Happy Birthday Norman Borlaug: Man Who Saved A Billion Lives

Written by Dr Benny Peiser, GWPF

Today, we live in a very different world from the one that Norman Borlaug was born into. It’s a world with less preventable misery, less hunger, and more hope for the hungry . What a legacy for this humble farmer from Iowa — this unlikeliest of revolutionaries, this man who changed the planet with a grain of wheat. (Mitch McConnell, The Washington Times, 25 March 2014Borlaug
 

Congress gave a place of honor Tuesday to agriculture visionary Norman Borlaug, adding his statue to the Capitol’s Statuary Hall, but congressional leaders said an even better way to carry on his legacy is to continue his research to feed the world. Congressional leaders unveiled a bronze statue of the Iowan on Tuesday, which would have been his 100th birthday and is also National Agriculture Day. (Jacqueline Klimas, The Washington Times, 25 March 2014)

In the late 1960s, most experts were speaking of imminent global famines in which billions would perish. ‘The battle to feed all of humanity is over,’ biologist Paul Ehrlich famously wrote in his 1968 bestseller The Population Bomb. But Borlaug and his team were already engaged in the kind of crash program that Ehrlich declared wouldn’t work. Their dwarf wheat varieties resisted a wide spectrum of plant pests and diseases and produced two to three times more grain than the traditional varieties. Borlaug, who unfortunately is far less well-known than doomsayer Ehrlich, is responsible for much of the progress humanity has made against hunger. (Ronald Bailey, Reason Online, 13 September 2009)

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The IPCC: Providing ‘Hope for Our Earth’

Written by Donna Laframboise

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) calls itself a scientific body. Indeed, it’s online self-description uses some version of the word ‘science’ seven times in a few paragraphs.

But a document prepared for the current IPCC meeting in Japan utterly obliterates those claims. It’s titled Hope for Our Earth from Yokohama. Please note the large IPCC logo on the bottom of the first page – next to the logo of the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Donna L

Page two of this document contains this headline: Saving the Planet for Future Generations. Beneath it, we read:

We must bequeath to future generations a safe environment in which to live, and that means properly understanding the information published by the IPCC and taking action in Yokohama. [bold added]

Well, I feel like an idiot. It took me years of research – in which I carefully gave the IPCC the benefit of the doubt, in which I conscientiously eschewed lazy intellectual shortcuts – before I reluctantly concluded that the IPCC is actually an activist organization pretending to be a scientific one. Evidently, I should have spent more time in my garden and saved myself a ton of trouble. Because nothing I have written in the past five years reveals the IPCC’s true colours better than the single sentence I’ve just quoted.

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Invisible: Photo of a landscape no human can ever see

Written by Sally Adee, New Scientist

You are looking at a colour no one can see (see photo). If you visited these grassy fields in Nepal’s Annapurna Himalayan range, as New York-based photographer Sean Lynch did, they would look bright green. Crucially, though, they also reflect near-infrared light, which lies just beyond the range our eyes can sense. NepalThe fuchsia colour in Lynch’s photo is created when this invisible light hits a special dye in the photographic film. “None of us will ever actually experience this ‘colour’,” says Paul Lucey, a geophysicist at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu.

Fields like these are a great way to showcase this imaging technique because plants reflect infrared light especially well. They do this for the same reason they shun green light: to make photosynthesis, which prefers blue and red light, as efficient as possible.

Such invisible reflections aren’t just cool – they reveal important information. Although two plants may look similar to the naked eye, healthy leaves store more chlorophyll and so reflect more near-infrared light than unhealthy ones. This allows farmers to monitor plant health, aided by sensors mounted on aeroplanes and satellites. For entirely different reasons, oil slicks – and their clean-up – can be monitored using the same infrared reflections.

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Wild, Weird Weather

Written by Viv Forbes, The Carbon Sense Coalition

Carbon dioxide may calm the climate, but it cannot cause wild, weird weather. Every day some place in the world has “wild weather”. And in recent times, human industry gets the blame. “It’s all caused by man-made global warming” (generally shortened to “global warming”, or GW by alarmists).

Floods or droughts – blame GW; bushfires or snowstorms – blame GW; frosts or heatwaves – blame GW; hail storms or dust storms – blame GW; cyclones or tornadoes – blame GW.In fact, here is a complete list of all the things blamed on global warming:

http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm

If all of this were true, then carbon dioxide is surely the most powerful and disruptive gas on the planet. That great scientist, John Kerry, even calls it a “weapon of mass destruction”.cartoon

Thanks to cartoonist Steve Hunter who has gambled again that we may raise enough money to pay him. But carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the most stable, predictable, unreactive and puny of all climate factors. And its effect diminishes for each addition of CO2 to the atmosphere. Adding more now has almost zero effect on temperature.

