Sunday 30 December 2007

Recent weather

The continuous rain coming down during the last few days of the year seems to be a first. Also, the last three days we had thunderstorms that are more typical in September than December.

It will be interesting to get the statistics from the Met Office on this seemingly abnormal December weather.

Wednesday 26 December 2007

Tuesday 25 December 2007

Merry Christmas

It is Christmas Day and my Baanisuu is taking her shower before we go out for a Xmas drink with friends. So I have a little spare time to wish all of you blog readers out there:

Merry Christmas!

Friday 21 December 2007

Ticking away...10 days to go

This is the season to be jolly fa la la la la la la la

I might add, this is the season to be stuffed, stuffed with all the food that I am going to eat. My Xmas party bash started last night with a meal with my MIRM mates. The meal was at Peppino's in Paceville. Food was good. Afterwards we had a couple of beers in the bars.

Today was my last day at work for the year. We finished early, at around 2pm and went off for lunch at Vino Veritas. Had a pizza with some wine. Tonight, I have a five course meal, courtesy of Alleance Francais. My god!

Tomorrow for lunch I am meeting my former geography mates. Then in the evening, I have a meal with Baanisuu's Uni mates.

Sunday and Monday are dedicated to our mates. We shall be hanging out together at the usual place. That means lots of food, lots of drink and lots of laughter.

Come Xmas day, another big meal. I can better define it a marathon meal. I am not exaggerating if I say that such meals at my aunt's may last up to almost six hours!

Then Boxing Day is another meal, the official meal with the 'marmalja'.

Jesus....that's so much of food.

Sunday 16 December 2007

About freakin' time! Planning Summer School 2007 images



A few weekends back, exactly on, Saturday 24th November 2007, I decided to dedicate the morning to upload some of the best pictures that I took early September when I attended the Planning Summer School in Swansea, Wales. I know, I have better things to do, but this was a job that had to be done sometime or another. Anyway, click on the image above to link to the online folder. I hope that someday I will manage to upload the Ireland pictures. But that is more problematic; there are over 600 to choose from.

Anyway, take a look...

Saturday 15 December 2007

Musical climate change

I tell you, reading climate change science while listening to Sigur Ros in the background is quite problematic. It makes the thing more biased. Sigur Ros are not quite known for their jovial mood in their music. And alas, they are from the cold north ie Iceland.

So imagine listening to the soothing music, imagining yourself in some Icelandic village walking about like a huge mammoth with all the clothes on. And you decide to trek and walk to and on the beautiful pure whiteness. The ice and snow after which Iceland has its own name.

However, deep down you realise that the place may change completely, and that is in a few years time. I tell you, reading climate science on the Arctic (Ok, Iceland is not quiet in the Arctic but close enough) is quite depressing. It makes you loose hope.

I was reading an interesting article from the guys at Real Climate and my God are we in deep shite! Of course, much of the scary observations observed now can never really indicate if all hope is already lost. But, things do not look good.

Read below on what is going on in the Arctic:

Since 2005 there has been a 25% decline in Arctic sea ice at the time of minimum, equal to the combined area of Texas and California

The state of ice thickness observed in 2007 is quite similar to the modelled state in 2020

Will 2007 be remembered as the tipping point for sea ice? Only time will tell.


There has been a decline in prime polar bear habitat in many places, but also some increase in polar bear habitat in the central Arctic. The latter will disappear eventually, as summer sea ice continues to retreat.

The Northwest Passage has opened. The Arctic will be increasingly opened to economic activity like oil drilling, with all the attendant environmental hazards and chances for political dispute

the estimated (see level rise rate) ... is now 2.2mm/yr, of which 30% is due to Greenland and 20% due to Antarctica (ice melt).

Moving on to another blog post, the issue is glacier ice retreat. Another threat that will further decrease albedo, reduce the ice-water reservoir and make history the much frequented skiing pistes..

98% of the named Alaska glaciers are retreating,
95% of 612 studied Tibet glaciers are retreating, and
98% of monitored Alpine glaciers are retreating.

I think I should listen less to Sigur Ros

Waiting for Bali

It is Saturday, 11 am GMT+1. The outcome should have come out by Friday, but talks are still under way.

Yes, I am still waiting for the outcomes of the Bali Conference, where the latest news indicate that something concrete is to come out. Until that moment comes, I will check the news every few minutes or so while listen to a new EP by Sigur Ros.

Hoping.

