March 02, 2007
Global warming on Mars
I cannot wait to see environmental Armageddonists explain away the shrinking southern polar cap on Mars. There are many reasons to reduce pollution without predicting the end of the world but it has to irritate these guys when the planet Mars goes out of its way to make their theories look baseless.
Simultaneous warming on Earth and Mars suggests that our planet's recent climate changes have a natural—and not a human- induced—cause, according to one scientist's controversial theory.The only other thing that could explain this is that the two Mars rovers were not solar powered but actually gas guzzling SUV's.
Posted by Sid at 06:56 AM | Comments (577) | Environment | TrackBack
February 09, 2007
Demanding action while doing nothing on global warming
I smile every time I get preached to by sanctimonious environmental alarmist who argues the evils of pollution while jetting around the country and riding in their SUV's letting everyone know they replaced their old light bulbs with newer energy efficient ones.
Then they go over the top by comparing global warming deniers to holocaust deniers knowing full well the symbolism that brings while denying that is not their real point.
I would like to say we're at a point where global warming is impossible to deny. Let's just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers, though one denies the past and the other denies the present and future.That is such a shallow and hollow denial. Lets accept for the sake of argument that is true. What then does that make them? It makes them the Germans that knew Jews were being gassed and incinerated but were unwilling to do anything personally to stop the horror beyond weak rhetorical platitudes.
You tell me who is worse, those that don't believe and don't act or those that do believe and not only don't act but denounce others who do not believe. I swear if I hear another pampered high living, high profile environmental doom prophet celebrity type tell me about their energy efficient light bulbs I am going to puke.
Posted by Sid at 04:30 AM | Comments (1963) | Environment | TrackBack
February 07, 2007
Seriously, what can we do about global warming that would make a difference?
I personally will take global warming concerns seriously when environmental wacko's start screaming for a nuclear power station in every home. As much as they hate to admit it, the globe is always either warming or cooling. The planet does not and never has maintained itself in a static state. I also know that, while man may be a contributing factor, man's contribution is small compared to other "natural" factors particularly the sun's impact. Finally, I also know there is not a damn thing we can do about it as long as the best solutions such as massively expanded use of nuclear power are dismissed out of hand.
Don't be fooled. The dirty secret about global warming is this: We have no solution.
Considering this reality, you should treat the pious exhortations to "do something" with skepticism, disbelief or contempt. These pronouncements are (take your pick) naive, self-interested, misinformed, stupid or dishonest.It is nice to see someone out there that understands it as I have for years. I didn't even need a special global council of smart people to tell me this either because it is obvious.
Feel free to go change out your light bulbs or charge up your electric car with power provided by a coal burning power plant and feel good about saving the planet.
Posted by Sid at 05:50 AM | Comments (503) | Environment | TrackBack
December 21, 2006
Kyoto Protocol causes global warming
All we hear is Kyoto Protocol this and Kyoto Protocol that. America is EVIL because it did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol. America is going to kill us all because it didn't ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
...the United States has outperformed the EU-15 since 2000, reducing emissions by 8 percent.Now how can that possibly be.
A red-faced European Commission recently admitted that it allowed more permits than there were emissions in 2005-07, keeping permit prices low and undermining the entire system.Welcome to Kyoto Protocol snake oil.
Posted by Sid at 06:51 AM | Comments (265) | Environment | TrackBack
September 21, 2006
Global cooling may undermine global warming
It is hard enough for your average global warming nut job to get his panic across without having the actual solar system work against him.
News that the Conservatives might be taking a more cautious approach to Kyoto and climate change could not come at a more appropriate time. The science behind the idea of man-made global warming, always theoretical and often speculative, appears set to receive another blow. A report in New Scientist magazine yesterday chronicles the work of a crew of scientists who forecast a new wave of global cooling brought on by a decline in activity in the sun.The article warns of a decline in temperatures due to a natural reversal of the recent warming trend due to natural global cooling. The article still does not clearly consider the possibility that the recent warming is as natural and normal an occurrence that the environment goes through during normal cyclical changes. Instead we are to believe that man-made global warming is still the cause of all global warming problems and that by some weird coincidence natural global cooling is about to occur in order to offset and hide man-made warming.
