PLEASE NOTE:


*

CCNet TERRA 8/2003 -  12 February 2003 2003
-------------------------------------------

"We note that the warming of the late 1970s to late 1990s, which
returned much of the world to the level of warmth experienced during
the 1930s and 1940s, may well be about to end. In fact, Chavez et al.
cite much evidence that indicates a change from El Viejo to La Vieja
conditions may already be in progress. If this is indeed true, we could well
see global temperatures begin to drop in the very near future."
--CO2 Science Magazine, 12 February 2003


"Lomborg is by no means a towering intellect or authority. But
'undermining public understanding' and 'perverting the scientific
message' are nasty, catch-all charges that should have no place in a
scientific court. The conviction by this Danish panel is unfair and
bad for science. It is also bad for the environmentalists who have so
applauded it. Lomborg will now be characterised as the victim of a green
witch-hunt. I fear that his accusers have been guilty of just that."
--Fred Pearce, New Scientist 


(1) COOLING ON THE HORIZON?
    CO2 Science Magazine, 12 February 2003

(2) NEW DOUBTS ABOUT THERMOHALINE "DEEP FREZZE" SCARE
    Geology 2003, Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 67-70.

(3) ARCTIC GLACIERS: ARE THEY MELTING?
    CO2 Science Magazine, 12 February 2003

(4) A 500-YEAR HISTORY OF DROUGHT IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST, USA
    CO2 Science Magazine, 12 February 2003

(5) UK MAY FAIL ON CO2 CUTS
    BBC News Online, 12 February 2003

(6) GLOBAL WARMING SCARE TRIGGERS NUCLEAR POWER PUSH IN UK
    BBC News Online, 10 February 2003

(7) COMMENT ON GLIKSON LETTER TO CCNET (1/30/03)
    S. Fred Singer <singer@sepp.org>

(8) RISK ASSESSORS
    John Michael Williams <jwill@AstraGate.net>

(9) AND FINALLY: FORGET BIODIVERSITY SCARES - GENETIC ENGINEERING WILL
RECREATE EXTINCT SPECIES
    Discovery.com, 10 February 2003

==========
(1) COOLING ON THE HORIZON?

>From CO2 Science Magazine, 12 February 2003
http://www.co2science.org/journal/2003/v6n7c1.htm

Reference
Chavez, F.P., Ryan, J., Lluch-Cota, S.E. and Niquen C., M. 2003. From
anchovies to sardines and back: multidecadal change in the Pacific Ocean.
Science 299: 217-221.

What was done
The authors "review physical and biological fluctuations with periods of
about 50 years that are particularly prominent in the Pacific Ocean."
Parameters studied include air and ocean temperatures, atmospheric CO2
concentration, landings of anchovies and sardines, and the productivity of
coastal and open ocean ecosystems.

What was learned
The authors find that "sardine and anchovy fluctuations are associated with
large-scale changes in ocean temperatures: for 25 years, the Pacific is
warmer than average (the warm, sardine regime) and then switches to cooler
than average for the next 25 years (the cool, anchovy regime." They also
report that "instrumental data provide evidence for two full cycles: cool
phases from about 1900 to 1925 and 1950 to 1975 and warm phases from about
1925 to 1950 and 1975 to the mid-1990s." These warm and cool regimes, which
they respectively call El Viejo (the old man) and La Vieja (the old woman),
are manifest in myriad similar-scale biological fluctuations that may be
even better indicators of climate change than climate data themselves,
according to the authors.

What it means
The findings of this important study have many ramifications. The one that
we highlight is the challenge the new results present for the detection of
CO2-induced global warming. The authors correctly note, for example, that
data used in climate change projections are "strongly influenced by
multidecadal variability of the sort described here, creating an
interpretive problem." Hence, they conclude that "these large-scale,
naturally occurring variations must be taken into account when considering
human-induced climate change."

