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A large band of clouds have disappeared from Jupiter for the present.  Apparently it has happened before and they have always returned.  Initially, I wanted to blame global warming, but then I remembered it was a different planet.  And that’s when I realized how worrisome it is to observe extreme weather without knowing that it is caused by excess CO2 from human activity.  Truly baffling.

: )

Perhaps others thought of the same thing I did, but also dismissed it due to the apparent absurdity.

But yes, some people are openly wondering if anthropogenic global warming is to blame for recent seismic activity.

Yet something else is lately worrying geologists: the likelihood that the Earth’s crust, relieved of so much formidable weight of ice borne for many thousands of years, has begun to stretch and rebound.

As it does, a volcano awakens in Iceland (with another, larger and adjacent to still-erupting Eyjafjallajokull, threatening to detonate next). The Earth shudders in Haiti. Then Chile. Then western China. Mexicali-Calexico. The Solomon Islands. Spain. New Guinea. And those are just the big ones, 6+ on the Richter scale, and just in 2010. And it’s only April.

Does any of this ring familiar to claims about more intense hurricanes, despite no scientific evidence?

I’m no geologist, and neither is Alan Weisman, but his ambiguous assertion certainly plays into the humorous propensity to blame anything bad on human caused global warming.  In the article, it links to an article about James Lovelock, with whom I apparently share some opinions.  Those being that if global warming is happening because of human activity (I think he is more sure than I am), then all the actions we think we can take to save the planet are in the end, pointless.  There is nothing we can do, according to Lovelock, because we’re already past the tipping point.  Enjoy the ride.  If transformational global warming is happening, I don’t know if we’ve passed a tipping point, but my view is that no one is actually willing to literally abandon our carbon rich energy lifestyle in any kind of meaningful way.  So anything short of resorting to an agrarian lifestyle that is car and electricity free, is not going to stop AGW, but will instead just give government more oversight, power and authority without solving anything.

On another note, I recently saw this roundup of global warming mistakes and scandals on HotAir.  A good resource for the inquisitive skeptic.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/03/05/sweden.ice.ships.stuck/

In fact, isn’t everything a result of climate change?  If there is unseasonable cold, its because the “warming temperatures” overall are skewing the normal winter cycle.  But if there is unseasonable warm, its because the “warming temperatures” overall are skewing the normal winter cycle.

Is it possible that Anthropogenic Global Warming advocates are somehow trying to think of a way to link the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile with climate change?

I kid, I kid.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091220/sc_afp/lifestyleclimatewarminganimalsfood

I think that as stories like this become more and more prevalent, people might start to question how hard they are willing to go to fight anthropogenic global warming.  I feel quite strongly that those dedicated to “saving the planet” are fighting a losing battle.  Instead of a win-win, its a lose-lose.  Not only are they not going to get humans to return to hunter/gatherer status to actually cut carbon emissions to a level that can affect the planet (or so we are told we ought to), but in the process of trying to cut emissions at least some, it is just going to cost a lot in lost productivity, money or quality of life.  All of it without really changing global warming all that much.  Or will it?  Oh, right.  No one really knows.

In other news, the Washinton DC metro area just had the biggest December snowstorm on record.

Seems like a fascinating approach to easing the transition to renewable sources of energy.  Scrubbing it out of the air with “synthetic trees.”

I’d heard about scrubbing ideas before, but I had never heard about them being close to production.

If you were to install 10 million of them, you would pull back on the order of 3.6 gigatons of C02 a year. The world right now produces 30 gigatons of C02 a year. In 2006, the world made 73 million cars. They are comparable in size, and ultimately comparable in cost.