Most of us just ignore Joe Romm. Because, well, even the fresh prince of Wikipedia, William Connolley, described him once as “foaming”. When members of his shared climate viewpoint say this, you know some days Joe’s writing could put out airport fires.
However, Thomas Fuller of the San Franscisco Examiner takes on Romm’s recent claims about climate and malaria, and catches him with some of his old arguments. It’s well worth a read.
UPDATE: Dr. Roger Pielke Jr. joins the fray with Defying Joe Romm
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Oops. Ceasars armies.
Re, The Tunguska explosion, there has been two major problems for its explanation.
Zero meteorite material has been found,and, visual eye witness accounts have it coming at at a very low trajectory, and changing course 90 degrees. Strange behaviour
for a wayward meteor ?
I don’t know what Romm’s site address is.
Perhaps you could put a link to it under: “Tools”
@ur momisugly Enneagram says: May 25, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Their real bomb is CARBON TRADING. The same old story from the same money counterfeiting people: Those who never worked planning to steal, again, the money earned by hard working people. Where do this will take YOU?”
Wasn’t Joe Romm involved with Enron at some point? I remember reading something about that somewhere but I can’t remember where. I don’t think he worked for them, but he was in close contact with many who did.
“Even if trends in temperature are very small, organisms can amplify such small changes and that could cause an increase in parasite transmission,” Chaves said.”
Great. Even insects exhibit positive forcing.
Chris 1958
Yes its strange to think how close malaria is to us in terms of time and distance and to reflect on the measures taken to defeat it, and the people- such as Byron- who succumbed to the conditions that bred the disease.
tonyb
Mike M says:
May 25, 2010 at 1:52 pm
It is therefore my contention that you do not often find malaria spreading in the high latitudes because:
1. There just ain’t nearly as much life up there to spread it around as compared to the tropics.
2. The life that is there is better physically protected with skin/clothing – or – inside sealed dwellings in the case of humans – as the result of the cold conditions.
3. The disease, which relies on victims staying alive and remaining available for other mosquitoes to bite them and spread the disease, is less likely in cold climates and thwarted by indoor rehabilitation for those who don’t die. That and all within a shorter period of time for mosquitoes to contract and carry the disease.
I understand it that the main difference between northern latitudes, and the tropics in terms of malaria, is that we bring our cattle in to protect them from the weather.
From that rather innocuous change, the mosquitos then have a choice of trying to get into a sealed house to get to maybe a half-dozen people who are armed with fly swatters, or they can go to a enclosed, but not sealed barn to suck the blood of several dozen cattle who are just standing there waiting.
Once the mosquitos choose the cattle, the malaria parasite dies off quite quickly. It is adapted to humans, and getting stuck into cattle breaks its life-cycle.
wayne Job says:
May 26, 2010 at 5:55 am
Re, The Tunguska explosion, there has been two major problems for its explanation.
Zero meteorite material has been found,and, visual eye witness accounts have it coming at at a very low trajectory, and changing course 90 degrees. Strange behaviour
for a wayward meteor ?
Tunguska was a comet (i.e. a dusty snowball) and not a meteorite. Independently, the Americans (using sophisticated numerical analysis) and the Russians (using a firework on a string) managed to duplicate its charactaristic “butterfly” pattern on the trees in the area. It transpires it has to come in on a shallow angle before exploding several miles up.
There would have been no eyewitnesses to it coming in, as it was moving too fast. The explosion would have been visible for many miles around – but it’s all over at that point.
I prefer to use one of these. So you see, if we allowed the poor nations to get richer, then they could use these too.
http://www.homedepot.ca/catalog/pest-control/172372?s_kwcid=TC|3663|insect%20zapper||S||4896779777&gclid=CO6E9vfz8KECFRRUgwodW31omw
“Mike M says: It is therefore my contention that you do not often find malaria spreading in the high latitudes because:”
A nice set of theories that break their teeth on the unfortunate facts of history…
One of (if not the…) largest malaria outbreaks ever was in Siberia.
In California in the cold mountains, the ’49ers were trying their darnedest to dig out gold. Unfortunately, Malaria was killing a load of them. The native mosquito being quite adept at both carrying the parasite AND living up to 6000 ft elevation in the mountains (where snow level in winter is typically about 2000 ft)…
What got rid of malaria was simple public health measures. ( I grew up in malaria country and we were taught this in school. And yes, there are occasional cases in “my home turf” including a couple from near the Feather River and near Marysville).
1) Drain any standing water.
2) Spray the blood suckers.
3) Put screens on the windows.
4) Use mosquito repellant.
5) Plant mosquito fish in any water not drained.
6) If anyone DOES come down with malaria, treat very aggressively.
7) Apply Gin and Tonic liberally.
(Well, really, I added #7, but it does help… tonic has quinine in it, though it takes quite a few 😉 most folks just take pills if in active malaria locations. Spraying most likely did more than just about anything else.)
Same thing was done to control yellow fever during the building of the Panama Canal. It’s not the location, it’s the effective public health measures. Period.
[snip]
REPLY: I wasn’t aware of the issue of history as I hadn’t followed comments on this thread, but in retrospect I agree, the discussion is inappropriate. – deleted. -A
Rotary International are very involved in the global fight to eradicate both Malaria and Polio. Anyone involved with the RI Malaria project at any time can tell you that Malaria is contracted by populations suffering from extreme poverty and ignorance and that simple and inexpensive countermeasures will prevent the spread of the disease and rid these communities of it. The spread of Malaria has nothing whatsoever to do with slight fluctuations in global temperatures.
That so-called ‘scientists’ should promote the absurd notion of AGW furthering the spread of Malaria is nothing short of scandalous and is a prime example of the moral depths these people will plumb when driven by an ideology rather than by science..
“Mike M says: It is therefore my contention that you do not often find malaria spreading in the high latitudes because:”
Ever been to Canada and/or Alaska in June or July, Mike?
Ever read much Kay? My first two sentences:
But you have to recognize that climate does have an affect on the success of malaria. My earlier post was to point out that while climate doesn’t affect the bug itself or the mosquitoes that carry it – climate does affect us and our behavior which then affects the success of the disease. People in the tropics don’t wear much clothing and they sleep in open huts, (including especially – the infected ones). That’s a big advantage for malaria over a place where people are wearing fur coats and living in enclosed spaces.
I don’t disagree with you in general but would add that while poverty is not a prerequisite for getting malaria, it mostly certainly guarantees poverty to ignorant masses who are suffering from it. Most malaria victims do not die and that’s because that’s exactly how the disease flourishes. That is also the reason malaria areas are so poor – half the workforce is sick in bed with the other half trying to both care for them AND produce everything using third world methods.
——————————–
I just stumbled upon a study published in Nature “Climate change and the global malaria recession” –