Cosmic Rays!??

One of the Brickmuppet's crack team of science babes rolls up her sleeves to get to work on assessing the merits of this politically incorrect story, (about which more here)that dovetails with this one and this one, this one and this one.


The whole solar system it seems, is getting warmer, and measurably so. While the BMCTOSBs work diligently and enthusiastically on alternate energy projects, it is not without an understanding that science is evolving and that the actual GW thing may be a bit overhyped.

In an earlier post I said this:
Which gets to another point I disagree with. The buggaboo of global warming. Oh it is measurable, it is happening, but given that it is happening on Mars and Jupiter as well, (no really) I think that there are larger forces at work than cow farts and industrial emissions. Kyoto like protocols only serve to inhibit first world economies and these economies are the engines of innovation. With thorium and pebble bed nuclear reactors built in a crash program powering both the grid and thermal depolymerization plants to produce biodiesel from waste and cash crops we could reduce our net emissions to near zero in 15 years...but the people who worry about emissions are largely (though not all of them) opposed to nukes on a visceral and religious level.

We have now facing humanity:
global mercury poisoning
dwindling/polluted drinking water supplies
ozone depletion
increasing vulnerability to pandemics
insect borne diseases (malaria alone kills millions)
famine
acid rain
the potential for nuclear terrorism
Apohis and other wayward space rocks


...and these people are getting the vapours over a longer growing season.

The appeal of Kyoto style agreements has nothing to do with reducing emissions...it is about putting a brake on capitalism and thus artificially making it less appealing than the train-wreck that is leftism. That is why the left supports it.

NONE of which is to say that we should NOT be investing in energy alternatives....many of those ACTUAL problems I list are caused by burning fossil fuels, especially coal. Mercury poisoning and acid rain are IMHO FAR worse problems than global warming.

We have finite sources of hydrocarbons and coal. Strategic reasons alone mean that to not be pursuing energy self sufficiency at this point would be irresponsible. But the whole Kyoto thing really bothers me as I think it is ultimately counterproductive. An agreement on sulfur dioxide and heavy metal emissions with tech transfer to those countries that need assistance in curbing them makes sense, but focusing on carbon is just silly right now.

Nookuler
Wind
Bio fuels powered by agricultural waste and perhaps even trash.
Solar in the tropical and subtropical latitudes it is practical.

These should all be pursued.
But if global warming is a transcendental threat (and I'm unconvinced that it is) we should focus on cooling things.....simple methods might be best.....until we can get more complex solutions online. :)

UPDATE: Upon re-reading it..the Times story,in the first link, actually implies that CO2 is not a factor at all.
This is bunk.
The greenhouse characteristics of CO2 are not in dispute. They have been proven by actual observations as opposed to computer models. Methane and water vapor as I understand it are more efficient greenhouse gasses, but CO2 is the biggest variable and has increased the most over the last 150 years as naturally sequestere carbon is injected into the atmosphere via coal and hydrocarbons.
Real Climate.Org ,which got some flack from some due to this sad piece trying to debunk the warming solar system (Mars has seasons! So ignore this! Don't talk to us about the other plantes!), IS nevertheless a very good source of info on this matter. Their take on this latest article is here and there is good discussion (as usual) in the comments.

I am actually sympathetic to the press release in this case as non-orthodox theories get rather shunned and buried (or so it seems) but the suggestion that Cosmic Rays are the only meaningful cause of GW....is silly.

Here at Brickmuppet Blog, while we don't buy into some of the climate change hysteria, we are perpetually astonished at the continued existence of morons who think that climate change is not occurring. They crop up in the comments at Real Climate with unnerving frequency.
HINT: NIAGARA FALLS DOESN'T FREEZE SOLID ANYMORE!


It did as recently as 1911...pictures were taken.
Ahem....




The issue is what to do about it, not if it is happening.

We support nuclear power, alternative fuels, and annoying taxes on fossil fuels but are deeply skeptical of the sort of socialist pipe dreams like Kyoto (which the signatories are cheating on anyway).
Given the warming of the solar system, an the many eco-issues mentioned above, I and the BMCTOSB would like to see a less mono-maniacal environmental policy than that advocated by Gore and others.

I'll blog more on this later.....I'm off to class.