Read the full report: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/wild-weird-weather.pdf

Sun, Water, Winds and Weather

What determines surface temperature at any spot on earth?

Apart from a tad of geothermal heat and a wisp of heat from nuclear power generators, every bit of surface energy (including coal and biomass) comes directly or indirectly from the sun. There is no other source of surface heat – everything else just stores, releases or re-directs solar energy.

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We all owe our EXISTENCE to lovely VOLCANOES, say Scientists

Written by Iain Thomson, The Register

Antarctica lava blasts kept Earth warm ‘n’ cozy during global cold snaps. Research by the British Antarctic Survey has found that volcanos played a crucial role in preserving life when our world went through one of its periodic ice ages.

From time to time in Earth’s history, the planet cools and an ice cover extends from the poles to cover large sections of the planet’s surface. It’s even hypothesized that about 650 million years ago the entire world was covered with an ice sheet – theSnowball Earth scenario.

Current scientific thinking is that as ice extends from the poles, plant and animal life migrate towards the equator. The British Antarctic Survey team’s research, however, shows that – for Antarctica at least – volcanoes help keep life going while freezing conditions persist.

“Nearly 60 per cent of Antarctic invertebrate species are found nowhere else in the world but Antarctica,” said Professor Peter Convey from the British Antarctic Survey.

“They have clearly not arrived on the continent recently, but must have been there for millions of years. How they survived past ice ages – the most recent of which ended less than 20,000 years ago – has long puzzled scientists.”Antarctic volcanoes

The team has compiled a survey of over 39,000 organisms on Antarctica, comprising 1,823 taxa, across the icy continent. They found that by far the most populated areas of the continent were around volcanoes that are either active today, or which have been active since the last glacial maximum 20,000 years ago.

“Our spatial modeling of Antarctic biodiversity indicates that some terrestrial groups likely survived throughout intense glacial cycles on ice-free land or in sub-ice caves associated with areas of geothermal activity, from which recolonization of the rest of the continent took place,” the team said in a paper (PDF) published in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“These results,” the paper notes, “provide unexpected insights into the responses of various species to past climate change and the importance of geothermal regions in promoting biodiversity. Furthermore, they indicate the likely locations of biodiversity ‘hotspots’ in Antarctica, suggesting a critical focus for future conservation efforts.” 

Read more at the register.co.uk

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ENVIRONMENTAL SCAMS

Written by Vincent R. Gray , M.A.,Ph.D., F.N.Z.I.C

In order to impose on the world their dogmas and restrictions, the Environmental Movement has abandoned rational discussion, scientific method  and  open debate and adopted the principle that the ends justify the means. Distortion and fabrication of evidence has become routine, and is a feature of our news bulletins, scientific journals, schools and university departments. Sceptics are “deniers”, hounded from employment and publishable only on the Internet. Exaggeration, partial evidence, speculation and unjustified assumptions are compounded, often with the help of computers, to provide scare scenarios for the future. The following are examples:

NUCLEAR WINTER

(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_winter)

This idea from the early 1980s arose from the popularity of computer models and was promoted by the physicist Carl Sagan. It was claimed that a serious nuclear war would not only cause many deaths and a disruption of human existence but would cause so much soot and other aerosols in the atmosphere that all plant life on earth would die.

The use of nuclear weapons would undoubtedly cause considerable harm. Since some 93{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117} of them are in the arsenals of Russia and the USA the priority is avoiding a war between them, something which we hope has become increasingly remote. As for the rest we should note that even nuclear bombing of modern towns, largely built from concrete and steel, would not contribute the vast amounts of smoke required for this theory.

We hope an international treaty for the abolition and destruction of such weapons may progress. Unfortunately this is unlikely until all states have a free choice, rather than being pushed around by those who own them already. 

Sagan expected that the fires in the Kuwait oilfields would provide a “nuclear winter”. But he got it wrong. Some who think that Beijing ait pollution could be disastrous are unaware that similar problems of air pollution in Britain and elswhere have been successfully solved without a possible “nuclear winter”

When I lived in Manchester in 1951 I recall a “pea soup fog” where I could not see an illuminated street lamp. I was a member of the Clean Air Society at the time. This Society was dissolved when a policy of clean air was adopted by most local bodies, despite occasional lapses.

