John has been in Dubai this last week or so and discovered this fine kitten who was rescued by John’s mate from a skip and taken in as the office cat.Utah.Redpoll.Wildflowers growing in Vienna.Peel Castle, IOMJust checking your spots, dear.Seal Lion love.From Greenland’s not so icy mountains.Baaaaaaah!So, imagine you meet these fine animals on the road. Who has the right of way?King Cobra.Freetown, Sierra Leone.Yo, there.Let’s do it.One of Munguin’s doormen. (David).OK. That’s it. I’m takinga shift looking after Tris this morning. I think he prefers me to Munguin. Munguin reckons that looking after him involves Tris making his breakfast and bring him champagne. All I need is a cuddle.
Sorry, but I have to take objection to the “look at the polar bear on the melting bit of ice, isn’t global warming horrible” pic.
Ice melts in the summer, even near the arctic. Polar bears are sea-fishers. They swim to hunt. In the absence of any other evidence, that polar bear is fine and happy, and probably about to go for a nice swim for it’s dinner.
There’s much better ways to illustrate the point it’s trying to make – there’s no need to be deceptive and use easily-argued imagery.
Yes, ice melts even near the Arctic in summer, but not in the recorded past to the extent it’s disappearing today. Polar bears are not “sea-fishers”, they’re normally ice hunters catching seals as they come up to breathe at holes in the ice. I don’t understand your point about “no need to be deceptive” and the use of “easily-argued imagery”. What are the better ways to illustrate the point that you’re suggesting? Mind you, you may have a point – polar bears are just another species on its inevitable way to extinction, like so many others, homo sapiens included, I suspect. I also think we’ll be not so much a loss as all the other species.
“I don’t understand your point about “no need to be deceptive” and the use of “easily-argued imagery”. What are the better ways to illustrate the point that you’re suggesting?”
Taken on its own, the picture doesn’t show a problem. It’s using a perfectly normal phenomenon, that’s been happening for hundreds of years, and trying to claim it’s something bad.
A plot of the arctic circle (the ring around the north pole where the ice never melts) against time would show the problem, clearly and without room for misinterpretation. Interestingly, a quick google for that gets redirected to answers to a subtly different question, implying that no-one has actually checked this.
The polar bear shot is like the shot of a baby who’s in hospital for their measles jag being used as the poster for a “save the children from cancer” campaign. If it becomes well-known that the picture is not showing what it’s implied to be showing (and the polar bear shot isn’t), then it discredits the whole argument.
I think it would be best for all other life on earth if the homo sapiens went now. Then life and life chances would improve for virtually every other species.
Godstrewth, Conan! Airline pilot strikes, school strikes, climate strikes – now you tell us about asteroid strikes. What are they striking for – more space?
In the spirit of Soppy Sunday, perhaps the polar bear picture and caption should be viewed simply as a humorous good-natured gibe about nature and climate change. 🙂
But as long as climate change has been raised more seriously, and since I have limited respect for climate science and far left politics, how could I pass up a golden opportunity to mock left wing environmental theology, AND take a swipe at Al Gore and save-the-planet extremists?
I remember how disappointed I was when the politician who couldn’t even carry his home state of Tennessee (and thereby gave us George Dubya Bush as president,) morphed into a climate change expert and told us in 2006: “Within a decade, there will be no more snows of Kilimanjaro.”
OK, Al Gore is an idiot and it was foolish of anyone to take him seriously, even though the Hollywood people who vote the Oscars fawned over him and his famous documentary like he was the second coming. As it turns out, his Kilimanjaro comment quoted two scientists who are not idiots……. Dr. Douglas Hardy of the University of Massachusetts and Dr. Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University…….who now explain that they knew next to nothing about the history of glaciation on Kilimanjaro when they made that foolish prediction in 2001. They now agree that Kilimanjaro will have its famous snow cap for decades to come.
That the glaciers on Kilimanjaro are dramatically retreating is a fact, but it’s now known that it has little or nothing to do with melting ice and a warming climate, and was occurring as early as 1912, decades before a man-made greenhouse effect existed.
Drs. Hardy and Thompson are sorry for getting it wrong in their 2001 paper and confusing Al Gore and the Hollywood glitterati who lapped it up like mothers milk.
“and was occurring as early as 1912, decades before a man-made greenhouse effect existed. ”
decades before it was identified. In reality man made greenhouse effect has been in existence since the industrial revolution started pumping pollution into the air.
“That the glaciers on Kilimanjaro are dramatically retreating is a fact, but it’s now known that it has little or nothing to do with melting ice and a warming climate, and was occurring as early as 1912, decades before a man-made greenhouse effect existed. ”
I wonder if it could be something to do with us coming out of the mini-ice-age that happened in the late medieval period?
If we were going be more serious, I’d be pointing out that we’re still cooler than 0BC, as far as we can tell, and the Greenland ice cores show that global temperature changes happen fast normally.
