Well, look at it this way: You cannot keep a dog that kills chickens, no
matter how fine a dog it is otherwise.
My friend John Henry Faulk always said the way to break a dog of that
habit is to take one of the chickens the dog has killed and wire the thing
around the dog's neck, good and strong. And leave it there until that dead
chicken stinks so bad the dog won't be able to stand himself. You leave it
on there until the last little bit of flesh rots and falls off, and that
dog won't kill chickens again.
The Bush Administration is going to be wired around the neck of the
American people for four more years, long enough for the stench to sicken
everybody. It should cure the country of electing Republicans.
I believe America's best days are ahead of us,
because I believe that the future belongs to freedom,
not to fear.
-- Senator John Kerry during
the first presidential debate, 2004 September 30
[T]he bottom line is that we have to change leadership because President Bush
has squandered our credibility and our reputation
--
former Secretary of State, Madeline Albright
NBC NEWS' MEET THE PRESS. 2004 Sep 12.
[O]ne of Clinton's laws of politics is this, if one candidate's trying to
scare you, and the other one is trying to get you to think, if one candidate
is appealing to your fears and the other one is appealing to your hopes, you
better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope.
--
former President Bill Clinton,
Philadelphia,
2004 Oct 25
"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended
upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real
facts."
--
Abraham Lincoln
The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.
--
President John F. Kennedy, 1963.
www.fff.org,
George W. Bush
has caused many extremely serious problems,
both domestically and internationally.
The information on this page comes from many original sources.
(You can be misled if you rely on only one source
such as Fox News.)
The purpose of this page is to inform and to provide you the reader a tool
for investigating these issues
by giving web links to the original sources.
It is as accurate as I can make it.
There is
substantial and credible
support for every topic,
and a small history is provided
by the dates of the material.
New facts appear almost daily, note the
version number at the top of the page.
There is a lot of information on this page.
Just pick a topic from the Index
or scroll down and start digging.
If you don't have time to read anything else,
just look at the
yellow
marked text.
impending disaster:
These are cases were we can now see the cliff rushing toward us.
In these cases we are almost at the cliff edge!
In these cases we are on the cliff edge!
Oh well, we have gone over the edge. It's been nice knowing you.
2004 Nov 30 AIDS Across America, by Kara Loewentheil, Planned Parenthood.
"Today, health experts estimate that out of approximately 20,000 new HIV
infections in the United States each year, half of those infected are
between the ages of 13 and 24. In other words, every hour of every day, two
American young people are infected with this deadly disease."
Abstinence-only programs are failing and so the teens are infected.
Viruses attack personal computers, wasting millions of $
but the immune alternative Unix computer systems (Mac, Sun, Linux)
are are unknown to most people
Innovative software companies squelched
People unaware of open source movement
Moral Lesson: if you are big enough,
and
pay Bush,
you can get away with crime
2000 May 10:
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT STATEMENT REGARDING MICROSOFT'S PROPOSED REMEDY
"Microsoft's proposal is ineffective and filled with
loopholes. It would not have prevented Microsoft from engaging in many of
the illegal acts found by the District Court, nor would it prevent the
company from using its monopoly power in the future to engage in the same
kind of illegal behavior to crush new innovations."
2001 September 7:
Microsoft breakup dropped The Battalion.
"In a dramatic shift, the Bush administration on Thursday abandoned the
Clinton-era effort to break up Microsoft."
"Microsoft is a top contributor to the Republican Party, and company
executives have been frequent guests at the White House."
2004 March 3: Microsoft spends $86 million to attack open source.
2004 Nov 22:
5 Killed in Hunting Dispute in Wisconsin
NY Times.
This was done with a semiautomatic assault rifle, an
SKS 7.62-mm caliber rifle.
According to
www.banassaultweapons.org
SKS is one of the weapons that would have been banned by
S. 1431 and H.R. 2038.
Your home may be searched without you being notified.
