Environment

Alligators in the Sewers – One Year After Capture

zoo-reggiejpg.JPGReggie has been in the zoo for a year now.

We followed the story about Reggie, the suburban alligator, almost from the start:

Alligators in the Sewers – Still!
Alligators in the Sewers – Part IV
Alligators in the Sewers – Part V
Alligators in the Sewers – Part VI
Alligators in the Sewers – Part VII
Alligators in the Sewers – Epilogue?
Alligators in the Sewers – Reggie, Where Ya Been?
Alligators in the Sewers – The Epilogue

Unfortunately, some of the earlier posts (Parts I, II and III) were lost when we converted from our old blog format to WordPress.

The story started when a San Pedro resident introduced the alligator to Machado Lake in a Harbor City Park when he decided that he couldn’t keep his exotic pet any longer. Authorities later traced the animal to the resident and brought appropriate charges.

The alligator, however, managed to elude potential captors for a couple of years and laid low in the park’s lake. The ‘gator became a celebrity in his own right as sightings by park visitors continued to be reported.

A year ago, a team from the Los Angeles Zoo managed to snare the reclusive reptile.

Here’s a report on the health and welfare of our favorite ‘gator from the Daily Breeze:

Continue reading…

The Greening of the Polar Bear

This week, the Department of the Interior caved in to the Greenbats by declaring a thriving species “endangered.”

From Planet Gore:

Polar Bears: More Journalistic Malpractice [Henry Payne]

How do you declare a species endangered when its numbers are increasing?

Once again, my profession — journalism — failed its fundamental duty to report the facts Wednesday as the Interior Department bowed to political pressure from green groups to declare polar bears an threatened species due to global warming. This, despite the fact that bear populations have increased from 5,000–10,000 in the early 1970s to between 20,000 and 25,000 today (during the very period their habitat was allegedly shrinking). This is in part due to concentrated efforts to impose harvesting controls that have allowed this once-overhunted species to recover.

Indeed, Dr. Mitchell Taylor, a bear biologist with the Canadian government, wrote in 2006: “There is no need to panic. Of the 13 populations of polar bears in Canada, 11 are stable or increasing in number. They are not going extinct, or even appear to be affected at present.”

polarbearparty.gifGLOBALONEY wrote an excellent article on thriving polar bears in January. Included here is a very entertaining animation of thriving bears I found on Globaloney. Click for full size.

According to new research, the numbers of the giant predator have grown by between 15 and 25 per cent over the last decade.

Some authorities on Arctic wildlife even claim that hunting, and not global arming, has been the real cause of the decrease in polar bear numbers in areas where the species is in decline.

A leading Canadian authority on polar bears, Mitch Taylor, said: “We’re seeing an increase in bears that’s really unprecedented, and in places where we’re seeing a decrease in the population it’s from hunting, not from climate change.”

Mr Taylor estimates that during the past decade, the Canadian polar bear population has increased by 25 per cent – from 12,000 to 15,000 bears.

UPDATE: Iain Murray offers that this is NOT about polar bears.

Quite right. This was nothing to do with the polar bear and everything to do with advancing a ludicrous “alternative energy now” agenda.

It appears that Interior Secretary Dick Kempthorne is listening to whoever beats the drum louder. In the case of the polar bears, science disagrees with the listing, but Kempthorne is concerned about a ‘legacy.’ In an unrelated issue, that of carrying firearms in National Parks, Kempthorne listened to 51 U.S. Senators who recommended a rules change to allow the NPS to comply with local state law on carrying.

This puts Kempthorne in a position to be embraced by greens and gunners alike.

Don’t you just love politicians?

Gravity Waves

I didn’t know that atmospheric gravity waves existed – at least not by that name – until I read the NASA article, “Gravity Waves Make Tornadoes.” I knew that gravity waves on a cosmological scale exist that are generated by high-density stars or black holes. Gravitational waves have been indirectly detected by observing deep space events, but have yet to be detected on Earth.

