Space Is Still An Unknown And Dangerous Place

We take the exploration of space for granted but the fact remains that our lack of understanding of the final frontier means that our place in the universe does not lack for mystery.

Here are some recent news items that indicate that space is still an unknown and dangerous place.

The 213th meeting of the American Astronomical Society featured a report on an interesting discovery. The discovery of a newly detected signal far louder than any Astronomy expected.

A team led by Alan Kogut of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center detected a signal from a balloon-borne instrument named ARCADE (Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Diffuse Emission). In July 2006, the instrument was launched from NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, and reached an altitude of about 120,000 feet (36,500 meters), where the atmosphere thins into the vacuum of space.

It not unusual for many objects in the universe, including stars and quasars, to emit radio waves. Some galaxies even send out a background radio hiss. However this new signal is measured to be six times brighter than the combined emission of all known radio sources in the universe. The origin of the signal is unknown and remains a total mystery.

Meanwhile, the potential danger to this planet from a solar storm was outlined in a report that was funded by NASA and released in January 2009. All sorts of dire problems would occur on earth if a solar storm were to hit the earth's magnetic field. It happened before in 1859 and it could happen again but this time the ramifications would be much more severe.

For More Read: A Global Disaster From The Perfect Solar Storm on the Daily Vu.

Finally, a lack of sunspot activity continues in 2009 and the earth continues to cool despite the the hype of the proponents of global warming. An astronomer by the name of Theodor Landscheidt predicted the current activity of the sun and this unexpected global cooling trend prior to his death in 2002.

Read about his predictions for the future in : Follow The Sun To The Landscheidt Minimum on the Daily Vu.

Martin Luther King Day - 2009

Martin Luther King Day -2009 :

"This is not a black holiday; it is a peoples' holiday," said Coretta Scott King after President Ronald Reagan signed the King Holiday Bill into law on November 2, 1983. On April 4, 1968, she had lost her husband, to an assassin's gun.

Martin Luther King Day became a federal holiday in 1986 and is held on the third Monday of January. It celebrates the life and achievements of the civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Pardon For Ramos and Compean:

(AP)
In his final acts of clemency, president George Bush on Monday commuted the prision sentences of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents whose convictions for shooting a Mexican drug dealer ignited fierce debate about illegal immigration.

Bush's decision to commute the sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who tried to cover up the shooting, was welcomed by both Republican and Democratic members of Congress.

It is a release for these two border agents that was long overdue.

Also, please read the Daily Vu on eworldvu : The Crash Of Flight 1549 And Global Warming

Days Without A Sunspot Reach The Top Two

There were sixteen days without a sunspot in the first nineteen days of December 2008.

This means that this years lack of sunspot activity has exceeded 1912 as the second quietest year in more than a century.

In fact, last year was also noted for the quiet of the sun. 2007 also finished in the list of top ten years without a sunspot. However, the number of days without solar activity has dramatically increased this year from one year ago.

Meanwhile, according to the National Climatic Data Center, this year will be America’s coldest year since 1997. Certainly, this has become apparent in the last few weeks, as the harsh reality of ice and snow has been seen in several unusual places in the country.

In Southern California a half-inch of snow covered Malibu’s hills while a half-foot of the white stuff barricaded highways and marooned commuters in desert towns east of Los Angeles. Three inches of snow closed Las Vegas’ McCarren Airport and dusted the Strip’s hotels and casinos. Recently, eight inches of snow struck New Orleans and blanketed Southern Louisiana.

The cold has also strengthened in places that are used to its intensity. The National Weather Service reports that last summer was Anchorage’s third-coldest on record. In addition, the National Snow and Ice Data Center found that Arctic sea ice expanded 13.2 percent this year, or 270,000 square miles. In Canada, every part of the country will have a White Christmas for the first time since 1971.

The fact is that from 1998 until January 2007, the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere near its surface decreased some 0.25 C (0.45 F) but from January 2007 until the spring of 2008, it has dropped a whopping 0.75 C (1.35 F).

So, a lack of solar activity in the last two years may well be driving this dramatic global cooling trend. In 2008, the days without a sunspot reached the top two. If this trend continues, dreams of a white Christmas may soon become a reality in Malibu.