This is known as "sneak-and-peak".
If considered an enemy combatant,
you can be taken and held FOREVER.
You will have no access to lawyers,
even to show that you are not an enemy.
If the government dislikes you, you can disappear.
The language is being abused by Bush:
the "Patriot" act has nothing to do with patriotism
2003 Nov 9:
Al Gore speech
on freedom and security.
This is worth your time to listen to!
Sorry, the link is broken!
Since the original speech is lost, I am adding more pointers
for you:
"... without a warrant and without probable cause, the FBI now has the
power to access your most private medical records, your library records,
and your student records... and can prevent anyone from telling you it was
done."
2001 Nov 9: Police State by Kelly Patricia O Meara.
United States Representative
"Ron Paul
says the text of the USA PATRIOT bill was not made available for
review before the vote."
"... I
thought it was undermining the Constitution, so I didn't vote
for it ... "
Should you be scared of the Patriot Act?
by Dahlia Lithwick and Julia Turner
Posted Monday, Sept. 8, 2003, at 8:06 AM PT
" ... 152 communities, including several major cities
and three states, ... have now passed resolutions denouncing the Patriot
Act as an assault on civil liberties."
Community resolutions from the ACLU.
"Under the Patriot Act, a person can be arrested without probable cause,
held indefinitely without being charged, tried without a lawyer or a jury,
sentenced without the opportunity to appeal, and put to death---all without
notification of ... anybody."
Yaser Esam Hamdiis was
a
US citizen
(by birth) captured in Afghanistan.
He was
held without charges for three years in solitary
confinement without access to a lawyer.
2004 June 28:
Supreme court decision in
Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 124 S. Ct. 2633, 2660 (2004):
"We have long since made clear that a state of war is not a blank check for
the President when it comes to the rights of the Nations citizens."
page 29.
"When you've been in solitary confinement for three years and somebody
puts a piece of paper in front of you that says you can get out of jail
free if you sign it, you don't really worry too much about the rest of the
fine print."
-- Attorney Frank Dunham
The resolution: strip him of his US citizenship
and send him away.
"The Court concludes that ¶ 2709 violates
the Fourth Amendment because, at least as currently applied,
it effectively bars or substantially deters any judicial
challenge to the propriety of an NSL request."
(page 2 of the ruling).
"On separate grounds, the Court also concludes that the permanent
ban on disclosure contained in ¶ 2709(c),
which the Court is
unable to sever from the remainder of the statute,
operates as an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech
in violation of the First Amendment."
(page 2-3 of the ruling).
"Sometimes a right, once extinguished, may be gone for good."
(page 8 of the ruling).
2004 Sep 29.
The
ACLU, who took the case
to court against the Patriot Act,
ACLU v. Ashcroft,
was itself was under a gag order by the US government.
Only by winning the case were they able to tell us this.
"After laboring under a gag provision for months, it is an enormous
relief to be able to tell the world just how dangerous and extreme this
Patriot Act power is,"
Ann Beeson,
ACLU
Associate Legal Director.
"The ACLU noted that the Patriot Act provision was worded so broadly
that it could effectively be used to obtain the names of customers of
websites such
Amazon.com
or Ebay, or a political organizations
membership list, or even the names of sources that a journalist has
contacted by e-mail."
2004 Oct 16.
Protect Liberty a flash movie.
After the intro, pick the Gallery, then Flash Movies,
then "Protect Civil Liberties November 2001".
2005 Apr 5.
Attorney general defends Patriot Act
"The Bush administration's two top law enforcement officials on Tuesday urged
Congress to renew every provision of the anti-terror Patriot Act.
FBI Director Robert Mueller also asked lawmakers to
expand the bureau's
ability to obtain records without first asking a judge."
CNN
2005 Aug 26.
ACLU sues to block library searches
CNN.
Gag order on Patriot Act makes legal proceedings secret.
