GPS News

• 22/02/2008 India orders over one hundred SIGMA 95 navigation systems:..eveloped and produced by Sagem Défense Sécurité, SIGMA 95N is a standalone inertial laser gyro navigation system with integrated GPS/Glonass.. , via:EPICOS
• 17/02/2008 Private companies all set to give healthcare a booster dose:..While these emergency call details are being registered, operators can also quickly locate the police patrol vehicle that is nearest to the reported incident site using data that is continuously transmitted to the control room from GPS units fitted to these vehicles... , via:ET
• 17/02/2008 Free software powers this GIS:Participants mapped the Technopark campus by using the Global Positioning System (GPS) and Open Stret Map technology. , via:The Hindu
• 13/02/2008 US co offers better air traffic system:Gagan takes signal from the GPS and works out the positional errors that are sent to the Indian satellite of ISRO that sends precise positions to aircraft, which then relay it to ATCs," said Walter F Doran, president of Raytheon Asia. , via:Times of India
• 13/02/2008 Connectivity tops new Hyderabad airport agenda:...There will be close to 1,000 GPS-enabled taxis (if it breaks down it can be located and the passengers picked up)... , via:BusinessStandard
• 12/02/2008 Biotronik targets 10% CVD market in India:...pacemaker and a GPS enabled device that transmits data from patient to a service centre, which helps in round the clock monitoring... , via:BusinessLine
• 11/02/2008 Broadway Signs Comprehensive Agreement to Launch GyPSii into India:GyPSii, the world’s leading geo-location and social networking service provider for mobile phones and Internet devices, has signed an agreement with Broadway Pvt. Ltd. (www.broadway.in), to offer the full suite of GyPSii services to the world's second largest and fastest growing mobile market with 233 million mobile subscribers and growing at a monthly rate of over 8 million. , via:Businesswire
• 10/02/2008 Decline in the retreat of Gangotri glacier: Study:..Interestingly, the survey carried out using Global Positioning System (GPS) by G B Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, Almora found that the glacier has retreated at much lower rate between 2004 and 2005... , via:Times of India

Conference at Dubai

The region’s 1st forum for defence geospatial intelligence…

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High quality speakers. Wide range of countries/national views.

Roger Hoyle, Thales

Attend this regional first to hear from global geospatial intelligence experts sharing best-practice on achieving interoperability and integration:

• Major General John Rose, Director General Intelligence Collection, UK MoD
• Senior Representative, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, US
• Frank Asbeck, Director, European Union Satellite Centre
• Brian Routledge, Deputy Director, European Union Satellite Centre
• Mark Sorensen, Head of GIS, Abu Dhabi Spatial Data Infrastructure
• Commodore Pat Tyrrell OBE (Ret’d), Former Comandant, Defence Intelligence and Security School and Deputy Chief Executive, Defence Communication Services Agency, UK MoD
• Sam Bacharach, Executive Director, Outreach, Open Geospatial Consortium
• Professor Mike Jackson, Board Director, Open Geospatial Consortium
• Professor Bhupendra Jasani, Expert in Military Applications of Outer Space, Kings College London
• Major Peter Richardson MInstRE, Operations Officer, Defence Geographic Centre, UK MoD

Only at Defence Geospatial Intelligence Middle East will you …

Participate in the most pioneering interactive session in the region bringing military, government, industry and consultants together to evaluate evolving geospatial intelligence requirements. Bring your biggest technical problems to the table and listen to the heavyweights discuss what is driving – and inhibiting – the Middle East from reaching its geospatial intelligence goals. Tackling key issues such as:

• Enabling effective interoperability to integrate civilian and military geospatial intelligence capabilities
• Overcoming stovepipes to create cross-command situational awareness
• Building effective enterprise architectures to allow instant access to data in an interoperable environment
• Benchmarking against international geospatial standards
• Assessing the latest technology solutions and how to implement them

The only forum to allow you to assess the latest Geospatial Intelligence technology developments providing global expertise on military implementation, national security applications and crisis response. Hear from experts from the US, UK, Europe and industry to optimize your current systems.
Book now onto this exclusive forum to avoid disappointment

If you are not yet ready to register, feel free to request a reminder nearer the time . Alternatively, if this is not quite the event you are looking for, please check out our related events.

