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Sunday, January 22, 2012

First Thoughts: The race is on


What we learned after Gingrich’s 12-point victory over Romney (40%-28%) last night in SC: 
1) The GOP race is on… 
2) Romney hasn’t closed the deal with conservative voters… And 
3) this contest can change in the blink of an eye… 
Sunday morning’s developments: Romney will release his 2010 on Tuesday (State of the Union day)… Gingrich casts Romney as the establishment candidate, while Chris Christie said Gingrich “embarrassed” the GOP… The debates mattered in SC, and so did the pro-Gingrich Super PAC… Romney’s two advantages in FL: money and early voting… And Romney’s one disadvantage in FL: In terms of ideology, it isn’t New Hampshire.

*** The race is on: Newt Gingrich 12-point victory last night in South Carolina capped an extraordinary week in politics that taught us three things:
1) the GOP presidential race isn’t over;
2) Mitt Romney hasn’t closed the deal with conservative voters; and
3) this contest can change in the blink of an eye.
Indeed, a week ago, it appeared that Romney was cruising to a win in the Palmetto State, that he was about to go 3-for-3 in the first three contests, and that conservatives and Republicans were beginning to unite around him. But as it turns out, Romney decisively lost South Carolina, he’s now 1-and-2 in the first three contests (after discovering he lost Iowa, too), and conservatives and Republicans -- according to last night’s exit polls -- are nowhere close to rallying around him. And now we move to Florida, where Romney has the ability to bounce back or where Gingrich can further upend this contest.

*** Sunday morning developments: Here are some of the breaking developments from the Sunday morning shows. On FOX, per NBC’s Garrett Haake, Romney said that he would release his 2010 tax returns on Tuesday (State of the Union day), as well as an estimate of his returns for 2011. On “Meet the Press,” Gingrich portrayed himself as the “Reagan populist conservative” in the race, and he cast Romney as the establishment candidate. “Do you want the establishment’s candidate … or someone who would fundamentally transform Washington?” he asked. And also on “Meet,” Romney surrogate Chris Christie said this about Gingrich: “I think Newt Gingrich has embarrassed the party… We all know the record. He was run out of his speakership.”

*** Conservatives break for Gingrich (and rebuke Romney): We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again: Romney is not going to be the de-facto nominee until he wins over the conservative base of his party (outside of New Hampshire). And last night in South Carolina, that base overwhelmingly broke for Gingrich. 
Among voters who described themselves as  
  • "very conservative" (who made up 36% of last night's primary electorate) Gingrich beat Romney, 48%-19%. 
  • Among Tea Party supporters, Gingrich had a 20-point edge, 45%-25%. 
  • And among those who are evangelicals or born-again Christians (who made up 65% of the electorate) Gingrich won, 44%-22%. 
  • And just as importantly, these folks finally coalesced around one anti-Romney alternative -- and that person was Gingrich. 
  • Also, don’t forget the role that religion played in South Carolina: Gingrich beat Romney, 46%-20%, among those who believe it matters that a candidate shares their religious views. 
  • Among those who don't believe it matters that a candidate share their religious views, Romney actually beat Gingrich, 39%-32%

*** Romney’s problem: message, not mechanics: Ultimately, Romney’s problem right now is message -- not mechanics. And as we saw in 2008, Romney doesn’t do the attack well. That’s what is going to make Monday night’s NBC debate so fascinating to watch.

*** The debates mattered -- and so did the pro-Gingrich Super PAC: Two things, in particular, benefited Gingrich (and hurt Romney) in South Carolina.
  1. First, as our NBC/Marist poll showed and then the exit polls confirmed, the debates fueled his momentum. Per the exits, Gingrich beat Romney among those who said they made up their minds in the “last few days,” 43%-23%. Yet among those who said they made up their minds earlier than that, the score was even, 34%-34%.
  2. But here’s a second factor that shouldn’t be overlooked. The pro-Gingrich Super PAC Winning Our Future (which spent $1.7 million in South Carolina) almost matched what the pro-Romney Restore Our Future spent ($2.5 million). Of course, Romney and his allies enjoyed a significant advertising advantage (a combined $4.4 million vs. $2.3 million for Gingrich and his allies). In Iowa, remember, Restore Our Future spent nearly $3 million hammering Gingrich, and there was very little response from Newt and his allies. That’s a big reason why Gingrich finished fourth in Iowa but won South Carolina.
 *** Romney’s two advantages in Florida: But Romney has two advantages as we head into Florida on Jan. 31: money and early voting.
  • Romney and the pro-Romney Super PAC Restore our Future have purchased more than $7 million of airtime in the Sunshine State. 
  • And how much advertising have Gingrich and his allies purchased? Zero. 
  • Also, per NBC’s Jamie Novogrod, more than 185,000 Republicans have already cast their votes via absentee ballot. 
  • And around 12,000 more Republicans have participated in early voting in the five counties where polling opened last week. 
  • What’s more, the snow birds are currently in Florida, and they’re more your Romney Republicans than Gingrich Republicans. 
  • So, despite his loss in South Carolina last night, Romney has to be the overwhelming favorite in Florida.

