The British Antarctic Survey, using an ice gazing NASA satellite, has shown that warner air, or as some call it, global warming, can’t alone explain why the antarctic glaciers are melting so fast. Twenty ice shelves were seen to be melting from warm water below them. Changes in wind currents pushed the warmer water closer and beneath the floating ice shelf. Antarctica is losing 23 feet of arctic ice shelf each year. From the associated Press 4/26/12

Gov. Bill Haslam takes the cowardly way out and lets the “Monkey” bill pass without signing it. It was a bill that protects teachers who allow students to criticize evolution as junk science as well as other scientific theories such as human-caused global climate change, while these two “theories” are proven and widely accepted scientific concepts. He said the bill didn’t change scientific standards currently taught in Tennessee's public schools. Supporters say the legislation is intended to help students think critically. One wonders just how the subjects are truly taught. If teachers offer the subjects as equal possibilities for the way the world developed is this critical thinking? I think not. There is no way in hell to prove creationism is how the world developed and the precepts are grossly illogical. The idea that dinosaurs didn’t live millions of years ago when carbon dating easily proves it is ludicrous beyond words. Executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union said there is no question the new law “undermines science education in Tennessee schools.”

Jonah  Goldberg, the ‘brilliant’ columnist who proclaimed not too long ago that oil and gas were the “True” green fuels, is criticising President Obama for saying we need all available fuels, pursuing nuclear as well as fossil fuels and alternatives such as wind and solar. Goldberg maintains that Obama blocked the Keystone XL pipeline and his policies are responsible for high gas prices now. Jonah is playing fast and loose with the truth. First, it is pretty well known that financial firms, speculating on future oil prices, are responsible for the high cost of gas at the pump. I don’t think the president has been buying oil futures. (Anyone with evidence that he is doing this let me know.) The president stopped the pipeline to allow an evaluation of the proposed route which passed through sensitive areas in which a pipeline spill could seriously harm a vital aquifer. Just a week ago he lifted the block and allowed the start of the lower end of the pipeline. As for not embracing cap and trade, that program does not take greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. It just lets big polluters buy credits from a clean industry so they can pursue business as usual. Germany has tried cap-and-trade and found that the system was easily scammed.

Back in June 13, 2012 we wrote here about the Heartland Institute, a Libertarian think tank that denies evolution, global warming and anything supported by the scientific community,. They were receiving large sums of money to develop curriculum for our schools that question global warming. One anonymous individual gave them $4.6 million. It has recently come to light that Microsoft, whose Bill Gates vigorously promotes clean energy, has donated almost $60,000 to heartland. Heartland is hoping to get more. Tobacco giants Altria and Reynolds America, along with drug companies Glaxosmithkline, Pfizer and Eli Lilley have collectively given $1.1 Million in the past 2 years and are planning to give $705,000 this year. Another large donor is the Koch brothers. Microsoft cops out saying it was part of their program to give free software licenses to non-profits. 

Back in June of 2011 it was reported that in the United Kingdom, Tim Oats, director of Research at Cambridge Assessment Board, one of the biggest exam boards in Europe, stated that climate change should not be taught in the United Kingdom national curriculum. It was seen as a subject that was too politicized.

My wife started a novel a year or so ago. It had at its basic premise that the world was being consumed by wild fires, the reasons for which were somewhat obscure. Today this prophesy has in part come true, except the disasters are worse than she imagined and the reasons are well known. The southwest has been burning for the past two months. Wildfires have consumed huge areas in the State of Arizona and are still burning out of control.  Thousands of fire fighters have been employed along with hundreds of helicopters and tanker planes. The cost to the state and municipalities could do much resolve or at least ease their budget shortfalls. But the wild fires are just one aspect of the disaster. We had the Mississippi rivere flooding on its lower reaches flooding farmland and homes and only through extreme measures not being the worst flood in history. Right now the upper reaches of the Missouri river in Iowa and Nebraska also flooding. Wildfires aren't just confined to Arizona, Colorado and the northwest. Texas ans the south East are suffering huges areas of prolonged drought. The year 2011 has been declared the most disastrous year in recorded history. Tornadoes have killed hundreds of people this year and destroyed hundreds of homes. What is going on here?

Tim Oats, Director of Research at Cambridge Assessment, one of the biggest exam boards in Europe recently stated in an interview with Jessica Shepherd, writer for the Guardian.co.uk, that Climate Change should not be taught in the National Curriculum in the United Kingdom. This is a slippery slope and has political implications. The majority of the scientific community agree on climate change as to the fact that it is real and humans play a significant part in causing warming. Any suppression of this information can only be seen as political. Politics has no place in education. So far in the United States I haven't heard of this effort yet but it fits right into the extreme right wing efforts to suppress the teaching of evolution. Climate change is a vital message that children need to hear. It ties into the message of sustainability which is vital to the coming generations. To allow teachers to pick and choose subjects that they disagree with is a path to disaster. Leave religion and politics out of schools.

We haven't heard this whacko bull crap since Ronald Reagan. Representative Dana Rohrabacher, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs oversight subcommittee, has resurrected the tired old idea that the rain forests cause global warming. Therefore all we need to do to reverse global warming is to cut down the world's rain forests. Never mind that trees absorb carbon dioxide, the most prevalent green house gas. Rohrabacher maintains that older trees, when they die and decay are the main source of greenhouse gases. This idea ranks right up there with Jonah Goldberg's idea that gasoline is the true green fuel of all of the alternatives available to us. The Flat Earth society lives hand in hand with global warming and evolution deniers. Rep. Rohrabacher doesn't believe in human cause global warming so it is a puzzle as to why he is wasting his vast brain power on the  subject. He modestly says that he doesn't really know about such things so he is happy to have someone speak about it who is an expert in the field. Why in the world is he sounding off about the subject.A lot of greenhouse gases are naturally occurring, but the portion that comes from burning fossil fuels does the majority of the damage to our atmosphere, and trees are responsible for absorbing large amounts of CO2.