courtsey: www.gisdevelopment.net

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Agro-biodiversity

The genetic base of the world's food crops is shrinking as genetic resources are being lost to changing tastes, industrialization, urbanization, mechanization of farming, and commercialization of agriculture. Conservation and use of biodiversity is central to research on the improvement of food crops and the development of sustainable systems of farming for increased food production. Genetic and functional diversity of plants are the building blocks of improved agricultural performance and production. Genetic diversity can introduce useful new traits and create new heterotic combinations. These in turn can contribute to more crop yields and enhance adaptability of finished varieties by providing appropriate and useful genetic stocks for breeding programs.

The wild relatives of crop plants are a reservoir of untapped, potentially important genes for crop improvement. This is especially true of genes for tolerance or resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, but also for genes for other important adaptive traits. However, wild relatives are underrepresented in IITA collections. For the future, there is a need to collect, conserve, evaluate, characterize, document, and distribute plant genetic resources of a wide range of crops and their wild relatives. There is also a need to conserve and enhance the contribution of neglected and underutilized genetic resources to enhance the future income, health, and nutrition of the poor.

In the short term, germplasm of vegetatively propagated crops is usually maintained as tubers, roots, bulbils, cuttings, and in the field as living collections. Maintaining germplasm collections in the field is expensive in terms of labor, land, and space, and there is also the risk of losing valuable genetic material to pest attack and other unforeseen problems. In vitro reduced-growth storage methods being used routinely at IITA offer the solution for short- to medium-term storage of germplasm of yams, cassava, plantain, and banana. However, there are issues relating to genetic stability,
risk of contamination, or accidental loss. Cultures require routine subculturing; there is a sizeable workload in maintaining a large collection. Cryopreservation could increase considerably the efficiency of the long-term conservation of IITA’s vegetatively propagated germplasm.

Advances in biotechnology enable molecular marker-aided analyses of genetic diversity to aid management of ex situ germplasm collections, planning for conservation of biodiversity and guiding selection of accessions for use by breeders. Germplasm is of greatest value to plant breeders and other scientists when they are characterized and evaluated. The recent advances also provide molecular tools and techniques for detecting pathogens and for mining genes from the collections. Use of new diagnostic tools, particularly for viruses, is of high priority for ensuring efficiency and confidence of indexing of germplasm for international distribution.

The key objectives of this project are the efficient long-term conservation and use of genetic resources of staple and underutilized crop species, and increased efficiency and effectiveness of research aimed at exploiting their potential.

China Plans New Moon Probe

China plans to launch its second lunar probe, Chang'e-2, around 2009, according to a top satellite scientist.

Ye Peijian, chief commander and designer of China's first moon probe satellite system, revealed the plan during an interview program on CCTV, China Central Television.

However, Ye did not elaborate on the plan with more details. He said Chang'e-1, the country's first lunar probe, had resumed contact with the control center after it moved out of the shadow area caused by an eclipse of the sun at about 14:10 on Thursday.

From about 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, the satellite was blocked from the supply of solar energy when the Earth eclipsed the sun and lost the contact with the control center.

Scientists redirected the orbit of the satellite before the eclipse started. The satellite will perform another orbital adjustment while preparing for a second eclipse in August, he said.

The 2,350-kilogram satellite carrying eight surveying facilities aims to make a three-dimensional survey of the moon's surface. It will also analyze the abundance and distribution of elements on the lunar surface, investigate the characteristics of the powdery soil layer on the surface, and explore the environment between the Earth and the moon.

China's moon mission also includes a landing of a rover vehicle around 2012 and the launch of another rover that will land and return to the Earth with lunar soil and stone samples for scientific research around 2017.


Source : http://www.china.org.cn

A Movement About Change

This is a movement about change, as individuals, as a country, and as a global community. Join the 1,016,422 supporters of the Stop Global Warming Virtual March, and become part of the movement to demand our leaders freeze and reduce carbon dioxide emissions now. We are all contributors to global warming and we all need to be part of the solution.

