Reading "Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years"

Recently, I was strolling through the library aisles when I came across "Unstoppable Global Warming" by Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery. From the cover, I could immediately see that the book was about how mankind isn't responsible for "global warming" - or, the recent surges in global temperature. In fact, according to the book, the climate change phenomena are a result of 1,500-year climate cycles that the Earth has been going through for 4.5 billion years.

The book expresses its doubts about the Greenhouse Effect - the absorption of solar radiation by greenhouse gases such as CO2 and N2O; the emission of GHGs from human activity cannot have an effect as large as a global temperature surge. The writers of this book assert that instead of trying to cut down on the production of such gases, we should try to develop the adequate technologies and other measures to prepare for the changes in climate for the years to come - inevitable, because that is how the Earth's system has always been, going through repetitive circuits of warm periods and little ice ages. 

* Anyone who's been following my blog will know that what I believe in doesn't agree with what the book says. I've talked extensively about global warming, greenhouse gases and climate change, all from a point of view that is quite the opposite of that of the book. But in the last few years, I've met people who share the book's ideas - surprisingly not a very small number. Investigating what the book says is a way of figuring out what they believe in and clarifying or reinforcing my own knowledge.

For the next few months, I'll be posting about my reading of this book, with picture and weather posts in between. I hope it will interest you as much as it did to me; after all, global news are often scattered with articles about climate change, and in order to interpret them in the most accurate or balanced way, we should be armed with the appropriate knowledge. 

Cheers :)

Discovering Petrified Wood

At the end of my last blog post, I asked you what the picture below showed:

Wood...with a "metallic, rocky texture"

And the answer is...petrified wood!

Blocks of it were scattered around the bonsai park of the Hwa Dam Forest Arboretum in Gwangju. When I first touched one, I couldn't believe it was a type of "wood" because it felt just like the veneer of polished marble. The entire shape was of an ordinary log, but there was nothing less than extraordinary about it. It  Below are some pictures:

Looks like silvery paint brushed over an oily surface

There were even massive sculptures made of this material along with a notice board that explained briefly how this came to be:

Can you see two sculptures lurking in the background?

The sign talks of "the tree that became a stone" and as much as this sounds like something out of a fairy tale or a fantasy novel, the formation of this magnificent matter can be explained quite scientifically. 

Petrified wood, also known as silicified wood, is a type of fossil...or more accurately, "fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation". It is formed when a tree's organic materials get replaced with minerals such as silica, calcite, pyrite and quartz. This occurs when the wood becomes buried in sediment through which dissolved solids flow through. The plant's lignin and cellulose decay, making room for stone mold to set. It is essential that there is protection from oxygen and various organisms to prevent aerobic decomposition. Petrified wood is an incredibly unique fossil: its original outline and shape are preserved without getting compressed or impressed like other types do. In fact, it would be quite accurate to say that it represents an three-dimensional record of the initial form. 

Enjoy more pictures! :)