*** Romney’s disadvantage: Florida isn’t New Hampshire: But the GOP electorate in Florida has the potential to be unkind to Romney. Think South Carolina but with Cuban Americans in Miami thrown into the mix.
  • According to the 2008 exit polls, 61% of Florida Republican primary voters considered themselves conservative (68% said they were conservative in South Carolina last night). 
  • And remember: Florida’s primary is closed, meaning that independents don’t get to vote. 
  • After all, it’s the same electorate that picked Rick Scott in 2010 over establishment favorite Bill McCollum. But the good news for Romney: Per the ’08 exits in Florida, only 39% were evangelicals or born-again Christians (compared with 65% who said they were evangelicals in South Carolina last night).

*** On the trail, per NBC’s Adam Perez: Today, Santorum stumps in Coral Springs, FL… And Romney holds a rally to discuss jobs in Ormond Beach, FL.

Countdown to Florida primary: 9 days

Countdown to Nevada caucuses: 13 days

Countdown to Super Tuesday: 44 days

Countdown to Election Day: 289 days

Smile.....good for your soul


Smile....good for your soul


West Africa oil boom overlooks tattered environmental safety net



Check out this article on Africa's Oil Coast and their problems without regulations, safety nets, and environmental concerns. And the United States was involved. Shame on us, looking for easy access to oil...
President Bush visited twice and exploration was pushed cause America was looking for 'cheaper oil' than in the Middle East.....
Fishmongers shown in Sekondi, now Sekondi-Takoradi, is Ghana's "Oil City." Fishermen here are among those whose operations have been impacted by the oil development. Like all the fishermen in the "frontline communities," they are extremely worried about oil spills. Christiane Badgley/ICIJ
Oil-industry regulation lags behind as Ghana ramps up production

By

Updated:

On November 3, 2011, fishermen working near the Jubilee oil field 60 km. off the coast of Ghana spotted a large oil slick floating towards land.
The next day a dark, syrupy ooze arrived onshore, coating beaches of several fishing communities and waterfront hotels in Ghana’s Ahanta West District, the coastal strip closest to the country’s new, deep water oil field.
The fishermen told authorities they suspected the spill came from the offshore operations, but the incident was greeted with seeming indifference. No official clean-up was launched, so the community was left to clean up the mess itself. 
“The lack of any clear information about the incident has made many in the coastal communities nervous about the future,” said Kyei Kwadwo Yamoah of the Friends of the Nation, a Ghanaian community development organization.
Even as the Jubilee field was in development, environmentalists warned it was moving too fast. To activists, official silence surrounding the November incident was evidence that Ghana lacked the ability to properly oversee offshore oil operations.
Reports by non-governmental organizations show that the companies that developed the Jubilee field, and the World Bank Group officials who lent hundreds of millions of dollars to jumpstart the project, were aware of the risks from the beginning. What’s also clear is that everyone knew the Ghanaian government lacked adequate monitoring systems, regulators to police the industry and equipment needed to react to spills.
Located along Africa’s Atlantic Coast, Ghana is slipping down the same unregulated slope as other countries that hug the Gulf of Guinea: Promises of economic development along with a lure of easy money have prompted governments to encourage the rapid growth of an industry in a regulatory vacuum.
The oil industry, in effect, is left to monitor itself.

