April 4, 2012
The environmental and conservation movements lost their way when they moved to imposing their vision of the world onto others by fashioning people rather than fashioning a world to suit the needs of people. They started – in a formal sense – perhaps 60 – 70 years ago with the best of motives but became heavily politicised through the 80’s and since then have been more concerned about moulding people to fit their world view rather than serving the needs of human development. The environment – in some idealised and pristine form – even without man has been priorotised instead of being the surroundings to meet the needs of humans. Biodiversity has been made into a false god and human development has been condemned as a demon. Alarmism has been used as the vehicle for imposing change.
An article in Breakthrough Journal is causing a few waves. This essay is full of “common sense” but what makes it noteworthy is that its authors – Peter Kareiva, Robert Lalasz and Michelle Marvier – are all senior figures in The Nature Conservancy. Common sense from the environmental and conservations “movements” has been sadly absent in recent times.The essay is posted at the Breakthrough Journal and the Journal’s publicity states:
“By its own measures, conservation is failing. Biodiversity on Earth continues its rapid decline. We continue to lose forests in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. There are so few wild tigers and apes that they will be lost forever if current trends continue. Simply put, we are losing many more special places and species than we’re saving.”
So begins a searing indictment by the unlikeliest of sources: Peter Kareiva, chief scientist of The Nature Conservancy, the world’s largest conservation organization. …. Conservationists need to work with development, not condemn it as leading to the end of nature. In truth, nature’s resilience has been overlooked, its fragility “grossly overstated.” Areas blasted by nuclear radiation are bio-diverse. Forest cover is rising in the Northern Hemisphere even as it declines globally. ….
And it’s time to stop prioritizing being alone over being with others.
The essay itself is well worth reading and selected extracts are reproduced below:
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Anthropocene, Biodiversity, Conservation movement, Environmentalism, Nature Conservancy, Peter Kareiva
Posted in Alarmism, Biodiversity, Conservation, Development, Environment | Comments Off on Conservation movement’s focus is anachronistic and counterproductive – Peter Kareiva, Chief Scientist of the The Nature Conservancy.
April 3, 2012
How fire came to be discovered and then brought under control by our ancestors will probably always remain a matter for speculation. There is evidence that forest fires were occurring “naturally” at least 350 million years ago when plant life colonised the land. It may have been earlier since volcanoes were active long before this but the combustible matter needed (fuel and oxygen) which volcanic eruptions could have ignited would have been plentiful only around 350 million years ago.
Many animals have learned to take advantage of the benefits of wildfires – mainly after the fire is over. Some birds of prey take advantage of fleeing insects and small animals while the fire is still raging. Carnivores search in the ashes for animals killed by the fire but still with edible remains. Herbivores gather to lick the ashes for tasty “elements” and salts. Our ancestors would have been observers and beneficiaries of the accidental “cooking” and the warmth from forest or bush fires for many millions of years.
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Tags: controlled use of fire, fire, Homo Erectus, South Africa, Wonderwerk Cave
Posted in Anthropology, Archeology, Evolution, Science | Comments Off on Controlled use of fire now dated back to at least 1 million YBP
April 2, 2012
This new paper just reinforces my view that man-made carbon dioxide is insignificant with regard to climate. But I wonder how this finding is somehow going to be attributed to anthropogenic carbon dioxide.
Painting of Challenger by William Frederick Mitchell - Wikipedia
A new study combining data from the HMS Challenger (1872 – 1876) with the the modern data set of the Argo Programme shows that ocean warming 135 years ago was significantly faster than that in the last 50 years.
“… the magnitude of the temperature change since the 1870s is twice that observed over the past 50 years. …. This implies that the time scale for the warming of the ocean is not just the last 50 years but at least the last 100 years.”
… the 100-year timescale of ocean warming implies that Earth’s climate system as a whole has been gaining heat for at least that long.
