Mar. 13, 2007: Global Warming-Think for yourself

Kyoto, Global Warming, Environment

Sun, not us causing warming -- Lorne Gunter column...

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=3147&mforum=elwoodpdowd

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.ht
ml?id=551bfe58-882f-4889-ab76-5ce1e02dced7

Global Warming on Mars, Pluto, Triton and Jupiter strongly points towards the Sun or Some other cosmic force being the cause of the recent global warming on Earth. , Mar. 4, 2007 -- There are quotations from scientists and a video

seoblackhat.com/2007/03/04/
global-warming-on-mars-pluto-triton-and-jupiter/

And at the end ...

[....] “But there is a more sinister side to this feeding frenzy. Scientists who dissent from the alarmism have seen their grant funds disappear, their work derided, and themselves libeled as industry stooges, scientific hacks or worse. Consequently, lies about climate change gain credence even when they fly in the face of the science that supposedly is their basis.”

– MIT Professor Richard Lindzen

Watch this video of Richard Lindzen and tell me he’s just some crackpot:

Oilpatch besieged by climate drive -- Rules, costs mount , Jon Harding and Claudia Cattano, Financial Post, March 10, 2007

www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.ht
ml?id=e961e018-f50e-41c0-94aa-3de2128b9779&k=20400

CALGARY - The Canadian oilpatch is being bombarded by so many new costs -- primarily linked to climate change -- it is in danger of being stifled and growth plans could be put on hold, it was claimed yesterday.

Pierre Alvarez, head of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said the Alberta and federal governments are taking aim at oil and gas companies. .... The hurdles include:

- The Alberta government announced on Thursday it accelerated implementation of the country's first carbon dioxide emissions management law. It involves having Alberta's top 100 industrial facilities reduce the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions by 12% starting on July 1. Those who can't meet the new regulations by becoming more efficient have to pay $15 per tonne for every tonne they produce above the target, money that will go into a provincial fund. [....]

review of royalty rates ...

- Ottawa is talking about eliminating the accelerated capital cost allowance, a tax measure allowing oilsands projects to recover their capital costs faster in the early years. [....]

The Great Global Warming Swindle

www.channel4.com/science/microsites/G/
great_global_warming_swindle/index.ht
ml?intcmp=homepage_box3

Channel 4, Thursday 8 March, 9pm [There is a tinyurl link to watch the videos -- see below.]

Are you green? How many flights have you taken in the last year? Feeling guilty about all those unnecessary car journeys? Well, maybe there's no need to feel bad.
According to a group of scientists brought together by documentary-maker Martin Durkin, if the planet is heating up, it isn't your fault and there's nothing you can do about it.

We've almost begun to take it for granted that climate change is a man-made phenomenon. But just as the environmental lobby think they've got our attention, a group of naysayers have emerged to slay the whole premise of global warming.
[....]

Another source: tinyurl.com/2j63qw -- The Great Global Warming Swindle videos

[list of videos]

The Great Global Warming Swindle
1 hr 16 min
The Great Global Warming Swindle
Channel 4
1 hr 14 min
BBC Documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle
British TV, Channel 4
1 hr 14 min

The emperor’s green new clothes , March 9, 2007, via newsbeat1

www.melaniephillips.com/diary/?p=1467

Channel Four’s devastating documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle has blown an enormous hole in every fundamental claim made to support the climate change obsession — including the claim that the argument is over. A procession of eminent scientists — climatologists, meteorologists, oceanographers, geologists, biogeographers, astrophysicists, professors of earth science, plus the former head of Greenpeace, who said that the global warming proponents were ‘anti-human’ — showed on the contrary that the theory bore no relation to science whatsoever. The earth was much warmer during many periods in the past; the ice caps were always expanding and contracting and Greenland was much warmer 1,000 years ago; most of the atmosphere was not warming as much as surface temperatures; volcanoes, animals and vegetation each produced infinitely more carbon dioxide than human activity; carbon dioxide could not possibly be the culprit for climate change since historically the warming of the atmosphere preceded any increases in carbon dioxide, thus showing up a central claim made by Al Gore in his movie to be utter rubbish; and so on.

Moreover, they also testified that the computer models which produced all the forecasts of climate apocalypse were rigged [....]

