An Ivy League professor of marketing is betting Al Gore $10,000 (Put your money where your "myth" is) that the global temperature will be the same in 10 years. No word from Gore yet, according to the site.

We've all heard about the potential disastrous consequences related to global warming, but no one seems to be talking about the possibility of global warming causing higher pizza prices, at least that I know of. Let me be the first (and probably the last).

I know this is a bit of a stretch, but bear with me. Many people are promoting the use of ethanol (alcohol made from corn) as a possible partial solution to global warming. A whyfile.org article (Alcohol: Cool Solution to Global Warming?) explains the logic. Not everyone agrees that ethanol will not help to ease any global warming concerns as is explained in this Reuters article (Ethanol May Not Ease Global Warming: UN) that was found in the Sydney Morning Herald indicates; however, more ethanol is being produced.

According to a recent article on ABC News (How More Ethanol Means Pricier Pizza), an increase in production of ethanol has resulted in higher dairy prices since more corn is being used for fuel rather than food for cattle. So, there you have it: more ethanol to try to combat global warming means higher dairy prices, which means more expensive cheese and more expensive pizza. That's right--global warming is causing higher pizza prices!!

A recent article in Times Online (out of the UK) talks about climate predictions that have already occurred (Ten Predictions About Climate Change That Have Come True).

I'm neither endorsing or condemning the information by pointing out that the author, Tim Flannery, of the article has a book to sale.

The Roger Pielke Sr. Research group has been trying without much success to obtain official photos of the U.S. Historical Climate Network (HCN) recording sites from NOAA since 2002. The HCN sites are used to diagnose the monthly and yearly surface temperature anomalies across the United States. The U.S. data is also included in the global temperature anomalies that we are constantly seeing in the media. The story, which appears in Climate Science states that several scientists have independently obtained photos of the HCN sites. According to Pielke, their photos clearly show significant siting problems with a large number of the recording stations, which could very well be leading to widespread temperature inaccuracies.

Make sure you check out some of the links included in the Climate Science story. Brett.

The Onion posted an interesting little story not too long ago about addressing the Global Warming Crisis. Here is the Link.

By the way, have a safe and enjoyable holiday! Brett

Al Gore knew he could not get his message out about the dangers of global warming without some help, so he decided to recruit 1000 volunteers to help spread the word. This idea became the "The Climate Project". According to the project director, Jenny Clad, applicants were chosen on their ability to commit to doing 10 presentations and reaching unique groups of people. But, there were no questions in the application about the applicants background with meteorology, climatology or any kind of science. Once the applicants were selected, there was a training session held in Nashville, Tennessee.

The world's oldest DNA found at the bottom of a 2 kilometer thick ice sheet in Greenland might offer some clues to the causes of global warming. An international study which was published in the journal "Science" was co-written by University of Alberta Glaciologist Dr. Martin Sharp. The material, which was made up of tree, plant and insect DNA suggested that the average temperature in the boreal forests of southern Greenland between 450 and 900 thousand years ago was 10 celsius (50 F) in the summer and -17 celsius (1 F) in the winter. On the ice surface today, the average summer temperature is -8 celsius (18 F) and -30 celsius (-22 F) for the winter. In the article from CTV News, Dr. Sharp theorizes from the research that natural processes can and do produce climate change, perhaps big enough to produce effects similar to those that are widely predicted as a result of Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW/ human induced global warming), though, he cannot prove it.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

The 7-Eleven Slurpee has made a comeback across northern Taiwan, according to an article in the Taipei Times. After sluggish sales in the north, the Slurpee was only sold in southern Taiwan starting in 1998. Last year, the Slurpee was brought back to the north. Why? According to Ray Chen, the Chief Marketing Officer of President Chain Store, which owns the worlds third largest 7-Eleven franchise, "As many consumers outside southern Taiwan complained about having no Slurpee to drink and as we think global warming effects will continue, President Chain decided to relaunch the product nationwide last year."