Friday 14 December 2007

Hail and Bali

A rather particular event happened to me on my way to work this morning. The sky looked heavy and grey with hugu cumulus clouds waiting for any moment to pour their contents. I was driving along the main road and got stuck in traffic under the 'University Tunnel'. As I was reaching the end of it, I realised that it was pouring heavily on the outside; I entered the tunnel dry. To add to the 'shock' most of the rain was actually hail. So bang bang bang loud on the car, I had to turn up the volume to continue to listen Ghost Reveries (Opeth) (Yeah! Quite a wakeup tune!!).

Apart from that, the temperature is really cold today, at least at work. The a/c does not seem to be providing enough heat.

Anyhow I admit I am a little anxious at the moment. I am awaiting the outcomes of the Bali Conference which, I believe, will have an impact on the way we know and shall know our Earth. Climate-related concerns are very high. The climate itself is already responding with record low ice levels in the Arctic. An expert believes that the Arctic Ocean will be ice free by 2013! That is five years from now!

Let us pray that he's wrong.

Tuesday 11 December 2007

Examplary green incentive

Here below is a good incentive proposed by French government to reduce energy consumption and produce less CO2 emissions.

...the French government (started) to offer cash bonuses of up to €1,300 (£940) to buy new low-emission cars and penalties of up to €2,600 for buying the most polluting models.

The French car scheme took effect last week and offers a €1,000 bonus for cars emitting less than 100 grammes of CO2 a kilometre, €700 for those emitting less than 120g and €200 for those emitting less than 130g. A new model emitting more than 250g, such as a Porsche Cayenne Turbo or a BMW X5, carries a penalty of €2,600.

Now isnt' that a bold decision that will make the air we (they) breathe cleaner?

Maltese politicians, get inspired!

Friday 7 December 2007

Weekend Break

I am off to Gozo for the weekend. I hope the weather will be fine, although the forecast says that it will rain. My guest shall be Baanisuu. I have booked a room overlooking a popular bay in Gozo. Want to now where? Check this space early next week...

Enjoy the weekend!

I tell you: Scrap Biofuel away!!

Biofuel, Biodiesel, ethanol and the likes. They are pitted as the saviours for our car engines as we seek remedies to do away with fossil fuels. But, alas, not all that glitters is gold.

Research back in August quoted that: increasing production of biofuels to combat climate change will release between two and nine times more carbon gases over the next 30 years than fossil fuels Source.

One may argue that the debate is wide open, and I fully agree to that. However, what is happening is that biofuels in the form of crop derivations is financially more advantageous for certain sectors of the economy. The most is the farmer. Crops for biofuel are getting a better prices than crops for food.

This was even stated by Pippo Psaila, head of the EORC, a Maltese company that produces biofuel. Although they started and still use used cooking oil as the source of biofuel, the EORC plans to expand. And what does it offer? The end of the article in The Times, Business edition of the 6th of December says it all:

"Farmers could grow jatropha instead of fodder.... In the end, they would be growing something that gives them a much higher income for much less work".

First of all, one must be very careful when introducing new crops. It must be made sure that the plant is not invasive. We do not want jatropha to be another haxixa ingliza do we?

Secondly, the farmer will surely gain, or so he hopes, a higher yield and more valuable crop. But what about the previous user of the fodder?

We all know that food prices have risen tremendously in a few months. It is believed that food stockpiles are very low, at levels last seen in the early eighties. Exchanging food crops with fuel crops will not made the situation better.

I shall end with some text from an article I read on the reasons why food prices have risen so much:

1 Rising consumption: The appetite of fast-growing nations, such as China, is rising as economic booms cause a surge in demand for meat and dairy products

2 Competition from biofuels: The cars of the rich are now rivalling the bellies of the poor for corn, cane and edible oils

3 Climate change: Global warming is putting pressure on water needed to irrigate crops

So what do you think? Would you still go for biofuel?

Mifsud scores two against WBA

Michael Mifsud,a.k.a the Mosquito, helped Coventry win with a two goal advantage over West Bromwich Albion. The was the return leg of the match in which the Mosquito was sent off and suspended for three games. He came back with revenge to score two and help the Sky Blues end their dismal winless form.

Well done Michael!

Thursday 6 December 2007

A very very special day

Today is a special day for me, for us. It marks the day we started together, Baanisuu and I.

It all started four years from today, a number full of 3s -> 6 / 12 / 2003, my favourite number.

A great film (Kill Bill Vol1), finger fiddling and a look in the eyes was all that made that moment magic.

Four years later, here we are about to enjoy a special weekend break on the island of Gozo. We deserve it!

Thank you! xxx

Tuesday 4 December 2007

Record Blogposts

I must say that November has been a particular month for me on Blogger. I myself am really impressed on the number of posts I have managed to write. In November, I managed 2o posts. I doubt how much I will manage to surpass this, but anyhow, congrats to me.