Court documents censored by blacking out parts.
"The Patriot Act in 2001 removed the requirement that the records sought be
those of someone under suspicion. Now an innocent person's records can be
obtained if the FBI considers them relevant to a terrorism or spying
investigation."
This means that legal proceedings are now no longer public and
so we have an:
impending disaster
2005 Sep 10.
Bush Administration Wins Padilla Appeal
The New York Times.
a federal appeals court ruled Friday that the government can continue to
hold indefinitely an American accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive
"dirty bomb."
So if the government decides that you, an american citizen,
are a terrorist,
you can be picked up and put in jail without trial for years.
Fortunately, this is being appealed to the Supreme Court.
But ...
"Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said in a statement he was pleased with
the ruling."
and Bush has practically stated that he will nominate Gonzales
for the second open seat.
So we are one step closer to
"Underground democracy movements that produce political or religious
pamphlets and flyers, like the Russian samizdat of the 1980s, will always
need the anonymity of simple paper documents, but this technology makes it
easier for governments to find dissenters. Even worse, it shows how the
government and private industry make backroom deals to weaken our privacy by
compromising everyday equipment like printers. The logical next question is:
what other deals have been or are being made to ensure that our technology
rats on us?"
-- Lee Tien, EFF Senior Staff Attorney
The FBI has conducted clandestine surveillance on some U.S. residents for as
long as 18 months at a time without proper paperwork or oversight, according
to previously classified documents to be released today.
2005 Nov 27.
Terror suspect Padilla charged CNN.
This US citizen was held by Bush without charge for 3 years.
That means that he can hold you for years without charge!
[The Constitution] 'is just a goddamned piece of paper'
--George Bush
2005 Dec 16.
Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts
by James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, New York Times.
Bush authorized illegal wiretaps of US citizens without
court order.
2005 Dec 19: Bush's Snoopgate
by Jonathan Alter, Newsweek.
We're seeing clearly now that Bush thought 9/11 gave him license to act
like a dictator, or in his own mind, no doubt, like Abraham Lincoln during
the Civil War.
2005 Dec 24: NY Times: Domestic spying widespread CNN.
The National Security Agency has conducted much broader surveillance of
e-mails and phone calls -- without court orders -- than the Bush
administration has acknowledged, The New York Times reported.
2005 Dec 30: Inquiry into leak of NSA spying program launched CNN.
"FISA says it's the exclusive law to authorize wiretaps. This
administration is playing fast and loose with the law in national
security. The issue here is whether the president of the United States is
putting himself above the law, and I believe he has done so."
-- Sen. Russ Feingold
2006 Jan 16.
Gore: Bush engaged in 'excessive power grab'
"Former vice president calls for probe into warrantless wiretaps".
"our Constitution is at risk."
Al Gore gave the speech at the
DAR Constitution Hall,
1776 D St NW Washington, DC.
Bush has made many moves
to take power from congress,
to control the courts,
and
to block the media from the truth
the end of Democracy in the United States
is in sight
2004 Jan 15:
"In preparing this series of speeches, I have noticed a troubling pattern that
characterizes the Bush/Cheney Administration's approach to almost all issues.
In almost every policy area, the Administration's consistent goal has been to
eliminate any constraints on their exercise of raw power, whether by law,
regulation, alliance or treaty and in the process they have in each case
caused America to be seen by the other nations of the world as showing disdain
for the international community.
In each case they devise their policies with as much secrecy as possible and
in close cooperation with the most powerful special interests that have a
monetary stake in what happens. In each case the public interest is not only
ignored but actively undermined."
-- Al Gore, Beacon Theater, New York
2004 June 24:
"Our Founders and the Unbalance of Power"
by Al Gore at
The American Constitution Society
"the biggest threat to America is that we Americans will
acquiesce in the slow and steady accumulation of too much power in the hands
of one person."
transcriptPDF
The debt curves below show what happened.
