I hate grocery stores

So I didn't go to the grocery store last week like I'd planned, because of the hockey game..no time. I checked my cc balance prior to going to the supermarket and found out that because of my trip to Oregon, I only had about $200 to spend. Ok, budget time! (I usually buy food for a month or so...yes, one of THOSE people.) No worries. I went to the store sans a list, always a good idea when you are starving and need to stay within a budget. Little did I know that the old people of CDA had sent a memo to each other, requesting that all members be present at the Safeway off 4th at exactly 1200 noon on Saturday! Hmm, I need to figure out the secret handshake so I can get the skinny on THOSE congregations. Pulled the sheep over my peepers they did. So, the store was full of milling, groaning, slow old people. I would wait as they looked over labels and examined mustard for authenticity (I guess) until they realized they were holding half the store up. Then we all would battle for position, it was like Nascar in there with the few people under the age of 50....weaving and swerving, jockeying for position. Of course, I left the store without many things I wanted to pick up. Somehow, I remembered to buy beer. Call it a stroke of luck or a stroke of genius after that race! OK. Got to the checkout lane. KNEW I shouldn't get in the short line I got into because of two old women ahead of me and an older gal at the register. Just spelled trouble. They battled with idle chitchat, debit cards, checkbooks, prices, coupons...you name it, they dealt with it. The gift certificate for Home Depot they bought wouldn't scan, so "Johnny" had to run in the back and dig through mounds of rocks to find a good one. I say this because "Johnny" was a small kid and he was gone for a long time. I wonder about their storage system sometimes. He came back and it worked, well, the cashier had to refund the gal in cash, then rescan all the groceries for some reason to make it all work. Then they called in reinforcements, at which time a nice little conversation broke out. I timed it all. Fifteen minutes in line. Cool! Made it home in record time, my landlord tailed me all the way home...how could she possibly know I was there, then get behind me on the interstate at such a random time? I don't don't know, but I swear they were put here to pester me. Putting away groceries, I was kneeling down, putting away veggies and stood up. Hit my head so hard on the freezer door that I saw a bright flash of light and hit my knees again. I prayed to the refrigerator gods, holding the back of my head with my face in broccoli. I hate getting groceries. So, I had a beer. Stroke of GENIUS me remembering the beer, I'll tell ya.

Never think of the past

This was the view out my back door in Stevensville. Yes, my back door.

If I have anything to say right now, it's to not look at the past with a heavy heart. It'll chew you up and spit your ass out in a second.

Look at what you have and just immerse yourself in it. Look ahead and remember what is behind. Don't look back; you can never go home.

Oregon and the Pacific at last!

What follows are the remnants of a spur-of-the-moment-after-a-week-of-thinking-about-it plan. What that means, is that I had an inkling, but not a drive, until the last second. On FRIDAY before a three day weekend, after leaving work at 1:30, on the ride home (1.5 miles) I decided, "I'm going to the COAST!"

So I did. I wrestled with the drive, the money, and the time. But, it was such a beautiful day on Friday and expected to be another one on Saturday...well, I had to. Plus, I needed to escape town yet again...I think I'm looking for an answer to something, what, I do not know...but it's out there somewhere.

I left at 0730 in a thick fog, but no one on the road. Within an hour for home I had to pull off Interstate 90 to make sure I didn't miss my turn. (Yea, I had a VAGUE idea of where and what I needed to look for...exits? Landmarks? Planning? WHAT?...there was a definite purposeful lack of planning there.) So, I checked the map and sure enough, I was doing well. I exited onto 395 at the proper time and broke out of the fog. It was simply gorgeous! Low clouds, prairie, small farms...large farms...and no one on the road but me. Dwight Yoakam and "A thousand miles from nowhere" playing on the radio, and I was in perfect "I'm-in-vacation-mode" leaving it all behind. Unfortunately, you cannot leave your MIND behind, because I thought of everything from soil to dirt, from fog to sun, from loneliness to freedom, from acquaintances to love. Funny how closely those certain comparisons are comparable and interrelated. Go ahead, drive for 8 hours alone...see where YOU come out. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Anywho, I ended up at the tri-cities and obviously took the wrong turn because I ended up on "surface streets" as the cops call them. I wove my way toward the Columbia river because at least I knew I needed to cross it. I crossed it. Wound my way through the cities and ended up headed toward the Dalles. I desperately wanted to see the Columbia river. When I broke off the plateau, I saw the river! I saw the river socked in with fog! So...all the way to the Dalles, I saw nothing but fog. Bummer! Mt. Hood? What? I saw that for about 30 seconds. Amazing hill, then I found out some guys were trapped on it later. Now I know how scary that must be...it's a tall mountain.

