Decrepit Old Fool

But it’s probably been 15 years since I did any serious Bible reading so some of the more arcane details have become less certain.

Oh, and by the way, MrsDoF whupped me soundly on this one.

If you’re tired of politicians and pundits and would like to read what actual climate scientists say about climate change, you can download the IPCC report released today (.pdf)

I have only skimmed the report (have to go to that job).  The article summary is pretty strong but I won’t say any more until I’ve read the report.

UPDATE: 03 February
No huge surprises (to me) it is pretty much the “smoking gun” I expected.  The White House said the report was “valuable” but came out against either controls on CO₂ emissions, any kind of carbon tax, or any tough carbon-trading schemes.  (The European carbon-trading market was oversupplied at the beginning so it has resulted in little more than a windfall profit for some companies without any real incentive to lower carbon emissions). 

I was disappointed by the dearth of data from after 1995, but scientific reports are often that way when relating information that is still under analysis.  For example, the latest discoveries of meltwater lubrication of glaciers and ice caps (dubbed “dynamical ice loss” in Greenland and other places.  And while they did predict the extent of permafrost reduction, it was still early for quantitative factoring of billions of tons of methane release from the Siberian and other permafrosts. 

What everyone wants to know is the amount of sea level rise, and 3 feet by the end of the century doesn’t sound so bad.  But is is bad (assuming it is that little – a dangerous assumption given the radiative forcing elements that could not be factored).  The insurance industry is fully aware of what 3 feet will mean, and the economics of coastal flooding are beginning to soak into the financial community as well.  Even discounting the economic cost of damage to agriculture, the cost of carbon remediation may turn out to be the greatest bargain in history if we can “git ‘er done”.

The White House also felt that if the US unilaterally pursued carbon reductions, it would put our economy at a disadvantage against the developing world and particularly China.  But China is beginning to face up to global warming on its own, and in any case our economy has always been driven by innovation.  If we can get the jump on other countries in developing low-carbon energy and transportation modalities, that “disadvantage” will turn out to be a very smart move as other countries will have to go lo-carb eventually, and buy the technology from us.  Unfortunately given the “climate” of denial in our country, we’re not currently in a technological leadership position.

So: an important report, if only because it makes denial less tenable and provides the sheaf-waving evidence to prompt world leaders to quit stalling and move.  And in particular, to help the evangelical environmentalism movement gain traction against the Second-Coming “Suck the Earth dry” whackos. 

As Ann Druryan says; “We batter our planet as if we had someplace else to go.”

Notes:

• For an alternative framing of the problem, Mostly Cajun has this: OK, now what?

• And GUYK has a slightly less serious take  :ahhh:
• I’ll add more links as they come up around the news and in my blogroll.
• Read the transcript or download mp3 of LivingOnEarth interview with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center director James Hansen, responding to the report.
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Sure the snack-cake looks tasty, but millions of times a day, people flip the package over to check the ingredients.  If it contains trans-fats, they pass.  It’s a common ritual.

Consider doing the same thing when you buy a USB jump drive.  If you see “SmartDrive” or “U3” anywhere on the drive, well, it’s your funeral but I’d look for another jump drive. One clue is that some companies pay the jump drive manufacturer to be included in the capabilities of that drive’s U3 installer (accounting for an unusually low price). And although it is billed as a security feature, hackers are quite excited about the possibilities of U3, but that’s not the main problem.  Here’s what really pushes it into the “no buy” category for me – picture this:

You buy a new jump drive to carry your files around.  You plug it in, and it seems to take a lot longer to detect than other jump drives; the light flashes for a long time, your machine seems busy, but finally it says “ready”.  So you copy your presentation onto the drive, drop it in your pocket, and head off to give a presentation in another city.

When you get to the venue, you confidently plug the drive into their computer and the system says; “you need administrative access to install software on this machine, please contact your system administrator.”  You’d have been totally out of luck if by chance you hadn’t pre-emailed it to your webmail account too.  Hardly a convenience feature.

Sandisk and the U3 group deny this happens, of course, but this is only one example of several I have seen. The more I find out about U3, the more I feel inclined to mention it as a warning rather than a feature. 

• By the way,  the U3 removal tool doesn’t always work properly, either. 
• And you should be aware that all USB drives pose risks.  Many companies ban them altogether, for good reason.
• If you’re travelling with a presentation, I recommend assuming your transport method won’t work.  Copy it on a jump drive, pre-email it to yourself, put it on a web page where you can find it, burn it to a CD, and bring your own laptop with the presentation on it.  Be unstoppable!

• Webs05 has a more in-depth article about the hacking angle here: Smart Drive my ASS!!!

In the old days, you could do something illegal, something awful and disturbing (in this case, both), and you’d get away with it because any witnesses were afraid of your friends and anyway, they had no evidence.

Then some bright mind invented the cell phone camera.

Now if you do something horrible, and one of the witnesses has a cell phone camera, everyone in the whole world finds out what you did. 

From MrsDoF, who as a mother and former nurse has a few things to say on the matter.