(To put my stance on the table – I don’t contest that the earth is getting warmer, but I’m sceptical of how much its our fault. I am, however, completely behind renewables)
Illy, that’s pretty much my own POV. The danger I think is that global warming has been so over-hyped, no doubt from sincere concern for the most part, that it inevitably gives rise to a sceptical backlash.
By 1912 we’d been burning coal on a huge scale for nearly a hundred years. I’m not a great fan of global apocalypse if we burn fossil fuels, because life existed on earth to trap that CO2 in the first place. What’s not in doubt that increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere will melt the ice caps and low lying areas will be flooded.
Yet remember, the Sahara once teemed with life thanks to an inland sea… Swings and roundabouts.
It’s really not a good thing for public policy or for climate science itself that an important environmental issue has become politicized. I had second thoughts about joining in the discussion (except for my very first sentence,) but the message was posted and second thoughts cannot be acted on.
On the other hand, the great climate change expert and failed politician Al Gore deserves what he gets, and you take your shots where you find them. 😉 As Gore was cherry picking his climate “facts” back in 2006, he had the misfortune of picking up that absurd “snows of Kilimanjaro” comment from scientists who (by their own admission) got it wrong. Those stubbornly persisting Kilimanjaro glaciers are an example of how much published science is wrong on the best of days, AND (in this case) may involve well intentioned confirmation bias from politicized scientists who have their own public policy agenda to advance.
Oh well, perhaps of interest (or not,) I happened onto this piece about how Al Gore was possibly an unfortunate factor in politicizing the climate change issue. And a few more interesting points about the snows of Kilimanjaro, (that also references a 2009 paper in NATURE.) Sadly, NATURE charges money to see its papers. 🙂
Actually, Danny, when I lived in the area, in addition to the evidence of my own eyes over a period of 10 years, the comparison between the situation then and the way it had been before was stark: all you needed to do was look at that postcards on sale in the safari lodges to see the difference, as the original photographs had been taken years before.
I have had a long-term interest in meteorology and climate science; one of my first gigs as a translator was at World Meteorological Organization in Geneva when the whole International Panel on Climate Change process got under way. Such a long time ago now.
Humans have been having an effect on the climate for a very long time – by land clearance/ deforestation, for example. Apart from that, we’ve been burning fossil fuel for a very long time now. I wish we were exaggerating the effect of it, but it turns out we’ve been underestimating it rather than the reverse. Factoid: Greenland lost enough ice this past summer – about 250 billion tons is the figure which sticks in my mind, including over 11 billion tons in a single day in July – enough to raise global sea levels about 3 mm, we’re told.
Ed……Very interesting! The article I linked mentioned that there was evidence of loss of glaciation on Kilimanjaro as early as 1912. But it went on to say that it seems to have nothing to do with a warming climate then or now. Other factors are at work with Kilimanjaro and similar mountains in tropical areas. You can’t argue with the facts of course, but there is the matter of assessing their global significance, and what they reasonably demand in terms of public policy. (There’s an idiot high school girl in Sweden who wants people to stop flying in airplanes, and the left wing environmental fanatics of the media fawn over her.) Having studied science and engineering myself, it left me with a good healthy understanding of the limits of scientific certitude and the intellectual honesty of scientists.
I found the recent comments from the climate scientists who predicted in 2001 that the snow cap would be gone from Kilimanjaro in ten years quite interesting. Basically, they said that they had made the prediction based on insufficient data. I suspect that is the most favorable spin they could come up with to explain their headline hunting. I have no doubt however that the science of glaciation on Kilimanjaro is very likely more complicated than they thought. I found the details in that article I linked quite intriguing, and wish I could get more information from the NATURE article of 2009.
As much as I respect science, I detest politicized science; and in particular I detest scientists who flaunt their academic credentials while they cherry pick data to serve personal political agendas. I also don’t much like incompetent politicians who style themselves as climate experts and are on a crusade to save the planet. Finally, I have some friends who wouldn’t know actual science if it hit them in the face, but who become very nearly hysterical when the climate change issue comes up and I dare to question a “SCIENTIST.”
Kilimanjaro is an amazing sight, even in pictures, and I remember being quite upset when I first read or heard that the snow would be gone in a few years. I was young then, and didn’t know about scientists who overstate the facts to impress the rubes and push a political agenda. After the Kilimanjaro snow scare, I’ve understood that scientific findings and predictions have to be taken with a good healthy dose of salt. I’m sure that climate change is a very real thing, but I wonder about the appropriate public policy responses, and have some actual data to suggest that some scientists are overstating the case. Years ago, I caught the Kilimanjaro snow scientists cooking the books. 😉
Yeah, as I understood the argument, the reduction in ice cover was not directly attributable to rising temperatures but to a reduction in precipitation coupled with increased sublimation of the ice into drier air, so it is more related to variability in the East African monsoons and increasing drought. So it’s still attributable to global warming, but not as directly as first thought.