But, I reached the Dalles and saw the river for a little bit.

Then I reached Portland. Ahh, Portland. Those people are braver than I am. Since I had no idea which highway I needed and therefore, which exit...I was at the mercy of traffic and large signs mentioning a coastal town I recognized. I ended up on Hwy 5 headed south to Salem, figuring if I could get out of the traffic and the city, then I'd be able to peel off easier to the west. Soon, I was again on surface streets..headed into the heart of Beaverton and then back to Portland! Crud. Luckily, after almost rear ending a truck with bad taillights, I had enough time to take some deep breaths and find an exit to follow toward Astoria and Seaside! Semi-gridlock is sometimes I good thing for an out-of-towner. I left that bustle and onto a highway that boasted a ridiculous speed of 55 mph. Uhm, really? I struggled and so did everyone else. But, after we all saw a highway patrolman pull someone over, it was slow and steady. Up a hill, down a hill, up a hill, down a hill...trees getting thicker and thicker...skies getting darker and darker. I was 4 miles from Seaside and topped the laaaaast hill to drop to the ocean thinking I'd get an incredible view..no. The fog rolled in, it started to rain, the clouds were at treetop level, and the spray from the road onto my windshield obscured everything but the taillights in front of me.

I made it to Seaside. Blah blah blah, turn around, look at the map in a Jehovah's witness parking lot, turn around again...then start looking for hotels. "What IS it with all the people here?" I thought to myself. Then I thought that out loud (using different language) after waiting through a single traffic light four times. I drove through the narrow streets in the blowing rain. Waited for people to jump out of a truck on a bridge and check their crab pots, then inched along to the hotels. No rooms.

At the next hotel I found out why. There was a basketball game in town that night. Everything from there to Tillamook was booked, I (and many others) found out the difficult way. We traveled in a leap-frogging pack. At one point, we began recognizing each other...so when the other pulled into the hotel parking lot...I, or the others could say, "nothing here. Down the road!" (Most of us ended up in Tillamook at the Shilo.) At a mere $112 a night, it was a steal in a rainstorm and it getting dark. Did I mention I was OUT OF GAS? I tried to go to a station in Bayview, 10 miles from Tillamook, but as soon as I got out of the hotel with a no-go, the station was closed. Yes, closed at 1700 on a Saturday night....only in Oregon. So I got to Tillamook, got a room for two nights, then went to the gas station.

I drove over an air hose. It was weird.."what's THAT doing there?" I swiped my card, put the nozzle in the tank and then this guy came running at me waving his arms and shaking his head! "What the hell?" He said I couldn't pump my own gas in Oregon. "uhm, okay." He raised the handle on the nozzle (his job) and we stood there and chatted. "This is going to take awhile....yeah, I'm on fumes and it's a 30 gallon tank." So that done, and he doing his "job" and me keeping him company, I found a Subway, got a sandwich and simply FLOPPED on the couch. What a day.

So, I decided to walk downtown and check out the nightlife. Yep, a mile and a half (I found out later) no one out and about...a crappy bar...one beer...and then I walked back to the hotel. Luckily (I say this slathered in sarcasm) I woke up with shinsplints. Who would have thought, ...dehydrated except for gallons of coffee on a nine hour drive and walking on pavement for three miles...would wreak havoc on your shins?

At 0630 I got up, headed south, then headed west to the beach. The first was a miserable disappointment. Many people; too many people. I left after walking 50 yards on the beach, not my scene. I ended up a little later at a State Park on a peninsula, hiked down a little over a mile of switchbacks to a beach and had it all to myself for three hours until I left. On the way up the trail, many many unfriendly people were headed down, so I felt good for leaving early.

