Here is a site that has good information on Global Warming.
http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=1011
More inline below...
Graig wrote
We have been in a period of global cooling since 1998, with a rather
dramatic drop in 2007.
Your Global Cooling proposition is not supported by the facts as presented
in the following NASA global mean temperature records. You simply cannot
prove a predisposition by cherry picking data to support that position.
The NASA records clearly show that 2007 was actually warmer than 1998.
However, data for the first seven months of 2008 do show a relative
cooling,
though these cooler temperatures are still significantly warmer than the
mean average temperature baseline. Rather than miss characterizing this as
"Global cooling, it is best described by "the temperature rise in 2008 has
slowed somewhat"
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/tabledata/GLB.Ts.txt
This data is for meterological stations, not NASA satellite surface temp
data.
The meterological station data is highly suspect due to violations of the
rules for placements of these stations. There is considerable information
about this on the web.
But this is largely irrelevant, as much of the data upon which Gore and
others based their finding was just plain wrong, or cherry picked for
effect.
I prefer to look at historic data overall, as Easterbrook did, and to
project based on real world data, not computer models for the future.
There is nothing in the data to suggest that increased CO2 levels and
increased temperatures in recent decades have been caused by man. There is
considerable evidence in his paper to suggest a 40 year cycle that is linked
in part to solar activity. Easterbrook made mincemeat of the IPCC
predictions, which have no basis in fact.
I would rather look at the opinions/conclusions of the vast majority
of scientist and not "cherry pick" one individual like Easterbrook who
happens to agree with what I would like to be reality. Won't matter to
me but I have kids and I don't want to be wrong for them so that I can
live in a fantasy world of SUVs and McMansions which are kept air
conditioned while not occupied so that the wine won't go bad.
If you have the expertise and have looked at ALL the evidence
dispassionately and still think that there is NO Global Warming and
that humans are not at fault then your conscience may be clean.
But what if, as I said previously, humans are not at fault and there
is Global Warming? We still will have to deal with it. There are a
number of ways. We can ignore it and just deal with its consequences
while using the excuse that we didn't cause it I guess.
Is there someone in charge of accepting such an excuse? We could try
to do something about it and succeed, partially succeed or fail. In my
opinion any of the three are better than doing nothing.
But if you don't believe there is any Global Warming or Cooling for
that matter, that there is a God in charge of a world thermostat and
he is on your side like in football and he has that thermostat set to
a setting made just for your comfort and that it will remain at that
setting forever then no need to worry.
IMO the world could change, most likely is changing, may be changing
because of activities of man and we better be doing our best to
understand how it is changing and what we can do about it no matter if
man is at fault or not. If there is a God I suggest he gave us brains
for doing something.
Maybe we should have been more concerned about the
impact of sub-prime mortgages and the abuse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to
"guarantee" these mortgages as they were proliferated as investment
securities worldwide. But Chris Dodd and Barney Frank said there was nothing
to worry about...
Pretty hard to blame two people when most of Congress was on board
with Fannie and Freddie and Fannie and Freddie were not at the heart
of the current crisis. They were followers, trying to maintain market
share, unsuccessfully I might add, by following the lead of the
crazies on Wall Street. But they didn't originate subprime loans in
the main, such loans just didn't meet their criteria. They did buy
billions of $$ of the securities that were based on subprime loans
originated by others for their own account however, dumb yes. Yes even
very dumb but they were not the leaders or instigators and the mess we
are in would most likely not even have happened if it were not for
cabal of big investment banks and such as AIG that decided to sell
naked insurance on securitized mortgages of subprime loand.
The guarantees you are talking about were the Credit Default Swaps
that were basically cheap insurance sold to back securitized mortgages
the most toxic of which were subprime. And this "insurance" was not
backed up by any ability to insure, no assets.
But Freddie and Fannie did not sell such insurance. Lots of CDS's were
sold on their securitized mortgages by others and that is where the
problems are. Any sophisticated investor could buy insurance on
Freddie and Fannie instruments even if they didn't own said
instrument. Such insurance could also be bought an any number of
different financial instruments having nothing to do with mortgages
With Credit Default Swaps the buyer didn't have to own what he insured
and the seller didn't have to have any assets to back up the insurance
they sold. And now we are bailing out this INSANE casino. And the
operators, the individuals in very many cases are walking with a lot
of the loot. And many of the firms we are bailing out plan on paying
hundreds of billions of dollars in bonuses this year. Go figure!!
And some of them including Paulson are now in charge of fixing this.
And why did such firms as AIG, Lehman and many many others offer such
NAKED insurance? Because they could and there was no regulation saying
they couldn't. And Paulson, then at Goldman Sachs and others were
arguing for going ever further out on the risk curve to be
"competitive".
Now we have that fox, Paulson, trying to save the other foxes while
all around the world we find dead chickens.
Much the same in most of the Government agencies populated these last
8 years by Republicans.
Hey I get to eat beef again if Obama is elected. Haven't had beef
since Ann Veneman was put in charge of the Agricultural Department.
Farmers and the cattle business represent the biggest and worst case
of welfare voter fraud in history. Ever wonder why most of the
Mississippi Valley is composed of red states?
Bob Miller
Looking at the current election cycle, I would have to characterize PRAVDA
as a more believable source of information than the U.S. media...
If you are watching Fox and listening to the radio yes I agree.
Regards
Craig
Regards
Craig
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