Note the CYA headline at the link....
The island nation of Kiribati is one of the countries most threatened by rising sea levels.
If that ever happens, they mean...
However, many of the floods it has seen may be due to a mix of natural variability and human activities, complicating the picture of how rising sea levels are endangering Kiribati and other island nations.
There is always the possibility, unadmitted by our MSNBC journalist, that the seas aren't rising at all. But do go on, dear.
[L]and reclamation at Tarawa -- which involved filling in areas behind sea walls -- increased land in some locations but aggravated erosion and flooding in others, such as the atoll's airport.
Ah, 'man-made' land erosion?
Mining barrier reefs and beaches for construction material can also make the shoreline vulnerable to extreme tides and storms. You don't say.
Moreover, the building of causeways between islets has altered how these small islands evolve, diverting sediment to some while eroding it away from others. For instance, the loss of the lagoon islet of Bikeman, a once-popular resting spot for fisherman near Betio, is due primarily to the construction of the Betio-Bairiki causeway, and not rising sea levels.
Donner wants to avoid the false impression that Tarawa is subject to constant flooding because of sea-level rise. If he does, he's the only one....
"When scientists or environmentalists use a photo of a flooded village in Kiribati as evidence of sea-level rise, they open the door for critics of climate science knee-jerk stupidity,"
Donner said. "We can't attribute an individual flooding event on sea level rise any more than we can attribute an individual heat wave to global warming." Has anyone told the Goracle, et al.?
Donner detailed these findings April 24 in the journal Eos. Never heard of it. An "honest" journal, or a crack in the armor? We report, you deride.
Posted by: Barbara ||
05/17/2012 09:38 ||
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Mods, feel free to add appropriate graphics - I can't see them from my work computer (which blocks a lot of stuff).
Posted by: Barbara ||
05/17/2012 9:52 Comments ||
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#2
I gave you an earthquake, Barbara. Poor Al Gore doesn't rate anymore.
#3
Simon Donner, a climate scientist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, recommended a nice hike across the Rocky Mountains this winter. "We could call it a party," Donner said.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
05/17/2012 11:40 Comments ||
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#4
Lord Garth for snark of the day!
Posted by: Water Modem ||
05/17/2012 11:56 Comments ||
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Is the ocean rising or is the continental plate sinking. Plates aren't static.
Most likely this is all about the rising and falling levels of research grants....
* ION FREEREPUBLIC > [Rush Limbaugh.com]ENVIRO-IDIOTS: TWO EARTHS NEEDED BY 2030.
versus
* PRAVDA > HUMANS [read, USA = Americans] DESTROY A THIRD A EARTH'S BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES IN 40 YEARS.
IIRC, as measured for between the Years 1968 -2008 - in addition, actually up to FIVE PLANETS may be needed for the rest of the World to par wid US-specific consumption rates.
HMMMMM, HMMMMM, well, I am reminded of personal dreams/visions from childhood where I "saw" one close Planet in the Skies oer Central-Southern Guam, + another Purplish-colored Planet oer GUAM-WESTPAC REGION.
As per the NET + YOUTUBE, the Purple Planet thingy may be the incoming NIBIRU = PLANET X???
or JUPITER???
* WORLD NEWS > SOLAR MINIMUM MAY CAUSE ABRUPT CLIMATE CONDITIONS. Sudden changes.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Convicted Liberian warlord Charles Taylor The former President-for-Life of Liberia, of whom the best that could be said was that he wasn't quite as horrible as Prince Johnson, at least not usually. has accused UN prosecutors of paying witnesses to testify against him as he addressed a war crimes court in The Hague.
Taylor, 64, was found guilty by the UN-backed court last month for aiding and abetting war crimes.
"Witnesses were paid, coerced and in many cases threatened with prosecution if they did not give statements," the former Liberian president told the Special Court for Sierra Leone at a hearing ahead of his sentencing on May 30.
Dressed in a light grey suit, white shirt and blue tie, Taylor addressed the court for 30 minutes from the witness box -- his last chance to state his case before judges pronounce a sentence, expected to be delivered in two weeks' time.