I drove and drove along the coast. Ended up in Pacific City and then got back onto Hwy 101 back north toward Tillamook. I tried to go to the air museum there, but it was closed for maintenance. I tried to go to the cheese factory, but it was crowded with tourists and RVs and children and generally, just not my place. So I continued up the coast and hit every beach access I could. Luckily, the partly cloudy skies started clouding over and spitting rain. I say luckily, because every time a spurt of hard rain turned up...everyone would run for their cars and leave. Leaving Tom alone on the beach! Fantastic! I studied waves and tried to figure out their pattern, but after an hour in one spot...simply couldn't do it. I need to learn more about waves obviously, because it's bugging me. "Sneaker waves" kept running up the shore and overtaking people, causing them to shreek and yip like small animals. Almost comical until I figured out they were likely doing it on purpose. Why? I don't know. I was almost busted by one early that morning after crossing a large creek entering the ocean..after crossing the creek and filling up my boots with ice-cold water, I had my back to the waves and suddenly heard a large "whoooosh" behind me. This wave had flooded where I crossed the 6-inch deep creek with about 12 or more inches of water. I stayed there and watched the tide come in and waited for those waves..watching them at less then a foot away...eroding the banks of sand. I cannot even imagine a tsunami...these little waves made me nervous enough. So, I learned to never turn my back on the ocean.

Ok. So after struggling with my urge to get off the road, to see the ocean, to maximize my time on the beach...I left the ocean at about 1630. I again got a sandwich and retired.

The next morning, I woke in a pounding rain at about 0800 and left at 0830. Rain until a little outside Portland, which went well...got through it just fine at around 1000. By the time I left the Columbia, I was in a trance and ended up almost to Pendleton! Realizing my error, I consulted the atlas, turned around, made my way through some small towns and back onto the correct road. PACKED with traffic all the way home. The wind was blowing up to 50 mph gust (I found out later) on the prairie...explaining the terrible time I was having keeping the truck on the road. I murdered many tumbleweeds under my tires by accident. (I didn't swerve to kill even one, I swear!) ;) Tenacious little bastards...they keep going after you wound them!

Got to Post Falls and entered blowing rain. Entered Coeur d'Alene and found sleet, rain, snow, and severe winds. Good homecoming!

All in all, it was a fantastic trip. I was glad I was alone, but at the same time lonely. I have a hard time going to interesting restaurants alone...thus, the sandwiches. But, I get fed up with people easily, so it was fortunate that I was able to leave a crappy beach and find my own for three hours. (The urge to get away from people definitely goes both ways.) I saw things and thought things. I was nervous, scared, apprehensive, happy, joyous almost to the point of running and singing, uncomfortable, perfectly happy, overwhelmed, proud, courageous (in my mind), steady, secure, insecure...all in the same three days...at all hours, in many different combinations.

I had a great time.

So, what follows are pictures. Backwards, as it turns out. The topmost is the most recent, the last picture is the oldest. (At the bottom, I wanted to show what a $112 hotel room looked like)But, this is some of what I saw. Enjoy.

The mirage they call steelhead

I just had a fantastic weekend!

I left CDA at 8:00 a.m. and traveled through fog so thick you couldn't see 50 yards in front of you for about 50 miles. Then it broke into a gorgeous landscape of woodland, fields, rolling hills, and the perfect country for getting away from it all. I got all the way to a place where the road dropped into a ravine...found a sign that said the name of the town, Viola! Now, I have learned, the correct pronounciation of the town is Vy-o-law...but the way you come over the hill, it really should be the French pronounciation of viola! All of a sudden, it is there! Viola!

I drove to the edge of the river, on a high plateau...fog again blanketed me. The stripes on the road came up quickly, but I knew, from experience, that there was a dropoff of thousands of feet below me. No trees. Nothing but grass...all the way to the bottom. If I missed a turn, I was done for! No stress there.

Obviously, I made it to the river. There was no fog down there.

In four hours, I made it to Kooskia. I stopped at Dale's Cashway (stop if you ever have a chance, they have everything and they're friendly to boot.) I hobbled to the store and left in a hunch. Four hours is a long time with no stopping.

I drove up the South Fork of the Clearwater (where I wanted to fish) and found the upper end frozen over. I drove back downriver amongst throngs of people, back to the main Clearwater. I fished there awhile and got so many snags in my old line to convince me I needed to replace it. Back to Dale's Cashway! They replaced the line, I bought bobbers, shrimp, and jigs and set off. The kid at the counter asked if I had done any good so far that day. I told him, "well, I'll show you how good I did." ...and pulled out about 100 yards of line from my pocket...snaggled, tangled, and in a state that it didn't require any more explanation. He just nodded. "Are you going to do any more fishing tonight?" No. I need to find a camp.

