JunkScience.com Announces Top Ten “Most Embarrassing Moments” of 2004

JunkScience ^ | 12/01/04

[garyb]

Regarding global warming. If the global temperature heats up the polar ice will melt.

OK.

But, if the ice melts the sea level will rise. Why? If you have a cup with ice, and the ice melts, the fluid does not get any higher.

[SengirV]

8. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials who had halted use of chlorine disinfectant in the Washington, DC drinking water system -- due to unfounded cancer fears hyped by the Environmental Protection Agency -- replaced this proven germ-fighter with a more corrosive substitute that leached lead from the pipes and caused wide-spread public alarm as lead levels climbed above federal standards.

I live in the DC burbs and get DC news morning noon and night. I have NEVER heard this aspect of the story on ANY news report on the lead levels in the DC water system. I always thought news was to inform people.

[Guillermo]

Don't ever let actual facts get in the way of an agenda...

(And the Left says the Right is "anti-science")

[Knitting A Conundrum]

It's supposed to be due to the lack of ice for them to ambush seals on...but I don't know....

[Diogenesis]

#8) Chlorine in the drinking water is a danger.

The material transforms amino acids to carcinogens
as has been known since the '70s, but the chlorine
lobby is way too powerful.

[TommyDale]

Tha't true of the ice already in the sea, displacing the water. It is the melting ice on land mass that causes the water level to rise. However, since this is all crap it is not relevant.

[BlackRazor]

But, if the ice melts the sea level will rise. Why? If you have a cup with ice, and the ice melts, the fluid does not get any higher.

It depends whether the ice is floating on the water, or whether it is resting on land masses. I don't know which form is predominant, but I'd guess there's some of each.

[lupie]

speaking of junk science ping

[Constantine XIII]

Armored Bear Barbers.

[Constantine XIII]

George Burns drank tap water for till the day he died, and it didn't bother him. :P

[Doctor Stochastic]

Ozone is a good (but more expensive and has its own problems) alternative. In coal-mining areas, there are often enough hydrocarbons in the water to allow chlorine to react to produce pentachlorophenynol; I think one can taste about 1 molecule.

[Just another Joe]

Just a junk science ping

Not a puff.

[JimRed]

If you have a cup with ice, and the ice melts, the fluid does not get any higher.

Sea ice melting would not raise sea levels; land ice would, but how much is the question. The Arctic is mostly sea ice; the Antarctic is largely land ice (though some of it is probably at or below sea level). Interesting work for a math major without an agenda!

[PeoplesRepublicOfWashington]

Chlorine in drinking water reacts with organic matter in drinking water to produce trihalomethanes, which have been linked, epidemiologically, with bladder, colon, and rectal cancer in sensitive subgroups, e.g., smokers. Pathogens in drinking water, which chlorine eliminates, have been linked to widespread disease and death for centuries. Read Milloy's article to learn about the relatively recent death of 10,000 in Peru due to cholera when they ceased chlorinating drinking water because they listened to the US EPA's chemophobia.

[KC_for_Freedom]

Also reported is that polar bears are looking thinner and wasted. Not mentioned is that their protected status has allowed many more to exist than normal. They are starving because there is not enough food, not due to warming, but due to overpopulation. The Endangered Species Act at work.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Item 6 was interesting.

[-YYZ-]

While I am skeptical of global climate change caused by greenhouse gasses, there are two reasons: 1) Not all the ice around the northern pole is floating - there are considerable amounts sitting on land masses also, and 2) The southern polar ice cap is sitting on land.

[Stone Mountain]

But, if the ice melts the sea level will rise. Why? If you have a cup with ice, and the ice melts, the fluid does not get any higher.

Because, much of the ice that will be melting isn't in "the cup." Much of it is in mountains and glaciers currently above sea level.