....looking for Mr. GoodCO2 ...boy am I relieved, I just signed up with CheatNeutral: "At Cheatneutral, we believe that we should all try to reduce the amount we cheat on our partners, but we also realise that fidelity isn't always possible. That's why we help you neutralise your cheating. Your actions are offset by a global network of fidelity, developed by us. By paying Cheatneutral, you're funding monogamy-boosting offset projects - we simply invest the money you give us in monogamous, faithful or just plain single people, to encourage them to stay that way." Sorta sums up the offsetting thing, dontcha think?
What Climate Worry? Well it's always interesting when climate deniers all of the sudden scurry up onto the soapbox to become promoters of climate solutions, right? When they stop even doubting the anthropogenic causes and turn coats 180 degrees. Always interesting... and even more so when its from the AEI, the American Enterprise Institute (which houses of course Fred "2nd hand smoke does not harm the baby" Singer, as well as the bloodthirsty and obsequious Michael "Nuke 'em All" Ledeen... but that is in fact what just happened today (maybe it has something to do with Exxon no longer funding climate skeptics). In a recently released "opinion piece" Joel Schwartz writes that scientist of course are dead set against having a "warmer but richer" planet, and also that the only real way to deal with climate change (now that it is real), is to fill the atmosphere with sulfur and other particulate (just like chemtrails.... but real?). Geoengineering is our only way out he says, and those damn scientists! They just don't seem to get that. Schwartz does, of course, because he's not a scientist (he does have an MS in planetary Sciences, but he spent much more time with the RAND Corporation (nice) and working for the Orwellian "Coalition for Clean Air" (which managed to set back clean air regulations across Florida). Trust me, anything this guy is going to promote is a danger to every living thing.
OK as my good buddy Jilted Citizen has said many times before--- this whole argument is really stupid because the MAJORITY of U.S. oil comes from countries like Canada, and not from Saudis (not even living ones, as opposed to the billboards dead Saudi King). So its pretty moot. But Still this billboard pasted across america really makes me sick Turning the spigot at the pump to a bigot at the pump? Ick ick ick.... Anyone hustling "Terror Free Oil" is a lameass. plain and simple. But heck there are at least 100 Million 'amurichans' who think that this is fine since the Saudis are a repressive regime (they are-- sure thing, no one will argue that-- but then again I guess they're the nice kind of repressive regime that we, and "The Company" sure do love-- OK The Company i.e. Chas T Maine is gone, but their legacy sure do live on don't it?)
So I thought I would help the The Missouri Corn Growers Association (MCGA) with their next Ad campaign.. They obviously have no sense of history, and have no idea what slippery slope they are dancing on ...and, I mean why stop there? Why not go the obvious next step? So here's some more.. Sure MCGA they may be offensive and 'controversial' but heck you'll sell more corn that way, and i guess really since conventional ethanol sucks ass when it comes to efficiency and the environmental benefits, might as well go with some jingoistic racist chauvinism! Way to go!! Lets set ourselves back 60 years! So, in that light, here you go, here's my proposal for the next arm of the campaign! Maybe after that you can think of some yellow corn armbands for people to wear...
I'm not a violent man, but everyone has their threshold..... ....notice how i didn't say "every man has his TIPPING POINT" and there's a reason ...because each time that a phrase gets used --especially in questionable contexts-- it gets a little more hackneyed. And so we see it with that TippingPoint, which went from Malcolm Gladwell's tehory of viruses to a generic term to describe any popular movement, watershed... any event even remotely related to change... and that doesn't help. But there is no warning there, if you choose to use 'tipping point go ahead' ..'till your heart is content. Personally I think there's a lot more back breaking straws, opened floodgates, and other phenoms to describe what is going on... but if you like TP, far be it from me.