So I went to my camping place near Lowell. I call it my camp, because no one goes there in winter. It is in an old cedar grove...one of the last on your way down the Lochsa and through on down the Clearwater. It is mine and I hold it dearly. I arrived for the first time in a year and f0und someone, in the past 12 months, had trashed it. They drank cheap beer, wine, and expensive whiskey (go figure) and dumped it all in a root hole nearby. It took me awhile to take care of that crap.

I took some old, wet, wood and tried to split it enough to start a fire. I left the fire momentarily, thinking it would go. Nothing doing. I started it again using a strip of bark from a cedar. That died very quickly. For an hour I babied this fire until it caught and got going. Then it went out. By this time it is starting to get dark...so I did what anyone would do. I went out and found dry, standing wood in the form of a large, dead alder. I chopped this thing down and when it finally hit the ice, it broke and I carried the 10 foot top to camp. I sawed portions of the alder off and split it to get the fire going. I then dried all my other wood using the flames, and had a good camp. By this time, it is pretty much dark.

I set up the tent, and got the sleeping bag ready for bed. The rest of the night was spent tending the fire and cooking German sausage and chili for dinner. Not so shabby if you ask me.

That night it began raining. So in the morning, I made a quick breakfast of Raman and broke down camp. I am a MASTER when it comes to setting up or taking down camp in bad weather...I think I can stow a tent, ground cloth, fly, sleeping bag and pad, in 10 minutes flat. I dare you to challenge me to THAT in a rainstorm! So, I went immediately to fishing.

I cast and cast and cast, thankful for the new line. However, I increased the water level like you wouldn't believe! There was one log at the bottom of this hole that, if you didn't pull up soon enough, you would snag and lose your whole outfit on. I lost one bobber this way. Soon enough, Fish and Game showed up. It was amazing! This guy wasn't rude or anything, he simply asked how the fishing was and what I was using. I showed him (from 20 yards away) and asked if anyone else was catching fish. He said, "no, not really. But I know the guys who are catching them are doing it on pink and yellow jigs. I went out this past week and didn't catch anything until switching to those colors...give it a try!" THANKS! He left without checking a license or hook. My best encounter with them yet. And to think, I thought he was another fisherman trying to shoulder his/her way into my hole!

I left after hooking that log too much. Went to another hole down the river....hooked bottom the first cast and had to break my leader. Done with THAT hole in ONE cast.

Went and checked out the Northfork...it was combat fishing. People shoulder to shoulder. Jetboats pissing the shore-anglers off. People irritated and trying too hard in the pouring rain. (Did I mention it was simply POUNDING rain at the time, not pouring, POUNDING?) I walked around, looking over the edge of the road, for a place to fish. No dice. Too many people. So I left and found another hole further down river. No fish, but a good looking stretch all to myself.

I left at 12:30 that Sunday. I took highway 3 up to CDA...a road I haven't been on before. There was absolutely no traffic and I could just poke along doing whatever speed I wanted in the fog and rain and had a simply GREAT time. Gorgeous country and a place I wouldn't mind living in at all! Imagine rain and fog, small rolling hills, pockets of "outpost" towns, 4-wheel drives, cabins,...backwood folks who waved and smiled when you passed, snow, wind, woodsmoke, dogs, kids sledding, people having a campfire by the side of a random stretch of road, and the absolute ABSENCE of traffic! That broke into more people next to the lake near St. Maries, but nothing like CDA. There, on the way north, were geese, ducks, ice, passes, lakes, streams, and trees. Nothing but solitude out there. My kind of place for sure.

I got home at about 3:30 and dried my gear out in my small apartment. Tent hanging in the living room, tarp hanging from a door, miscellaneous crap spread out on the floor, and pine needles and dirt EVERYWHERE. (I cleaned it up yesterday.)

It was a fantastic weekend. I desperately needed to see the campfire sparks rising into the sky, feel the absense of commotion, smell the cedars, and get OUT OF TOWN. It worked. I came back a new person. It was fantastic...

I may, will, go down again this coming weekend.

