Planet Hot

I know my thoughts on whether Al Gore makes a convincing spokesman for the fight against global warming have already been established, but now he has a little something extra in his corner, as the AP reports that scientists have given their OK to An Inconvenient Truth's accuracy. Plus, he got the guys from Futurama to do a little short for him, which is way cool.



Today's babe du jour is the awesomely beautiful Sara Jean Underwood. Thanks to Playboy for indulging my current run on blondes with this looker. NSFW gallery here and free nsfw video of her on Playboy's site here.

I always love a good Tom Toles cartoon. (links go to past posts...)

Anyhoo, to the issue at hand. While I feel for the folks currently weathering the great big Northeast rain storm, I have to laugh when Washington D.C. floods and President Bush has a tree fall on his house:






I know, I know... that's being mean spirited. But really, the guy is an ass.

And yes, I realize that's not really a cogent summation of the reasons I dislike Bush and his (non-existent) policy on climate change, but it really, really does express the totality of my feelings on the matter.

So, to recap: Bush = Ass (not the good kind)

In a sort of follow up to my previous post, it seems that the Supreme Court has decided to hear a case on whether or not CO2 emissions should be labeled as pollution. Personally I think yes, it should, but this case is going to hinge on the particular legalities of the situation: it's actually a test of whether the EPA was within its bounds as a government agency when it refused to regulate CO2. So, what to do, right? Me, I'm going to throw on my #5 Justice Ginsberg jersey and see if I can root this one to a victory.





Oh, and I'm also going to check out Elin Grindemyr and Emma Lundberg, two gals I love even though they definitely make me put out more CO2.

Another day, another silly photo of a gorgeous girl trying to sit in this chair. This time it's a breathtakingly beautiful pro, Gisele Bundchen (nsfw), but even she looks uncomfortable slouching in that thing. Lucy Pinder and Joanne Krupa pulled it off better, I think. Of course, it helped that they didn't have all those clothes in the way.

Anyhoo, today's blue ribbon for idiocy goes to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, an energy industry backed "non-profit" that has rolled out an ad campaign with television commercials airing in several states designed to deny that global warming is a problem. Their slogan: "Carbon Dioxide - They Call It Pollution; We Call It Life."

Yep, that's their slogan. I shit you not.

Even more deliciously dumbass are their ads, which they host on their site:

(Pics link to High-res WMV movies. If you need lower res or Quicktime format, click here.)

Ad #1, "Energy" paints CO2 as a crucial human resource that politicians in Washington want to take away from us. Oh god, what will I do when my CO2 is gone?!

Ad #2, "Glaciers" says that global warming isn't even happening at all, and the media is fearmongering. As "proof," CEI cites a study that the Greenland glaciers are growing and not shrinking, and that the Antarctic ice sheet is getting thicker, not thinner. The only problem here is what the study featured in the commercial actually says: that the thickening is due to the increases snow falling at higher elevations, which is actually due to global warming. If you don't believe me on this one, check out the paper they misread here.


And finally, in Ad #3 "Al Gore: An Inconvenient Story" CEI trots out the tired propoganda that Al Gore is a huge polluter for traveling across the world to promote An Inconvient Truth:

Of course, what they fail to mention is that Gore buys carbon credits to keep himself carbon neutral. To find out more about carbon credits, click here.

To sound just as pithy as them, I give you my quote: "The Competitive Enterprise Institute: full of hot air."

Good story today in USA Today... Study: Earth Is Hottest Now In 2000 Years; humans responsible for much of the warming. Highlights from the report, which was commissioned by Congress:

- global warming produced about half of the extra hurricane-fueled warmth in the North Atlantic in 2005, and natural cycles were only a minor factor

- average global surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere rose about 1 degree during the 20th century. (And that's only the average. Some places like Greenland exceed that to a dangerous degree.)

- The National Academy scientists concluded that the Mann-Bradley-Hughes research from the late 1990s (which produced the famously contested "hockey-stick" graph) was "likely" to be true.

-"recent warmth is unprecedented for at least the last 400 years and potentially the last several millennia" (though relatively warm conditions persisted around the year 1000, followed by a "Little Ice Age" from about 1500 to 1850)

And finally, and perhaps most importantly...

- The report was requested in November by the chairman of the House Science Committee, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., to address naysayers who question whether global warming is a major threat.

Yes Virginia, that means even smart Republicans can acknowledge climate change. Refreshing.

Full report at National Academy of Sciences.

Oh, and that's Nicole Marie Lenz feeling the heat. (NSFW gallery here.)

