Clouded thinking

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Some fun.
2012 seems to be growing in importance for diverse reasons, it seems to be moving toward being pivotal in religious mythology and climate. Jeebs is coming to harvest true believers. We taste like pig meat. Perhaps he likes bacon. I know that rapture having experienced an extended period between butties. It is likely the climate will begin its descent toward the predicted (c. 2030) coldest time of the solar minimum at or around 2012. Peak oil catastrophe is forecast for 2012. 2012 represents the closest conjunction of the winter solstice Sun with the crossing point of the equator of the Milky Way and the path of the Sun so astrologers will up the angst. At the crossing point is the "dark rift", an area formed of cosmic dust clouds. Where there's dust there are rocks. Earth will spend around 3 months passing through the cloud. Perhaps if we pass through a particularly dense part, we will have spectacular night skies with occasional asteroids posing a threat. I'm looking forward to witnessing it, a singular time in human existence as the Sun takes around 225,000,000 years to orbit the galaxy. It is thought we were once Sagittarians but got captured by this galaxy, hence the reason for the Sun's different plane of orbit compared to the main body of stars that causes it to pass through rather than follow the galaxy plane. The fact that the Sun passes through this 'rift' makes me wonder if the Sun had anything to do with its formation. Plenty of scope for the merchants of doom then. There ought to be a law...
And Kyoto expires. Lets hope the weather has buried IPCC credibility so deep by then that governments will think twice before trusting an untrustworthy NGO.

More seriously;
NASA predicts a solar magnetic inversion. The Earth's poles may invert around 2012. It is possible the hemispheres could swap climates at the same time giving a clear correlation between magnetic activity here and on the Sun and the climate response.
The more the Arctic melts, the more energy it will release on reforming, mitigating cooling and perhaps helping postpone the next big ice-up, probably instigated by climate inversion. Perhaps the melted Arctic helped lessen the severity of the Little Ice Age.
Climate inversion would cool things down quite a bit, not least the Arctic sea ice would rapidly reform following the build-up of clean snow. The Arctic waters cool down at ever greater distances driving the Gulf Stream further south adding to the upper N.hemisphere's distress . The now cooler N.European, N.Americas and N.Asian would see more, longer lasting snow cover with consequent increased albedo. The sum of increased albedo amplifying the cool-down. As seen in the LIA, farming suffers and starvation follows. Disease increases, poverty deepens and wars follow, people turn away from superstition as a source of solace, species are wiped out en masse and deserts expand. And worse. The climate suffers from increased (real, not co2) pollution from increased heating and vehicle use further reducing radiance reaching the surface. The ozone hole closes completely. Well, that was the good news. No more solar caused cancer when you sunbathe and Andean ruminants may safely graze. Ozone is a GHG, it warms. That the ozone hole is starting to close could be an atmospheric response to the initiation of cooling. That's how it works. Swings and balances. Or perhaps it was waving feathers that did it. Carbon release credits anyone?
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Taking a deeper look at species depletion and rainforests, I found an excellent site that gives good information on both. They stray into AGW very occasionally but it is tired alarmist stuff they obviously parroted perhaps as decoration.
Read what real experts see and predict
While few scientists doubt species extinction is occurring, the degree to which it will occur in the future has long been subject of debate in conservation literature. Looking solely at species loss resulting from tropical deforestation, some researchers have forecast extinction rates as high as 75 percent./quote

Summary; There is some basis for modest optimism in thinking the forests will recover, but as secondary growth lacking the diversity of old forest, despite massive land clearance for sugar cane and palm oil plantations.

Deforestation vs. Degradation
Links to each item that follows at Mongabay.com

Causes of Degradation
Most forms of logging for timber harvesting, especially "selective logging"
Small-scale shifting cultivation (i.e. slash-and-burn)
Over-grazing
Small scale mining and associated pollution
Over-harvesting for fuel wood
Fragmentation from small roads
Wildfires that burn leaf litter and small plants but leave canopy trees intact
Over-harvesting of non-wood forest products (medicinal plants, foods, fibers)
Over-hunting
Invasive species
Oil pollution
Storm damage
Extreme drought
Air pollution and acid rain

Causes of Deforestation
Clear-cutting for logging and pulpwood
Forest conversion for permanent agriculture (palm oil plantations, soybean fields)
Large-scale shifting cultivation (i.e. slash-and-burn) where forest is not permitted to regenerate due to subsequent clearing
Forest conversion for permanent pasture
Open pit mining and large-scale mining operations
Clear-cutting for charcoal production
Large roads and infrastructure projects
Wildfires that destroy the forest canopy
Dam construction
Volcanic eruptions
Chemical defoliants
Urban expansion

Being there.
"Commodity prices are up, land prices followed, and subsequently the crooks started to invade the remaining large tracts of forest still found in the Xingu," he explained. "They intentionally set fires to wipe out the region's forage base (grasses/pasture) to create great cattle buying opportunities."
"In our case, the fires were started by organized land grabbers but many people in the region feel that other subsequent fires were set by crooked cattle buyers,"/quote

Of course there are natural disasters such as fire but unless there is drought for an extended period, they do little harm and combustion of surface debris may be a plus to growth, clearing ground for tree seeds to grow.
Species are dying as the rainforests continue to be depleted, it is greed and necessity causing it not co2.
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If you were a policymaker would you trust the politically inspired summary of the last assessment or would you prefer to believe the more current and accurate independent summary from The Fraser Institute? The independent summary is available free, here and the alarmist attempt is here. Perhaps the IPCC is no longer required? The independent version is a very enlightening read and should be compulsive reading for all politicians in my view, if for nothing else than to know the real situation. That is, to learn what we don't know.
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Having started late in the game, global warming being distant green noise for so many years, I was lucky enough to stumble on Gary Novak's site almost two years ago and that led me to look much deeper. You Tube followed with some highly enlightening vids decrying the alarmist perspective. I spent extensive time at the alarmist propaganda site, Mike Mann and Gavin Schmidt's Real Climate, and the decriers', Lubos the physicist's Reference Frame and Steve McIntyre's Climate Audit. Many others followed. It was hard to believe the deep entrenchment of the respective views at first but as clarification came, it was obvious that a hypothesis was being touted as fact, and continues unproven, and that policy recommendations had been made based on the hypothesis and were being acted on by governments. Other scientists objected to the hypothesis on various grounds (still do) and the fact that far reaching policy decisions were being made based on a suspicion. They reacted accordingly. Thirty years waiting for proof, the farce continues. When I started, there were few optimist sites but as the truth got out, the numbers swelled dramatically. There are now sufficient to seriously call in to doubt any claims or recommendations made by the IPCC.
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Recommended is a very interesting fantasy with a smattering of fact and some interesting and entertaining insights. Enjoy. Communique By The Spiritual Hierarchy And Galactic Federation. Beam me up Scotty.