Speedy oil development 

Ghana’s Western Region boasts some of the country’s most striking coastline. Rocky coves and tidal pools give way to palm-fringed stretches of sandy beach where dolphins and sea birds dash in and out of crashing surf and where a lucky visitor might spot a nesting turtle. 
Historically, the coastal region’s economy has depended on fishing, which benefits 2 million people — 8 percent of Ghana’s population — but is predicted to unduly suffer from pollution generated by oil operations. Government and industry officials acknowledge that they have no compensation fund to support fishing communities in the event of a major spill — the type of response that kick-started recovery in U.S. Gulf Coast states after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.
That reality leaves many coastal residents and environmental activists doubting the government’s promise that in Ghana, oil would be a blessing, not a curse.
What they’ve seen instead is a fast embrace of the industry: local boosters quickly adopted the nickname “Oil City” for the coastal region’s capital, Sekondi-Takoradi.
When U.K.-based Tullow Oil announced in June 2007 that it had discovered oil in commercial quantities, no one expected that crude would flow just three and a half years later. At the time, Tullow officials spoke of needing up to seven years to develop the field.
But boosted by $215 million in loans from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) — the private financing arm of the World Bank — Tullow and its partners, the American companies Kosmos Energy and Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, were able to get the $3 billion Jubilee field ready in record time.
Ghana became the latest West African country to share in an oil exploration boom that had taken on new emphasis after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron-Texaco had been major players in Equatorial Guinea, Angola and Nigeria since the 1990s. After the terrorist attacks, the United States looked increasingly to Africa as a “safe” alternative to Middle Eastern oil.
Then-President George W. Bush traveled twice to sub-Saharan Africa and met with a number of African heads of state. Exploration in the Gulf of Guinea was pushed by rising oil prices and advances in deep-water drilling technology. Nine years later the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster gave African offshore development an unexpected boost.

From one gulf to another

“The moratorium on deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico left a lot of drilling rigs with nothing to do and then the oil companies are faced with these half-a-million-dollar-a-day contracts with nothing to do,” said Stuart Wheaton, development director for Tullow Oil Ghana.
Operators moved rigs from the Gulf of Mexico to oil fields around the world and some made it to West African waters.
In those same waters, Ghana’s offshore development had gotten its head start from the IFC, whose loans served as a “green light” for other potential investors.
Mary-Jean Moyo, the IFC’s country manager for Ghana, said the corporation’s financial backing in 2009 was crucial in attracting other private investors to the Jubilee project.
“This was at the height of the global financial crisis, so IFC played quite a critical role in terms of being a catalyst,” Moyo said. Without the IFC, “it might have been difficult to raise additional international financing.”
Moyo also said the Jubilee project was classified as low risk for Ghana because “this is offshore and there weren’t any onshore impacts in terms of social displacement, in terms of destruction to mangroves.”
But oil industry analysts at Oxfam America, the global relief and development organization, said the IFC agreed to help finance the project before fully addressing safety and environmental concerns. Moyo acknowledged that the IFC loans to Tullow Oil and Kosmos Energy were approved before the required environmental impact studies had been completed. She pointed out that IFC financing followed strict rules, including “adherence to international safety standards in terms of having very good oil spill response plans and adequate safety measures.”
Ian Gary, Oxfam’s top expert on extractive industries, said this sent a bad signal: “Bringing the project to a board vote prior to the completion of the environmental Impact assessment weakens international norms, since one of the basic purposes of an (assessment) is to determine whether, and under what conditions, a project should be supported.”
In a review of environmental documentation prepared by the IFC, the environmental organization Pacific Environment also questioned IFC support for the project, citing: “Inadequate assessment of impacts on endangered species and critical habitats; inadequate assessment of noise impacts on marine mammals, dumping of drilling wastes into the sea,” and a failure to demonstrate compliance with international standards.
Industry officials say the risks of the Jubilee development are manageable.
“It’s fair to say the capacity and capability for national emergency response is low, but we’ll just have to keep working at it as the years go by,” said Tullow Oil’s Wheaton.
“Everything has some sort of risk associated with it, so you try to minimize those risks and if we do have a spill, what we have done is we’ve brought equipment in,” he added.
The company has clean-up equipment on-site and is a member of the industry-funded Oil Spill Response Ltd., an organization that says it can airlift equipment from the U.K. within 24 hours in the event of a major spill.
Mohammed Amin Adam, a government transparency advocate and cofounder of Ghana’s Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas said his country doesn’t even have “the legal … frameworks to respond to these issues.”
Even though Jubilee field production has started, Ghana has yet to update environmental laws governing extractive industries that were written a generation ago. Ghanaian officials said new legislation will be considered this year.
Ghanaian environmental officials also said they are prepared to act in case of a spill.
“There’s a National Security Coordinating Committee involving the military, the navy, the police and local councils … the Ministry, the Maritime Authority,” said Sherry Ayittey, Ghana’s environment minister. “There is an emergency response unit always being trained, so that in the event of a spillage, within 24 hours, we would be able to move to the location and then handle the issue as quickly as possible.”

