The Times Atlas of the World exaggerated the rate of Greenland's ice loss in its thirteenth edition last week, scientists said on Monday. No! Johnson, stop the presses!
The atlas, published by HarperCollins, showed that Greenland lost 15 percent of its ice cover over the past 12 years, based on information from the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado in the United States.
The Greenland ice sheet is the second biggest in the world and significant shrinking could lead to a global rise in sea levels.
"While global warming has played a role in this reduction, it is also as a result of the much more accurate data and in-depth research that is now available," HarperCollins said on its website on Monday.
However, a number of scientists disputed the claim.
"We believe that the figure of a 15 percent decrease in permanent ice cover since the publication of the previous atlas 12 years (ago) is both incorrect and misleading," said Poul Christoffersen, glaciologist at the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) at the University of Cambridge.
"We concluded that a sizable portion of the area mapped as ice-free in the Atlas is clearly still ice-covered." Remember, it isn't the facts that need to be true it is only the narrative that needs to be "true".
#1
One thing that's not exaggerated is that one can navigate the Northwest Passage the last few years - and most of the Northeast Passage, which has been exceedingly rare throughout known history.
#2
I'm probably going to a globally warmed hell for stating that this simply doesn't bother me one bit.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
09/20/2011 20:20 Comments ||
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#3
The "end" of the last Ice Age: About 12,000 years ago
"known history": A few thousand years. (Which, by the way, includes the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age.)
Color me unimpressed.
Posted by: Barbara ||
09/20/2011 21:01 Comments ||
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#4
I wish global warming were true. Warmer weather has always meant prosperity -- and we could use some.
ION - read somewhere that the poles tend to have a flip over effect. As one gets colder the other warms up. After a while the cycle reverses. Rinse and repeat. The point is that total ice stays about the same.
#5
Barbara, actually we're still in an ice age (both poles are covered with ice which has NOT been the norm in the history of Earth).
The claim (how can you measure the average temperature of the whole earth for a whole year?) is that the temperature has changed from ~288.0 to ~288.8 degree Kelvin in about 150 years, which (if true) means to me that the temperature has been amazingly stable, and both human health and happiness have definitely improved in this warming period.
Ivar Giaever
Nobel Laureate 1973
Posted by: European Conservative ||
09/20/2011 22:21 Comments ||
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#6
That's quite true, EC - it's just easier for most people to understand to say the last ice age ended X years ago (when the glaciers began to recede from continental Europe, Canada, and the northern U.S). Actually we're still coming out of the last one. Here's hoping we don't enter another Maunder Mimimum. I'd be glad of another Medieval Warm Period, though I doubt the ski resorts would agree.
Posted by: Barbara ||
09/20/2011 23:16 Comments ||
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Sept 20 (Reuters) - Standard and Poor's downgraded its unsolicited ratings on Italy by one notch to A/A-1 and kept its outlook on negative, a major surprise that threatens to add to concerns of contagion in the debt-stressed euro zone.
S&P said the cut reflected its view of Italy's weakening economic growth prospects.
Italy's fragile governing coalition and policy differences within parliament will likely limit the government's ability to respond decisively to the challenging domestic and external macroeconomic environment, the agency said.
"In our opinion, the measures included in and the implementation timeline of Italy's National Reform Plan will likely do little to boost Italy's economic performance, particularly against the backdrop of tightening financial conditions and the government's fiscal austerity program," said S&P.
The move from S&P came as a surprise as the market had thought Moody's was more likely to downgrade Italy first. Moody's last week said it would take another month to decide on its action.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/20/2011 00:00 ||
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#5
Keynes ignored human history that politicians would never be motivated to 'pay down' the debt. Using outliers to justify the general rule doesn't make for practical application.
His government paid back around 100 billion and left Australia (federal government) debt free. Which scaled up to the US economy would equate to 1.2 trillion.
Of course the current Labor government is busy squandering this.
BrahMos Aerospace the Indo-Russian joint venture that has developed the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile is keen to sell the missile to Vietnam with which India is developing a strong strategic relationship, sources have confirmed.
However, the Indian governments approval will have to be taken for any such acquisition. Sources also confirmed that Vietnam is already on a list of about 15 friendly countries that was decided by a joint Indo-Russian supervisory council to whom the BrahMos missile can be sold.
Informal talks are on but no concrete proposal has been made as yet, a source who did not want to be identified, told this newspaper. Any acquisition of the BrahMos missile will be of immense value to Vietnam and will boost its defence preparedness, sources said.
So far, the BrahMos missile has not been sold to any third country although a few have already evinced interest in acquiring it.
In a move that signalled the importance of strategic ties between India and Vietnam in the wake of increased Chinese military assertion in Asia, defence secretary Shashi Kant Sharma had also recently begun an official visit to Vietnam. India is set to offer naval facilities for training and capacitybuilding to Vietnam.
#1
Someone noted elsewhere that there are weird historical parallels happening in Asia right now that are somewhat mirror images of what happened in Europe prior to World War I.
That is, the "Triple Alliance" of Germany, AustriaHungary, and Italy, is today mirrored by China, Pakistan and North Korea.
The "Triple Entente" of Britain, France and Russia, is today mirrored by India, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam and everyone else in the area.
And instead of the build-up of battleships (dreadnoughts), today there is a great build up of submarines.
The biggest difference seems to be that no one has of yet decided to create a vast horde army.
#3
This is what happens when you give your Horde the ability to unionize.
Posted by: Charles ||
09/20/2011 13:14 Comments ||
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#4
American firepower in a couple of the wars that we fought in Asia taught everyone the valuable lesson that the human wave is NOT for modern combat. The ChiComs stopped using them by the end of the Korean War; the Viet Cong stopped using them before the Tet Offensive; and the ChiComs relearned the lesson and stopped using them again after the invasion of North Vietnam in 1979 {the North Vietnamese 'rehabilitated' a bunch of South Vietnamese officers to lead their troops against the Chinese}. With modern cluster munitions, horde armies are simply landlocked chum waiting to happen.
#5
That same idea applies in WWI with good old field artillery, but that didn't stop the use of mass armies. Nor did chemical weapons (also in the Iran-Iraq war).
Today, in a conflict between two such armies, the most expendable weapon is infantry. Between India and China, some 30-50 million draftees. Literally overwhelming any weapons system short of nuclear.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The Times Atlas of the World exaggerated the rate of Greenland's ice loss in its thirteenth edition last week, scientists said on Monday.
Sept 20 (Reuters) - Standard and Poor's downgraded its unsolicited ratings on Italy by one notch to A/A-1 and kept its outlook on negative, a major surprise that threatens to add to concerns of contagion in the debt-stressed euro zone.