I do wonder what all that fresh water pouring off Greenland may do to the thermohaline circulation.
Ed……Agreed! And in the face of different effects from different mechanisms of climate change, could it POSSIBLY be worthwhile to rationally debate the scientific details, and the pros and cons of what might be appropriate public policy initiatives to ameliorate the situation? Well not when the issue has became so highly politicized and is IMHO now nothing less than a true left wing theology (at least here in the states.)
I bowed out of the initial discussion here when I saw a post to the effect that the “climate change deniers are out in full force.” My experience is that you can proclaim your belief in the fact of climate change to the stars, but if you insist on scientific precision and a measured rational public policy response, then you are immediately branded a heretic….a “denier.”
One simply does NOT debate theology, and a “one size fits all” approach to climate change has clearly become something like holy scripture among the American left wing. It fits nicely with a socialistic viewpoint of course, since IMHO far lefties are always hell bent to regulate human behavior by force of law in service of the perceived public good. So as a libertarian-minded centrist who appreciates the nuances of science and public policy, it’s yet one more way that I part ways with the far left of the American Democratic party. I vote Democrat of course, because the far left environmental extremists are slightly less objectionable than the right wing Republican fascists. 😉 There’s still something of a center to the political spectrum of the Democratic Party.
It’s pretty much impossible to explain scientific thinking / consensus / theory / hypothesis to the general public. It’s also true that we’re not going to get anywhere at all when the people in power deny the fundamental premise that global warming is in fact a thing, is happening right now, and if there are any surprises it is that we keep hitting previous worst-case scenarios, which then become the new normal, as they say. Too much positive feedback, and new mechanisms keep being discovered and re-evaluated… Oversimplification is effectively necessary in politics if we are to get people behind the idea that there has to be a change in the status quo: slogans, not arguments.
Here in Scotland we’re doing rather well out of renewables in terms of economics and jobs. One thing that is generally missed out in the argument, of course, is the likely cost of doing nothing – and when you put it in (huge range of assumptions involved, of course, but the insurance companies are pretty good at estimating risk), the result is that it costs more to do nothing, not less. We have only one planet, so the precautionary principle seems wise.
Ed….You are certainly spot on regarding the ignorance of the general public about science and the scientific method.
I think that there are reasonable grounds for debate about the scientific details of man-made climate change, but the issue is now more about politics than science, and anyone who raises a scientific question is immediately branded a climate change denier.
Any future American initiative will depend on getting a Democrat elected president. Any Democrat who gets elected will be sufficiently beholden to the far left tree huggers of California that he or she will feel compelled to do what can be done to bring America into compliance with international climate agreements. Trump pulled us out of the Paris Agreement, and the Europeans were apoplectic about it as I recall. (Even more than usual.) 😉
That hippo picture is a little disturbing. The kid looks terrified. 😉
I saw this article about a rogue mother polar bear at the Nuremberg City Zoo. Seems to me that the excuses that zoologists make for cub eating polar bears are pretty lame. “Great distress and confusion” my a**!
Some lovely stuff here. I do object to the snail though. This year I tried growing my own in a Brexit prep trial. NOTHING survived. However my slugs and snails have had a veritable harvest and need not concern themselves with food shortages, pah!
I’m sure the mummy hippo knows what she’s doing. Crocs and alligators do the same thing but with dozens of offspring – not harming any of them. But those same jaws round you – bye bye!
Loved the coos and the king cobra was stunning, probably in every sense. The orangs were gorgeous, so life affirming.
And hopefully the light duties of MNR are not tiring out our esteemed blogger who is still in the recuperation stage.
Tree, some birds, notably song thrushes eat slugs as well as snails. Frogs love them. Hedgehogs sometimes, only when very hungry, will eat them but usually get poisoned by lungworm carried by the slugs. It’s not a good idea to put out slug pellets: they’ll kill the slugs but if birds or small animals then eat the slugs they ingest the poison too.
Sammy Snail went to the casino and won a Ferrari. Part of the deal was personalisation so he had his SS initials painted on the doors, the roof, the boot, and the bonnet. On the way he home he roared through a manned speed trap. The cop in charge turned to his mate and said: “Jeez, did you see that S car go ?!?”
PP & Tris, I’m sorry to perhaps partially spoil your Soppy Sunday but the hippo pic isn’t mummy hippo helping her young one. I’m very keen on photography and I’d seen this pic before. It was highly commended in this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition and was taken by Adrian Hirschi. The caption read,-
” A newborn hippo, just days old, was keeping close to its mother in the shallows of Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe, when a large bull suddenly made a beeline for them. He chased the mother, then seized the calf in his huge gape, clearly intent on killing it. After trying to drown it, he tried to crush it to death. All the while, the distraught mother looked on.