Mr Taylor insisted that he "pushed hard for peace" in the neighbouring country. "I was convinced that unless peace came to Sierra Leone, Liberia could not go forward."
And he expressed his "sadness and deepest sympathies at the crimes suffered by victims and their families in Sierra Leone."
Once one of the most powerful men in west Africa, Taylor was found guilty last month of arming and aiding rebels who killed and mutilated thousands of people in Sierra Leone during a decade-long civil war that killed 120,000.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] The BNP, which had been threatening to launch tough anti-government movements, suddenly finds itself in deep trouble as a record number of big shots of the party and its associated bodies have been put behind bars in an arson case.
Leaders of all tiers of the party got "puzzled and panicky" when 33 top leaders of the BNP-led 18-party alliance, including BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, were sent to jail yesterday.
Talking to The Daily Star, party insiders termed the incident "unprecedented" in the country's political history and feared that the government's "hard line" against the opposition may put democracy in jeopardy.
"There is no example of sending so many opposition leaders to jail in any democratic country in the world," Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, an adviser to the BNP chairperson, told The Daily Star yesterday.
Khandaker Mahbub, also a former president of Supreme Court Bar Association, said he had witnessed the rule of Ayub Khan and Yahya Khan and also the last 40 years of independent Bangladesh, but never before did he see such mass detentions. "It did not happen even in any military rule."
Perhaps y'all might want to give up that whole hartal thingy, guys. It doesn't seem to be working well. But there's nothing to be done now about past corruption or what happened during the war. Sorry.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Agitated leaders and workers of BNP-led 18-party alliance vandalised around 200 vehicles and dozens of establishments across the country yesterday, ahead of today's nationwide dawn-to-dusk hartal. ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... Scores were also injured in festivities between the alliance activists and law enforcers. The activists had blockaded roads and brought out processions protesting the court order that sent opposition leaders to jail.
A Dhaka court yesterday sent 33 leaders of 18-party alliance, including BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, to jail rejecting their bail petition in a case filed in connection with torching a vehicle near the Prime Minister's Office during April 29 shutdown.
Since yesterday afternoon, at least 13 vehicles were torched in Dhaka. Of them, four buses were set ablaze in Mirpur, one in Rajarbagh, one in Karwan Bazar, one on Panthapath, two pick-up trucks in Rampura, a taxi on Elephant Road and two buses and a car in Savar, on the outskirts of the capital.
Several people including pro-BNP lawyers and 18-party leaders and workers, and journalists sustained injuries in the capital when agitated activists clashed with law enforcers in and around the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's court.
In Thakurgaon town, BNP activists vandalised several banks and business establishments and at least 100 vehicles, including police vans, buses, microbuses, cars and cycle of violences, reports our correspondent.
An hour after the violence, when police took position at Thakurgaon Chourasta (intersection), BNP activists engaged in a clash with the law enforcers. Twelve people, including three coppers, were maimed in the clash.
Law enforcers had to lob 30 to 40 teargas canisters and shoot rubber bullets to calm the situation down, said Thakurgaon police.
The activists also snatched the camera of Partha Sarothi, district correspondent of Mohona Television, while he was shooting the violence.
Police locked away Book 'im, Mahmoud! 11 people until 5:15pm, said acting superintendent of police Belayet Hossain.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012 00:00 ||
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Thought this would be France.............my bad ;^)
#2
"Since yesterday afternoon...Law enforcers had to lob 30 to 40 teargas canisters and shoot rubber bullets to calm the situation down..."
Too early for the RAB to show up with the #7 Vice-Grips and velvet-cased stutter gun for some serious riot-quelling.
An unlikely coalition of lawmakers and activists came together in Britain on Wednesday to urge people to "feel free to insult me" in a campaign for the repeal of a law banning public insults.
Groups including the Christian Institute, the National Secular Society and a noted gay rights campaigner, led by a lawmaker from the ruling Conservative Party, called for the relevant section of the Public Order Act to be scrapped.