Steelhead fishing is coming into it's own

Well, I CANNOT say is that steelhead fishing is coming into it's own for sure. I know it's coming, I know it's on the verge. But I am going to try it this weekend anyhow.

It is the 9th of February. The real run in the Clearwater can happen between now and the end of April...it depends a lot on water temperature and runoff. (As well, and including: depth, water temperature, clarity, and positioning.) Who cares!? I used to keep track of a monitor near Stites, when it got to a certain plane, and I knew the clarity, I knew I could hook into something. It's one of those things you pick up as a "local." ...or at least someone who keeps track of those things and talks to enough people and has enough former knowledge, .... to have a good time.

I remember once. Twice. Thrice? Nevermind... I was fishing with the snow/rain falling after taking off of work early during a workday (it wasn't an uncommon event.) No matter what I did, I remember the songs I was listening to on the radio on the way, I remember the smell of the river and air, I remember the wet, cold, and miserable conditions...and I gladly excepted them all. I hope I can feel that all again. I miss the smell of shrimp-oil, I miss the sound of studded tires on wet snow-covered roads and returning home in the dark, I miss cold days and cold wood smoke, friends that can travel anywhere...anytime...as long as it is to fish for steelhead. Thayne, Josh...I miss your company.

This year I plan on making some notes, because I'm tired of not knowing where and when I have caught steelhead (or at least hooked them.) I know holes. I know where folks throng to to catch them. I am, indeed, different. I look for the places no one is at; to fish. Call me anti-social, call me what you will. I do not "battle-fish." I despise being anywhere less than 50 yards from another fisherman. Call it a little bit of respect...something that is hard to find anymore.

I have had other fisherman come to within spitting distance and cast in my spot. Even in north Idaho, with the prevelance of personal space and violence, I find this unbelievable. When this happens, I move. If he is more concerned about catching fish than being polite, I want nothing to do with him OR the hole...how much difference does it make?

"I'll swallow poison until I grow immune, I will scream my lungs out until it fills this room! How much difference will it make?" (Pearl Jam) I will go to an unproductive stretch and fish all I want, not catching anything, and be happy that I tried my darndest to prove to them that there is more to a river than fish. I heard a quote today(I'm going to paraphrase),

"There is nothing as unimportant as fishing, but everything else is just as unimportant, just not as fun." unknown

But I love this one:
"He told us about Christ's disciples being fisherman, and we were left to assume...that all great fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fisherman and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman." Norman Maclean - A River Runs Through It

I shall attempt to find some fish, but better yet, find some solitude and sanctuary in the river.

I am in desperate need of a fire, wood taken from unlawful people, to be unleashed to the heavens on it's journey to the sky and freedom. I need to see what it is like to rise above it all and find flight. I need to feel the ascent of sparks and hear the roar of a river to calm my nerves...

With that, I shall leave you.

White supremacists

Butch and I went fishing on Saturday afternoon. We sat in the cold, caught one fish, chatted with two very interesting people. The first fella came up with a dog about four months old, a very curious black lab who kept licking the fish on the ice. Then the spines of the perch got too much for the sensitive tongue...so he lapped the ice out of my fishing hole. It, at the time, was the funniest darn thing you'd ever seen! I tried to get the camera out in time, but no dice...he thought that was interesting too.

No more fish and a lot of cold toes later, we left.

Two hours later I ended up coming home from making a run to the dump. I ran into an SUV parked in nearly the middle of the road at an intersection to the road that led home. I tried to weasel by his vehicle and the light post in the way, when I noticed his window roll down. I stopped after clearing his truck by inches (which he was watching closely) and asked if he needed help. He said, "no, I'm cool man. Just cruising around witha beer. I'm so pissed off man!" I asked what he was pissed about. He said, "Well man, with politics man. This whole fucking country is so involved with politics man. With [blah blah blah..couldn't really understand him] it's just going to hell, you know what I mean man? I'm just driving around, you know I've only been to three bars...just cuz I'm driving around with a beer doesn't mean I'm a drunk driver." I talked to him. "Um, yea, this all sucks. So what are you doing up here?" He replied with, "Man, I've just only been to four bars (notice the increase) and man, I just live a half mile away. I'm just pissed." So I told him I understood. Yea, yea this and that sucked. I said, "Well, there's a parking lot down the road about 100 yards, why don't you just go down there, spin some brodies and cool off a bit?" He replied, "Ahh man, I appreciate that. You're a good guy, our white brothers have to stick out for one another you know!? I mean, the blacks need to understand, you know man!?" No I don't.

