Another post from guest blogger Rick Neale of Florida Today, from the National Hurricane Conference in Orlando:
William Gray, the well-known Colorado State University hurricane forecaster, routinely uses the annual National Hurricane Conference as a platform to bash global warming. In a statement to Florida Today, Gray argued that the scientific consensus on global warming is bogus — and "a mild form of McCarthyism has developed toward those scientists who do not agree" that mankind is in danger.
"We are also brainwashing our children on the warming topic. We have no better example than Al Gore's alarmists and inaccurate movie which is being shown in our schools and being hawked by warming activists with little or no meteorological-climate background," Gray wrote.
Some scientists believe global warming will actually decrease — not increase — the number of hurricanes that form over the Atlantic Ocean each year. Last Friday, in the final session of the hurricane conference, a pair of climate experts said rising sea-surface temperatures in and near the Caribbean could strengthen vertical wind shear. Robust wind shear is the bane of hurricanes, as it tends to tear apart cyclones during their formative stages.
"If (global warming) were to happen, that is an effect which should be more hostile to hurricane building," said Thomas Knutson, research meteorologist with the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, N.J.
Knutson and Chris Landsea, science and operations officer with the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said historic observation data and computer models debunk doomsday scenarios that foresee armadas of deadly hurricanes, slamming into the Southeast. "Any (hurricane) trend we're seeing due to global warming — and I do agree global warming's real, and manmade causes contribute to it — really has very limited impact, very tiny changes," Landsea said.
Both scientists referred to the global warming studies of ocean climatologist Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Emanuel noted that from 1972-2004, Atlantic surface temperatures and hurricane intensity were closely linked.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Friday, April 04, 2008
That great socialist universal healthcare
Pensioner, 76, forced to pull out own teeth after 12 NHS dentists refuse to treat her
By OLINKA KOSTER - More by this author » Last updated at 13:44pm on 4th April 2008
Comments Comments (38)
A grandmother performed her own tooth extractions in despair after being turned away by 12 dentists.
Elizabeth Green, 76, was in agony with two front teeth and after a fruitless search for an NHS practitioner, resorted to DIY.
Her case is the latest of many to highlight the dwindling availability of NHS dental treatment.
Scroll down for more...
Days of agony: Elizabeth Green resorted to pulling her own teeth out after failing to find an NHS dentist
Mrs Green, a former chef, said it was made plain to her that if she could pay for treatment she would have been welcomed.
"I feel so angry," she said. "I've worked all my life and paid taxes and then when I need help I can't get it."
Last night she explained how she took matters into her own hands.
"Two of my front teeth started getting loose and became more and more painful.
"My gum became very sore so I contacted a dentist that I had been to in the past, but they said they were not taking on new patients.
"The problem was getting worse so I started ringing round the dentists in the Yellow Pages.
"I phoned about 12 but they all said they same thing - 'Sorry, we are not taking on any new NHS patients'.
"I also phoned a dental helpline but they couldn't offer a solution either. The teeth got more and more painful and one evening I couldn't take it any longer so I moved the teeth back and forwards and twisted them and eventually they came out."
Mrs Green, a mother-of-five and grandmother of 11, who lives in Winchester, has taken her complaint to her local Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate, Martin Tod.
He described her case as "a shocking story and an indictment of the current situation".
Mrs Green, whose late husband George served in the Army for more than 30 years, has now joined the waiting list for an NHS dentist in nearby Andover.
Since Labour introduced a new contract for dentists in 2006, more than 1,000 practices have stopped providing NHS care and 500,000 fewer patients see NHS dentists.
Dentists complain the new system forces them to provide "conveyor belt care" and to "drill and fill" to meet meaningless targets.
Last year, a great grandmother from Scarborough told how she pulled a tooth with a pair of pliers from her husband's toolbox after drinking beer as an anaesthetic.
Valerie Holsworth, 67, has repeated the operation six times now.
"It is just a matter of tugging and wiggling until the root comes loose,", she said.
In October, a survey of patients and dentists exposed a case in Lancashire in which a man had to "remove 14 teeth using pliers".
Helen Clanchy, spokesman for the Hampshire Primary Care Trust, said: "We are very concerned to hear that this patient felt they had no option but to take this kind of drastic action.
