it is true, is not an indictment of the Asian way of life for Asians comprise 60% of the world's population. The question the media should pursue is why and how it is that the other 40% of the population emits 60% of the offensive form of carbon dioxide and still has the temerity to point fingers at Asia. As a footnote, we might also consider that dire predictions of the effect of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels in terms of extreme weather have been fed to us for two decades now and no sign of any of it has yet emerged. Nature is not cooperating with the global warmists and it just keeps right on generating data that are a little too inconvenient for those pushing the Armageddon scenario in terms of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: THAI reconsiders costly jumbo deal, Bangkok Post, June 9, 2009

THAI is not the only airline that is re-thinking its plan to acquire A380 airliners (THAI reconsiders costly jumbo deal, Bangkok Post, June 9, 2009). The slump in the market for large aircraft is now a worldwide phenomenon and it comes while A380 sales are still far short of the breakeven target of 250 units. The giant technological marvel could be headed for the museum to sit next to the Concorde as another monument to a peculiarly European combination of good engineering and bad marketing.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Global warming now audible study says, Bangkok Post, June 10, 2009

Convinced that global warming was causing increasing frequency and intensity of weather related disasters such as storms, droughts, and floods, and egged on by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, they first turned to weather data and then to satellite data to prove their hypothesis but to no avail as there was no trend in increasing weather severity or frequency to be found and all of their weather disaster predictions for 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 having flopped badly, they are now resorting to seismic data to listen to the intensity of waves crashing onto shorelines to see if there is any way they could support what they have already decided is true (Global warming now audible study says, Bangkok Post, June 10, 2009). This train of events does not help the rapidly eroding credibility of the global warming people but rather tarnishes their work as one not of unbiased scientific inquiry but of a desperate attempt to sell their agenda.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: A test of intellectual integrity, Bangkok Post, June 7, 2009

The expression of alarm over the revelation that a high profile individual's graduate thesis may have been plagiarised (A test of intellectual integrity, Bangkok Post, June 7, 2009) is mis-directed because it targets a particular individual and a specific case instead of recognising the reality that, at least in papers submitted in English, cut and paste plagiarism by Thai university students is the rule not the exception. The few original sentences, if any, stand out because they are so different from the cut and paste text. Our attention should instead be directed at why such papers get accepted now that we have so many online scanners and tools that easily detect plagiarism and even identify the source documents.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: California cuts run deep, Bangkok Post, June 7, 2009

With respect to California's $23 billion budget deficit (California cuts run deep, Bangkok Post, June 7, 2009), an obvious area where significant savings could be found is the state's misguided and wasteful war on carbon dioxide.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Cops top graft list study finds, Bangkok Post, June 6, 2009

Corruption research is itself corrupted by the assumption that corruption derives from extortive demands made by corrupt officials and that these demands victimise innocent citizens (Cops top graft list study finds, Bangkok Post, June 6, 2009) but this is not always the case because there is also a supply side to corruption in which very rich citizens - far from innocent - use a combination of power and money to corrupt otherwise honest public servants and otherwise well functioning government agencies. Properly designed survey research minus the extortion assumption, may find that, in some sectors, corruption is imposed mostly from the supply side. Preventive measures designed only to protect honest citizens from evil officials are necessary but not sufficient. We also need measures to protect honest government officials from evil citizens.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

No money no honey

The dowry system in Thailand is a social mechanism that allows parents to sell their daughters. The groom literally buys his bride in a grotesque ritual involving a large bowl filled with money for the neighbours to see that the parents received a good price for their daughter. The practice corrupts romantic marriage and legitimises the exchange of cash for sex. The dowry system of marriage is primitive and barbaric and it should be abolished by law in Thailand as it has been in the rest of the civilized world.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Amazon hit by chaos, Bangkok Post, May 27, 2009