SILENT SPRING

(see http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=1259

Silent Spring by biologist/zoologist Rachel Carson (Houghton Miflin 1962) warned of the dangers that DDT allegedly posed to all manner of plant, animal, and human life. These threats were so great, said Carson, that on balance they more than negated whatever benefits were to be gained from using the pesticide to prevent malaria.

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‘New Scientist’ – old Alarmism about Global Warming

Written by

The magazine increasingly regarded as a sock puppet for the cause of climate alarm, ‘New Scientist’ trumpets another hollow, science-free cry to readers to stay scared about climate change. Below we dissect this Chicken Little nonsense.

You know you’re about to be flim-flammed from the very start in “Is it Time to Stop Worrying About Global Warming?” (December 7, 2013) when the opening shot cries out, “Climate sceptics are finding it ever harder to persuade the public that the climate isn’t changing.” 

new scientistNow hold on a cotton-picking minute. I’ve been posting articles about man-made global warming for five years and in all that time neither I, nor any of my science advisers asserted climate doesn’t change – it always changes – that’s the point!

Any scientist worth his or her salt knows our planet is subject to awesome and unstoppable shifts in and out of periods of natural warming and cooling –  all cyclical in pattern and driven by cosmic forces far, far outside of our planet. Indeed, for the last 11,000 years Earth has been in one of those increasingly rare warming phases. It’s called the Holocene Period, the warmest part of which occured 5,000-9,000 years ago and termed a ‘Climatic Optimum’  don’t you know!  An ‘optimum’ because warmer climates are better to support life. [1]

While the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has published five reports over two decades using the metric of global surface temperatures to alarm us of a slight warming trend between 1975-1997, ‘New Scientist’ now assures us reliance on such empirical evidence is “misguided.” Wow!

Unsurprisingly then, as we appear to be dealing with con artists, that ‘New Scientist’ thereafter doubles down from this straw man opening gambit in its ‘scientific’ argument to pursue the lame “missing heat” hypothesis promulgated by Kevin Trenberth. Trenberth is among that small coterie of favoured UN climate “experts” who pursues a faith-based (post-normal) brand of science based on computer models that treat our planet as a flat disk bathed by 24 hours of insipid twilight. It’s all part of the over-simplified and dumbed down ‘flat earth’  climate physics that leaves experts from the ‘hard’ sciences cold.

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Newly-released Letters Expose Aussie Govt Minister in Climate Fraud

Written by PSI Staff

Open letter challenges minister to come clean and admit global warming alarmism based on fear, not science. Freedom of Information (FoI) results on Australian government climate science (2005-2013) proves no one in Howard or Rudd-Gillard governments received any factual scientific evidence on man-made global warming.

 GREG HUNTIndependent climate researcher, Malcolm Roberts, issues another in a series of open challenges to Environment Minister, Greg Hunt, proving Hunt has no empirical scientific evidence for cutting human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Open letter published in full (some contact details redacted) below:

Malcolm-Ieuan: Roberts.

Haven Road,

Pullenvale QLD  4069

Wednesday, March 19th, 2014

Gregory-Andrew: Hunt.

Minister for the Environment

PO Box 6022


House of Representatives

Parliament House


Canberra ACT 2600

[email protected]

Dear Greg:

Sent by Registered Post with Delivery Confirmation and electronically

Re: Your letter dated October 31, 2013. Your reference: MC13-001921

 

Without prejudice

Thank you for your letter dated October 31, 2013. Congratulations on your appointment as Minister. By now you will have settled into your new responsibilities.

The ultimate arbiter of science and the basis for policy on scientific issues is empirical scientific evidence. This letter explains how I know factually that you have no empirical scientific evidence of global warming (aka climate change) by carbon dioxide (CO2) from human activity. Yet you continue to falsely imply, though carefully not state, that you have such evidence. In public statements you contradict empirical scientific evidence and misrepresent climate and climate science.

Your behaviour explained below deepens my concerns. I offer a constructive solution to build a successful future for you, our country and our precious natural environment.

You say that the government and presumably you take your, quote: “primary advice on climate science from the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO”. You further imply that you rely on the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC.