For more on global cooling and sunspot activity see: To Predict Global Climate Change Look To The Sun on eworldvu

The Year Of Man-Made Global Warming Doubt

Scientists at the UN global warming conference currently underway in Poland this week, made one thing clear. They say that they have completed one crucial task. They have established beyond a doubt that man-made global warming is for real.

Last year, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a 2007 Summary for Policymakers authored by fifty two scientists which said that climate change is "unequivocal, is already happening, and is caused by human activity."

So, if the United Nations Panel on Climate Change has proven beyond any doubt that human activity creates Global Warming, why is there so much intense disagreement to that conclusion within the scientific community?

Maybe its because the planet has not seen any warming in the last ten years. It could also be due to the fact that all those dire predictions by climate computer models of warming in this decade have proven to be so incorrect. Man-made global warming doubt also may be growing because the planet has actually begun to cool.

In fact, 2008 is set to be the coolest year of this decade, according to a preliminary estimate of global average temperature from the Met Office (UK). The global average temperature for 2008 should come in close to 14.3C, which is 0.14C below the average temperature for 2001-07.

So far in 2008, there have been 250 scientists that have added their names to a list of 400 scientists that have already spoken out against the United Nations concerning man-made global warming.

This week, a newly updated U.S. Senate Minority Report will feature the dissenting voices of these 650 international scientists. Many are current and former U.N. IPCC scientists, who have now turned against the U.N. The U.S. Senate report is the latest evidence of the growing groundswell of scientific opposition rising to challenge the concept that global warming is man-made.

Here is a sample of some of the quotes from international scientists the Senate Minority Report is said to contain:

“I am a skeptic. Global warming has become a new religion.” - Nobel Prize Winner for Physics, Ivar Giaever.

“Since I am no longer affiliated with any organization nor receiving any funding, I can speak quite frankly. As a scientist I remain skeptical."- Atmospheric Scientist Dr. Joanne Simpson, the first woman in the world to receive a PhD in meteorology and formerly of NASA who has authored more than 190 studies and has been called “among the most preeminent scientists of the last 100 years.”

Warming fears are the “worst scientific scandal in the history. When people come to know what the truth is, they will feel deceived by science and scientists.” - UN IPCC Japanese Scientist Dr. Kiminori Itoh, an award-winning PhD environmental physical chemist.

“The IPCC has actually become a closed circuit; it doesn’t listen to others. It doesn’t have open minds. I am really amazed that the Nobel Peace Prize has been given on scientifically incorrect conclusions by people who are not geologists,” - Indian geologist Dr. Arun D. Ahluwalia at Punjab University and a board member of the UN-supported International Year of the Planet.

“The models and forecasts of the UN IPCC “are incorrect because they only are based on mathematical models and presented results at scenarios that do not include, for example, solar activity.” - Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera, a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico

“It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that makes it seem there is only a fringe of scientists who don’t buy into anthropogenic global warming.” - U.S Government Atmospheric Scientist Stanley B. Goldenberg of the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA.

“Even doubling or tripling the amount of carbon dioxide will virtually have little impact, as water vapour and water condensed on particles as clouds dominate the worldwide scene and always will.” Geoffrey G. Duffy, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering of the University of Auckland, NZ.

“For how many years must the planet cool before we begin to understand that the planet is not warming? For how many years must cooling go on?” - Geologist Dr. David Gee the chairman of the science committee of the 2008 International Geological Congress who has authored 130 plus peer reviewed papers, and is currently at Uppsala University in Sweden.

A climate debate continues to rage within the scientific community, and one thing has become very certain. In 2008, there is a growing scientific consensus behind man-made global warming doubt.

Days Without Sunspots Are In The Top Five

The news is about the cold weather in late 2008. Newspapers report that glaciers in Canada, California, and New Zealand are growing, as the result of colder temperatures and increased snowfall.

After years of decline, glaciers in Norway are again growing, reports the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE).

Meanwhile, in Alaska, the United States Geologic Survey has maintained a research project measuring the state of Alaskan glaciers since 1946. This year records were broken for most snow buildup. It was also the first time since measurements began that Arctic glaciers did not shrink during the summer months.