But that is where I draw the line. If you go beyond that, watch out. And no more pussyfooting, here's what you are no longer allowed to say; "Green is the new black." NEVER! OK? Is that clear? If you are a journalist, Andrew Revkin aside, and you even think of saying something so milquetoast and overused, please think before you mash on that keyboard. Please. Its been done to death. It has been written over and over again, and it's boring. It took google .20 seconds to show me; Results 1 - 10 of about 149,000 for "Green is the new black" (in quotes!) and in the past 14 days there have been 16 newspaper "journalists" and 1,312 blog entries who have beat that dead old phrase.. I mean please.... do you not see what you are doing?? If its sooooooo hot, that means that next week/month/season you'll be a-searchin' for the next new black, the next new trend... leaving all the eco-fashionistas in the dust with rollerskates, satin pants, hairflips, capri pants and whatever else has fallen out of vogue...
And that is not what the world-changing designers are all about.... They aren't just being fashionable... it's not capriciousness that has made people realize that they dont feel good when making money at the expense of the planet... Thats a paradigm shift, not whimsy. So warning #1, you say Greenisnewblack anywhere near me, and expect to get bopped on the nose. Say it in print (and I will find out about it) and you loose all cred. Instantly. Warning #1. Now, warning #2 is even more serious. Because I'm not messing around, I am serious about this, and you better realize that if you are a journalist (Andy Revkin aside, cause he just has too much class) you just better not write what I am about to (reluctantly) write. The phrase "It's not easy being green" belongs to Walt Disney. They own the muppets now. They even pimped out Kermit the frog in LA a few weeks ago to sing the song at the car show for GM. And don't think because you do the derivative "It's Easy Being Green" you are any better, you are still riffing off intellectual property. And that is the achilles heel because here I can and will shut you up-- of course the irony here, if you have seen my old movies, esp. ECI is that i did a mashup of kermit in a climate change video myself... with Ray Charles ....even in the mashup had K the F sing that it's "Easy being green" (mashups rule) BUT THAT WAS TEN YEARS AGO! I would never think of doing that now--- not because it's illegal to use other people's intellectual property (please do that!), but because every journo and their grandmother is slapping that witticism up in their weekly column or OpEd piece. and you know what... say something 1,000 times people believe it... say it's not easy 10,000 times and it is easy 5,000 times and people get confused... and shut off-- and here too, once a day you get it's not easy.. once every three days you get it is easy --in the MSMs-- and blogwise, this month ther eare about 2,000 easy and 8,000 not easy... get it?? That's enough!
So beware Louisville Courier-Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Roanoak Times, downloadsquad.com ropadope.com and even you GreenWatch... I'm onto you... and here's where the warning gets stiff: Like i said before this is the property of Walt Disney. They have so many lawyers at Disney that the legal department has a legal department. And one thing they don't take kindly to at Disney is people using their stuff without their permission (you wanna really piss 'em off take without permission then use for your own personal political agenda.. that makes 'em really snappy...[don't believe me click here to hear an actual Disney Lawyer talking to an actual Intellectual Property thief]). So the warning is as follows: from now on, as soon as I see someone using that poor phrase, now fully flogged postmortem, i will capture a screen-shot and send it to the Disney Legal department. Is that clear?
Don't Worry, Be Happy, it seems that there us no such thing as climate change. Apparently from the new video with decades-old (discredited) info. It's like a Patrick Michaels retro party!
This 25 minute video will "amaze and astound you" see, it turns out, there is no such thing as anthropogenic climate change.... isn't that good to know? At a news conference held in Ottawa, some of North America’s "foremost climate experts" provided evidence demonstrating that the science underlying the Kyoto Protocol is seriously flawed; a problem that continues to be ignored by the Canadian government. (((um, this is a bit dated the present administration totally takes these flaws seriously~~ why we're now canceling all our programs and erasing any mention of climate change from government websites)). Even if this entire 25 minute video's theory is bunk, "Scientists" ((doenst that make it seem like it was some consensus based body? not a few well paid freeaks with tar-sand greasy lined pockets)) called on the Canadian government to delay implementation of the Kyoto Protocol until a thorough, public review of the current state of climate science has been conducted by climate experts (really, it's from the Friends of Science. And with friends like that....)
