Vanguard Neurologist

Dr. Perlmutter’s comment: I only offer this as an alternative point of view.

From Buzzle.com:

The man-made global warming crowd is at it again. Global warming will kill the fish and destroy the coral reefs during the next fifty years according to a new report released last week by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). The report, the work of UNEP scientists in collaboration with universities and institutes in Europe and the United States, was released during the meeting of the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum taking place in Monaco.

The problem for the multi-billion dollar international business called man-made global warming is that the Earth’s temperature rise is in fact over. Indeed, in the future, we will not have to worry about the extinction of the polar bear, a massive rise in sea level, terrible hurricanes, no fish, no coral reefs, melting artic ice, and all the other hysteria predicted and hyped by the prophets of the man-made global warming .

The irony is that as the proponents of man-made global warming were meeting in Monaco and releasing the dire outlook for the future of fish and coral reefs, new important, climate information was also being released. In fact, the results of all four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA’s GISS, UAH, RSS) released data that show that, over the past year, global temperatures have dropped dramatically. The total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C. Indeed, the drop in global temperature was large enough to erase nearly all the global warming recorded over the past 100 years. The last year was in fact the single fastest temperature change every recorded, in either direction.

Now, the real question is when will the all the hype of man-made global warming become a defunct, bankrupt business. We should soon be at the beginning of the global warming denial phase. In this phase, we are sure to hear the absurdity that dramatically falling global temperature is really just a phase of man-made global warming. However, the denial phase will not last very long because the real global problem in the next several decades will not be man-made global warming, but sun-made global cooling. The cooling of the planet means food crops are at risk and that food prices will continue to rise. The problems of energy consumption and high gas and oil prices will continue to get even worse. The business of man-made global warming will change in the next few years as research grants and government funding will be concerned with the problem of sun made global cooling.

Global cooling will result from the reduced solar activity of the sun. Solar activity comes in regular cycles, but the latest one is still refusing to start. Sunspots have all but vanished, and solar activity continues to be very quiet. The last time this happened was 400 years ago and it signaled a solar event known as a “Maunder Minimum,” along with the start of what is now call the “Little Ice Age.”

Last month, Dr. Oleg Sorokhtin, a fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. advised the world to “stock up on fur coats” due to a rapid decline in world temperatures.” Sorokhtin, who calls man’s contribution to climate change “a drop in the bucket,” predicts the solar minimum to occur by the year 2040, with very cold global weather lasting until 2100 or beyond.

In 2005, Russian astronomer Khabibullo Abdusamatov made headlines and many enemies in the global warming “community” by predicting that the sun would reach a peak of activity about three years from now (2008), to be accompanied by “dramatic changes” in temperatures. His prediction looks prophetic in light of the new global cooling data released last week.

The real truth about the cooling and warming of the planet was discovered by the Danish Meteorological Institute in 1991. The Institute released a study using data that went back centuries that showed that global temperatures closely tracked solar cycles. Then, several years ago, a Hoover Institution Study examined the same historical data and came to a similar conclusion. “The effects of solar activity and volcanoes are impossible to miss. Temperatures fluctuated exactly as expected, and the pattern was so clear that, statistically, the odds of the correlation existing by chance were one in 100,” according to Hoover fellow Bruce Berkowitz.

Even NASA’s Goddard Institute Of Space Studies, long a champion of the belief of man-made global warming, is now beginning to realize that the sun may play the ultimate role in global warming and cooling by conceding that there are “interesting relationships we don’t fully understand between solar activity and climate”. (NASA Researcher Drew Shindell) .

So, if someone tells you that the Earth is warming and the problem is man-made, tell them the following: In the last twelve months, China has had its coldest winter in 100 years. It snowed in Baghdad for the first time in recorded history. North America had the most snow cover in the last fifty years. There are record levels of Antarctic sea ice. There has been record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, and Chile. Johannesburg, South Africa, had its first significant snowfall in 26 years. In New Zealand, the weather turned so cold that vineyards were endangered. Also, tell them that the drop in worldwide global temperature in the last year is the most dramatic temperature event ever recorded.

Finally, tell them not to worry about the warming of the planet, the future extinction of fish, or the destruction of the coral reef, but do tell them to buy energy efficient cars, check the insulation in their house, and stock up on fur coats. The man-made global warming hype is near the end. The year of sun-made global cooling indicates a declining worldwide temperature cycle that based on history and the sun has only just begun.