Regulatory vacuum

Production from the Jubilee field hovers at around 80,000 barrels per day, but that’s expected to increase substantially over the next decade.
At Ghana’s April 2011 Oil and Gas Summit, Willy Olsen, former senior adviser to Norway’s Statoil, predicted Ghana would become the region’s third-largest producer after Nigeria and Angola, “pumping upwards of 500,000 barrels per day.”
As proof of their technical expertise, Ghanaian government and oil company officials have touted the pace at which the Jubilee field was brought to production.
Environmentalists point out that the country’s first deep-water oil project was its first major oil project of any kind.
Amid the ramp-up to commercial production, the Deepwater Horizon spill occurred. The blowout of the Macondo well off the Louisiana coast on April 20, 2010 was an “eye-opener” according to one Ghanaian official, who said the blast prompted the government to review all of its safety procedures.
The Deepwater Horizon disaster did not slow down Jubilee development, however, and the government review has yet to yield any new regulation.
In October 2011, Offshore Magazine reported on a deep-water technology conference in New Orleans where Dennis McLaughlin, Senior Vice President with Kosmos Energy, gave a talk titled, “Reviewing Lessons learned from the Jubilee project.” In it he acknowledged that, “large deep-water projects are inherently difficult and risky,” and then described what it was like to develop the Jubilee field in a country with no regulatory or commercial infrastructure.
During the Jubilee field development Kosmos Energy experienced several mishaps. The company acknowledged spilling toxic drilling mud on three occasions, including a spill of some 600 barrels (25,000 gallons) in December 2009.
Cephas Egbefome an environmental issues researcher for Ghana’s parliament, said the government fined Kosmos $35 million for negligence.
But the fine, which Kosmos challenged as not following Ghanaian law and ultimately did not pay, raised a number of concerns, Egbefome said. The government probe was quick and opaque; the methodology for determining the fine was unclear. “Kosmos openly challenged the legal basis of the fine, describing it as totally unlawful,” he said.
Transparency activist Mohammed Amin Adam takes up the story:
“What the law says is that in the event of a disaster, a spill, the polluter must pay. But the law doesn’t talk about a fine,” he said. “Kosmos spilled mud, a committee was set up to investigate Kosmos and the committee came out with a fine, contrary to our law.
“What government needed to do was to get Kosmos to clean and pay for the cleaning,” Amin Adam said. “We just slapped a fine on them. And so they came to raise legal questions: whether we had the legal mandate, the authority to slap a fine on them.”
Kosmos declined to answer questions about the mud spills.
Instead Jim McCarthy, the media relations representative for the company sent ICIJ a press release on the “amicable” resolution of several issues:  “Kosmos and the Ministry of Science, Environment and Technology have agreed to a solution with respect to the accidental mud discharges offshore Ghana earlier this year whereby Kosmos would support the Ministry’s efforts to build capacity in the environmental sector.”
Daniel Amlalo, Ghana’s acting Enviromental Protection Agency director, said the mud spills were properly addressed.
“Lessons have been learned from that and government has put measures in place to ensure that it does not happen again,” he said.

