Global Warming? So?

I started this as a reply to groundviews' this post, but soon realized that it was going to be a bit too long for a comment. Hence a post of it's own. The said article is credited to Mr. Lalith Gunaratne, whom I have no idea of, or whether he's a member of the groundviews team. Yet, since this was posted on their blog, I thought that I must add my two cents even if they don't take any notice.

First, I'd like to see the source(s) of stats they have provided. Not questioning the integrity of groundviews and/or Mr. Gunaratne, but stats without sources are just numbers - nothing else.

Second, let us assume that they are true, and take them one by one.

1. Emission of CO2 have increased by 70% during the last 20 years.

This statement is very misleading. Very. It says that the emission of CO2 has increased, not the actual amount of CO2 remaining in the atmosphere, but bar the vigilant reader, that fact goes unnoticed by everyone. Impressive way of using stats to prove a point which they might not actually prove. Everyone knows that the plants absorb CO2, and while they may not be able to absorb all the excessively emitted CO2, they would have done some of the excessive CO2 they claim to have been emitted.

2. In fact, we are knocking on the doors of a Climate Catastrophe, if our planet’s temperature rises more than 2 degrees Celsius and the atmospheric carbon levels move towards 400 parts per million (ppm), when it should remain below 350.

How so?

Words like catastrophe adds to weight of the article, and switch on the 'alarming' red light in reader's head, but they doesn't prove anything. These Global Warming pundits like to use so many such words, catastrophe, calamity, disaster, just to name a few.

Let me dissect that sentence again.

In fact, we are knocking on the doors of a Climate Catastrophe, if our planet’s temperature rises more than 2 degrees Celsius.

First, where did this 2 degrees limit came from? How exactly did you know it is 2 degrees, then, what exactly is going to happen. This kind of a sentence reminds the user those horrific scenes from The Day After Tomorrow, but it doesn't say anything. Common reader or listener is left to make up his own assumptions instead of giving real information. Why? Because nobody knows. In reality, nobody knows what really is going to happen if the global temperature is increased by such and such amount, because there is no way of knowing. All the climate models that are created, everywhere in the world, assumes a lot of things and make guesses. Yes, they are all guesses. And when the variables of the system which is going to be guessed are far too many, and when they too varies rapidly the outcome of the guess tends to be far from the truth more often than not. Climate is the most complex and dynamic system on this planet, and that's why weather reports can not usually be made more than one week in advance, irrespective of how sophisticated the equipment are. And you say you can tell what is going to happen in another hundred years if the temperature is increased by some figure you think is critical? An educated guess is still a guess.

In fact, we are knocking on the doors of a Climate Catastrophe, if the atmospheric carbon levels move towards 400 parts per million (ppm), when it should remain below 350.

Really?

Where did those two figures come from?

Again, those are just guesses made and nobody knows for sure what really is gonna happen. Why exactly is it that 350 is OK while 400 is not? Nobody knows how much the atmospheric CO2 levels contribute to the rise of temperature, and how much of that CO2 is a product of human activities.

Secondly, for the sake of argument let's say that 2 degree limit is true. Is it likely for the temperature to increase beyond that limit in near future? Let me pull up some data. I use the official NASA web site data, hence we can be satisfied with the credibility I assume.

Here you can find the climate simulations made using data available from 1880 to 2003.

Here are some valuable information about surface temperature of earth.

Using the first of the two links, here I have created a graph of world surface air temperature from 1880 to 2003. Now, before going LOOK, IT IS INCREASING, stop to analyse the data for a moment. There is no argument that the temperature is in fact increasing since about the start of the previous century. But how much? The temperature increment from the mean for that period is 0.5 degrees! An increment of half a degree for 120 years! Let's take the last twenty or so years where they claim the climate change is heading towards a catastrophe. The increment is a bit over 0.2 degrees, and going by that figure there are about another 200 years to go before the doomsday, which they claim will come when the figure reach 2 degrees! Not so catastrophic now, is it?

It should also be noted that this graph is made taking into consideration all the possible causes of temperature rise such as land use, solar irradiance, volcanic aerosols, tropospheric aerosols and such. This is NOT due to just greenhouse gases, which all these environmentalists scream about. Thus, the effect of greenhouse gases on temperature is definitely smaller than what's shown in the graph though no one can tell for sure how much it is. This graph is more or less the worst case scenario, if you can call it worse in the first place.

