Burn It All

Conditions: Down in an oubliette

Bad medicine

The world’s top climate scientists have been busy putting together a big report that talks about client change and exactly how doomed we are, on a scale of how-much-do-mountain-top-houses-cost, to well,-better-start evolving-gills. However some claims have been made recently that this report has said that the warming rate is actually half what was previously claimed. Is there some hope for slightly-less doom?

The summary report published yesterday, and the million-word full version that will follow, result from a mindbogglingly thorough process. Together they were written by 259 top scientists from 30 countries, drawing on 9,200 mostly recent scientific publications – and checked by 1,089 reviewers, whose 54,677 comments all had to be taken into account. And over the past week “every single word” has been justified to 110 governments. [...]

Yesterday’s report increased its assessment of the likelihood that humanity is warning the planet from 90 to 95 per cent. Yet it, too, errs on the side of caution on Arctic ice, and takes little account of what scientists say is one of the most alarming developments: the release of methane from melting permafrost to reinforce the gases already warming the planet. Its conclusions are nevertheless alarming. Atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases are “unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years”. The Antarctic ice sheet is melting five times – and the Greenland one six times – faster than just a decade ago. And whatever changes take place will only be reversible over many hundreds, even thousands, of years.

What it does not conclude, despite widely publicised sceptic assertions, is that the world is warming at about half the rate it previously estimated. Its actual reduction is by just one hundredth of a degree centigrade, from 0.13 to 0.12 degrees per decade.

- telegraph.co.uk/

Oh. Suddenly my WW3 bunker is looking less like a good idea.


Film Review: Rush

I never thought this would have happened, but here we are with a brilliantly detailed examination of the famous 1976 Formula One world championship battle between James Hunt for McLaren and Niki Lauda for Ferrari. Regarded as the most dramatic championship battle ever, this tells the tale of a classic rivalry between the two men, who were completely different to each other in their approach to racing and to life in general, and the drama of that year. After dominating most of the season, Niki suffers horrific injuries after a terrible crash at the Nurburgring, and after battling his way back into competition – still in bandages – they have a final standoff in the pouring rain at Mount Fuji. A standoff that does not end in a shallow Hollywood fashion but instead is handled the way humans usually end up handling things: messy, complicated, difficult and dramatic.

This is a film about character and courage, a story about heroes and tremendous, amazing force of will. It’s about as good a racing film as you’re likely to see, so good it trancends being pigeon holed as a sport movie and just become a movie movie. Chris Hemsworth plays James Hunt brilliantly as a hard-living pretty boy with a diamond-hard edge under the smile. Daniel Bruhl brings a fantastic portrayal of the complex and focused Lauda, a man so focused on winning he simply doesn’t seem to understand anything else.

Ron Howard has crafted another masterpeice, perfectly capturing the world of F1 racing back in the 70’s. While some liberties have been taken (from what I’ve read, Hunt and Lauda always treated each other with respect. And some races/results from the season were skipped over – likely for brevity) what’s important is the tone and heart of the story – and it’s been terrifically captured here, with another great score from Hans Zimmer to boot. Not only a great portrayal of their battles on track, but an ever better portrayal of how they clashed off the track as well.  How great it is to have top filmakers dedicate themselves to portray an F1 story as well and as accurately as this. Four and a half loose wheels out of five.



- Peace out