By this time I'm becoming rather pissed off that this fella is in my neighborhood and all my "decency" wears off. I finally told him, "Listen, I'm going to be back down this way in about five minutes...I want you to be gone, dude. This isn't a neighborhood I want you in." He came back with, "well, thanks for the time brother. I'll get going.." (Or something in that sort of mood..he wasn't mad at me, just moving along.) I caught up with him down the road, then lost him at a traffic light. Not sure where he got, but luckily it didn't end up around where I lived.

So I traveled to the birthday party I was headed to and had a good time. Not sure what would've happened if he got weird on me, but at least I was in the position with my truck to seriously damage his little SUV and get out of there.

Sketchy things can happen in "normal" places around here I guess. Didn't think I could be that forward and mean with a stranger, but he was a little too weird for me to like him being around.

crap

I could go on and on. I have scoured the internet...yes, the internet to find data. DATA on the INTERNET?! I know, it's a little up for argument. I could write something that said, "whales could save the earth from global warming, they just don't want to." And I would guess I would get a bunch of hits.

You cannot believe things you get off the internet.

HOWEVER, I believe that with the number of sites I've visited for both PRO global warming theories and ANTI global warming theories, that I've made (to my present knowledge) a conclusion that I can agree with.

I think this is all something we should come up with on our own. But, if nothing else, look at both sides prior to deciding...if you don't like wading through it because you find it irritating, do it for nothing else but to find ways to strengthen your own view.

ice?

All about the world's ice
By Jack Williams, USATODAY.com
At the beginning of the 20th century, the world's attention turned to the polar regions as explorers raced to be first to reach the North Pole and then the South Pole.
Going into the 21st century, the Arctic and Antarctic are the focus of scientific attention because they hold answers to questions about the Earth's past, present and future climate.
You often hear the question: Is polar ice melting?
The answer that that is, "Yes, it is melting." But, you could have said the same thing during the height of any of Earth's ice ages.
Polar ice is always melting, and also always growing as more snow falls that doesn't melt during the summer.
The real question: "Is polar ice melting faster than new ice is being added?"
This is the question that scientists by studying the Earth's largest ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland. One of the largest such studies is the ongoing West Antarctic Ice Sheet Initiative. (Related story: Answers to sea level rise locked in ice)
If all of these two ice sheets melted sea levels would rise by about 215 feet all over the world. Fortunately, even the most extreme global warming scenarios don't see this happening for centuries. Greenland's ice is probably in the most danger of melting, and this would raise global sea levels by about 21 feet. Scientists who study the ice don't think this is likely during the life of anyone alive now.
The figures above come from the U.S. Geological Survey's estimate of how much ice is locked up in the world's ice sheets and glaciers and how much sea level would rise if they melted. (Related document: Estimated area and volume of global ice)
Not all ice is near the poles
While most of the world's ice is in the Arctic and Antarctic, quite a bit is scattered around the Earth in the form of glaciers. Not all of these are in cold places, such as Alaska.
Several glaciers are in the tropics, but they are on tops of high mountains.
Smaller glaciers around the world are melting, however, and this is causing some sea-level rise. (Related: Glaciers vanishing around the world)
What's likely in a warming world
While all scientists who study polar ice don't agree on how much is likely to melt if the world continues warming, the January 2001 report of Working Group 1 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) offers the best summary of the latest scientific thinking. This group consisted of experts from around the world and looked at the basic science of climate change.
In its Summary for Policy Makers, the working group says on that during the 21st century:
· Northern Hemisphere snow cover and sea-ice extent are projected to decrease further.
· Glaciers and ice caps are projected to continue their widespread retreat during the 21st century.
· The Antarctic ice sheet is likely to gain mass because of greater precipitation, while the Greenland ice sheet is likely to lose mass because the increase in runoff will exceed the precipitation increase.
· Concerns have been expressed about the stability of the West Antarctic ice sheet because it is grounded below sea level. However, loss of grounded ice leading to substantial sea level rise from this source is now widely agreed to be very unlikely during the 21st century.
· Global mean sea level is projected to rise by 0.09 to 0.88 meters (0.29 to 2.88 feet) between 1990 and 2100.
The report notes that projections of sea level rise are lower slightly lower than in the Working Group's 1995 report even though the 2001 report projects higher temperatures by 2100 than the 1995 report did. The reason is "primarily due to the use of improved models, which give a smaller contribution from glaciers and ice sheets" than the models used for the 1995 report. (Related document: IPCC