By 2000 Clinton and Gore
had STOPPED THE INCREASE in the Debt.
Bush got into office in 2000 and
the very next year the debt took off.
It is still rising. Click on the images for a larger view
The following graph is the same as the one above except that it shows
the full debt size and a longer time scale going back to 1950. It shows
a rising debt for both administrations. But if you look closely
(click on the image for a larger view) Clinton's rises
AND ALMOST COMES TO A STOP!
They had a plan in place and it was working! Then Bush takes
over and the curve SHOOTS UP immediately.
Interpretation: Clinton got a legacy of rising debt in 1993
and stopped the rise by 2000.
Bush got a legacy of flat debt from Clinton and
shot the debt up by 2004.
Clinton's plan was on track to clear the debt by 2012!
Bush has almost completely ruined what Clinton built!
SO ...
divide the total debt by the number of people in the
United states and we find that
YOUR PART OF THE US DEBT IS $24,785.17.
The Bureau of the Public Debt, United States Department of the Treasury
gives this information:
from
09/28/2001
to
07/08/2004 (current)
the debt
increased
from
5,807,463,412,200.06
to
7,262,737,835,501.71
or by
$1455274423301.65.
That's
$1.46x1012 = $1.46 trillion.
The US Debt increased by
$1.46 trillion
while Bush was in office.
If we use the increase in the debt since Bush took
office we find that
every person in the USA is in debt by AN ADDITIONAL
$4966.34
because of Bush's fiscal policy.
That $300 gift you got from George does not cover the amount you owe!
Can you please pay that off tomorrow?
How do you make a contribution to reduce the debt?
The
House Budget Committee Democratic Caucus gives the
same number as above for your part of the debt,
(except that it is more recent).
On September 16 they give $24,990.35.
The page gives lots of dire budget information.
"Approximately 64 percent of the $8.6 trillion deterioration in the budget
outlook is due to policy decisions over the last four years to cut taxes
repeatedly while paying huge bills for the war in Iraq and spending large
sums in other areas, such as homeland security and international affairs.
For 2004, the tax cuts are responsible for 60 percent of the fiscal
deterioration caused by policy decisions."
--
"Reality Bites:
Why Younger Generations
Should Be Concerned About the Deficit"
A Report by the Democratic Staff of the House Budget Committee,
September 13, 2004
(Hearing, September 13,2004)
"After four years of rapidly rising budget deficits, the Treasury announced
on Wednesday morning that the government will borrow $147 billion in the
first three months of 2005 - a new quarterly record, but one that is likely
to be eclipsed before that year is out."
2004 Sep 20: http://www.greatpublicschools.org/.
From their petition:
"Congress and the President have consistently failed to fully fund the No
Child Left Behind reforms and the federal commitment on special education.
This year, the House leadership would not even allow a vote on an amendment
that would close the gap. ... the President's budget for next year calls for
education cuts across the board."
2004 Sep 20: acorn.org.
"Bush and Congress continue to shortchange the No Child Left
Behind Act by billions of dollars in both the FY2004 spending bill and the
proposed 2005 budgets."
2004 Nov 23:
Data from
opendoors.iienetwork.org
for international student enrollment:
There is a clear dip, but it is still in the long run noise.
UPDATE 2006 Mar 26:Data for 2005 shows a CONTINUING DIP.
2004 Dec 10:
Extremist Tendencies
Ya-Ping Zhang and Shigang He,
Science, Vol 306, Issue 5703, 1861.
"For this Editorial, we sent a simple e-mail survey to about 400 Chinese
professors and graduate students at CAS and the Universities of Peking,
Fudan, Yunnan, and Wuhan. We received 76 replies within 2 weeks. 71% of
respondents said that they would avoid going to the United States; 91% are
seriously rethinking their collaborations with U.S. scientists and intend to
work with scientists in countries where obtaining a visa is not a problem;
and 95% believe that the visa situation is damaging to Sino-U.S. scientific
exchange."