"We have a dental helpline that is able to offer patients who are unable or have chosen not to register with an NHS dentist, sameday emergency treatment."
By OLINKA KOSTER - More by this author » Last updated at 13:44pm on 4th April 2008
Comments Comments (38)
A grandmother performed her own tooth extractions in despair after being turned away by 12 dentists.
Elizabeth Green, 76, was in agony with two front teeth and after a fruitless search for an NHS practitioner, resorted to DIY.
Her case is the latest of many to highlight the dwindling availability of NHS dental treatment.
Scroll down for more...
Days of agony: Elizabeth Green resorted to pulling her own teeth out after failing to find an NHS dentist
Mrs Green, a former chef, said it was made plain to her that if she could pay for treatment she would have been welcomed.
"I feel so angry," she said. "I've worked all my life and paid taxes and then when I need help I can't get it."
Last night she explained how she took matters into her own hands.
"Two of my front teeth started getting loose and became more and more painful.
"My gum became very sore so I contacted a dentist that I had been to in the past, but they said they were not taking on new patients.
"The problem was getting worse so I started ringing round the dentists in the Yellow Pages.
"I phoned about 12 but they all said they same thing - 'Sorry, we are not taking on any new NHS patients'.
"I also phoned a dental helpline but they couldn't offer a solution either. The teeth got more and more painful and one evening I couldn't take it any longer so I moved the teeth back and forwards and twisted them and eventually they came out."
Mrs Green, a mother-of-five and grandmother of 11, who lives in Winchester, has taken her complaint to her local Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate, Martin Tod.
He described her case as "a shocking story and an indictment of the current situation".
Mrs Green, whose late husband George served in the Army for more than 30 years, has now joined the waiting list for an NHS dentist in nearby Andover.
Since Labour introduced a new contract for dentists in 2006, more than 1,000 practices have stopped providing NHS care and 500,000 fewer patients see NHS dentists.
Dentists complain the new system forces them to provide "conveyor belt care" and to "drill and fill" to meet meaningless targets.
Last year, a great grandmother from Scarborough told how she pulled a tooth with a pair of pliers from her husband's toolbox after drinking beer as an anaesthetic.
Valerie Holsworth, 67, has repeated the operation six times now.
"It is just a matter of tugging and wiggling until the root comes loose,", she said.
In October, a survey of patients and dentists exposed a case in Lancashire in which a man had to "remove 14 teeth using pliers".
Helen Clanchy, spokesman for the Hampshire Primary Care Trust, said: "We are very concerned to hear that this patient felt they had no option but to take this kind of drastic action.
"We have a dental helpline that is able to offer patients who are unable or have chosen not to register with an NHS dentist, sameday emergency treatment."
World needs more CO2, environment confab told
World needs more CO2, environment confab told
'There will be significant cooling very soon,' asserts solar scientist
Posted: April 03, 2008
11:15 pm Eastern
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
You could have heard a pin drop at the Hong Kong conference designed to persuade the airline industry to cut back on its production of so-called greenhouse gases to fight "global warming."
The "Greener Skies 2008" conference had just heard from David Archibald, a solar scientist asserting that climate change is mostly dictated by solar cycles, not carbon dioxide levels, as conventional wisdom suggests.
Archibald didn't just tell the group not to worry about carbon dioxide emissions. He told those gathered they should figure out ways of increasing CO2 output.
"In a few short years, we will have a reversal of the warming of the 20th century," Archibald warned, according to CargoNews Asia. "There will be significant cooling very soon. Our generation has known a warm, giving sun, but the new generation will suffer a sun that is less giving, and the earth will be less fruitful. Carbon dioxide is not even a little bit bad – it's wholly beneficial."
One observer at the February conference said there would have been fewer jaws dropping had Archibald stripped off his clothes before the assembled.
"Plant growth responds to atmospheric carbon dioxide enrichment," he continued. "In a world of higher atmospheric carbon dioxide, crops will use less water per unit of carbon dioxide uptake. Thus the productivity of semi-arid lands will increase the most."
But the real shocker was not just his unorthodox view of carbon dioxide. Unlike most of those in the conference, Archibald doesn't see a future threat of global warming, but an imminent and dire future of global cooling.
