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NASA Snaps Mysterious "Night-Shining" Clouds
coondoggie writes to tell us that NASA has captured some pretty impressive images of the Alluring noctilucent (or "night-shining") clouds. These clouds are made up of ice crystals and dust and are formed at high altitudes near the poles. "Very little is known about how these clouds form over the poles, why they are being seen more frequently and at lower latitudes than ever before, or why they have been growing brighter. AIM will observe two complete cloud seasons over both poles, documenting an entire life cycle of the shiny clouds for the first time. 'It is clear that these clouds are changing, a sign that a part of our atmosphere is changing and we do not understand how, why or what it means,' stated AIM principal investigator James Russell III of Hampton University, Hampton, Va. 'These observations suggest a connection with global change in the lower atmosphere and could represent an early warning that our Earth environment is being changed.'"
That may well be entirely true, but I recognize a cousin to the "...and therefore may lead to new treatments for cancer." that molecular biologists ritualistically slap at the end of every grant application.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
We hear too often from these climate "experts", finally someone is ready to admit that our climate is so big and complex that we don't know exactly how it all works.
Global warming is the big scare in the climate world right now, so it is how you get money for environmental research. You write a proposal to study some owl that isn't endangered but might become so that nobody gives a shit about and you get no money. However you change it up and talk about how you want to study the impact of global warming on it, bam you gots money.
Same shit with terrorism in other areas. Can't get money for an anti-crime initiative? Just make it an anti-terror initiative! You get money thrown at you. Hell, ConEd did that with their new superconducting power line. They wanted government help building the thing so they spun it is being resistant to terrorist attack. Maybe true, but that isn't why they are doing it. They are doing it because the old system failed due to overload, not attack.
It is sadly common in the world, and research is no different. You find what is hot in a given field and you'll see all kinds of shit that shouldn't be getting tied in to that to try and get money.
"Very little is known about how these clouds form over the poles, why they are being seen more frequently and at lower latitudes than ever before, or why they have been growing brighter. AIM will observe two complete cloud seasons over both poles, documenting an entire life cycle of the shiny clouds for the first time."
"These observations suggest a connection with global change in the lower atmosphere and could represent an early warning that our Earth environment is being changed."
* It could also suggest that documentation has been poor in the past (ref. quote 1) and that the higher rate is because more effort is spent on registering the climate in general.
* It could also suggest a _purely local_ non-human-related change. After all, the middle ages warm period has been discounted by climatologists as a purely half-a-hemisphere local phenomenon. There is hence no reason why the climate should not change in one region of the world alone.
* It could also suggest a _purely local_ human-related change, e.g. if it is related to soot in the atmosphere, or NOx
* It could also suggest a _cyclical_ event, either globally or locally, which the expressions used ('is being changed') alludes away from.
Simply saying "The observations could suggest that XYZ" is an unprofessional statement. All observations could suggest a large number of things - so if it is just a suggestion and you are a professional, do not make a statement on it, while if it is very likely to be, then say that it is likely instead.
Despite their 'proximity' to space, they are still deep within the atmosphere and at a pressure considerably above that typical of plasmas. Looks can be decieving.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
you lose.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
And of course there is also the evidence that this warming trend in our environment today is simply a part of Earth's cycle. It's a natural phenomenon, possibly helped further along by humans technological progression, but also just as likely helped by, you know, things like...volcanic eruptions, which can spew more CO2 in the air than most large cities and their car-driving occupants. The thing is, they've documented similar trends in the environment before, not in recent history granted, but if there is anything we've learned from observing the world around us, it should be that things work in cycles. Hell, I remember it every time I point and laugh at the women walking down the street in hideous clothing brought back from the 80s.
I do want to point out that I'm not saying that holding big corporations responsible to try and keep their production "clean" is bad, but at the same time, I think most Global Warming Activists are sensationalists who try and use scare tactics to try and get their message across. And when that happens, you're simply no better than Bush and his current administration.
I mean, I understand that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, but do we really need to wait until the house burns to the ground before we'll agree that the bitch is on fire? Isn't the smoke rising through the floorboards enough? It's amazing the number the oil companies and the right-wing media have done on us. Every other developed country in the world is at least sitting down and agreeing to try to minimize carbon emissions except the US. And we act all shocked and hurt when the rest of the world thinks we're total assholes.
You are welcome on my lawn.