Global Warming

[Ghost of Jaco]

Not sure what you are referring to in YOUR research vs MY research.  I accept scientific results.  Not sure what yours is.

What is wrong with Barney Franks?  I think he is pretty sharp.  I don't know his personal life and don't care.  Is there a problem with his morality that has something to do with his service in congress?

haha! You haven't DONE any research! None that you have cared to share in order to bolster your points, at least, lol!

So, as usual, one of us "nukular inteleckt-you-alls will pick up the slack for ya so you don't have to do any thinking on yer own:
Barney Frank - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from 1981 to present. Admitted to having paid Stephen L. Gobie, a male prostitute, for sex and subsequently hiring Gobie as his personal assistant. Gobie used the congressman's Washington apartment for prostitution. A move to expel Frank from the House of Representatives failed and a motion to censure him failed.

[Ghost of Jaco]

Oh, and then there is involvement in the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac debacle. I think most would consider that "immoral".
But I'll let ya research that on yer own.
(Knowing your aversion to religion, I doubt that you find anything "immoral". How could you?)

[dan foster]

What is the point of the list?  A GOP-based list would be even longer.  The list of assclowns interfering in just the Shiavo case, alone, would be longer.

As for bush,

- the pictures from Abu Ghraib and the very notion the US being involved in the torture of prisoners, far outweighs any "obstruction" charge levied for trying to conceal a blowjob.

- the release of classified information for political purposes is an act of treason and I, for one, think that is about as immoral as you can get in this country (with the exception of the last paragraph below).

- the murder, en masse, of innocent civilians in the bombings of iraqis (estimates are over 100,000) is pretty immoral, wouldn't you say?  Of course, like bush, many on these posts think bush was acting under direct orders from god and, therefore, what's a few thousand iraqi women and children?  After all, god can kill thousands of first borns on a whim just to prove a point (lessons to a pharoah).  This "attitude" is the lowest of the low in terms of morality, yet heralded as the "highest" religious morality.  Sick, and no wonder YOU GUYS can't see the problems with bush or his republican henchmen.

[WVaGAL]

Now you know that Pat Robertsin says there is no such thing as global warming...he just said it again the other day...

[DannyBoy]

That's one of the few remotely intelligent things he has said in the past few years.

[dan foster]

That's one of the few remotely intelligent things he has said in the past few years.

Man, don't you even care the polar bears are dying off?

[me]

Man, don't you even care the polar bears are dying off?

Polar Bears aren't dying off. 

[Sandy Eggo]

Polar Bears aren't dying off. 

They are being protected under the Endangered Animals Act because their habitat is shrinking:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/05/080514-polar-bears.html

[me]

I know you're going to say "nitpicking" but: 

"Because polar bears are vulnerable to this loss of habitat, they are—in my judgment—likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future," Kempthorne said during a press briefing.

Means they aren't endangered yet and may not be it's just an opinion.

[dan foster]

Polar Bears aren't dying off. 

OK

In Canada's Hudson Bay the number of bears has dropped 22 percent.

During 2007, the US Fish and Wildlife Service studied whether polar bears should be added to the list of threatened species. On May 14, 2008 they added polar bears to the list. This is the first time a species has been added under the Endangered Species Act directly because of global warming. The US Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that because of the rapid melt of Arctic sea ice, polar bears could become endangered species in 45 years.

[Exterminator]

In Canada's Hudson Bay the number of bears has dropped 22 percent.

During 2007, the US Fish and Wildlife Service studied whether polar bears should be added to the list of threatened species. On May 14, 2008 they added polar bears to the list. This is the first time a species has been added under the Endangered Species Act directly because of global warming. The US Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that because of the rapid melt of Arctic sea ice, polar bears could become endangered species in 45 years.

Oh, sure...it's not fair to use fact to contradict ignorance.  Didn't you get the memo?

[me]

Federal Polar Bear Research Critically Flawed, Forecasting Expert Asserts

ScienceDaily (May 10, 2008) — Research done by the U.S. Department of the Interior to determine if global warming threatens the polar bear population is so flawed that it cannot be used to justify listing the polar bear as an endangered species, according to a study being published later this year in Interfaces, a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.

On April 30, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ordered the Interior Department to decide by May 15 whether polar bears should be listed under the provisions of the Endangered Species Act. (Note regarding decision: On May 15, 2008 the polar bear was listed as a 'threatened species' under the Endangered Species Act.)

Professor J. Scott Armstrong of the Wharton School says, "To list a species that is currently in good health as an endangered species requires valid forecasts that its population would decline to levels that threaten its viability. In fact, the polar bear populations have been increasing rapidly in recent decades due to hunting restrictions. Assuming these restrictions remain, the most appropriate forecast is to assume that the upward trend would continue for a few years, then level off.

"These studies are meant to inform the US Fish and Wildlife Service about listing the polar bear as endangered. After careful examination, my co-authors and I were unable to find any references to works providing evidence that the forecasting methods used in the reports had been previously validated. In essence, they give no scientific basis for deciding one way or the other about the polar bear."

Prof. Armstrong and colleagues originally undertook their audit at the request of the State of Alaska. The subsequent study, "Polar Bear Population Forecasts: A Public Policy Forecasting Audit," is by Prof. Armstrong, Kesten G. Green of Monash University in Australia, and Willie Soon of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. It is scheduled to appear in the September/October issue of the INFORMS journal Interfaces.

Professor Armstrong is author of Long-Range Forecasting, the most frequently cited book on forecasting methods, and Principles of Forecasting. He is a co-founder of the Journal of Forecasting, the International Journal of Forecasting, the International Symposium on Forecasting, and forecastingprinciples.com.

