Global Warming

Whether the recent heat wave that Crescenta Valley residents suffered through is caused by global warming or a natural cyclical event, the push is now on reducing greenhouse gases and using energy-efficient technology. On July 31, Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a climate change and clean energy collaboration. At a meeting at the Port of Long Beach, Blair and Schwarzenegger signed an agreement on a collaborative effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through working with businesses, research in cause and effect, education and sharing knowledge.

Global warming, like President Thomas Jefferson having children with a slave, and intelligent design as science, is one of three greatest hoaxes of the last decade. Thus, it is embarrassing to see an educator repeating the myth of global warming ("Science versus politics," Education Matters, July 28). First, a few facts. Global warming and cooling are always occurring slowly over the ages. For example, the earth warmed slightly between 900 and 1200 A.D. And it cooled slightly between 1550 to 1750.

There have been several letters on global warming in this paper recently, most responding to Dan Kimber's July 28 column on the matter ("Science vs. Politics," Education Matters). I am not a climatologist, but as a scientist working on a weather satellite, I do work with them. There has been serious misrepresentation of their research on both sides of this debate. The global warming issue is more than simply answering the question "is it real?" There are actually four questions to answer.

As the sun sets and the winds begin to howl around the San Gabriel Mountains listen closely and you will hear the cry between the gusts -- "La Niña is back." "I call her the little lady with the big dry punch," said Jet Propulsion Laboratory climatologist Bill Patzert. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced the official return of La Niña earlier this month. La Niña is the cooling of ocean waters in the east-central equatorial Pacific. It is characterized by lower than normal pressure over Indonesia and northern Australia and higher than normal pressure over the eastern tropical Pacific.

City not on the right track with Target Having been born, educated and still living in Glendale for decades, I have watched the steady decline of this once lovely city ? a "jewel" of the Verdugos turning into a piece of coal. It has been difficult enough to see it become a city that appears to belong in another country instead of the U.S., but to see it lowering standards and hosting companies such as Target into the Glendale Galleria is even more heart-breaking ("Galleria to get its very own Target," July 22)

In "An Inconvenient Truth," director David Guggenheim features one-time presidential candidate Al Gore giving his presentation on global warming that Gore has, by his own admission, given almost 1,000 times since the late 1980s. Most of this rather dull documentary features the former senator and vice president lecturing a group of students in a classroom situation. Gore believes that the current state of global warming is to be blamed on the large amounts of carbon dioxide emissions that we as a civilization have been pumping into the atmosphere.

Are you a global warming promoter and don't know it? We have such promoters all over this city who are probably unaware of how they contribute to worsening environmental conditions. These global warming promoters are not clamoring for more gas-guzzling SUVs, they don't demonstrate at major intersections, urging you to honk if you love fossil fuels. They don't go to their neighbor's houses and turn all their lights on. They are generally clueless to their day-to-day impact on the environment.

Anyone who thinks all high school students live in their own small world of superficial chatter should spend a lunch hour at Crescenta Valley High School. The classrooms are full of concerned teens meeting on subjects covering everything from helping the environment to saving a civilization half a world away. These teens are members of some of the many CVHS clubs that are supervised by mentoring teachers, but were created and conducted by students. One club is Project Cool Down.

Rima Shah Glendale's energy utility has joined a state registry that tracks pollutants that contribute to global warming. Glendale Water & Power, the city-owned utility that generates, transmits and distributes electricity, recently joined the California Climate Action Registry. The registry, a nonprofit voluntary organization, helps companies and agencies measure and reduce greenhouse gases. "[Greenhouse gas emissions] is a serious matter and worth looking into," said Atineh Haroutunian, assistant public benefits coordinator for Glendale Water & Power.

It doesn't surprise me that a Civil Service commissioner with a dual role as a member of the Police Advisory Council feels that his gig should be disbanded ("Police advisory council will go on," Dec. 30). To me, many who've been in the inner circle of longtime commissioners only pretend to look out for the public interest. If Sam Manoukian finds no useful purpose for the advisory council, maybe he should step aside and let a more concerned member of the public take his place. A cursory look at the quality-of-life indicators demonstrate an increase in teen drug use. Pedestrian safety continues to plague the city.

The myth is that lemmings are mindless creatures that jump off cliffs to their deaths because they are, ironically, rodent copy-cats, each following the being in front of them even to their own demise. But that’s not exactly true. Scientists tell us that many Republicans and virtually all “tea party” followers probably have the same follow-the-spin, mindless propensity that biologists used to think caused the lemmings to march to their own ends. Turns out, lemmings self-thinned their own herds when their groups became overpopulated.

Gary Huerta, you wrote a very poignant story in regards to people taking accountability when necessary and to answer the questions posed (“A Balcony View: Case begs question of accountability, March 9). I offer my belief. As concern for consequences increases, the level of holding oneself accountable diminishes, and therefore the easier it is to assign someone or something the blame to avoid confrontation. As our morals decrease, we feel less of a need to own up to our actions or admit to being involved in situations that are completely out of our hands.

As a writer, I rely on the occasional catch phrase to emphasize my point. One of my favorites is with all due respect with all due respect . The power of that simple four-word phrase to render an entire opinion inept never ceases to amaze me. I can sit silent for hours listening to the passionate argument of someone and by uttering my favorite catch phrase it’s as if the opposing point of view never existed at all. A few examples: ...

Being a self-employed writer means having plenty of time to wonder about — well — almost anything. That means, for better or worse, every four months or so I need to open up the mental sluice gates and pour out some of my random thoughts to make room for others. And so, without further delay: more from my weird world of “wonderings.” I wonder when the memo came out designating the stretch of Foothill Boulevard between Ramsdell and the Shell gas station (on both sides of the street)

Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge has launched a new website that has gone global, literally. The website http://climate.jpl.nasa. gov allows the viewer to explore the global climate change. ?This website has attracted more attention than any other website I have worked on,? said Michael Gunson, JPL chief scientist for Earth science technology. The website covers a multitude of areas concerning climate change from raising sea levels to carbon dioxide levels.

Many good reasons to leave bees be With respect to the April 15 article titled “Relocation creates a buzz,” I am appalled that the city of Glendale, through its Neighborhood Services program, would advocate extermination of a honey bee hive in Montrose. This in response to one person who is afraid of honey bees and what they might do to her dog? First of all, it is my understanding that honey bees do not attack people or other animals unless they feel endangered.

“Carbon footprint.” We see this term popping up all over the place, most recently in the Glendale News-Press article “Local friends happy to spread green message.” This trendy new catchphrase is rapidly becoming the yardstick by which people are measuring their own (and each other’s) eco-awareness. But has anyone really stopped to consider why carbon has so quickly surpassed plutonium and uranium as the most politically incorrect element on the periodic table and why carbon dioxide has gone from being recognized as the very foundation of the global food chain to becoming known as a pollutant?

Those of you who fondly remember the action-packed 1980s as an era of cinematic brilliance, will rightfully be motivated to see ?Rambo? for all the right reasons. Americans who look down on the ?80s as a decade of overindulgence and mindless violence should skip Sylvester Stallone?s latest offering and concentrate on the upcoming elections or global warming. The new ?Rambo? picks up 20 years after the last film and John J. Rambo (Stallone) is now living a quiet and secluded life in Thailand.