CSIRO, BOM proven to have no empirical scientific evidence of CO2 as cause

It is beyond doubt through documented evidence that both CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) have no empirical scientific evidence of human CO2 as causation of global warming that ended in 1995 / 1998. Yet again, I refer you to:

  1. CSIRO and BOM responses to my requests under Freedom of Information provisions: they reveal that no senior member of government since 2004 has received any report providing empirical scientific evidence of human causation from BOM and no report at all from CSIRO’s Chief Executive. This is fact and is publicly documented on my web site http://www.conscious.com.au specifically: http://www.conscious.com.au/letters.html Please provide me with copies of reports or advice from CSIRO and BOM on which you rely and that contain specific empirical scientific evidence showing human CO2 caused Earth’s latest modest cyclic global atmospheric warming from 1976 to 1998. If you fail to do so your position is not tenable and you are misleading me, your party, the Prime Minister, our federal parliament and the Australian people;
  2. Correspondence from CSIRO’s Chief Executive Dr. Megan Clark, CSIRO Group Executive‑Environment Dr. Andrew Johnson and BOM Director Dr. Rob Vertessy has been received in response to my requests for empirical scientific evidence of causation. All repeatedly failed to provide such evidence. Instead, all misleadingly imply or state false and/or diversionary claims. These are documented in Appendices 6, 6a and 7 to my report on CSIRO’s flagship report on climate change. Please note examples in Appendix 7 showing BOM manipulated data to fabricate warming from data revealing cooling trends. That report and appendices are at: http://www.conscious.com.au/CSIROh!.html
  3. Detailed analysis of many CSIRO and BOM reports by me and other independent researchers including internationally eminent climate scientists reveal those reports do not contain empirical scientific evidence for their claim of human CO2 causing warming yet misleadingly imply such evidence. This is documented in Appendix 6: http://www.conscious.com.au/CSIROh!.html;
  4. No organisation anywhere in the world has ever presented empirical scientific evidence and logical scientific reasoning showing that human CO2 caused or will cause global warming. Others and I have checked every major scientific body in Australia and in prominent western democracies. All organisations have no such evidence. If they had they would have presented it. They fail to present any;
  5. Empirical scientific evidence has been presented to you personally in the logical structure necessary to disprove human causation. That climate data proves beyond doubt that carbon dioxide does not drive climate and that levels of CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere are a result of natural temperature variation. Human CO2 production has no material effect and cannot have any effect on temperature or global climate. See enclosed one-page summary (http://bit.ly/1btyTGE) linked to documents presenting empirical scientific evidence gathered worldwide. It includes data on CO2 levels cited and relied upon by the UN IPCC. By claiming human CO2 has an effect you ignore or overrule Henry’s Law;
  6. Apparent conflicts of interest by the CSIRO Chief Executive, Dr. Megan Clark who previously was on the board of Rothschilds Australia bank and who currently sits on the Advisory Board of Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Both organisations seek to grab trillions of dollars trading paper CO2 ‘credits’.

You have previously been advised of these facts. By doing nothing you condone corruption of climate science funded by taxpayers. By continuing to knowingly misrepresent climate and science you continue to knowingly endorse that corruption.

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Newly-released Letters Expose Aussie Govt Minister in Climate Fraud

Written by PSI Staff

Open letter challenges minister to come clean and admit global warming alarmism based on fear, not science. Freedom of Information (FoI) results on Australian government climate science (2005-2013) proves no one in Howard or Rudd-Gillard governments received any factual scientific evidence on man-made global warming.

 GREG HUNTIndependent climate researcher, Malcolm Roberts, issues another in a series of open challenges to Environment Minister, Greg Hunt, proving Hunt has no empirical scientific evidence for cutting human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Open letter published in full below:

Malcolm-Ieuan: Roberts.

180 Haven Road,

Pullenvale QLD  4069

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 04 1964 2379 and 07 3374 3374

Wednesday, March 19th, 2014

Gregory-Andrew: Hunt.

Minister for the Environment

PO Box 274

Hastings Vic 3915

And,

PO Box 6022


House of Representatives

Parliament House


Canberra ACT 2600

[email protected]

Dear Greg:

Sent by Registered Post with Delivery Confirmation and electronically

Re: Your letter dated October 31, 2013. Your reference: MC13-001921

 

Without prejudice

Thank you for your letter dated October 31, 2013. Congratulations on your appointment as Minister. By now you will have settled into your new responsibilities.

The ultimate arbiter of science and the basis for policy on scientific issues is empirical scientific evidence. This letter explains h0w I know factually that you have no empirical scientific evidence of global warming (aka climate change) by carbon dioxide (CO2) from human activity. Yet you continue to falsely imply, though carefully not state, that you have such evidence. In public statements you contradict empirical scientific evidence and misrepresent climate and climate science.