Click Here to Learn More and be Counted

Global Warming: A Chilling Perspective

A Brief History of Ice Ages and Warming

Causes of Global Climate Change

Playing with Numbers

A Matter of Opinion

Unraveling the Earth’s Temperature Record

Stopping Climate Change

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A Brief History of Ice Ages and Warming

Global warming started long before the “Industrial Revolution” and the invention of the internal combustion engine. Global warming began 18,000 years ago as the earth started warming its way out of the Pleistocene Ice Age– a time when much of North America, Europe, and Asia lay buried beneath great sheets of glacial ice.

Earth’s climate and the biosphere have been in constant flux, dominated by ice ages and glaciers for the past several million years. We are currently enjoying a temporary reprieve from the deep freeze.

Approximately every 100,000 years Earth’s climate warms up temporarily. These warm periods, called interglacial periods, appear to last approximately 15,000 to 20,000 years before regressing back to a cold ice age climate. At year 18,000 and counting our current interglacial vacation from the Ice Age is much nearer its end than its beginning.

Global warming during Earth’s current interglacial warm period has greatly altered our environment and the distribution and diversity of all life. For example:

Approximately 15,000 years ago the earth had warmed sufficiently to halt the advance of glaciers, and sea levels worldwide began to rise.

By 8,000 years ago the land bridge across the Bering Strait was drowned, cutting off the migration of men and animals to North America.

Since the end of the Ice Age, Earth’s temperature has risen approximately 16 degrees F and sea levels have risen a total of 300 feet! Forests have returned where once there was only ice.

Over the past 750,000 years of Earth’s history, Ice Ages have occurred at regular intervals, of approximately 100,000 years each.
Courtesy of Illinois State MuseumDuring ice ages our planet is cold, dry, and inhospitable– supporting few forests but plenty of glaciers and deserts. Like a spread of collosal bulldozers, glaciers have scraped and pulverized vast stretches of Earth’s surface and completely destroyed entire regional ecosystems not once, but several times. During Ice Ages winters were longer and more severe and ice sheets grew to tremendous size, accumulating to thicknesses of up to 8,000 feet!. They moved slowly from higher elevations to lower– driven by gravity and their tremendous weight. They left in their wake altered river courses, flattened landscapes, and along the margins of their farthest advance, great piles of glacial debris.

During the last 3 million years glaciers have at one time or another covered about 29% of Earth’s land surface or about 17.14 million square miles (44.38 million sq. km.) . What did not lay beneath ice was a largely cold and desolate desert landscape, due in large part to the colder, less-humid atmospheric conditions that prevailed.

During the Ice Age summers were short and winters were brutal. Animal life and especially plant life had a very tough time of it. Thanks to global warming, that has all now changed, at least temporarily.

( view full size map)	The World 18,000 Years AgoBefore “global warming” started 18,000 years ago most of the earth was a frozen and arid wasteland. Over half of earth ’s surface was covered by glaciers or extreme desert. Forests were rare. Not a very fun place to live.
(view full size map)	Our Present World“Global warming” over the last 15,000 years has changed our world from an ice box to a garden. Today extreme deserts and glaciers have largely given way to grasslands, woodlands, and forests. Wish it could last forever, but . . . .

In the 1970s concerned environmentalists like Stephen Schneider of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado feared a return to another ice age due to manmade atmospheric pollution blocking out the sun.

Since about 1940 the global climate did in fact appear to be cooling. Then a funny thing happened– sometime in the late 1970s temperature declines slowed to a halt and ground-based recording stations during the 1980s and 1990s began reading small but steady increases in near-surface temperatures. Fears of “global cooling” then changed suddenly to “global warming,”– the cited cause:

manmade atmospheric pollution causing a runaway greenhouse effect. What does geologic history have to offer in sorting through the confusion? Quite a bit, actually.

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“If ‘ice age’ is used to refer to long, generally cool, intervals during which glaciers advance and retreat, we are still in one today. Our modern climate represents a very short, warm period between glacial advances.” Illinois State Museum

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Periods of Earth warming and cooling occur in cycles. This is well understood, as is the fact that small-scale cycles of about 40 years exist within larger-scale cycles of 400 years, which in turn exist inside still larger scale cycles of 20,000 years, and so on.

