Andrew Clem home
Andrew Clem banner

Blog post


Monthly archives
(all categories)


December 12, 2007 [LINK / comment]

Global Local warming

Al Gore recently visited his arch-rival George W. Bush in the White House, along with other Nobel laureates, and it was quite an amusing situation. Some saw this as vindication for Gore's frantic alarms about global warming, but one has to wonder whether the recent release of scientific research on global warming was timed to coincide with this event. For example, some scientists estimate that the entire North Polar ice cap will melt by 2013, which could set in motion a self-reinforcing chain of climactic events of catastrophic proportions. See BBC. It would be prudent to take seriously such a possibility, but let's try not to set off a massive panic, OK?

Last week it snowed here in the Shenandoah Valley, which provided an occasion for many bloggers to mock the idea of global warming, notwithstanding the fact that snow in December is perfectly normal. I thought it would be obvious to everyone, but let us repeat the point: Day-to-day fluctuations in local weather conditions have nothing whatsoever to do with global climate change! Today it got up to 71 degrees, setting a record for this date. How many of those global warming skeptics will be taking note of that?

As a dramatic indication of the effect of the recent warm spell we've been enjoying in Virginia -- NOT related to global warming! -- I was surprised to come across this mushroom while going for a walk this morning. It's about three inches in diameter and fairly dense. According to my field guide, it is probably a Boletus Pinophilus, the species name indicating that it thrives around pine trees. The only fungus that we normally see during the winter is "Witch's butter."

Boletus Pinophilus

Posted (or last updated or commented upon): 13 Dec 2007, 12: 00 AM

(unformatted URL)
      .



This post is over a week old, so comments are closed.


© Andrew G. Clem. All rights reserved. Your use of this material signifies your acceptance of the Terms of use.


Hits on this page (single blog post) since July 2, 2007:

Category archives:
(all years)



This (or that) year's
blog highlights

NOTE: Thus far, only blog posts related to politics and baseball are included in this list.

Blog highlights have been compiled for the years 2010-2012 thus far, and eventually will be compiled for earlier years, back to 2002.


Explanation

The "home made" blog organization system that I created was instituted on November 1, 2004, followed by several functional enhancements in subsequent years. I make no more than one blog post per day on any one category, so some posts may cover multiple news items or issues. Blog posts appear in the following (reverse alphabetical) order, which may differ from the chronological order in which the posts were originally made:

  1. Wild birds (LAST)
  2. War
  3. Science & Technology
  4. Politics
  5. Latin America
  6. Culture & Travel
  7. Canaries ("Home birds")
  8. Baseball (FIRST)