Adrian’s fast reaction and fast exposure captured the shocking drama. Infanticide among hippos is rare but may result from the stress caused through overcrowding when their day-resting pools dry out. A male may also increase his reproductive chances by killing young that are not his, triggering females to go into oestrus, ready to mate with him. Male hippos are also aggressively territorial, and brutal fights are not uncommon. If they feel threatened by an accidental encounter, hippos will also attack and kill humans.
Gear: Nikon D750 + 400mm f2.8 lens; 1/2000 sec at f6.3 (-0.7 e/v); ISO 640; Gitzo monopod.”
Oh no, poor mummy and baby. But it’s not called the law of the jungle for nothing I suppose. Lions do that too, kills cubs that aren’t theirs to mate with the mums.
So, Panda Paws, you’re branching out into Heliciculture .
I’ve a garden full of the things…even the right species for eating, but I’ve neither the patience nor inclination for the necessary purging and prepping.
If you’ve a dog keep the pooch away from the things in case they’re tempted to eat them. No one needs a dug with lungworm…it’s more often than not fatal.
Oh boy , climate disaster deniers out today.
A hippo shot that looks as was described but is then declared to be something more sinister but really , in the sprit of things did we need to know that ?
Climate devastation something extremely serious that will actually is, affecting every living thing as we speak , go to India or Bangladesh and tell them climate change is not happening or tell them it’s part of a normal cycle and you had better run for it, there is no way it is anything other than damage caused by industry and the way we live millions of cars planes and trains most half empty ,huge forests being burned, oceans and seas being poisoned by pollution, climate damage deniers get a life , get real and stop trying to make a name for yourself .
The hippo shot ? Well that is something we cannot control it’s definately nature at work so other than providing a fact I see no benefit in spoiling what was a nice soppy Sunday thought and replacing it with a fact that changes nothing of importance.
Good to hear (?) that! Incidentally the photo of Herr Flick on Saturday reminds me that his deputy Von Smallhausen’s twin brother is the Speaker of the HOC.
Tremors in my left arm and small memory lapses but other then that okay. It’s a progressive illness so ‘forward though we canna see….’! Heading for sunny climes again after the Scottish ‘summer’. Take care and regards to you Mum.
Thanks for letting me know, John. I’m hoping that the progression with be very slow. I know that there is research into new treatments going on. Let’s hope for breakthroughs soon.
Have a good time out in Lebanon. Hear from you when you get back.
So Tris…..Munguin is not taking over the gardening chores as you recuperate? 😉
I like the way giraffes poke their heads (and necks) through open windows. (Might get a bit tiresome though if you live in giraffe country and enjoy fresh air. 😉 )
Yes, Rudy is out of control and impeachment hell has broken out…..LOL. It IS a bit frightening to think about Boris and parliament being a model of good government by comparison. 😉
I thought this is the double of our cat, also abandoned in Dubai for two years, before being adopted by us for two years, prior to our return to Scotland.
The honour of being called a ‘bin cat’ rests with our other cat (RIP) who was adopted by us from being a kitten and travelled to Oman, back to Dubai and eventually to Scotland.
MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
Sometimes I have to wonder why we ever bothered to come down from the trees … why didn’t we just hang in there ??? ??? 🙂
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I suspect we might have had more fun!
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Sorry, but I have to take objection to the “look at the polar bear on the melting bit of ice, isn’t global warming horrible” pic.
Ice melts in the summer, even near the arctic. Polar bears are sea-fishers. They swim to hunt. In the absence of any other evidence, that polar bear is fine and happy, and probably about to go for a nice swim for it’s dinner.
There’s much better ways to illustrate the point it’s trying to make – there’s no need to be deceptive and use easily-argued imagery.
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Yes, ice melts even near the Arctic in summer, but not in the recorded past to the extent it’s disappearing today. Polar bears are not “sea-fishers”, they’re normally ice hunters catching seals as they come up to breathe at holes in the ice. I don’t understand your point about “no need to be deceptive” and the use of “easily-argued imagery”. What are the better ways to illustrate the point that you’re suggesting? Mind you, you may have a point – polar bears are just another species on its inevitable way to extinction, like so many others, homo sapiens included, I suspect. I also think we’ll be not so much a loss as all the other species.
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“I don’t understand your point about “no need to be deceptive” and the use of “easily-argued imagery”. What are the better ways to illustrate the point that you’re suggesting?”
Taken on its own, the picture doesn’t show a problem. It’s using a perfectly normal phenomenon, that’s been happening for hundreds of years, and trying to claim it’s something bad.
A plot of the arctic circle (the ring around the north pole where the ice never melts) against time would show the problem, clearly and without room for misinterpretation. Interestingly, a quick google for that gets redirected to answers to a subtly different question, implying that no-one has actually checked this.