Dean Roemmich, W. John Gould, John Gilson. 135 years of global ocean warming between the Challenger expedition and the Argo Programme. Nature Climate Change, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1461
Summary: The ocean’s dominant role over the atmosphere, land, or cryosphere comes from its high heat capacity and ability to remove heat from the sea surface by currents and mixing. The longest interval over which instrumental records of subsurface global-scale temperature can be compared is the 135 years between the voyage of HMS Challenger (1872–1876) and the modern data set of the Argo Programme(2004–2010). Argo’s unprecedented global coverage permits its comparison with any earlier measurements. This, the first global-scale comparison ofChallenger and modern data, shows spatial mean warming at the surface of 0.59 °C±0.12, consistent with previous estimates of globally averaged sea surface temperature increase. Below the surface the mean warming decreases to 0.39 °C±0.18 at 366 m (200 fathoms) and 0.12 °C±0.07 at 914 m (500 fathoms). The 0.33 °C±0.14 average temperature difference from 0 to 700 m is twice the value observed globally in that depth range over the past 50 years, implying a centennial timescale for the present rate of global warming. Warming in the Atlantic Ocean is stronger than in the Pacific. Systematic errors in the Challenger data mean that these temperature changes are a lower bound on the actual values. This study underlines the scientific significance of the Challenger expedition and the modern Argo Programme and indicates that globally the oceans have been warming at least since the late-nineteenth or early-twentieth century.
And if warming in the last 50 years was just half the rate of warming over the last 100 years it follows that warming in the first 50 years was 3 times greater than the rate in the second 50.
Tags: Argo Programme, climate change, HMS Challenger, Ocean warming
Posted in Climate, Oceans, Science | Comments Off on Ocean warming over last 135 years twice as great as over last 50 years
April 1, 2012
There are many web-sites which are informative and educational. But only some of them are intelligent and a few of these are required reading and a very,very few of them are a just a delight to read.
Dr. Goodwood’s language blog is one of them.
Alphadictionary.com
And the story of paraprosdokians is something I learned today:
Paraprosdokian is not an Armenian writer or football coach but a figure of speech characterized by an abrupt change of direction at the end. It is a phrase that intentionally leads us down the garden path, that misleads us into thinking one way, then suddenly ending on an unexpected twist. Stand-up comedians who like one-liners use lots of them because the setup and punchline are all in a single line.
Here are some examples: …
- There but for the grace of God goes God. —Sir Winston Churchill, a comment on Sir Stafford Cripps, British socialist philosopher
- Two wrongs don’t make a right—but three lefts do.
- Now, you take my wife . . . PLEASE! —Henny Youngman
- Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
- If I agreed with you we’d both be wrong.
- War does not determine who is right—only who is left.
- The early bird gets the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese.
- ……..
- Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go. —Oscar Wilde
And this one applies perfectly to me: You’re never too old to learn something stupid.
Tags: language, Paraprosdokian
Posted in Language | Comments Off on Paraprosdokians
March 31, 2012
I shall not be trying to switch off today. But I shall not either be trying to maximise my electricity consumption in some futile gesture to protest against the even more idiotic gesture that is Earthhour. I shall be as normal as possible.
The hype around Earthhour on 31st March each year is not just irritating – it demonstrates for me the intellectual bankruptcy that is now enveloping the environmentalists and conservationists and the eco-fascists. It is a tale told by idiots and full of sound and fury and signifying – nothing.
If it was a just a meaningless gesture it would not be as bad as it is. It actually denies all that humankind has achieved and promotes a view of what the future should be which not only do I not share but is one which celebrates the lack of electricity. It condemns humankind to return to a bleak world of hunger and death and misery. That may be a future which the lack of electricity could cause but it is not a future I would choose or glorify.
This post by Ross McKitrick is pretty close to how I see things:
Earth Hour: A Dissent
by Ross McKitrick
Ross McKitrick, Professor of Economics, University of Guelph, Canada. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Ross McKitrick, Professor of Economics, University of Guelph, Canada. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In 2009 I was asked by a journalist for my thoughts on the importance of Earth Hour.
