Season of the playful penguins from Oyonale

Dead penguins, dead polar bears, larger oceans, and houses under water. Is this the future?

The world’s largest tropical glacier is in danger of disappearing within five years, according to international researchers meeting this week in San Francisco.

Take action and reduce waste. Every little helps.

Let us borrow this story and translate its impact to aspects of software development. In programming, greater reuse of code translates into fewer ‘seats’. Dependently, programmers require waste. Without waste and reproduction there is better utilisation of code replication capabilities. And then there’s commercial software that thrives in waste, leading to a morbid & spontaneous spasm in Mother Nature. Let’s work for Earth, not against it.

While the British government makes technological and political decisions which I disagree with, its stance on environmental issues is an encouraging one. It doesn’t seek to deny the truth. Moreover, it seeks to spread the truth.

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore’s global warming documentary will be sent to every secondary school in England as part of a campaign to tackle climate change, the government said Friday.

Here is the film’s trailer.

Some recent revelations confirm what many of us have already known. There is a lot of money exchanging hands amid efforts to deny man-made climate changes.

This comes around the same time that a United Nations panel took a stance which does confirm that global warming is real. How long can companies manipulate the world though?

Yesterday, in another site, I wrote about the possible Intel-Dell kickbacks affair, which has pretty much been exposed. And only a week ago, Microsoft offered money for changes to Wikipedia. It is sad to see the extent of fraud, but encouraging to see that it gets exposed.

Picture from the BBC (2004).

T is relieving to see that some educated people in the States have begun fighting disinformation. Recently, a serious matter that is denial of global warming has been taken more seriously. In fact, severe actions could soon be taken against those who seek to deny factual dangers whose impact is considerable. Have a look at the short summary from Slashdot.

Expert Wants to Decertify Global Warming Skeptics

“Apparently in the Senate, at least one scientist wants to put a permanent stop to any arguments over Global Warming. The Weather Channel’s most prominent climatologist is advocating that broadcast meteorologists be stripped of their scientific certification if they express skepticism about predictions of manmade catastrophic global warming.”

N this age when convenience is perpetually sought, will mankind care about other living species? Are they a priority? Are petty acts which demonstrate care, such as Dell’s latest initiative to plant a tree for every computer sold and encourage/assist disposal, truly helpful? And can this change the big picture? To me, it seems highly doubtful.

People seek the friendly mugs when the limelight turns to them. It’s about perception of those who surround us. Little gestures and niceties do not reverse something that progresses at a much larger scale. Meanwhile, our planet is being destroyed and lives are claimed in the process. Sometimes, this life which required hundreds of thousands years of evolution is never to be restored. It is sad really. Below is a short snippet from the article which stirred and led to this unannounced rant.

Experts estimate there are 15,589 species threatened with extinction. But a species is only accepted to have become extinct if exhaustive surveys in its known habitat range have failed to find any record of the individual.

You can obtain many long fragments of the full film from video sites such as YouTube.

The environment, and global warming in particular, is becoming a hot topic (pun) these days.

Some of the report was quoted in the Fourth Assessment Report “Climate Change 2007″ by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, established by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme, said Qin.

Meanwhile we hear about a glacier the size of 11,000 football fields breaking and drifting, possibly about to thaw. A new initiative speaks about labelling of energy-efficient servers, but it won’t be enough. We’re running out of time while islands are sinking under the rising sea level. We need a more radical approach. We need a solution now.