Example of regional variations in surface air temperature for the last 1000 years, estimated from a variety of sources, including temperature-sensitive tree growth indices and written records of various kinds, largely from western Europe and eastern North America. Shown are changes in regional temperature in ° C, from the baseline value for 1900. Compiled by R. S. Bradley and J. A. Eddy based on J. T. Houghton et al., Climate Change: The IPCC Assessment, Cambridge UniversityPress, Cambridge, 1990 and published in EarthQuest, vol 5, no 1, 1991. Courtesy of Thomas Crowley, Remembrance of Things Past: Greenhouse Lessons from the Geologic Record

Earth’s climate was in a cool period from A.D. 1400 to about A.D. 1860, dubbed the “Little Ice Age.” This period was characterized by harsh winters, shorter growing seasons, and a drier climate. The decline in global temperatures was a modest 1/2° C, but the effects of this global cooling cycle were more pronounced in the higher latitudes. The Little Ice Age has been blamed for a host of human suffering including crop failures like the “Irish Potato Famine” and the demise of the medieval Viking colonies in Greenland.

Today we enjoy global temperatures which have warmed back to levels of the so called “Medieval Warm Period,” which existed from approximately A.D. 1000 to A.D. 1350.

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“…the Earth was evidently coming out of a relatively cold period in the 1800s so that warming in the past century may be part of this natural recovery.”

Dr. John R. Christy
(leading climate and atmospheric science expert- U. of Alabama in Huntsville) (5)

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Global warming alarmists maintain that global temperatures have increased since about A.D. 1860 to the present as the result of the so-called “Industrial Revolution,”– caused by releases of large amounts of greenhouse gases (principally carbon dioxide) from manmade sources into the atmosphere causing a runaway “Greenhouse Effect.”

Was man really responsible for pulling the Earth out of the Little Ice Age with his industrial pollution? If so, this may be one of the greatest unheralded achievements of the Industrial Age!

Unfortunately, we tend to overestimate our actual impact on the planet. In this case the magnitude of the gas emissions involved, even by the most aggressive estimates of atmospheric warming by greenhouse gases, is inadequate to account for the magnitude of temperature increases. So what causes the up and down cycles of global climate change?

Causes of Global Climate Change

Climate change is controlled primarily by cyclical eccentricities in Earth’s rotation and orbit, as well as variations in the sun’s energy output.

“Greenhouse gases” in Earth’s atmosphere also influence Earth’s temperature, but in a much smaller way. Human additions to total greenhouse gases play a still smaller role, contributing about 0.2% - 0.3% to Earth’s greenhouse effect.

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Major Causes of Global Temperature Shifts

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(1) Astronomical Causes

• 11 year and 206 year cycles: Cycles of solar variability ( sunspot activity )
• 21,000 year cycle: Earth’s combined tilt and elliptical orbit around the Sun ( precession of the equinoxes )
• 41,000 year cycle: Cycle of the +/- 1.5° wobble in Earth’s orbit ( tilt )
• 100,000 year cycle: Variations in the shape of Earth’s elliptical orbit ( cycle of eccentricity )

(2) Atmospheric Causes

• Heat retention: Due to atmospheric gases, mostly gaseous water vapor (not droplets), also carbon dioxide, methane, and a few other miscellaneous gases– the “greenhouse effect”
• Solar reflectivity: Due to white clouds, volcanic dust, polar ice caps

(3) Tectonic Causes

• Landmass distribution: Shifting continents (continental drift) causing changes in circulatory patterns of ocean currents. It seems that whenever there is a large land mass at one of the Earth’s poles, either the north pole or south pole, there are ice ages.
• Undersea ridge activity: “Sea floor spreading” (associated with continental drift) causing variations in ocean displacement.

For more details see:

http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/milankovitch.html
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/enviro/EnviroRepublish_233658.htm

Playing with Numbers

Global climate and temperature cycles are the result of a complex interplay between a variety of causes. Because these cycles and events overlap, sometimes compounding one another, sometimes canceling one another out, it is inaccurate to imply a statistically significant trend in climate or temperature patterns from just a few years or a few decades of data.

Unfortunately, a lot of disinformation about where Earth’s climate is heading is being propagated by “scientists” who use improper statistical methods, short-term temperature trends, or faulty computer models to make analytical and anecdotal projections about the significance of man-made influences to Earth’s climate.