Your behaviour explained below deepens my concerns. I offer a constructive solution to build a successful future for you, our country and our precious natural environment.

You say that the government and presumably you take your, quote: “primary advice on climate science from the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO”. You further imply that you rely on the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC.

CSIRO, BOM proven to have no empirical scientific evidence of CO2 as cause

It is beyond doubt through documented evidence that both CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) have no empirical scientific evidence of human CO2 as causation of global warming that ended in 1995 / 1998. Yet again, I refer you to:

  1. CSIRO and BOM responses to my requests under Freedom of Information provisions: they reveal that no senior member of government since 2004 has received any report providing empirical scientific evidence of human causation from BOM and no report at all from CSIRO’s Chief Executive. This is fact and is publicly documented on my web site http://www.conscious.com.au specifically: http://www.conscious.com.au/letters.html Please provide me with copies of reports or advice from CSIRO and BOM on which you rely and that contain specific empirical scientific evidence showing human CO2 caused Earth’s latest modest cyclic global atmospheric warming from 1976 to 1998. If you fail to do so your position is not tenable and you are misleading me, your party, the Prime Minister, our federal parliament and the Australian people;
  2. Correspondence from CSIRO’s Chief Executive Dr. Megan Clark, CSIRO Group Executive‑Environment Dr. Andrew Johnson and BOM Director Dr. Rob Vertessy has been received in response to my requests for empirical scientific evidence of causation. All repeatedly failed to provide such evidence. Instead, all misleadingly imply or state false and/or diversionary claims. These are documented in Appendices 6, 6a and 7 to my report on CSIRO’s flagship report on climate change. Please note examples in Appendix 7 showing BOM manipulated data to fabricate warming from data revealing cooling trends. That report and appendices are at: http://www.conscious.com.au/CSIROh!.html
  3. Detailed analysis of many CSIRO and BOM reports by me and other independent researchers including internationally eminent climate scientists reveal those reports do not contain empirical scientific evidence for their claim of human CO2 causing warming yet misleadingly imply such evidence. This is documented in Appendix 6: http://www.conscious.com.au/CSIROh!.html;
  4. No organisation anywhere in the world has ever presented empirical scientific evidence and logical scientific reasoning showing that human CO2 caused or will cause global warming. Others and I have checked every major scientific body in Australia and in prominent western democracies. All organisations have no such evidence. If they had they would have presented it. They fail to present any;
  5. Empirical scientific evidence has been presented to you personally in the logical structure necessary to disprove human causation. That climate data proves beyond doubt that carbon dioxide does not drive climate and that levels of CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere are a result of natural temperature variation. Human CO2 production has no material effect and cannot have any effect on temperature or global climate. See enclosed one-page summary (http://bit.ly/1btyTGE) linked to documents presenting empirical scientific evidence gathered worldwide. It includes data on CO2 levels cited and relied upon by the UN IPCC. By claiming human CO2 has an effect you ignore or overrule Henry’s Law;
  6. Apparent conflicts of interest by the CSIRO Chief Executive, Dr. Megan Clark who previously was on the board of Rothschilds Australia bank and who currently sits on the Advisory Board of Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Both organisations seek to grab trillions of dollars trading paper CO2 ‘credits’.

You have previously been advised of these facts. By doing nothing you condone corruption of climate science funded by taxpayers. By continuing to knowingly misrepresent climate and science you continue to knowingly endorse that corruption.

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“CONSPIRACISTS”, “DENIERS”, AND OTHER LABELS

Written by Alberto Miatello

 

200 YEARS OF PERSECUTIONS AND LIES AGAINST SCIENTIFIC FREEDOM BY THE SCIENTIFIC ESTABLISHMENT

If we asked all the scientists in the world about the most important good in their activity, no doubt most of them would indicate scientific freedom on top of the list.

Scientific freedom is the quintessence of scientific activity, in the same way as water is the most important element for fishes. It is also a “corollary” of science itself, because no new scientific discovery can be made, without the possibility to freely study and investigate (freedom of thought)  and then discuss, compare, disclose  and publish scientific results (freedom of the press). freedom of speechIn 1958 the Hungarian (then naturalized British and member of the Royal Society) scientist Michael Polanyi, became famous with his book: “Personal Knowledge”, in which he refuted the common view that scientific method is something “objective” and “neutral”, on the contrary he pointed out that scientists are normally following personal passions before deciding which problems and scientific facts deserve to be investigated.