At this point I sadly mark this as an
What action did Bush take?
Did Bush manipulate the election?
We know that lots of votes were not
recorded in Florida ... the state which
is run by his brother!
Gore won by popular vote
Instead of a recount,
the election was decided by the Supreme court,
not the people.
It is questionable whether Bush is legitimately president.
2004 August 8
International team to monitor presidential election,
David de Sola, CNN.
What an incredible shame that the USA needs this.
Even more shameful, the Republicans fought against it!
"Republicans got an amendment to a foreign aid bill that barred federal
funds from being used for the United Nations to monitor U.S. elections"
However, perhaps it is good that no US funds will be involved, then their
report after the 2004 election cannot be claimed to have been biased.
The likely reason the Republicans got that amendment was to block
the monitoring, not to save money.
Here's how the president of the United States was
elected: In the months leading up to the November balloting, Florida
Governor Jeb Bush and his Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, ordered
local elections supervisors to purge 64,000 voters from voter lists on the
grounds that they were felons who were not entitled to vote in Florida.
As it turns out, these voters weren't felons, or at least, only a very few
were. However, the voters on this "scrub list" were, notably,
African-American (about 54 percent), while most of the others wrongly
barred from voting were white and Hispanic Democrats.
2004 Oct 22:
Man knocks himself out stealing signs
"A Republican in Colorado fell flat on his face trying to steal campaign
signs touting John Kerry and other local Democratic candidates."
Court TV
by Tinuola Awopetu
(also at
Yahoo)
2004 Oct 23:
Students' polling places switched in scam
by Dennis B. Roddy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
"An unknown number of University of Pittsburgh students who signed a petition
to legalize medical marijuana have had their party registrations and polling
places switched -- adding to the number of college students apparently
targeted by a voter registration scam."
2004 Oct 26:
BBC TV REVEALS NEW FLORIDA VOTE SCANDAL
REPUBLICAN "CAGING LIST"
by Greg Palast,
BBC Television News On-Line
A secret document obtained from inside Bush campaign headquarters in Florida
suggests a plan - possibly in violation of US law - to disrupt voting in the
state's African-American voting districts, a BBC Newsnight investigation
reveals.
See:
New Florida vote scandal feared by Greg Palast.
2004 March 1: Will The End of Oil Mean The End of America?
by Robert Freeman
"Weaning ourselves off of cheap oil, while not easy, will help ensure
the vitality of the American economy and the survival of its political
system. Choosing the route of force will almost certainly destroy the
economy and doom America's short experiment in democracy."
A plea for DNA banking
Savolainen V, Reeves G.
Science. 2004 Jun 4;304(5676):1445.
They say that
A
million species will be lost by 2050 because of climate change
that Bush denies is happening!
Extinction risk from climate change
Thomas CD, et al.,
Nature. 2004 Jan 8;427(6970):145-8.
These reports are in the TOP TWO SCIENCE JOURNALS IN THE WORLD.
CNN 2004 July 10: Ex-chief of Park Police denounces firing
The Park Service in the US is suffering under cuts and people who
object are being fired. No more open space or parks, it will all
be logged off now!
The original report is at
www.cleartheair.org
"The plan from the Bush administration and the energy industry will
allow 8,000 preventable deaths each year. According to the Environmental
Protection Agency, these Americans will die an average of 14 years
sooner."
"The Bush administration is reversing the Roadless Area Conservation
Rule, a 2001 executive order by President Clinton, that prohibits road
construction on almost 60 million acres of federal forest land. No roads
has meant no logging, mining or oil and gas development."
CNN
2004 Sep 8 Bush Flip-Flop on Roadless Forest Rule Triggers Storm of Protest
from
BushGreenwatch:
"Soon after the Bush administration took office, it promised to uphold the
Clinton administration's Roadless Area Conservation Rule, enacted in 2001 to
protect some 58.5 million acres of America's last unspoiled National Forests
from logging, mining and drilling. But this summer President Bush
flip-flopped."