Canadian Scientists have concluded that High Arctic ponds are now beginning to evaporate thanks to the effects of global warming. In the article from ScienceDaily, Dr.'s John Smol and Marianne Douglas have been measuring water quality of the ponds over a 24-year period, and have noted a steady increase in salt concentration due to evaporation caused by global warming. The ponds are the most common source of surface water in many polar regions.

Mount Everest looks a lot different than it did 54 years ago.

In an article posted on the The Discovery Channel Website, the sons of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay told The Independent, which is a British Newspaper, that their father's would no longer recognize the world's highest mountain, explaining that base camp is now 132 feet lower than what it was 54 years ago because ice is melting from the top and side due to global warming. Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first to officially summit Everest back in 1953. The glacier where the two made their base camp has retreated 3 miles in the past 20 years! The greatest danger from the melting glaciers on the mountain is the formation of huge lakes, which can suddenly burst their banks, resulting in massive floodwaters.

Image is courtesy of Wikipedia

In our new video segment, Katie Fehlinger shows us how some dry cleaners are doing their part for for the environment by going green.

Here is a link to a new study posted on ForecastingPrinciples.com by J. Scott Armstrong and Keston C. Green, which concludes that IPCC report on Global Warming is flawed and that many of the forecasts in the report lack proper scientific procedure. The authors believe that objective, evidence-based scientific procedure is critical in determining the validity of a Global Warming forecast, and that they find no scientific evidence to support the IPCC report. Scientific evidence through proper procedure tells the Armstrong and Green that there is just as much a likelyhood that the earth is headed for Global Cooling than Global Warming. The PDF file is not too long and fairly easy to read. Check it out.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Michael Abberton, a scientist from the UK, believes that finding a way to help cows belch less can help reduce global warming. In the article posted on China View, Abberton states that there is a common misperseption about how methane gets into the atmosphere and that it is actually through belching rather than the other end. In the UK, 7% of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by agriculture, and methane makes of 37% of that total. Abberton said that introducing easier-to-digest legumes through plant breeding and developing different species of grass that are also more digestible would reduce methane emissions.

A newly released study says that there is no link between solar activity and Global Warming.

The lead author of the report, Mike Lockwood, of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory states "The temperature record is simply not consistent with any of the solar forcings that people are talking about." One of the ways that the sun affects the climate is through clouds. The sun's magnetic field shields the Earth from cosmic rays. The rays help form clouds that reflect the sun's energy back into space resulting in a cooler climate. According to Lockwood, in the article posted in the Guardian Unlimited, the sun's magnetic field has decreased since 1985, and global temperatures have risen at an accelerating rate. If the sun's magnetic field is high there should be a fall off in cosmic rays, fewer clouds and more warming on earth. Lockwood says that the study was "another nail" in the coffin of the notion that solar activity is responsible for Global Warming.

Microwave Sounding Units flying on a series of NOAA weather satellites between 1979 and 2005 have measured the temperature trends in two thick layers of the atmosphere. According to the news release by NASA, the findings support the idea of greenhouse gases warming in the lower atmosphere during the 26-year period. When greenhouse gases accumulate in the lower layer of the atmosphere (troposphere) they trap heat in that lower layer which in turn cools the layer above it (stratosphere). Note the two images shown above, courtesy of NASA.

Devastating flooding and extreme summer heat could impact parts of the Northeast U.S. by the end of the century unless the world sharply cuts greenhouse gas emissions according to a new study by the Union for Concerned Scientists (UCS) in collaboration with 50 scientists and economists. In the article from Reuters, Peter Frumhoff, the Director of Science and Policy at the UCS also released these predictions from the study....

1. New York City could be hit once a decade with extreme flooding that is typically only seen once a century. Boston, Massachusetts and Atlantic City, NJ might see this type of flooding every two years.

2. Northeast Cities from New York City to Concord, New Hampshire may have to deal with 25+ days of 100 degree heat.

3. Shade trees such as hemlocks and maples could die due to the warmer weather and an increase in parasites.

Frumhoff stated that the flooding risks across the Northeast could be lowered if Global Warming gas emissions are cut 80% by the year 2050.