global warming...more

More Than 15,000 Scientists Protest Kyoto Accord; Speak Out Against Global Warming Myth
by Douglas Houts (May 12, 1998)
More than 15,000 scientists, two-thirds with advanced academic degrees, have now signed a Petition against the climate accord concluded in Kyoto (Japan) in December 1997. The Petition (see text below) urges the US government to reject the Accord, which would force drastic cuts in energy use on the United States. This is in line with the Senate Resolution, approved by a 95-to-0 vote last July, which turns down any international agreement that damages the economy of the United States while exempting most of the world's nations, including such major emerging economic powers as China, India, and Brazil.
In signing the Petition within a period of less than six weeks, the 15,000 basic and applied scientists -- an unprecedented number for this kind of document -- also expressed their profound skepticism about the science underlying the Kyoto Accord. The atmospheric data simply do not support the elaborate computer-driven climate models that are being cited by the United Nations and other promoters of the Accord as "proof" of a major future warming. The covering letter enclosed with the Petition, signed by Dr. Frederick Seitz, president emeritus of Rockefeller University and a past president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, states it well:
"The treaty is, in our opinion, based upon flawed ideas. Research data on climate change do not show that human use of hydrocarbons is harmful. To the contrary, there is good evidence that increased atmospheric carbon dioxide is environmentally helpful."
This freely expressed vote against the warming scare propaganda should be contrasted with the claimed "consensus of 2500 climate scientists" about global warming. This facile and oft-quoted assertion by the White House is a complete fabrication. The contributors and reviewers of the 1996 report by the
UN-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) actually number less than 2000, and only a small fraction -- who were never polled -- can claim to be climate scientists. Many of those are known to be critical of the IPCC report and have now become signers of the Petition.
"The 'silent majority' of the scientific community has at last spoken out against the hype emanating from politicians and much of the media about a 'warming catastrophe.' The Petition reflects the frustration and disgust felt by working scientists, few of whom have been previously involved in the ongoing climate debate, about the misuse of science to promote a political agenda," said Dr. Seitz.
Dr. S. Fred Singer, president of The Science & Environmental Policy Project (SEPP) and author of Hot Talk, Cold Science: Global Warming's Unfinished Debate, explained:
"Scientists are understandably upset when they see $2 billion per year devoted to research on climate change, much it irrelevant and concerned only with imaginary consequences of a hypothetical warming -- while other fields of science are starved. They are also appalled and angry that an increasing fraction of this research money is diverted into "community workshops," thinly disguised brainwashing exercises to create public fears about climate catastrophes."
The Petition drive was organized by Dr. Arthur Robinson, director of the Oregon Institute for Science and Medicine (Cave Junction, OR) and a vocal critic of the shaky science used to support the Kyoto Accord. It was staffed by volunteers and supported entirely by private donations, with no contributions from industry. The Petition mailing included a scientific summary, an editorial essay by Arthur and Zachary Robinson published in the Wall Street Journal (Dec. 4, 1997), and the covering letter by Dr. Seitz, holder of the National Medal of Science and board chairman of the George C. Marshall Institute (Washington, DC) and also of the Science & Environmental Policy Project (Fairfax, VA).
It was Dr. Seitz' essay in the Wall Street Journal (A Major Deception on "Global Warming", June 12, 1996), which first drew public attention to the textual "cleansing" of the UN scientific report that forms the basis for the Kyoto Accord. For details on the unannounced text changes and how they affected the sense of the IPCC report, click here.
The full text of the Petition follows.
"We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997, and any other similar proposals. The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind.
There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth."
The current list of signers, which is still growing rapidly, is available on http://oism.org/pproject/.