2004 Dec 8:
"SYSTEMATIC DELAYS IN ENDANGERED SPECIES LISTING PROGRAM ALLOWED 83 SPECIES
TO BECOME EXTINCT.
79% OF ALL EXTINCT PLANTS AND ANIMALS SINCE 1973 WERE NOT LISTED AS
ENDANGERED SPECIES. 77% WERE KNOWN TO BE ENDANGERED, BUT PROTECTION WAS
REPEATEDLY DELAYED, OFTEN FOR TEN OR TWENTY YEARS UNTIL THE SPECIES BECAME
EXTINCT."
"... a grave failure in federal management of the nations most powerful
environmental law."
"
The Bush administration has pushed the crisis to an unprecedented
level."
Center for Biological Diversity
2004 Dec 9:
Paul Ehrlich
talks about his new book -
One With Nineveh: Politics, Consumption, and the Human Future.
"He reminds us that agriculture
began in a fertile land, around Nineveh, in what is now the Middle East,
which is now desert. What lessons of ecological neglect does this teach us?
Dr Ehrlich,
Bing Professor of Biology at Stanford University in California,
also gives a diagnosis of President George W Bushs mental capacities and the
prospects of his old boss at Stanford, Condoleeza Rice, in her new job."
RealPlayer link.
The Mexico City Policy and the Global Gag Rule from Planned Parenthood.
"The only actual impact of the restrictions was to interfere with the
delivery of effective family planning services and appropriate medical
care."
2004 Oct 20:
Uniform Standard, by Peter Beinart, The New Rebpublic.
People wearing Anti-Bush T-shirts or Kerry pins to Bush rallies
are being arrested, thrown in jail and fired from their jobs.
2005 Feb 6:
www.allaboutsex.org, a site that distributed
factual information about sex,
has shut down because of the illegal Bush anti-Free Speech policies.
2004 September 12:
Doonesbury on the color-code system
2004 Sep 12:
"I have never seen a national security issue as politicized as this one has
been since Joe McCarthy, and we cannot go on like this with scare tactics."
former Secretary of State, Madeline Albright
NBC NEWS' MEET THE PRESS.
"We want you to be the judge.
Listen to the Imus interview or read it here and then vote."
After listening to the Imus interview I was _________ about Senator Kerry's
position on Iraq:
All three responses are biased or negative,
with no positive response allowed,
but they say "We want you to be the judge". They missed this one:
Completely Clear!
This is a clear example of spreading uncertainty and doubt.
Note also that they
and do not give the
entire original inteview,
Sen. John Kerry talks to Don Imus MSNBC.
2004 Sep 30:
[T]he future belongs to freedom, not to fear.
-- Senator John Kerry during
the first presidential debate
2004 Sep 2 The Official Kerry-Edwards Blog -
a slight variant:
"In the end, the terrorists will lose, and we will win. The future doesnt
belong to fear, it belongs to freedom."
Article 2:
applies
"... even if the state of war is not recognized by one of them."
Article 4 section 3:
"3. Members of regular armed forces who profess allegiance to a government or
an authority not recognized by the Detaining Power."
"the laws and customs of war"
"in cases not included in the Regulations adopted by them, populations and
belligerents remain under the protection and empire of the principles of
international law"
The Bush Administration's policy is inconsistent:
In the United State's "War On Terrorism",
the terrorists captured are not considered
prisoners of war
Bush blocked USA involvement in the Kyoto Protocol.
No action on gas efficient cars.
No action on energy independence.
Bush does not believe that global warming is
happening although
most scientists now agree it is
and data from the EPA and NOAA show a clear
world-wide warming trend.
World temperature continues to rise.
Severe east coast storms may be caused by global warming.
A major species extinction is in progress
and humans are not excluded!