In this regard, we note that the warming of the late 1970s to late 1990s,
which returned much of the world to the level of warmth experienced during
the 1930s and 1940s, may well be about to end. In fact, Chavez et al. cite
much evidence that indicates a change from El Viejo to La Vieja conditions
may already be in progress. If this is indeed true, we could well see global
temperatures begin to drop in the very near future.

We also note that the authors remarks about "large-scale, naturally
occurring variations" needing to be considered when looking for
"human-induced climate change" apply equally well to the millennial-scale
climatic oscillation that brought our planet the Roman Warm Period, the
Medieval Warm Period and now, very likely, the Modern Warm Period, which is
something climate alarmists seem especially loath to do.

Copyright © 2003.  Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change


===========
(2) NEW DOUBTS ABOUT THERMOHALINE "DEEP FREZZE" CATASTROPHISM

>From Geology 2003, Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 67-70.
http://www.gsajournals.org/gsaonline/?request=get-document&issn=0091-7613&volume=031&issue=01&page=0067

Synchroneity of meltwater pulse 1a and the Bølling warming: New evidence
from the South China Sea

M. Kienast*
Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British
Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada

T.J.J. Hanebuth
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Geological
Survey of Japan, Institute for Marine Resources and Environment, Higashi
1-1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8567, Japan, and Department of Geosciences,
Bremen University, P.O. Box 330440, 28334 Bremen, Germany

C. Pelejero
Department of Environmental Chemistry, Institute of Chemical and
Environmental Research (CSIC), Jordi Girona 18, 08034 Barcelona, Catalonia,
Spain, and Earth Environment, Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian
National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia

S. Steinke
Institute of Applied Geophysics, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung
20224, Taiwan

ABSTRACT

A twofold decrease in long-chain n-alcane (n-nonacosane) concentrations in a
downcore record from the northern South China Sea indicates a rapid drop in
the supply of terrigenous organic matter to the open South China Sea during
the last deglaciation, paralleled by an equally rapid increase in
sea-surface temperatures, corresponding with the Bølling warming at 14.7 ka.
The sudden drop in terrigenous organic matter delivery to this marginal
basin is interpreted to reflect a short-term response of local rivers to
rapid sea-level rise, strongly implying that the Bølling warming and the
onset of meltwater pulse (MWP) 1a are synchronous. This phase relation
contrasts with the widely cited onset of this MWP 1a ca. 14 ka, and implies
that previous studies postulating a weakening of deep-water formation in the
North Atlantic due to massive meltwater discharge during MWP 1a need to be
reevaluated.

INTRODUCTION

Following the last glaciation, sea level rose extremely rapidly (13.5-24 m
in <290-500 yr) during meltwater pulse (MWP) 1a (Fairbanks, 1989 ; Bard et
al., 1990 ; Blanchon and Shaw, 1995 ; Hanebuth et al., 2000 ). Together with
the Bølling warming, an abrupt rise in Northern Hemisphere air temperature
of at least 5°C within a few decades during the last deglaciation, MWP 1a
arguably represents the most dramatic event in Earth's climate history
during the past 25 k.y., and determining its precise age is of utmost
importance for a mechanistic understanding of the oceanographic,
glaciological, and climatic changes that occurred during the last
deglaciation (Clark et al., 1999 ). Nevertheless, the absolute timing of MWP
1a and its phase relation with the Bølling warming are still debated.
According to the widely accepted chronology and correlation provided by Bard
et al. (1996) , MWP 1a ca. 14 ka corresponds to the Older Dryas, i.e., to
the first major cooling event following the Bølling warming. This would
imply a significant weakening of the thermohaline circulation and its
associated heat transport to the North Atlantic region due to the freshwater
input. Various modeling studies (Stocker et al., 1992 ; Manabe and Stouffer,
1997 ) appear to corroborate a causative coupling of MWP 1a and the Older
Dryas, indicating a cessation of deep-water formation in the North Atlantic
in response to a massive meltwater input. However, Lohmann and Schulz (2000)
suggested that many previous models underestimated overflow over the
Greenland-Scotland Ridge, and showed that meltwater discharge and continued
deep-water formation in the North Atlantic can be reconciled using a new
model that allows for significant deep-water formation in the
Greenland-Iceland-Norwegian Sea. Furthermore, a modeling study by Clark et
al. (2002a) suggests that most of the meltwater during MWP 1a originated
from Antarctica, and not, as previously thought, from the Laurentide ice
sheet. However, the dating of MWP 1a provided by Hanebuth et al. (2000)
shows that the major rise of sea level occurred between 14.7 and 14.3 ka,
i.e., synchronously with the Bølling warming in Greenland ca. 14.7 ± 0.3 ka
(Stuiver and Grootes, 2000 ). This, in turn, would suggest that MWP 1a
coincides with intensifying thermohaline circulation during the Bølling
warming (Clark et al., 2002b ) rather than a slowdown, as postulated earlier
(Bard et al., 1996 ). Here we provide an independent means of establishing
the phase relation between MWP 1a and the Bølling warming, circumventing the
inherent uncertainties of quasi-absolute chronologies and of comparing
independently dated records, e.g., ice core with coral reef (Bard et al.,
1996 ) or siliciclastic shelf (Hanebuth et al., 2000 ) records.