Let's move through this article a bit more. The points Playing the Winning Game and Taming the Reptile within us are totally irrelevant. The Winning Game is very good to be taught in 7th grade of school, and the Taming the Reptile is perhaps for a psychology discussion, but neither of those prove anything about Global Warming. They are both inspirational, and food for thought, but among all that mumble jumble the fact that they are all relevant to this discussion only if Global Warming is real, is very cleverly hidden. Yes we need to tame the reptile, yes we need to work together to achieve this common goal, but what if the common goal is just a bit of imagination?

Yes, I agree, solar power is very good if we can put it into good use. But is it enough? Not even remotely. The limitations and drawbacks are far too many. You get it for only half the day, and even then out of that how many hours can you get sufficient light? In tropical counties, you get more rain than sunshine, and solar panels are not just an option. Also they are huge, the surface area needed is too big to supply sufficient power even to a small town, let alone a city or a country.

Having said all that, I do not say that we should not care about our environment a bit and let ourselves loose on mother nature doing what we see fit. My argument is that we should rather identify our priorities and work accordingly. Making plans for what's going to happen in another hundreds, if not thousands years time is not a priority as I see it. But instead, many a thousand environmentalists, philanthropists, NGOs, governments as well as many other organizations put too much emphasis and importance, not to mention billions of dollars, on something at best a theory unproven.

Why not spend all those billions of dollars on far more urgent, immediate needs of our fellow human beings, and even the other species? How many millions of people die every year of hunger? Because not having enough water to drink while we dip ourselves in huge pools just to relax? How many people are there in this world suffering from not having something appropriate to wear? Not having shelter? How many men, women and children die each year of completely treatable deceases because they cannot afford just one vaccine? How many wild species die each year because their natural habitats are being taken by humans?

Why don't we address those problems? Why don't we spend those billions of dollars on those needs. Why can't we feed the hungry, provide them with water to drink, with clothing and shelter? Simply, why don't we make their lives better? Why don't we provide those people with homes to stay and lands for farms so they don't have to take those wild species' homes? Let us preserve the wilderness we have, and make life better for all those animals and our fellow human beings. That is money well spent.

The world has constantly changed ever since it begun it's trip around the sun, it is today and it will in the years to come. Species came and went, some stayed. It will be the case in years to come too and we are only being ridiculously arrogant if we think that we can change that. Mother nature is far bigger and stronger than we think, and it is foolish of us to think that we can affect it, change it and control it, leading it to a catastrophe in near future. Life, and nature, is something far beyond our control and life will not so easily be affected because we made the planet a bit warmer.

As Michael Crichton once put, life, will find a way...

Even If I Could Do Them All Over Again, I Wouldn't Do These Any Differently

Warning; emo post ahead. Feel free to leave if not in the mood.

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Back when I was schooling, I used to play cricket for the college team. All five week days after school, often Saturday mornings as well, were dedicated to practice. This was when I was playing for the U13 team, and there was a bunch of friends in my team who lived in the same neighbourhood as I did. So every day, after practice we'd return home together, on foot since the school wasn't more that 20 minutes away from home. On our way, there was this small 'kadey' where they sold all kinds of stuff which included those 'ice packs'. Not ice cream, just those stuff came in small polythene bags which were priced at fifty cents apiece back then if I remember correctly. Those days, pocket money never exceeded five rupees and we were lucky to see a ten rupee note.

Anyway, everyday, we'd collect all our pocket money on our way back home and buy loads of those ice packs and enjoy them all the way home. But just buying stuff wasn't adventurous enough for us, I think, and one day, one of the guys shoplifted one of those while the unsuspecting good old uncle at the shop was attending to something else - he totally trusted

us for we being kids, schooling at a highly reputed school and knowing most of our parents. Not getting caught was so cool, and this was our proud secret for some time and we continued to steal just for the sake of it. Embarrassing, I know, but thinking back, I don't think we did that for any other reason than just for the sake of it, for wanting to do something rebellious if you call it that, but still it was stealing. And shameful. Luckily - yes, luckily - we got caught eventually. I don't want to go into the details except for the fact that we were caught red handed and that we were shit scared. We were so sure that our parents would be informed, so will be our school and the embarrassment, not to mention the ass whipping, would have been unbearable.

But the old fella at the shop was a wise guy, and he knew better than to complain to our parents or the school. He knew that it would not have helped, so instead he just chose to forgive us. His only words were, "Sons, I trust you fellas not to do that again!"