Posted by Sid at 06:39 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
Carmakers in California sued for global warming damages
With fast food restaurants being sued over fat content and gun manufacturers being sued over gun crimes it was only a matter of time before the nut jobs went after auto manufacturers. It is important to note that the state is suing the automakers for money. They are not suing to drive them out of the state to make their environment more pristine, they are suing because this is about cold hard cash. Forget the fact that those automobiles are not allowed on the road unless they meet the state emissions standards set by the legislature.
California filed a global warming lawsuit on Wednesday against Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and three other automakers, charging that greenhouse gases from their vehicles have cost the state millions of dollars.It is getting harder and harder to have faith in the future of this country as we continue to see out government cannibalize and vilify our industry.
Posted by Sid at 06:29 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
August 22, 2006
Global warming takes a year off?
Last year the increased hurricane activity was a touted as a sure sign of man made global warming. So where has all that certainty gone?
Mayfield expressed puzzlement as to why the season hasn't been a little more active.No need to give up hope yet though, there is still plenty of time in this hurricane season for the end of life as we know it. Even if the hurricane season ends up being mild I am sure that will be a sign of man made global warming as well."We're actually not sure why some of these are not developing," he said.
Posted by Sid at 07:08 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
July 05, 2006
Sea level dropping is caused by global warming too
One of the big fears pitched by radical environmentalist is that global warming will cause sea levels to rise. So when sea levels fall ...
Sea levels in the Arctic have been falling by a little more than two millimetres a year — exactly the opposite of what is happening elsewhere.... that is the fault of global warming too. This is not really a surprise. Hot and cold weather, wet and dry weather are also blamed on global warming. So far this year we have not had a single hurricane make landfall. I suppose next the wacko's will claim a lack of hurricanes is a sign of global warming as well.“It’s enough to be significant. It’s remarkable that it’s the opposite sign of what we see in the rest of the world,” said researcher Remko Scharroo.
A Dutch-U.K. team made the discovery after analyzing radar altimetry data gathered by Europe’s ERS-2 satellite.
Scharroo said in an interview from his home in the U.S. that the drop in Arctic sea levels may be the result of climate change.
Posted by Sid at 12:24 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
June 15, 2006
The prophet Allah Gore
Posted by Sid at 06:33 PM | Comments (0) | Environment
June 03, 2006
Al Gore saving the environment one movie critic at a time
I get a hearty chuckle out of Al Gore's new movie "An Inconvenient Truth", especially when you consider his token efforts to help address the issue while he was Vice President. A time when global warming was just as much a issue as it is now. The global warming hysteria was not discovered on Bush's watch, it was with us at the height of Gore's influence and he stood by and did nothing. Well now we are told we have ten years before we are doomed.
If we do nothing, in about 10 years the planet may reach a "tipping point" and begin a slide toward destruction of our civilization and most of the other species on this planet.Face the facts everyone. If this is true we are all dead because NOTHING and I mean NOTHING is going to stop the current trends outside a mass die off of mankind, a major technological breakthrough or a massive move to nuclear power. Why you ask? Because mankind as a whole is weak and lacks the will to give up it's easy options. You will never get people to accept austerity measures until they are in a life and death struggle for existance. If you try to force it on them they will lie and cheat their way around it. The NIMBY reflex is so pervasive we can't even get current leadership like Ted Kennedy to accept a wind farm that produces clean power built where it might impact his view while going boating, so how does anyone expect real progress on protecting the environment. And lets not even start on how hard it is to build nuclear power plants in the United States. One day counties in the oil rich middle east will be generating more nuclear energy then the US at the current rate of growth assuming they don't go on a bomb building spree first and kill us all.
But hope is not lost.