OK it's about Freud's theories, and then how his nephew Edward Bernays used them to make people do things that they normally wouldn't do. Aside from being a huge influence on goebbles, and making women smoke, this father or PR and his uncles work created a mind field where the self and pleasing the self can be transferred to the act of consumption. When we look at the mess we're in. A lot of it can be traced back to this work.
Ocean PH levels are 30% higher than ever* before please read this article by Martin Mittelstaedt of the Globe/Mail. Many have been discussing it, Forbes has talked about it, even Fox News mentioned it, but this is a great explanation. And it;s a serious issue, based on this report that came out earlier this month from Joan Kleypas and her krewe at Boulder's NCAR.
Basically 1/2 of the CO2 we've 'allegedly' been pumping in to the atmosphere has been winding up in the oceans. which is good cause it slowed down global warming (imagine if there was twice as much CO2 there already) but the HORRIBLE thing about it is that it is turning our oceans into acid. And faster than has probably ever happened before on the planet. There is already a 30% higher PH level in the oceans, than there has been since the industrial revolution (actually 30% higher than its beein in over 600,000 years). And that's bad news for shellfish, as the acid eats their shells, and also deadly bad news to the coral reefs (as if they already weren't having enough problems) and of course, that is bad news for over 25% of the Oceans species who live at least part of their lives in the corals... ok and bad news for every animal who eat that 25% once they leave the reefs...
its the opposite of the old high school experiment where one would take some vinegar (acid) and some cacium (baking soda) and it would produce bubbling CO2... here you take the air's CO2 and the Shellfish's calcium and get acid. And it ain't pretty.... What do we do to stop this?
Respect Your Elders! Don't get me wrong: i'm glad that the MSM is starting to embrace green thinking, but i take umbrage at some of the things being said in the most recent "Green" Wired magazine. And I can't believe that it was written by Alex WorldChanging Steffan. Jeezuz!
I know there's a love-in going on right now with every planet conscious person (or planetary-waking anyway) and the C.F.L. And sure, they use less energy than incandescents and are more efficient on a day-to-day basis. But I have a few questions, and only because I see CFLs becoming the panacea that paper recycling was just a few years ago. And it makes me wonder two things 1) has anyone seen a life-cycle analysis for CFLs? I mean how much energy it takes to make one, and of course how much energy is required to treat them once they have burnt out? And 2) has anyone considered what we will do with all that mercury? I mean if there are say, 1.5 Bn tungsten incandescents in North America right now, and we replace 1/2 with CFLs, so in 8 years what are we going to do with 750 Million mercury bulbs? I heard that only 13% of fluorescent bulbs get recycled and out of that something like 4% are CFL. Now surely, in the next few years we will figure out what to do with them. Right? Are we forcing GEcommage to deal with it? Osram Sylvania? What will this look like in a few years??
Next: Accoring to FEMA: This house is deemed habitable (you know, post Katrina beggars shouldn't be choosers and all...). See maybe you & I wouldn't like to live there, but FEMA says it's ok. Plus by saying it's ok it also means that the home= owners will be ineligible for the cash assistance intended to replace a massive city voucher program that has paid their rent. So by this rubber stamp from FEMA you now are on your own. So move back into your home, and quit yer complaining! Now that's compassionate conservatism for ya.
Santa Cruz -always ahead of the curve- hatch a great scheme ...Sometimes there are other incentives aside from tax credits and rebates. And the City of Santa Cruz',Green Building Working Group (GBWG) has enacted just one more way to encourage green behavior. Sharon Sarris, Monterey Bay co-chair of the US Green Building Council, says that as of 2007, the city of Santa Cruz will require all residents filing for construction permits to complete a checklist of green building items like water, efficiency, and insulated pipes, and that only those with a minimum number of points will receive a permit, while those scoring higher will have their permit process expedited.