James William Smith has worked in senior management positions for some of the largest financial services firms in the United States for the last twenty five years. He has also provided business consulting support for insurance organizations and start up businesses. Mr. Smith has a Bachelor of Science Degree from Boston College. He enjoys writing articles on political, national, and world events. visit his website at http://www.ewordvu.com

From ScienceDaily.com:

For the first time, scientists have isolated the parasite Nosema ceranae (Microsporidia) from professional apiaries suffering from honey bee colony depopulation syndrome. They then went on to treat the infection with complete success.

In a study published in the new journal from the Society for Applied Microbiology: Environmental Microbiology Reports, scientists from Spain analysed two apiaries and found evidence of honey bee colony depopulation syndrome (also known as colony collapse disorder in the USA). They found no evidence of any other cause of the disease (such as the Varroa destructor, IAPV or pesticides), other than infection with Nosema ceranae. The researchers then treated the infected surviving under-populated colonies with the antibiotic drug, flumagillin and demonstrated complete recovery of all infected colonies.

The loss of honey bees could have an enormous horticultural and economic impact worldwide. Honeybees are important pollinators of crops, fruit and wild flowers and are indispensable for a sustainable and profitable agriculture as well as for the maintenance of the non-agricultural ecosystem. Honeybees are attacked by numerous pathogens including viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites.

For most of these diseases, the molecular pathogenesis is poorly understood, hampering the development of new ways to prevent and combat honeybee diseases. So, any progress made in identifying causes and subsequent treatments of honey bee colony collapse is invaluable. There have been other hypothesis for colony collapse in Europe and the USA, but never has this bug been identified as the primary cause in professional apiaries.

“Now that we know one strain of parasite that could be responsible, we can look for signs of infection and treat any infected colonies before the infection spreads” said Dr Higes, principle researcher.

This finding could help prevent the continual decline in honey bee population which has recently been seen in Europe and the USA

From NewsDaily.com

Arctic sea ice, a key component of Earth’s natural thermostat, has thinned sharply in recent years with the northern polar ice cap shrinking steadily in surface area, government scientists said on Monday.

Thinner seasonal sea ice, which melts in summer and freezes again every year, now accounts for about 70 percent of the Arctic total, up from 40 to 50 percent in the 1980s and ’90s, the researchers said, citing new satellite data.

At the same time thicker ice, which lasts two summers or more without melting, now comprises less than 10 percent of the northern polar ice cap in winter, down from 30 to 40 percent. Just two years ago, the thicker so-called perennial sea ice made up 20 percent or more of the winter cap.

Scientists have voiced concerns for years about an alarming decline in the size of the Arctic ice cap, which functions as a giant air conditioner for the planet’s climate system as it reflects sunlight into space.

As a greater portion of the ice melts, it is replaced by darker sea water that absorbs much more sunlight, thus adding to the warming of the planet attributed to rising levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere by human activity.

“The ice cover plays a key role in the climate,” Thomas Wagner, the chief snow and ice scientist for NASA, said in a conference call with reporters. “The thicker ice particularly is very important, because it’s the thicker ice that survives the summer to stay around and reflect that summer sunlight.”

Walter Meir of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, added, “We’re getting an ice cover as we finish the winter and head into summer that’s much more vulnerable to the summer melt and much more likely to melt completely and expose that dark ocean.”

The decade-long trend of a contracting ice cap around the North Pole is continuing as well.

The maximum extent of Arctic sea ice for the winter of 2008-09 was measured at 5.85 million square miles (15.2 million square km), the fifth-lowest winter peak on record. That tally represents a loss of some 278,000 square miles (720,000 square km), about the size of Texas, from the winter peak averaged from 1979 to 2000.

The six lowest measurements since satellite monitoring began in 1979 have all occurred in the past six years.

Still, the total volume of sea ice in the Arctic during winter is estimated to contain enough water to fill Lake Michigan and Lake Superior combined.

Meir said there are consequences of an Arctic thaw beside a speed-up of global climate change and the survival of wildlife that depend on the polar ice.

Vanishing summer ice will open new navigation routes for shipping, opportunities to develop the region’s natural resources and competition among northern nations to lay claim to parts of the Arctic, he said.

Meir said a strong consensus has emerged among climate scientists that the Arctic is headed for its first largely ice-free summer in the relatively near future, with forecasts running as early as 2013, though he sees that as too soon.

In any case, he added, “It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.”