Gore gored pdf , 16 November 2006 -- or a cached copy here with an introduction by Viscount Monckton of Brenchley

www.cei.org/pdf/5632.pdf

[It begins with a quotation from Monckton]

Gentle reader,
In this commentary on Al Gore’s Sunday Telegraph article of 19 November 2006 responding to my articles of 5 and 12 November on climate change, Gore’s full text is full-out in Roman face. Comments are indented in bold face. Readers may check the elementary calculations with a scientific calculator. The calculations use the simple formulae provided by the UN as derivations from the complex atmosphere-ocean general-circulation computer models upon which it heavily relies in the absence of hard, climatic data. References to scientific papers in support of the commentary are listed at the end.
Monckton of Brenchley

A FORMER colleague of mine in the US Senate, the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, once said, “Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts.” I was reminded of this upon reading the Viscount Monckton of Brenchley’s two submissions to the Sunday Telegraph. That global warming is likely to cause harm rather than good is an opinion, to which Gore is entitled. That there is no scientific consensus as to the rightness of that opinion is a fact, to which all are entitled. .... Of the emails, about one-third were from scientists in climate physics and related fields, including tenured professors, solar physicists, forestry specialists, government environmental scientists, and even a particle-physicist from CERN reporting its upcoming research to test the theories of Svensmark et al. (2006) about cosmic rays and cloud formation, suggesting a considerably larger role for the Sun in warming than the UN allows. About 95% of the 500 emails I received, and very nearly all the emails from scientists, were strongly supportive of the conclusions which I had reached: namely, that global warming is probably harmless, and that, if not, even if we in the UK stopped using energy altogether the effect on future temperature would be negligible.

To begin with, there is a reason why new scientific research is peer-reviewed and then published in journals such as Science, Nature, and the Geophysical Research Letters, rather than the broadsheets. The process is designed to ensure that trained scientists review the framing of the questions that are asked, the research and methodologies used to pursue the answers offered, and even, in some cases, to monitor the funding of the laboratories – all in order to ensure that errors and biases are detected and corrected before reaching the public. [....]

[Page 16]

Conclusion
ALL TEN of the propositions listed below must be proven true if the climate-change “consensus” is to be regarded as true. We conclude as follows:
Proposition
Conclusion
1. That the debate is over and all credible climate scientists are agreed.
Demonstrably false
2. That temperature has risen above millennial variability and is exceptional.
Very unlikely
3. That changes in solar irradiance are an insignificant forcing mechanism.
Demonstrably false
4. That the last century’s increases in temperature are correctly measured.
Unlikely
5. That greenhouse-gas increase is the main forcing agent of temperature.
Not proven
6. That temperature will rise far enough to do more harm than good.
Very unlikely
7. That continuing greenhouse-gas emissions will be very harmful to life.
Unlikely
8. That proposed carbon-emission limits would make a definite difference.
Very unlikely
9. That the environmental benefits of remediation will be cost-effective.
Very unlikely
10. That taking precautions, just in case, would be the responsible course.
Demonstrably false
References [....]

Gaia Theory , James Lovelock, February 2003

www.channel4.com/science/micro
sites/S/science/nature/gaia.html



Charles Clover's weekly column which takes an inside look at the environment.
Looking at the clouds from both sides , Mar. 2, 2007

www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/
main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/03/02/nearth02.xml

Clouds undoubtedly play an important dual role in regulating the Earth's climate — they both reflect light back into space in the daytime and keep the nights warmer. None of these effects is unknown – people have been studying them since the 1970s. The vital question is whether cosmic rays are the major factor in cloud formation, as Svensmark would like us to believe.

If cosmic rays are the dominant influence on climate, as Svensmark and Calder speculate, the 2,500 scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change may have to revise their recent findings that man-made influences are 90 per cent likely to be the explanation for the warming we are seeing.

Will this happen? I don't think so – for three reasons.

There are many more articles under this heading if you go to CEI and search further for “alternate response”

COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
The Heated Energy Debate
Assessing John Holdren’s Attack on Bjørn Lomborg’s The Skeptical Environmentalist
By Robert L. Bradley, Jr.
President, Institute for Energy Research -- or here posted by GTAsprawl

cei.org/pdf/3539.pdf

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=2911&mforum=elwoodpdowd

There is enough commentary in reviews for sceptics to use their own heads.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming (and Environmentalism) (Paperback)

www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/1596985011/ref=
s9_asin_image_3/104-0334018-2051933

# Publisher: Regnery Publishing, Inc. (February 12, 2007)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 1596985011
# ISBN-13: 978-1596985018

Book Description
This latest installment in the P.I.G. series provides a provocative, entertaining, and well-documented expose of some of the most shamelessly politicized pseudo-science we are likely to see in our relatively cool lifetimes.