Stealing I never did again, to this day, and I'm forever grateful to that wise old man for teaching us a lesson a thousand punishments would not have. Respect, sir!

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When I was still a kid, my English sucked big time. I could hardly put a sentence together, a children's book contained far too many words I had never heard, you had to speak sentences containing not more than five words for me to understand and speaking it was just beyond me. Back in the day, I usually got marks over 80 for every subject in term tests, except for English. It was a cause for celebration if I got a 50, come to think of it. Simply, English was not my thing.

But one day something happened that changed all that forever. It was when I was in Grade 7, and I was the class monitor for that term. Keeping the class quiet if there was a free period was one of many responsibilities I had, but hell I myself was never really one to stay very quiet at that age. So this day, there was no teacher in the class and I was happily chatting - no, shouting - with my friends about, well, whatever it is that the 12 year olds used to chat about those days. Suddenly, a prefect appeared out of nowhere and I was summoned to be inquired so as to why the whole class was making such a big noise when it was supposed to be quiet. Of course I did not know that that's what he asked me about, because he spoke to me in English! Me being me, not understanding a thing he was saying, just stared at him probably like a retard until he realized that something was wrong. But instead of switching to Sinhala, probably he thought I should be humiliated further for the crime I committed, he summoned another guy and repeated to him what he said earlier and asked to translate it to me. The embarrassment was just too much to handle. I remember most of the classmates were sniggering behind me, and I do not blame them for that because we were just kids and we didn't know what to laugh at and what not to.

But that one incident made me think. Once I got over the embarrassment, I was thinking that nobody's really going to help me if I wanted to learn it, and that it is all up to me if I wanted to make a change. Learn, I wanted to do, and thus started the long and hard hours of self learning. When I look back, I can fondly recall those long, frustrating hours I spent by myself putting the hard yards. I started with children's books with a dictionary in hand, and started reading them. At first, it was painful. It took well beyond ten fifteen minutes to get through just one page. But I was making progress. Slowly but surely. Also, I made up my mind to speak it whenever the opportunity was presented, ignoring the people who looked down on me when I was speaking such crap English. Luckily I was courageous enough to keep going. I just never gave up, and I just kept learning every day.

And today, it is so satisfactory to see that all those years of hard work had paid off better than I ever imagined. I don't claim that I know everything today, in fact my English is still far from being perfect, but if I stop being modest for a moment, I believe I'm good at it. How far have I come.

As for that prefect dude, while I pity his ignorance and insensitivity, I also thank him for his stupidity. If it wasn't for him, if he didn't humiliate me so much, I would never have been so determined to learn English. He, unknowingly, presented me a challenge that I accepted so seriously, to the point of being insane. But that incident also taught me to put myself in other people's shoes, so to speak, in situations like that. To this day, I have never ever laughed at, or even made a sarcastic comment about anyone's ineptness at English. Not being fluent at it is not something to be ashamed of, I think, while you should be if you can't at least speak your own mother tongue. I have since learned to admire, respect and help all those people who are not so good at it, but who try to learn, who are brave enough to try.

For that, I thank that clueless soul.

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Despite spending almost all my time to not study but for other things while in my Advanced Level classes, I got selected to a local university after my first shot at A/Ls. University of Peradeniya no less. A privilege that only a very little percentage of students who sit for A/Ls get to enjoy. Yet for some stupid reasons that I can't believe today, I did not want to go there! I wanted to pursue a career in IT so I want to study in a more professional institution, a BSc is not a professional qualification but merely a few letters in front of my name and universities are stupid anyway, were few of my reasons. How very wrong I was!

Luckily I loved my mom, and I still do, very very much and after many days of reasoning, threats, pleadings and what not finally I decided to go with it just to satisfy her. Looking back, I dread to think what I would have been had I decided not to go there. That university, the four years I spent there, taught me a lot more than any other place, person or a book has ever taught me and I'm forever grateful to my mom for opening my eyes that day. Bless her, she has some wisdom!

I made a bunch of great friends, we had many great times together, we had our fair share of disputes, and I learned a lot about people - a lot more than I learned about Bernoulli's equations or Fourier transformations. There were all kinds of people, and they behaved in all kinds of ways you can imagine. A true cross section of the society, if there ever was one. I learned how to deal with people, how things doesn't always go the way you want, and how to keep your head held high when all things suggested you shouldn't. It taught me the value of humans, the value of friends, and most of all it taught me not to take what you have for granted. Those four years truly made me a different man, and a better one too, I would like to think.

