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254 comments on DrumBeat: February 18, 2007

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dmathew1 on February 18, 2007 - 9:38am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Hello Everyone,

Also from today's New York Times':

Questions for Drew Shindell
Political Heat

Q: As a physicist and climatologist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, you recently testified before Congress about ways in which the Bush administration has tried to prevent you from releasing information on global warming. Can you give us an example? Sure. Press releases about global warming were watered down to the point where you wondered, Why would this capture anyone’s interest? Once when I issued a report predicting rapid warming in Antarctica, the press release ended up highlighting, in effect, that Antarctica has a climate.

If your department is that politicized, how does that affect research? Well, five years from now, we will know less about our home planet that we know now. The future does not have money set aside to maintain even the current level of observations. There were proposals for lots of climate-monitoring instruments, most of which have been canceled.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/magazine/18WWLNQ4.t.html

The second question is more important than the first. Science is declining from neglect and a lack of funding.

David Mathews
http://www.geocities.com/dmathew1

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TrueKaiser on February 18, 2007 - 11:12am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

well it is not a secret here that the u.s. administration has put political pressure on scientists to water down their message, lobbied intensively with the u.n. to watter down their report and include asinine plans to solve the problem in a way that allows us to keep businesses going as it is now.

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oaksmoke on February 18, 2007 - 11:36am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Bush/Cheney are climate terrorists. They have shown the world how to do everything wrong to prepare for peak oil and global warming.

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dmathew1 on February 18, 2007 - 12:29pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Hello Everyone,

Evidence that China is drinking the kool-aide of consumerism:

Cashing In on Communism

In the land of Mao, getting rich is finally glorious. It's also complicated.

A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, SHI XIAOYAN SOLD 17 OF HER 20 CARS. That left her with just the Porsches -- a Boxster and the 911 Turbo -- in the garage downstairs. Shi, who also goes by Celia, is the founder and chief executive of Illinois, the Beijing-based home furniture chain, and No. 21 on a list of the richest women in China, with a reported total wealth, along with her husband, Ye Mingqin, of $125 million. These days, she drives a $38,000 convertible Mini Cooper.

"I drive an economic car -- saves gas," she explains. "You know, you have to save something for your next generation; you shouldn't spend everything."

The next generation, of course, includes Shi's son Jason, 11. Three years ago, for his eighth birthday, Jason got a Subaru Impreza, which he had customized and regularly drives at his father's racetrack.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/13/AR200702...

I consider the statement, "You know, you have to save something for your next generation; you shouldn't spend everything" an unintentional morbid irony. The next generation is going to lose a lot more than gasoline. But this party will continue until it cannot continue any longer.

The Chinese have become consumers and they are trashing the Earth in the same manner as the obese American hyperconsumer. That's progress for you. Too bad for the Earth. But the Earth will recover, so too bad for humankind.

Since then, the booming Chinese economy has been one of the biggest stories in the world. Wealth and conspicuous consumption are climbing in a country where the average per-capita income has only just jumped to $145 a month (in Beijing, it's $209 a month). On the mainland, about 175 million, or 13.5 percent, of consumers have become what many Chinese scholars consider to be middle class, earning as much as $30,000 a year, the China Association of Branding Strategy reported recently. These consumers have managed to accumulate significant savings, yet often spend an entire month's salary on a single luxury item: a wallet, a watch or jewelry.

That group is expected to grow within 10 years to nearly 260 million, or 20 percent of the population, said Lu Xueyi, a Chinese Academy of Social Sciences professor. By then, China could be the world's biggest luxury market, analysts predict.

The Chinese are emulating Americans. They are becoming consumerism addicts and oil addicts and polluting the entire globe. What does it say when a five thousand year old culture begins to copy the insane excesses of a declining two-hundred year old culture?

There are a depressing photo album associated with this story:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/galleries/021507/china/index....

The Chinese are every bit as vain and foolish as Americans. There is no cause for optimism in this world. Global civilization is fading fast: Humans are burning up the Earth for the sake of fashion, comfort and luxury.

David Mathews
http://www.geocities.com/dmathew1

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sf on February 18, 2007 - 1:51pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

China at least is making a very serious effort to limit its population. The US, on the other hand, admits as refugees those Chinese illegal aliens who claim they are oppressed by the one-child policy.

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dmathew1 on February 18, 2007 - 2:07pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Hello sf,

China at least is making a very serious effort to limit its population. The US, on the other hand, admits as refugees those Chinese illegal aliens who claim they are oppressed by the one-child policy.

China has more than 1,315,844,000 citizens(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Republic_of_China), greater than the entire population of North America (518,000,000: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_America). So if China is limiting its population it is not doing so very effectively.

Anyhow, limiting population is a futile endeavor while China is not limiting consumption.

China's got a bleak future just as North America has a bleak future. We are all in this boat together and the boat is sinking.

David Mathews
http://www.geocities.com/dmathew1

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sf on February 18, 2007 - 2:31pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I'm not trying to minimize the impact of consumerism but population is half of the equation. China's population will take a while to stabilize, and possibly diminish, because the current generation of fertile women was born before the current population policies became effective. Whether this will happen in time is an open question.

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IFeelFree on February 18, 2007 - 3:42pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

China is also building a new coal-fired power plant every week.

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wwswimming on February 18, 2007 - 5:26pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/galleries/021507/china/index....

(slide #2)

nothing like a woman in a black dress with a #3 wood.

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