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Monday, December 24, 2007

On this day in: 1818 - "Silent Night" is composed by Franz Xaver Gruber and Josef Mohr. 1953 - NBC's Dragnet becomes the first network-sponsored television program. 1968 - Apollo Program: The crew of Apollo 8 enters into orbit around the Moon, becoming the first humans to do so. They performed 10 lunar orbits and broadcast live TV pictures that became the famous Christmas Eve Broadcast, one of the most watched programs in history.

From today's Rocky Mountain News:

Worried about shrinking ice caps? First, do the math

In "Anti-warming strategy outlined," the Rocky Mountain News wasted 36 column inches on Dec. 19, advertising the global warming nonsense of Charles Kutscher, spokesman of Environment Colorado, and unnamed "Boulder scientists" who, according to Kutscher, claim the Arctic could be "completely ice-free within five to 20 years."

Really? The Greenland ice cap is 3,000 meters (9,000 feet) thick. It's melting at the rate of 20 millimeters (less than an inch) per century, according to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. At that rate, it'll melt in a mere 1.5 million years. And Antarctica, much larger than Greenland, is gaining - not losing - ice.

Oh, wait, perhaps Kutscher just meant floating sea ice. But melting of floating ice causes no rise of sea level. In spite of that, Kutscher asserts sea level will soon rise "at the rate of more than a foot per decade." Ahem . . . Mr. Kutscher, sea level has risen 400 feet since the end of the last Ice Age, 20,000 years ago. That's an average of two feet per century, or less than two-and-a-half inches per decade. In the recent 50 centuries, the rate has been half a foot per century - much, much less than Kutscher's claims of "a foot per decade."

Why does the Rocky continue to bombard us with this ignorant nonsense?

Kutscher and the rest of Environment Colorado seem unqualified to do simple arithmetic. I see Kutscher is a past president of the American Solar Energy Society. Now I understand what Kutscher is selling. What is the Rocky selling? Tax increases?

Richard C. Savage holds a doctorate in meteorology. He is a resident of Franktown.


Great moments in Presidential history as poetry:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/piehigher.asp

Merry Christmas!

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