Global Warming

There are certain individuals in the world today who enjoy
attending conferences to discuss any subject whatsoever provided they are in
attendance.

Amongst this group could be those who go to study a
phenomenon known by the heading, global warming. The conferences take
place quite regularly, and no doubt all participants have a wonderful time
living a carefree life discussing a problem, which even if it did exist, they
could not solve.

The Dominion newspaper, 24 January 2001 and read the
headline, Oceans could rise by metre -– scientist.

It is significant that during the reading of this article
I noted the word 'could' was used at least 5 times.

"Low-lying parts of New Zealand could be under water
by the end of the century if global warming remains unchecked, as New Zealand
scientist said...

The word's top climate scientists, meeting in Shanghai,
agreed for the first time yesterday that global warming was mostly caused by
human activity...

Professor Fitzharris, who specialises in the effects of
climate changes on polar ice caps, said ocean could rise by as much as a
metre during the next hundred years, submerging estuarine areas of New Zealand.

The panel of 150 scientists also said that global temperature
could rise by up to 5.8 degrees celsius this century.

Jim Salinger of New Zealand's National Institute of Weather
and Atmospheric Research said this could have dire consequences in New
Zealand...

The new findings could both help and hinder
governments in cutting greenhouse gas emissions..."End Quote.

This author cannot but help but notice the continuous use
of that weak word, could, which does not inspire confidence in anybody who has
any knowledge on the matter whatsoever.

We turn to other articles written by people who are not keen
on travelling to these conferences, and read for example in the Dominion
Newspaper, 30 January 2001, Sea figures exaggerate global warming.

"Fresh doubt has been cast on evidence for global
warming after the discovery that a key method of measuring temperature change
has exaggerated the warming rate by almost 40 per cent...

The belief that global warming is under way, points the
finger of blame usually pointed at man-made pollution such as carbon dioxide.

Now an international team of scientists has found serious
discrepancies in these measurements.

The concern focuses on the temperature of the atmosphere over
the sea, which covers almost three-quarters of the Earth's surface...

Seawater measurements have exaggerated the mount of global
warming over the seas, with the real temperature having risen less than half as
fast during the 1970s than the standard measurements suggest...

The team is now calling for climate experts to switch from
seawater data to sea-air temperature measurements.

One member of the team, David Parker, of the Hadley Centre
for Climate Prediction and Research at the Meteorological Office, says the
discrepancy "Shows we don't understand everything, and that we need
better observations -– all branches of science are like that"...

The findings will be seized on the sceptics as more
evidence that scientists have little idea about the current rate of global
warming, let alone its future rate." End Quote.

The question may now be asked, "why do these people
attend conferences like this?" The answer is of course that this will provide
a problem which can be approached from a global perspective with all nations
becoming involved, even though they don't really know what they're doing.

We now turn to the Dominion newspaper, 1 December 2000, and
read:

"Global warming is nothing but a fallacy, says Peter
Toynbee, which is why developed countries are wasting their time with the Kyoto
Protocol.

"The news brought some relief -– the meeting a The Hague
has achieved no progress toward ratification of the Kyoto Protocol.
International control on the use of their fossil fuels and, hence, on their
emissions of carbon dioxide, had been rejected by the world's "developed"
nations...

Australia and the United States -– which showed no
appreciation of the logic of their stance, or of the reason of the "other camp"
wanting them to sign.

The differences being highlighted simply reflect national
self-interest. Far more important is this fallacious global-warming bogey
under which they all labour.

A retired scientist recently described his study of the
temperature errors in weather stations and proved that there is no such thing
as global warming.

But still the greatest conceivable environmental industry,
dominated by bureaucrats, rolls on.

The Kyoto Protocol, introduced at a 1997 meeting in Japan,
sought the support of member nations of the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development for an agreement to reduce their use of fossil
fuels. Everyone was politically sympathetic but, appreciating the resulting harm
to their country's economy, reluctant to enter into any binding agreement. No
developed nation has yet ratified the protocol....

Nevertheless, the bureaucrats at The Hague -– with a
New Zealand contingent of 50 -– kept trying.

In view of New Zealand's near negligible contribution to
the world's carbon emission, there is no justification for our signing the
protocol. But it is not the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that is
pressuring us -– it is our own bureaucrats, moved by their personal, selfish
ambitions, unconcerned with the damage they would do to the economy, who are
applying the pressure...." End Quote.

It would be exciting to go to Mongolia at the beginning
of the year 2001 and preach the global-warming message there.

We quote now from the Dominion Newspaper, 31 January 2001. Cruel
winters threaten nomadic lifestyle.

"As he hacks with an axe at the lifeless carcass of a
horse that fell and froze in its tracks, herdsman Batbayar has more on his mind
than his bone-thin animals starving in one of the harshest winters Mongolians
have seen...

The big freeze is compounding what the United Nations has
already called Mongolias worst humanitarian crisis in 50 years.

Blizzards and temperatures as low as minus 50 degrees celsius
have killed 500,000 livestock since November in the second successive
catastrophic winter to hit the country.

Last winter wiped out three million animals....

Ten years ago, when democracy swept away the communist
government, the herds were privatised. Mongolians celebrated the
renaissance of a traditional nomadic culture...

"Once herds were privatised, there was a sense of euphoria,"
recalls Toemor, governor of Sergelen and the former head of the dairy
cooperative. "They all believed this would be fine."

Two catastrophic winters in a row have brought tradition
face-to-face with harsh economic reality.

Many of those who turned to herding after privatisation
simply lacked the experience and local lore needed to survive on the steppes
after decades in cooperative farms...

There is a growing feeling that the old cooperatives were not
such a bad idea.

"The bad weather has led people to believe we need more
cooperation -– some sort of joint farming system," says Toemor....

Even though livestock outnumber people more than 10 to one,
shops are filled with imported meat and dairy products -– Anchor butter from
New Zealand, processed cheese slices from Finland, canned beef from Germany.

"They have to make a choice as to whether or not they want
to protect a truly traditional way of life, or to build some kind of a hybrid,"
says Ms McAskie...." End Quote.

And then from the Dominion Newspaper, 12 January 2001 we
read the headline: cold kills Indians.

Twenty-three more people have died of hypothermia during
a cold snap in northern Indian state Uttar Pradesh, raising the toll to 62 in
the past 12 days. Meanwhile, millions of Hindu pilgrims have gathered in the
state's holy city of Allahabad to wash away their sins in the freezing
waters of the Ganges River." End Quote.

It is clear that ice cream sellers would not do very well
in either Mongolia or Northern India at this particular time in history. So much
for global warming!