So it's your choice, apparently, design/build intelligently and save loads of energy, waste-water and money, or be stubborn, and uh, stand in line....
Everybody Hates Raymond: I know I know I know, there is no US and there is no THEM. We're all in this together. And so i am biting my tongue, and trying really hard to not be so vehement when talking about this latest lameass attempt by Exxon to get out of jail free. See, 17 years ago (just before a few of you were even born) an Exxon supertanker, el Valdez, with an allegedly drunk captain, spilled 11,000,000 gallons of Alaskan North-Slope crude (and I mean crude) oil into Prince William Sound in Alaska.
somerled, the poet warrior of the Educational IT world sent me a link to something I find truley inspiring. It's a company out east called Green Power Labs. Boy is it great... ok, to begin with, they are a solar company. They have created some softwares that will tell you if your place is in any way a good place to set up PV power. But then they also sell turnkey solar solutions to run your whole home on PV and batteries and/or grid intertie. Sounds fairly run-of-the-mill (aside from the software) so far, but get this, they have a brilliant entry level rout for the average homeowner that I haven't seen yet before, and on top of it, they have financing for solar, which in my opinion is the one thing that has been SORELY needed in the green world. And now finally happening!! ( Read more... )
Well, people seemed to like the 27 solar & hydrogen myths busting so much, I thought I would share one more myth busting with y'all... ths one is from Bradley Berman at BusinessWeek online and it's called The Top Ten Hybrid Myths"
I like this one because it not only dispells the myths held on the right; it does so without the teary-eyed myopia that usually comes along with the green cheer-leading: Berman explains in Myth #9, how hybris will save the world. that it isn't exaclty like that; "The 200,000 hybrid car sales in 2005 represent 1.2% of the 17 million new cars sold last year. If every new hybrid driver doubled fuel economy from 20 mpg to 40 mpg for 40 miles of daily driving -- an optimistic estimate -- then a gallon per hybrid car would be saved every day. That's a whopping 100,000 gallons per day chalked up to hybrid car drivers. But we've only reduced our daily U.S. consumption from 400 million gallons to 399,900,000 gallons" a quick easy and sobering read....
You know me. Unless it's glaringly obvious and no one's said anything, i'll usually stay away from the doom/gloom eco stories. It just doesn't bode well for my constitution (don't really know what that means, just like the way it sounds...). So when the prez 'down there' gives a state of the union address, I chose to simply read between the lines, not heap upon the readers (you) the truth, the whole truth, and the so help us gods...
Instead I'll let TreeHugger do it. They have the 2006 state of the eco-union address on their site now, with the ugly, the bad and the good (wind turbines don't kill as many birds as we thought, and more people are riding bikes, that's the good!)
Mythbusters: green special Remember those posters in the college dorms "How to win an argument with an omni/carnivore?" Well, i think i just found the clean-energy equivalent of those... and of course, here they are for you, for the next time someone says "oh yeah solar's good, but PV is too expensive and will never compete with "the big boys" you can smile and tell them how: actually, the price of solar was $50 a peak watt back in the 80's, is at $3 now, and that works out to about $0.15 a Kw just like dirty coal... Yes it's the DOE-EERE's the myths of solar electricity, and Rocky Mountain Institue's 20 Hydrogen Myths. So, like always, enjoy the education!
...more bad news for Sushi lovers FOREST KNOLLS, California, January 23, 2006 (ENS) - Revised data just released by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) shows that bigeye tuna, called ahi, is high in mercury, averaging 0.639 ppm of mercury. The highest mercury test result in ahi exceeded the FDA’s 1.0 ppm action level. Sushi and tuna steaks of bigeye tuna are commonly sold as ahi in restaurants and stores. too much mercury....