During the last 100 years there have been two general cycles of warming and cooling recorded in the U.S. We are currently in the second warming cycle. Overall, U.S. temperatures show no significant warming trend over the last 100 years (1). This has been well - established but not well - publicized.

Each year Government press releases declare the previous year to be the “hottest year on record.” The UN’s executive summary on climate change, issued in January 2001, insists that the 20th century was the warmest in the last millennium. The news media distribute these stories and people generally believed them to be true. However, as most climatologists know, these reports generally are founded on ground-based temperature readings, which are misleading. The more meaningful and precise orbiting satellite data for the same period (which are generally not cited by the press) have year after year showed little or no warming.

Dr. Patrick Michaels has demonstrated this effect is a common problem with ground- based recording stations, many of which originally were located in predominantly rural areas, but over time have suffered background bias due to urban sprawl and the encroachment of concrete and asphalt ( the “urban heat island effect”). The result has been an upward distortion of increases in ground temperature over time(2). Satellite measurements are not limited in this way, and are accurate to within 0.1° C. They are widely recognized by scientists as the most accurate data available. Significantly, global temperature readings from orbiting satellites show no significant warming in the 18 years they have been continuously recording and returning data (1).

A Matter of Opinion

Has manmade pollution in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other gases caused a runaway Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming?

Before joining the mantra, consider the following:

Compiled by R.S. Bradley and J.A. Eddy based on J.T. Houghton et al., Climate Change: The IPCC Assessment, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1990 and published in EarthQuest, vo. 1, 1991. Courtesy of Thomas Crowley, Remembrance of Things Past: Greenhouse Lessons from the Geologic Record

1. The idea that man-made pollution is responsible for global warming is not supported by historical fact. The period known as the Holocene Maximum is a good example– so-named because it was the hottest period in human history. The interesting thing is this period occurred approximately 7500 to 4000 years B.P. (before present)– long before humans invented industrial pollution.

(view full-size image) Figure 1

2. CO2 in our atmosphere has been increasing steadily for the last 18,000 years– long before humans invented smokestacks ( Figure 1). Unless you count campfires and intestinal gas, man played no role in the pre-industrial increases. As illustrated in this chart of Ice Core data from the Soviet Station Vostok in Antarctica, CO2 concentrations in earth’s atmosphere move with temperature. Both temperatures and CO2 have been steadily increasing for 18,000 years. Ignoring these 18,000 years of data “global warming activists” contend recent increases in atmospheric CO2 are unnatural and are the result of only 200 years or so of human pollution causing a runaway greenhouse effect. Incidentally, earth’s temperature and CO2 levels today have reached levels similar to a previous interglacial cycle of 120,000 - 140,000 years ago. From beginning to end this cycle lasted about 20,000 years. This is known as the Eemian Interglacial Period and the earth returned to a full-fledged ice age immediately afterward.

view full-size image Figure 2

3. Total human contributions to greenhouse gases account for only about 0.28% of the “greenhouse effect” (Figure 2). Anthropogenic (man-made) carbon dioxide (CO2) comprises about 0.117% of this total, and man-made sources of other gases ( methane, nitrous oxide (NOX), other misc. gases) contributes another 0.163% . Approximately 99.72% of the “greenhouse effect” is due to natural causes – mostly water vapor and traces of other gases, which we can do nothing at all about. Eliminating human activity altogether would have little impact on climate change.

view full-size image Figure 3

4. If global warming is caused by CO2 in the atmosphere then does CO2 also cause increased sun activity too? This chart adapted after Nigel Calder (6) illustrates that variations in sun activity are generally proportional to both variations in atmospheric CO2 and atmospheric temperature (Figure 3). Put another way, rising Earth temperatures and increasing CO2 may be “effects” and our own sun the “cause”.

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FUN FACTS about CARBON DIOXIDE

Of the 186 billion tons of CO2 that enter earth’s atmosphere each year from all sources, only 6 billion tons are from human activity. Approximately 90 billion tons come from biologic activity in earth’s oceans and another 90 billion tons from such sources as volcanoes and decaying land plants.

At 368 parts per million CO2 is a minor constituent of earth’s atmosphere– less than 4/100ths of 1% of all gases present. Compared to former geologic times, earth’s current atmosphere is CO2- impoverished.

