Climate Change; Are we about to stampede?

The Climate change conference in Copenhagen has come and gone. What this talkfest actually decided is pending. Oh yeah the reps signed a piece of paper with some sort of general agreement that we need to reduce carbon emissions. Will these generalities be enacted? And can you enact a generality. Only time will answer this question.

At the moment the not so convinced and outright skeptical are beginning to get a voice and challenge the convinced by saying their science is not yet good enough. The leaked email episode does not look good for some sections of the climate change debate. Then climatologists complain of the stress that these skeptics cause them. This has me asking the question is climatology a science?  Because science is a process of producing theories and hypothesis that can be tested and examined by other scientists and interested observers.  This is how science comes to fact and truth.  If we do not test what is being presented to us we are an epic failed scientist.  Dare I suggest, stressed climatologists find another occupation that is not so stressful.

Climate data has to be shared, there should be no need for top secret classification.  We are trying to find out just what is happening if anything is happening at all.  The failure to share raw data, gives the skeptic valid argument that we are not being told the truth.

And questions about the parameters of the data that climatologist are using to say, yes the problem is man made and that we make too much carbon, has to be discussed, things like volcanic eruptions, have we had and all time low, high or normal activity, and what effect is the ozone hole having? Why aren't the oceans absorbing the carbon they used too.  All these events play a part in the way our climate operates.

There is only one solution we have been advised, and that is to cut carbon emissions.  For those who have believed the under tested climate change message there is only fear. Frighten people tend to do some strange and devastating things.  Then there is a possibility that when the individual begins to realize just how much cut carbon emissions edict is going to cost, might have sections of the political landscape become a fence sitter or skeptic just to win their next election. This will not be good for the nerves of the convinced.

The countries facing an insecure future because the sea level is higher than normal might do better to find a country that will give their citizens a passport to higher ground.  Once monetary compensation is given, they may find themselves floating about on the oceans.  The argument is that compensation has been given and we don't have the capacity to help you.  Harsh, but a possibility that should not be ignored.

There is much to be discussed, one of the discussions we haven't yet tackled is how much carbon if any do we need to remove from the atmosphere? And if some of the carbon aborbing ideas are introduced how much carbon will they absorb?  It would be interesting to find that we need to add carbon to our atmosphere because we reduced the levels to an all time low.  And how fast do we lower carbon levels?  What happens to climate if carbon levels drop suddenly?  Come on scientists.  Lets us see you asking questions and hopefully producing some not so vague answers. A carbon emissions reduction stampede could become as dangerous as too much carbon.

Supermarket Meat Fridge and Vampiers

Over the last month or two I have been noticing that when shoppers look into the meat fridge they have a lost vacant stare on their faces. This has not been very comforting because I know what the problem is, we are facing the latest horror story, sorry this does not come with blood sucking vampires or the latest monster from outer space.

No this story is about the cash sucking activities of Supermarkets, no need to name any we all know that Australia only has two major suppliers and that they don't compete with each other in anything other than "How much can we get away with charging". No I don't ever expect a confession, I just don't have any other explanation for what I see when I go shopping.

My latest scare was the belief that meat is a special @ $15.00 per kilo. Yeah they do sell mince for around $10.00 per kilo, but then you only eat that special once. It is not what it use to be and I don't want to ask why the product has become so awful, my suspicions of reclaimed and chemically glued meat off cuts is enough to generate horror for weeks if not months.

Then in a moment of wishful thinking I thought about a Not for Profit Supermarket, now that would throw some competition into the market. All those CEO's with seven figure salaries would be chocking on their Vita Brits and Cornflakes, then the protest of why Not for Profit Supermarkets shouldn't be.

A Not for Profit business is a very dangerous idea, to operate a business that can make a profit but doesn't have to make a profit, is something that challenges the very fabric of what we have now. But why are we so enamoured with the concept of profit? It does not benefit me when I look into the meat fridge at the Supermarket. In fact for the consumer there is no advantage, all profit every guarantees is that prices increase.

The question should be asked, how much profit is too much? I only need to remember the lost and dazed shoppers at the meat fridge to wonder if too much has been reached. The horror of realising that the products you could buy twelve months ago, are now too expensive.

Profit for profit business might be a system that we cannot afford and what the world really needs is NOT FOR PROFIT CAPITALISM. I hope that this thought gives the seven and eight figure CEO's a dose of indigestion. It is my obsevation that the more profit taken, means more debt incurred by the individual consumer, and that inturn keeps the financial meltdown pot simmering. The last thing I want is for the financial meltdown pot to boil over again, but that might just be the next instalment of my meat fridge horror story.

Down The Drain and Out To Sea

The Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch is being studied by scientists; they want to know how much garbage is in the North Pacific Gyre, and if the plastic in the garbage posses a health risk to wildlife in the ocean.

