Friday, February 04, 2005
Pollution...
Global Warming is BIG News
With the Kyoto Protocol becoming effective February 16 and a big "Global Warming Conference" in England late last week, it is not surprising to see a bevy of stories on global warming. Here are examples from FOXNews (AP Story), Netscape News (Rueters), Yahoo News (Rueters again, different story), and New Scientist.
What is amazing is that of those 4 stories, only New Scientist makes any mention that there is a HUGE controversy in the scientific community about whether warming is a natural phenomena or the result of industrialization. Media bias????? Nah....
You Have Got to Love the Irony
This FOXNews story points out that the much vaunted hydrogen fueled cars may produce just as much pollution as gasoline powered cars -- it will just be in the making of the fuel, not in the operation of the vehicle. OK, so that way we could move the pollution out of the major urban centers to somewhere no one cares (as if such a place exists) but have you every tried to contain that stuff. Hydrogen is after all, the smallest atom.
Utter Disappointment
I got all kinds of excited when I saw this NY Times headline:
E.P.A. Accused of a Predetermined Finding on Mercury
I've dealt with those guys enough to know they are not at all adverse to assuming there is a problem and making your life difficult until you can prove otherwise, beyond the shadow of an unreasonable doubt.
Then I read the story. (requires registration) Of course, how silly of me -- they did not predetermine it was bad, they predetermined it might not be so bad. It never pays to hope for a good news.
Russian Breakthrough
I am uncertain how to classify this story from Pravda. When I attended technical meetings in the Soviet Union in 1991, I sometimes found it hard to see the point of the presentations made -- same thing is true with this story. They do make reference to how these solar magnetic storms affect people. I for one have felt no effect -- but maybe it explains all this.