The authors examined nine U.S. Geological Survey Administrative Reports. The studies include "Forecasting the Wide-Range Status of Polar Bears at Selected Times in the 21st Century" by Steven C. Amstrup et. al. and "Polar Bears in the Southern Beaufort Sea II: Demography and Population Growth in Relation to Sea Ice Conditions" by Christine M. Hunter et al.

Prof. Armstrong and his colleagues concluded that the most relevant study, Amstrup et al. properly applied only 15% of relevant forecasting principles and that the second study, Hunter et al. only 10%, while 46% were clearly contravened and 23% were apparently contravened.

Further, they write, the Geologic Survey reports do not adequately substantiate the authors' assumptions about changes to sea ice and polar bears' ability to adapt that are key to the recommendations.

Therefore, the authors write, a key feature of the U.S. Geological Survey reports is not scientifically supported.

The consequence, they maintain, is significant: The Interior Department cannot use the series of reports as a sound scientific basis for a decision about listing the polar bear as an endangered species.

Prof. Armstrong testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works on January 30, 2008 in a hearing, "Examining Threats and Protections for the Polar Bear." A portion of the testimony can be viewed on a website partly supported by Prof. Armstrong and questioning climate change
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080508132549.htm

[me]

Polar bears 'thriving as the Arctic warms up'


By Fred Langan in Toronto and Tom Leonard
Last Updated: 1:36AM GMT 09 Mar 2007

    * In pictures: Polar bears thriving in the Arctic

Pictures of a polar bear floating precariously on a tiny iceberg have become the defining image of global warming but may be misleading, according to a new study.

A survey of the animals' numbers in Canada's eastern Arctic has revealed that they are thriving, not declining, because of mankind's interference in the environment.

In the Davis Strait area, a 140,000-square kilometre region, the polar bear population has grown from 850 in the mid-1980s to 2,100 today.

"There aren't just a few more bears. There are a hell of a lot more bears," said Mitch Taylor, a polar bear biologist who has spent 20 years studying the animals.

His findings back the claims of Inuit hunters who have long claimed that they were seeing more bears.

"Scientific knowledge has demonstrated that Inuit knowledge was right," said Mr Taylor.

While fellow scientists have accepted Mr Taylor's findings, critics point out that his study was commissioned by the Inuit-dominated government of Nunavit.

Critics claim the government has an agenda to encourage polar bear hunting and keep the animals off the endangered species list.

In small Inuit communities, hunters kill bears that wander too close to human settlements and, in this particular region, they are licensed to kill six polar bears a year.

Polar bear experts said that numbers had increased not because of climate change but due to the efforts of conservationists.

The battle to ban the hunting of Harp seal pups has meant the seal population has soared - boosting the bears' food supply.

At the same time, fewer seal hunters are around to hunt bears.

"I don't think there is any question polar bears are in danger from global warming," said Andrew Derocher of the World Conservation Union, and a professor of biological sciences at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. "People who deny that have a clear interest in hunting bears."

Bear numbers on the west coast of Hudson's Bay had shrunk by 22 per cent over the past decade, he said.

"They are declining due to global warming and changes in when the ice freezes and melts in Hudson's Bay," he added. He and other scientists in his group are concerned that the retreating ice in the Arctic may pose a danger to future generations of polar bears because of 'habitat loss'. "The critical problem is the sea ice is changing. "We're looking ahead three generations, 30 to 50 years.

"To say that bear populations are growing in one area now is irrelevant."

However, Prof Derocher conceded that some polar bear-related evidence of the damaging effect of global warming was misplaced.

Contrary to concern over a celebrated photograph of a bear and its cub floating on a tiny iceberg, the animals often travel in that way, he said.

"Bears will often hang out on glacier ice or large pieces of multi-year ice," he said.

The state of Alaska yesterday questioned the scientific justification for proposals to add polar bears to the US endangered species list.

Tina Cunnings, a biologist attached to the Alaskan government, questioned whether they needed sea ice to survive, saying they could adapt to hunt on land and find alternative food sources to seals.

Prof Derocher said the theory was "absolutely fanciful".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1545036/Polar-bears-%27thriving-as-the-Arctic-warms-up%27.html

[me]

Polar Bear Baby Boom Occurring in Eastern Arctic, Will Media Notice?
Photo of Noel Sheppard.
By Noel Sheppard (Bio | Archive)
May 11, 2007 - 13:42 ET

This one is really too funny, folks, and definitely requires all potables, combustibles, and sharp objects be properly stowed (grateful and humorous h/t to NBer dscott).

Despite all the carping and whining by folks like soon-to-be-Dr. Al Gore and his not so merry band of sycophant devotees about global warming killing polar bears, there is actually a baby boom occurring in this species in Canada's eastern Arctic.

As marvelously reported May 3 by the Christian Science Monitor (emphasis added throughout):
Story Continues Below Ad ↓

    Polar bears are the poster animals of global warming. The image of a polar bear floating on an ice floe is one of the most dramatic visual statements in the fight against rising temperatures in the Arctic.

    But global warming is not killing the polar bears of Canada's eastern Arctic, according to one ongoing study. Scheduled for release next year, it says the number of polar bears in the Davis Strait area of Canada's eastern Arctic – one of 19 polar bear populations worldwide – has grown to 2,100, up from 850 in the mid-1980s.

For those keeping score, that's an almost 150 percent increase in two decades.

The article continued:http://newsbusters.org/node/12694

[Exterminator]

Up to your typical strategy of looking for articles that will support your preconceived notions rather than trying to find out for yourself what the truth is, I see.  Feel free to remain ignorant.