Thank you mom, for making me the man who I am today!

Sup Boys? Y Hate d Vowels?

Yo wassup bru, hws d thngs goin? I ws nt hm d othr dy whn u cld... ws away wit ma frns. Had maxa fun n party n stuf n missd u bru... nyway wot ws it abt? u k ryt? nythin srys? ill cl u 2nite ok... or txt me lyk nw if u want... laterz maan!

You earned my utmost respect if you read that in one go. Usually it takes me two or three attempts and few minutes to decode such messages and fully comprehend. And all that time I'm usually pissed off at this stupidity, to the point of running up the wall couple of times. Not that I can, but you get the drift. That previous para was taken from one of my friends FB wall, and I was like what the hell for a minute, well longer than that actually and finally managed to decode the message. I think it says something like this:

Yo, what's up bro? How're the things going? I was not at home the other day when you had called... was away with my friends. Had a max fun party and stuff like that and missed you bro. Anyway what's it about? You OK right? Anything serious? I'll call you tonight OK? Or text me like now if you want. Laterz maan!

See, it was only a little longer than the previous, and why can't people really type like that? I can understand if it is a text message, that you have only a limited number of characters. But on FB? On Internet forums? In goddamn emails? Hell you have several GBs of inboxes these days, for god's sake! But still these people have something against vowels they prefer not to write them at all. To the point of what they write are totally unintelligible. These guys should have lived in WW2 days. All those hours wasted on creating new codes to send secret messages would have been saved.

Also, though I'm not sure about it, I think it may take longer to type like this than to type the normal way. At least it does for me - call me old fashioned if you will, but I like to type or write proper English. Even when I chat. How the hell am I supposed to understand when someone type just "f"? Is it if, of or just the f-word shortened? And it gets ridiculous when people write cum instead of come. Once I saw some girl written on one of her guy friends' wall "hi ABC, cn u cum wit me tonite?". I was trying my best not to laugh out loud at work reading that.

Standard prototype is, throw in a Yo and a Sup here and there, take away as many vowels as you can, not type capitals and intentional bad grammar. Maybe it's this new generation's way of being either cool or gangstas!

Duh!

TAGGED LOVE

Our good old LadyD tags me here, and she wants me to tell what love is. Hell I don't think even Shakespeare was able to do that perfectly, but let me try anyway.

For me, love is being insanely happy for no particular reason other than because you're in love.

Does that make any sense?

Oh well, never mind.

And I leave it an open tag, because I'm a bit late now and most of the people are tagged anyway. So if you're not, please feel free to go ahead.

Cheers fellas!

To Make Both Java and RD Happy

So you know the two old fellows Java and RDs dispute right? Over arse wiping and such of course. Java wants a more hygienic approach which he claims also a lot nature friendly, while RD is determined to continue with paper, both dry and wet, mainly because he doesn't want to run the risk of losing his, umm, 'jewels' shall we say, at the expense of using a bidet shower. Even at his age apparently he seems to thinks it is important, and who are we to say otherwise.

So I thought of helping them both so that Java can fight the good fight to save the planet, there are rumours that he's even going to start a campaign titled WASH. DON'T WIPE, and RD can be more hygienic while keeping his stuff intact.

You know these Japs are so tech type right. They like things to be all electronic, and they like

pushing buttons instead of pulling levers and stuff (no, no pun intended) so they had to make even the toilet so tech. So much so that they automated even the bidet spray. Now with RD's liking to this kind of stuff, I'm positive he can't really say no to this.

This is the marvel.

Now, this is how it works. See that little gadget at the back of the toilet seat, which I have marked there? It is actually the bidet shower, and it's hardly visible, but then again while you're busy at work in the toilet obviously you can't have obstacles in the way. So after you're done, all you have to do is push the appropriate button while you're seated. Then the bidet comes out, slowly, and does it's job perfectly and all you have to do is just sit there. Also that prevents the chances of water being splashed everywhere, so, RD's other complaint is also invalid anymore. Of course you can control the pressure before you are ready to go with the process and as an added incentive you get to choose between hot and cold water which indeed is a necessity in winter.

And here is the control panel, which I'm sure will help you clear any other things you might want to know.

