Russia 'sends six warships to Syria

Russia today dispatched six warships to its naval base in Syria in a move that is likely to spark concern in the West. A flotilla led by an anti-submarine destroyer have sailed from the Arctic port of Severomorsk to Tartus. However, military sources claim the deployment is nothing to do with the growing tensions in the country where the crackdown by government troops against opposition forces has intensified in recent weeks.

It comes as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has proposed ending Syria's conflict 'step by step', starting with districts that have seen the worst violence, UN secretary general Kofi Annan told a news conference in Tehran today. He made a suggestion of building an approach from the ground up in some of the districts where we have extreme violence - to try and contain the violence in those districts and, step by step, build up and end the violence across the country,' Annan said.

He declined to give details, saying the plan needed to be discussed with the Syrian opposition. The Admiral Chabanenko and three landing craft will be joined in the Mediterranean by Russian patrol ship Yaroslav Mudry and an assistance vessel. 'The programme of the voyage includes a call in the Syrian port of Tartus,' a military source told Interfax news agency. Read more >>

Oil Tanker Rates Drop to Lowest in 15 Years

Aframaxes, already this year’s worst- performing oil tankers, are poised for the lowest annual rates in at least 15 years as Europe’s economic stagnation curbs demand, the region’s most-accurate shipping analysts said.

The vessels are struggling to win cargoes on all sides of the Atlantic, with European oil demand contracting for a sixth year at a time when the U.S. push for energy independence is driving down crude imports to the lowest since 1999. That’s drawing more South American and West African supply to Asia on routes favoring very large crude carriers, displacing smaller Suezmaxes which in turn are competing with Aframaxes.

“With the situation in Europe, the picture for Aframaxes is just abysmal,” said Erik Nikolai Stavseth, an Oslo-based analyst at Arctic Securities ASA who anticipates an annual average of $10,000. Read more>>

Gulf oil spill effects to reach Arctic and Europe, expert tells congressional panel

Image by zphone via Flickr

A top scientist told a congressional panel that the damaging effects of the massive Gulf spill will be felt all the way to Europe and the Arctic. "This is not just a regional issue for the wildlife," said Carl Safina, the president of the Blue Ocean Institute. Safina, who recently returned from the Gulf Coast region, presented several photographs, including one of an oil-covered bird.

"There will be a nest empty in Newfoundland," Safina said, noting common migratory patterns. Safina warned that multiple forms of marine life in the Atlantic Ocean "come into the Gulf to breed."

Safina's briefing to representatives of the House Energy and Commerce Committee was scheduled as part of an ongoing effort to draw on a broad range of expertise for cleanup efforts. More...

Al Gore Caught Lying at Copenhagen Summit

Image by Steve Rhodes via CrunchBase

Andrew Thomas
Al Gore shoots self, climate summit in foot
Oh dear. Saint Al Gore, the man who invented both the internet and anthropogenic global warming and made himself obscenely rich in the process, has banged yet another nail into the rickety coffin of the global warming religious cult by coming out with what scientists describe as 'a complete load of bollocks' at the Copenhagen climate worryfest.

Gore, speaking at the Copenhagen climate change summit, claimed that the latest research showed that the Arctic could be completely ice-free in five years. One would think that in the light of the Climategate scandal, the Blessed Al would make sure that his data was accurate and pretty much bullet-proof, but sadly he merely added to the pantheon of completely fabricated climate stats.

In his speech, Gore said: “These figures are fresh. Some of the models suggest that there is a 75 percent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during the summer months, could be completely ice-free within five to seven years.”

Unfortunately, the scientist whose research was quoted by Gore, Doctor Wieslav Maslowski, rather pissed on his chips by stating:

“It’s unclear to me how this figure was arrived at. I would never try to estimate likelihood at anything as exact as this.”

A Gore spokesman backpedalled furiously, saying that the figure quoted was merely a ballpark figure that was mentioned in a conversation between the two men a few years ago.

The Copenhagen conference was already looking pretty much dead in the water yesterday after the African delegation walked out in protest at Danish moves to ignore emissions targets agreed at the Kyoto conference in 2007. Gore’s gaffe makes it look very much as if no meaningful agreement will be reached before the conference ends.

Gore’s speech was slammed by climate scientists, one of which, Jim Overland from the US Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said: “This is an exaggeration that opens the science up to criticism from sceptics. You really don’t need to exaggerate the changes in the Arctic.”

Maslowki, who works at the US Naval Postgraduate School in California, said that he expects some ice to remain beyond 2020: “I was very explicit that we were talking about near-ice-free conditions and not completely ice-free conditions in the northern ocean. I would never try to estimate likelihood at anything as exact as this. It’s unclear to me how this figure was arrived at, based on the information I provided to Al Gore’s office.”