They said it has been used to arrest a teenage boy who held a placard reading "Scientology is a dangerous cult" and a student who joked that a police officer's horse was "gay," though both were eventually released without charge.
The wording, which bars people from using "insulting words or behaviour" in the hearing of someone likely "to be caused harassment, alarm or distress," has also been used against protesters and street preachers.
Conservative lawmaker David Davis said the ban, known as Section 5, was having a "terrible, chilling effect on democracy," while a poll commissioned by the campaign said 62 percent of lawmakers would support its repeal.
But 17 percent thought repealing it would undermine the ability of the police to protect the public, and one in five thought it would penalise minorities.
"We've sunk our differences to defend free speech," gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell wrote in the Times newspaper. He said he was arrested and charged under Section 5 in 1994 when he protested against the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir.
"Members of this Islamist group had endorsed the killing of Jews, gays, apostates and women who have sex outside marriage," he wrote.
"I displayed placards that documented the persecution of gay people by Islamist fanatics...
"I fought the charges and won, but not before spending many hours in police cells and standing trial."
He added that great thinkers such as Galileo and Darwin had caused "great offence and distress in their time."
The Public Order Act became law in 1986 in the wake of the miners' strikes across Britain, a key standoff between trade unions and authorities.
The campaigners said Wednesday that separate British laws protect people against discrimination, incitement and violence.
Three Chinese fishing boats were apparently hijacked in Chinese waters and then taken to North Korean waters. They hijackers were "armed men in blue hats and uniforms". Chinese officials said they were aware of it and "considered it a matter for the fisheries industry" according to the source article.
#6
Is Beijing certain whom did it - the MSM-Net Artics from yestiddy afternoon seemed to allude Beijing believed these "Pirates" were working on behalf of the NORTH KOREAN STATE = Jong-un + his Pyongyang Boyz???
* CHINA DAILY FORUM > NORTH KOREA ASKS RANSOM FOR CAPTURED CHINESE FISHING BOATS.
* TOPIX > NORTH KOREA SEIZES CHINESE BOATS FOR RANSOM, "GLOBAL TIMES" SAYS.
* SAME > NORTH KOREA ASKS RANSOM FOR CAPTURED BOATS.
The Arab-speaking media was in a quandary after the appointment of Jean-Marc Ayrault as France's new prime minster on Tuesday -- about how to mention the head of the French government without causing offense.
Transcribed into Arabic from the French pronounciation of his name, "Ayrault" refers to the male sexual organ in several Arabic dialects.
The problem lasted for hours after French President Francois Hollande named the head of the Socialist bloc in parliament as his prime minister, with Arab journalists trying different possible pronunciations of his name.
Some newspapers referred to him as "Aro," others prefixed his name with an "H," while some chose to spell out the last two silent letters.
The conundrum was finally resolved by the French foreign ministry, which issued an official edict on subject permitting his name to be transcribed as written, and saving the blushes of many an Arabic editor.
[Dawn] Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... on Wednesday took the leadership of Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz (PML-N) to task for undermining the sanctity of the office of the country's chief executive.
"While I was abroad, some politicians tried to undermine the sanctity of the office of the prime minister and urged their party workers to stage protest rallies, but they miserably failed due to the people's commitment to democracy," said the prime minister while chairing the federal cabinet meeting.
He said such politicians could not interpret the court judgments according to their "own whims" and asked them to avoid influencing the courts by their own interpretation.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012 00:00 ||
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President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that he is eager to attend the Olympic Games in London to support Iranian athletes but that Britain doesn't want to host him.
He could stay in France and take the Chunnel over...
Ahmadinejad was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying he would like to be ``beside Iranian athletes'' during the games but that the British are reluctant to have him.
``I would like to be next to our young athletes at the 2012 Olympics but the host has a problem with this,'' said Ahmadinejad during a meeting with Iranian athletes who have qualified for the Olympics.
Ahmadinejad did not specify whether he has officially requested to attend the games or say if Britain has refused him entry.
There was no immediate comment from the International Olympic Committee.
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
dominated Mexico for six years.
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.
Charles Taylor
cycle of violence
[Dawn] Prime Minister 