The FDA and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) already warn women and children to restrict their consumption of albacore tuna (0.357 parts per million, or ppm, or mercury) because of the dangers of methylmercury, a powerful neurotoxin, but currently fail to do so for bigeye. Ahi has nearly twice as much mercury as albacore on average. ( keep reading if you really want to.... )
I ought to just stop reading anything the moment i see "opinion" in the editorial sectioning of online news.... MARK STEYN, an editor for the Jerusalem Post just cut/copied/pasted some lame-ass opinion piece on the cult of global warming. (sheeesh! you'd think that a country like israel, with all of its problems, and no oil would just mind their `own business, but obviously, it's a little more than "opinion" and for some reason Mr. Steyn's bosses decided that we need more obfuscation lies and slight-of-words printed in the diarreah of anti-greenhouse mental sludge sphere.... Not to mention that this lame-o didn't even do his own research! Anyone who has had to wade through the CO2-is-good-for-you tripe, will be familiar not only with the arguments he pastes, but even the actual wording and phrases.... Oh my god, will someone please duct tape this useless pontificator? Not only does he bring up Michael Chriton's anti environmentalist's book in the first line (a sure indication where the crap will roll-- not only does he think Chriton is a purveyor of sound policies, but he actually thinks it's a good read! So no accounting for taste, the guy still has his head up his butt)
And you may think i'm being a little harsh here, so let me just pluck some adjectives from this bile-spewer's litany for y'all: "Martin Sheenesque Hollywood eco-poseur," ..."eco-tists sounded more than a little squaresvill," ..."the short-term interests of the eco-establishment count for more than the long-term health and welfare of ordinary Australians," ...."laughably fraudulent (hear that Patrick Michaels?)," ...."Yet, such is the power of the eco-lobby that this fraud became the centerpiece of UN reports on global warming.," ...."the problem for the Kyoto cultists," ...."Kyotocrats will be citing lack of climate change as evidence of climate change. They are, literally, a church, and under the Holy Book of Kyoto their bishops demand that the great industrial nations of the world tithe their incomes to them," ...."unlike the Kyotophiles, their (the Beyond Kyoto crew)strategy isn't a form of cultural self-flagellation," ..."One day, the world will marvel at the environmental hysteria at our time, and the deeply damaging corruption of science in the cause of an alarmist cult.," I normally don't hold back, but I will with what i would tell this guy to do with his plagaristic "opinion"
Instead i will offer an antidote. This Mark Steyn guy, obviously genuflected, and open for rimming any American will (or what he thinks will appease America), might do better (and for anyone looking for an actual good opinion) try reading an article actually from within the United States. I don't think you can find a more car crazy place than Petaluma California (That's where the car's first owner was, a little old lady from Petaluma). And yet, The Petaluma Argus Courier has a great article by Bruce Hagen entitled "Our choice: petrolism or patriotism". Now, maybe I have a bias, but this guy hits all the notes, with a pro-activist stance and you can really understand what he's talking about. So there Mr. Jerusalem Post Disinformation Editor, try some reality....
harbinger is such a cold term.... First two uninhabited Kiribati islands disappeared in 1999. and of course, Tuvalu (the .tv country) has approached Australia and New Zealand to resettle its entire population when its islands are expected to go underwater within the next 30 years. Now we have whats being calle the Pacific's first climate refugees
And now, in what is being touted as "a first", the Canadian Government, in partnership with the South Pacific Regional Environment Program and the UN, have provided funds for the relocation of Tegua island. It's the first time donor agencies have fully funded such a program as a consequence of global warming.
The destiny of Tegua island, home to 64 people in the remote Torres group of islands in far north Vanuatu, has always rested on the seas of the South Pacific. On Tegua, Chief Reuben claims the same problems have beset his community. “Look at that line of coconut trees over there,“ he says, sweeping his arm towards white sandy beaches 500 metres away. “The advancing salt water is killing our coastal coconut trees. Before, those trees were behind the beach, but now they are right at the water‘s edge.