"We will need this increase in agricultural productivity to offset the colder weather coming," he said. "It also follows that if the developed countries of the world want to be caring and sharing to the countries of the Third World, the best thing that could be done for them is to increase atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. It is the equivalent of giving them free phosphate fertilizer. Who would want to deny the Third World such a wonderful benefit?''
After Archibald's speech, Martin Craigs, president of Aerospace Forum Asia, went to the microphone and asked: "Don't you have Al Gore's e-mail address?" "How can you be right and 2,000 scientists wrong?"
Archibald replied: "I am happy to share the science. It's all reputable."
'There will be significant cooling very soon,' asserts solar scientist
Posted: April 03, 2008
11:15 pm Eastern
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
You could have heard a pin drop at the Hong Kong conference designed to persuade the airline industry to cut back on its production of so-called greenhouse gases to fight "global warming."
The "Greener Skies 2008" conference had just heard from David Archibald, a solar scientist asserting that climate change is mostly dictated by solar cycles, not carbon dioxide levels, as conventional wisdom suggests.
Archibald didn't just tell the group not to worry about carbon dioxide emissions. He told those gathered they should figure out ways of increasing CO2 output.
"In a few short years, we will have a reversal of the warming of the 20th century," Archibald warned, according to CargoNews Asia. "There will be significant cooling very soon. Our generation has known a warm, giving sun, but the new generation will suffer a sun that is less giving, and the earth will be less fruitful. Carbon dioxide is not even a little bit bad – it's wholly beneficial."
One observer at the February conference said there would have been fewer jaws dropping had Archibald stripped off his clothes before the assembled.
"Plant growth responds to atmospheric carbon dioxide enrichment," he continued. "In a world of higher atmospheric carbon dioxide, crops will use less water per unit of carbon dioxide uptake. Thus the productivity of semi-arid lands will increase the most."
But the real shocker was not just his unorthodox view of carbon dioxide. Unlike most of those in the conference, Archibald doesn't see a future threat of global warming, but an imminent and dire future of global cooling.
"We will need this increase in agricultural productivity to offset the colder weather coming," he said. "It also follows that if the developed countries of the world want to be caring and sharing to the countries of the Third World, the best thing that could be done for them is to increase atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. It is the equivalent of giving them free phosphate fertilizer. Who would want to deny the Third World such a wonderful benefit?''
After Archibald's speech, Martin Craigs, president of Aerospace Forum Asia, went to the microphone and asked: "Don't you have Al Gore's e-mail address?" "How can you be right and 2,000 scientists wrong?"
Archibald replied: "I am happy to share the science. It's all reputable."
REPORT: GLOBAL TEMPS 'HAVE NOT RISEN SINCE 1998'...
Global warming 'dips this year'
By Roger Harrabin
BBC News environment analyst
Villager walks through the snow in Nanjing, China (February 2008)
La Nina caused some of the coldest temperatures in memory in China
Global temperatures will drop slightly this year as a result of the cooling effect of the La Nina current in the Pacific, UN meteorologists have said.
The World Meteorological Organization's secretary-general, Michel Jarraud, told the BBC it was likely that La Nina would continue into the summer.
This would mean global temperatures have not risen since 1998, prompting some to question climate change theory.
But experts say we are still clearly in a long-term warming trend - and they forecast a new record high temperature within five years.
The WMO points out that the decade from 1998 to 2007 was the warmest on record. Since the beginning of the 20th Century, the global average surface temperature has risen by 0.74C.
Rises 'stalled'
LA NINA KEY FACTS
La Nina 2008 Forecast (Source: UK Met Office Hadley Centre)
La Nina translates from the Spanish as "The Child Girl"
Refers to the extensive cooling of the central and eastern Pacific
Increased sea temperatures on the western side of the Pacific mean the atmosphere has more energy and frequency of heavy rain and thunderstorms is increased
Typically lasts for up to 12 months and generally less damaging event than the stronger El Nino
La Nina and El Nino are two great natural Pacific currents whose effects are so huge they resonate round the world.
El Nino warms the planet when it happens; La Nina cools it. This year, the Pacific is in the grip of a powerful La Nina.
It has contributed to torrential rains in Australia and to some of the coldest temperatures in memory in snow-bound parts of China.