The polar bear shot is like the shot of a baby who’s in hospital for their measles jag being used as the poster for a “save the children from cancer” campaign. If it becomes well-known that the picture is not showing what it’s implied to be showing (and the polar bear shot isn’t), then it discredits the whole argument.
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I’ve removed the picture as it caused so much offence. I’m really not well enough to get into arguments about it.
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I think it would be best for all other life on earth if the homo sapiens went now. Then life and life chances would improve for virtually every other species.
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The only creatures on earth that could prevent an asteroid strike are us. And an asteroid strike will happen.
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Munguin says… can it be delayed a while yet. He has an extensive cellar to get through.
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Godstrewth, Conan! Airline pilot strikes, school strikes, climate strikes – now you tell us about asteroid strikes. What are they striking for – more space?
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LOL, Andi
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Star billing.
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That’s fairly cheered me up, Conan!
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In the spirit of Soppy Sunday, perhaps the polar bear picture and caption should be viewed simply as a humorous good-natured gibe about nature and climate change. 🙂
But as long as climate change has been raised more seriously, and since I have limited respect for climate science and far left politics, how could I pass up a golden opportunity to mock left wing environmental theology, AND take a swipe at Al Gore and save-the-planet extremists?
I remember how disappointed I was when the politician who couldn’t even carry his home state of Tennessee (and thereby gave us George Dubya Bush as president,) morphed into a climate change expert and told us in 2006: “Within a decade, there will be no more snows of Kilimanjaro.”
OK, Al Gore is an idiot and it was foolish of anyone to take him seriously, even though the Hollywood people who vote the Oscars fawned over him and his famous documentary like he was the second coming. As it turns out, his Kilimanjaro comment quoted two scientists who are not idiots……. Dr. Douglas Hardy of the University of Massachusetts and Dr. Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University…….who now explain that they knew next to nothing about the history of glaciation on Kilimanjaro when they made that foolish prediction in 2001. They now agree that Kilimanjaro will have its famous snow cap for decades to come.
That the glaciers on Kilimanjaro are dramatically retreating is a fact, but it’s now known that it has little or nothing to do with melting ice and a warming climate, and was occurring as early as 1912, decades before a man-made greenhouse effect existed.
Drs. Hardy and Thompson are sorry for getting it wrong in their 2001 paper and confusing Al Gore and the Hollywood glitterati who lapped it up like mothers milk.
https://www.masslive.com/news/2011/03/snows_of_kilimanjaro_defy_global_warming_predictions.html
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PS: Al Gore had a second movie that came out in 2017.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Inconvenient_Sequel:_Truth_to_Power
Someday I’ll get over him not carrying Tennessee in 2000.
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“and was occurring as early as 1912, decades before a man-made greenhouse effect existed. ”
decades before it was identified. In reality man made greenhouse effect has been in existence since the industrial revolution started pumping pollution into the air.
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“That the glaciers on Kilimanjaro are dramatically retreating is a fact, but it’s now known that it has little or nothing to do with melting ice and a warming climate, and was occurring as early as 1912, decades before a man-made greenhouse effect existed. ”
I wonder if it could be something to do with us coming out of the mini-ice-age that happened in the late medieval period?
If we were going be more serious, I’d be pointing out that we’re still cooler than 0BC, as far as we can tell, and the Greenland ice cores show that global temperature changes happen fast normally.
(To put my stance on the table – I don’t contest that the earth is getting warmer, but I’m sceptical of how much its our fault. I am, however, completely behind renewables)
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Illy, that’s pretty much my own POV. The danger I think is that global warming has been so over-hyped, no doubt from sincere concern for the most part, that it inevitably gives rise to a sceptical backlash.
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By 1912 we’d been burning coal on a huge scale for nearly a hundred years. I’m not a great fan of global apocalypse if we burn fossil fuels, because life existed on earth to trap that CO2 in the first place. What’s not in doubt that increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere will melt the ice caps and low lying areas will be flooded.
Yet remember, the Sahara once teemed with life thanks to an inland sea… Swings and roundabouts.
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It’s really not a good thing for public policy or for climate science itself that an important environmental issue has become politicized. I had second thoughts about joining in the discussion (except for my very first sentence,) but the message was posted and second thoughts cannot be acted on.
On the other hand, the great climate change expert and failed politician Al Gore deserves what he gets, and you take your shots where you find them. 😉 As Gore was cherry picking his climate “facts” back in 2006, he had the misfortune of picking up that absurd “snows of Kilimanjaro” comment from scientists who (by their own admission) got it wrong. Those stubbornly persisting Kilimanjaro glaciers are an example of how much published science is wrong on the best of days, AND (in this case) may involve well intentioned confirmation bias from politicized scientists who have their own public policy agenda to advance.