A regional problem

Ghana’s troubled regulation of the offshore oil industry sits against a backdrop of other West African nations with dubious environmental records.
The Nigerian oil industry, already infamous for its disastrous environmental record in the Niger Delta, also has problems offshore. In December, Shell said a spill occurred at its Bonga field, approximately 120 km. off Nigeria’s coast.
This past December 20th and 21st, oil spewed from a ruptured fuel line connecting the Bonga platform to a waiting tanker. Before workers noticed the spill, Shell said that up to 40,000 barrels (1.68 million gallons) had leaked, reportedly making it the worst offshore accident in Nigeria since 1988.
The Nigerian government takes a hands-off approach to clean-up operations, maintaining little in the way of vessels or equipment. Each company operating in the country is required to stockpile clean-up equipment and the industry leaders in Nigeria have also enlisted the U.K.’s Oil Spill Response Ltd.
After the December spills, Nigerian Senator Abubakar Kukola Saraki denounced the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency for having to “rely almost exclusively on the grace and benevolence of the oil companies” in a clean-up effort.
After years of denial, Royal Dutch Shell recently acknowledged that “operational issues” were responsible for two other large spills in Nigeria’s Ogoniland in 2008 – pollution in the Niger Delta that the United Nations Environment Program said would cost $1 billion to clean up.
Shell said sabotage is thwarting clean-up efforts and more than three years later, oil remains in the water and on land. A November 2011 report from Amnesty International says the spills destroyed the livelihoods of 69,000 people.
Angola offers another bad example, said Kristin Reed, an environmental researcher at the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley.
Reed described Angola’s oil industry as one without any state or independent monitoring or oversight. She said the situation is made worse by Angola’s press restrictions that limit public information about oil operations. Anecdotal news of spills and pollution sometimes spreads via blogs and the Internet but official details on incidents and who’s to blame are rarely available.
And the tiny nation of Equatorial Guinea, an oil producer since the mid-1990s, also has no spill response plan, no clean-up equipment or vessels, no independent press and no agreements with neighboring countries to combat pollution.
In Equatorial Guinea, oil companies monitor themselves and handle their own cleanups.
The ICIJ asked ExxonMobil, how the oil companies conduct self-monitoring in the region and to whom they report.
David Eglinton, a spokesman for ExxonMobil, promised a response. He has yet to give one.

Dead whales

In Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana’s “Oil City,” activists from Friends of the Nation work with the communities closest to offshore drilling operations.
In two years of monitoring on behalf of local residents, the group’s Kyei Yamoah, has noted an increase in whale deaths.
“A whale washed ashore in October, bringing the total number of dead whales on our beaches since late 2009 to eight,” Yamoah said.
“After the death of the first whale, (the government) claimed they had taken samples to determine the cause, but they have never made their reports public,” Yamoah said. “Now we have seven more [dead whales].”
This past spring, the Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas, a group that includes industry experts, government officials and community activists, issued a “report card” on Ghana’s emerging oil business. Speakers at the report’s unveiling included Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, Ghana’s deputy energy minister, and Ishac Diwan, the World Bank’s Ghana country director.
The report commended the government’s transparency efforts and the passage of an oil revenue management plan, but gave the industry and government regulators a “D” grade on social and environmental issues. The report said pollution controls and environmental regulation of the offshore industry are still just legislative proposals.
Ghanaian transparency advocate Mohammed Amin Adam said the report was designed to draw attention to the potential danger the country faces.
The attention is needed, said Ghanaian government researcher Cephas Egbefome, because the environment and risks in offshore oil production seem to be non-issues for most politicians and the public.
In a country where a significant percentage of the population struggles just to get by, Egbefome said, it’s hard to muster much concern for an oil operation 60 km offshore that few can see.
Christiane Badgley is a journalist and documentary film producer who follows oil development in Africa. This article was produced in cooperation with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Click here to see more of her Ghana oil reports.

Marvin E. Quasniki at the South Carolina GOP Debate


Uploaded by Nerdist on Jan 21, 2012 Republican candidate Marvin E. Quasniki leaves a lasting impression at the most recent GOP debate in Charleston, SC.

Marvin for President


Marvin E. Quasniki Iowa Caucus Video Diary


Uploaded by  on Jan 10, 2012
Join Marvin as he travels across Iowa, talking to real voters in an eleventh-hour attempt to drum up support in the Iowa caucus


The Marvin E. Quasniki for 2012 Thing!


Uploaded by  on Jan 12, 2012
Marvin E. Quasniki and some of his most ardent supporters recently gathered at the Hamburg Inn for a rousing campaign rally.

Marvin E. Quasniki - Man on the Street


Uploaded by  on Dec 7, 2011
I recently had the chance to meet some voters and share my vision for a new America. Thanks to the people of the sinful, gang-ridden, lefty-liberal, modern-day Gomorrah of Los Angeles!

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Funny Puppet Makes Fun Of Candidates Except Ron Paul



Uploaded by ScottCarhoun on Dec 7, 2011
Puppet Politics piece from CNN starring Marvin E. Quasniki. 0:40-1:00 is absolutely hilarious! Also, notice that the puppet refers to the candidates as "clowns" except for Ron Paul!!! Pretty sure it is for obvious reasons (he is the only candidate that makes sense).