It is reported that four years ago the Amazon Basin was suffering from drought conditions and this year the Amazon was deluged under a devastating flood. The rapid succession of drought and flood is described as "climate chaos" caused by carbon dioxide emissions (Amazon hit by chaos, Bangkok Post, May 27, 2009). The historical record of weather patters in the Amazon as well as Indian lore paint a very different picture for they show that floods and droughts in the Amazon are a well known feature of the region. They have been occurring for at least a hundred years for which we have weather data and water level data for the Amazon River at Manaus. These data show and Indian lore tells us that floods tend to occur every 4 or 5 years and droughts every 14 or 15 years. In some years drought in the southwest and floods in the northeast occur simultaneously. The worst floods on record occurred in the late 1940s, early 1970s and late 1990s. The worst drought recorded occurred in 1926 following in the heels of the floods of 1912. These weather patterns correspond roughly with the El Nino and La Nina events. They are not related to atmospheric carbon dioxide content or to carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Unertainty grows over carbon trade, Bangkok Post, May 27, 2009

The engine of economic growth and well being is energy. The carbon cap and trade is a proxy for taxing energy. It is a formula for economic disaster that would in good times bring recession and in recession, depression; and in our current financial crisis, economic suicide. 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Airport flu scanners useless, Bangkok Post, May 27, 2009

On the same issue of the Bangkok Post we find that Thailand's National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre has developed a thermal flu scanner for use at Suvarnabhumi Airport (Airport scanner, May 27, 2009) and that such temperature scanners are not at all effective in preventing the spread of influenza diseases (Airport flu scanners useless, May 27, 2009).

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Imams meet to mull Islam and web lust, Bangkok Post, May 22, 2009

Male followers of Islam are unique in the power of their libido and their inability to control themselves when thus incited by the sight of a woman whether in person or on the web. It is possibly for this reason that religious authorities go to extreme ends to ensure that their men are not subjected to sexual stimulus of any kind lest their actions, though forgiven because boys will be boys, become an embarrassment for the religious orthodoxy ( Imams meet to mull Islam and web lust, Bangkok Post, May 22, 2009). I would like to suggest a simple solution to the problem that does not involve zealous and invasive policing of people's personal lives. A readily available and inexpensive anti-depressant called  fluoxetine, also known by the brand name Prozac, is known for the powerful side effect of reducing libido. In other words a capsule a day will keep the devil away. Proper Islamic sexual behaviour will be assured. Internet content will no longer need to be monitored or censored. Imams may then return to their primary functions of worshiping and teaching. Disclaimer: Prozac is a prescription drug and may be taken only after consultation with a physician 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: A climate of disease, Bangkok Post, May 20, 2009

Funding has of course always determined to some extent the subject of scientific research but not until the global warming hype have we witnessed the complete corruption of science; for funding now determines not only the research questions to ask but the correct answers to those questions to which the research should lead (A climate of disease, Bangkok Post, May 20, 2009). Clearly, the exercise by epidemiologists to pin a malarial holocaust on global warming is not unbiased scientific inquiry but an effort to fudge the data and the methodology until the findings meet the expectations and the utility of the global warming community and thereby facilitate further funding. 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Life is nothing says death studies course, Bangkok Post, May 17, 2009

If death is something then so is life for death and life are two sides of the same coin. To die you have to be alive. Likewise, to be alive, you have to die. These two concepts are inseparable. As a corollary, the greater the impact of your life the greater is the impact of your death and the less the impact of your leff the less is the impact of your death until in the limit there is no impact at all if you are already dead. This is why life is something that is more than nothing.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Zhao spotlights all of the culprits, Bangkok Post, May 18, 2009

