An excellent article about my home town from Pop Sci that I just couldn't resist.
From PopSci.com:

This spring the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation released the draft environmental impact statement for the Fresh Kills Park Project, their plan to turn the Fresh Kills landfill—hitherto best known as a smelly Staten Island mountain—into a world class public park. The statement will be discussed at an open public hearing on September 4th, 2008, and work begins next year on the project's first small section—wrapping around the landfill's north mound and reaching down to the waterfront. This sliver should be finished within a few years, though the park in its entirety is expected to take around 30 years to complete, with $198 million in initial funding, but much more needed along the line.

Is climate change, or global warming or whatever you want to call it, real?
I think that the cyclical nature of weather and climate make global "warming" inevitable. But, I also think that the notion that humanity is to blame for climate change is simplistic and for the most part untested.

I will gladly jump on the global warming band wagon if it can be proven (objectively) with out a shadow of a doubt that global warming is caused by humans.

But here's the rub; I don't want to be forced at figurative gun point to blindly accept that global warming is: a) a crisis of immense magnitude, and b) caused solely by human activity. It goes against the very principles of persuasion and scientific observation.

With that said here's an interesting piece by Charles Krauthammer over @ Townhall.com


*Note: The story I've linked to is a little old but points out some good points about environmentalism and it's parallels to communism.

Admit it. Sometimes you wonder how many "disposable" objects -let's say, coffee cups as an example- you've used in your lifetime. Then you think about the paper itself and all that goes into just making it. The trees, the trucking, the fuel, the wasted byproduct, the shipping. And let's not even get started on that infernal plastic lid. Perhaps you start to feel guilty. Perhaps you should. Perhaps we are a nation of consumer whores. Perhaps we should all watch this when it airs on April 9th:

From Cosmos:

Nuclear energy produces no greenhouse gases, but it has many drawbacks. Now a radical new technology based on thorium promises what uranium never delivered: abundant, safe and clean energy - and a way to burn up old radioactive waste.

More here.

Now there are no excuses to fear and/or hate nuclear energy, you eco-nuts, i mean environmentalists.

For those of you who are sick and tired of having a singular view of global warming (or climate change I think it's now called) shoved down your throat; There is an excellent website called Climate Debate Daily that I think you would all enjoy.

Good day and safe surfing.

We have a new weekly segment here @ the Professor Politico Show which will focus on one subject each episode.

And here's our first subject:

Global Warming/Climate Change

From Cosmic Variance:

The widely accepted Global Warming Theory, is a pseudo science and must be abandoned. Here I explain what it is and why it is totally wrong.

The Global Warming Theory (GWT) believes that human activity considerably increased the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. As a result it leads to considerable warming up of the arth's surface. As a consequence it could leads to the melting of polar ice and cause raising sea level, and other catastrophies that would eventually render the planet earth un-inhabitable to human. Some GWT doomers even believe that we have passed a point of no return. i.e., the global warming cause by human is already so high it releases the methane gas frozen in the polar ice, and methane, being a more effective green house gas, causes more global warming, and it leads to to more green house gas being release and so it leads to run off global warming that destroys all life on earth.

More here.

And from Biology Cabinet:

Global Warming is not pseudoscience because it has always occurred cyclically in nature since the Earth was formed. However, the idea of an anthropogenic global warming is a pseudoscience. There is not convincing scientific support that human discharge of CO2, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the projected future, cause disastrous warming of the Earth's atmosphere and disturbance or change of the Earth's climate. There is considerable evidence that the current warming is entirely natural and obeys the periodical changes in the planetary system. The attribution of global warming to the CO2 generated from human activity is a fallacy.

More here.

Remember kids believe half of what you read and none of what you hear, especially when it comes to the mainstream media.