2,000 people living on the Carteret islands in Papua New Guinea are also preparing to move. They're going to nearby Bougainville island. a four-hour boat ride to the south-west. One Carteret islander told Radio Australia recently that they were only waiting on finance from the government to help them move. Their health has been steadily deteriorating because they are losing access to fresh water, and gardens are being destroyed by advancing salt water.
Up here in Canada David Suzuki is a rock star of the ecoworld. He's a household name, TV star, activist, and committed like no one's business. When he gives a stern talk, everyone listens. But that's not today, this isn't stern, this is hopeful! (And nicked from his amazing DSFoundation Website). And it was in newspapers across Canada today! Sea Change in Environmental Understanding- By David Suzuki
The New Year is often considered a time to reflect on the past and look ahead to see what's coming in the near future. Over the holidays, I had time to reflect on some recent events and I think what's coming next may be "good for the environment."
Why the quotation marks? Well, early in December, I spent a week in Montreal for the international climate negotiations. It was an amazing experience and I was fortunate enough to be able to speak with a wide variety of people, from delegates and dignitaries, to business leaders and citizens on the streets.
It was a busy time. There were peaceful protests and rallies. There were tough discussions behind closed doors. There were holdouts and those who attempted to derail negotiations. There were even a few confused souls standing out on street corners, handing out pamphlets insisting that global warming was some sort of hoax. Yes, the conference had a little of everything. ( keep reading and get rewarded with a pic of a hot 64 year old )
Robots building robots on the moon, a novel way to um, stop global warming? You know, way back when, I read a global-warming science fiction novel called Heat by Arthur Herzog (no Bruce Stirling, but hey, this was written in the 70's). I don't want to spoil the ending-- but oddly enough the solution his protagonist, the hero, ended up executing seems to be happening whether we like it or not. In the novel, the world ends up sending millions and millions of tiny mirrors into the upper atmosphere to reflect solar radiation away from the planet before it hits greenhouse gasses and starts to re-radiate. Kinda like what "they" say chemtrails are-- tiny particles of aluminum bouncing light away form those nasty GhGs.... In light of this catch-22 (whether we like it or not)I gotta say, I'm no longer thinking that the Brigadier General S. Peter Worden is crazy at all-- in fact I'm starting to think that what he wants to do might not only work, but compared to chemtrails, I love it. Well, kinda.
So what's the deal you ask? and why would i even think for a moment that the General is crazy? Well, he wants to set up robot colonies on the moon that will build billions (yeah, billions) of flying floating semi-opaque sun shades that would float 3 million miles away, between us and the sun. No, seriously, this is a picture of him delivering the speech (maybe one day called "the speech that launched a billion moon robots") back in October at the Space Frontier Conference in Los Angeles: OK I'll be honest he is crazy-- but maybe just maybe crazy like a fox! He wants the private sector to run the show with the government sticking to what it does best, as he says, the "Roads and Commodes." He says that what we need is private ownership to really save the planet, private companies doing this sun-blocking (he uses the railroad robber barrons as an example of how private capital can work better-- see, he is crazy because he says nothing about their dirty dealings.)
((Ok, maybe you dont need my editorial here to see what this guy wants to do, so I'll leave the floor to the people who were in LA at the Space conference)): ( continue this way, young space cowboys )
you will have to beat a critical path to get these Bucky books Did you know that Buckminster Fuller wrote 28 Books? Betcha didn't know that up to very recently, only 3 were still in print (operation manual for spaceship earth, critical path and ??). But at least I'm happy that I found this out because of a great group called Critical Path Publishing. It's their goal to republish all of his works, which truly we need now more than ever. And so far they have already gotten the first two to print, as well as a CD series of his final lectures. Sure, you can go to powell or Amazon and find a few rarities.. But next time you got a hankerin' for some Fuller wisdom (or just want to help a group of insanely committed individuals), try Critical Path Publishing! ok couldn't resist one last pic, cause RBF kicks ass!
