On Mon, 04 Jul 2005 17:11:53 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote:
On 4 Jul 2005 12:01:09 -0700, the opaque
clearly wrote:
Larry Jaques wrote:
"How can we make our point with so little data to go on? Aha, make the
increments so small the data (with which we want to scare folks) is
off the charts!" Oh, and "Let's estimate data about 10x longer than
we have ANY data for.)
.... snip
Recommendation for Chicken Littles: Read Michael Crichton's book
"State of Fear" for both a great story and an excellent reference
work with detailed bibliography for further research. It will give
you a whole new perspective, I guarantee!
Fiction or non-Fiction?
Fiction, but he states up front that ALL the data supplied is real and
he supports that with references in the back of the book, including
books, websites, published paper references, etc. If you think the
world is melting and we're all gonna die, I strongly suggest you read
that book tomorrow. Here are a couple links:
http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/ghcn/ghcn.html
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/station_data/
The data for Punta Arenas (the closest station to Antarctica) shows a
mean 0.5C drop in temps between 1888 and 2005. It's getting COLDER!
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/gistemp_station.py?id=304859340004&data_set=1&num_ neighbors=1
Having read some of the news regarding the G8 summit, as well as some of
various accounts on www.numberwatch.co.uk, a rather interesting premise
for a science fiction story struck me. When you look at what the UK and
some of the other European nations are attempting to get Bush to agree to
regarding agreements regarding global climate change, he is not being asked
to ascribe to a political agreement backed by strong science so much as he
is being asked to sign a doctrinal statement agreeing that he and his
country "believe" in global warming and that humans are the cause for this
impending disaster. Couple that with the proposal by the UK to cut its CO2
emissions by 60% over the next decade, and to issue all citizens a "carbon
allowance" as well as the various little "sacrifices" the citizenry is
being asked to perform, many said sacrifices having no real impact upon
overall energy use, (for example, unplugging the VCR rather than letting it
run in standby mode) but getting the citizenry to "buy into doing their
part". An interesting plot for a time in the future when the world is
dominated by the green religion whose high priests regulate the lives of
the average citizens who have been reduced to living in hovels and living a
pre-industrial lifestyle. The high priests of the religion live in
sparkling compounds, high on the hills and who possess all manner of
"magic" with which to assure compliance of the peasants with their lot in
life. Various rituals are practiced by which the average people are
indoctrinated with the knowledge that they are only a blight upon the
planet and that only by following the will of the Green Priests will they
be granted suffrance by the planet to live out their lives in quiet
submission and meager consumption.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+