Thursday, July 08, 2004

WATER IN THE DESERT IS BAD?

Israel's hydrological genius (he finds water when no-one else can) speaks:

"If you compare the archaeology of civilisations with the evidence of past climates you find that almost all major historical change in the Middle East has been the result of big changes in climate. When the climate becomes cooler the deserts get wetter, the land blooms and civilisations flourish. People came from the north bringing copper around 4000 BC, bronze around 2500 BC and iron in 1000 BC. But in between there were periods of aridity and crisis when the civilisations collapsed.

Q: That sounds a bit deterministic. What's the evidence?

Yes, this sort of environmental determinism isn't very popular. Historians and archaeologists put all the blame for historical catastrophes on human society. For instance, they blame the Sumerians in Mesopotamia for poisoning their soils with salt by over-irrigating them around 2000 BC. But we now know the climate became warmer and drier then, so they ran out of water to flush the soil clean. The Arabs were blamed for turning the Middle East into desert after the 7th century, when the real culprit was, climate. We can see this from the fact that lake levels fell all across the Middle East at the same times as civilisations failed. Also changes in oxygen isotopes in lake deposits and stalagmites show how the climate changed.

Q: Your views are controversial among environmentalists as well, aren't they?

Yes. I want to plant the deserts with trees, but I find environmentalists are like religious fundamentalists who don't want change. They cannot imagine another landscape from the one we have now. They say we should preserve the desert in the Negev. But we know that 2000 years ago it was wetter, and people farmed there. There were agricultural terraces and systems for channelling floods onto fields. So yes, I think we should plant the deserts with trees. The trees will soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Most deserts have fossil water beneath them that could be used. Again, people say we shouldn't use fossil water because it won't be replaced. But I say if fossil fuel created the problem, then it is not unreasonable to use fossil water to help solve it. This water will last for centuries. But the planners here agree with the environmentalists and want to leave the desert as it is."




THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC GOES POLITICAL

It's very sad the way the global warming myth has politicized lots of scientists. Drama beats facts hands down. It appears that The National Geographic is the latest publication to be corrupted by pseudo-science.




THE EVIL DHMO

I have mentioned this fun site before but here is an excerpt from their front page:

"Welcome to the web site for the Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division (DMRD), currently located in Newark, Delaware. The controversy surrounding dihydrogen monoxide has never been more widely debated, and the goal of this site is to provide an unbiased data clearinghouse and a forum for public discussion.

Explore our many Special Reports, including the DHMO FAQ, a definitive primer on the subject, plus reports on the environment, cancer, current research, and an insider expos, about the use of DHMO in the dairy industry".

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Many people would like to be kind to others so Leftists exploit that with their nonsense about equality. Most people want a clean, green environment so Greenies exploit that by inventing all sorts of far-fetched threats to the environment. But for both, the real motive is to promote themselves as wiser and better than everyone else, truth regardless.

Comments? Email me or here. My Home Page is here or here. For times when blogger.com is playing up, there is a mirror of this site (viewable even in China!) here

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