Australian Ski fields recently recorded a heavy snow fall about a week before the summer started. Also, ski resorts across Europe opened last weekend ahead of schedule after the biggest November snowfalls in at least a decade. Meanwhile heavy snow and freezing cold closed schools in much of Spain.

In New Zealand, environmental groups are angry about the new government's plan to review the science behind climate change. Environmentalists think New Zealand's reputation would be damaged if the concept of global warming is questioned.

These are all stories making international news in recent days. Of course, these stories are the result of the significant drop in global temperatures over the last two years. A drop in temperatures that may well be connected to sunspot activity.

In 2007, there were 183 days without a sunspot observed on the face of the sun. The year would be ranked ninth in the last one hundred years for a lack of sunspot activity. This year, the number of days without sunspots have already easily surpassed that level from last year.

At the end of November 2008, the number of days without a sunspot was at 239. It made 2008, the fifth ranked year without a sunspot in a century, with one full month left to go. In fact, by the end of this week, the 2008 rank will likely move up to number three, since the sun has been blank, so far this month. The number two spot is within reach with fifteen days of sunspot inactivity during December.

Two years in a row of declining temperatures with a near record lack of sunspot activity while CO2 gas continues to increase in the atmosphere. If this trend continues, history would suggest that it could get very cold. Then, the huge, lucrative, international business of research into man-made global warming would have to be put on hold.

A Record Warm October Leaves NASA In The Cold

Until late last year global warming proponents pointed out that temperature records showed that 1998 was the hottest year ever recorded in the United States.

In fact, Several of the years surrounding 1998 were also very warm and near the record as well. It certainly appeared that the climate was progressively warming when reviewing the historical record.

That was before a Canadian blogger named Steve McIntyre at Climate Audit set the NASA temperature record straight. Mcintyre audited the actual records and found substantial errors. When he reported his findings to NASA scientists, they conducted a review that showed he was indeed correct.

This led NASA to revise the data published on its website. The errors changed the historical facts concerning the global warming argument. The hottest year in the United States was no longer 1998, but 1934. 2001 was no longer even listed in the Top Ten. Instead, four of the top ten hottest years were back the 1930s.

One year later, the problem of inaccurate data providing dubious global warming conclusions has embarrassed NASA once again. Last Monday, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) announced that last month was the hottest October on record.

This NASA claim was hard to understand since in the United States, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had already ranked October temperatures as the 70th-warmest October in the last 114 years. Once again GISS data was examined by Steve Mcintyre at "Climate Audit" and another blogger Anthony Watts from the website "Watts Up With That".

As a result of the data review, GISS was again revising information published on its website. Data analysis revealed that Russia was recorded as unusually warm. The reason for all that October warmth was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not actually based on October readings at all. Figures from September had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.

A GISS spokesman explained that the reason for the error in the Russian figures was that they were obtained from NOAA and that GISS did not have resources to exercise proper quality control over the data it was supplied with.

Global temperature published by GISS are one of the four data sets that the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) relies on to promote its case for global warming. The truth is that GISS consistently shows higher temperatures than any of the others.

The fact is that it was not a record warm October and the planet has been cooling for the last few years. Unfortunately, for the second straight year, NASA is embarrassed by a lack of quality control at GISS. The basis of science is making sure that the evidence is accurate before any conclusion is made.

So, a lack of quality control over data is a sad excuse. The real truth is that a record warm October was an erroneous conclusion based on inaccurate information. It has left NASA's credibility on global climate change out in the cold, for the second year in row.

Increasing Arctic Ice Is What We Don't Hear

Last summer a headline from the Christian Science Monitor read: "Arctic Sea Ice Melting Faster Than Expected". The first line of the article sounded the environmental alarm.

It said: "Arctic Ocean sea ice, one of the most visible indicators for global warming, may be headed for another recordbreaking summer decline." There were similar articles concerning a connection between global warming and melting Arctic sea ice in many other magazines and newspapers at the time.

However, when conditions in the Arctic change, there is no longer any apparent media interest in reporting about Arctic sea ice. So, everyone concerned with global climate change should ask this question; If Arctic Sea ice really is "one of the the most visable indicators for global warming", why is the mainstream media not reporting what is happening in the Arctic Sea today?