Oh well, perhaps of interest (or not,) I happened onto this piece about how Al Gore was possibly an unfortunate factor in politicizing the climate change issue. And a few more interesting points about the snows of Kilimanjaro, (that also references a 2009 paper in NATURE.) Sadly, NATURE charges money to see its papers. 🙂
https://theconversation.com/an-inconvenient-truth-about-an-inconvenient-truth-81799
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kilimanjaro-climate-change_b_1612864
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Actually, Danny, when I lived in the area, in addition to the evidence of my own eyes over a period of 10 years, the comparison between the situation then and the way it had been before was stark: all you needed to do was look at that postcards on sale in the safari lodges to see the difference, as the original photographs had been taken years before.
I have had a long-term interest in meteorology and climate science; one of my first gigs as a translator was at World Meteorological Organization in Geneva when the whole International Panel on Climate Change process got under way. Such a long time ago now.
Humans have been having an effect on the climate for a very long time – by land clearance/ deforestation, for example. Apart from that, we’ve been burning fossil fuel for a very long time now. I wish we were exaggerating the effect of it, but it turns out we’ve been underestimating it rather than the reverse. Factoid: Greenland lost enough ice this past summer – about 250 billion tons is the figure which sticks in my mind, including over 11 billion tons in a single day in July – enough to raise global sea levels about 3 mm, we’re told.
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And so, the photographs which I put up from time to time of people walking through forests in Greenland or playing on the beach.
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Ed……Very interesting! The article I linked mentioned that there was evidence of loss of glaciation on Kilimanjaro as early as 1912. But it went on to say that it seems to have nothing to do with a warming climate then or now. Other factors are at work with Kilimanjaro and similar mountains in tropical areas. You can’t argue with the facts of course, but there is the matter of assessing their global significance, and what they reasonably demand in terms of public policy. (There’s an idiot high school girl in Sweden who wants people to stop flying in airplanes, and the left wing environmental fanatics of the media fawn over her.) Having studied science and engineering myself, it left me with a good healthy understanding of the limits of scientific certitude and the intellectual honesty of scientists.
I found the recent comments from the climate scientists who predicted in 2001 that the snow cap would be gone from Kilimanjaro in ten years quite interesting. Basically, they said that they had made the prediction based on insufficient data. I suspect that is the most favorable spin they could come up with to explain their headline hunting. I have no doubt however that the science of glaciation on Kilimanjaro is very likely more complicated than they thought. I found the details in that article I linked quite intriguing, and wish I could get more information from the NATURE article of 2009.
As much as I respect science, I detest politicized science; and in particular I detest scientists who flaunt their academic credentials while they cherry pick data to serve personal political agendas. I also don’t much like incompetent politicians who style themselves as climate experts and are on a crusade to save the planet. Finally, I have some friends who wouldn’t know actual science if it hit them in the face, but who become very nearly hysterical when the climate change issue comes up and I dare to question a “SCIENTIST.”
Kilimanjaro is an amazing sight, even in pictures, and I remember being quite upset when I first read or heard that the snow would be gone in a few years. I was young then, and didn’t know about scientists who overstate the facts to impress the rubes and push a political agenda. After the Kilimanjaro snow scare, I’ve understood that scientific findings and predictions have to be taken with a good healthy dose of salt. I’m sure that climate change is a very real thing, but I wonder about the appropriate public policy responses, and have some actual data to suggest that some scientists are overstating the case. Years ago, I caught the Kilimanjaro snow scientists cooking the books. 😉
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Yeah, as I understood the argument, the reduction in ice cover was not directly attributable to rising temperatures but to a reduction in precipitation coupled with increased sublimation of the ice into drier air, so it is more related to variability in the East African monsoons and increasing drought. So it’s still attributable to global warming, but not as directly as first thought.
I do wonder what all that fresh water pouring off Greenland may do to the thermohaline circulation.
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Ed……Agreed! And in the face of different effects from different mechanisms of climate change, could it POSSIBLY be worthwhile to rationally debate the scientific details, and the pros and cons of what might be appropriate public policy initiatives to ameliorate the situation? Well not when the issue has became so highly politicized and is IMHO now nothing less than a true left wing theology (at least here in the states.)
I bowed out of the initial discussion here when I saw a post to the effect that the “climate change deniers are out in full force.” My experience is that you can proclaim your belief in the fact of climate change to the stars, but if you insist on scientific precision and a measured rational public policy response, then you are immediately branded a heretic….a “denier.”
One simply does NOT debate theology, and a “one size fits all” approach to climate change has clearly become something like holy scripture among the American left wing. It fits nicely with a socialistic viewpoint of course, since IMHO far lefties are always hell bent to regulate human behavior by force of law in service of the perceived public good. So as a libertarian-minded centrist who appreciates the nuances of science and public policy, it’s yet one more way that I part ways with the far left of the American Democratic party. I vote Democrat of course, because the far left environmental extremists are slightly less objectionable than the right wing Republican fascists. 😉 There’s still something of a center to the political spectrum of the Democratic Party.
