[Mb-civic] global warming & judith miller

[Mha Atma Khalsa]

<http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2005/hardrain.shtml>

UCAR Release:
Warmer Seas, Wetter Air Make Harder Rains as
Greenhouse Gases Build

October 13, 2005

BOULDER&#151;Storms will dump heavier rain and snow
around the world as Earth's
climate warms over the coming century, according to
several leading
computer models. Now a study by scientists at the
National Center for
Atmospheric Research (NCAR) explains how and where
warmer oceans and
atmosphere will produce more intense precipitation.
The findings recently
appeared in Geophysical Research Letters, a
publication of the American
Geophysical Union.

The greatest increases will occur over land in the
tropics, according to
the study. Heavier rain or snow will also fall in
northwestern and
northeastern North America, northern Europe, northern
Asia, the east coast
of Asia, southwestern Australia, and parts of
south-central South America
during the 21st century.

"The models show most areas around the world will
experience more intense
precipitation for a given storm during this century,"
says lead author
Gerald Meehl. "Information on which areas will be most
affected could help
communities to better manage water resources and
anticipate possible
flooding."

NCAR authors Meehl, Julie Arblaster, and Claudia
Tebaldi analyzed the
results of nine atmosphere-ocean global climate models
to explain the
physical mechanisms involved as intensity increased.
Precipitation
intensity refers to the amount of rain or snow that
falls on a single
stormy day.

Both the oceans and the atmosphere are warming as
greenhouse gases build
in the atmosphere. Warmer sea surfaces boost
evaporation, while warmer air
holds more moisture. As this soggy air moves from the
oceans to the land,
it dumps extra rain per storm.

Though water vapor increases the most in the tropics,
it also plays a role
in the midlatitudes, according to the study. Combined
with changes in
sea-level pressure and winds, the extra moisture
produces heavier rain or
snow in areas where moist air converges.

In the Mediterranean and the U.S. Southwest, even
though intensity
increases, average precipitation decreases. The
authors attribute the
decrease to longer periods of dry days between wet
ones. The heavier rain
and snow will most likely fall in late autumn, winter,
and early spring,
while warmer months may still bring a greater risk of
drought.


Reporter, Times Are Criticized for Missteps

Media Analysts Question Decisions by Miller,
Newspaper's Editors Regarding Leak

By Howard Kurtz - Washington Post Staff Writer

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/16/AR20051016
01040.html

Washington Post October 17, 2005

Media analysts assailed New York Times reporter Judith
Miller and her editors yesterday for what they called
a
series of missteps and questionable decisions revealed
in two lengthy articles about the problems of covering
the CIA leak investigation while defending the
embattled journalist.

Alex Jones, a former Times reporter who heads the
Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public
Policy at Harvard University, noted the paper's
disclosure that Executive Editor Bill Keller had told
Miller in 2003 she could no longer cover Iraq and
weapons of mass destruction after some of her stories
turned out to be wrong.

"If the New York Times does not trust Judy Miller to
do
stories in her area of expertise, what do they trust
her to do, and why should we trust what she does?"
Jones asked. "She's a great, energetic talent, but
investigative reporters need to be managed very
closely, and her characterization of herself as Miss
Run Amok is something an institution like the New York
Times can't afford."

Critics inside and outside the paper said they were
amazed that Miller would not answer questions about
her
dealings with editors or show her notes to colleagues
investigating the matter. They were equally surprised
that Keller and Publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr.
left
most legal decisions to Miller without pressing her
about her conversations with I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby,
Vice President Cheney's top aide, or asking to see her
notes during the battle that landed her in jail for
nearly three months.

Jay Rosen, a New York University journalism professor,
said Miller's limited cooperation was "unforgivable"
and provided "dead giveaways of someone who's hiding
the truth."

"I just don't think there is any more Judy Miller
credibility," Rosen said, while crediting Times
editors
with "telling some uncomfortable truths about
themselves." He predicted that Miller will not return
to the Times after a leave during which she plans to
write a book -- a view shared by a number of her
colleagues.

In yesterday's Times, Miller said Libby had told her
on
two or three occasions that Valerie Plame, the wife of
a White House critic, worked at the CIA. Miller said
she agreed to testify in the case only after Libby
persuaded her to accept a waiver of their
confidentiality agreement that his lawyer says was
available all along.

Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Washington-based
Project for Excellence in Journalism, applauded the
Times for its "candor" in revealing "a serious divide
within the paper" about Miller and management's
handling of the case. But, he said, "the
acknowledgment
that the editor and publisher of the paper did not
know
what Miller's source had told her is remarkable. . . .
It is still not clear entirely what principle Miller
felt she was protecting that also allowed her to
testify. Is it the waivers? Or is it that she just got
tired of jail and scared she might have to stay
there?"

Claudia Payne, a Times editor and friend of Miller,
said the reporter "cooperated to the best of her
ability under the circumstances." Payne said much of
the criticism "is based on perceptions of Judy that
are
uninformed. Some of the declarations about high-
handedness and trampling on people are simply not what
I've experienced."

Others disagree. Craig Pyes, a former contract writer
for the Times who teamed up with Miller for a series
on
al Qaeda, complained about her in a December 2000 memo
to Times editors and asked that his byline not appear
on one piece.

"I'm not willing to work further on this project with
Judy Miller," wrote Pyes, who now writes for the Los
Angeles Times. He added: "I do not trust her work, her
judgment, or her conduct. She is an advocate, and her
actions threaten the integrity of the enterprise, and
of everyone who works with her. . . . She has turned
in
a draft of a story of a collective enterprise that is
little more than dictation from government sources
over
several days, filled with unproven assertions and
factual inaccuracies," and "tried to stampede it into
the paper."

Pyes said yesterday he had no problem with the
articles
as published, which helped win one of two Pulitzer
Prizes he shared at the paper. Miller, who is
traveling, did not respond to a phone message, and her
attorney declined to comment.

No single facet of yesterday's Times account drew more
condemnation than Miller saying she cannot recall the
name of another source who told her about "Valerie
Flame," as she recorded the name in her notebook.
Miller said the notation was in a different part of
the
same notebook used for her first interview with Libby
in June 2003.

"It's hard for anyone to imagine that Judy either
didn't know who provided that information or, if it
was
clearly someone else, why she did not make that
available," Jones said.

Bloggers were much blunter. "This is as believable as
Woodward and Bernstein not recalling who Deep Throat
was," wrote columnist Arianna Huffington. Magazine
writer Andrew Sullivan accused Miller of "pulling a
Clinton." And Editor & Publisher columnist Greg
Mitchell said Miller "should be promptly dismissed for
crimes against journalism."

Several Times staffers, who asked not to be identified
because of a reluctance to criticize their bosses,
expressed skepticism about Miller's contention that
she
pushed an editor she would not identify to pursue the
story of Plame's outing. Managing Editor Jill Abramson
said Miller made no such request.

Staffers also complained that Miller's legal battle
curtailed the paper's coverage. The Times delayed
posting an online article on her release from jail --
which was ready at 2 p.m. -- until the Philadelphia
Inquirer broke the story hours later.

"The Times felt helpless," Rosen said. "It couldn't
print the news. It was very much trapped."

(c) 2005 The Washington Post Company




		
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