The fact is that after last summer's Arctic ice melt fell short of the 2007 record extent, Arctic sea ice has been increasing at the fastest rate seen in years. As of last Friday, it was running ahead of the same day in October of last year by 31.3%. (See: annual comparison in purple shade in picture above - 10/17/2007 5,663,125 square kilometers, 10/17/2008 7,436,406 square kilometers ).

The truth is that despite all the recent media hype, melting Arctic Sea Ice probably has nothing to do with man-made global warming. (See: Melting Arctic Sea Ice And Global Warming Hype) on eWorldvu.com .

In fact, there are several other possible explanations for the recent record melt in Arctic sea ice that have little to with global warming.

A scientist at the University of Fairbanks, Alaska, (Igor Polyakov) points out that pulses of unusually warm water have been entering the Arctic Ocean from the Atlantic, which several years later are seen in the ocean north of Siberia. These pulses of water are helping to heat the upper Arctic Ocean, contributing to summer ice melt and helping to reduce winter ice growth.

Another scientist, Koji Shimada of the Japan Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology, reports evidence of changes in ocean circulation in the Pacific side of the Arctic Ocean.

"Through a complex interaction with declining sea ice, warm water entering the Arctic Ocean through Bering Strait in summer is being shunted from the Alaskan coast into the Arctic Ocean, where it fosters further ice loss. Many questions still remain to be answered, but these changes in ocean circulation may be important keys for understanding the observed loss of Arctic sea ice.”

The media reports that the recent record Arctic ice melt is connected with global warming as fact, when it certainly is not. After all the environmental hype concerning record melting Arctic sea ice last summer, there is a notable lack of reporting on the dramatic annual increase (31%) in the extent of Arctic Ice in evidence in the past week.

Indeed, after a summer of Arctic ice melt from global warming media hype, the rapid increase in Arctic Ice this year is a media story that we just don't hear.

The Year Of The Man-Made Global Warming Skeptic

In 2008, scientists from all over the world are jumping off the man-made global warming bandwagon. This is due to the fact that environmental study after study concludes that the behavior of man is not the cause of significant global warming.

In a recently released Geological Society of America abstract, Dr. Don Easterbrook, Professor of Geology at Western Washington University, presented data showing that the global warming cycle from 1977 to 1998 is now over and that we have entered into a new global cooling period that should last for the next three decades.

He also suggests that since the IPCC climate models are now so far off from what is actually happening that their projections for both this decade and century must be considered highly unreliable.

Meanwhile, David Douglass and John Christy, in a paper just accepted for publication and now available on the internet, have come to the conclusion that natural changes in global water temperature are responsible for an increase in global temperature. Here is their scientific conclusion:

"El Nino and La Nina effects in the tropics have a more significant affect on global temperature anomalies than carbon dioxide, in particular it was an El Nino event that drove the 1998 global temperature maximum".

At NASA, Dr. Roy Spencer, believes natural cycles account for most of last century’s warming, with carbon dioxide increases contributing only a modest amount.

His new research, which was submitted to Geophysical Research Letters for publication, shows that climate models overstate the positive feedback from an increase in carbon dioxide, and therefore grossly overstate the projected warming during the next century

In addition, two new studies (article in Science Magazine) point to wind-induced circulation changes in the ocean as the dominant cause of the recent ice losses through the glaciers draining both the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, not ‘global warming.’

In June, Dr. David Evans, an architect of Australia’s Kyoto compliance, and for years a noted climate change alarmist, became the latest man-made global warming doubter. Evans outlines the four main reasons why 2008 has become the year of the global warming skeptic and why he recently jumped off of the global warming bandwagon.

1.The missing “greenhouse signature”, which would be a hot zone about 10 km up in the atmosphere. It’s been sought for years - hundreds of measurements using radiosondes (a sort of temperature measuring weather balloon). It would constitute the smoking gun . Hundreds of tests have returned the same answer - it’s not there. It is statistically impossible that the hundreds of tests missed the spot. The existing models on greenhouse warming do not work without this hot zone.
2. “There is no evidence to support the idea that carbon emissions cause significant global warming” says Evans. “None". There is plenty of evidence that global warming has occurred, and theory suggests that carbon emissions should raise temperatures (though by how much is hotly disputed) but there are no observations” constituting evidence that carbon emissions are a significant driver in warming trends.
3. Satellites measuring the world’s temperature uniformly show that the warming trend stopped in 2001 and that in the past year the temperature actually returned to 1980 levels. Satellite measurements are the only truly reliable method for capturing the data as land-based measurements are vulnerable to encroachments of expanding cities and “urban heat island effect.”
4.“The new ice cores show that in the past six global warmings over the past half a million years, the temperature rises occurred on average 800 years before the accompanying rise in atmospheric carbon. Which says something important about which was cause and which was effect.”