Tired of Global Warming hype

I shall paste:

Global Warming Scares Heat Up
by Alan Caruba (October 5, 2006)
To understand the whole global warming debate you have to understand that it is not about any dramatic warming of the Earth. The Earth has been warming since the end of the last Ice Age with time out for some mini-Ice Age episodes.
As Richard S. Lindzen, the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT, has repeatedly written, the average global temperature has increased about one degree Fahrenheit over the past century. It’s a natural cycle and, since we are at the end of the current 12,000-year interglacial cycle of temperate climate, we are due another Ice Age.
Global warming hysteria is about controlling the world's population by impeding or making more costly the use of energy--oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear--in developed, industrial nations and thwarting efforts to expand the use of electricity in Third World nations. Keeping people ignorant and ultimately dependent on a vast one-world government based on failed socialist utopian policies is the name of the game.
This explains in part why so much of the global warming propaganda has been coordinated and emanated from the United Nations. Its International Panel on Climate Control and its Kyoto Protocol on Climate Control are just two examples of the mischief that is generated by the UN. The Panel has revised its estimates of global warming so many times that it has become a farce. Worse yet, those estimates are all based on flawed computer models.
So what explains just a few of the headlines we are all reading every day now? “Earth spews troubling amount of methane”, “Winter ice declining rapidly in the Arctic”, and “Nastier hurricanes? Just blame us: Study links human activity, monster storms.”
A friend of mine, John Brignell, a British professor emeritus, runs a website called NumberWatch.com. On it you will find a page that documents how just about every imaginable natural phenomenon has been attributed to global warming. It’s a very long, often totally contradictory, list and a tribute to the idiocy and hypocrisy that fuels the global warming hoax.
While the global warming hoax has an economic component whose focus is energy use, there is a political component because it is through the implementation of laws that the control of human behavior is achieved. This was seen most recently when California’s legislature voted to implement controls on “greenhouse gas emissions” from utilities and other industrial activities said to be the primary cause of global warming. California has notoriously failed to keep pace with the growth of its population and the provision of sufficient electrical power.
The global warming hoax is also intended to force people to use public transportation or to select alternative forms of energy such as solar or wind. These latter two are totally inadequate to our needs and exist, like ethanol, largely because of government subsidies and mandates.
So why are we reading this sudden new spate of articles about things alleged to cause global warming? It is not a coincidence as, indeed, nothing one reads or hears incessantly is accidental. Where it takes on a very dangerous potential is the proposed legislation emanating out of Washington, D.C. these days.
Largely unable to find traction with its anti-war diatribes, the Democrat’s fallback position is to scare everyone with global warming. It began in the summer of 2005 when Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) proposed a bill calling for modest mandatory limits on emissions of greenhouse gases said to cause climate change.
These limits are moving forward despite the unanimous rejection of the Kyoto Protocol by the Senate some years ago.
It is essential to keep in mind that climate change is caused by factors such as solar activity, the heating or cooling of the oceans, cloud formation and activity, and volcanic activity. Human beings have absolutely no “control” over these climate factors.
The vast bulk of the Earth’s surface isn’t inhabited, despite the fact there are six billion humans extant. Humans and other animals’ lives depend on the oxygen we breathe. We exhale carbon dioxide. The Earth’s vegetation benefits from the carbon dioxide as the essential element it requires for growth. And yet there are people in government and elsewhere that will tell you that CO2 is a greenhouse gas or even a “pollutant” that is bad for the Earth.
Some of those people are in Congress and these days it is, in the words of Business Week reporter, John Carey “awash in carbon-capping bills and proposals from Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Jim Jeffords (I-VT), Tom Carper (D-DE), John Kerry (D-MA), and others. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) plans to introduce legislation on the first day of the next session of Congress.”
Perversely, they will find support from the utility industry that would prefer regulatory certainty. This has nothing to do with the dubious, often duplicitous, science of global warming and everything to do with running a business. Similarly, the agricultural lobby will no doubt support this legislation in order to benefit from crops used to make ethanol, a gasoline additive that actually and grotesquely costs more to produce and provides less energy per use.
Finally, these proposed regulations to cap emissions are immediately nullified by the obvious fact that other nations such as India and China, with a billion people each, will not be joining this fraudulent effort. We could shut down all energy use in America without having any affect even if the false assertions about global warming were true.
The proposed legislation must be stopped before Congress in its stupidity imposes it. Previous Congresses thought Prohibition and the War on Poverty were good ideas. If you think life in America is expensive today, you have no idea how that cost will increase if global warming “controls” are imposed.