Education for climate change

Notes on conceptually related themes: Ozone education and hybridization
By Special K
Disassociated Press
July 18, 2009

Ozone references
1. Ozone Secretariat Convenes Two Climate Change-Related Workshops
CLIMATE-L.ORG - New York,New York,USA
Both workshops were attended by ozone and climate change negotiators, as
well as UNFCCC and Ozone Secretariat staff, and provided an opportunity for open ...

2. Ozone is a gas that occurs both in the Earth's upper atmosphere and at ground level. Ozone can be "good" or "bad" for people's health and for the environment, depending on its location in the atmosphere.
For an overview of both ozone issues, see Good Up High, Bad Nearby.
http://www.epa.gov/oar/oaqps/gooduphigh/

Good up high, bad nearby, coined by epa.gov, encapsulates very well
The problem posed for the UN Ozone Secretariat
And, especially, ozone and climate change negotiators (OCCN’s),
In deciding whether up high or nearby there’s dearth or glut.

And like “’i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’” for spelling,
It’s a good mnemonic device
That can help OCCN’s remember
“Nearby” = “bad” and “up high” = “nice”.

If it’s gathered nearby,
That is, nearer the earth,
It’s associated with smog
(Of which, apparently, there’s no dearth).

If it’s properly distributed up high
(As to how high we can’t be exact)
According to some scientists
It blocks rays that (can) possibly may cause, inter al., cataracts.

OCCN’s are instructed to improve “ozonic” negotiations
And the UN Secretariat hopes the workshops will educate them
In the art of negotiating with ozone in either location-- amicably,
Even when the prospect of conflict resolution grows dim.

**
THOROUGHBRED is what came to mind
When this reporter saw “HYBRID” proudly (at least openly) displayed
By a vehicle parked beside his in a parking lot--
Only an American quarter horse[1] at this designation would not be dismayed.

Almost immediately he vowed to endeavor
To pursue the goal of design and ultimate display
Of a label for his non-hybrid Toyota
Boasting, in essence, (I’m) THOROUGHBRED (and ultimately will win running away)

Having designed the text of such a display (q.v., above),
He is now faced with the problem of display:
How to embed such text in a paper or plastic and paper medium
And attach it to the Toyota in a clearly visible, but not inappropriate way.

When the more complex display problem has been solved,
Readers will be informed as to how he came to do it--
And if there’s potential for patenting and commercialization
They can be sure he'll diligently pursue it..

Needless to say, if any reader has a (constructive) suggestion
Regarding any aspect of this project, even additions to the text, per se,
S/he is invited most cordially to provide them ASAP,
That is, without any except demonstrably unavoidable delay.

All readers may find it enlightening to ponder at length, and deeply,
The nature of the underlying relationship between workshops for ozone education
And an adventitious happening in a PPL (Princeton parking lot)--
Stifling all the while any tendency toward open display of aggravation.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] American Quarter Horse (a proud hybrid)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Breed History
[edit] Colonial Era
In the 1600s, colonists on the eastern seaboard of what today is the United States began to cross imported English Thoroughbred horses with assorted "native" horses such as the Chickasaw horse (a breed developed by Native American people from horses descended from Spain, developed from Iberian, Arabian and Barb stock brought to what is now the Southeastern United States by the Conquistadors).[citation needed]

One of the most famous of these early imports was Janus, a Thoroughbred who was the grandson of the Godolphin Arabian. He was foaled in 1746, and imported to colonial Virginia in 1756. The influence of Thoroughbreds like Janus contributed genes crucial to the development of the colonial "Quarter Miler," or "Quarter Mile Horse." This was a speedy working man's racer, sometimes referred to as the "Celebrated American Quarter Running Horse." The resulting horse was small, hardy, and quick, and was used as a work horse during the week and a race horse on the weekends.[1]

As flat racing became popular with the colonists, the Quarter Miler gained even more popularity as a sprinter over courses that, by necessity, were shorter than the classic racecourses of England, and were often no more than a straight stretch of road or flat piece of open land. When matched against a Thoroughbred, local sprinters often won. As the Thoroughbred breed became established in America, many colonial Quarter Mile mares were included in the original American stud books, starting a long association between the Thoroughbred breed and what would later become officially known as the "Quarter Horse," named after the distance at which it excelled,[citation needed] with some individuals being clocked at up to 55 mph.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Quarter_Horse#Breed_History
Downloaded c 9:25 AM EDT, July 18, 2009

Further analysis of causal connections
By Special K
Disassociated Press
July 16, 2009

Reference:
The Nexus Between Climate Change and Conflict in the Horn of Africa
Gadaa.com Oduu - News - Hillsboro,USA
By Qeerransoo Biyyaa This article tries to generally explore the nexus
between conflict and climate change and vice versa in Africa. ...(emphasis added).


Climate change has a nexus[1] with conflict in the Horn
According to Qeerransoo Biyyaa--
And we’re assuming that Biyyaa’s assertion
Is not merely a journalistic faux pas.

Keeping in mind all the while that according to the teaser, above,
Qeerransoo only “tries” to explore that nexus
And doesn’t assert categorically that there is one--
An assertion that would most assuredly vex us.

So we will click on the link Google provided
To investigate Biyyaa’s rationale for his/her[2] assertion
That there’s a nexus between climate change and conflict in the Horn--
Assuming that won’t require too much exertion.

Now, having done so we find the following expansion of the teaser
plus citation of a statement from Potus Obama as the (analytical) “point of entry”…

“This article tries to generally explore the nexus between conflict and climate change and vice versa in Africa. In so doing, it uses US President Barrack Obama’s Accra speech as a point of entry. It cites concrete examples from some Horn of African countries and localities.
‘Africa gives off less greenhouse than any other part of the world, but it is the most threatened by climate change. A warming climate will spread disease, shrink water resources, and deplete crops, creating conditions that produce more famine and conflict’, stated Barack Obama in his first speech to the sub-Saharan Africa as the President of the United States of America from Ghana, Accra (emphasis added).

This elaboration of the teaser, alone,
re: the analysis, per se, should be a sufficient cautionary “appriser”,
Indicating, as it does, that Biyyaa cites as an authoritative source re: climate change in Africa
A fellow whose expertise on climate change, per se, stems largely from work as a community organizer.

Moreover, although it’s not clear exactly where this Potus hails “from”--
E.g., Illinois (his most recent home state) or Hawaii (his place of birth)--
It’s something of a stretch to say he’s “the (Potus) from Ghana, Accra” [3]
(Although of members of his extended paternal family residing there, there’s no dearth).

“ . . .In this political speech, President Obama deserves a great credit for generally stating the relationship between conflicts and climate change other than the obvious natural causes of climate change. Do major scale national and international conflicts in the Horn of Africa cause or significantly contribute to climate change? Investigating the correlation and/or causal relationship between conflicts and climate change is up to academic authorities in climate change, but it is my view that the chronic mega conflicts between government and rebels, governments and governments, factions and factions over scarce resources may have substantially contributed to the irreparable destruction of the natural environment thereby rapidly worsening climate crisis on the continent. The question of climate change for Africa is 'to live or not to live' -it is a fight to prevent continental self-annihilation in which the human factor is enormous”.

The interested reader is invited to examine the report in detail
But for present purposes the upshot would seem to be
That as the Horn warms, water resources will become scarcer, leading to conflict for access--
Hence the nexus between the former and the latter is arrived at analytically.

Of course, the writer also acknowledges
That conflict has been characteristic of life in the Horn--
True long before the issue of “climate change” (humankind-caused global warming) surfaced;
And before either Barack or Al Gore, the chief architect of plans to control the climate, was born.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Main Entry:nex·us
Pronunciation: \ˈnek-səs\
Function: noun Inflected Form(s):
plural nex·us·es \-sə-səz\ or nex·us \-səs, -ˌsüs\
Etymology: Latin, from nectere to bind
Date: 1663
1: connection, link ; also : a causal link
2: a connected group or series
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nexus

[2] At this juncture, given lack of familiarity with African names,
It is not feasible to speculate as to gender,
That is, as to whether “Qeerransoo” connotes one “rough and ready”
Or one of the genre “lissome and tender”.

Of course, this assumes that “Qeerransoo”
Is the writer’s given name and that “Biyyaa”
Is a surname, distinguishable clearly
From spiritual designations such as, e.g., “Kumbaya”.

Kumbaya - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Kumbaya" (also spelled Kum Ba Yah) is a spiritual song from the 1930s.
It enjoyed newfound popularity during the folk revival of the 1960s and became a ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbaya - Cached - Similar -

[3] In the absence of a comma between “America” and “from”
It is not clear whether the writer was making reference
To the place from which Barack’s “first speech” originated (suggested in an earlier reference), or to Barack’s “origin”--
If the latter, then for judicious use of the comma, Biyyaa failed to demonstrate a preference.

Some nations seem to have their priorities right
By Special K
Disassociated Press
July 8, 2009

Reference: Developing Nations Rebuff G-8 on Curbing Pollutants
By PETER BAKER
Published: July 8, 2009
L’AQUILA, Italy — “The world’s major industrial nations and newly emerging powers failed to agree Wednesday on specific cuts in heat-trapping gases by 2050, undercutting an effort to build a global consensus to fight climate change, according to people following the talks . . ..” (emphasis added)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/world/europe/09prexy.html?_r=1&8au&emc=au

Considering the futility of humans “fight(ing against) climate change”
Building a consensus of any kind, global or local, to do so
Is, by any definition, a highly complex process
That could only be incredibly slow.

Witnessing grown men and women representing national entities
Spend much time and scarce resources to consider such folly
Can only engender in their respective constituencies
A most profound and enduring melancholy.

The process would be sufficiently complex
If the aim were simply “to reduce pollution”,
But if it’s to attain control over the climate
The process is one with no foreseeable resolution.

The developing nations appear to have their priorities right:
They wish to develop as have other nations, i.e., sans undue restriction
On the use of fossil fuels to power internal growth
Imposed to halt “man-made global warming” (a media-abetted fiction
That has been purveyed as “gospel”,
And by many naive folks accepted as such,
But by discerning observers of the media scene
Is recognized as being “just a little bit much”).

Let’s hope that the Senate of the United States
In considering the desirability of the Waxman-Markey (“cap and trade”) bill
Will stop short before approbation
And let sense, not so common there, work its will.

Making Madoff look like a piker
By Special K
Disassociated Press
July 6, 2009

Reference: Q and A on the Climate Bill
By David A. Fahrenthold and Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, July 5, 2009; 7:21 PM
“The climate bill approved by the House last month started out as an idea -- fight global warming -- and wound up looking like an unabridged dictionary. It runs to more than 1,400 pages, swollen with loopholes and giveaways meant to win over un-green industries and wary legislators . . ..
"Q. Would this bill stop climate change?
A. No. Even if it works exactly as planned -- delivering a 17 percent reduction in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 compared with 2005 levels -- it might not slow down the rate of climate change by very much . . ..” (emphasis added).

If it were to alter climate change patterns at all,
That would be cause for surprise and astonishment
Since it isn't at all clear that what mankind does
Affects global climate patterns to any extent.

Messrs. Fahrenthold and Mufson of the Post, for example,
And Columnist-Economics Professor Paul Krugman of Princeton U,
May think they are being “factual” about what causes climate change (and how much)
But in actuality they haven’t a clue.

The foregoing applies equally well
To Representative Waxman (CA)
And--co-author with him of the “cap and trade” monstrosity--
Representative Markey who hails from MA.

Also to Al Gore, probably the best known agitator
For the notion of man-made climate change
And advocacy of the carbon-credit concept--
To reap profit from which, he had the good sense to arrange.

As well, of course, to Governor Corzine (NJ)
Who on 07-07-07 (almost exactly two years ago to the day)
Signed with great ceremony legislation designed to control climate
Effective, or so he implied, without further delay.

That newspaper reporters, perhaps inadvertently, convey the notion
(With “questions and answers”, by logical inference about matters of fact)
That mankind has the power to control “acts of nature”
Tends to suggest possession of information knowledge exact

Re: precisely what causes cyclical changes in world climate
(Of which there would seem to be some naturalistic evidence,
Such as the progressive desiccation of the Sahara, for example,
And the progression and retraction of ice over some continents).

To report as if factual that which is only speculative,
Is something that can aptly be called “disinforming”;
Something more nearly the rule than the exception since Al Gore scored big
By scaring h _ _ _ out of folks about global warming.*
___________

*Orson Welles scared the nation back in 1938 (Unintentionally? Quien sabe?)
With a Radio Theater, "War of the Worlds", episode
Suggesting that something strange had landed near Grover's Mill, NJ;
That would cause the whole world to explode.
7/6/2009 7:51:18 PM

Expectation vs. reality

Slips between header and content
By Special K
Disassociated Press
July 2, 2009

Reference….
Rasmussen Poll: Obama's Popularity Plunging
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 7:27 PM
By: Jim Meyers http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/obama_rasmussen_poll/
2009/06/30/230686.html?s=al&promo_code=829C-1

This header suggests a precipitous drop in popularity
For the fellow who stars in the reality drama
That remains Numero Uno [1] on the national scene,
That is, the one in the role of Potus, namely, Barack H. Obama.

A click on the link, however,
No such precipitous drop will reveal--
Only a shift in balance between those strongly approving
In favor of those for whom he has absolutely no appeal.

The latter group, for the first time in the current run,
Has surpassed the former in size
In what Rasmussen calls the popularity index--
But that should come as no surprise

To close followers of the national scene--
As portrayed in the front-running TV drama
Aptly titled “Hell Bent for National Bankruptcy”
Starring Barack (Himself) Hussein Obama--

Who have begun to see more clearly
That he not only shoots primarily from the lip--
And is accordingly quick on the flaw
Which to non-Coolade followers isn’t ‘hip’--

But also has forced his principal supporting cast
(Members of the legislative branch)
To enact unread legislation so patently dysfunctional
As to make those who (inadvertently) tune in blanch.

Still there is no suggestion of massive disaffection
(Such as that suggested by the header referenced above)
Only, perhaps the beginning of a process of disillusion in those
Who have for him less than Jonestown-like love.[2]

“There’s many a slip, ‘twixt cup and lip”
Is certainly a time-tested saying,[3]
And the increase in slips between header and content
Of its general applicability is tacit evidence dismaying.
______________
[1] This particular expression of “Number 1” status
Is used in response to a request from Obama
Who wishes to reinforce his appeal to Hispanic viewers,
Increasingly involved in rating actors featured in reality drama.

[2] Jonestown
We designed this Web page to emphasize the relationship between
the Jonestown cult and the culture out of which it grew.
www.owlnet.rice.edu/~reli291/Jonestown/Jonestown.html

[3] There's many a slip twixt cup and lip. (literary)
something that you say in order to warn someone not to be too confident about the result of a plan, because many things can go wrong before it is completed We still might finish in time for the deadline, but there's many a slip twixt cup and lip.
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/There's+many+a+slip+twixt+cup+and+lip