Evidence collected so far suggest that the garbage is not good for wildlife. Both birds and fish are eating small pieces of plastic, their gut contents have been found to contain surprising quantities of plastic. I do wonder if these animals have the full feeling? You don't eat when your stomach feels full, but when you have a gut full of objects you can't digest then you would most likely starve to death.

Some scientist are saying that plastic degrades at a much faster rate than thought. That's not a bad thin you might think; trouble is the decaying plastic changes into some nasty chemicals. Research already done in rats found that chemicals from degrading plastic disturbed the rats hormone systems. Does this translate to human hormone systems? I guess only time will tell this story, hopefully more research will not reveal bad news.

Water samples taken in the North Pacific Gyre, were all found to have derivatives of polystyrene. I don't like the sound of this, has anyone tested the fish in our markets for these chemicals?

Then to ice the cake, scientists are planning an expedition to the Southern Hemisphere Gyre where they fear an even larger garbage pile exists. Can we just let all this garbage decay? Or do we need a "Clean up the Ocean Month"?

All this talk about oceans full of garbage has me thinking that it might be better to avoid eating fish for a while. Yeah, I know, I'm probably panicking, but if I can avoid being the canary then, yes, I'm going to avoid being the canary. Too many canaries lost there lives testing the air in mine shafts. I have no plans to be a canary. The thought that our seafood might be contaminated by all this garbage needs to be answered with some testing. So for now I choose not to be the canary.

Australian Winter Treat

I love wattle. This small tree covers itself in wonderful yellow flowers right when you need a boost to your spirits, yes in the middle of winter.

This tree belongs to the acacia family, Australia has around a 1000 different species but the yellow flowers are my favorites.

Newbie to Blogging -Not Understanding It All

I have jumped into blogging. Yes dived in without really looking. Risky behavior. Maybe, but I figured the worst thing that could happen is that I delete myself. Anoying, but not leathal.

So far I have a few entries, yes I have managed to get blogs onto a web site. For those struggling with the finer details of blogs, your blog is a website. This is one of the bits of info I have learnt by watching as many You Tube videos as the brain can take in. The learning process will continue. I have even tried to earn some money from this blog by adding AdSense to my blog. My projected income if any turns up is now more an addition to the retirement fund. But if the hit rate goes from 0 to more I will be succesful. A big achievement for someone born pre computor.

The most disturbing thing about some of these instructional videos - there is a teacher presenting the video. Now I have a great respect for most teachers, but when there are 400 or so hits and no ratings that should tell the presenter that their presentation has failed. I have watched videos with only 130 views and have a five star rating.

I feel for the students out there in a classroom, if the video presentation is the classroom presentation, I wonder if the children learn all that much in class. I have to confess my concentration and patience was strecth, and I am a student that is determined to work all this blogging stuff out. Teaching should be thought of a selling a product. If your presentation is not fun to watch, the class turns off.

Teaching is like being a parent, you are usually the last to know that your style has not reached the target audience. At least with You Tube videos your class can give you feedback with a star. There is no way any student wants to upset their teacher by informing them that they struggle to absorb the presented lesson. If teachers were brave enough they might ask their students to rate them using the 5 star rating system. But then teachers must know already if they have their class or not. The old adage "if you have to ask you probably don't have what you want."

So my journey will continue, there are millions of how to blog sites in cyberspace, all are under review and scutiny, even bloggers stuff. So far all I can say, is that if you are new to computors I have not found a sight that starts from 0 knowlege in the how to blog. What I want from a how to sight is click this button, click that button and you will get this gadget or that gadget, start talking about URL and http makes the brain spin, come on a few more hints for seniors would be nice. Can't believe I said that but sadly the birthday count places me in that era.

The Tater Friends

The following is one of those small pieces of wisdom that sum up something we have seen but never expressed. I wish I knew who the author was, then I could say thank you to a name other than anonymous, and maybe give them a hug or two for getting the words together in a way that both entertains and taps us on the back of the head to get us moving in the right direction.

Some people never seem to participate but are just content to watch while others do the work.
They are called spec taters.
Some people never do anything to help,
but are gifted at finding fault with the way other do the work.
They are called dick taters.
There are those who say they will help,
but somehow just never get around to actually doing the promised help.
They are called hezzie taters.
Some people can put up a front and pretend to be someone they are not.
They are called emma taters.
Then there are those who love others and do what they say they will.
They are always prepared to stop whatever they are doing and lend a helping hand.
They are called sweet po taters.

Moon Walk 1969

This is a remember when, makes me feel old, but I do remember the day that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin kick around all that moon dust. I have never thanked the teachers who decided that the day's lessons were off. But I do now. My teachers had a sense of history being made and to their credit managed to get two hundred students seated in front of TV sets. This was 1969 TV sets had valves, not circuit boards molded into plastic, and not every house had a TV. Most seniors - those over thirty, from my teenage view - used to wonder why you needed this new gadget. So finding TV sets for a couple of hundred teenagers was a logistics exercise that NASA would have been proud of.

