Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin is known to his countrymates as a tough guy, or a genuine moloděc. This self-described wild animal lover has also recently encountered a polar bear, a tiger, and a leopard during his journeys throughout the regions of Russia.But that's nothing compared to his experience on Monday when he met a wild German environmentalist:
AFP: German scientist hands Putin frosty climate rebuke (click)In the fast Eastern region of Yakutia, he dared to mention his opinion that
10,000 years ago, the mammoths started to die out. This was linked to a warming of the climate, a rise in sea levels, a reduction of pastures. All this happened without human influence.He primarily meant that no industrial CO2 emissions were involved in the decline of mammoths. But that was too courageous a thing for him to say. Ms Inken Preuss, a wild German environmentalist (second from the left), immediately reacted:
The burning of various kinds of fuel has a far greater effect on climate than these methane emissions. Climate change has never happened like now and mankind is making a large impact.So the mammoths did die because of the SUVs, after all. Mr Putin had the honor to meet a very powerful thinker, indeed.
She has apparently never heard of people who have been sent to the Gulag by assorted KGB agents. And she may actually be one of the first inhabitants of the camp who has actually fully deserved her vacation! :-)
In the mid 1980s, Vladimir Putin (is it really him?) was employed as a tourist who just completely accidentally stood two meters from Ronald Reagan and waited to shake his hand after a little boy. :-) Click the picture for more details.
The AFP also shows how shocked the journalists continue to be by Putin's obvious statement from 2003 that 2-3 °C of warming would be helpful to Russia. In the AFP's opinion, that statement has "amazed" the scientists. Well, this observation can only "amaze" scientists whose brains have been surgically removed from their skulls.
Meanwhile, the hot part of Summer 2010 is over on the North Hemisphere. It was a summer in which Moscow has become the most important city in the world once again - because of its natural heat wave in July. A few weeks later, the temperatures in the Russian capital dropped below 10 °C but no one would care about that, would he? See also Can a heat wave in a big city occur by chance?
Via Willie Soon
Bonus: Apple avoids the U.K. green cell hitparade
Blue, not Green Apple
In the U.K., the blue aquafarts in O2 have invented new a green ranking of the cell phone. Pretty much all major companies that produce cell phones promised to participate. However, there is one striking exception: Google News.
iPhones didn't end up at the top of various environmental tables. However, the reasons behind Steve Jobs' refusal to participate could be different. For years, Apple products have been a domain of the extreme left-wing snobs. Be sure that not only the white-wigged Michael Mann from Hide the Decline II (see e.g. 1:56) is using a Mac.
Steve Jobs may actually be a cryptoskeptic. Apple's recent promotion of the excellent skeptical Our Climate iPhone app among the new and noteworthy apps could be another sign supporting this hypothesis. If he builds his green image among the environmental realists, more conservative buyers could begin to purchase his products.
By the way, I have redirected all mobile traffic on this blog to onbile.com/lumidek: sorry if you dislike this change.
