Subject: Viridian Note 00334: Bitter Reality

Source:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17556/story.htm

"Schroeder calls energy conference in Germany

SOUTH AFRICA: September 3, 2002

"JOHANNESBURG – German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told delegates at the Earth Summit yesterday Germany was ready to host an international conference on renewable energy. 'I will send out invitations to an international conference on renewable energy in Germany.

"'We want to supplement what we achieved at the end of last year at the Bonn water conference in the field of energy,' he said in a speech to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.

"He gave no further details of the meeting. Germany organised an international fresh water conference in Bonn last December, where delegates reiterated pledges to provide adequate supplies of drinking water worldwide.

"Schroeder referred to last month's dramatic flooding in Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria and China. The floods, which killed dozens in Europe and hundreds in China, were blamed by some on global warming caused by burning fossil fuels.

"'Climate change is no longer a sceptical prognosis, but a bitter reality. This challenge demands decisive action from us,' Schroeder said.

"He said the Earth Summit should pressure states to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate as quickly as possible so that it can come into force this year. He also appealed to nations such as the United States, Canada and Australia to make some contribution to climate improvement.

"'For those industrialised countries that have not signed up, I appeal to them at least to contribute to an equivalent reduction of greenhouse gases,' Schroeder said. (...)

(((If climate change is "bitter reality" and getting bitterer fast, are there still people in the denial business? Oh yes. There's the Greening Earth Society, a tool of American coal interests and a Viridian bete noire. Note relentless political attacks on American public figures admitting the truth.)))

Source: Greening Earth Society

• http://www.co2andclimate.org/climate/
• http://www.co2andclimate.org/Articles/2002/vca26.htm.

"VIRTUAL CLIMATE ALERT

"August 29, 2002 Vol. 3, No. 26

"Maryland's outgoing Democratic governor Parris N. Glendening, Tuesday, August 27th, announced mandatory water restrictions across much of the state in response to the major drought that grips mid-Atlantic states from Georgia to Pennsylvania. The drought is so severe that even with the rains of the last few days, many folks 'hope for a hurricane' to deliver much-needed, prolonged, and widespread soaking.

"But Glendening didn't stop there. Not satisfied with articulating his government response to the drought, he proclaimed its cause. Of course, it's global warming.

"What is curious to us is how Gov. Glendening apparently is willing to link the drought to global warming while scientists trained in climatology and meteorology and who have dedicated their careers to a study of these fields are reluctant (or lack sufficient political ambition) to join him out on that limb. Here's why. (((Because we pay them to.)))

Read this Virtual Climate Alert in its entirety at http://www.co2andclimate.org/Articles/2002/vca26.htm.

N.Y. Times to Facts: Drop Dead!

"Maybe the heat prostrates dowager New York Times late in the summer. Two years ago, it carried a breathless front page story about the melting of the polar ice cap, only to retract it a few weeks later (on page C-18) when confronted with the historical record of polar temperatures. (((Uh, not really.))) On August 28 of this year, thanks in part to a dissonant convergence of climate stories – drought in New York, yet another U.N. environment confab, this time in Africa, evil President Bush refusing to wreck our economy with the Kyoto Protocol – the Times published a real lulu headlined 'Forecast for the Future: Deluge and Drought.'"

"World Climate Report's editors walk through the facts of the matter concerning frequency of severe European flooding and trends in U.S. drought, and changes in the rate of East Coast evapotranspiration and Asian rainfall. You can read the entire story at http://www.co2andclimate.org/climate/v8n01/feature.htm.

"Climate Model Lapse

"The 'Great Debate' (((there is no debate – there are facts versus industrial interests))) in climatology these days focuses on the differences between two temperature records: surface and satellite. The problem is this: Thermometer readings from across the planet's surface are warming at a greater rate than satellite temperature measurements of the lower atmosphere, or troposphere. That difference is probably real and not a result of errors in the data sets, since the satellite record is a measure of the temperature of the overlying atmosphere and not the surface. Meteorologists call the difference between the surface readings and those from the overlying atmosphere the "lapse rate," a term that refers to the rate at which temperature declines with height."

If climatologist don't understand the reason for the lapse rate, are the climate models capable of winkling out the answer? Read the facts of the matter athttp://www.co2andclimate.org/climate/v8n01/hot.htm.

Ned Leonard Executive Director
Greening Earth Society
333 John Carlyle Street, Suite 530
Alexandria,VA22314
(703) 684-4748 Phone
(703) 684-6297 Fax