Here is my response.
I abhor Earth Hour. Abundant, cheap electricity has been the greatest source of human liberation in the 20th century. Every material social advance in the 20th century depended on the proliferation of inexpensive and reliable electricity.
Giving women the freedom to work outside the home depended on the availability of electrical appliances that free up time from domestic chores. Getting children out of menial labour and into schools depended on the same thing, as well as the ability to provide safe indoor lighting for reading.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Alarmism, Earth, Earth Hour, Earthhour, Ross McKitrick
Posted in Alarmism, Development, Ethics, Evolution | Comments Off on Earthhour is not for me – It is a tale told by idiots..
March 30, 2012
UPDATE2: 2nd April 2012
Now he’s resigned.
UPDATE!
The Hungarian President has said he will not resign but will redo his dissertation to comply with current requirements. He blames his advisers and the examining committee for failing to bring the problems with his doctorate to his attention.
And being President he will probably get away with this.
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Budapest’s Semmelweis University has proposed (note that is not yet a final decision) that the Hungarian President Pal Schmitt’s PhD be rescinded for massive plagiarism with 196 plagiarised pages in a 215 page thesis! While the Hungarian President has largely a ceremonial role he is seen as being a supporter of the new constitution and the very controversial “reforms” being pushed through by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Reuters reports on the pressure on Schmitt to resign:
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Tags: Budapest, Pál Schmitt, PhD rescinded, Plagiarism, Semmelweis University, Viktor Orbán
Posted in Academic misconduct, Ethics, Hungary | Comments Off on Hungarian President’s doctorate rescinded — but will he resign?
March 29, 2012
UPDATE!
Prof. Sebastian Morris has commented and his comment is reproduced in full below.
He refers to this follow-up article – http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/article/3/2012032220120322015940691adc5b90a/Accused-IIMA-profs-deny-allegations.html where he is quoted as saying:
“Plagiarism is an academic matter best judged by academic peers. Plagiarism can be of ideas and expression and not of facts except when they are facts that emerge out of particular research. Publicly available facts, and government policy statements when the source is revealed cannot be construed as plagiarism.”
But I would take issue with this statement on two counts:
- it may be comfortable to be “judged” solely by academic peers but that does not work. The Wikiplag site in Germany emphasises the need to get out of the “cozy” establishment environment. So far Wikiplag has found some 20 cases of plagiarised theses which have been missed by the usual “academic peers”
- Merely revealing a source is insufficient – it needs to be properly cited even if the source is as mundane as a government policy document.
Even if documents are in the public domain, improper attribution or citation is plagiarism. And if such documents are copyright protected then reproduction could be copyright violation as well.
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A case of when the dam breaks perhaps. There seems to be an epidemic of plagiarism at IIM-A.
A reader pointed me to this story in the Ahmedabad Mirror:
A fortnight after Gujarat High Court asked IIMA to conduct a fresh inquiry into the case of a professor accused of plagiarism, a fresh controversy is brewing at the premier institute.
This time, an executive with a multinational company who also teaches management at a couple of B schools, has accused five senior IIMA professors of “mass copy-pasting” material from sources without crediting them in their cases.
Professor Anil Sharma has shot off a mail to institute’s director Samir Barua citing “serious instances of plagiarism” by professors Rekha Jain, G Raghuram, Rachna Gangwar, Sebastian Morris and Ajay Pandey. ….
…. The IIMs follow guidelines prepared by Harvard Business School and the American Psychological Association, which say that whenever there is sourcing, verbatim or otherwise, the source has to be cited adequately. Interestingly, the institute has a specialised internet-based software to cross-check research work submitted by students and alerts faculty to plagiarised portions, if any.