I did a funny thing when I came home after seeing "An Inconvenient Truth." I went around the house turning off the lights.Al Gore may save the world by convincing Roger Ebert to show solidarity with his fellow environmentalist by turning off the lights one day. We are saved.
Posted by Sid at 09:44 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
May 31, 2006
Global warming happened many times before
This is something you don't hear talked about much in the enviropanic circles but at one time the north pole had a tropical climate.
Fifty-five million years ago the North Pole was an ice-free zone with tropical temperatures, according to research.
"Basically, it looks like the Earth released a gigantic fart of green house gases into the atmosphere - and globally the Earth warmed by about 5C (41F)."This event is already widely studied over the whole planet - but the one big exception was the Arctic Ocean."
Today's warming of the Arctic can, in all likelihood, be attributed to mankind's impact on the planet, but as our data suggest, natural processes operating in the past have also resulted in a significant warming and cooling of the Arctic."I say we spend trillions of dollars to research how to stop Earth farts. It's a serious danger we must address in case the worst happens. The time to panic is now.
Posted by Sid at 12:17 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
May 26, 2006
Global warming solved, the left proposes moving the earth out of suns way
There is nothing more fun then watching the left try to make a false analogy.
The 'logic' employed therein would be something like saying that if an out of control truck is barreling towards you on the road, it wouldn't help to try and get out of the way, and it wouldn't hurt to turn your car into the path of the oncoming semi and race blindly into the ensuing head-on collision.There you go, problem solved, move the Earth out of the suns way.
Particularly when inconvenient facts start to get in the way of their efforts at driving mass hysteria. After years of trying to convince us that man was the primary cause of global warming and trying to force us to adopt the failed Kyoto protocol they are pushing the idea that even if global warming is a natural cycle we should still try to change the climate by inducing man-made global cooling.
Recent research indicates that global warming may actually be a natural occurance.
Global warming has finally been explained: the Earth is getting hotter because the Sun is burning more brightly than at any time during the past 1,000 years, according to new research.I honestly don't know if "global warming" is real, temporary, overblown or being soft sold but I am not about to suggest destroying our society at the word of people that don't practice in their own lives what they preach, practice NIMBY environmentalism, refuse to consider nuclear power or refuse apply the rules to everyone on the planet instead of singling out fuel efficient democracies to shoulder the entire burden.A study by Swiss and German scientists suggests that increasing radiation from the sun is responsible for recent global climate changes.
Dr Sami Solanki, the director of the renowned Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gottingen, Germany, who led the research, said: "The Sun has been at its strongest over the past 60 years and may now be affecting global temperatures.
Show me serious principled environmentalism and I will treat environmentalism seriously. Till then I am still waiting.
Posted by Sid at 12:18 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
April 27, 2006
With luck maybe Cuba and China will sell us our own oil back
The high price of gas has everyone in a hunt for the bad guy. There are the easy targets like big bad oil but do we really want to attack free enterprise when there are more logical targets like competition for a tight market with China and India, complex formulations, high gas taxes and the absolute refusal to develop our own resources.
We all know nature abhors a vacuum so now it looks like our enemies may exploit resources we Americans deny ourselves.
U.S. lawmakers aren't the only ones who, because of spiraling oil and gas prices and an unstable commodities market, have been studying the possibility of producing more domestic energy. Fidel Castro has also taken an interest, and his ambitions will, in a surprisingly short period of time, bring the Cuban drilling program much closer to the Florida coast.
But there's a rub: Cuba has neither the capacity nor the technical capability to produce this energy by itself. Castro has called in contractors from Canada, Spain, Norway -- even China -- to do it for him.Imagine the possibilities. We could end up buying our own oil back from Fidel Castro or the Chinese. Oil in reserves right under our nose that we can't touch because of domestic environmental regulations. Regulations Castro gets to laugh at all the way to the bank.
I am sure Castro and the Chinese who have no vested interest in environmental protection even in their own countries will be much more environmentally aware off our shores then an American company would be so all may not be lost.