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It’s pretty much impossible to explain scientific thinking / consensus / theory / hypothesis to the general public. It’s also true that we’re not going to get anywhere at all when the people in power deny the fundamental premise that global warming is in fact a thing, is happening right now, and if there are any surprises it is that we keep hitting previous worst-case scenarios, which then become the new normal, as they say. Too much positive feedback, and new mechanisms keep being discovered and re-evaluated… Oversimplification is effectively necessary in politics if we are to get people behind the idea that there has to be a change in the status quo: slogans, not arguments.
Here in Scotland we’re doing rather well out of renewables in terms of economics and jobs. One thing that is generally missed out in the argument, of course, is the likely cost of doing nothing – and when you put it in (huge range of assumptions involved, of course, but the insurance companies are pretty good at estimating risk), the result is that it costs more to do nothing, not less. We have only one planet, so the precautionary principle seems wise.
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Ed….You are certainly spot on regarding the ignorance of the general public about science and the scientific method.
I think that there are reasonable grounds for debate about the scientific details of man-made climate change, but the issue is now more about politics than science, and anyone who raises a scientific question is immediately branded a climate change denier.
Any future American initiative will depend on getting a Democrat elected president. Any Democrat who gets elected will be sufficiently beholden to the far left tree huggers of California that he or she will feel compelled to do what can be done to bring America into compliance with international climate agreements. Trump pulled us out of the Paris Agreement, and the Europeans were apoplectic about it as I recall. (Even more than usual.) 😉
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I wasn’t really trying to do that.
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That hippo picture is a little disturbing. The kid looks terrified. 😉
I saw this article about a rogue mother polar bear at the Nuremberg City Zoo. Seems to me that the excuses that zoologists make for cub eating polar bears are pretty lame. “Great distress and confusion” my a**!
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/veras-cub-why-some-mother_b_81146
Is there open range for coos in Scotland?
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In the highlands yes, Danny,
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Some lovely stuff here. I do object to the snail though. This year I tried growing my own in a Brexit prep trial. NOTHING survived. However my slugs and snails have had a veritable harvest and need not concern themselves with food shortages, pah!
I’m sure the mummy hippo knows what she’s doing. Crocs and alligators do the same thing but with dozens of offspring – not harming any of them. But those same jaws round you – bye bye!
Loved the coos and the king cobra was stunning, probably in every sense. The orangs were gorgeous, so life affirming.
And hopefully the light duties of MNR are not tiring out our esteemed blogger who is still in the recuperation stage.
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Well, snails have to live too, PP. And at least if we all die thanks to Brexit, we will leave behind up a large number of snails and slugs. 🙂
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“Save the Snail!” I’d also like to put in a good word for slugs. Just look how gracefully they ‘flow’ … and they even have blow-hole! 🙂
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They aren’t the cutest of animals, I’ll admit, but they do ea up decaying matter and cat waste!!!
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Question, does any animal eat slugs? I know thrushes eat snails but slugs, no idea.
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Hedgehogs, newts, toads and some birds, such as song thrushes, eat slugs and snails,
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Tree, some birds, notably song thrushes eat slugs as well as snails. Frogs love them. Hedgehogs sometimes, only when very hungry, will eat them but usually get poisoned by lungworm carried by the slugs. It’s not a good idea to put out slug pellets: they’ll kill the slugs but if birds or small animals then eat the slugs they ingest the poison too.
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yes. i agree. Slug pellets are an absolute last resort.
Beer is a good was. THey love it and get pissed quite quickly. I have killing anything, but when you have to, it’s a good way to go.
My solution it to put them into a box with air holes and some greenery
and take them out to the woods.
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Thanks, folks.
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Sammy Snail went to the casino and won a Ferrari. Part of the deal was personalisation so he had his SS initials painted on the doors, the roof, the boot, and the bonnet. On the way he home he roared through a manned speed trap. The cop in charge turned to his mate and said: “Jeez, did you see that S car go ?!?”
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I don’t get it?
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Escargot (pronounced escargo!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escargot
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Ouch!
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PP & Tris, I’m sorry to perhaps partially spoil your Soppy Sunday but the hippo pic isn’t mummy hippo helping her young one. I’m very keen on photography and I’d seen this pic before. It was highly commended in this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition and was taken by Adrian Hirschi. The caption read,-
” A newborn hippo, just days old, was keeping close to its mother in the shallows of Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe, when a large bull suddenly made a beeline for them. He chased the mother, then seized the calf in his huge gape, clearly intent on killing it. After trying to drown it, he tried to crush it to death. All the while, the distraught mother looked on.