Anyhow, getting back to the atmospheric gravity waves, these are generated in the troposphere by frontal systems or by airflow over mountains. This interesting time-lapse video demonstrates the motion of gravity waves as they propagated over Iowa in 2006.

California Brown Pelicans

We took a ride down to Point Vicente today to visit the Interpretive Center and maybe spot some whales migrating along the coast. We didn’t see any spouting whales this time, but were treated to several flights of California Brown Pelicans as they soared along the cliffs. As this bird flew by, he was only a few yards away from the path where I stood to take this picture.

calif-brown.jpg

As the flight continued southeastward, I snapped another shot as they (almost effortlessly) followed the cliff line toward the lighthouse. Please click on the image to open the viewer and see them in full panorama.

pelican-pan.jpg

Facts? We Don’t Need Facts – We Have Consensus

So say the Greenbats of the world. But, what if the consensus scientists’ theories defy actual physics? What if the CO2 gas in the atmosphere can’t behave in the manner prescribed by the consensus?

Here’s an email I got the other day from my colleague, Rick (highlights are mine):

Bob,

I don’t know if you saw this but it is jaw dropping.

I quote:

It is an interesting point that the heat conductivity of CO2 is only one half of that of nitrogen or oxygen. In a 100 percent CO2 atmosphere a conventional light bulb shines brighter than in a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere due to the lowered heat conductivity of its environment. But this has nothing to do with the supposed CO2 greenhouse effect which refers to trace gas concentrations. Global climatologists claim that the Earth’s natural greenhouse effect keeps the Earth 33 C warmer than it would be without the trace gases in the atmosphere. 80 percent of this warming is attributed to water vapor and 20 percent to the 0.03 volume percent CO2. If such an extreme effect existed, it would show up even in a laboratory experiment involving concentrated CO2 as a heat conductivity anomaly. It would be manifest itself as a new kind of `super insulation’ violating the conventional heat conduction equation. However, for CO2 such anomalous heat transport properties never have been observed.

Rick

http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/007894.html

atmospheric pie graphsImage: Pie charts showing (top) the relative volume of greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere, (middle) the volume of CO2, water vapor and other greenhouse gasses and (bottom) the ratio of human-caused CO2 to natural sources.

From National Center for Policy Analysis: Global Warming Primer (PDF)

CO2 is a naturally occurring greenhouse gas. Humans and other animals emit CO2 into the atmosphere when they exhale, and plants absorb it. CO2 and other trace gases are only 5 percent of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Water vapor makes up the other 95 percent.

Humans contribute about 3.4 percent of annual CO2 emissions. But, small increases in annual CO2 emissions, whether from humans or any other source, can lead to a large CO2 accumulation over time because CO2 molecules can remain in the atmosphere for more than a century.

Humanity is responsible for about one-quarter of one percent of the greenhouse effect.

It is indeed jaw-dropping when you consider that consensus science wants you to believe that atmospheric CO2 – a mere 0.03 percent of the total volume of the atmosphere – is said to elevate global temperature by massively disobeying physical science.

You don’t get to ‘vote’ on how the elements behave. You can’t have a ‘consensus’ on the freezing temperature of water nor any other physical properties, including the heat conduction of CO2.

Groundhog Day in the South Bay

We really don’t know if Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today or not. Had he been in Redondo Beach, California, he might have seen a vigorous surf blown by balmy winds on a 62°(F) day.

pier and surf

Click on the image for the large view – but before you decide to move to Redondo Beach, don’t forget that our next great earthquake is long, long overdue.

Snow in Southern California

The last storm brought the snow level in the San Gabriel Mountains down to about the 3000 foot level. I snapped this shot of some of the mountain peaks as we drove to the gun show today. More on the show later.

As this is being written, the rain has begun again, and will likely add to the snow in the mountains.

Click on the picture to view a panoramic view of the snow-covered San Gabriels.

snowy-mountains.jpg