Why we, the tax payers, need to pay for research.

In the 1970's, 70% of all university research was funded by the government. The research was helpful to me, as a physician, in caring for my patients.

By the mid-1990's, 70% of university research was funded by industry. This led to my being less effective as a physician.

Nutrasweet research is an example of why we, the tax-payers, should pay for research. Recent news reports noted that the majority of research showed Nutrasweet to be safe. However, when one looks at the funding for those studies, almost all of the studies saying Nutrasweet is safe were funded by industry. These are the same people that told us Thalidomide led to safer pregnancies.

One year, treatment protocols indicate I should use a certain drug, Crestor or Zyprexa. A few years later, I learn that I have caused a lot of damage to my patients using these "indicated" agents.

Either we pay for the research, or we pay for the effect of the mistakes.

Global Warming in Ireland

Saw a beautiful photo of a European robin on Flickr.

www.flickr.com/photos/babstar/4260022678/in/photostream/

It is hard to see the birds having trouble in the cold. One person commented that maybe global warming will help the birds. This roused my curiosity.

The photo was taken by Babstar, a great photographer in Ireland. I had recently read about the Gulf Stream and I have read that global temperature change is likely to stop the Gulf stream. If it does, it would make Ireland colder. I wondered how much colder.

Just to distract myself, I looked up the latitude of Ireland. It is north of Seattle, something I always have trouble getting my mind around. Of course, it's hard for me to believe that Maine is south of Seattle! In my brain, understanding latitude is definitely a struggle between scientific realism and perception!

Here's what I found:Ireland's latitude is about 53 degrees north.

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Russia is at 53 degrees north as well. This is a peninsula on the eastern edge of Russia. Being a peninsula, there is a maritime effect as there is for Ireland.

Look at their average weather.

January temps for Petropavlovsky-Kamchatskiy: Average high: -4 °C; Average low:
- 8° C.

January temps for Ireland: January Average high: 5 degrees C

Global warming will drop Ireland’s average temperature to that of Petropaflosk-Kamchatskiy. Why?

Global warming of tropical seas will shut down the Gulf stream. The Gulf Stream flows up from the Gulf of Mexico to warm Ireland, the UK, and Scandinavia. Without the Gulf stream, all of the aforementioned countries will become much colder.

Global warming is too simplistic a label as you can see. What really will happen is that extreme weather will become much more common. So do what you can to reduce your greenhouse gas footprint today!


Here's a website with good illustrations and explanations of the effect of global temperature change on the Gulf stream.

http://www.gulfstreamshutdown.com/