Tuesday - March 25, 2008

Must Have Been All That Hot Air

Ok, where’s Al Gore this week? Anybody know? It’s not my turn to watch him. I’m wondering if he’s been waaay down South, lecturing to all those stupid migrating penguins. Because

Ach, crivens, aren’t we done with this crapparoo yet? And didn’t this reporter get the word that it’s now Climate Change^tm so the greenies can still have their pet issue whether things get warmer or colder? Gawd, like get with times already. Making no mention whatsoever that the ice sheets in Antarctica have been at record levels this past year, we get another go at scare-mongering from CNN, the world leader in biased reporting. Amazingly, they couldn’t find some way to blame it on Bush. Hold your noses folks, here we go again:

Massive ice shelf on verge of breakup

(CNN)—Some 220 square miles of ice has collapsed in Antarctica and an ice shelf about the size of Connecticut is “hanging by a thread,” the British Antarctic Survey said Tuesday, blaming global warming.

“We are in for a lot more events like this,” said professor Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Scambos alerted the British Antarctic Survey after he noticed part of the Wilkins ice shelf disintegrating on February 28, when he was looking at NASA satellite images.

Late February marks the end of summer at the South Pole and is the time when such events are most likely, he said.

Hold it right there buddy. First off, it’s nearly the end of March. Got an update for us? Has it broken off yet? What, no? You mean you waited almost 4 weeks to run a story about impending disaster and it hasn’t impended yet? Kinda makes me wonder. Secondly, we all noticed that last line. What passes for heat down in the land of the never ending ice cube has had all summer to work its magic, and now is the time for the ice sheets to break up. A little. As usual. Of course, fall and winter follow quickly on the heels of summer, so if this thing hasn’t broken off yet it’s probably refreezing as I write this. It’s starting to look like this is a story of desperation, your very last chance to cause a panic by pointing out a looming disaster that hasn’t happened, even though it’s perfectly normal for this kind of thing to happen right about now, so this non-event is neither looming nor a disaster. Pwned. Alarmist Ice-hole.

“As of mid-March, only a narrow strip of shelf ice was protecting several thousand kilometers of potential further breakup,” the group said.

Oh, the poor brave ice. Putting its freeziness on the line to save Mother Gaia.

Scambos’ center put the size of the threatened shelf at about 5,282 square miles, comparable to the state of Connecticut, or about half the area of Scotland.

That’s a lot of ice. Somebody better tell Tony Sinclair to get down there with an entire armada of tanker ships filled with Tanqueray Gin, ASAP! But it’s just a tiny little piece of the whole. Hardly a fingernail pairing’s worth, compared to the whole works. And that’s the “threatened” part. 220 square miles worth is what actually broke. Nada. PS - I never realized Scotland was that small. I’ve never been there, but the Scots always seem a bit larger than life, so I guess I just assumed their country was a bit larger too.

But with Antarctica’s summer ending, Scambos said the “unusual show is over for this season.”

So what’s the point of this story then, other than to try and scare us? We’ve all seen those Calving Glacier films on National Geographic. Impressive, stupendous, but in the overall scheme of things, who gives a rat’s ass?

Scambos said the ice shelf is not currently on the path of the increasingly popular tourist ships that travel from South America to Antarctica. But some plants and animals may have to adapt to the collapse.

“Wildlife will be impacted, but they are pretty adept at dealing with a topsy-turvy world,” he said. “The ecosystem is pretty resilient.”

Crivens, squared! The guy even admits it. It’s not happening, it’s not a threat, and the one or two fish that might get bonked on the head by passing icebergs can deal with it. Shut up already!

CNN. The first name in agenda driven news, even when it isn’t really news.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/25/2008 at 10:56 PM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather • Science-Technology •  
• Comments (17) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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