CO2 is odorless, colorless, and tasteless. Plants absorb CO2 and emit oxygen as a waste product. Humans and animals breathe oxygen and emit CO2 as a waste product. Carbon dioxide is a nutrient, not a pollutant, and all life– plants and animals alike– benefit from more of it. All life on earth is carbon-based and CO2 is an essential ingredient. When plant-growers want to stimulate plant growth, they introduce more carbon dioxide.

CO2 that goes into the atmosphere does not stay there but is continually recycled by terrestrial plant life and earth’s oceans– the great retirement home for most terrestrial carbon dioxide.

If we are in a global warming crisis today, even the most aggressive and costly proposals for limiting industrial carbon dioxide emissions would have a negligible effect on global climate!

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The case for a “greenhouse problem” is made by environmentalists, news anchormen , and special interests who make inaccurate and misleading statements about global warming and climate change. Even though people may be skeptical of such rhetoric initially, after awhile people start believing it must be true because we hear it so often.

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“We have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we may have. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest.” Stephen Schneider (leading advocate of the global warming theory)
(in interview for Discover magazine, Oct 1989)
“In the United States…we have to first convince the American People and the Congress that the climate problem is real.” former President Bill Clinton in a 1997 address to the United Nations Nobody is interested in solutions if they don’t think there’s a problem. Given that starting point, I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous (global warming) is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are… former Vice President Al Gore
(now, chairman and co-founder of Generation Investment Management–
a London-based business that sells carbon credits)
(in interview with Grist Magazine May 9, 2006, concerning his book, An Inconvenient Truth) “In the long run, the replacement of the precise and disciplined language of science by the misleading language of litigation and advocacy may be one of the more important sources of damage to society incurred in the current debate over global warming.” Dr. Richard S. Lindzen
(leading climate and atmospheric science expert- MIT) (3)
“Researchers pound the global-warming drum because they know there is politics and, therefore, money behind it. . . I’ve been critical of global warming and am persona non grata.“ Dr. William Gray
(Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado and leading expert of hurricane prediction )
(in an interview for the Denver Rocky Mountain News, November 28, 1999) “Scientists who want to attract attention to themselves, who want to attract great funding to themselves, have to (find a) way to scare the public . . . and this you can achieve only by making things bigger and more dangerous than they really are.” Petr Chylek
(Professor of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia)
Commenting on reports by other researchers that Greenland’s glaciers are melting.
(Halifax Chronicle-Herald, August 22, 2001) (8) “Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing — in terms of economic policy and environmental policy.” Tim Wirth , while U.S. Senator, Colorado.
After a short stint as United Nations Under-Secretary for Global Affairs (4)
he now serves as President, U.N. Foundation, created by Ted Turner and his $1 billion “gift” “No matter if the science is all phony, there are collateral environmental benefits…. Climate change [provides] the greatest chance to bring about justice and equality in the world.”

Christine Stewart, Minister of the Environment of Canada
recent quote from the Calgary Herald

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Unraveling the Earth’s Temperature Record

photo by: Vin Morgan Palaeo Environment (Ice Cores) Field Work

Because accumulating layers of glacial ice display annual bands which can be dated, similar to annual rings of a tree, the age of ice core samples can be determined. Continuous ice cores from borings as much as two miles long have been extracted from permanent glaciers in Greenland, Antarctica, and Siberia. Bubbles of entrapped air in the ice cores can be analyzed to determine not only carbon dioxide and methane concentrations, but also atmospheric temperatures can be determined from analysis of entrapped hydrogen and oxygen.

Based on historical air temperatures inferred from ice core analyses from the Antarctic Vostok station in 1987, relative to the average global temperature in 1900 it has been determined that from 160,000 years ago until about 18,000 years ago Earth temperatures were on average about 3° C cooler than today.

Except for two relatively brief interglacial episodes, one peaking about 125,000 years ago (Eemian Interglacial), and the other beginning about 18,000 years ago (Present Interglacial), the Earth has been under siege of ice for the last 160,000 years.