The rapid rise in sea level during MWP 1a led to a rapid retreat of
shorelines around the world (including river mouths) and a sudden flooding
of large parts of exposed shelf areas, and therefore the inundation of the
lower reaches of rivers close to or at the shelf margins. This rapid
transgression of large, shallow areas, most notably in western Pacific
marginal seas, instantaneously provided a rapidly landward-extending and
deepening accumulation space for terrigenous sediment. These conditions
preferentially favored deposition on the shelves and, in turn, led to an
abrupt decrease in the supply of sediment to the outer shelves, the
continental slopes, and the deep sea.....

CONCLUSIONS

A rapid drop in the supply of terrigenous organic matter to the open South
China Sea also corresponds with a rapid increase in sea-surface temperature
during the last deglaciation, corresponding with the Bølling warming at 14.7
ka. This is interpreted to reflect a rapid retrogression of local rivers due
to rapid sea-level rise, strongly implying that the Bølling warming and the
onset of MWP 1a are synchronous. This phase relation contrasts with the
widely cited onset of this MWP 1a ca. 14 ka, and implies that MWP 1a did not
cause a reduction of deep-water formation in the North Atlantic. To the
contrary, following modeling studies by Mikolajewicz (1998) and Seidov et
al. (2001) , Clark et al. (2002c) proposed that an Antarctic source of MWP
1a (Clark et al., 2002a) could have actually caused the intensifying
deep-water formation in the North Atlantic during this time, and the
consequent Bølling warming. Our results demonstrating synchroneity of MWP 1A
with the onset of the Bølling warming provide critical support for this
hypothesis.

© Copyright by Geological Society of America 2003

===========
(3) ARCTIC GLACIERS: ARE THEY MELTING?

>From CO2 Science Magazine, 12 February 2003
http://www.co2science.org/subject/a/summaries/arcticgla.htm

Computer simulations of global climate change have long indicated the
world's polar regions should show the first and severest signs of
CO2-induced global warming.  If the models are correct, these signs should
be especially evident in the second half of the 20th century, when
approximately two-thirds of the modern-era rise in atmospheric CO2 occurred
and earth's temperature supposedly rose, in the view of most climate
alarmists, to a level unprecedented in the entire past millennium.  In this
review, we thus examine historic trends in Arctic glacier behavior to
determine the credibility of current climate models with respect to their
polar predictions.

In a review of "the most current and comprehensive research of Holocene
glaciation," along the northernmost Gulf of Alaska between the Kenai
Peninsula and Yakutat Bay, Calkin et al. (2001) report there were several
periods of glacial advance and retreat over the past 7000 years.  Over the
most recent of those seven millennia, there was a general retreat during the
Medieval Warm Period that lasted for "at least a few centuries prior to A.D.
1200."  Then came three major intervals of Little Ice Age glacial advance:
the early 15th century, the middle 17th century, and the last half of the
19th century.  During these very cold periods, glacier equilibrium-line
altitudes were depressed from 150 to 200 m below present values, as Alaskan
glaciers "reached their Holocene maximum extensions."