From the Inside Flap

"Global warming": the Left's last best chance to gain a stranglehold on our political system and economy

For decades, environmentalism has been the Left's best excuse for increasing government control over our actions in ways both large and small. It's for Mother Earth! It's for the children! It's for the whales! But until now, the doomsday-scenario environmental scares they've trumped up haven't been large enough to justify the lifestyle restrictions they want to impose. With global warming, however, greenhouse gasbags can argue that auto emissions in Ohio threaten people in Paris, and that only "global governance" (Jacques Chirac's words) can tackle such problems.


Now, in The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to Global Warming and Environmentalism, Christopher C. Horner tears the cover off the Left's manipulation of environmental issues for political purposes--and lays out incontrovertible evidence for the fact that catastrophic man-made global warming is just more Chicken-Little hysteria, not actual science. He explains why, although Al Gore and his cronies among the media elites and UN globalists endlessly bleat that "global warming" is an unprecedented global crisis, they really think of it as a dream come true. It's the ideal scare campaign for those who hate capitalism and love big government. For, as Horner explains, if global warming really were as bad as the Leftist doomsayers insist it is, then no policy imaginable could "solve" it. According to the logic of the greens' own numbers, no matter how much we sacrifice there would still be more to do. That makes global warming the bottomless well of excuses for the relentless growth of big government. [....]

20 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
Step out of the right-left paradigm..., February 28, 2007
Reviewer: Daniel Colman "Danielsun"

I am a college student .... I was convinced that man was significantly accelerating Global Warming and anyone who disagreed was motivated by politcal or economical ambitions. Since reading this book however, I have been questioning everything. I love dissent, for it is what makes good science and a good democracy for that matter. Furthermore I am suspicious of anyone who tries to silence debate. [....]

27 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
Destroys "Man-Made" Global Warming Theory, February 28, 2007
Reviewer: Scott Dow "God's Gift Is Your Intellect - Use It In All Matters" ...

This book is chock full of well-researched and documented facts concerning global warming - a natural cycle that has been happening on Earth for . . . ever.

[....] The Left has its own warped view of many subjects, global warming being only one, and no amount of reason, logic or intellectual discourse will make them change how they "feel" or turn them from their fanatic belief in their new religion.

[....] following their own high-priest of global warming - a failed ex-politician who is making a fortune on the backs of his moronic followers.

They also, again with a straight face, talk about "deniers" who get paid by "big oil" while ignoring the fact that environmental organizations survive by exploiting and, at times, making up doomsday crises to generate a big fund-raising payday from the same "useful idiots" that Lenin (not Lennon, for you libs - Lenin) described so accurately and used so effectively.

And, yes. There is no doubt that the environmental movement is the new clandestine home of socialism/communism/marxism. U.N. control, international rules and regulations, penalties and taxes payable to the U.N., etc. And the U.S. is the target of it all. Don't fall for it.

... decide for yourself what makes more sense and what you will believe.

Via Small Dead Animals February 27, 2007 -- DailyGut.com -- JimTreacher.com

www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/005666.html
www.dailygut.com/?i=2172
jimtreacher.com/archives/001472.html

"Is it that evil right wingers don't understand [carbon offsets]..." "Or that they don't buy it?

[....] "And you're not even planting them yourself, you're buying 'carbon offsets' from somebody who tells you they're being planted so you can feel better about yourself. Where are these trees being planted? By whom? How long will it take for these miraculous fast-growing trees to counteract your wastefulness? Hurry!"

(Personally, I want to be on the same side as the guy who wrote this (warning: extremely rude & offensive in every possible way, shape and form), right or wrong, rather than that of boring old Suzuki.)

Very Political Science -- The scientific tradition of dispassionate objectivity is fast becoming a thing of the past , Ted Byfield - February 26, 2007

www.westernstandard.ca/website/
index.cfm?page=article&article_id=2323

Scientists should temper the language with which they warn us of the perils of global warming, writes a Toronto columnist, because they're starting to sound more like politicians. ....