Posted by Sid at 12:17 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
April 15, 2006
Environmentalists are responsible for man-made global warming
While it is satisfying to see environmentalists come to their senses, you have to despair at the loss of time in applying practical solutions to their concerns because of their irrational fear.
In the early 1970s when I helped found Greenpeace, I believed that nuclear energy was synonymous with nuclear holocaust, as did most of my compatriots. That's the conviction that inspired Greenpeace's first voyage up the spectacular rocky northwest coast to protest the testing of U.S. hydrogen bombs in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. Thirty years on, my views have changed, and the rest of the environmental movement needs to update its views, too, because nuclear energy may just be the energy source that can save our planet from another possible disaster: catastrophic climate change.If not for the irrational attitudes of these people 30 years ago the United States would be sitting pretty today with the vast amount of our power being generated by nuclear power and our need for foreign oil dramatically reduced. Now the fear of nuclear power is deep rooted because of 36 years of propaganda. A fear that may take another 36 years to reverse assuming its reversal could even begin today. The opposition from leftists groups is still deeply entrenched and many of these converts are considered traitors.Look at it this way: More than 600 coal-fired electric plants in the United States produce 36 percent of U.S. emissions -- or nearly 10 percent of global emissions -- of CO2, the primary greenhouse gas responsible for climate change. Nuclear energy is the only large-scale, cost-effective energy source that can reduce these emissions while continuing to satisfy a growing demand for power. And these days it can do so safely.
It is somewhat poetic that the biggest advocates of green house emission reduction are responsible for much of them because of their irrational propagandizing of cleaner sources of energy.
Posted by Sid at 11:48 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
April 13, 2006
Environmental alarmist resorting to intimidation
What happens when Chicken Little begins to attack people that disagree about the falling sky?
There have been repeated claims that this past year's hurricane activity was another sign of human-induced climate change. Everything from the heat wave in Paris to heavy snows in Buffalo has been blamed on people burning gasoline to fuel their cars, and coal and natural gas to heat, cool and electrify their homes. Yet how can a barely discernible, one-degree increase in the recorded global mean temperature since the late 19th century possibly gain public acceptance as the source of recent weather catastrophes? And how can it translate into unlikely claims about future catastrophes?
Scientists who dissent from the alarmism have seen their grant funds disappear, their work derided, and themselves libeled as industry stooges, scientific hacks or worse. Consequently, lies about climate change gain credence even when they fly in the face of the science that supposedly is their basis.As much grief as I get about my religious beliefs the manmade global warming hysteria is taking on its own religious overtones.
Posted by Sid at 12:11 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
April 07, 2006
Environmentalist please make up your dang mind
Whats an evil polluter supposed to do these days.
Reduced air pollution and increased water evaporation appear to be adding to man-made global warming.First we pollute too much now we pollute to little.
Climate changes such as global warming may be due to changes in the sun rather than to the release of greenhouse gases on Earth.We may have to destroy the sun to save ourselves.Climatologists and astronomers speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Philadelphia say the present warming may be unusual - but a mini ice age could soon follow.
Posted by Sid at 12:10 AM | Comments (1) | Environment
March 21, 2006
Shortage of colored pens blamed on global warming
The fact that the planet has weather at all is a sign of global warming.
"This is exactly in line with what we have been predicting for years," explained James Fearmonger, chief climate scientist at the newly formed Global Warming Prediction Center. "With global warming we have predicted that some areas will see more precipitation, some less precipitation, some will experience warmer weather, some colder. So this event can be fully explained by global warming".The situation was so severe it resulted in an inadequate supply of colored pens.
The unusual weather event has also kept forecasters at the National Weather Service unusually busy when it was discovered that there were not enough colored pens to draw all of the features on today's weather map (see accompanying graphic).It must be nice to be able to claim that any form of climatic activity no matter how common is vindication for your hypothesis.
