tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941560477618551520.post6790565511542157180..comments2023-11-05T05:13:10.901-06:00Comments on Pete'sPlace On Global Warming/Climate Change: Global Cooling? It has happened beforePeterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12792460740514151650noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941560477618551520.post-74123403246431390822007-03-20T14:01:00.000-05:002007-03-20T14:01:00.000-05:00Hi, Pete, Considering Kurzweil's Law of Accelerati...Hi, Pete,<BR/> <BR/>Considering Kurzweil's Law of Accelerating Returns (read his The Singularity is Near), one is obliged to renew their computer about every 3 or 4 years as the tech advances are so increasingly enormous over time that an older computer is hard put to handle all the code the newer machines crunch up. <BR/> <BR/>I love McPhee. I have his Annals of a Former World, which includes all of his geological monographs across the width of America, including of especial interest to me, Basin and Range, and Assembling California. The latter ---- and I have read parts of out loud. This guy has as good a grasp of the sense of geology as any professional geologist I've known. He puts the fun back in geology.<BR/> <BR/>Re global warming, any time you chase a proposition with $20 billions in grants to prove something, small wonder that all the research goes into looking only for what might prove it, and not what might disprove it. Consider for instance the annual net accummulation of 43 billion tonnes of snow on the Antarctic continent. Heard much about that in the media? Best I've heard is that some consider it "puzzling". <BR/> If you want an excellent action read on this subject, try Creighton's novel about it: State of Fear.<BR/> <BR/> dPeterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12792460740514151650noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941560477618551520.post-5561788375922521792007-03-20T13:52:00.000-05:002007-03-20T13:52:00.000-05:00This was a very interesting commentary about clima...This was a very interesting commentary about climate, the environment and history. I'll have to find more about it on the history channel.<BR/> <BR/>My computer had problems so I bought a new one, faster and more power than ever. I guess this is just something that has to be done every five years or so. It is really remarkable how well it works.<BR/> <BR/>I'm just finishing a book title "In Suspect Terrain" by John McPhee. He is a non-geologist trying to explain geology to lay-people. He does a very good job with a challenging subject by immersing himself in it with the help of some prominent geologists.<BR/> <BR/>Most relevant to the current hot subject of "global warming", was his story of how the Swiss geologist, who was formally a paleontologist, was the first to recognize, prove and spread the idea that glaciers advanced and retreated, many times, and moved mountains of debris and shaped the Earth's surface. We geologists (I think) take these things for granted, but what I find interesting is the resistance he encountered when proposing his theories, from other scientists, and especially the clergy, or the religious leaders. I'm almost surprised they didn't burn him at the stake.<BR/> <BR/>So now we have "experts" running around crying that the sky is falling because of global warming and human-caused air pollution. We don't know the causes or consequences of global warming, but we have people proposing all kinds of draconian solutions that may surely cause more problems than they solve. Kudos to the History Channel for shedding some light on the subject.<BR/>Thanks for the referral.<BR/>PeterPeterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12792460740514151650noreply@blogger.com