US Rep. Bishop wants to kill the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF)

I want to share the following which appeared at ThinkProgress.org and is information that more rational minded people, citizens, need to know about.  I mean it's getting depressing watching how this radical right Republican crowd really does want to remake American to whatever it is their "God" is telling them.  When do We The Rational People start standing up to oppose such short sighted counter-productive cut back?

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Utah Congressman Bishop Vows To Kill America’s Top Parks Program

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/09/29/3706756/rob-bishop-lwcf-reauthorization/

BY CLAIRE MOSER - GUEST CONTRIBUTOR & MATT LEE-ASHLEY - GUEST CONTRIBUTOR SEP 29, 2015 11:06AM

Barely 24 hours after Pope Francis appealed to U.S. lawmakers to help protect “our common home,” Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) announced that he intends this week to kill the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which is known as America’s best parks program. The move — which is expected to succeed — places dozens of U.S. national parks at heightened risk of commercial development, including Grand Teton National Park and Gettysburg National Military Park. 

The LWCF is a budget-neutral program that uses fees from offshore oil and gas development to fund national, state, and local conservation projects. Although the program enjoys widespread bipartisan support, it is scheduled to expire on Wednesday, September 30. 

In a press release Friday, Bishop, who serves as chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, promised to block all attempts to save the program unless significant changes are made to its structure to prevent the federal government from protecting additional land. “Under my chairmanship, the status quo will be challenged,” said Bishop in the release. 

Easy reference guide to the videos of the SkS, UQx online course "DENIAL101x"

UQx Denial101x Making Sense of Climate Science Denial

(Reposted from What'sUpWithThatWatts.blogspot.com)

I wanted a quick reference to the various Denial101x videos I watched as I took the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) of the University of Queensland in Australia (in their joint effort with John Cook, Bärbel Winkler and the volunteers at SkepticalScience.com).  

I know these videos are listed at YouTube, but it's all so clunky that I decided to put together my own single sheet linkable list of all the videos.  First the course videos for each of the six weekly installments, followed by a listing of the complete interviews with accomplished scientists and other experts.  

Considering the malicious slander many climate scientists must endure, this is a gold mine of insights into who these scientists actually are and how they've arrived at their conclusions.  (Please note I've linked scientist's names to accessible internet bios, for a bit more background.)

It took some time and effort so I figure I may as well share it - as a public service and also my way of saying thank you to John Cook and all the hard working very smart people over at SkepticalScience.com who put in countless hours of effort to make this course such a success.

An excellent antidote for all the disinformation being posted on the internet. 
Feel free to copy and pass along.

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Denial101x - Week 1

by UQx Denial101x Making Sense of Climate Science Denial April, 2015

Asking the questions: 

Why is climate change so controversial among the general public when there’s no controversy among climate scientists?
With all the evidence, resulting in a consensus, what is driving the rejection of climate science

Interviews with Ben Santer, Naomi Oreskes, Peter Doran, Stephan Lewandowsky, Larry Hamilton, Katharine Hayhoe, Michael Mann, Eugenie Scott, Ritayan Mitra, Josh Rosenau.

What’s Really Warming the World?

For those interested in understanding what is happening upon our planet, there's a fascinating new graph at Bloomberg.com that does a fine job of putting the situation into perspective.

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What’s Really Warming the World?

By Eric Roston and Blacki Migliozzi - June 24, 2015

“Skeptics of manmade climate change offer various natural causes to explain why the Earth has warmed by 1.4°F since 1880.”

OK lets take a look at ...

    Earth’s Orbit

    the Sun

    Volcanoes

how about ...

    Deforestation

    Ozone pollution

    Aerosol Pollution

what about so-called ...

    Greenhouse gases?

Check out the graph and slowly scroll down.

http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-whats-warming-the-world/

Trying to understand our Earth's climate engine.

I try to separate this blog from WUWTW much as possible, but once in a while I put together something I hope is worth sharing over here.
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"In the shadow of "Seepage" considering our climate system"

Goal of this article: A) To convey a recognition and appreciation of the fundamental components of our planet's climate system.  B)  to explain the difference between "Global Surface Temperature" and the "Global Temperature" (Something everyone conflates way the heck too often!).

Our Earth's climate is a global heat and moisture distribution engine consisting of three major components.

There's the atmosphere with it's distinctive layers, the lowest one is called the troposphere, it's where our weather lives.  The troposphere varies in height from around five miles at the poles up to around twelve miles at the equator.  

3d_hadley_md.v3.jpg

http://serc.carleton.edu/earthlabs/climate/5.html

Update: Village at Wolf Creek, Colorado - May 2015

Hee'z baaack, and still hell bent on tearing the heart out of Alberta Park, Wolf Creek, Colorado. 

