Posts from — December 2009

Today it was 5° warmer here on the northern Gulf Coast than Moscow.

The CBC reports Meteorologists: Thursday is warmest December day in Moscow’s recorded history. The recorded history of Moscow only goes back a bit more than 850 years, so it’s not forever.

CNN reports on the disappearing village of Shishmaref, Alaska. With the permafrost melting, the coastal ice melting earlier in the spring, and the ice forming later in the fall, the coast of Alaska is eroding at an alarming rate. This is one of the many Inuit coastal villages that are being forced to more inland and give up their centuries old lifestyle because of the warming in the Arctic.

I see a lot of people pontificating on “ClimateGate”, the e-mails from the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University. Before making grand announcements about this, people need to keep two things in mind.

Thers notes at Eschaton that Senator Boxer won’t discuss the e-mails on climate change because they are a part of a criminal investigation. The mail server was apparently hacked, and the e-mails stolen.

Skippy has a brief round-up of some of the responses to “ClimateGate”.

Now the people who are claiming that these e-mails prove that climate scientists are lying about climate change really are digging a hole for themselves. It might be a very deep and expensive hole.

East Anglia University is in the United Kingdom. The libel laws of the United Kingdom are not conducive to those who like to bad-mouth other people – they are not the free-wheeling American laws. Jams O’Donnell covers some of the major differences in his post, Libel tourists make mockery of English legal system. People bring libel suits in the UK because the defendant, the individual who shot their mouth off, has to prove what they said was true and accurate.

If these people clamoring that Global Climate Change is a conspiracy aided by these scientists, and they get sued for libel in the UK by one of the scientists, they are going to be required to prove the existence of a conspiracy and show how the scientist aided that conspiracy. You can’t just claim it, you are going to be required to prove it. I’m not familiar enough with British rules of evidence to know if the e-mails will even be admissible in the trial, as they are the “fruits” of a crime. Yes, you can be sued in a UK court, even though you live in the US, and you can be compelled to pay. Welcome to the Global Village.

If you read the British press, they are a good deal more circumspect on this matter, and I don’t doubt that they are vetting articles with their solicitors to avoid problems.

Don’t Try This At Home!

I have seen mentioned that some people have started a movement to draft Dick “Dick” Cheney to run for President in 2012.

While it is generally not a bad idea to allow wingnuts to waste their time, money, and energy on worthless causes, as it keeps them from getting under foot while the adults attempt to clean up their messes, I would note that with all of its resources, the Selective Service System of the United States was unable to draft Cheney. Actually one of the few things that Cheney seemed to have been able to do well in his life is avoid the draft.

While I understand the desire to put the only person who frightens all of the winger talking heads in charge, calling it a “draft” was really a deal-killer.

Happy NODWISH Greetings

As a service to my readers I have compiled a list of useful terms for our modern global village.

It is time to wish family and friends: [select one]

Happy NODWISH
Merry Solstice
Happy Hanukkah
Happy Kwanzaa
С Рождеством Христовым
Sung Tan Chuk Ha
Vrolijk Kerstfeest
Nadolig Llawen
Fröhliche Weihnachten
Joyeux Noël
Buon Natale
Feliz Navidad
God Jul
Rauhallista Joulua
Happy Hogwatch
Happy Christmas

[Read more →]

This year’s Hurricane Season was a non-event in the Atlantic Basin, while the Pacific was getting pummeled.

Two storms came ashore, Claudette and Ida, as Tropical Storms, but neither caused much in the way of damage as tropical events. The remnants of Ida were absorbed into an Nor’easter on the Atlantic Coast and created some major problems for the coastline.

The air was drier than usual, and the wind shear was tearing developing storms apart. This was attributable to a moderate El Niño in the Pacific. The sea surface temperature was plenty warm enough to support major hurricanes, but the dry air and wind shear disrupted their development.

Those of us who live on the Gulf Coast don’t really care why, just that there wasn’t much activity.

So today and tomorrow we have to put up with an extratropical storm, which is the equivalent of a weak tropical storm, but it is cold, with the lows on Saturday expected to dip to the freezing point, and the possibility of snow around Houston.