Collins, Sununu, McCain Off To Visit Antarctica

[hatrack]

"So, still melting?"

"Yup."

"OK, see you next election year! Bye!"

PORTLAND, Maine --U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and two of her colleagues left Tuesday on an eight-day visit to Antarctica that will provide an update on the latest research on climate change.

Collins, of Maine, and fellow Republicans John McCain of Arizona and John Sununu of New Hampshire will travel to McMurdo Station to meet with leading researchers, including staff from the University of Maine Climate Change Institute. Collins, an advocate for climate change research, said she was invited on the trip by the National Science Foundation and the University of Maine.

EDIT

The trip is not the first taken by Collins and McCain to promote research on climate change and the increase in heat-trapping "greenhouse gases" accumulating in the atmosphere. The two senators visited northern Norway nearly two years ago for a briefing by scientists involved in a multi-year assessment of the impact of climate change and increased ultraviolet radiation across the Arctic region.

European scientists reported in November that analysis of ice cores from Antarctica shows that today's level of carbon dioxide, a by-product of car engines and power plants, is 27 percent higher than any previous peak looking back 650,000 years.

EDIT/END

http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2006/01/03/senators_headed_to_antarctica_for_update_on_climate_research/

[dusmcj]

1. I hope they don't have an accident on the way

inconveniences like them seem to have a higher accident rate under this administration than usual. Senator Wellstone, I presume.

[NNadir]

2. Oh good. We need more people to burn fuel to watch the ice melt.

We should organize tours.

My impression is that there are lots of completely useless visits to Antartica. Some people just want to say they've been there.

[hatrack]

3. "Collins, an advocate for climate change research . . . "

Bold stand, huh? She's IN FAVOR of research!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess she Chimpy have that in common, don't they? There's just not enough time in the day for all the study and research that needs to be done, is there?

:eyes:

[NNadir]

4. If you have more research you will have more results to misinterpret.

What could be better than that?

[hatrack]

5. Except when the results all point to the same thing

And even then, hey, just be like Bush! Misinterpret at will!

[Dead_Parrot]

9. Wow, I feel much safer now. nt

[jpak]

7. No doubt they'll be sitting in the coveted "airliner" seats on the C-17

while the scientists transiting to/though McMurdo will be forced to sit for 5 hours on the (very uncomfortable) webbing seats.

Hope they get the C-130's and not the C-17's (slower, louder and more uncomfortable)....

:evilgrin:

[NNadir]

8. Whatever. It's clearly a waste of time and resources.

I have no interest in personally experiencing Antarctica. From what little I've gleaned of the experience, the place is increasingly strewn with the detritus of human habitation.

One sees pictures like this:



and this:



http://www.anta.canterbury.ac.nz/resources/envr.html

These pictures may not be a representative sample, but nonetheless they tell a story.

I am only personally acquainted with a few people who tell me they've been there, one of whom is a member of my family, but this sample of Antarctic visitors is, at best, depressing. From what I can tell of these people, they are about as useless as McCain and friends. They seem not to know their asses from their elbows and are scientifically pathetic. I hold a very low estimate of all of them. When I think on the damage done to that place by their mere presence for little more than window dressing, I feel bad, very bad.

This is not meant to malign all Antarctic research. Clearly some important results have been obtained there, especially with respect to atmospheric chemistry. The problems of the atmosphere are without doubt, the most important problems faced by the human race, as I frequently note. Antarctic researchers experimentally confirmed Mario Molina's Nobel Prize winning work. Still I know that much of what is going on there is about as meaningful as the Senators' junket. There exists a fraction of the set of Antarctic visitors who could spare us all by simply going to Scotland to play golf or to Barbados to sun themselves.

[TheCowsCameHome]

6. Sleazebag Limbaugh read this post on his show this afternoon.

Even the Great Right Wing Coward likes DU!