Compiled by R.S. Bradley and J.A. Eddy based on J. Jouzel et al., Nature vol. 329. pp. 403-408, 1987 and published in EarthQuest, vol. 5, no. 1, 1991. Courtesy of Thomas Crowley, Remembrance of Things Past: Greenhouse Lessons from the Geologic Record

As illustrated in this final graph, over the past 800,000 years the Earth has undergone major swings in warming and cooling at approximately 100,000 year intervals, interrupted by minor warming cycles at shorter intervals. This represents periods of glacial expansion, separated by distinct but relatively short-lived periods of glacial retreat.

Temperature data inferred from measurements of the ratio of oxygen isotope ratios in fossil plankton that settled to the sea floor, and assumes that changes in global temperature approximately tracks changes in the global ice volume. Based on data from J. Imbrie, J.D. Hays, D.G. Martinson, A. McIntyre, A.C. Mix, J.J. Morley, N.G. Pisias, W.L. Prell, and N.J. Shackleton, in A. Berger, J. Imbrie, J. Hats, G. Kukla, and B. Saltzman, eds., Milankovitch and Climate, Dordrecht, Reidel, pp. 269-305, 1984.Courtesy of Thomas Crowley, Remembrance of Things Past: Greenhouse Lessons from the Geologic Record

The Polar Ice Cap Effect

As long as the continent of Antarctica exists at the southern pole of our planet we probably will be repeatedly pulled back into glacial ice ages. This occurs because ice caps, which cannot attain great thickness over open ocean, can and do achieve great thickness over a polar continent– like Antarctica. Antarctica used to be located near the equator, but over geologic time has moved by continental drift to its present location at the south pole. Once established, continental polar ice caps act like huge cold sinks, taking over the climate and growing bigger during periods of reduced solar output. Part of the problem with shaking off the effects of an ice age is once ice caps are established, they cause solar radiation to be reflected back into space, which acts to perpetuate global cooling. This increases the size of ice caps which results in reflection of even more radiation, resulting in more cooling, and so on.

Continental polar ice caps seem to play a particularly important role in ice ages when the arrangement of continental land masses restrict the free global circulation of equatorial ocean currents. This is the case with the continents today, as it was during the Carboniferous Ice Age when the supercontinent Pangea stretched from pole to pole 300 million years ago.

Stopping Climate Change

Putting things in perspective, geologists tell us our present warm climate is a mere blip in the history of an otherwise cold Earth. Frigid Ice Age temperatures have been the rule, not the exception, for the last couple of million years. This kind of world is not totally inhospitable, but not a very fun place to live, unless you are a polar bear.

Some say we are “nearing the end of our minor interglacial period” , and may in fact be on the brink of another Ice Age. If this is true, the last thing we should be doing is limiting carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, just in case they may have a positive effect in sustaining present temperatures. The smart money, however, is betting that there is some momentum left in our present warming cycle. Environmental advocates agree: resulting in a shift of tactics from the “global cooling” scare of the 1970s to the “global warming” threat of the 1980s and 1990s.

Now, as we begin the 21st century the terminology is morphing toward“climate change,” whereby no matter the direction of temperature trends– up or down– the headlines can universally blame humans while avoiding the necessity of switching buzz-words with the periodicity of solar cycles. Such tactics may, however, backfire as peoples’ common sensibilities are at last pushed over the brink.

Global climate cycles of warming and cooling have been a natural phenomena for hundreds of thousands of years, and it is unlikely that these cycles of dramatic climate change will stop anytime soon. We currently enjoy a warm Earth. Can we count on a warm Earth forever? The answer is most likely… no.

Since the climate has always been changing and will likely continue of its own accord to change in the future, instead of crippling the U.S. economy in order to achieve small reductions in global warming effects due to manmade additions to atmospheric carbon dioxide, our resources may be better spent making preparations to adapt to global cooling and global warming, and the inevitable consequences of fluctuating ocean levels, temperatures, and precipitation that accompany climatic change.

Supporting this view is British scientist Jane Francis, who maintains:

” What we are seeing really is just another interglacial phase within our big icehouse climate.” Dismissing political calls for a global effort to reverse climate change, she said, ” It’s really farcical because the climate has been changing constantly… What we should do is be more aware of the fact that it is changing and that we should be ready to adapt to the change.”