The big news in Los Alamos these days is that the city just got $100K approved to green its waste transfer site. Ok, not exactly the sexiest site to chose, but it is adjacent to the famous Los Alamos National Laboratory and does get 8,000 cars driving by a day. So... not bad. Los Alamost, with a slightly shady past, has been doing good environmental work over the past decade or so, mapping climates and storms, and working on theories, has now ventured into practical, concrete solutions! Serious concrete, as the waste transfer station will have solar thermal slabs taking the heat out of the space (as well as the obligatory solar PV panels on da roof)
OK, Sorry. I'll be honest. I saw this article a few moments ago in the Los Alamos Monitor and it's actually a pretty bland story (come one! Los Alamos? I mean look at all the amazing stuff Sandia has been doing (like those mega-beautiful solar collector stirling engines, and they've both got the same shady past...). Not such a huge story; solar panels at garbage "transfer site." So why you ask did I bother writing this up? Well, because it jostled my memory. I was thinking about something I heard Bruce Sterling say at a PlaNetwork conference about 5 years ago... and of course, voila! it's available online... But because its such a well written speech, (takes you through the lows and leaves you at a lush high) and it's still as pertinent today if not more, I decided to cut/paste, so please continue, I promise, it's worth it! ( Read more... )
ok, it's only a movie, but still..... On RogerEbert.com's AnswerMan someone asked Roger if he could reprint the "corruption" speech from Syriana. And while I still have yet to see the flick, I did like the quote, and can see why people are comparing it to the Michael Douglas "greed is good" rant in the 80's film Wall Street. See for yourself:
Some trust fund prosecutor, got off-message at Brown, thinks he's gonna run this up the flagpole, make a name for himself, maybe get elected some two-bit, no-name congressman from nowhere, with the result that Russia or China can suddenly start having, at our expense, all the advantages we enjoy here. No, I tell you. No, sir. (mimics prosecutor) "But, Danny, these are sovereign nations." Sovereign nations! What is a sovereign nation, but a collective of greed run by one individual? "But, Danny, they're codified by the U.N. charter!" Legitimized gangsterism on a global basis that has no more validity than an agreement between the Crips and the Bloods! (Beat) ... Corruption charges. Corruption? Corruption ain't nothing more than government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulation. That's Milton Friedman. He got a goddamn Nobel Prize. We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it. Corruption is our protection. Corruption is what keeps us safe and warm. Corruption is why you and I are prancing around here instead of fighting each other for scraps of meat out in the streets. (Beat) Corruption ... is how we win.
Finally! someone to blame for all this global warming hoo ha The Times online has reported that Researchers at Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen have developed a diet that has done the most to reduce the amount of methane produced by cows. They claim that by altering the diet of cows they can cut the animal's emissions of methane — a contributor to global warming — by up to 70%. There are 1.4 billion cows worldwide, each producing 500 litres of methane a day and accounting for 14% of all emissions of the gas. and methane has 23 times the warming potential of CO2
“In some experiments we got a 70% decrease in methane emissions, which is quite staggering,” said John Wallace, a biochemist at the institute who is leading the research team. In total about 14% of global methane comes from the guts of farm animals. It is worth doing something about.” No, they are not going to plug up the cow's butts-- they have added sugars into the cows diet, this helps them ferment the food quicker and turn less of it into methane. (hmmmmm... maybe the cows will eventually evolve to only have one stomach and not chew cud)
OK, so let's get some things straight. Sure, A for effort and all, but what about changing lifestyles? Is that so hard to do? Can we not eat meat like Asians (you know, a few ounces in a stir fry as opposed to, say, a 20 Oz Steak?) And what about the other 86% of Methane? Where does that come from? Landfills? Melting permafrost? Can we tap the permaforst like we now do at garbage dumps? What about the cow farts? can't we tap into those as well (ok well maybe not tap into them, but what about collecting it somehow?) Maybe this is the best solution... personally i think if people are going to continue to eat burgers and steaks they ought to be grown in petri dishes and in labs... and I have a bunch of info on that I'm about to post (it's not that far away), at which point hopefully there will be real factory farms where no animals get tortured or have to endure with specialized diets so we don't mess our planet up even more than it already is....
