FL!P Weblog

Change in address

Philippe Martin — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 22:52:18 GMT

Hello, there!

It's been a long time since my last post here! Sorry about that. But I've been very busy in many ways, which include redesigning my whole site from the ground up.

So now, please note that this blog (and the whole website around it) has moved. The site can now be found at flipmartin.net and the RSS feed at flipmartin.net/feed.

I swear I'll try to keep it more active from now on, and I hope to see you there! :-)

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Is it the day after tomorrow already?

Philippe Martin — Sun, 04 Dec 2005 05:47:38 GMT

Have you seen The Day After Tomorrow? Great film, if you ask me. Anyway, in that science fiction movie, the North Atlantic current is affected by the polar ice melting down, which triggers a major (and catastrophic) climate change.

It all happens unrealistically fast, because in a film it's much easier to implicate the audience by following closely some characters rather than by telling a story that runs over decades, and it triggers very spectacular events like tidal waves, giant supercells and superfast glaciations, because these days a movie has to show spectacular images. But except for these, the story was based on very serious climatic studies and talked about very real potential problems.

Well, here's the scary thing: according to this article on newscientist.com, it may have already begun:

The ocean current that gives western Europe its relatively balmy climate is stuttering, raising fears that it might fail entirely and plunge the continent into a mini ice age.

The dramatic finding comes from a study of ocean circulation in the North Atlantic, which found a 30% reduction in the warm currents that carry water north from the Gulf Stream.

Scientists have been warning about the possible impacts of human activities on the global climate and their consequences for more than 25 years, now. But still, handled by the lobbies of fossil energy producers (mostly oil companies), the politics of the bigger greenhouse effect gazes emitting countries keep denying climate changes, refusing to take action (even manipulating science when possible) and the effects of this greed are becoming more and more visible every day.

Do you have kids? Do you have grand-kids? If so, the world they'll live in is the world we are making for them. Think about it. Would you like them to experience famine? Catastrophic weather events on a monthly basis? Or global outbreaks of diseases we now call "tropical", maybe? This is no sci-fi or doom-saying, we're getting right there, faster and faster every day. So if you care about your kids and your grand-kids, it's your responsibility to do something about it. You can support Greenpeace, you can mail your representatives, you can make your voice count in many ways. But you got to do something! Just take a moment to read and think about it, and you'll know it's true.

Update: Thanks to Nico for pointing out this transcript of a BBC program that covers this very subject quite thoroughly (very good reading!). Back in 2003, the interviewed scientists already found that the flow of the conveyor (as they call this current) had fallen by 20%. Apparently it's not getting any better!

Basically, the consensus in this program was that a total interruption of this current in the next few years (before global warming can slow down its effects) could put most of the Northern hemisphere into what would look awfully like a new ice age and trigger droughts in the rest of the world. And it would take less than a decade.

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Is true altruism a maladaptation?

Philippe Martin — Tue, 29 Mar 2005 22:01:33 GMT

Thanks to More Like This for pointing to this NewScientist's article about altruism.

Quite interesting!

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Global warming to devastate Europe first

Philippe Martin — Fri, 20 Aug 2004 22:49:30 GMT

New Scientist: Europe is warming more quickly than the rest of the world with potentially devastating consequences, including more frequent heatwaves, flooding, rising sea levels and melting glaciers, says the European Environment Agency (EEA) document, launched on Wednesday.

[...]

What the report shows is that, if we go on as we are, we have less than 50 years before we encounter conditions which will be uncharted and potentially hazardous.

[...]

Freak weather conditions, such as the floods of 2001 that killed about 80 people, and the heatwave of 2003 that led to more than 20,000 deaths, are set to become more frequent and severe, the report states.

So far 123 countries, including all the EU member states, have ratified the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to reduce their emissions of six greenhouse gases by 5 per cent by 2012. But the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases - the US - has refused to sign. (emphasis is mine)

No comment! :(

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Mathematical proof that girls are evil

Philippe Martin — Mon, 17 May 2004 21:21:35 GMT

Thanks to Dave for this mathematical proof that girls are evil. I had a good laugh!

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Peace lessons from an unlikely source

Philippe Martin — Thu, 06 May 2004 19:53:29 GMT

Great article on PLoS Biology: How much is the aggression we observe in nonhuman primates the result of culture, and will the answer provide insights into our own violent behaviour?

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Earth Impact Effects Program

Philippe Martin — Fri, 16 Apr 2004 00:10:44 GMT

The Earth Impact Effects Program is a Web application developed at the University of Arizona, to estimate the seismic, blast wave, and thermal effects of an impact as well as the size of the crater produced by the impact. Very interesting!

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Mars Renderings

Philippe Martin — Sat, 03 Apr 2004 02:43:45 GMT

Thanks to More Like This for pointing to this site full of amazing renderings of Mars, with and without water. And bravo to Kees Veenenbos!

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The Bush administration accused of manipulating science

Philippe Martin — Mon, 23 Feb 2004 22:04:17 GMT

Last week, the Union of Concerned Scientists (an independent nonprofit alliance of more than 100,000 concerned citizens and scientists that includes twenty Nobel Prize Laureates) has released a report on the misuse of science and scientific process by the Bush Administration for political purposes (657KB PDF). Some examples (from an interview given to the French newspaper Liberation by Kurt Gottfried, president of the UCS): Last spring, a report from the EPA (the Enviromental Protection Agency) had a chapter about the possible impact of global warming on mankind. The Bush administration asked the agency to rewrite that chapter, dropping some scientific data and references to another report from the American Academy of Sciences, and replacing it with a report coming from people close to the oil industry. The EPA preferred to drop the whole chapter. A comity from the health department gives estimates of the maximum levels of lead (coming mainly from paint) that should be found in children blood. For thirty years, these limits were regularly taken down and one would expect that to continue. But the Bush administration chose to remove some highly qualified neurologists and medical experts from that comity and to replace them with people close to the industry. A biologist working for the agriculture department found out that some pig farms were releasing into the environment bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. He was forbidden to publish his findings and finally resigned from his position. This is a very serious issue that can affect the whole world, not only the U.S.A. Ask the people from Patagonia who live under the ozone hole six months a year, and who can't get exposed to the sun without protection because of extremely high risks of skin cancer! You can act about it! It's also discussed on Kuro5hin.org

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Gamma rays may have devastated life on Earth

Philippe Martin — Sun, 28 Sep 2003 21:08:00 GMT

From New Scientist again: A devastating burst of gamma rays may have caused one of Earth's worst mass extinctions, 443 million years ago. All the bursts astronomers have recorded so far have come from distant galaxies and been harmless on the ground, but if one occurred within our galaxy and was aimed straight at us, the effects could be devastating, according to astrophysicist Adrian Melott of the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Very interesting theory! And it should remind us of what is our place in the Universe.

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