Therefore – Polanyi argued – just a liberal system which can guarantee total freedom “to pursue science for its own sake” (as opposed to a conception in which science should be instrumental to pursue “social needs”, i.e. contaminated by political evaluations) can be suggested as a way to allow  total and real scientific freedom.

However, scientific freedom today, in a world dominated by powerful government, business, media and lobby groups, is far from having been reached.

Although today it is not so common as in the past that a scientist is subject to physical violence (as Ignac Semmelweis was in XIX century), there are many ways by which today the scientific establishment can silence and marginalize inconvenient scientists. 

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An Ocean of Water, Deep Below

Written by Dr Klaus L.E. Kaiser

Ever heard of ringwoodite? No? Unless you are a professional mineralogist or geologist there’s no need to think you missed something vital. A new finding involving ringwoodite is making the news thanks to claims of hithertounrecognized vast masses of water, deep underground.JUc29

New Research

New research published in the journal Nature claims to prove the existence of an “ocean mass of water,” a few hundred miles below the earth’s surface. After years of analysis of a small diamond unearthed in Brazil, the authors conclude that the sample contains an even smaller speck of ringwoodite that in turn contains a yet smaller amount of water molecules bound to it.

So, before you rejoice in the thought of a free hot shower in that new “ocean” deep below, consider some minor details of relevance.

Rocks and Minerals

Rocks are made up of minerals. The rock granite, for example, is an igneous rock, typically comprised of the minerals of quartz, feldspar and mica. In contrast, limestone is a sedimentary rock almost entirely made up of calcium carbonate. The earth’s land mass contains vast quantities of both kinds of rock and all contain some “water.” However, all that water is tightly bound in the rocks and their constituent minerals.

 

Free vs. Bound Water

At the surface with an atmospheric pressure of one atmosphere, water boils at 100 C (212 F). Even a few hundred miles below the surface where the temperature is more like 700 C (1300 F), that “ocean mass” of water is still tightly bound in the rock. It is not free water which you could pump up or extract without additional energy input.

 

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Open Letter to AMA on Their Position Statement: Wind Farms & Health 2014

Written by Sarah Laurie, CEO Waubra Foundation

waubra foundationOpen Letter to AMA on Their Position Statement: Wind Farms Health 2014

 March 18, 2014

AMA President Dr Steve Hambleton
Vice President Professor Geoffrey Dobb
All members of AMA Federal Council

OPEN LETTER  

RE POSITION STATEMENT ON WIND “FARM” INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENTS AND HEALTH 

Dear AMA Federal Office Bearers, 

As I have not received a response to a detailed email sent to the AMA President and the Vice President 4 days ago concerning the AMA’s position statement on wind “farms” and health, this is an open letter to you all.  

This matter is of considerable and increasing national and international interest, especially to rural residents whose health has been severely adversely impacted by existing wind turbine developments, some of whom have been forced from their homes because of the serious adverse health impacts on themselves and their families.  

Do Federal AMA members realize that there are no studies showing there are no adverse health effects on a local population after installation of a wind development, and there are no longitudinal studies which show there are still no adverse health effects after 25 years?  

In other words, product safety has NOT been established, despite industry assertions to the contrary. 

Rather, a literature review conducted by two public health physicians in Rural Ontario, Drs Lynn and Arra, found that all the studies they identified showed evidence of what they called “human distress”. A powerpoint of their literature review findings is available here:http://waubrafoundation.org.au/resources/association-between-wind-turbine-noise-and-human-distress/ and some of those studies were also included in the recent NHMRC Literature Review. 

Please give these issues your urgent attention and provide detailed answers to the following questions. Your answers will be made publicly available.

Content of the public statement 

Where is the research, conducted inside the homes of the residents reporting the serious repetitive sleep disturbance, the physiological stress, and other symptoms of “wind turbine syndrome”, which confirms that these symptoms are caused by anxiety from alleged scaremongering as your AMA position statement asserts, RATHER than pulsatile infrasound and low frequency noise from wind turbines, which Dr Neil Kelley and his NASA research colleagues established was the DIRECT cause of these “annoyance” symptoms in 1985 in a major US government funded research project in the USA

This pattern of symptoms of so called “annoyance” reported by residents today is identical to that documented so carefully some 30 years ago by Dr Neil Kelley, in a large collaborativeNASA and aeronautical engineering acoustic field survey in the USA, followed by a laboratory study, funded by the US Department of Energy. If members of the AMA Federal Council are not familiar with those landmark studies which have been known to the wind energy industry since 1987, details are available from the following document (http://waubrafoundation.org.au/2013/explicit-warning-notice/ ).  

