Sunday, January 6, 2013

Chasing Ice

Last night I saw Chasing Ice, a documentary about glaciers.  It offers undeniable proof that glaciers are melting and that they are melting fast.  The amount that one glacier retreated in 10 years was equivalent to 100 years of retreat in the past.  Balog's photography, especially of ice at night, was stunning.

I chose to go on skeptic night because I knew I would have something to say.  I wanted to comment on several things:

1) The website Wattsupwiththat is known for cherry picking data off of research papers and taking that data out of context.  Watts is a meteorologist, a weather person, not someone who studies the Earth's past carbon dioxide levels (see #2). 
On a website that scientists contribute to, they report, "The “climate sceptics” website wattsupwiththat, noted for their false reports" (October 4)
2)  The skeptic was a physicist.  Would you go to a geologist to get your medical problem diagnosed?
3) I wanted to focus the sold out crowd on carbon dioxide levels and emphasize and add something.

I raised my hand, but the guy gave the microphone to others in the audience.  This morning it occurred to me that my location in the theater was not easy to reach.  I would have had to get at least 10 people to stand up to get over to that microphone.  I regret that I did not stand up, go out the right side (3 people), walk across the front of the stage and up the left side.  There was no other way to get there.  I left with a knot of frustration.

Walt took this shot of a cardinal on the back deck.  The camera still works, but the auto focus is spent so you have to manually turn the lens.  The bird is a reminder to me that I need to go plant the seeds of submissions.  In 2012, I had a lousy crop and one reason is that 2010-2011 were rough years, so I didn't have the time or mindset to put down the seeds.  I decided it wasn't all me, after reading   about "The past three years of struggle and shrinkage in the publishing industry" on an I.N.K.http://inkrethink.blogspot.com/ blog post. 

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