insurance industry urged to take a new position on climate change ..for over a decade the greenie tree hugging freaks were crying at the door of the insurance industry trying to get them to take things seriously. Of course, the re-insurance industry (the people who insure the insurance companies) SwissRe and MunichRe were taking it very seriously. But their errant kids, the insurance billionaires didn't heed-- why worry when it's "all good" on both ends? Well it turns out there is someone who they have to listen to. The word is "urged". It seems they have been urged to now disclose climate risk to their investors. Specifically the balls-of-steel Investor Network on Climate Risk and man, way to go! These are some people I would love to have a powerlunch in a hot tub with!
re-thinking the standard journalistic framework Great article today in RealClimate; I urge everyone who wants to be informed to go over there and read it! They take umbrage on the countless journalists that try to cover the Climate Change issue in a fair and balanced way --they usually end up interviewing one of the thousands of actual scientists, before being balanced and going to ask Fred Linson, Patrick Michaels or another of the (quickly disappearing) Fossil Fuel Rim-Jobbers out there to get the other side of the store (the "don't worry be happy side"). So RC said enough is enough. And I quote:
There are only a handful of "contrarian" climate scientists who continue to dispute that consensus. To give these contrarians equal time or space in public discourse on climate change out of a sense of need for journalistic "balance" is as indefensible as, say, granting the Flat Earth Society an equal say with NASA in the design of a new space satellite. It's plainly inappropriate. But it stubbornly persists nonetheless
They then site an example of how things out to be covered. They link to this op-ed piece by Mark Trahant of the Seattle Post Intellignecer, who finally decides that "Fairness, or journalist balance, is the obstacle. It's time for journalists -- and especially those of us who write opinion -- to declare outright that truth is a higher calling than fairness..... ...It's a call to make certain we never have to look back and explain to the next generation why we ignored the overwhelming evidence. The highest journalism value must be truth. But fairness will be served, too, especially when that means being fair to our children." Amen.
...in case you don't check those links up at the top of my blog-- the "Viridian Pope" Bruce Sterling just cut/pasted/added_comment to Al Gore's latest open letter. The letter itself is pretty strong. And every American ought to read it. Of course I like the read much more with Bruce's trademark (((comments from the peanut gallery))) and hope you do, too ...So, the whole thing is available right from the Viridian site [[with lotsa other nice goodies!!]]. But now, i leave the floor to the venerable Misters Gore & Sterling:
(((The United States came amazingly close to having this guy become President. Now, although physical reality is lavishly backing up Al Gore's oft-rehearsed environmental themes, he's writing plaintive screeds for dodgy little online zines like SALON rather than making legislation. Well, we do what we can, eh?)))
The time to act is now "The climate crisis and the need for leadership. By Al Gore. Nov. 04, 2005
"It is now clear that we face a deepening global climate crisis that requires us to act boldly, quickly and wisely. 'Global warming' is the name it was given a long time ago. But it should be understood for what it is: a planetary emergency that now threatens human civilization on multiple fronts. Stronger hurricanes and typhoons represent only one of many new dangers as we begin what someone has called 'a nature hike through the Book of Revelation.' (((I wonder who that "someone" was; he's sure got a nice line of gab. I also wonder why politicians always say "the time to act is now," even when it's crystal-clear that the proper time to act was quite a long time ago.)))
"As I write, my heart is heavy due to the suffering the people of the Gulf Coast have endured. In Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, and particularly in New Orleans, thousands have experienced losses beyond measure as our nation and the world witnessed scenes many of us thought we would never see in this great country. But unless we act quickly, this suffering will be but a beginning. (((Due to lag-time in climate change, it's just a beginning EVEN IF we do act quickly.))) ( Read more... )
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