Are you suggesting that Kelley and NASA were wrong? Given the way the global wind industry reacted to change the design of the turbines from downwind bladed to upwind bladed to reduce these health and sleep damaging frequencies, it is clear that industry believed this research was important and credible. 

There is no research demonstrating that the reported health effects in residents living near wind turbines are due to anxiety caused by “scaremongering”, and this was acknowledged in the recent NHMRC literature review. The only misinformation being peddled is by the wind industry, and now by your organization’s position statement. 

Why have you repeated the lies of the wind industry that the levels of infrasound inside and outside homes are well below the thresholds of perception? Kelley et al established in 1985 that wind turbine generated impulsive infrasound and low frequency noise could be perceived at levels where it was not audible. The design of the turbine is immaterial to this human perception response – the frequencies generated by horizontal axis wind turbines, downwind or upwind bladed, are still being perceived by the human guinea pigs inside and outside their homes, nearly 30 years later. 

This ability to perceive infrasound pressure pulses or peaks is precisely what independent Australian acoustician Les Huson detected in his acoustic field research at Macarthur in 2013, with resident Andrew Gardner who was experiencing distressing “pressure bolt sensations” whilst sitting peacefully inside his home at night, which correlated remarkably well 86{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117} of the time with the pressure peak transients Mr Huson’s monitor was detecting, to which Mr Gardner was “blinded” at the time he was recording his symptoms.

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Research Confirms Anti-depressant – Autism Link

Written by David Kupelian, WND

When pregnant women take anti-depressants, ‘Virtually every study shows increased rates of developmental delay in children,’ says new report. prozacWithout a doubt, they’re two of today’s most alarming health trends:

  • A staggering one in every 50 American children now has some form of autism, according to the most recent reporting from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
  • The number of people now taking antidepressants like Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Effexor, Luvox and Celexa – all with the FDA’s scary “black box” suicidality warning label – has become equally stratospheric, with 11 percent of all Americans 12-and-over taking them, and an astonishing 23 percent – almost one in four – of women in their 40s and 50s.
  • These two megatrends intersect, researchers say, when pregnant women are treated for depression, anxiety and other maladies with antidepressants.

    Indeed, multiple studies conducted over several years now lead research scientists to conclude that women taking any brand of modern antidepressants – commonly called “SSRIs” (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) – while pregnant run an increased risk of giving birth to a child with an autism spectrum disorder.

    Yet, the public – most importantly, the tens of millions of American women currently taking antidepressants, including 7-13 percent of all pregnant women – strangely has heard very little about this research and its important implications. 

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    Will Steyn now Stick it the O’Sullivan Way to Climate Fraudster Michael Mann?

    Written by

    Good news! As I predicted four years ago, alarmist climate scientist, Michael Mann’s gambit of using the courts to silence debate about his faked “hockey stick” graph is backfiring spectacularly. 17 mainstream media outlets now agree Mann should put up or shut up.

    Mr FOIA

    Back in April 2010 I prophetically penned, “Is Michael Mann Seriously Off his Head?” detailing the legal pitfalls the odious Professor Mann faced if he sued anyone for “defaming” him. Back then I pointed out that:

    “If Mann takes a punt in the courts then his meta data and source codes used in his graphs are germane. The rules of discovery are clear; the respondents will be entitled to full disclosure of any and all evidence pertaining to the issues so that the trier of fact may determine the credibility of the allegations.”

    I recently pointed out the fatal technical legal flaw in Mann’s case against Dr Tim Ball (skeptic climatologist). Mark Steyn (the writer also being sued by the litigious Mann), the mainstream press and others are playing catch up and cottoning on to the inescapable legal realities. Steyn, like Ball, has been sued for daring to question why any scientist who claims his work proves the planet is in great danger, won’t show us his proof.

    Four years ago I brazenly challenged Mann to do his worst when I wrote:

    “Unless the dodgy Penn. State professor divulges his computer codes that underpin his junk science no civil court will entertain him. Barking out his toothless threats scares no one. This fraudster is now a figure of ridicule and is set to go down in history as one of science’s worst abominations. I’ll call Mann a climate crook all day long: let him sue me, I’m game.”