[....] Science portrays itself as above human emotion. It's strictly concerned with scientifically demonstrable truth. That factor provides its credibility.

It doesn't support causes, hold dogmas, run crusades, merchandise or advertise. It isn't out to save the world. It simply says, "Here's the truth, and here's the evidence," then bows serenely into the background. That was the tradition.
Not anymore. [....]

"Is this global warming stuff for real or just nonsense?" one might ask. "Nonsense?" comes the gasping reply. "It's the scientists who are saying this, mister. THE SCIENTISTS!" [with tongue firmly in cheek ....]

Mar. 6, 2007: IPY & UArctic & Studies

University of the Arctic or UArctic

www.uarctic.org/Frontpage.aspx?m=3

The CBC article on the environment

www.cbc.ca/technology/
quirks-blog/2007/03/polar_peril.html

The United Nations International Polar Year [www.ipy.org/] kicked off this week, and Canada [www.ipy-api.ca/english] leads the effort with 2,000 scientists supported by $150-million from the federal government, more than any participating nation. Finally, the Cryosphere [nsidc.org/cryosphere - The National Snow and Ice Data Center] , the realm of ice on the planet, is getting the attention it deserves. [....]

Results from the recent Arctic Climate Impact Study [www.amap.no/acia] show that the Arctic Ocean will be ice-free during the summer, all the way to the pole, in less than 50 years. [That is disputed by many scientists.]

That led to: Arctic Climate Impact Assessment -- Overview Report in four languages ... Saami, Norwebian, Russian ... -- tinyurl.com/2qzybe

amap.no/documents/index.cfm?dirsub=
%2FACIA%20Overview%20
Reports&sort=default

Remember then Governor General Adrienne Clarkson's Circumpolar Tour, a member of which was the Inuit activist and "environmental expert" Sheila Watt-Cloutier, along with approximately 55 others favoured by Her Excellency or the Liberal government of the day (Sept. 2003?). What was the purpose? It seems to have had more import and impact, perhaps, than simply flying around the Polar regions on an official visit. Why the polar regions? Read further and come to your own conclusions. What was that land claim that Andy Scott settled outside of Parliament and did it have anything to do with the optimism toward the bottom of this post?

An international project of the Arctic Council [www.arctic-council.org/] and the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), to evaluate and synthesize knowledge on climate variability, climate change, and increased ultraviolet radiation and their consequences. The results of the assessment were released at the ACIA International Scientific Symposium held in Reykjavik, Iceland in November 2004.

The Arctic Council is a high-level intergovernmental forum. The members are Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Russian Federation, Sweden, and the United States of America. IASC is a non-governmental organization that facilitates cooperation in all aspects of arctic research in all countries engaged in arctic research and in all areas of the arctic region.

[....] Permanent Participants [....]

* Aleut International Association
* Arctic Athabaskan Council
* Gwich'in Council International
* Inuit Circumpolar Conference
* Saami Council [Consider the possible implications; then check below.]
* Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North

The address given:

Indigenous Peoples Secretariat
http://www.arcticpeoples.org/
P.O. Box 2151, Strandgade 91, 4th floor
DK - 1016 Copenhagen

Further research elicited: cyberus, acuns
acuns@cyberus.ca
www.uottawa.ca/associations/aucen-acuns [no longer of use - defunct? Or behind a firewall?]

Member of the Circumpolar Universities Association -- a trans-national network
www.arctic.uit.no/cua_secr/Lib/inst02.html

Course Announcements
www.cyberus.ca/~acuns/ethics.html

[IASSA = International Arctic Social Sciences Association]

UArctic or University of the Arctic: Bachelor of Circumpolar Studies 322 1 -- or here

uarctic.org/BCS322_mod11_3evXS.pdf.file

Key Terms and Concepts

• indigenous intellectual property rights

• indigenous self-determination

• participatory research

• codes of conduct/codes of ethics for research

• informed consent [....]

It might be of interest to see what this includes and where it is leading. For that, check some of the funding awards and some samples of the research. Note oral history, language, personal experiences, qualitative research, constructivist approach, how the Saami influence our own natives, along with a treaty which changes ... something or other, compared to other treaties. There is UN involvement, as well.

Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights [This may be related to the UN Protocol on Protecting Cultural Diversity - See FHTR the week of Jan. 29, 2006]

According to standard-setting documents formulated by indigenous peoples, “indigenous cultural and intellectual property rights [refer] to such things as indigenous art, songs, poetry, literature, biological and medical knowledge, ecological knowledge and environmental management practices, and other aspects and expressions of indigenous cultural heritage” (Simpson 1997, 18). Indigenous peoples’ use of intellectual property law is linked to the fact that states have been put under pressure to protect intellectual property, within a Western, legalistic tradition. However, the terminology and concepts of such legislation are quite alien to indigenous ways of thought. “Property” is not a universally recognized concept, especially not under its aspect of individual rights that can be alienated and sold. Likewise, the distinction between “cultural” and “intellectual” is reductionist and not necessarily relevant outside the legal context. The whole issue is framed in concepts originating in Western property law and legal systems. Dr. Erica-Irene Daes, who has long been chairperson of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations (WGIP) (which convenes every summer in Geneva), has suggested that “indigenous heritage” would be a more “simple and appropriate” expression than “indigenous cultural and intellectual property rights” (cited in Simpson 1997, 20).

The work of ethnographers .... has been done without seeking the consent .... In the last decades of the twentieth century, some aspects of indigenous knowledge have also emerged as commodities of increasing economic value to non-indigenous peoples. In this context, indigenous peoples of the circumpolar North have voiced their concerns about the unauthorized appropriation of their heritage by outsiders and the commodification of this heritage without their control. [....]

Canada
Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies, ACUNS [www.cyberus.ca/~acuns/] However, the website(s) mentioned for Canada is defunct but there is another possibility via Thompson River University

Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) ... -- or Thompson Rivers University - TRU - formerly University of the Cariboo or Cariboo University

www.tru.ca/finance/pro_manual/research_in
dex/research_grt_agencies.html

Handbook of Opportunities pdf

www.gov.nu.ca/education/eng/css/curr/10-12/
Aulajaaqtut/Handbook%20of%20
Opportunities/Handbk_of_Opp.pdf

Some samples of studies subsumed under "science":

Science Award Recipients 2005-2006

Title: Bringing History Home: Digital Media and the Repatriation of Cultural Knowledge in Northern Athabaskan Communities

The issue of repatriation is usually connected to the return of cultural artifacts and human remains by museums to source communities. However, through ethnographic fieldwork and multimedia projects .... examine the role of digital archives and multimedia as tools for the repatriation of language materials and cultural documentation, such as photographs, film, and audio and video recordings. My research will compare the ways in which four Athabaskan communities ... are making use of digital media. Using methods of participatory ethnography while facilitating community media projects as a videographer, trainer, and multimedia producer, I will document the ways that new technologies (visual documentation and multimedia) are used to represent aspects of native culture and language by different agents such as community members, academics, and government institutions.

These communities differ significantly in their historical experiences with residential schools and with land claims. They offer a unique opportunity to study how current approaches to the use of technology are influenced by earlier attitudes towards literacy and increasing political awareness derived from land claims. At the community level, my research will make a significant contribution to the creation of multimedia resources that are focused on the needs and knowledge systems of northern indigenous people, minimalizing the orientation towards urban Euro-Canadian practices in developing new media for First Nations communities. On a more general level, my research will examine the potential for digital archives and multimedia to aid in the reconstitution of wider socio-economic, political and authority practices and evaluate the impact of such new technology on the socially contended roles of northern native and non-native Canadians. [....]

Title: The Perspectives of Inuit Women on Their Health and Well-being in a Nunavut Community: A Qualitative Study

[....] The study will utilize participatory action qualitative health research methods to interview community members in Iqaluit, Nunavut. ... opportunity to participate directly in the study by sharing their knowledge and providing their perspectives on the research question. ....

... important to both acknowledge the skills and support systems .... Key Inuit organizations in Nunavut, such as the Qulliit Nunavut Status of Women Council and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association have been consulted during the proposal process and given an opportunity to provide feedback on the topic and nature of the research study. [....]

Title: Gathering Stories for Community-Based Environmental Contaminants Research: A Partnership of the Moose Cree First Nation and Environmental Toxicologists

Through interviews with MCFN members, stories will be gathered for examination from both an indigenous cultural perspective and a toxicological (western science) perspective. The people of the MCFN are interested in exploring how their knowledge can be complemented with western science to identify environmental factors that may be contributing to a decline in the health of their people. ....

Our research team consists of the MCFN community, an environmental toxicologist, an environmental fate expert ....

