Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Smart lemurs learn how to turn thermostat up during cold snap at Tropiquaria Zoo
“The following day, it was up to maximum again and, after watching them discretely for some time, we discovered that on the cooler nights they were reaching in to where the heater was contained and turning the thermostat to max. On the warmer nights, they didn’t do it.
David Attenborough is wrong – the human race has never been so successful or healthy – Telegraph Blogs
He's claimed in an interview that the human race is a plague on the Earth. We must limit population growth or the natural world will do it for us - and the natural world is doing it for us right now, he says.

Erm, except it's not. Attenborough points to famines in Ethiopia and, he's right, things aren't too pleasant there. But, then again, he's cherry-picking his locations. Throughout most of the rest of the world, the human population is soaring because it's in such good shape. People are living longer, healthier lives than they've ever lived before, and there are more of us than ever before, too.
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Attenborough seems to have a Malthusian dislike of the human race. Oh, we are so awful, we must be doomed, is the logic. It's true, we may not behave too well; we have the power to be more destructive than any other animal, and we use that unpleasant power from time to time. But, from a purely selfish point of view, we are the kings of the planet and we're in rude health.
Classless Obama Insults Global Warming Skeptics in Inaugural Address - Amy Ridenour's National Center Blog - A Conservative Blog
Obama won't apologize. The best we can hope for is that at some point Barack Obama realizes the dignity of his office requires him to rise above ad hominem insults and restrict himself to facts and truth. It would be a big change for a man who seems sincerely to believe that reaching a different conclusion than he has on seemingly every issue is a sign of immorality in others.

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