99% of the glaciers in Alaska
are retreating!
87% of the glaciers on the Antartic Peninusla
are retreating!
2003 January 15: Al Gore speech on Global Warming and the Environment
"the vast majority of the most respected environmental
scientists from all over the world have sounded a clear and urgent
alarm. ... Global Warming is real."
2004 Sep 3: More fierce hurricanes may loom on horizon
by Michael Coren.
"A combination of natural cycles and
warming ocean temperatures from global
warming may be fueling the destructive storms."
2004 Sep 20:
Mussels near North Pole hint at warmer Earth CNN.
"U.N. scientists say the Arctic is now warming faster than any other region
because of human emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases
released from burning fossil fuels in cars, factories and power plants."
"Inuit peoples in Canada, for instance, are seeing robins for the first
time and hunters are falling through previously solid sea ice. In
Scandinavia, birch trees are moving northwards into previously icy areas
used for reindeer herding."
2004 Oct 15:
Squid catch stuns scientists CNN.
"A large Humboldt squid caught offshore from Sitka is among numerous
sightings of a
species seen for the first time in waters of the Far North,
and the first of the species recovered from British Columbia waters."
"It's unprecedented.
It speaks of a fundamental change in the ocean along the coast."
-- said James A. Cosgrove, Royal British Columbia Museum.
2004 Nov 6: Putin clears way for Kyoto pact, CNN.
Russia signed the Kyoto agreement, brining it into force.
The United States, under Bush, refuses to be accountable for
carbon dioxide emissions, though the US is responsible for
36% of the emissions.
2004 Nov 22:
As Ice Thaws, Arctic Peoples at Loss for Words
Reuters.
"Inuit hunters in north Canada recently saw some ducks but have not figured
out what species they were, in Inuktitut or any other language."
I reluctantly mark Global Warming as an
impending disaster
2004 Dec 3:
Beyond the ivory tower. The scientific consensus on climate change.
Naomi Oreskes,
Science, Vol 306, Issue 5702, 1686.
This is a summary of scientific viewpoints on the environmental condition.
Virtually all scientists agree - we are heading for disaster.
Note that Science is the leading scientific journal in the United States.
2004 Dec 15:
2004 Signals More Global Warming, Extreme Weather: UN
Reuters.
"Global warming is set to continue, and bring with it an increase in extreme
weather such as hurricanes and droughts, scientists from the United Nations'
World Meteorological Organization warned".
"The conference of nearly 200 nations has turned into a polarized affair,
with the European Union and nations supporting the Kyoto protocol to cut
greenhouse gases in one camp and the United States, the world's biggest
polluter, in the other."
This disaster is clearly being caused by George W. Bush.
Abundant rainfall and flooding in many other regions
Above-average number of hurricanes and deadly typhoons: During the
Atlantic hurricane season, 15 named tropical storms developed: the
average is around ten.
2005 Feb 1:
UK urges U.S. action on climate CNN.
Britain appealed to the United States on Tuesday to sign up to
climate-saving cuts in greenhouse gas emissions as environmentalists warned
of approaching Armageddon.
2005 Feb 8:
Glaciers shrinking in a warming world CNN.
"If you go to the Himalayan peaks, the rate at which the glaciers are
retreating is alarming. And this is not an isolated example. I've seen
photographs of Mount Kilimanjaro 50 years ago and now. The evidence is
visible."
--- Rajendra K. Pachauri.
"What we see in the Andes is happening in Kilimanjaro and in the Himalayas.
We've just been in southeast Alaska, and 1,987 out of 2,000 glaciers are
retreating there,"
99% of the glaciers in Alaska are retreating!
--- Lonnie Thompson.
Cook AJ, Fox AJ, Vaughan DG, Ferrigno JG.
Retreating Glacier Fronts on the Antarctic Peninsula over the Past Half-Century.
Science. 2005 Apr 22;308(5721):541-4.