There, RD and Java, I did my part. Now it is up to you guys to save the planet and save the neighbours, or their noses, rather.

Sana, Please Go

Seriously, you're past your sell by date and this is not really how we want to remember you. We want to remember you as the man who changed cricket forever. We want to remember you as the man who destroyed many a bowler's career before they even started. The man who injected fear into every bowler's heart even before the game started. All that, but not like this. It is painfull to see you like you are now in the middle, it is heartbreaking. Now you're nothing but a mere shadow of the fearsome player you were, and we don't want to see a generation growing up thinking of you as the old fellow who couldn't put the bat into ball, yet found a spot in the team somehow. You're too good for that, just leave with dignity while you can, Sana. Every good thing must come to an end, and so is your career.



We remember back in the day, in mid '90s, watching you with nothing but awe as to how you could just smash the ball all the time like that, without a care in the world. There was many a great knock, that we were certain a human couldn't have played - yet you played them. A six after another, and the game was won before one quarter of it was finished. You were a treat to watch, and in case you didn't know, the number of people who turned their TVs off when you got out was far greater than the number of people who didn't. Not many people can claim that honour if I'm not mistaken. And I'm not. Not just that, you were adored and praised not only by your fans but by your opponents as well. The ones that whom you will never call friends, too. Remember that guy McGrath? You can hardly call him a friend, can you? Yet, in his autobiography he said;

It is not very often you can claim the honor of saying you changed the game for good, and Sanath can certainly claim that.

Need we say more?

You have done enough Sana, you have done so much that even in hundred years' time people will still be talking about you, and will continue to be inspired and amazed by what you did and how you did it. You are once in a generation - well, once in few generations actually - player and you were invincible when it was still your time. And that is how we want to remember you, so, please, leave while your head held high! You are a legend, and your legacy will live forever!

Tolerance

Went another trip during the weekend. Hell I've got to stop with them for a while, because it's getting a bit too much. One every month or so is a bit too much and I've started n0t enjoying them much as well. Also it was a gloomy day, so couldn't even take many pictures. To be honest I was pretty much bored even for that. Oh well.

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Sometimes I wish earth was flat. This globe thing is stupid at times.

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Seems Fallen has fallen back into place. Good. It's about time Rehani understand she(?) can't have it her way all the time. Keep blogging dude - I mean Fallen.

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With the Fallen saga and all, I was thinking. It's a feat I managed with great difficulty, thinking that is, so maybe you should take notice. Not everyday I manage such feats. OK, here we go.

People need to learn to tolerate much more than they do now. People are different. And perhaps that's what makes this world such an amazing place. Imagine a world where everyone thinks the same. There will be no news, maybe a couple of sports and one kind of music, one language and six point something billion copies of one human kind of human. OK let's say two - you can't really expect a woman to think the same way us men to can you? Better wish for world peace, South Africans to not choke a cricket match or Mervin Silva to do something that makes sense.

Getting back on topic, if people could learn to listen a bit more, talk a bit less and tolerate others, the world will be a better place - be it cyber or real. I've seen this countless times in real life and in internet joints like blogs, forums and other public domains. It's good you have an opinion. But the others too. You should learn that you are entitled to your own opinion but so are others despite it being wrong and they are also entitled to hold onto it even if they know it is wrong. It's very hard to change people's opinions - not impossible, but hard - and I have a great respect for people who are actually willing to change their opinion if they realize that it is wrong, even after holding on to them for a long time. I respect them. But I also know that such people are rare, and that I have to deal with the other kind a lot. And I do deal with them the best I can. It also makes life a lot easier. I think that just laughing it off if someone makes a blog post about your religion which is not in agreement with your opinion is way easier than calling that said person's father. But alas, some people like it differently.

The problem gets worse when such people actually expect others to tolerate, or even not just tolerate but actually agree with them every time. How in the world, really? You say what you have to say, some will agree with you, some will not, some will appreciated and adore you while others might laugh at you, or ever ridicule you. So what, I say. That's the way the world is, and I deal with it. And that makes my life so easy, and help me to actually keep a sane mind if it is ever possible with me.

To finish, I did not intend to change anyone's opinion here - it's good if anyone can, and just meh if they don't. I don't really care. Just wrote this because, well, for the sake of it.

Happy week ahead to you tolerant bunch and to the not so tolerant ones as well. OK let's make it everyone - far easier. Let me try again.

Happy week ahead everyone!