Subsequent to this time, as the planet emerged from the depths of the Little
Ice Age, the mass balance records of the 18 Arctic glaciers with the longest
observational histories were studied by Dowdeswell et al. (1997). Their
analysis showed that over 80% of the glaciers displayed negative mass
balances over the periods of their observation, as would logically be
expected for glaciers emerging from the coldest part of the past millennium.
Nevertheless, the scientists report that "ice-core records from the Canadian
High Arctic islands indicate that the generally negative glacier mass
balances observed over the past 50 years [when the vast majority of the CO2
resulting from human activities entered the atmosphere] have probably been
typical of Arctic glaciers since the end of the Little Ice Age [our
italics]," when the magnitude of anthropogenic CO2 emissions was a whole lot
less than it has been from 1950 onward.

These observations suggest that Arctic glaciers are not experiencing any
adverse effects of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. In fact, Dowdeswell et al.
say "there is no compelling indication of increasingly negative balance
conditions which might, a priori, be expected from anthropogenically induced
global warming." Quite to the contrary, they report that "almost 80% of the
mass balance time series also have a positive trend, toward a less negative
mass balance [our italics]."  Hence, although most Arctic glaciers continue
to lose mass, as they have probably done since the end of the Little Ice
Age, they are losing smaller amounts each year, in the mean, which is hardly
what one would expect in the face of what climate alarmists say is happening
to earth's climate.

Additional evidence that the Arctic's glaciers are not responding to
human-induced warming comes from the studies of Zeeberg and Forman (2001)
and Mackintosh et al. (2002), who indicate there has been an expansion of
glaciers in the European Arctic over the past few decades.

Zeeberg and Forman analyzed 20th-century changes in glacier terminus
positions on north Novaya Zemlya -- a Russian island located between the
Barents and Kara Seas in the Arctic Ocean -- providing a quantitative
assessment of the effects of temperature and precipitation on glacial mass
balance.  The results of their study showed a significant and accelerated
post-Little Ice Age glacial retreat in the first and second decades of the
20th century.  By 1952, however, the region's glaciers had experienced
between 75 to 100% of their net 20th-century retreat; and during the next 50
years, the recession of over half of the glaciers stopped, while many
tidewater glaciers actually began to advance.

These glacial stabilizations and advances were attributed by the authors to
observed increases in precipitation and/or decreases in temperature.  For
the four decades since 1961, for example, weather stations on Novaya Zemlya
show summer temperatures were 0.3 to 0.5°C colder than they were over the
prior 40 years, while winter temperatures were 2.3 to 2.8°C colder than they
were over that earlier period.  These observations, the authors say, are
"counter to warming of the Eurasian Arctic predicted for the twenty-first
century by climate models, particularly for the winter season"

Other glacier observations that run counter to climate model predictions are
discussed by Mackintosh et al. (2002), who concentrated on the 300-year
history of the Solheimajokull outlet glacier on the southern coast of
Iceland.  In 1705, this glacier had a length of about 14.8 km; and by 1740
it had grown to 15.2 km in length.  Thereafter, it began to retreat,
reaching a minimum length of 13.2 km in 1783.  Rebounding rapidly, however,
the glacier returned to its 1705 position by 1794; and by 1820 it equaled
its 1740 length.  This maximum length was maintained for the next
half-century, after which the glacier began a slow retreat that continued to
about 1932, when its length was approximately 14.75 km.  Then it wasted away
more rapidly, reaching a second minimum-length value of approximately 13.8
km about 1970, whereupon it began to rapidly expand, growing to 14.3 km by
1995.

The current position of the outlet glacier terminus is by no means unusual.
In fact, it is about midway between its maximum and minimum positions of the
past three centuries.  It is also interesting to note that the glacier has
been growing in length since about 1970.  In addition, Mackintosh et al.
report that "the recent advance (1970-1995) resulted from a combination of
cooling and enhancement of precipitation."