Adrian’s fast reaction and fast exposure captured the shocking drama. Infanticide among hippos is rare but may result from the stress caused through overcrowding when their day-resting pools dry out. A male may also increase his reproductive chances by killing young that are not his, triggering females to go into oestrus, ready to mate with him. Male hippos are also aggressively territorial, and brutal fights are not uncommon. If they feel threatened by an accidental encounter, hippos will also attack and kill humans.
Gear: Nikon D750 + 400mm f2.8 lens; 1/2000 sec at f6.3 (-0.7 e/v); ISO 640; Gitzo monopod.”
Nature red in tooth and claw, I’m afraid.
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Oh no, poor mummy and baby. But it’s not called the law of the jungle for nothing I suppose. Lions do that too, kills cubs that aren’t theirs to mate with the mums.
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So, Panda Paws, you’re branching out into Heliciculture .
I’ve a garden full of the things…even the right species for eating, but I’ve neither the patience nor inclination for the necessary purging and prepping.
If you’ve a dog keep the pooch away from the things in case they’re tempted to eat them. No one needs a dug with lungworm…it’s more often than not fatal.
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Oh boy , climate disaster deniers out today.
A hippo shot that looks as was described but is then declared to be something more sinister but really , in the sprit of things did we need to know that ?
Climate devastation something extremely serious that will actually is, affecting every living thing as we speak , go to India or Bangladesh and tell them climate change is not happening or tell them it’s part of a normal cycle and you had better run for it, there is no way it is anything other than damage caused by industry and the way we live millions of cars planes and trains most half empty ,huge forests being burned, oceans and seas being poisoned by pollution, climate damage deniers get a life , get real and stop trying to make a name for yourself .
The hippo shot ? Well that is something we cannot control it’s definately nature at work so other than providing a fact I see no benefit in spoiling what was a nice soppy Sunday thought and replacing it with a fact that changes nothing of importance.
It’s a wonderful world
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Come on folks enjoy Soppy Sunday especially the beautiful and graceful giraffes. Best wishes and a speedy recovery, Tris!!
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Thanks, John. Getting there. A bit bored sitting around when there’s stuff to do, but too stiff and sore to do it.
Oh well, this time next week, I’ll have forgotten all about it.
I thought of you when I was looking for the giraffes. They are beautiful. Apparently they get their markings from their mums.
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Good to hear (?) that! Incidentally the photo of Herr Flick on Saturday reminds me that his deputy Von Smallhausen’s twin brother is the Speaker of the HOC.
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Awww. Von Smallhausen was one of my favourite characters. I loved when he was trying to be sinister. He was a perfect match with Otto Flick.
Actually I think that there is a certain similarity between Allo Allo and Order Order.
Only one of them was funny and the other, plain pathetic.
He always reminded me of Pope Benedictus XVI.
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How are you keeping, John? How’s life on the big island?
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Tremors in my left arm and small memory lapses but other then that okay. It’s a progressive illness so ‘forward though we canna see….’! Heading for sunny climes again after the Scottish ‘summer’. Take care and regards to you Mum.
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Thanks for letting me know, John. I’m hoping that the progression with be very slow. I know that there is research into new treatments going on. Let’s hope for breakthroughs soon.
Have a good time out in Lebanon. Hear from you when you get back.
Mum sends her love.
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So Tris…..Munguin is not taking over the gardening chores as you recuperate? 😉
I like the way giraffes poke their heads (and necks) through open windows. (Might get a bit tiresome though if you live in giraffe country and enjoy fresh air. 😉 )
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“Munguin” and “chores” are words that have probably never appeared in teh same sentence before.
If a giraffe sticking his head through my window was all I found tiresome, I’d be one happy bunny, Danny. 🙂
I’d give half of Munguin’s fortune for that in comparison to having to hear about Boris Johnson every day.
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Tris…….Yes, having giraffes in your yard peering in a window from time to time would be lovely!
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PS… I’ve started reading the stuff you sent me on Rudy. Jeez, your politics is even more broken than the Brits’!
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Yes, Rudy is out of control and impeachment hell has broken out…..LOL. It IS a bit frightening to think about Boris and parliament being a model of good government by comparison. 😉
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Get well soon Munguin , I love your pictures and stories .
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Munguin’s fine, Terry. In the pink, you might say. It’s his poor old general factotum that’s suffering. 🙂
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Quite a mix of houses in Freetown.
Here is a nice video about squirrels.
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Another mix of houses there…
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Reference the photo of John’s cat in Dubai.
I thought this is the double of our cat, also abandoned in Dubai for two years, before being adopted by us for two years, prior to our return to Scotland.
The honour of being called a ‘bin cat’ rests with our other cat (RIP) who was adopted by us from being a kitten and travelled to Oman, back to Dubai and eventually to Scotland.
Both were/are certainly characters.
Ian
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Who knows, grumpy, it could be of the same family!
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