Global Hoax

Climate change will be considered a joke in five years time, meteorologist Augie Auer told the annual meeting of Mid Canterbury Federated Farmers in Ashburton this week.
Man's contribution to the greenhouse gases was so small we couldn't change the climate if we tried, he maintained.

"We're all going to survive this. It's all going to be a joke in five years," he said.

A combination of misinterpreted and misguided science, media hype, and political spin had created the current hysteria and it was time to put a stop to it.

"It is time to attack the myth of global warming," he said.

Water vapour was responsible for 95 per cent of the greenhouse effect, an effect which was vital to keep the world warm, he explained.

"If we didn't have the greenhouse effect the planet would be at minus 18 deg C but because we do have the greenhouse effect it is plus 15 deg C, all the time."

The other greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen dioxide, and various others including CFCs, contributed only five per cent of the effect, carbon dioxide being by far the greatest contributor at 3.6 per cent.

However, carbon dioxide as a result of man's activities was only 3.2 per cent of that, hence only 0.12 per cent of the greenhouse gases in total. Human-related methane, nitrogen dioxide and CFCs etc made similarly minuscule contributions to the effect: 0.066, 0.047 and 0.046 per cent respectively.

"That ought to be the end of the argument, there and then," he said.

"We couldn't do it (change the climate) even if we wanted to because water vapour dominates."

Yet the Greens continued to use phrases such as "The planet is groaning under the weight of CO2" and Government policies were about to hit industries such as farming, he warned.

"The Greens are really going to go after you because you put out 49 per cent of the countries emissions. Does anybody ask 49 per cent of what? Does anybody know how small that number is?

"It's become a witch-hunt; a Salem witch-hunt," he said.

Monday , March 12, 2007


An world-reknowned elite group of Native American trackers used by the U.S. Customs to hunt down Mexican drug and people smugglers reportedly is joining the hunt for terrorists crossing Afghanistan’s borders, where Usama bin Laden has been known to hide.

The Shadow Wolves unit, recruited from tribes including the Navajo, Sioux, Lakota and Apache, which patrols a 76-mile stretch of Arizona-Mexico border, is being sent to areas along the Afghan border to teach local units the traditional method called "cutting sign" of finding and following clues on the barren landscape, London's Sunday Times reported.

Click here to read the full story.

The Pentagon and the State Department, however, could not confirm the report the report to FOXNews.com, according to a Pentagon official.

The Shadow Wolves were expected to teach local border units ancestral sign-reading methods called "cutting sign," which include detecting twigs broken by humans, hair caught on a branch and how to determine how long a sliver of food may have lain in the dirt.

The unit was founded in the early 1970s to stem the flow of marijuana into the United States from Mexico and has located people smugglers across hundreds of square miles of the Tohono O’odham tribal reservation southwest of Tucson, Ariz.

The final word on the ‘megapixel myth’ by ZDNet's George Ou -- There's been a lot of talk of the "megapixel myth" lately all started by David Pogue of the New York times declaring that megapixels are a "big fat lie". Fellow blogger David Berlind also did an entire series of blogs with his own sets of tests declaring "there's a good chance you'll never need more [...]

A German paragliding champion has survived being sucked into a storm that pulled her higher than Mount Everest.

Ewa Wisnierska, 35, who lost consciousness as she soared skywards, was covered in ice and battled hailstones the size of oranges.

She was pulled 9,940m (32,612 feet) above sea level in the storm near Tamworth, in New South Wales, paragliding officials said.

A 42-year-old Chinese man, He Zhongpin, was killed in the tornado-like storm.

They - along with 200 others - were preparing for a world paragliding championship in the town of Manilla, Australia, when the thunderstorm hit.

Return to Earth

Championship organiser Godfrey Wenness said it was remarkable that Ms Wisnierska had survived.

It's like winning Lotto 10 times in a row - the odds of her surviving were that long
Godfrey Wenness
Paragliding event organiser

"There's no oxygen," Mr Wenness said. "She could have suffered brain damage but she came to again at a height of 6,900m with ice all over her body and slowly descended herself."

Ms Wisnierska says she felt like an astronaut returning from the Moon as she landed.

"I could see the Earth coming - wow, like Apollo 13 - I can see the Earth," she said.

She was sure her chance of surviving was "almost zero".

"I was shaking all the time. The last thing I remember it was dark, I could hear lightning all around me," she told Australia's national broadcaster, ABC.

Ms Wisnierska finally made contact with her ground team at 4,000m (13,123 feet).

She told them: "I can't do anything - it's raining and hailing and I'm still climbing - I'm lost."

But Ms Wisnierska finally managed to land - 60km (40 miles) from where she took off.

She spent only an hour in hospital after the ordeal, receiving treatment for severe frostbite and blistering on her face and ears.

She had been trying to skirt the storm front but became trapped when two storm cells merged, Mr Wenness said.

Officials used her GPS equipment and computer to track her path as the storm dragged her away.

Back in the saddle

Mr Wenness lauded Ms Wisnierska for her strength of mind - as well as her physical prowess.

"It's like winning Lotto 10 times in a row - the odds of her surviving were that long," he said.

Ms Wisnierska - the 2005 World Cup paragliding winner - says she still wants to compete in the championships next week.

Mr He, whose body was found 75km from where he took off, was believed to have died from a lack of oxygen and the extreme cold, event organisers said.

A post-mortem examination will be carried out on Monday, police said.

Sudden thunderstorms are common during summer in Australia, bringing destructive hail, winds and torrential rain.

Mount Everest is the world's tallest peak, at 8,850m (29,035 feet) above sea level.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6369923.stm

Published: 2007/02/16 19:48:55 GMT

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