Marvin E. Quasniki - Iowa Republican Debate




Uploaded by  on Dec 13, 2011
Pretty sure I won the debate at Drake University, or maybe tied. Thanks to Diane Sawyer and George Stephapotomus!

Giffords to resign from Congress

13 minutes ago

Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) will resign from Congress this week, she announced in a video message posted Sunday.
Giffords, the victim of a gunshot wound to the head in an attack a year ago in her Arizona district, cited her continued work toward recovery as a reason for stepping down from her seat.
"I have more work to do on my recovery so to do what is best for Arizona I will step down this week," she said in a video message posted to YouTube. "I will return and we will work together for Arizona and this great country."
Giffords has enjoyed a remarkable recovery since being shot in a Jan. 8, 2011 incident that left six dead.
Prior to that shooting, she had been considering a rising Democratic star, and had been considering a bid for Senate this fall. During the course of her recovery, she has been absent from Capitol Hill except for a surprise return to vote in August on an agreement to raise the nation's debt ceiling.

Marvin E. Quasniki - Presidential Campaign Announcement


Uploaded by  on Dec 7, 2011
My fellow Americans! My bid to be the next president of the United States is underway. God bless America and God bless YouTube and Nerdist for allowing you folks to watch my official campaign announcement.


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NASA Finds 2011 Ninth Warmest Year on Record

NASA Finds 2011 Ninth Warmest Year on Record

01.19.12
Steve Cole
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0918
stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov

Leslie McCarthy
Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York
212-678-5507
leslie.m.mccarthy@nasa.gov
Jan. 19, 2012
RELEASE : 12-020
   
WASHINGTON -- The global average surface temperature in 2011 was the ninth warmest since 1880, according to NASA scientists. The finding continues a trend in which nine of the 10 warmest years in the modern meteorological record have occurred since the year 2000.

NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York, which monitors global surface temperatures on an ongoing basis, released an updated analysis that shows temperatures around the globe in 2011 compared to the average global temperature from the mid-20th century. The comparison shows how Earth continues to experience warmer temperatures than several decades ago. The average temperature around the globe in 2011 was 0.92 degrees F (0.51 C) warmer than the mid-20th century baseline.

"We know the planet is absorbing more energy than it is emitting," said GISS director James E. Hansen. "So we are continuing to see a trend toward higher temperatures. Even with the cooling effects of a strong La Nina influence and low solar activity for the past several years, 2011 was one of the 10 warmest years on record."

The difference between 2011 and the warmest year in the GISS record (2010) is 0.22 degrees F (0.12 C). This underscores the emphasis scientists put on the long-term trend of global temperature rise. Because of the large natural variability of climate, scientists do not expect temperatures to rise consistently year after year. However, they do expect a continuing temperature rise over decades.

The first 11 years of the 21st century experienced notably higher temperatures compared to the middle and late 20th century, Hansen said. The only year from the 20th century in the top 10 warmest years on record is 1998.

Higher temperatures today are largely sustained by increased atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide. These gases absorb infrared radiation emitted by Earth and release that energy into the atmosphere rather than allowing it to escape to space. As their atmospheric concentration has increased, the amount of energy "trapped" by these gases has led to higher temperatures.

The carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere was about 285 parts per million in 1880, when the GISS global temperature record begins. By 1960, the average concentration had risen to about 315 parts per million. Today it exceeds 390 parts per million and continues to rise at an accelerating pace.

The temperature analysis produced at GISS is compiled from weather data from more than 1,000 meteorological stations around the world, satellite observations of sea surface temperature and Antarctic research station measurements. A publicly available computer program is used to calculate the difference between surface temperature in a given month and the average temperature for the same place during 1951 to 1980. This three-decade period functions as a baseline for the analysis.

The resulting temperature record is very close to analyses by the Met Office Hadley Centre in the United Kingdom and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.

Hansen said he expects record-breaking global average temperature in the next two to three years because solar activity is on the upswing and the next El Nino will increase tropical Pacific temperatures. The warmest years on record were 2005 and 2010, in a virtual tie.

"It's always dangerous to make predictions about El Nino, but it's safe to say we'll see one in the next three years," Hansen said. "It won't take a very strong El Nino to push temperatures above 2010."