Wizbag has an excellent piece tying it in to a sort of religious cult mentality when any anecdotal evidence is proof. Be sure to read it all.
Posted by Sid at 12:59 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
February 26, 2006
Environmentalist champions to kill clean energy
This is why I don't take environmentalists seriously. It's country club care for the environment at best and an expensive feel good because I am making expensive pointless gestures at worst.
The Cape Wind project, begun four years ago, has proved consistently controversial: Though environmentalists have praised it for providing a renewable source of energy, Cape Wind has determined opponents who are concerned about its impact on fishing, navigation and beachfront views.How can so-called environmentalists expect me to suffer economic hardship for a cause that is so important it should be blocked because it's not pretty to rich people.Those against it are a powerful and bipartisan group, including Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).
Get back with me when the movement is serious, when Earth day doesn't end with hundreds of litter strewn acres from rallies, Barbra Streisand hangs her laundry out behind the house or when we are all dead to global warming. Whichever comes first.
Posted by Sid at 10:40 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
February 08, 2006
Mini-ice age coming soon
This stuff just never gets old.
A Russian astronomer has predicted that Earth will experience a "mini Ice Age" in the middle of this century, caused by low solar activity.Khabibullo Abdusamatov of the Pulkovo Astronomic Observatory in St. Petersburg said Monday that temperatures will begin falling six or seven years from now, when global warming caused by increased solar activity in the 20th century reaches its peak, RIA Novosti reported.
Posted by Sid at 12:54 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
January 24, 2006
Remember when the seas were going to rise and kill us all
I remember the fears of the coming ice age followed by the current fears of global warming. I remember when the glaciers were going to melt and flood out all the coastal regions. Well maybe not.
Manchester scientists studying global warming are predicting a much lower rise in sea levels than previously feared.That's less then 4 inches in the next 94 years for the metric impaired. Assuming it doesn’t get revised down again.Researchers say melting glaciers and ice caps will cause just a 0.1m rise in global sea levels by 2100 – less than half the increase of several earlier predictions.
Posted by Sid at 12:21 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
December 26, 2005
Koyoto sham confessions
Finally, even writers at the Washington Times begin to admit that the Kyoto treaty on global warming is a toothless sham which is something anyone paying attention knew from the beginning. The Bush administration has had to endure a lot of criticism for being up front and honest about its intentions regarding Kyoto while others paid lip service to its goals and ignored them.
More than 150 nations have now ratified the treaty, but the United States became a pariah for refusing to do so as did President Bush by abandoning it altogether.
Turns out, though, there's little distinction between those who ratified and those who didn't. Of the original 15 European Union ratifiers of Kyoto, at best four are on course to meet the treaty's target of an 8 percent reduction in greenhouse emissions by 2008-2012 from the 1990 base-year level.
"The truth is, no country is going to cut its growth or consumption substantially in the light of a long-term environmental problem," British Prime Minister Tony Blair admitted in September.
Of course, Europe could continue setting goals and failing to meet them; but the European Union is becoming irrelevant anyway. "By 2010, the net reduction in global emissions from Europe meeting the Kyoto Protocol will be only 0.1 percent," said Margo Thorning, senior vice president for the free-market American Council for Capital Formation, in recent congressional testimony. That's "because all the growth is coming in places like India, China and Brazil."
And bizarrely, while these countries have ratified the treaty they are exempt from its requirements because until fairly recently they weren't major greenhouse gas producers.
The classic in two faced slander being from our "friendly neighbors" to the north.
That's also why Kyoto signatory Canada produces 24 percent more carbon dioxide than in 1990 while the U.S. produces only 13 percent more. None of this prevented Canada's Prime Minister Paul Martin from emitting a noxious gaseous emission accusing his southern neighbor of lacking "a global conscience."You have to ask yourself. If no country intended to take Kyoto seriously then why the outcry? To placate radicals at home? Force the US into economic self destruction? Cheap political points to vilify America? Could it be that Kyoto was simply a gratuitous attack on America by an international committee of lying cowards?