Taken together, these observations from high northern latitudes, where
CO2-induced global warming is supposed to be most evident, provide no
evidence for that dreaded phenomenon.  In fact, they suggest that nothing
out of the ordinary is occurring at all.  Hence, we once again have a
situation where the predictions of today's best climate models fail to
conform to reality.

References
Calkin, P.E., Wiles, G.C. and Barclay, D.J. 2001. Holocene coastal
glaciation of Alaska.  Quaternary Science Reviews 20: 449-461.

Dowdeswell, J.A., Hagen, J.O., Bjornsson, H., Glazovsky, A.F., Harrison,
W.D., Holmlund, P. Jania, J., Koerner, R.M., Lefauconnier, B., Ommanney,
C.S.L. and Thomas, R.H.  1997.  The mass balance of circum-Arctic glaciers
and recent climate change.  Quaternary Research 48: 1-14.

Mackintosh, A.N., Dugmore, A.J. and Hubbard, A.L. 2002. Holocene climatic
changes in Iceland: evidence from modeling glacier length fluctuations at
Solheimajokull.  Quaternary International 91: 39-52.

Zeeberg, J. and Forman, S.L. 2001. Changes in glacier extent on north Novaya
Zemlya in the twentieth century.  Holocene 11: 161-175.
 
Copyright © 2003.  Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change


===========
(4) A 500-YEAR HISTORY OF DROUGHT IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST, USA

>From CO2 Science Magazine, 12 February 2003
http://www.co2science.org/journal/2003/v6n7c2.htm

Reference
Knapp, P.A., Grissino-Mayer, H.D. and Soule, P.T.  2002.  Climatic
regionalization and the spatio-temporal occurrence of extreme single-year
drought events (1500-1998) in the interior Pacific Northwest, USA.
Quaternary Research 58: 226-233.

Background
Climate alarmists claim that earth will experience all sorts of extreme
weather as the planet warms; and they claim that the warming of the last
century was "unprecedented over the past millennium." Hence, the 500-year
record of severe single-year Pacific Northwest (USA) droughts developed in
this study provides a good database for assessing the validity of these
claims with respect to this particular phenomenon in this particular part of
the world.

What was done
Eighteen western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis var. occidentalis Hook.)
tree-ring chronologies from the Pacific Northwest of the United States were
used to identify extreme Climatic Pointer Years (CPYs) -- indicative of
severe single-year droughts -- over the period 1500-1998.

What was learned
In the words of the authors, "widespread and extreme CPYs were concentrated
in the 16th and early part of the 17th centuries," while "both the 18th and
19th centuries were largely characterized by a paucity of drought events
that were severe and widespread." Thereafter, however, "CPYs became more
numerous during the 20th century," although the number of 20th century
extreme CPYs (26) was still substantially less than the mean of the number
of 16th and 17th century extreme CPYs (38).

What it means
The data of this study fail to support the climate-alarmist claim that
global warming increases the frequency of severe droughts. Although this
study relates to only one type of extreme weather in one part of the world,
it joins a growing number of other such studies from all around the globe
that fail to reveal the type of meteorological behavior predicted by climate
alarmists [see Extreme Weather in our Subject Index]. Hence, since the
planet has indeed warmed over the past century, although not to the
"unprecedented" degree claimed by climate alarmists, it is getting more and
more difficult for them to continue to claim that global warming will lead
to more extreme weather events of all types. Nevertheless, they still make
such claims, apparently hoping that people will not learn of the tremendous
body of evidence that argues against them.
 
Copyright © 2003.  Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change


===========
(5) UK MAY FAIL ON CO2 CUTS

>From BBC News Online, 12 February 2003
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2748977.stm
 
By Alex Kirby
BBC News Online environment correspondent 
 
The UK Government is unlikely to meet its pledge to cut a key greenhouse
gas, a respected advisory group says.

The advisers, the Sustainable Development Commission, say measures for
significantly reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are lacking.....

