CLIMATE CHANGE MOVEMENT

There sure are a lot of Socialists and Communists involved when you look at the pictures.  The irony is that the Communists in the old Soviet Union did more to harm the environment than any capitalist country or corporation ever did.

FRACKING CAMPAIGN IN COLORADO

There are a number of very clever ads produced by those supporting fracking in Colorado.

CLIMATE CHANGE

It is almost impossible to follow the climate change issue unless you are an expert, because news reports keep changing.  And then one reads German and Russian articles that say it is not the crisis Al Gore and the left are making it out to be.  But the World Federation of Scientists  has come out and said it is "not a planetary emergency." I presume this is a more credible group than Al Gore. On the other hand, I don't think this report should be used to ignore issues such as pollution.

GLOBAL WARMING: NOT HAPPENING?

From the BBC.  Global warming has been "at a standstill" since 1998.  Yet we have Al Gore and others preaching this as a fact.  A number of research articles are quoted.

OBAMA & GREEN ENERGY

Government money was given Fisker automotive to develop a "green" car even when the administration knew the company was in financial trouble.  $200 million down the drain.  Another Solyndra.

GREEN CARS ACTUALLY CREATE MORE POLLUTION

The global warming supporters are really causing more warming than less with an emphasis on green energy.  And there is also the issue of how they will dispose of the batteries when these cars are sent to the junk yard.

A 2012 comprehensive life-cycle analysis in Journal of Industrial Ecology shows that almost half the lifetime carbon-dioxide emissions from an electric car come from the energy used to produce the car, especially the battery. The mining of lithium, for instance, is a less than green activity. By contrast, the manufacture of a gas-powered car accounts for 17% of its lifetime carbon-dioxide emissions. When an electric car rolls off the production line, it has already been responsible for 30,000 pounds of carbon-dioxide emission. The amount for making a conventional car: 14,000 pounds.

CORRUPTION IN GREEN ENERGY

This time it is wind energy.  A culture of corruption has descended on Washington. . .these companies get tax payer money and then seem to fail or provide jobs for Washington insiders.  I don't see the media covering these failures.

THE ENVIRONMENT

A summary of where the US stands with regard to global warming and carbon levels.  The author comments on how fracking has helped the environment.

The negative:  The oceans are now roughly 30 percent more acidic than in the pre-industrial era. And unlike future climate change, the effects are already apparent. Just head down to the Tidewater area of Virginia or out to coastal Oregon and talk to the folks who raise shellfish.

The positive:  Before we all put on the sackcloth and ashes, though, note some good news: America’s carbon dioxide emissions are actually falling. In fact, they have not been this low since 1992. And while no single factor can account for the entire shift, much of the credit goes to something environmentalists often detest: hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

RACHEL CARSON WAS WRONG

Bad science caused people to die? Chemicals can help crops from being destroyed and thus more people can be fed.

History has proven Carson’s claims wrong. Contrary to her admonitions, a chemically caused cancer epidemic never came to pass. Researchers who identified environmental factors did not simply target trace chemical exposures as significant, but instead focused on major cancer causes such as tobacco and poor diets. In fact, people are living longer and healthier lives, cancer rates have declined even as chemical use has increased, and chemicals are not among the key causes of cancer.

ELECTRIC CARS: THE FUTURE?

The Congressional Budget Office weighs in and calls electric cars a waste of money, at least how Washington has funded and directed the program.  The government subsidizes inefficiency.

From the CBO:  Assuming that everything else is equal, the larger an electric vehicle’s battery capacity, the greater its cost disadvantage relative to conventional vehicles—and thus the larger the tax credit needed to make it cost-competitive.

APOCALYPSE IN HISTORY

From Wired.

Over the past half century, none of our threatened eco-pocalypses have played out as predicted. Some came partly true; some were averted by action; some were wholly chimerical. This raises a question that many find discomforting: With a track record like this, why should people accept the cataclysmic claims now being made about climate change? After all, 2012 marks the apocalyptic deadline of not just the Mayans but also a prominent figure in our own time: Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who said in 2007 that “if there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late … This is the defining moment.”

Actually he could go back farther into history than the last 50 years or so.  In the past religious apocalypses were more the rage. . .now we see scientific-based apocalypses.  Some time something will happen, I am sure, but being obsessed with something can generate a lot of terrible public policy in addition to the human worry that takes place.

The writer calls himself the "Rational Optimist"--is there such a thing as a "Rational Pessimist?"

GREEN ENERGY COMPANIES GOING BANKRUPT

I am all for green energy, but why do all these companies Washington gives help to and Obama supports go bankrupt?

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION

It sounds like Chicago corruption has hit Washington. Solyndra was just the start of green-energy corruption. And in other cases it just not seem to make economic sense. For example: Our U.S. Navy is spending lots of our green to go green too. They recently committed $12 million to purchase 450,000 gallons of biofuel at about $26.75 per gallon in order to offset requirements for standard JP-5 aircraft jet fuel that costs less than $3 per gallon. The good news is that the total fuel price will be only about five times more (rather than 9 times) after it is mixed with the standard stuff.

ENERGY EFFICIENT LIGHT BULBS

I thought these new bulbs were here to help the environment and make us safer.

Their report advises that the bulbs should not be left on for extended periods, particularly near someone’s head, as they emit poisonous materials when switched on.