Ultimately Kyoto has no more "teeth" than any voluntary agreement -- yet another explanation for why it's violated willy-nilly. "It is not that we should take these targets too literally,"as Italy's economic minister put it.
Posted by Sid at 11:04 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
December 06, 2005
Trees Cause Global Warming
People wonder why I have trouble taking environmentalist seriously obviously don't listen to what is being said.
In theory, growing a forest may sound like a good idea to fight global warming, but in temperate regions, such as the United States, those trees also would soak up sunlight, causing the earth’s surface to warm regionally by up to 8 degrees Fahrenheit.Now we are supposed to believe clear cutting forests in the U.S. could reduce global warming? Next time you see an environmental activist chain himself to a tree be sure to let him know he is causing global warming.
Posted by Sid at 01:28 AM | Comments (1) | Environment
September 25, 2005
Make the Sun Adopt Kyoto
New evidence tells us the sun is causing global warming on earth.
Global warming has finally been explained: the Earth is getting hotter because the Sun is burning more brightly than at any time during the past 1,000 years, according to new research.And on Mars.
And for three Mars summers in a row, deposits of frozen carbon dioxide near Mars' south pole have shrunk from the previous year's size, suggesting a climate change in progress.That is unless Halliburton is shipping SUV's to Mars on Karl Roves orders. The sun may not be causing as much global warming as all manmade activity but it may be causing more then the US. I say make the sun sign Kyoto first.
Posted by Sid at 12:40 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
August 31, 2005
Katrina Proof Global Warming is a Myth?
If hurricanes such as Katrina are a sign of global warming how do we explain this?
Did global warming peak in the 1940?
You have to love it when the left relies on obscenely bad science to make a point.
Posted by Sid at 05:04 PM | Comments (1) | Environment
August 25, 2005
You Can Now Sue for Global Warming Damages
Next time your neighbor does something that you think contributes to global warming cash in. This may be the opening needed to go after SUV owners and back door barbeques. That or cows farting.
A federal judge here said environmental groups and four U.S. cities can sue federal development agencies on allegations the overseas projects they financially back contribute to global warming.In our special interest victim saturated litigious society it was only a matter of time. Remind me again how judicial activism is a good thing.The decision Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White is the first to say that groups alleging global warming have a right to sue.
"This is the first decision in the country to say that climate change causes sufficient injury to give a plaintiff standing, to open the courthouse door," said Ronald Shems, a Vermont attorney representing Friends of the Earth.
Posted by Sid at 12:36 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
August 20, 2005
Bad Pollution Winning Against Good Pollution
The new theory is that global warming is happening faster then expected. It seems our efforts to CLEAN our emissions are now causing global warming to be worse then expected. That clear sky you see is a harbinger of death.
Global temperatures in the future could be much hotter than scientists have predicted if new computer models on climate change are correct, researchers said on Wednesday.Just think. If environmental experts like Jane Fonda had not helped bring nuclear power generation to a halt 30 years ago we might be sitting pretty today.Improvements in air quality will lead to a decrease in aerosols, small particles in the atmosphere that act as a brake on the impact of greenhouse gases. As the effect of aerosols lessen, searing temperatures could follow.
If cleaning our emmissions causes global warming and polluting causes global warming we are just plain screwed.
Personally I am an advocate of the pirate theory.
We need to start hiring more pirates immediately.
Posted by Sid at 12:35 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
August 16, 2005
Nuclear Power May Be Back
It is about time. I have always said that I will not take environmentalist and their concerns seriously until we see the widespread adoption of nuclear power.
Nuclear power is on the rise here and abroad after decades of dormancy, driven by the need for a cleaner environment and steady, secure sources of power in the Internet age.Now it looks as if we may get to test their sincerity. They so much as blink on this issue they will be discredited for another 20 years in my book.
In the United States, plans are on the drawing board to build as many as six new power plants -- the first since 1973 -- while hundreds more are under consideration in China, India, Russia and other countries.
"Nuclear power is experiencing a budding renaissance," said Steven Taub, director of Cambridge Energy Research Associates. "High fossil-fuel prices, low interest rates, and concerns about the environment and energy security have all combined to increase momentum in the construction of new nuclear plants around the globe."
Posted by Sid at 12:23 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
July 30, 2005
Trees Destroy the Environment
For years we have listened to environmentalist tell us that we must plant more trees to save the environment. But now the rumor is that this may create deserts.
Planting trees can create deserts, lower water tables and drain rivers, rather than filling them, claims a new report supported by the UK government.Does this mean we need to cut more trees down now?
Posted by Sid at 12:22 PM | Comments (0) | Environment
July 26, 2005
Greenpeace Weighs in on Harry Potter
More on Harry and the destruction of the environment.
However, not all publishers are following this trend. Less progressive Harry Potter publishers like Scholastic in the USA have not responded to the challenge, and in fact ignored the 12,400 emails from customers who asked it to print 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince' on ancient forest friendly paper. It seems they haven't been using Professor Trelawney's crystal ball enough.
Posted by Sid at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) | Environment
July 02, 2005
Energy Rationing Cards for Britain
I would laugh except that it’s for real. This is the kind of misguided thinking you get with PC approaches to real life issues, especially when you consider this will do no good whatsoever. What do you want to bet there is a new fee associated with this that will bring in more money for the government. There is nothing like a good cause to fatten the treasury.
Every individual in Britain could be issued with a "personal carbon allowance" - a form of energy rationing - within a decade, under proposals being considered seriously by the Government.This quote was particularly cute.Ministers say that increasingly clear evidence that climate change is happening more quickly than expected has made it necessary to "think the unthinkable".
They believe they need to start a public debate on energy rationing now if Tony Blair's aspiration of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by two thirds by 2050 is to be achieved.Under the scheme for "domestic tradeable quotas" (DTQs), or personal carbon allowances, presented to the Treasury this week, everyone - from the Queen to the poorest people living on state benefits - would have the same annual carbon allocation.
The problems were the cost and making it work as a system that prevented cheating.We cannot even keep people from using illegal drugs, spreading AIDS, having babies out of wedlock and they expect people will follow carbon emission guidelines on an individual basis.
Posted by Sid at 12:10 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
June 18, 2005
EUROPEAN UNION NOT MEETING KYOTO TARGETS
I have always had a mean streak that leads me to mocking people who cry that the United States has not adopted the Kyoto protocols. I explain how the treaty is a feel good pretend you are doing something joke that is not a serious attempt to save the environment and that it is more about wealth redistribution by bankrupting the US economy.
Well now it seems I get to add a new weapon to my quiver. It seems that those adopting Kyoto, touting their environmental care and chastising the US are not even meeting their own commitments.
Europe is failing to tackle climate change, putting further pressure on Tony Blair to come up with a fresh initiative at the G8 summit and embarrassing the European commission, which is floundering over budget cuts and the constitution treaty.Color me surprised. More here.
The latest figures for Europe's greenhouse gas emissions, seen by the Guardian but not due to be released until next week, show that the 15 countries who were EU members in 2003 increased their overall emissions by 1.1% in the year up to 2004.Under the Kyoto agreement, which came into force earlier this year, EU countries must reduce emissions by 8% by 2012 - something which looks increasingly unlikely.
Posted by Sid at 12:28 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
June 11, 2005
The Amazon Forest is now a polluter
I always get a laugh when concerned littering SUV driving environmentalist explain to me that the United States needs to adopt the Kyoto protocols' to do our fair share to save the world.
I usually shoot back by explaining to them that if they were really serious about the environment, the best way to help clean it up would be to ban manufacturing and farming in third world countries and move it here. Then build a 100 new nuclear power plants. This would eliminate destruction of rain forest, make sure any manufacturing was done in the most environmentally friendly way because our plants are cleaner, provide clean cheap electricity and as a side benefit we could stop paying our farmers not to plant crops.