Title: Prevalence of Gonococcal and Chlamydial Infections in an Inuit Community, Identifying Gender Differences in: Social Networks, Risk Perception and Health Services Utilization

Title: Ice, Through Inuit Eyes: Contributions of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit to sea ice and climate science in the Canadian Arctic

.... gain a better understanding of the importance of sea ice to Inuit culture and identity; ....

Title: Historical, biophysical and cultural basis of revegetation in Whapmagoostui-Kuujjuarapik, subarctic Québec.

The vegetation cover at Whapmagoostui-Kuujjuarapik was destroyed by the building of a military base in 1955. Since then, it has never succeeded in regenerating itself completely and shows generalized degradation. The incapacity of the vegetation cover to return to its original state is explained in part by the rigour of the subarctic climate, and the demographic pressure combined with the anarchical use of all-terrain vehicles. ....

-to study the inhabitants’ perception of the vegetation cover, of its degradation and of its restoration ....


Speech Language Pathology

Title: Using Maximum Length Sequences in Auditory Brainstem Response to Assess Auditory Processing Disorder

Of interest also was the direction in which the studies appeared to be moving; there appears to be much social science, as opposed to "hard" science.

2006-07 Awards
www.acuns.ca/cnst06-07rec.htm

Title: Adapting to Environmental Change in the North: Linking Traditional Knowledge, Social Capital, and Adaptive Capacity in the Slave River Delta

.... My research project has evolved through collaboration with the local Dene Band after members expressed interest in implementing a people-focused project to parallel ongoing paleohydrological research. Through an examination of the relationship between change and human responses, I am focusing specifically on the contributions of traditional knowledge and social capital. The objectives of this study are to: a) develop a framework of trends and indicators of environmental change, impacts and adaptations based on traditional knowledge, ....

Education

Title: Indigenous Higher Education in Canada’s Western Arctic: An Inuvialuit Perspective.

As a result of my thirty-five years residency at Inuvik, NWT,.... transformation among the Inuvialuit people living within the Inuvialuit Settlement Region.

This proposed research is qualitative, with constructivist assumptions, utilizing a critical auto-ethnographic theory of inquiry. My methods will comprise use of open-ended questions in select interviews with elders combined with utilization of my field observations. My primary sources will be Inuvialuit (Inuit) and Gwich’in (Dene) oral histories (current and past), documentary sources from diaries, archives and personal collections, and print sources (indigenous and non-indigenous government publications). Secondary sources ....

The second time frame, 1973-78 .... their [sic] emerged a mainstream type of public adult education that consisted of programs of individual vocational skill development and English language literacy. From the Inuvialuit perspective, these adult education initiatives were no longer community/ family generated from within by Inuvialuit chiefs/ leaders but imposed by outside educational agents (Government of Canada; Government of the Northwest Territories).

Education

Title: Envisioning Alternative Education for Northern Indigenous Students
My doctoral research will focus on Alternative Education for Northern Aboriginal Students, with the main focus on high school students. ....

1. Why is the current education system unsuccessful for a large number of students?
2. What would constitute a more successful education system?

I will be using a qualitative approach because of its flexible nature, the possibility for rich data collection and the ability to follow wherever data lead. The research process will be based in constructivist grounded theory, with focus groups and interviews as main modes of data collection. [....]

Land Claims and Nunatsiavut

Title: The Nunatsiavut land claim agreement: towards a culturally sustainable future for the Inuit of Labrador

.... Not only has the newly ratified Nunatsiavut land claim agreement changed the geopolitical landscape of Canada as a whole, but it provides the foundations through which the Labrador Inuit can finally recognize their claims to self-government and territorial sovereignty. .... This project will look at the principles and stipulations that make up the treaty’s body, and show how its foundations provide for the cultural security of the Inuit people. More specifically, I want to show the evolution of modern Inuit treaties in Canada by emphasizing on how Nunatsiavut differs from earlier treaties (like Nunavut)....

Finally, the paper will focus on how the treaty attempts to realize Inuit concerns for cultural protection, with language retention and cultural education being paid close attention to. ....

Impact of the Saami

Nunavut Teacher Education Program, Nunavut Arctic College
Title: How to prepare caribou skins for different purposes.

