Climate Rap: Monckton Vs. Gore

This is just too good.



I was a little worried this was going to be one of those bullshit "both opinions have merit" things, especially since it was pretty obvious the writers of this brilliant video were going to rip Al Gore. But actually, it's more than reasonable: they portray Gore as kind of a dick connected to the wealthy and powerful who wrecked the climate, and Monckton as a raving and manipulative upper-class twit. And climate change? Of course it's happening. Sounds about right to me. The short is the work of The Juice Media. Here's the Guardian's story on this video, and here's the creator's Yootube page.

Six In The Morning

1 HOCKEY PLAYER WITH FAMOUS DAD LEAVES CLOSET No idea how an editor who follows the NHL like a maniac missed this story from Tuesday about Toronto Maple Leaf Brian Burke's now-openly gay son, but shit happens I guess. (ESPN) Anyway, good news for civilization and people having the freedom to be who they are. Now let's see some honesty from NHL players. When even Don Cherry says he doesn't care if hockey players are gay, it's time. Oh, you can read more on this here. (Globe And Mail)

2 CONVICTED MASS MURDERER ROBERT PICKTON GETS APPEAL ON LAME TECHNICALITY Story here. Sometimes it's a real drag living in a country that respects the rule of law. (The Province)

3 SEX WORKER DEFENDS JOHNS Interesting read on a controversial topic--the decriminalization or legalization of prostitution. Maybe legal, paid sex would've protected women somewhat from monsters like Pickton? (The Georgia Straight)

4 ANOTHER THREAT FROM CLIMATE CHANGE Northern communities are literally not built to cope with it, says a federal advisory board. (CBC)

5 THE RED CROSS WAS WORRIED ABOUT TORTURE. WHY NOT THE FOREIGN MINISTER'S OFFICE? News like this makes it really embarrassing to decent Canadians that the resurgent Conservatives are leading in polls. (Toronto Star)

6 GREY CUP SEX: YES OR NO? The Leader-Post prints a stupid, purile story that I only read to the end because I was so disgusted with how far journalism has fallen. And also because the word "sex" was in the headline. (Leader-Post)

Pick of the Day: Physics Lecture

This month, the University of Regina Physics Department has presented three lectures that might well be sub-titled Physics for Dummies. Nov. 19, Dinesh Singh presented Albert Einstein's Legacy and the Future: The Search for Signs of Quantum Gravity in which he reviewed the impact of Einstein's 1915 publication of his General Theory of Relativity and ongoing efforts by physicists to discover the force that binds particles together on the subatomic level.

The week previous George Lolos had discussed the search physicists are currently engaged in to identify the hundreds of subatomic particles like quarks, leptons, gluons, photons and the like that, along with protons, neutrons, electrons, are the building blocks of matter.

Tonight at 7 p.m. in RIC 119 the series concludes with this talk by Edward Mathie titled Saskatchewan Uranium Issues: Nuclear Physics for the Public. According to his bio, Mathie was one of the 12 men appointed by the Wall government to the Uranium Development Partnership -- the group that produced the by now largely discredited report recommending that Saskatchewan move aggressively to deepen its involvement in the uranium and nuclear industry to the extent of building two big-ass reactors for power generation and even supporting the establishment of a nuclear waste disposal site up north.

When Dan Perrins was conducting his review of the UDP report in May-June I sat in on two sessions. Not for one second would I characterize the people who opposed the recommendations as Luddites intent on returning Saskatchewan to some imagined pre-industrial utopia. Rather, they were highly intelligent and committed people who offered cogent critiques of virtually every aspect of what, by any objective standard, was a deeply flawed process where a panel composed almost exclusively of uranium and nuclear advocates purported to lay out a roadmap for the province's energy future via a biased report that exaggerated potential problems and costs associated renewables and downplayed nuclear's sorry track record related to cost overruns and technological breakdowns.

Now, of course, the government is engaged in a broader review of energy policy that at least opens the door to the possibility of renewables being part of the mix. It'll be interesting to see what Mathie will say in his lecture. From where I sit, nuclear is a dying industry and if the province really wants to get ahead of the curve and secure for itself a truly sustainable energy supply then investment in renewables is the way to go. But we shall see.

Being generally pro-science, I'm reluctant to engage in scare-mongering. So for your bemusement only I offer up this trailer for the classic 1955 Sci-Fi flick Them. It's not as alarmist as the cover story Paul did on our dystopian nuclear future back in August, but for now it will have to do.

The Solution To Child Poverty?

It's a no-brainer, says Ed Broadbent. Tax the wealthiest of us more. (Globe And Mail)

I got Nothin'. Nothin.'

Harper praises press freedom in a speech, then refuses to speak to reporters. (CTV)

Six In The Morning

1 SARAH PALIN SAYS WE SHOULD SCRAP MEDICARE The self-described common-sense conservative tells Marg Delahunty (AKA Mary Walsh) that Canadians deserve a free-market healthcare system (Canoe). Like the U.S. one, which leaves somewhere around 46 million Americans without coverage (Gallup poll) and is responsible for an estimated 62.1 per cent of 1.5 million U.S. bankruptcies (CNN).