"We present trends in 244
marine glacier fronts on the
[Antarctic]
peninsula and associated islands over the past 61
years.
Of these glaciers, 87% have retreated and a clear boundary between mean
advance and retreat has migrated progressively southward. The pattern is
broadly compatible with retreat driven by atmospheric warming, but the
rapidity of the migration suggests that this may not be the sole driver of
glacier retreat in this region."
"The current US policy on climate change is misguided. The Bush
administration has consistently refused to accept the advice of the US
National Academy of Sciences (NAS)."
-- Lord May, president of Britain's Royal Society
2005 Jun 8:
Philip A. Cooney, US White House
Official Played Down Emissions' Links to Global Warming
NY Times.
He was formerly a lobbyist at the American Petroleum Institute.
A phone lookup revealed only one person in MD/VA by this name:
Cooney, Phillip A
1808 Edgehill Dr
ALEXANDRIA, VA 22307
703-960-7435
An example change made by Phillip A. Cooney was: "Many scientific observations indicate that the Earth is undergoing
a period of relatively rapid change."
to
"Many scientific observations point to the conclusion
that the Earth may be undergoing a period of relatively rapid change."
Switching a scientists statement from 'is' (which indicates
that the original author was absolutely sure of the result)
to 'may be' (which indicates doubts) is
outrageous.
Interview with Tero Mustonen (mp3)
Tuesday, June 7 @ 40:28 Earth Matters:
Arctic Circle in Finland discusses the effects of Global Warming in the
far north. Tero Mustonen is one of the authors on the ACIA report.
The interview was conducted at the California radio station
Flashpoints.
("Download" is linked incorrectly . Try "listen" instead)
Snowscapes, Dreamscapes
Helander, Elina and Mustonen, Tero (ed.)
"tells a grim tale of an Arctic influenced by climate change. Indigenous
peoples' observations confirm that climate change is already a reality in
the Arctic"
2005 Jun 12:
Philip A. Cooney, US White House
White House official who edited global warming reports resigns
CNN.
Now that he has been exposed,
the former lobbyist at the American Petroleum Institute
has resigned.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said this was "completely unrelated"
to the heat he had been getting this summer.
Some coincidence!
According to CNN,
"The White House defended the changes, saying they were part of the normal,
wide-ranging review process and did not violate an administration pledge to
rely on sound science."
As a scientist I can say that at least one change made (see 2005 June 8)
was a significant revision of the meaning.
So this pledge is not being upheld, the White House is not
relying on sound science.
We show that the distributions of both exploited and nonexploited North Sea
fishes have responded markedly to recent increases in sea temperature, with
nearly two-thirds of species shifting in mean latitude or depth or both over
25 years. For species with northerly or southerly range margins in the North
Sea, half have shown boundary shifts with warming, and all but one shifted
northward. Species with shifting distributions have faster life cycles and
smaller body sizes than nonshifting species. Further temperature rises are
likely to have profound impacts on commercial fisheries through continued
shifts in distribution and alterations in community interactions.
2005 Aug 29: Is Global Warming Fueling Katrina?
By Richard Bernstein, The New York Times.
Warm ocean temperatures are a key ingredient for monster hurricanes,
prompting some scientists to believe that global warming is exacerbating our
storm troubles
"In the past we could walk on the ice in the fjord between the icebergs for
a six-month period during the winter, drill holes and fish. We can only do
that for a month or two now. It has become more difficult to drive dog sleds
because the ice between the icebergs isn't solid anymore."
It has become clear that we are nearing the tipping point of the
climate system that if we don't begin to take actions within the next
10 years that we will pass the tipping point and there will be large
long term consequences of that. I
"With imagination, we could use or find the technologies that
create energy without destroying our planet"
--- British Prime Minister Tony Blair
address at a Labor Party conference in Brighton, England. (CNN: 2001 Oct 2)
The End of Oil
1979
2003