The failure of Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward program weakened his position and there began therafter a period of political infighting within the Party for supremacy and this infighting involved the formation and incitement by the Mao faction of student groups called Red Guards. On August 16, 1966, millions of these students wearing arm bands gathered at Tian Anmen Square to support Mao and to purge the anti-socialist elements that Mao had identified. Thus began China's nightmare we know as the Cultural Revolution in which thousands of Chinese intellectuals, clergy, and party officials were persecuted, tortured, and killed. The 1989 gathering in Tian Anmen by students wearing arm bands must have looked a lot like 1966 to the older members of the politburo peering out from their Party headquarters. All of these people, including Deng Xiaoping, had been persecuted by the Red Guards but had survived to lead China in the post-Mao era. The icing on the cake for them was to see Zhao Ziyang coming out to commiserate with the students just as Mao had commiserated with the Red Guards. The analogy between the two events was thus completed and although Mr Zhao meant well, his actions were surely the proximate cause of the crackdown. The fear and loathing of yet another student gathering in the Square and the reactionary crackdown ordered by China's leaders who had once been tortured by the Red Guards (Zhao spotlights all of the culprits, Bangkok Post, May 18, 2009) are best understood in this context. Sadly for China, the Red Guards have left such a bitter aftertaste for student uprisings, that it will be a long time before such uprisings are evaluated on their own merit. 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: UN chief urges action on rising climate change risk, Bangkok Post, May 18, 2009

It is alleged that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels is causing climate change and that in turn is causing increased fatality from natural disasters; and that China, India, and Bangladesh have been particularly hard hit by these climate change diasters (UN chief urges action on rising climate change risk, Bangkok Post, May 18, 2009).  The historical record shows that over the last three hundred years or so, the deadliest natural diasters on record are three floods in China (1887, 1931, 1975), three cyclones in India and Bangladesh (1737, 1839, 1970), three earthquakes in China (1556, 1920, 1976), and one tsunami in the Indian Ocean (2004). Of these only the 2004 tsunami falls in the climate change era and this event cannot in any way be causally related to climate change. 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Empire of carbon, Bangkok Post, May 16, 2009

Paul Krugman's column about global warming states correctly that atmospheric carbon dioxide has risen much faster than predicted by the IPCC (Empire of carbon, Bangkok Post, May 16, 2009). It neglects to state, however, that global temperatures have not kept pace with the rapid carbonization of the atmosphere. We can draw two conclusions from these facts. First, the IPCC model of the carbon cycle is flawed because its prediction of atmospheric carbon dioxide is wrong. Second, the theory that higher atmospheric carbon dioxide causes higher temperatures is wrong because while carbon dioxide has risen faster than expected, temperatures have not risen at all and in fact during a decade of rising carbon dioxide the world has actually cooled. It is interesting to note that the IPCC has acknowledged the cooling saying that nature has temporarily overwhelmed the effects of human activity. Kindly note that the idea that nature can overwhelm the effects of human activity is antithetical the the very foundation on which the anti-carbon movement is based.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Melting ice to spur new climate deal, Bangkok Post, April 30, 2009

An article on global warming (Melting ice to spur new climate deal, Bangkok Post, April 30, 2009) says that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels have caused the following alarming changes to our planet: (1) ice covering the Arctic Ocean shrank in 2007 to its smallest since satellite records began, (2) In Antarctica, a section of the Wilkins Ice Shelf has broken up in recent days, (3) glaciers in the Himalayan mountains are shrinking and threatening to disrupt water supplies to hundreds of millions of people, (4) melting permafrost in Siberia will release large quantities of methane into the atmosphere and hasten global warming, and (5) if all of the land based ice in Antarctica melted it would raise the sea level by 80 meters. The artcle fails to take note of the following data freely available in the public domain: (1) Arctic sea ice suffers a summer melt in every northern summer and that melt was greater than normal in 2007 and it encouraged global warming scientists to speculate that the sea ice would not fully recover in the following winter and thereby the Arctic would begin a non-linear process of forming less and less ice each winter until it became fully ice free. This speculation has been proven wrong as the Arctic ice has now fully recovered. (2) the observed melting in the Wilkins ice shelf is a natural and insignificant event in the vast ice continent of Antarctica where the total mass of ice is increasing and not decreasing. (3) the Himalayan glacial melt is a reference to the data that the Gangotri glacier there had retreated by several hundred meters from 1780 to 2005 and global warming scientists predicted that the rate of retreat would accelerate and cause water supply devastation downstream. The predicted acceleration did not occur. Instead the rate of retreat actually slowed in 2007 and in 2008 it stopped altogether, (4) they have been telling us for more than five years now that the Siberian permafrost is about to melt and release methane devastation but there has been no sigh of this activity and Russian scientists have disputed these claims, and (5) if all the ice in Antarctica melted it would likely raise the sea level by 80 meters as claimed but this computation is purely a hypotherical and trivial conjecture for the subsumed melt has not started and if and when it does start, it will take many thousands of years to complete and the next ice age will surely intervene for the geological history of the earth shows that it is mostly an icy planet with brief interglacial balmy periods like the one in which we now find ourselves.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Waking up to climate change, Bangkok Post, April 29, 2009