For more information on the GISS temperature analysis, visit:

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp
-

 
 
Temperature Data: 1880-2011 Global temperatures have warmed significantly since 1880, the beginning of what scientists call the "modern record." At this time, the coverage provided by weather stations allowed for essentially global temperature data. As greenhouse gas emissions from energy production, industry and vehicles have increased, temperatures have climbed, most notably since the late 1970s. In this animation of temperature data from 1880-2011, reds indicate temperatures higher than the average during a baseline ..

Paterno loses battle with lung cancer


Legenday Penn State coach, 85, leads all in college wins

Image: Paterno celebratesGetty Images
Penn State coach Joe Paterno celebrates his 324th career win after defeating Ohio State on Oct. 27, 2001.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Former Penn State coach Joe Paterno, who was battling lung cancer, died Sunday, his family said. He was 85.
The winningest major college football coach of all time, Paterno was diagnosed shortly after Penn State's Board of Trustees ousted him Nov. 9 in the aftermath of the child sex abuse charges against former assistant Jerry Sandusky. Paterno was getting treatment since, and his health problems were worsened when he broke his pelvis - an injury that first cropped up when he was accidentally hit in preseason practice last year.
The final days of Paterno's Penn State career were easily the toughest in his 61 years with the university and 46 seasons as head football coach.
Sandusky, a longtime defensive coordinator who was on Paterno's staff in two national title seasons, was arrested Nov. 5 and ultimately charged with sexually abusing a total of 10 boys over 15 years. His arrest sparked outrage not just locally but across the nation and there were widespread calls for Paterno to quit.
Paterno announced late on Nov. 9 that he would retire at the end of the season but just hours later he received a call from board vice chairman John Surma, telling him he had been terminated as coach. By that point, a crowd of students and media were outside the Paterno home. When news spread that Paterno had been dumped, there was rioting in State College.
Trustees said this week they pushed Paterno out in part because he failed a moral responsibility to report an allegation made in 2002 against Sandusky to authorities outside the university. They also felt he had challenged their authority and that, as a practical matter, with all the media in town and attention to the Sandusky case, he could no longer run the team.
Paterno testified before the grand jury investigating Sandusky that he had relayed to his bosses an accusation that came from graduate assistant Mike McQueary, who said he saw Sandusky abusing a boy in the showers of the Penn State football building.
Paterno told the Post that he didn't know how to handle the charge, but a day after McQueary visited him, Paterno spoke to the athletic director and the administrator with oversight over the campus police.
Wick Sollers, Paterno's lawyer, called the board's comments this week self-serving and unsupported by the facts. Paterno fully reported what he knew to the people responsible for campus investigations, Sollers said.
"He did what he thought was right with the information he had at the time," Sollers said.
Sandusky says he is innocent and is out on bail, awaiting trial.
The back and forth between Paterno's representative and the board reflects a trend in recent weeks, during which Penn State alumni - and especially former players, including Hall of Fame running back Franco Harris - have questioned the trustees' actions and accused them of failing to give Paterno a chance to defend himself.
Three town halls, in Pittsburgh, suburban Philadelphia and New York City, seemed to do little to calm the situation and dozens of candidates have now expressed interest in running for the board, a volunteer position that typically attracts much less interest.
While everyone involved has said the focus should be on Sandusky's accusers and their ordeals, the abuse scandal for Paterno put a sour ending on a sterling career. Paterno won 409 games and took the Nittany Lions to 37 bowl games and those two national championships. More than 250 of the players he coached went on to the NFL.
With his thick glasses, rolled up khakis and white socks, Paterno was synonymous with Penn State and was seen in many ways as the archetypal football coach.

Paterno's greatness can't erase a bad ending

 Penn State coach's storied life will forever be stained by Sandusky affair

AP
Penn State coach Joe Paterno is carried off the field following the Nittany Lions' 27-23 defeat of Georgia in the 1983 Sugar Bowl, to claim the National Championship.