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				THIS PAGE BY: Monte Hieb This site last updated October 5, 2007
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…EMAIL COMMENTS TO: mhieb@geocraft.com

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References

(1) A scientific Discussion of Climate Change, Sallie Baliunas, Ph.D., Harvard- Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Willie Soon, Ph.D., Harvard- Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

(2) The Effects of Proposals for Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction; Testimony of Dr. Patrick J. Michaels, Professor of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, before the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment of the Committee on Science, United States House of Representatives

(3) Statement Concerning Global Warming– Presented to the Senate Committee on Environmental and Public Works, June 10, 1997, by Dr. Richard S. Lindzen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

(4) Excerpts from,”Our Global Future: Climate Change“, Remarks by Under Secretary for Global affairs, T. Wirth, 15 September 1997. Site maintained by The Globe - Climate Change Campaign

(5) Testimony of John R. Christy to the Committee on Environmental and Public Works, Department of Atmospheric Science and Earth System Science Laboratory, University of Alabama in Huntsville, July 10, 1997.

(6) The Carbon Dioxide Thermometer and the Cause of Global Warming; Nigel Calder,– Presented at a seminar SPRU (Science and Technology Policy Research), University of Sussex, Brighton, England, October 6, 1998.

(7) Variation in cosmic ray flux and global cloud coverage: a missing link in solar-climate relationships; H. Svensmark and E. Friis-Christiansen, Journal of Atmospheric and Solar- Terrestrial Physics, vol. 59, pp. 1225 - 1232 (1997).

(8) First International Conference on Global Warming and the Next Ice Age; Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, sponsored by the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society and the American Meteorological Society, August 21-24, 2001.

Additional Reading

Understanding Common Climate Claims: Dr. Richard S. Lindzen; Draft paper to appear in the Proceedings of the 2005 Erice Meeting of the World Federation of Scientists on Global Emergencies.

Geological Constraints on Global Climate Variability: Dr. Lee C. Gerhard– A variety of natural climate drivers constantly change our climate. A slide format presentation. 8.5 MB.

Thoughts of Global Warming: “The bottom line is that climatic change is a given. It is inescapable, it happens. There is no reason to be very concerned about it or spend bazillions of dollars to try and even things out.

NOAA Paleoclimatology: An educational trip through earths distant and recent past. Also contains useful information and illustrations relating to the causes of climate change.

Cracking the Ice Age: From the PBS website– NOVA online presents a brief tour of the causes of global warming.

Little Ice Age (Solar Influence - Temperature): From the online magazine, “CO2 Science.”

Solar Variability and Climate Change: by Willie Soon, January 10, 2000

Earth’s Fidgeting Climate: NASA Science News “It may surprise many people that science cannot deliver an unqualified, unanimous answer about something as important as climate change”

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Heat Island

An urban heat island (UHI) is a metropolitan area which is significantly warmer than its surroundings. The temperature difference usually is larger at night than during the day and larger in winter than in summer, and is most apparent when winds are weak. The main cause of the urban heat island is modification of the land surface by urban development; waste heat generated by energy usage is a secondary contributor. As population centres grow they tend to modify a greater and greater area of land and have a corresponding increase in average temperature. Partly as a result of the urban heat island effect, monthly rainfall is about 28% greater between 20-40 miles downwind of cities, compared with upwind.

Pie Chart

A pie chart is a circular chart divided into sectors, illustrating relative magnitudes or frequencies or percents. In a pie chart, the arc length of each sector (and consequently its central angle and area), is proportional to the quantity it represents. Together, the sectors create a full disk. It is named for its resemblance to a pie which has been sliced.

While the pie chart is perhaps the most ubiquitous statistical chart in the business world and the mass media, it is rarely used in scientific or technical publications. It is one of the most widely criticised charts, and many statisticians recommend to avoid its use altogether, pointing out in particular that it is difficult to compare different sections of a given pie chart, or to compare data across different pie charts. Pie charts can be an effective way of displaying information in some cases, in particular if the intent is to compare the size of a slice with the whole pie, rather than comparing the slices among them. Pie charts work particularly well when the slices represent 25 or 50% of the data,but in general, other plots such as the bar chart or the dot plot, or non-graphical methods such as tables, may be more adapted for representing information.

The earliest known pie chart is generally credited to William Playfair's Statistical Breviary of 1801.