We were taken home by friends who had TV sets and lived close to the school, yes my friend rang her parents to ask if she was allowed to bring home a room full of teenagers. I don't think I rang my parents though to let them know that I would be leaving the school. Today's notification requirements would be in a spin. I am thankful that the moon walk happen in 1969.

Something else that seems to be forgotten is that it was the Commodore 64 that made this epic trip possible. Don't know what a Commodore 64 is? Not surprised, might find one or two in computer museums but this model is now oh so obsolete, 64kb just won't do much any more. The games on my mobile phone use this much memory, some are larger, and those games are very basic affairs in the world of game play.

The moon walk was forty years ago, where did those years go? Never thought that I would be asking that time question, but this is one of those certainties in life. Live long enough and you will ask the same question. Everyone does. Time is the common denominator.

Beginings, Ends and Beached Whales.

A neighbor down the street decided to build a bar-be-que, no expense was spared the best of everything was installed. Invitations were sent out to both friends and neighbors, who were urged to bring a friend or two, or four.

The party began at breakfast, pancakes with syrup, fruit, ice cream, or caviar. If the host didn't have what you wanted, it was ordered in. After that the menu changed with the hour, food was always being served.

No-one was concerned that the fuel burning in the bar-be-que was barrow loads of cash, all donations were taken. More and more people were handed a plate of food, everything is good the party goers would laughed.

The news of this wild party spread and the que to get through the door stretched for ten blocks heading for eleven. Getting through an unguarded gate was the hardest hurdle, once you had signed in you were free to join the good times.

The party ended when the food couldn't be cooked, the host could no longer find any cash to throw onto the fire. Some of the party goers realized that the party was finished and grabbed all the food they could carry.

Most of the guest were just left standing around the bar-be-que longing for the food that had been so plentiful. They were trying to understand why the party had the feeling of a beached whale.


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This is only way I can explain what has happened to the finances of the world. Lending to someone who can't repay their debt makes absolutely no sense at all. And what does it say about us. We seem to be children still, looking to a parent, but only one that will give in to our tantrum of we want and want it now.

Spending more than your income should always be a concern, it is a sign that we are not being good stewards of our money. Yes it is hard in the 21st century to not spend your money on the latest release of some new fancy electronic gadget.

It is not the gadgets and widgets that are in the markets that is the problem, life is so much more interesting with them. The problem is that we have to have everything now. We have to learn to pace ourselves financially.

We need to remember that old phrase "the love of money will cause evil". Yes we had a party going, now the party has come to an end, and we need to clean up, but that could take a while.

Trying to understand climate change

I have noticed that Climate Change believers are traveling the world to deliver the message that our climate is changing. Then they all decide that a Conference is needed to discuss how to stop or limit Climate Change.

Hang on a second, all these people are flying around the planet, how much carbon are these guys producing with all their traveling. If there was a big problem you would think the converted might consider using technology like blogs, Facebook. Twitter and satellite conferencing.

So what is going on? Is my climate changing? The last ten years have been the driest on record, but then Australia only has 200 years of paper records. The last ten years might only be the long term trend of this country. Geologist say that 15,000 years ago Australia had an inland sea that covered parts of South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory.

There are some things that cannot be challenged, we have records that show carbon levels have increased. But carbon is not the only gas and chemical that has increased in our atmosphere. My biggest concern is that we are concentrating on only carbon, and that the decisions being pushed onto the world stage, may, in the future be a bigger problem than too much carbon. Where is the environmental research on "carbon reducing projects", no-one seems to be asking if the reduction projects have problems. The only focus seems to be carbon reduction.

Look around and you find that there are thousands of reports on the changing environment, and that the change is gaining speed. Human activity has been blamed for this change. How the scientist have arrived at this conclusion is unclear. The earth has a long geological record of change, and all that is needed is one super volcano to explode and plunge us into a 1,000 year winter. Is the warming we are experiencing now due to a lack of volcanic activity? Or are the scientist right in laying the blame at human activity.

What hasn't been looked at in global warming terms is our habit of tossing our plastic out. There is a reef of plastic floating in the Atlantic Ocean, this reef of plastic seems to be challenging plankton for a place in the sun, if the oceans have a plastic film cover, are they absorbing the amount of carbon they used too? Is carbon increasing because the oceans are being suffocated? That would make the scientists right about human activity causing Climate Change, everyone is looking at land based causes, I hope this is not because the cleanup bill for the oceans is a super volcano that no-one wants to explore.

But then are my concerns all that important to the scheme of things. If the political world is convinced that Climate Change is, well then it is, and whether we believe or not will cease to matter. Eventually some sort of carbon reduction law will become a part of our landscape.

If the climate is changing and we don't reduce the pollution that is causing the problem then the worst of the climate change forecasts will be with us. But reducing Climate Change causes, will change our lives too. All that can be concluded is that change is going to be a part of our lives, what we believe about the state of things just won't be the issue.