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Up in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, below Wolf Creek Pass, an epic wetlands-preservation struggle has been going on.

The smoldering mess was reignited in May when the Rio Grande National Forest released its final decision regarding the Village at Wolf Creek Access Project. This decision allows the exchange of 205 acres of prime Rio Grande National Forest, including some 1500 feet of highway frontage, for 177 acres of difficult-to-develop and landlocked property owned by the Leavell-McCombs Joint Venture. Talk about a smooth poker play.

A high school student explains what global warming is all about

A few weeks ago I came across this video which does a nice clean job of describing the scientific understanding regarding global warming.  When I noticed it was put together by a couple high school juniors, the unfortunates who will inherit this monstrosity our complacent self-centered society is creating, I was impressed enough to ask Emily permission to mirror her video.  It took a month, but a few days ago I received her permission, so here it is.  

THIS IS WHAT SCIENCE SOUNDS LIKE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-sy6rPJBj4

The Science Behind Global Warming (Documentary)

by Emily Blegvad

my notes of highlights followed by her citations:

You, me, we don’t need a scriptural “God” - Knowing Evolution Is Enough!

This started as a comment at CenterForInquiry Forum but it ballooned into an essay and since it turned into a pretty fair presentation of my thoughts on this topic, I figure I'd post it over here.

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Back to the original thought:

“When circumstances are terrible, certainly you will suspend your atheism.”

Why?  For what purpose?

Some put all this stock in Holy Books and people’s interpretations of those books along with the images we weave in our minds, created out of the desires in our hearts.  But that’s your/their god, a security blanket, and we all need our security blankets, I’m not knocking that.  It’s the arrogance and defensive super-natural Faith folks imbibe it with, (exemplified in that bold boast at the start of this essay), that’s over the top.

There are some who have gone through personal struggles and rebirths, folks who understand Jesus’s Passion for what it is, a guide (support and inspiration) for our own personal spiritual journeys - with it’s various personal trials and tribulations, for aid and support in transitioning through our own lives, from dependent, self-centered, selfish child, into balanced self sufficient adulthood and eventually beyond to wise person and adept societal matriarch or patriarch (metaphorically speaking) - according to each circumstance.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Once one’s spiritual foundation grows beyond our mental images of God and Holy Stories (the Shadow Plays that help us glimpse a greater awareness) that awe gets transferred to the reality of our Mother Earth, the organism that created this world and each of us - 

and a totally different, much more solid, dare I say mature, type of spiritual foundation is formed.

Rooted in a deep understanding of Evolution's Pageant and its creation of ever more complex building blocks that drove yet more complexity.  The evolution of atomic particles and elements, gravity and star formation,  Ah, the stars, factories creating one element after another, up to Iron.  Then the wonder of exploding giant stars (Super Novas) that created all the heavier elements in a flash.  Thus making future complex worlds possible.  Fascinating.  Gravity and solar system formation and the wonder of our planet’s development.  Then that early addition of the moon, by way of a furious collision!  Don't that beat all in the Holy Books?

The early moon's orbit was much closer to Earth with constant gravitational churning…

Investigating China’s Smog, “Under the Dome” - Chai Jing

Considering that some are trying to censor this important video, I figured I should do my little part for international free speech… and honestly facing the world we have created for our children, and embed it over here.
        

Investigating China’s Smog, “Under the Dome” - Chai Jing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_the_Dome_(film)

Under the Dome (Chinese: 穹顶之下; pinyin: qióngdǐng zhī xià) is a 2015 self-financed, Chinese documentary film by Chai Jing, a former China Central Television journalist, concerning air pollution in China. 

Chai Jing started making the documentary when her as yet unborn daughter developed a tumour in the womb, which had to be removed very soon after her birth. 

The film openly criticises state owned energy companies, steel producers and coal factories, as well as showing the inability of the Ministry of Environmental Protection to act against the big polluters.

Despite demonstrating the failure of China's regulations on pollution, the Chinese government at first did not censor the film. Instead, the People's Daily reposted the film alongside an interview with Chai, while Chen Jining, the recently-appointed minister for environmental protection, praised the film, comparing its significance with Silent Spring, the 1962 book by US environmentalist Rachel Carson. 

However, within a week, the Communist Party’s publicity department confidentially ordered the film to be removed. An employee of China Business News was suspended for leaking the order. ...

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Chai Jing's: Under the Dome 

Investigating China’s Smog 

柴静雾霾调查：穹顶之下 

(full translation)

Linghein Ho

Published on Mar 1, 2015 | 1:43:55
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6X2uwlQGQM