With reference to the recently released ADB report on the economics of climate change in Southeast Asia - patterned after its mother report, "The economics of climate change" by Nicholas Stern of the Grantham Institute of Climate Change in Britain - and funded by the British, a fawning Bangkok Post editorial states that the report is credible because it uses the phrase 'climate change" saying that "Climate change" has of course replaced the less credible "global warming". If the thesis is that the globe is warming why is the phrase "global warming" not credible and why are vague and non-specific phrases like "climate change" more credible? Are they unsure about the direction of the change? If so, then what is the basis for their predictions?

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Confusion spreading faster than swine flu, Bangkok Post, April 28, 2009

When a swap dealer in London holds credit default swaps from banks in the USA, the "spreading" of financial "contagion" is already in place even before the disease has struck and when the default does occur its effect is immediately felt in all places where the financial deals already exist. There is no "spreading" that occurs post hoc. Relating the global financial meltdown to a viral contagion is itself the kind of false analogy that spreads confusion and so I suppose the article itself (Confusion spreading faster than swine flu, Bangkok Post, April 28, 2009) demonstrates its own thesis.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Ambivalence about capital from China, Bangkok Post, April 28, 2009

A much needed infusion of billions in capital into the Rio Tinto mining establishment offered by the Chinese has been put on hold by the Australians citing concerns about "national interest". These concerns might have carried far less weight had the suitors been British or American or even European. International mergers and acquisitions are tinged with racism.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: There are lies, damn lies, and even lies to cover lies, Bangkok Post, April 27, 2009

An article in the BP lays out a successful strategy for lying by quoting Hitler as follows: "Make it big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it" (There are lies, damn lies, and even lies to cover lies, Bangkok Post, April 27, 2009). Thoughtfully, on the same page, the Post provides readers with topical examples of this lying strategy in an article on the alleged effects of global warming in Southeast Asia (Economic green stimuli offer unique opportunity, Bangkok Post, April 27, 2009). These lies may be summarized as follows: "Over the coming decades, climate change will lead to decreasing rainfall and millions will suffer from water shortages"; "Rice production will decline threatening food security"; "Forests will turn into scrub land"; "Floods, droughts, cyclones, and other extreme weather events will become common"; "Deaths from cardiovascular and respiratory disease, malaria, and dengue fever will increase"; "Sea levels will rise by 70 cm or more inundating entire islands and low lying areas"; and the biggest lie of all, "All of these dangers may be mitigated by reducing CO2 emissions from fossil fuels". We have been hearing these lies for about two decades now but apparently the "coming decades" have yet to come for we have seen none of the predicted events. Hitler's wisdom is being fully implemented.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: India demands a cease fire, Bangkok Post, April 25, 2009

The Tamil Tigers appear to be sincere in their concern about civilian casualties in the lost cause of a civil war that they are still waging (India demands a cease fire, Bangkok Post, April 25, 2009) and yet surely they know that it is really in their hands for they can end this insane nightmare at any moment by simply accepting the obvious and ceasing all hostilities. Their insurgency is finished and whether they go out with or without civilian casualties is their decision to make.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: World must act against pirates, Bangkok Post, April 21, 2009

