Global Warming – Climate Change – Mankind’s Self Destruction?

And what is the significance of 2012?

The Year 2012 is a significant one for us. It is the end of the commitment to the Kyoto Protocol, as it is. Adopted in 1997, and an amendment to the International Treaty of Climate Change, the purpose of the protocol was to give industrialised countries mandatory targets to reduce their collective emissions of greenhouse gases, being carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulphur hexafluoride, hydro fluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons, by 50% of the 1990 emissions, by the middle of the 21st century. One regional economic integration organisation (EEC) and 168 countries have ratified the protocol, which became legal and binding in 2005.

In preparation for a new protocol, in May 2007, a group of business leaders and scientists gathered to form the Copenhagen Climate Council with the aim to establish a new climate treaty to come into play after 2012.

Since then there have been a series of meetings among appropriate groups and networks, all working towards a Climate Conference in Copenhagen in November this year. At the conference it is expected that a ‘Copenhagen Protocol,’ aimed to prevent global warming and climate change, will be agreed upon.

I believe that it is very important that a new protocol, following Kyoto, is necessary.

However, given this significant occasion, planned to affect our response to global warming and climate change, is it not any wonder then, that much information and propaganda has emerged?

Today, two books on this controversial subject are hot on the local marketplace.

The first, ‘Air Con – The Seriously Inconvenient Truth about Global Warming’ by the investigative journalist, Ian Wishart, has just been published.

In this easy-to-read book, Ian informs us about how much the Copenhagen Protocol will cost us – and, according to Ian, it will not be cheap. He questions the so called facts about global warming and climate change.

If you have not had time to read it yet, for a lively opinion about the Ian’s book, visit http://hot-topic.co.nz/

This website is by another author, the economist, portfolio manager, biker and public speaker, South Islander Gareth Morgan. Gareth is about to publish his own book ‘Poles Apart’ which he co-wrote with John McCrystal.

Gareth wasn’t sure if he believed in global warming or not. So he hired some of the world’s best scientists to answer his questions about the topic. ‘Poles Apart’ is the result of their answers.

Both these books appear to expound the facts about global warming and climate change, whether political, fictional or hearsay, and probably are worth the read.

However, no matter what form the Copenhagen Protocol appears in, no matter what is outlined in Ian’s, nor Gareth’s books, the truth about global warming and climate change is concealed in the earth’s glaciers.

It has always been recognised that the glaciers can tell us much about the earth’s history. In the May 1 issue of Science Magazine (on the net) there are two articles confirming this fact. The first one is:

‘The Geographic Footprint of Glacier Change’ by Greg Balco from the Berkeley Geochronology Centre in California. In it, he talks about how Alpine Glaciers offer ‘spectacular records of climate change’ and along with their deposits in the form of lakes, moraines and valleys they can reveal much information about the rises and fluctuations of the world’s temperatures before they were measured by today’s scientific instruments.
Another item in the same edition by three New Zealand Scientists is entitled
‘High-Frequency Holocene Glacier Fluctuations in New Zealand Differ from the Northern Signature.’ It talks about the research identifying the differences in the movements of glaciers in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. In both regions the land experienced their own hot and cold periods – at different times!

Over the weekend a Climate conference, attended by around 150 international scientists was held in Wellington to discuss the results of climate research completed in the southern hemisphere.

Geomorphologist Andrew Mackintosh of Victoria University, who participated in the New Zealand Glacial research projects, says that the earth will not uniformly warm up. In fact, the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers are growing, because of the wet cool conditions weather patterns are bringing to our country.

“The more we're learning about the Southern Hemisphere we understand that it has its own climate system that's somewhat different." He is quoted as saying in the NZ Herald.


So how can we find out the truth about Global Warming and Climate Change?

Here are some websites to visit.

Visit “NZ glacier findings upset climate theory’ at

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/324/5927/599

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protoco

www.erantis.com/events/denmark/copenhagen/climate-conference-2009/index.htm

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-greenhouse-hamburger

Personally, I believe that that Global Warming is a load of Codswallop.

Yes, we carelessly using the earth by over fishing, too much deforesting, creating too much waste. And too many destructive gasses. Yes, the climate is changing. Yes, climate research is important. It reveals much about the history of the earth, including when, where and how certain areas have been much hotter or colder, than they are today. And Why. For example, Greenland was named so because it was green. And the Sahara was not always a desert.

So, do we need a Copenhagen Treaty? Yes, I do believe so. It will probably cost participating countries an arm and a leg, which, at the end of the day, means you and I. But it will mean that we all, providing our country ratifies the Treaty, will have some goals about cleaning up our environmental act, to work towards.

Exciting discovery made on the South Pacific Ocean's Macquarie Ridge

During their month long research trip to the Macquarie Ridge recently, scientists aboard the Research Vessel Tangaroa of New Zealand’s National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA), discovered an seemingly unlikely colony of starfish-like echinoderms called brittlestars living at the summit of a huge seamount. These critters take advantage of the dramatic 4km/hr ocean current of the dramatic 4km/hr ocean current at the summit, capturing prey as it is blown over the seamount. According to Dr. Mike Willams of NIWA, “This current is estimated to be 110 to 150 times larger than all the water flowing in all the rivers of the world.”

The Macquarie Ridge extends southwest of New Zealand and then curves southeast before ending at around 58 degrees south. Running along the Macquarie Fault Zone, a major right lateral-moving transform fault along the seafloor of the south Pacific Ocean, and also the tectonic plate boundary between the Indo-Australian Plate to the northwest and the Pacific Plate to the southeast the ridge is the result of the two abutting plates. Macquarie Island, along the ridge, was formed from the thrusting of the two plates. It does not have large-scale sediment, was not formed by a volcano and does not have suffered from glacial activities. The age of the rocks forming the island is extremely young geologically and there is much interest from scientists and geologists to study the island, the ridge, the trenches alongside it, and the life it supports.

Very few of the 100,000 seamounts which rise higher than 1km above the sea have been explored. It was originally thought that only corals and sponges covered the seamounts, so the discovery of the brittle stars was an exciting and significant find.

The Census of Marine Life seamount programme, CenSeam, hosted the trip. The voyage was largely funded by the New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology.

Sources
www.survivalmachine.org

http://censeam.niwa.co.nz
This ten year old organizations, mission is “to determine the role of seamounts in the biogeography, biodiversity, productivity, and evolution of marine organisms, and to evaluate the effects of human exploitation on seamounts.” A detailed account of the Tangaroa is on the site, along with similar expeditions and their outcomes. Very interesting reading, about the trips,t he people, and life on board.