A century has passed and a new beginning has started, today the Inuit people are reclaiming their traditional way of preparing and sewing hunting clothing though programs that are geared towards teaching those who are interested on how to prepare and sew caribou skins and other skins and pelts; ....

[....]

Title: Sami self government in Northern Europe: an example for northern Canadian Aboriginals

.... the Sami have their own parliament, there own government structure, and a great deal of land and hunting rights across their tradition territory ....

Language

Title: The Visual and Aural Representations of the Cultural Geography of the Yukon-Alaska Borderland

The purpose of this project is to expand existing documentation of the cultural geography of the Yukon-Alaska borderlands through the integration of photographs and recordings of pronunciation of place which bear Athapaskan names within an existing geographical and textual database. ....

The Upper Tanana Dineh Place Names Dadtbase [sic] currently contains documentation of 647 named localities along the borderlands from the White River, Yukon, to Tanacross, Alaska. It exists in several formats (print, PDF and ArcView GIS and Filemaker databases). The Yukon Native Language Centre at Yukon College and Easton both hold photograpsh and aural recordings of many of these places. My work will integrate these photos and recordings direcly into the Filemaker database. Users of the database will then be able to see a visual representation of the place and hear an expert speaker pronounce the name of the place in the Upper Tanana language. ....

Indigenous Cultures in Digital Cultures

www.arsc.edu/news/indigenous_cultures.html

Spring Training: Workshops for EMACS, MATLAB®, and IDL

www.arsc.edu/support/training/SpringTraining2007.html

Feb. 28, 2007: Global Warming

Environment , Global Warming

NOT THAT SIMPLE
GLOBAL WARMING: WHAT WE DON'T KNOW , By ROY W. SPENCER, February 26, 2007 via newsbeat1

www.nypost.com/seven/02262007/postopinion/oped
columnists/not_that_simple_opedcolumnists_roy_w__spencer.htm

The media is, almost by definition, most interested in extreme views on the issue, so reporting seldom reveals that broad scientific uncertainty still exists.

Feb. 26, 2007: Strong: Environmental Guru

UN Maurice Strong Environment Kyoto

At the United Nations, the Curious Career of Maurice Strong , By Claudia Rosett and George Russell, February 08, 2007


www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,250789,00.html

NEW YORK — Before the United Nations can save the planet, it needs to clean up its own house. And as scandal after scandal has unfolded over the past decade, from Oil for Food to procurement fraud to peacekeeper rape, the size of that job has become stunningly clear.

But any understanding of the real efforts that job entails should begin with a look at the long and murky career of Maurice Strong, the man who may have had the most to do with what the U.N. has become today, and still sparks controversy even after he claims to have cut his ties to the world organization.

From Oil for Food to the latest scandals involving U.N. funding in North Korea, Maurice Strong appears as a shadowy and often critically important figure.

Strong, now 77, is best known as the godfather of the environmental movement, who served from 1973-1975 as the founding director of the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) in Nairobi. UNEP is now a globe-girdling organization with a yearly budget of $136 million, which claims to act as the world’s environmental conscience. Strong consolidated his eco-credentials as the organizer of the U.N.’s 1992 environmental summit in Rio de Janeiro, which in turn paved the way for the controversial 1997 Kyoto Treaty on controlling greenhouse gas emissions. [....]

Detailed, lengthy and definitely worth reading.

Feb. 26, 2007: Friends of Science Org

Note the comments.

Feb. 23, 2007: Poll, Climate Change, Diane Francis

Polls hide the truth about climate change
Questions should ask what we're prepared to give up ,
Diane Francis, Financial Post, Published: Friday, February 23, 2007

www.canada.com/nationalpost/columnists/story.html?id=
c7bb1f82-14f7-4ae5-9c6a-9dc2306affee

Canadians, like Americans and others living in developed countries, always tell pollsters they are concerned about protecting the environment. But this is like being asked if you are in favour of apple pie and motherhood. Of course you are. But that's not the point.

The real question that pollsters, and politicians, should put to the public is how big is your footprint and how much are you prepared to shrink it to protect the environment? The answer? Very little.

Another problem is that the media, and public and professional activists,....

The zealots, and ill-informed media, have found a new "lede" to get public attention for their cause. They would have us believe it's all about capitalism and fat cats and Big Oil. But it's not.

And here are the questions I would like pollsters to ask anyone who answers that they believe that protecting the environment should be a political priority. [....]

Diane, excellent, as usual. Read her list.