The world cannot act against the Somali pirates (World must act against pirates, Bangkok Post, April 21, 2009) until some legal framework is put in place so that the pirates can be charged with a crime. Until then we must continue the surreal practice of capturing and disarming them and then setting them free because existing laws make it impossible for any country other than lawless Somalia to bring criminal charges against them. It's a case of Catch 22.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

 

Reference: Green rice next on researchers' agenda, Bangkok Post, April 21, 2009

The reference to methane as a 'greenhouse gas' (Green rice next on researchers' agenda, Bangkok Post, April 21, 2009) is erroneous. A greenhouse is an enclosed structure made of transparent material in which vegetables or flowers are grown during winter at lattitudes at which this would not be possible under ambient conditions. Carbon dioxide is called a greenhouse gas because greenhouse operators pump this gas into their greenhouse as photosynthesis nutrient for their plants as well as to maintain optimal CO2 levels in the greenhouse of around 1500 ppm. No greenhouse operator on earth ever willingly injects methane into their greenhhouse and this gas serves no greenhouse function. Therefore, methane is not a greenhouse gas. 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Odds turning positive at global breakout or bust line, Bangkok Post, April 20, 2009

I have been following your chartist's financial forecasts on Mondays for almost a decade now and I am sorry to report that these predictions have been wrong more often than right and lately they have been so consistently wrong that one could have profited by betting against them. Financial theory contains very cogent and convincing arguments that historical trading data do not contain information about the future. These charts are an embarrassment in an otherwise fine international newspaper.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Expensive and labor intensive measures are being prescribed for reefs, Bangkok Post, April 20, 2009

There is no evidence whatsoever that any change in any coral reef anywhere in the world has been caused by carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels contrary to the ornately fabricated propaganda regularly fed to us through an unwitting media that our carbon dioxide emissions are wreaking havoc on the world's coral reefs (Expensive and labor intensive measures are being prescribed for reefs, Bangkok Post, April 20, 2009). Sadly, the obsession with carbon dioxide has done more harm to the environment and to coral reefs than good by belittling and hiding real pollution problems. The simple truth is that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. Rather it is an indispensible link in the cycle of life that got started on this planet millions of years ago when atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were three times what they are today.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Rapid sea level rise distincly possible, Bangkok Post, April 16, 2009

According to an article on global warming, we should mitigate rapid sea level rise by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels because in prior interglacial periods the sea level had risen by as much as 3 meters in 100 years and so we should expect it do so again in the interglacial period in which we now live (Rapid sea level rise distinctly possible, Bangkok Post, April 16, 2009). The argument is self canceling. If the sea level rise is a natural interglacial phenomenon then it is not caused by human activity and it cannot be mitigated by cessation of such activity. There was no human activity in prior interglacial periods that involved burning fossil fuels.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Taming the waters of Bangladesh, Bangkok Post, April 15, 2009

The oft repeated claim that Bangladesh is being inundated by rising sea levels caused by man-made climate change (Taming the waters of Bangladesh, Bangkok Post, April 15, 2009) ignores the relevant data that the total land mass of the country is not decreasing. In fact, the total land mass of Bangladesh is increasing just as it always has by virtue of silt deposition.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: BBC interview: Thaksin on protests, April 13, 2009

In the BBC's hard hitting interview (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7996781.stm) Thaksin says that he did not instigate riots but that he merely encouraged the poor people to fight for democracy because there has been either 10 or 17 coups in Thailand and that during his administration "the poor lealy feel that democracy is mean to them". Asked what made the current government undemocratic he says "they form the government in militaly balacks". Pressed again on the the legality of coalition governments he says "they try to distort the parties that come from ..... (pause)... the people". He cuts a pathetic figure clearly at a loss for words and unable form coherent answers to clearly stated questions. It's a must watch.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand