WASHINGTON — The nation’s top climate scientists are giving ‘An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore’s documentary on global warming, five stars for accuracy. The former vice president’s movie — replete with the prospect of a flooded New York City, an inundated Florida, more and nastier hurricanes, worsening droughts, retreating glaciers and disappearing ice sheets — mostly got the science right, said all 19 climate scientists who had seen the movie or read the book and answered questions from The Associated Press. The AP contacted more than 100 top climate researchers by e-mail and phone for their opinion. Among those contacted were vocal skeptics of climate change theory. Most scientists had not seen the movie, which is in limited release, or read the book. But those who have seen it had the same general impression: Gore conveyed the science correctly; the world is getting hotter and it is a manmade catastrophe-in-the-making caused by the burning of fossil fuels. ‘Excellent,” said William Schlesinger, dean of the Nicholas School of Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University. ‘He got all the important material and got it right.” Robert Corell, chairman of the worldwide Arctic Climate Impact Assessment group of […]
A proposal to prevent Internet service providers from charging Web firms more for faster service to consumers failed yesterday to clear a Senate committee. The vote was a setback for such companies as Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Skype Technologies SA, which had pushed for rules that would prohibit telecommunications companies from controlling the flow of online content. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee took up the matter as part of a larger telecommunications bill, which passed 15 to 7. But some telecom experts said the party-line, 11 to 11 vote on ‘net neutrality’ could signal a tougher fight to get the larger telecom bill passed on the Senate floor. The bill would make it easier for telephone companies to expand into the cable television franchise business, a move which lawmakers hope will result in more competition and lower prices for consumers. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the committee, said he was not sure he had the 60 votes necessary to move the legislation forward. He said he would be open to negotiating with Democrats in September, when Congress comes back from its recess. The House passed its telecom bill earlier this month, and […]
WASHINGTON — A fractured Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that states are free to redraw congressional districts whenever they want, largely blessing Tom DeLay’s bitterly contested handiwork in Texas and the gains it gave national Republicans. With Justice Anthony M. Kennedy playing the role of majority maker, the court ruled the 2003 Texas plan violated the rights of Hispanics in the area around Laredo and ordered a lower court to review that part of the case. But the justices imposed no timetable, and it was not clear whether Democrats would be able to win any changes in the Republican-drafted plan before the November elections. Additionally, the justices rejected a claim that Texas Republicans had violated the rights of black voters by breaking up a congressional district in the area around Fort Worth. And they ruled more broadly that the Constitution does not bar states from redrawing political lines when one party or the other senses an advantage. ‘With respect to a mid-decade redistricting to change districts drawn earlier in conformance with a decennial census, the Constitution and Congress state no explicit prohibition,’ Kennedy wrote. Mid-decade redistricting for political purposes was not uncommon in the 1800s […]
House Republican leaders are expected to introduce a resolution today condemning The New York Times for publishing a story last week that exposed government monitoring of banking records. The resolution is expected to condemn the leak and publication of classified documents, said one Republican aide with knowledge of the impending legislation. The resolution comes as Republicans from the president on down condemn media organizations for reporting on the secret government program that tracked financial records overseas through the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT), an international banking cooperative. Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.), working independently from his leadership, began circulating a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) during a late series of votes yesterday asking his leaders to revoke the Times’s congressional press credentials. The Standing Committee decides which organizations and reporters can be accredited, according to the rules of both the House and Senate press galleries. Members of that committee are elected by accredited members of those galleries. ‘Under no circumstances would we revoke anyone’s credentials simply because a government official is unhappy with what that correspondent’s newspaper has written,’ said Susan Milligan, a reporter for the Boston Globe, which is owned by […]
In one of the most remarkable signs yet of the advance of global warming, Britain’s first olive grove has been planted in Devon. Temperatures have risen so far in recent years that it is now considered possible to grow the iconic fruit of the Mediterranean countries commercially in southern England. Several studies have suggested that, in decades to come, olives, vines and other warm-climate plants will be likely to flourish in a substantially warmer Britain. Now a Devon smallholder has taken the plunge and, in partnership with an Italian olive specialist, planted a grove of 120 olive trees on the banks of the river Otter near Honiton. Mark Diacono, who is establishing a ‘climate change farm’ on his land, intends his olives to be a commercial crop which will produce Britain’s first home-grown olive oil, in five to seven years. He has planted them in co-operation with an Italian gardener living in England, Emilio Ciacci, who has provided the trees from the hills near his home at Maremma, Tuscany. A 39-year-old environmental consultant, Mr Diacono has no doubt that UK temperatures are becoming suitable for olive cultivation. ‘There’s no question that the climate is going to […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
