What's New September 4, 2009 Washington, DC

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 04 Sep 09   Washington, DC

1.  CLIMATE CHANGE: HOTTEST ARCTIC SUMMER IN 2,000 YEARS.
A major study published in today's Science marks a seminal advance in 
climate change research.  Sediments from Arctic lakes were used to compile 
proxy temperature records for the last 2000 years.  Arctic summer 
temperature declined for thousands of years due to a shift in Earth's 
orbit.  Although the orbital shift has been going on for 8000 years and 
will continue, an increase in greenhouse gases produced by the Industrial 
Revolution overpowered the cooling trend. The warming has been more rapid 
since about 1950.  Moreover, thawing permafrost will release methane into 
the atmosphere, accelerating warming.  The latest study comes just months 
after scientists at NOAA warned that within the next 30 years Arctic sea 
ice could vanish completely during the summer; that will further accelerate 
warming due to decline in reflective ice cover.

2.  CLIMATE SOLUTIONS: IN THE LONG RUN, THERE IS ONLY ONE.
Even as the study on Arctic warming was making its way into print, a group 
at the controversial Copenhagen Consensus Center proposed a quick geo-
engineered solution to global warming.  The group is headed by statistician 
Bjorn Lomborg, a follower of the late Julian Simon, the libertarian 
economist at the University of Maryland, who believed there are no limits.  
Lomborg proposes puffing lots of white clouds into the atmosphere to 
reflect sunlight.  It would be the perfect job for Lomborg, who has been 
puffing clouds of obscurantism since he wrote The Skeptical 
Environmentalist (Cambridge, 2001).  Presumably we should just keep puffing 
out bigger white clouds to compensate for the ever growing population.   
  
3.  MAGNETIC FIELDS:  THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE IN ACTION.
According to Denis Le Bihan at the CEA-Saclay Centre, a European directive 
to prevent workers from being exposed to high magnetic fields could 
severely impact research into Ultrahigh-Field MRI which shows great promise 
particularly in neurological applications.  It is particularly frustrating 
that limits on static magnetic fields resulted from the paranoia 
surrounding EMF, which was associated with everything from power lines to 
cell phones, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other wireless devices.  As I pointed 
out in an editorial in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute eight 
years ago, "there will always be some who will argue that the issue has not 
been completely settled.  In science, few things ever are."

4.  LOW-EARTH ORBIT: TWO PIECES OF SPACE JUNK PASS IN THE NIGHT.
A portion of a European Arianne 5 rocket passed within a mile of the ISS 
and the shuttle Discovery. There are about 19,000 objects larger than 10 cm 
that are known to be in low-Earth orbit.  This piece was much larger, but 
even a 10 cm piece of junk is big enough to bring down the ISS.  As serious 
as the space junk problem is, the ISS is far more likely to be brought down 
by a piece of paper bearing the report of the Augustine panel. The panel 
has presumably delivered its report to the White House.  Norm Augustine is 
scheduled to testify on the group’s findings in back-to-back hearings 
before the House and Senate on Sep 15-16.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND.
Opinions are the author's and not necessarily shared by the
University of Maryland, but they should be.
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