Mr Jarraud told the BBC that the effect was likely to continue into the summer, depressing temperatures globally by a fraction of a degree.
This would mean that temperatures have not risen globally since 1998 when El Nino warmed the world.
Watching trends
A minority of scientists question whether this means global warming has peaked and argue the Earth has proved more resilient to greenhouse gases than predicted.
Animation of El Nino and La Nina effects
But Mr Jarraud insisted this was not the case and noted that 2008 temperatures would still be well above average for the century.
"When you look at climate change you should not look at any particular year," he said. "You should look at trends over a pretty long period and the trend of temperature globally is still very much indicative of warming.
"La Nina is part of what we call 'variability'. There has always been and there will always be cooler and warmer years, but what is important for climate change is that the trend is up; the climate on average is warming even if there is a temporary cooling because of La Nina."
China suffered from heavy snow in January
Adam Scaife, lead scientist for Modelling Climate Variability at the Hadley Centre in Exeter, UK, said their best estimate for 2008 was about 0.4C above the 1961-1990 average, and higher than this if you compared it with further back in the 20th Century.
Mr Scaife told the BBC: "What's happened now is that La Nina has come along and depressed temperatures slightly but these changes are very small compared to the long-term climate change signal, and in a few years time we are confident that the current record temperature of 1998 will be beaten when the La Nina has ended."
By Roger Harrabin
BBC News environment analyst
Villager walks through the snow in Nanjing, China (February 2008)
La Nina caused some of the coldest temperatures in memory in China
Global temperatures will drop slightly this year as a result of the cooling effect of the La Nina current in the Pacific, UN meteorologists have said.
The World Meteorological Organization's secretary-general, Michel Jarraud, told the BBC it was likely that La Nina would continue into the summer.
This would mean global temperatures have not risen since 1998, prompting some to question climate change theory.
But experts say we are still clearly in a long-term warming trend - and they forecast a new record high temperature within five years.
The WMO points out that the decade from 1998 to 2007 was the warmest on record. Since the beginning of the 20th Century, the global average surface temperature has risen by 0.74C.
Rises 'stalled'
LA NINA KEY FACTS
La Nina 2008 Forecast (Source: UK Met Office Hadley Centre)
La Nina translates from the Spanish as "The Child Girl"
Refers to the extensive cooling of the central and eastern Pacific
Increased sea temperatures on the western side of the Pacific mean the atmosphere has more energy and frequency of heavy rain and thunderstorms is increased
Typically lasts for up to 12 months and generally less damaging event than the stronger El Nino
La Nina and El Nino are two great natural Pacific currents whose effects are so huge they resonate round the world.
El Nino warms the planet when it happens; La Nina cools it. This year, the Pacific is in the grip of a powerful La Nina.
It has contributed to torrential rains in Australia and to some of the coldest temperatures in memory in snow-bound parts of China.
Mr Jarraud told the BBC that the effect was likely to continue into the summer, depressing temperatures globally by a fraction of a degree.
This would mean that temperatures have not risen globally since 1998 when El Nino warmed the world.
Watching trends
A minority of scientists question whether this means global warming has peaked and argue the Earth has proved more resilient to greenhouse gases than predicted.
Animation of El Nino and La Nina effects
But Mr Jarraud insisted this was not the case and noted that 2008 temperatures would still be well above average for the century.
"When you look at climate change you should not look at any particular year," he said. "You should look at trends over a pretty long period and the trend of temperature globally is still very much indicative of warming.
"La Nina is part of what we call 'variability'. There has always been and there will always be cooler and warmer years, but what is important for climate change is that the trend is up; the climate on average is warming even if there is a temporary cooling because of La Nina."
China suffered from heavy snow in January
Adam Scaife, lead scientist for Modelling Climate Variability at the Hadley Centre in Exeter, UK, said their best estimate for 2008 was about 0.4C above the 1961-1990 average, and higher than this if you compared it with further back in the 20th Century.
Mr Scaife told the BBC: "What's happened now is that La Nina has come along and depressed temperatures slightly but these changes are very small compared to the long-term climate change signal, and in a few years time we are confident that the current record temperature of 1998 will be beaten when the La Nina has ended."
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