Planet Hot

Okay, working as a fashion photographer and having yourself surrounded by models in awesome/barely-there clothing
must be difficult on some level, I'm sure, or else everyone would be doing it. So I'm a little miffed that this damn bubble chair keeps popping up in my surfing. Are we out of props? Now, don't get me wrong, Joanne Krupa looks really good in it, but if you've been reading this blog, you might have noticed the lovely Lucy Pinder in the same perch a while back. What gives?

Anyway, the Washington Post swam against the current this week by reporting that Climate Change will be significant but not extreme. Basically, a computer model predicts that everything won't be as bad as most people think. I have my doubts, though. Will this give license to the rabid few who question global warming? Aren't the consequences of just a few degrees temperature change still catastrophic? And weren't we just warned that we need a greater sense of urgency regarding climate change? For my money, I'm skeptical of the Post's article. I don't know if I'd bet on everything being just fine and dandy in the future just because it makes me feel better now...

In answer to my earlier post asking what we can do to stop global warming comes this pretty far-out idea from Roger Angel, professor at the University of Arizona: a 2000 mile long glass shield launched into space designed to deflect 2% of the sun's rays. The story is from NPR's All Things Considered here.

Pretty freakin' wild. I'd hate to have to be a window washer on that thing.

Happy post-Earth Day. If you're like me, you probably spent Earth Day generally having no idea it was Earth Day: driving too fast in your not-so-efficient car, forgetting to recycle, ordering the Chilean sea bass, and spraying CFC's in the air just for the heck of it.

Okay, maybe that's extreme. But I didn't know it was Earth Day. And I live in Los Angeles. This is supposed to be the land of fruits and nuts, but I didn't hear a peep out of freakin' Earth Day from Burbank to Santa Monica. What did I do? I slept in.

I wonder why there wasn't anything going on . And if there was, why didn't I hear about it? I mean, there are so many problems on the table, what with the "earth in crisis," and us being "at the tipping point" and all. Where's the organization? Where are the rallies? I'm ready to sign up!

And I'm talking more than picking up trash on the beach. Picking up trash on the beach is bullshit. It's not going to save the icecaps.

So I feel guilty for not having done anything. And if you're like me, you'll probably check a few things off this Yahoo! list in the next week to make yourself feel better. But I still gotta wonder... where are all the really big movements?

Anyway, in honor of Earth Day the pic is of Shakira, one of the many natural beauties around us worth saving.

Normally I'm not a fan of girls whose names are spelled like some dyslexic/phonetic mess, but Amiee Rickards can get a pass. I look at her and forget my own name, so I'm not going to get all in a huff about hers. If you still don't like it, write a letter to her parents. (Link goes to her Savvy.com page featuring more pics, interview and video of the lovely Amiee.)


Now you may think the title of today's post has to do with Amiee, but (aha!) I've got you there. Too Hot Not To Handle is actually the name of this really cool-looking movie that's premiering on HBO tomorrow. Feel free to take a look at the trailer to see if you agree with me.

The AP reports that today's cold, dry Mars once saw moist conditions. Now, I'm just musing here, but could it be possible that the normal course for some planets is to gradually heat themselves and deplete their water-rich environments? It might be a problem to consider even if we do manage to get our man-made carbon emissions under control. After all, it's our job to figure out how to sustain human life on this planet be they at risk from human-caused or natural climate changes. This is the point I think most climate change skeptics miss.

Oh yeah, and that's Kristen Bell, a wet Veronica Mars for your viewing pleasure.

Okay, she doesn't really have anything to do with the ABC News post below, but Misty Dawn is incredible. I'm not sure that's her real name, but you know what? I. Don't. Care. Idon'tcare.

See more of her at her website here.

64% of Americans think there is disagreement among scientists over whether or not climate change is happening. 64% of Americans are wrong.

So why has it taken so long to convince Americans that climate change is a real threat? Well, it turns out the oil and coal industries staged a 15-year misinformation campaign designed to redefine climate change as theory and not fact, funding research by "friendly" scientists and courting influence in the White House.

I recently heard a report on NPR that said in this century the oceans will likely rise between 13 and 20 feet, destroying coastal zones and displacing millions of people along the coasts, particularly in Florida, California, India, and Asia. That's right, global warming will give us hot, wet asians. Sadly, they will probably not look like hot wet asian, Sara Brinsfield.

(Link goes to her site, pic courtesy of IGN.)

As brought to you by the Sierra Club, they are:

1. There is no scientific consensus
   
   
2. American scientists don't buy it - 19,000 signed a petition against the IPCC's views and the need for the Kyoto Protocol
   
   
3. This is all within natural variability
   
   
4. It won't affect Canada much - and definitely not in my lifetime
   
   
5. A few degrees more will be really nice - especially for plants!
   
   
6. The scientific models aren't very good at projecting the future
   
   
7. Carbon Dioxide levels are not strongly related to temperature - how could they in such trace amounts?
   
   
8. Satellite measurements have not shown the trends
   
   
9. The observed warming is all due to solar radiation variability, not human activity
   
   
10. Scientists are just exaggerating in order to get more funding

More Willa Ford here.






















And I'm really getting to be a fan of Tom Toles. You can access his archive here.

A British government report says a 3 degree Celsius rise in the next 100 years would result in a loss of between 20 and 400 million tons of cereal crop production and put about 400 million more people at risk of hunger. The bad news? The world is likely to suffer a temperature rise of more than 3 degrees Celisius in the next hundred years.


The good news? Models don't eat much. Kate Moss agrees.

Lucy Pinder is pretty damn spectacular. Bank Locator agrees. (first link goes to her slideshow-riffic website)

But this site is about seques. Are we living in a bubble? Gallup reports that most Americans don't see global warming as an issue, despite that "a record number of Americans, 58%, believe a climate change as a result of global warming has already begun, and is the result of man-made operations, not natural cycles."

This is why this site is here, people! To educate!

Also, because I like hot chicks.

Mindy Vega, courtesy of the NSFW Badgirlsblog. Often I think it's kind of sad how most adult models have that tired, hardened look. Mindy Vega is different, though, and even though she has some, uh, shall we say provocative photos out there, she still exudes an unusual warmth. Maybe it's the latina thing. Caliente!




















Tom Toles of the Washington Post is a wonderful political cartoonist. We should appreciate these guys while we can... newspapers around the country are failing and often the cartoonists are among the first ones to get the axe when it comes time for budget cuts. This particular cartoon hit home.

Evangeline Lilly, a good day at the beach.





















A bad day at the beach. Carribean coral reefs suffer a record die off, reports CNN. That big hunk of coral in the picture? Yeah, that's mostly dead. And you want to know what really sucks? It takes a year to grow the size of a dime. Unbelievable. "The big problem for coral is the question of whether they can adapt sufficiently quickly to cope with climate change," says a guy in the article. "I think the evidence we have at the moment is: No, they can't."

See it the coral reefs while you can, folks.