Global Local warming

Al Gore recently visited his arch-rival George W. Bush in the White House, along with other Nobel laureates, and it was quite an amusing situation. Some saw this as vindication for Gore's frantic alarms about global warming, but one has to wonder whether the recent release of scientific research on global warming was timed to coincide with this event. For example, some scientists estimate that the entire North Polar ice cap will melt by 2013, which could set in motion a self-reinforcing chain of climactic events of catastrophic proportions. See BBC. It would be prudent to take seriously such a possibility, but let's try not to set off a massive panic, OK?

Last week it snowed here in the Shenandoah Valley, which provided an occasion for many bloggers to mock the idea of global warming, notwithstanding the fact that snow in December is perfectly normal. I thought it would be obvious to everyone, but let us repeat the point: Day-to-day fluctuations in local weather conditions have nothing whatsoever to do with global climate change! Today it got up to 71 degrees, setting a record for this date. How many of those global warming skeptics will be taking note of that?

As a dramatic indication of the effect of the recent warm spell we've been enjoying in Virginia -- NOT related to global warming! -- I was surprised to come across this mushroom while going for a walk this morning. It's about three inches in diameter and fairly dense. According to my field guide, it is probably a Boletus Pinophilus, the species name indicating that it thrives around pine trees. The only fungus that we normally see during the winter is "Witch's butter."

Posted (or last updated or commented upon): 13 Dec 2007, 12: 00 AM .

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My blog practices

My general practice is to make no more than one blog post per day on any one category. For this reason, some blog posts may address more than one specific issue, as indicated by separate headings. If something important happens during the day after I make a blog post, I may add an updated paragraph or section to it, using the word "UPDATE" and sometimes a horizontal rule to distinguish the new material from the original material. For each successive day, blog posts are listed on the central blog page (which brings together all topics) from top to bottom in the following (reverse alphabetical) order, which may differ from the order in which the posts were originally made:

Wild birds (LAST)
War
Science & Technology *
Politics
Latin America
Culture & Travel *
Canaries ("Home birds")
Baseball (FIRST)

* part of "Macintosh & Miscellanous" until Feb. 2007

The date of each blog post refers to when the bulk of it was written, in the Eastern Time Zone. For each blog post, the time and date of the original posting (or the last update or comment thereupon) is displayed on the individual archival blog post page that appears (just before the comments section) when you click the [LINK / comments] link next to the date. Non-trivial corrections and clarifications to original blog entries are indicated by the use of [brackets] and/or ~~strikethroughs~~, as appropriate so as to accurately convey both the factual truth and my original representation of it. Nobody's perfect, but I strive for continual improvement. That is also why some of the nature photos that appear on the archive pages may differ from the (inferior) ones that were originally posted.

The current "home made" blog organization system that I created, featuring real permalinks, was instituted on November 1, 2004. Prior to that date, blog posts were handled inconsistently, and for that reason the pre-2005 archives pages are something of a mess. Furthermore, my blogging prior to June 1, 2004 was often sporadic in terms of frequency.

Blog errata
(preliminary)

April 4, 2008: "Andy Ashby" should be "Andy Jones"

April 3, 2010: "Mike Morgan" should be "Nyjer Morgan"

: "" should be ""

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