Besides, I have always thought it funny that electric cars are plugged into wall outlets that provide electricity from coal burning plants. Someone tell me again how this reduces carbon emissions. As I see it, it just moves the pollution outside the city limits.
Kyoto is one of those feel good about yourself because you can pretend you are making a difference jokes. Even those involved with putting it together admit it will not solve the problem.
It's gotten so bad that the Amazon is now considered a net polluter.
Ever since saving the Amazon became a fashionable cause in the 1980s, championed by Madonna, Sting and other celebrities, the jungle has consistently been likened to an enormous recycling plant that slurps up carbon dioxide and pumps out oxygen for us all to breathe, from Los Angeles to London to Lusaka.How can this be? Kyoto was supposed to fix it right?Think again, scientists say.
Far from cleaning up the atmosphere, the Amazon is now a major source for pollution. Rampant burning and deforestation, mostly at the hands of illegal loggers and of ranchers, release hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the skies each year.
However, under the international environmental treaty known as the Kyoto Protocol, Brazil and other poor countries are not required to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases.Not to worry though. The people that brought you Kyoto have a fix.
"This is a very sensitive issue in Brazil and among developing countries," said Paulo Moutinho, research coordinator for the Amazon Institute of Environmental Studies. "If you want to include developing countries, especially countries with large areas of tropical forests, in some kind of mechanism to mitigate climate change, you need to compensate deforestation reduction."That’s right, after being required by Kyoto to spend a fortune reducing our pollution we would then be asked to pay them a fortune not to pollute. Kyoto is about making America clean up the world’s environment while destroying our economy.The federal government here has begun discussing ways of rewarding states for conserving the jungle, but little has been achieved.
If you think free trade causes the United States to loose jobs because it is cheaper to make somewhere else. Just wait until you see what Kyoto would do.
And last but not least.
Even without the massive burning, the popular conception of the Amazon as a giant oxygen factory for the rest of the planet is misguided, scientists say. Left unmolested, the forest does generate enormous amounts of oxygen through photosynthesis, but it consumes most of it itself in the decomposition of organic matter.I love seeing popular myths go up in flames. No pun intended.
Posted by Sid at 12:10 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
May 09, 2005
Is "man-made" global warming fact
Or is it just the only message allowed?
The numbers of scientists staggered me--17,100 basic and applied American scientists, two thirds with advanced degrees, are against the Kyoto Agreement. The Heidelberg Appeal--which states that there is no scientific evidence for man-made global warming, has been signed by over 4,000 scientists from around the world since the petition’s inception. I strongly questioned these high numbers, since I’ve had benefit of the Canadian government’s public relations machine on this issue. Dr. Leahey has since sent documentation to back his figures up.Read more
Posted by Sid at 07:26 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
May 06, 2005
Save the planet, pollute now.
Just when you thought we were saved because of reduced pollution. Reduced pollution? How did I miss this memo.
Reductions in industrial emissions in many countries, along with the use of particulate filters for car exhausts and smoke stacks, seem to have reduced the amount of dirt in the atmosphere and made the sky more transparent.Will someone PLEASE make up their mind. Do we pollute or not pollute? Do we all become communists to make the world more polluted or not?That sounds like very good news. But the researchers say that more solar energy arriving on the ground will also make the surface warmer, and this may add to the problems of global warming. More sunlight will also have knock-on effects on cloud cover, winds, rainfall and air temperature that are difficult to predict.
The results suggest that a downward trend in the amount of sunlight reaching the surface, which has been observed since measurements began in the late 1950s, is now over.
The researchers argue that this trend, commonly called 'global dimming', reversed more than a decade ago, probably following the collapse of communist economies and the consequent decrease in industrial pollutants.
I AM SOOO CONFUSED!!!
Posted by Sid at 06:41 AM | Comments (0) | Environment