2 MAYBE POLITICIANS DID KNOW ABOUT THE TORTURE Canada's Foreign Affairs office was sent details on transfered Afghanistan prisoners being tortured. But did Minister Peter Mackay know? That is the question. Meanwhile, e-mails show that Ottawa was worried about the torture question back in 2007 (Globe And Mail). Finally, over half of Canadians believe prisoners were tortured. Reality isn't something we get to vote on--it doesn't matter what people believe, what matters is what the evidence shows--but this does suggest there's a PR problem for the Conservative government. (CBC)

3 SASKATCHEWAN INTRODUCES TICKET LEGISLATION The new rules are meant to cut down on companies and people reselling tickets to major events at huge profits. But they don't outlaw reselling tickets at a profit. (Leader-Post)

4 OBAMA'S GOING TO COPENHAGEN! Just announced, tickets to go on sale soon I'm sure. (New York Times)

5 HOW TO TELL YOU'RE A CONSERVATIVE The Republican Party has a list (New York Times, again). How do you score? I got zero out of 10. Sounds like energy corporation Shell might fail #3. (Guardian)

6 BABOON BANDITS! My opposition to monkeys is reinforced by this report on the scoundrels' organized criminal activities. Down with all monkeys. Feed 'em to the cute cuddly cougars, I say.(MSNBC)

Pick of the Day: As You Like It

All the world's a stage

And all the men and women merely players

They have their exits and their entrances

And one man in his time plays many parts.

Thus begins one of Shakespeare's most famous monologues. If you attend this Do-It-With-Class production of this popular pastoral comedy by the Bard, which closes a two-night run at the Conexus Arts Centre tonight, be on the lookout for it in Act II. It's spoken by Jacques, who's described in the play's synopsis as a melancholy companion to Duke Senior who's been exiled from his Duchy by his devious younger brother Frederick and is now living in the Arcadian Forest of Arden. His daughter Rosalind, who had been permitted by her uncle to remain at court because she was close friends with his only child Celia, is eventually banished herself and Celia decides to flee with her.

Both girls adopt false identities (Rosalind as a young man named Ganymede, Celia as a young woman named Aliena), and in the company of the jester Touchstone they head into the forest, where they encounter the Duke and his men. Much romantic confusion and all-round general hilarity ensues, and by the end of the play no less than four different couples are wed, and the Duke has even regained his Duchy from his recalcitrant brother.

To give you a taste, here's the trailer for a HBO version of the play directed by noted Shakespeareophile Kenneth Branaugh. (YouTube)

The Party Of Miserable, Judgemental Bastards

Conservative politicians think the unemployed are lazy. In other news, birds have beaks. (The ChronicleHerald)

The Famous Leaked Climate E-Mails

Here's George Monbiot's take. To sum up for the link-clicking averse: Those awful illegal e-mails DO expose shady scientific shenanigans--but they don't prove global warming isn't real. But they are a public relations disaster. Here's a funny joke that makes a point.

Climate Change: Much Worse than Predicted

Earlier today, 26 of the world's leading climate scientists released a report entitled The Copenhagen Diagnosis. It's an update of what we have learned about global warming since the IPCC's fourth report in 2007.

What does it tell us? That climate change is accelerating beyond all expectations.

The report took over a year to complete, and here's some of the new evidence the authors have uncovered (I'm quoting the bullet points from the press release):

• Satellite and direct measurements now demonstrate that both the Greenland and Antarctic ice-sheets are losing mass and contributing to sea level rise at an increasing rate.
  
  
• Arctic sea-ice has melted far beyond the expectations of climate models. For example, the area of summer sea-ice melt during 2007-2009 was about 40% greater than the average projection from the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report.
  
  
• Sea level has risen more than 5 centimeters over the past 15 years, about 80% higher than IPCC projections from 2001. Accounting for ice-sheets and glaciers, global sea-level rise may exceed 1 meter by 2100, with a rise of up to 2 meters considered an upper limit by this time. This is much higher than previously projected by the IPCC. Furthermore, beyond 2100, sea level rise of several meters must be expected over the next few centuries.
  
  
• In 2008 carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels were ~40% higher than those in 1990. Even if emissions do not grow beyond today’s levels, within just 20 years the world will have used up the allowable emissions to have a reasonable chance of limiting warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius.

The report concludes that if we don't take immediate action to reduce our carbon emissions, we won't be able to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

Yes, but how does that jive with what Lorne Gunter was squawking about in today's Leader Post? Well, it doesn't. Why? Because Gunter is hopelessly confused and misled on the science of climate change. (I say "confused and misled" because the alternative is that he's lying.)

Look, I just haven't got time right now to tear apart all of Gunter's latest nonsense. Suffice to say, that everytime I've gone off to fact check one of his anti-science screeds, I've found that his opinions are based on a misreading of scientific reality. Usually, all he is doing is parroting the talking points being issued from propaganda machines such as the Friends of Science.

I'll post more later. But in the meantime, you can read some actual science on climate change by reading the Copenhagen Diagnosis. Unlike this hacked-email circus Gunter was crowing about, this report is probably the most important thing you'll read about this year.