You Decide

Perhaps they'd have better luck if they were seeking truth about earth cycles instead of emulating Chicken Little based on unproven computer models funded by agenda driven government funding.

Plant trees, buy seedlings and use water-gel to get them established. Mulch around them.  Trees use CO2 for food and give off Oxygen as a by product ... perfect win/win exchange that's been in place millions of years.

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"Satellite to Study Global-Warming Gases Lost in Space (Update2)

By Alex Morales

Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- A satellite launched today from California failed to reach orbit, dooming a $273 million project to study global-warming gases.

"The mission is lost," National Aeronautics and Space Administration spokesman Steve Cole said in a telephone interview from the launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. "At this point no one is exactly sure what the cause is."

The NASA satellite was to orbit 438 miles (705 kilometers) above the Earth and observe how carbon dioxide enters and leaves the atmosphere, helping scientists predict future increases in the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming.

Today's malfunction follows a Feb. 11 collision of U.S. and Russian satellites almost 500 miles above the planet, the first crash of its type, which created a space debris field of more than 300 pieces that could damage other satellites.

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite didn't reach orbit after its 1:51 a.m. local time launch because the "payload fairing" didn't separate, NASA said in a statement. The fairing covers the top of the satellite during launch and needs to come off so the satellite can detach from the rocket and enter orbit.

"If it's lost, it's disappointing because it was giving us novel information to help us move our understanding forward on global warming," Alan O'Neill, science director of the Reading, U.K.-based Centre for Earth Observation, said today in an interview.

Orbital Sciences   Both the satellite and launch rocket were built by Dulles, Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp. A spokesman at the company wasn't immediately available for comment. NASA's investment was $273 million for the design, development and launch operations. Insurance details on the mission may be given at a briefing later today, a NASA spokesman said.

The craft contained a monitoring device designed to collect 8 million measurements every 16 days. Scientists hoped to use data gathered by the device to find out how much CO2 is absorbed by the forests, grasslands and oceans, which are collectively known as "sinks." Man-made CO2, which traps heat in the atmosphere, is largely produced by power plants, vehicle engines and factories.

The data gleaned from the satellite was intended to help guide government global-warming policy, NASA said.

"An improved understanding of carbon sinks is essential to predicting future carbon-dioxide increases and making accurate predictions of carbon dioxide's impact on Earth's climate," NASA said on the mission Web site. "If these natural carbon-dioxide sinks become less efficient as the climate changes, the rate of buildup of carbon dioxide would increase."

Three-Year Life
The satellite was expected to have a minimum three-year life. Similar spacecraft have lasted five to 10 years, David Steitz, a NASA spokesman, said yesterday.

The collision of Russian and U.S. satellites destroyed an Iridium Satellite LLC communications craft and a defunct Russian Cosmos 2251, NASA said earlier this month.

At least 18,000 satellites, debris and other space objects orbiting the Earth are tracked by the U.S. Joint Space Operations center. The Soviet Union put the first satellite, Sputnik 1, into space in 1957.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at [email protected].
Last Updated: February 24, 2009 08:08 EST"

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=av6QSiI5BuOI&refer=us