First, one of the first premises for this blog is to challenge – a think tank; a pressure cooker for the mind. These have been there since it’s inception.

Second, This was an article meant to exercise your brain. By giving you a compelling argument, you need to not only have plausible answers and directions, but the best answers have fundamental, logical, or progressive foundation to base the comment on. You can see this in my responses. A well written and justified response would get my ‘Kudos’. A half-baked response would usually gain a ‘what if’ or a thought provoking suggestion. A response that was unfounded and didn’t have a basis to stand on was gently brought to the attention of its author (So as not to alienate anyone).

This exercise was not about winners and losers. It was not about what side you are on. It was not about what we must do in the end. It was about response! I wanted to see how people would respond to this article. I obviously struck a few cords. As you THINK about HOW to answer the questions raised, this exercises your mind. It commits you to think outside the square, and causes you to GROW!

In short you could say that I gave you a Brain Building task. So, no, this article is not out of character. It is with the true theme of Mind to Mind – The Brain Accelerator! [Please Read On...]

PS: I also congratulate the people that participated in the challenge by way of your comments. You made my efforts worth while!

Exercise Your Brain…

As I have mentioned in the past, Mind to Mind – The Brain Accelerator, is a place that bring you Mental Puzzles that affect how our lives unfold. By questioning your mind – Why? You stimulate your mental capacity to grow, to strengthen your brain and increase mind power. Consider this a real life applications of your ability to observe and use your brain power.

Absolutely Remarkable!

That is the only thing my observations have revealed about the controversy of Global Warming. For years now, I have observed the media and the politicians led down the merry path “For the good of all”. A path that has more holes in it than aged Swiss cheese. From pollution inhibiting ventures such as the Kyoto Protocol to the Carbon Trading Scheme, there is one thing that has the scientists clutching at straws.

After an alleged 30 year warming trend, since 2001 the temperature has flatlined. All the global warming that should have taken place in the last 8 years has not. On March 2, 2009, Michael Reilly writer for Discovery News reported:

According to a new study in Geophysical Research Letters, global warming may have hit a speed bump and could go into hiding for decades.

Earth’s climate continues to confound scientists. Following a 30-year trend of warming, global temperatures have flatlined since 2001 despite rising greenhouse gas concentrations, and a heat surplus that should have cranked up the planetary thermostat.

“This is nothing like anything we’ve seen since 1950,” Kyle Swanson of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee said. “Cooling events since then had firm causes, like eruptions or large-magnitude La-Ninas. This current cooling doesn’t have one.”

Instead, Swanson and colleague Anastasios Tsonis think a series of climate processes have aligned, “conspiring” to chill the climate. In 1997 and 1998, the tropical Pacific Ocean warmed rapidly in what Swanson called a “super El Nino event.” It sent a shock wave through the oceans and atmosphere, jarring their circulation patterns into unison.

How does this square with temperature records from 2005-2007, by some measurements among the warmest years on record? When added up with the other four years since 2001, Swanson said the overall trend is flat, even though temperatures should have gone up by 0.2 degrees Centigrade (0.36 degrees Fahrenheit) during that time.

Discussion:

This is intended to be Part 1 of a Series of Blog Dialogs that I would like to get your input on. I am going to start the ball rolling here:

First, I want to make a statement. I do believe that the human race is slowly destroying the world we live in. I do believe we pollute too much. I do believe we should be proactive in taking stance against pollution.

I do believe that renewable sources of energy have long been put aside for the benefit of the wealth-lust of the entities that make money from the having it the other way – their way. I do believe that there are agendas ongoing that are not revealed to the public. Agendas that would really make most people reconsider which side they stand on.

The largest polluting countries in the world are also the countries that choose NOT to sign onto limiting structures such as the Kyoto Protocol. India, China, the USA, to name a few of the big players.

Another interesting Phenomenon that happened in the past year – The hole in the ozone layer closed over Antarctica. (That’s Nice.) WHY?

Now, even though the inhabitants of Earth have been cutting down forests, polluting at a rate never before experienced (it did still go up), the rise of temperatures have stopped over the last 8 years. Is it time for rejoicing? Of course not. It simply means that our ‘gloom and doom’ scientist have bit off more than they can chew.

A Loud Minority Threatens Clear Thinking

At the same time the scientific community has been split on this matter. Because of a LOUD minority of people causing a landslide of public opinion, the opposing scientists have been in the background, studying the facts and shaking their heads.

Times and Technology Has Changed

There are places on Earth that even today are considered virtually uninhabitable. Since 1970 weather stations have been set up in these normally inhospitable environments, like the deserts. Why only have these places been monitored from the 1970s onward? Because technology allowed us to finally be able to remotely communicate with the stations, through satellites that were not in orbit before then.

Flawed Data May Critically Damage the Studies

Have the studies uninherited the legacy of all these nice hot temperature readings, no. So, as more weather monitoring stations were installed since 1970, the temperature of the Earth increased. Also, during that same period, many more air-conditioned buildings and asphalt surfaces, such as parking lots were placed in cities. The result is localized increase in temperature. Were these temperatures accounted for, no. Even if the studies had been calibrated for them, they are inherently flawed due to the sheer number of what can be erroneous temperature reading from mis-calibrated instruments providing the data.

The reason I mentioned air conditioning is in 1970, it was considered a luxury to have air conditioning. Air conditioning removes heat from inside and transfers it to the outside. The result is local air temperature goes up. Silly, right? Just think what percentage of buildings use air conditioning now compared to 1970.

The Double Edged Sword is Destroyed

A few days ago, NASA launched a one-of Global Climate Monitoring Satellite. It failed to disengage from the rocket and burned up in the atmosphere. The planning stage of this satellite started during the 30 year heat-up. It took years to build. It was destroyed before it could monitor a single temperature to prove, or maybe “DIS-PROVE” that Global Warming is happening at all from man-made sources.

FACT: Every planet in the solar system is heating up right now because the sun is putting out more energy during its natural cycle. Could it be that the recorded temperature differences are just coming from the sun, more than man causing it at this time? Sure, humans indeed are adding to the problem. But maybe, we are the insignificant problem at the moment.

Your Challenge

The gauntlet has been thrown down. By picking it up, you will be enhancing your mind power and increasing your ability to observe, think, and analyze using your brain. Are you up to the challenge?

As I said before, I want you to get involved. I am going to stop at this point. I really do want to know how you feel about all the hoopla. If you are going to take a side, Tell Me Why. I am an observer. I see both sides. I want to know how you feel about this, and why.

Your Question is: Out of a score of 1 to 10, please rank whether a 10 meaning that you agree with the doom-sayers, and we are going to completely and irreversibly wreck our environment within the near future at the current increasing rate of pollution and carbon production, or 1 that it’s a complete fabrication and it’s another money grubbing scheme of special interests groups, or somewhere in between. Please include your reasons why you think this way.

Please Enter your observations in the Comments area.