I wasn't planning on posting today, but it's so damn hot here that there's nothing else I can really do. I went outside earlier and I think my scalp almost caught fire. Such are the perils of living in Los Angeles, a town that would revert to being a barely liveable desert once you took away all the water we cart in from northern California.


I guess I can't complain, though. Grumpy as I get when it's hot, it's even worse for polar bears, apparently. They're so pissed off by global warming that they're starting to eat each other.


I don't know if I'd turn to cannibalism if my winter wonderland started melting away, but I might consider it if I got to bite into Karen McDougal. She's yummy in this gallery.

I'm off to think cool thoughts...

I think there was a bit about President Bush creating some marine sanctuary in Hawaii today, but I don't know. I promptly forgot everything when I discovered Daneille Gamba. Props to Cris for this one. She's a stunner. I am stunned.

NSFW galleries here and here.

Safe for Work article and pics here.

Oh, and enjoy this Toles cartoon.

Here's a fun article...

Animal DNA Changing with Climate, Study Finds

Personally, if genetic mutations mean everybody is as hot as Rebecca Romijn (gallery), then I'm okay with that. Apparently, though, there might be some downsides to being a mutie superhero.

Awesome Super Powers (And Why You Don't Want Them)

Well, ain't this a kick in the pants. Stephen Hawking, who is pretty much the smartest guy on the planet, says we pretty much gots to gets the hell off of said planet. According to this AP article, he says:

"Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of" and that we should be shooting for "a permanent base on the moon in 20 years and a colony on Mars in the next 40 years."

Somehow I don't think we're going to get around to that. Well, at least not all of us. Carmen Electra looks like she's got a head start on getting to the moon. Link goes to pretty safe-for-work gallery.

(...and yes, for you sticklers, I know she's wearing a jetpack and not a rocket. You try googling for "jetpack" images and see how long you can last all the nerds talking about their damn gundam figurines or whatever.)

Here, have a video of Carmen looking delicious at the MTV Awards if it makes you feel better.

Somebody asked me the other day why I haven't posted about the new global warming movie, An Inconvenient Truth, yet. Being a slick Hollywood presentation of my favorite issue, it seems tailor made for this blog, right?

Except for one thing: Al Gore.

My problem with Al isn't that he's a pinko commie liberal (I link to his site), or that his critics seem to think that he's a hypocrite for dumping tons of CO2 into the atmosphere by jetting around the world (reality: he carbon trades to off-set the impact of his trips). My problem with him is that he's boring. He even looks like he's bored with himself in this picture. And let's not forget, this is the guy The Simpsons' (and Spinal Tap's) Harry Shearer based the tedious Reverend Lovejoy on:

Lovejoy = Gore

When I watched the Inconvenient Truth trailer, it looked like somebody was trying to paint Al Gore as some sort of action hero. It's a laughable idea, and one I'm almost entirely sure his critics will seize upon to try to deflate the film. And even though it's almost six years after Bush narrowly claimed victory in the 2000 election, the nation is as politically divided as ever. So I'm not so sure it's wise to put a polarizing figure like Gore as the centerpiece of your marketing campaign.

Anyway, sorry to be so long-winded today. I realize most of you aren't used to that much for a single post. To make up for it, please enjoy the nsfw gallery of the amazingly delicious Keeley Hazell. And yes, that's a picture of eleven Keeleys. They've cloned her!

Genius.

Today was a fun day. It started when, browsing the The Drudge Report, I saw the headline, Scientists Say the Arctic Was Tropical -- Before Mankind! (note: that's Drudge's idiot headline -- the actual one is different) "Oh, crap," I thought. "We're in for another round of denial."

Considering that Matt Drudge is one of the more ignorant voices and tries to deny climate change at every opportunity, I had to laugh. See, I'd seen the original report from Reuters hours earlier, and it utterly failed to sound like the Conservative claptrap Drudge was trying to make of his NYT article. I urge you to compare the two. Pay special attention to how a) Drudge's NYT article says nothing to downplay the seriousness of global warming even though he'd like it to, and b) the Reuters article does explore the relevance of another global warming cycle today, most notably this way:

"Skeptics of man-made causes of global warming have nothing to rejoice over, however. The researchers say their studies appearing in Thursday's issue of Nature also offer a peek at just how bad conditions can get."

Again, it's really worth the read. And especially chilling if you remember Jame's Lovelock's prediction that a lot of humans are going to die, and those who are left will probably end up at the tropical poles trying to survive. (Here's a good analysis of that one...)

At least Anna Kournikova looks good in the tropics. Maybe she'll be waiting for me there...

(And here's a second gallery of her for the road. You know, cuz I want you to keep readin'.)

(Okay, fine. Here's another one.)