======
(6) GLOBAL WARMING SCARE TRIGGERS NUCLEAR POWER PUSH IN UK

>From BBC News Online, 10 February 2003
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2743515.stm

Top scientists back nuclear power
 
The UK will be unable to cut greenhouse gas emissions without new nuclear
power stations, the country's top science academy has warned.

The Royal Society has urged the government to show "political courage" in
its forthcoming White Paper on energy, and make a clear decision on the
future of nuclear power.

Without nuclear energy, Britain would have to rely increasingly on fossil
fuels, leading to increasing carbon dioxide emissions and the catastrophic
consequences of global warming, it said....
 
============================
* LETTERS TO THE MODERATOR *
============================

(7) COMMENT ON GLIKSON LETTER TO CCNET (1/30/03)

>From S. Fred Singer <singer@sepp.org>

Dear Benny

The truly "unfortunate reality" is that Glikson, like some others, has
jumped to a conclusion not supported by observations. I was present at the
AGU Council meeting that adopted language  proposed by a panel dominated by
activists. In my objections I pointed to the global cooling (during 1940-75)
while greenhouse gases were rising rapidly and to the lack of any
appreciable atmospheric warming in the past 20 years, as shown by weather
satellite instruments and balloon-borne radiosondes. In addition, I pointed
to past deglaciations where the warming preceded the rise in CO2.

My published reply ("Human contribution to climate change remains
questionable." Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union 80, 186-187,
1999) deals with these and other problems in validating climate models with
actual data. A further publication (Eos 80, 372, 1999) notes the absence in
the climate record of "fingerprints" that would indicate a human
contribution.

The IPCC conclusion that "the balance of evidence suggests a discernible
human influence on climate" is simply not supported by the evidence.

Best            Fred

S. Fred Singer, Ph.D.
President, The Science & Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
1600 S. Eads St.,   Suite 712-S
Arlington, VA 22202-2907
e-mail:   singer@sepp.org       Web:  www.sepp.org
Tel:  703-920-2744
E-fax  815-461-7448; notify by e-mail before sending

===========
(8) RISK ASSESSORS

>From John Michael Williams <jwill@AstraGate.net>

Hi Benny.

In "THE LOMBORG CASE, RISK ASSESSMENT AND "HUMOR" - A REPLY TO BENNY
PEISER", (CCNet TERRA 7/2003 -  29 January 2003)

Glikson writes,

  "Many natural scientists, including
   myself, develop a sense of reverence toward 4
   billion years of terrestrial evolution and are
   concerned with the destructive effects of Homo
   Sapiens acting as if it is God."

This is a stunning announcement. It makes no sense at all. Reverence for 4
billion years all at once, or just one at a time?

Suppose we are merely "Homo sapiens", just another biological development.
Then, isn't all the irreverent damming of rivers, cutting of trees, etc.
just "part of our nature"? Aren't we part of an evolution doing something no
different than a lion bringing down a beautiful antelope and making an ugly,
bloody mess of it? So, "developing a sense of reverence", we regret our
meal? Is this really the dumb-animal model of what Glickson is pretending to
represent?

Why bother stating it? It implies nothing and demands nothing of us to be
better.

Which is "acting as God"? The proud antelope standing ready to be fed? Or
the lion making a meal of it? Are woods or streams more "natural" than
houses? NO, from this silly point of view.

This bringing in of "God" and "reverence" adds nothing sensible to the
discussion; it simply is another way for the writer to justify a point of
view. Neither "God" nor "reverence" is a proper scientific subject, and
neither one can be controlled by science or engineering activities. So, all
Glickson is saying here is that, with time, he and other natural scientists
tend to get confused and think they are part of their own subject matter.
Familiarity breeds comtempt.

Now, consider an opposing view: There really is no "evolution" or progress
in nature. It is our
duty to prevent it. Some of us are given the opportunity do disrupt and
destroy "nature". Others to defend the innocent victims of change. In doing
things which animals can not, we are "acting as God" (implying that cutting
down trees or burning coal is reserved to God, but maybe sitting in an
auditorium and listening to speeches is OK).