As global temperatures continue to cool and research against man-made global warming continues to pile up, as scientists abandon the man-made global warming bandwagon one thing is becoming increasingly clear. The cause of global climate change should be based on facts and evidence and not just our fear.

(See: Melting Arctic Sea Ice And Global Warming Hype on eworldvu.com)

Vandalism And A Diet To Stop Global Warming

The Jury's "Not Guilty"verdict was certainly a surprise. The Greenpeace defendents had already admitted to their crime and did not deny the 35000 British pounds worth of vandalism to the Kingsnorth coal plant in Kent in the United Kingdom.

During the trial the five defendants said they had acted lawfully, owing to an honestly held belief that their attempt to stop emissions from Kingsnorth would prevent further damage worldwide caused by global warming.

Their aim, they said, was to rein back CO2 emissions and bring urgent pressure to bear on the Government and E.ON to change policies. They insisted their action had caused the minimum amount of damage necessary to close the plant down and constituted a "proportionate response" to the increasing environmental threat.

The acquittal was the second time in a decade that the "lawful excuse" defense has been successfully used by Greenpeace activists in the United Kingdom. In 1999, 28 Greenpeace campaigners were cleared of criminal damage after trashing an experimental field of GM crops in Norfolk, causing a similar amount of damage.

The "lawful excuse" defense allows damage to be caused to property to prevent even greater damage such as breaking down the door of a burning house to tackle a fire.

Meanwhile, as the Greenpeace defendents were being being acquitted of their vandalism due to the "lawful excuse" of preventing global warming, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, was suggesting another solution to the problem of global warming.

Dr. Pachauri said that people should have one meat-free day a week. He said diet change was important because of the huge greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental problems including habitat destruction associated with rearing cattle and other animals. Needless to say, the meat and restaurant industry sharply disagreed.

So, its environmental criminal vandalism and a United Nations suggested diet change to reduce CO2 gas emissions in order to stop man made global warming. It seems that even if CO2 gas is responsible for global warming that the activism of global climate change appears to be more important than any realistic, economic cure.

For more on global climate change read: "To Predict Global Climate Change Look To The Sun" on eworldvu.com.

The First Month Without A Sunspot Since 1913

You may have missed this news announcement during the last few days. Certainly there were many other major stories that attracted more publicity and attention.

However, while the Olympics were a daily headline from Beijing and the United States political Conventions were being held in Colorado and Minnesota, as Hurricane Gustav was threatening the Gulf Coast with destruction and Russia was still a problem for Georgia, a lack of sunspot activity on the face of the sun had become an important story as well.

There were no recorded sunspots in the month of August 2008. In fact, this is the first full month since 1913 that the sun has not shown any evidence of Solar magnetic activity. So, August is the first month in over 1140 consecutive months to not have recorded a single sunspot. The truth is that sunspot activity had been minimal all year. (see Taking The Temperature Of Global Climate Change on eWorldvu.com). In fact, there had been only an average of 3 sunspots each month for the first seven months of the year.

A lack of solar magnetic activity is important because there is increasing scientific evidence that the cooling and warming of this planet is primarily a function of the sun. In the past a significant decline in solar magnetic activity has led to a substantial decline in global temperatures. Higher activity has led to higher global temperatures.

During the last 1000 years, a weak or non existent sunspot cycle can be linked to three global temperature events called the Dalton, Maunder, and Spörer Minimums. Each of these events led to a rapid cooling of the planet. One was large enough to be called a “mini ice age”.

The current lack of sunspot activity may mean much colder times are ahead for the planet over the next few decades. The politics of global warming may well be ready to turn into a scientific concern over global cooling. It is story that everyone should continue to monitor in the days and months ahead.