    Needless to say, four years on and I’ve not been sued, nor do I expect to be.

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    The Global Cooling Awareness Project (GCAP)

    Written by PSI Staff

    An increasing number of scientists are worried that global cooling, not warming, currently poses the greatest threat to life. To register their growing concerns, scientists are being asked to join a new campaign to help educate the public and policymakers.icebergs

    At the forefront of the campaign is the Space and Science Research Corporation (SSRC) of Orlando, Florida, a leading independent US climate research company. It is the foremost institution in the United States dedicated to the analysis and planning for the next climate change – forecast to bring decades of record cold weather.

    John L. Casey, SSRC President says,The SSRC possesses the capability to conduct planning and research on how best to prepare individuals, businesses, and governments at all levels for the next climate change to a period of long lasting and potentially dangerous colder weather.”

     
    Fellow scientists, unconnected with SSRC, at Principia Scientific International (PSI) share Casey’s concerns. PSI’s own independent research supports the analysis that our planet appears to be entering a prolonged cooling phase not seen since the Little Ice Age (LIA), a climatically harsh era that saw untold famine and war during the 17th and 18th Centuries.
     
    PSI urges our members and loyal readers qualified in the sciences to lend their support to SSRC’s mission.

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    Is Climate Data Fraudster Michael Mann’s Lawyer a Liar?

    Written by PSI Staff

    Hotshot lawyer to disgraced climate scientist Michael ‘hockey stick’ Mann faces accusations of misrepresentation as a critical global warming lawsuit against a prominent Canadian critic, Dr Tim Ball continues to unravel.

    courtroom gavel

    Mann’s lawyer, Roger McConchie, a leading expert in Canadian libel law, was reported recently as dismissing damning claims by John O’Sullivan, a writer/publisher and known associate of the internationally popular Tim Ball. McConchie is reported to have ridiculed claims by O’Sullivan that he is a party in the protracted three-year lawsuit at the British Columbia Supreme Court, Vancouver. But O’Sullivan insists he does contractually hold a huge financial stake in the case. So, what gives?

    The question is: did McConchie actually make any such a statement, and if he did, is it factually correct? (If he didn’t say any such thing then those who promulgate the lie should apologize).

    First, a little background:

    If Ball wins this case then it will likely become the most important science lawsuit since the notorious Scopes Monkey trial of 1925. The issues being litigated go to the heart of which scientists are lying about man-made global warming.  Professor Mann of Pennsylvania State University is a high profile alarmist; he says his science proves humans are dangerously changing earth’s climate. Dr Ball, a retired university professor and skeptic, says much of the ‘science’ is fudged and some deliberately faked to obscure the actual truth that human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) have little, if any, impact on climate.

    O’Sullivan has been embroiled in this multi-million dollar legal battle from the start. Ball and O’Sullivan were regularly-published contributors to the Canada Free Press (CFP) site that ran Ball’s now famous article declaring that the Penn. State professor belonged in “the state pen, not Penn. State.” This was a reference to Mann’s unethical (possibly criminal) actions relating to hidden metadata for his discredited 1998 ‘hockey stick’ graph that purportedly proved human industrial emissions of carbon dioxide were dangerously warming the planet.

    Ball’s article caused a storm and CFP capitulated to a “take down” notice of legal threats from McConchie. Articles written by O’Sullivan and Ball disappeared from the site and McConchie filed Mann’s lawsuit.

    Since 2010 O’Sullivan had collaborated with Ball and in his own right become an effective advocate against climate alarmism. He set up the ‘Slayers’ group of global warming skeptics and Dr Ball joined as lead author of the ground-breaking book, ‘Slaying the Sky Dragon: Death of the Greenhouse Gas Theory.’ The book inspired the founding of the increasingly prominent organisation, Principia Scientific International (PSI) that champions scientific ethics and openness and transparency by researchers in key fields that impact public policy.

    From the outset one of the key ‘junk science’ targets of the group was Mann and his dodgy graph. They had been iconic symbols in the highly-influential 2001 UN report on man-made global warming, published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which then went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize (not science prize, we should add!). Ball’s sensational new book ‘The Deliberate Corruption of Climate Science;’ shows why the UN IPCC is nothing more and nothing less than a politically contrived organisation.

    As O’Sullivan predicted from the outset, Mann’s litigation was to serve as nothing more than a cynical SLAPP suit designed to tie up Ball for years and chill public debate.

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