Michael Ventre
You could see Joe Paterno’s entire career in the sad eyes of Jay Paterno, his son and one of his assistant coaches at Penn State. When the Jerry Sandusky matter first blew up, Jay Paterno faced interviewers not with defiance, but rather melancholy resignation. He knew what had been, he saw what was coming and he seemed to experience the slow onset of grief in front of the public over his father’s fate and legacy.
Here was one of the great names in sports, whose black-rimmed glasses were as iconic as Bear Bryant’s houndstooth hat. Joe Paterno. He was the rare institution who was bigger than the institution that made him. He looked and dressed like somebody from a 1950s job interview, but he managed to remain relevant in an increasingly capitalistic sport up to the end.
Those who might suggest in the most strident terms that it is unfair to put so much emphasis on Joe Paterno’s connection to the Sandusky abomination when that was actually a tiny speck in a long and storied career probably acknowledge that it has to be done. He happened to be at the wheel when the program ran into a ditch. Even he admitted later to the Washington Post that “I didn’t know exactly how to handle it” and “I backed away” and turned it all over to others.
But the problem was that nobody was more powerful in State College, Pa., than Joe Paterno, who passed away at the age of 85. So when it came time for the most powerful man on campus to exercise that influence, he inexplicably delegated. It was no time for a hand-off, and as a result a proud career ended in controversy and exile.
As Joe Paterno would find out as an octogenarian, life is a cruel practitioner of irony. Sandusky is alleged to have ruined young lives by taking selfishness to a monstrous level. Until this all broke, Paterno’s reputation was associated with the molding of young men. His ex-players maintained an almost fanatical reverence for him.

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Image: Joe Paterno
  Images from Joe Paterno's career
A look at the career of former Penn State coach Joe Paterno.
It was so probably for a lot of reasons, but most of all because of his devotion to them. College football has become a bastion of climbers. Coaches are now major celebrities commanding unseemly sums, thanks to a rushing river of television money that shows no signs of slowing. Many of the more ambitious leap from job to job, from college town to college town, padding their resumes as they seek more glory and a fatter portfolio.
Paterno was never like that. He drew a modest salary by the standard of major college football coaches. He lived in a house with his family that, if it were for sale, an ordinary person might be able to afford. He emphasized fundamentals, and had little tolerance for the pandering that became necessary in order to lure increasingly narcissistic recruits.
The downside — pre-Sandusky scandal — was marked by his inability to let go. In 2000, his Nittany Lions went 5-7. That was his first losing season since 1988. It would have been considered acceptable except that three of the next four were also below-.500 seasons. Grumbling turned into heckling, and many in the Penn State community figured it was time for the gold watch engraved with the word “emeritus.”
But Paterno hung on, even though he became increasingly fragile with age. The perception was that he turned over so much day-to-day coaching responsibilities to assistants that his title of head coach was largely ceremonial. And that crown would lie uneasy as rivals told recruits that Paterno was headed to assisted living.
Paterno hung in. After all, that’s what they tell football players to do, right? Fight through adversity? Ignore pain? Discount the critics? It’s part of the culture. For Paterno, determination was there every day. It was on the chalkboard in his office. It was on the plate with his pasta. It was in his DNA.
Each of his last seven were winning seasons.
There was plenty of fodder for his detractors, as well. He had been accused of ignoring a raft of run-ins with the law by his players over the years, and in some cases by allegedly insisting to other school administrators that the disciplining of his players came under his purview, and his alone. He not-so-politely told them to butt out.
In 2006, the National Organization for Women demanded his resignation after he made a flippant comment about a sexual abuse case involving a Florida State player. In 2002, Penn State cornerback Anwar Phillips was accused of sexual assault and the university suspended him for two semesters. But before the suspension began, Paterno suited up Phillips to play in the Capital One Bowl against Auburn.
Paterno suffered from the disease of imperiousness. Among curmudgeons in coaching, he achieved platinum level. He would snap at a reporter who asked a question he didn’t feel like answering, or worse yet, a question he didn’t think a reporter even had a right to ask.
Today’s breed of college football coach is smoother, slicker and savvier, a direct genetic link to carefully branded political candidates. Paterno was not that. He was brusque, impatient and difficult. He was insulated and suspicious, as most people with great power eventually become.
In the end, when ugliness enshrouded Penn State, all of that worked against him. He was the wrong personality at the wrong moment. The entire horrible mess sideswiped him, left him dizzy and confused, then came back and hit him head on.
Men who have achieved greatness — and Paterno certainly is one of them — are often remembered fondly, even if they left a stench. That’s just the way success usually goes in America — the achievements stand out, the warts vanish.
With Paterno, it won’t be that way. There will be images of him on the sidelines, with white shirt and black tie, barking orders. There will be clips of him accepting hugs from his players after his two national titles. There will be memories of a raucous rally the night he was fired, with irate students pledging undying support.
But there will also be the crestfallen face of Jay Paterno, which says it all.