Well, again, so what? In this dialectical view, strife between the ones
acting as God and those protecting God's works, is inevitable in human life.
Why bring up the God-given, inevitable? We can't change it, can we? In this
point of view.

The underlying problem here is the mixing-up of scientific and nonscientific
topics. One can not
invoke science against science. One has to use quantification of the effects
of certain actions
to deal with them scientifically.

Environmentally, this generally is being done, at least in the United
States. Building a dam requires some kind of environmental review--not to
forbid changing the environment, but to understand the effects.

One sometimes thinks that damming Lomberg was just, as it were, to forbid a
dam BEFORE any environmental review. Duh. Things get a lot simpler if we
FORESEE having to think, and avoid it by taking action NOW.

Glickson has corrupted his science with religious ideas, apparently, and his
religion with scientific method. The first step for a "natural scientist"
should be to disentangle these mutually-exclusive modes of action, and to
stop making up silly combinations which lack the perspective of either one,
or af anything at all.

The most cogent comment was made, I think by Peiser, later in the same
issue:

  "There can be no doubt about the reality of
   environmental degradation in many parts of
   the world. However, it is worth remembering
   that this process has been ongoing throughout
   history."

Yes. Agricola's prints illustrating mining operations in pre-industrial
Germany show strip-mine like trenches, and hardly a tree not a sliced-off
stump. Environmental devastation. Literally.  Yet, the forests stand today.

Instead of substituting the "reverence" of the moment for science, maybe the
"God-like" critics should spend a little more time in the library, and learn
something about the actions they seem bound to oppose.

--
                         John
                     jwill@AstraGate.net
                     John Michael Williams

==============
(9) AND FINALLY: FORGET BIODIVERSITY SCARES - GENETIC ENGINEERING WILL
RECREATE EXTINCT SPECIES

>From Discovery.com, 10 February 2003
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20030203/mammoth.html
 
Cloneable Mammoth Cells Discovered in Russia

Feb. 9 - Russian scientists said Wednesday that they've found living cells
in a frozen ice-age mammoth that could provide the DNA needed to resurrect
the long-extinct tuskers.

Cells obtained from the well-preserved legs of a mammoth found last summer
in Russia's far-northern Yakutia region are "conditionally alive," said
Vladimir Repin of the Vektor Research Center for Virusology and
Biotechnology.
 
The cells were fixed in formalin, an aqueous solution of formaldehyde,
immediately after the finding, said Repin. The inner structure of the cells
is undamaged, "so we suggest that the rest of the frozen tissues contain
similar cell layers which could be unfrozen," Repin explained to the
Informscience news agency.

Repin said that the living cells could prove to be good for cloning
purposes.

"The cell material is unique because it contains not just intact mammoth DNA
but whole cells which have been perfectly preserved for 10,000 years," the
Vektor press service said.

The latest finding comes as a boon to a group of Russian and Japanese
scientists who are planning to revive the mammoth once they can find usable
DNA material.

The team, led by Japan's Kazufumi Goto, a former professor of reproductive
physiology at Kagoshima University, said last August that it would be
"technically possible" to produce mammoth calves using the DNA and
artificially inseminating an elephant cow.

The mammoth remains, still covered in reddish fur, were found frozen in the
soil next to a riverbank near Yakutsk. The research team washed the remains
using a water jet before placing them in a freezer and transporting them to
Yakutsk's Mammoth Museum, Informscience said.

Goto hopes that by using good DNA from an ice-age mammoth he will be able to
produce a hybrid of a mammoth and an elephant.

By impregnating each female hybrid with mammoth DNA, Goto believes he can
produce a mammoth-elephant hybrid in which the original mammoth would
predominate in its genetic constitution.

The Japanese researcher hopes that the resurrected mammoths will live in a
sanctuary in an uninhabited area north of the remote, frozen Kamchatka
peninsula in Russia's Far East, where present conditions resemble their
original habitat.

Copyright 2002 AFP.

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