Even IIM Indore Director N Ravichandran, a former IIMA professor, has been asked by the Centre to respond to an accusation of plagiarism against him. Prof Ravichandran and a senior faculty member of the institute, Omkar D Palsule-Desai, had submitted a paper on euthanasia that was put up on the IIM website with a “Do not copy or reproduce” warning. Ahmedabad-based researcher K R Narendrababu has complained that the paper was sourced heavily from a Supreme Court judgment without adequate attribution.
A committee of inquiry seems to have been constituted for the earlier case of plagiarism but it is not clear if these cases will also be included.
Tags: Ajay Pandey., G Raghuram, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Plagiarism, Plagiarism epidemic, Rachna Gangwar, Rekha Jain, Sebastian Morris
Posted in Academic misconduct, Ethics, India | 3 Comments »
March 27, 2012
The kind of study results I thoroughly approve of and would like to believe!!
If only I was also convinced that it was entirely unbiased. It sounds like one of those studies which, if it had shown that chocolate was poisonous, would somehow have not been published.
A new paper in Archives of Internal Medicine:
Association Between More Frequent Chocolate Consumption and Lower Body Mass Index Beatrice A. Golomb, MD, PhD; Sabrina Koperski, BS; Halbert L. White, PhD Arch Intern Med. 2012;172(6):519-521. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2011.2100
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Tags: Archives of Internal Medicine, BMI, Body mass index, chocolate
Posted in Medicine, Trivia | Comments Off on Frequent eating of chocolate (any amount) keeps you thin
March 26, 2012
A new paper reports two studies of Bossou chimpanzees which show that “wild chimpanzees walk bipedally more often and carry more items when transporting valuable, unpredictable resources to less–competitive places”.
Susana Carvalho, Dora Biro, Eugénia Cunha, Kimberley Hockings, William C. McGrew, Brian G. Richmond, Tetsuro Matsuzawa. Chimpanzee carrying behaviour and the origins of human bipedality. Current Biology, 2012; 22 (6): R180 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2012.01.052
Summary
Why did our earliest hominin ancestors begin to walk bipedally as their main form of terrestrial travel? The lack of sufficient fossils and differing interpretations of existing ones leave unresolved the debate about what constitutes the earliest evidence of habitual bipedality. Compelling evidence shows that this shift coincided with climatic changes that reduced forested areas, probably forcing the earliest hominins to range in more open settings. While environmental shifts may have prompted the origins of bipedality in the hominin clade, it remains unknown exactly which selective pressures led hominins to modify their postural repertoire to include a larger component of bipedality. Here, we report new experimental results showing that wild chimpanzees walk bipedally more often and carry more items when transporting valuable, unpredictable resources to less–competitive places.
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Tags: Australopithecus, Bipedalism, Chimpanzee, origin of bipedalism, upright walking
Posted in Anthropology, Behaviour, Evolution | Comments Off on We walk upright to carry things
March 25, 2012
The UK press led by Murdoch’s Sunday Times – is going to town with the story.
But why is anybody surprised?
The Tory Party co-treasurer, Peter Cruddas, was caught on film by some intrepid Murdoch reporters from the Sunday Times pointing out the benefits of paying for access. He has now resigned – for being caught on tape it would seem. He surely did not resign for doing what was expected of him in his job.
“One hundred grand is not Premier League… it’s not bad… But two hundred grand to 250 is premier league… what you would get is, when we talk about your donations the first thing we want to do is get you at the Cameron/Osborne dinners.”
“It’ll be awesome for your business. You’ll be… well pleased. Because your guests will be photographed with David Cameron. We do that, you know.”
“If you’re unhappy about something, we will listen to you and put it into the policy committee at number 10 – we feed all feedback to the policy committee.”
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Tags: Cash for access, David Cameron, Peter Cruddas, political corruption, Sunday Times, UK corruption
Posted in Corruption, Ethics, European Union, Politics, UK | Comments Off on Who’s surprised? £250k for dinner with Cameron and Osborne and some policy input
