Les Jones

Canada is having its own mortgage meltdown

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 | Environment | Permalink | No Comments |

Macleans (Canada) - Real estate prices are falling, and a U.S.-style collapse could cost taxpayers plenty:

Christopher Judge is accustomed to turning heads in Vancouver. During the decade-long run of the cult hit TV show Stargate SG-1, which was filmed in and around the city, Judge starred as the muscle-bound alien Teal’c. But when the six-foot-three actor appeared in B.C. Supreme Court in mid-November, amid raised eyebrows from the galley, it was for a role he’d desperately hoped to avoid. Judge, who owns three luxury homes in B.C., faces foreclosure. He’d flown up from Los Angeles the night before to ask the court for time to get a new appraisal done on one of his properties, a West Vancouver home with stunning views of the city that he’d bought for $2 million in 2006. At the same time, one of Judge’s former co-stars on the show, Michael Shanks, is facing foreclosure on another sprawling West Vancouver home purchased in January for $4 million. “I was always told the safest place for your money is in the real estate market because it would never drop by 50 per cent, but that’s exactly what’s happened,” a congenial Judge said outside the court. “I watched the L.A. housing market fall and now I’m having to watch the B.C. market go down, too.”

According to the article Canada’s problems duplicate the U.S. problems almost exactly - government-backed mortgages, downpayments below conventional lending standards, liar loans based on undocumented incomes, and irrational gold rush pricing.

Previously:

- Is green energy the next market bubble?
- How irrational were California real estate prices?
- Chicago business school profs on the Paulson bailout
- What caused the global housing bubble?
- Intelligent software didn’t avert the current financial crisis
- Anna Schwartz on the financial crisis
- “Economics in One Lesson” on government loans and government-backed credit

Record low hurricane activity in northern hemisphere

Friday, November 7th, 2008 | Environment | Permalink | 1 Comment |

Florida State University -  Where have the Northern Hemisphere Tropical Cyclones gone the last 2 years?:

Upon examination of all tropical cyclone activity in the basins throughout the Northern Hemisphere for the past 2 years, a remarkable downward trend in cyclone energy has continued and reached historic levels of inactivity. Even though North Atlantic hurricane activity was expectedly above normal, the Western and Eastern Pacific basins have produced considerably fewer than normal typhoons and hurricanes, respectively in 2008. The image below shows the previous three decades of cyclone energy (as measured by the ACE, a popular metric of climatologists used to measure hurricane energy) for all global ocean basins (green) and for the Northern Hemisphere (blue). Using a 24-month running sum, we see that Northern Hemisphere ACE remains at historical lows. Moreover, there has only been 1 Category 5 typhoon (Jangmi) during the past year. This cyclone activity is consistent with continued colder conditions in the Pacific Ocean and the previous strong La Nina last spring.

Ethanol production creates 15% of Iowa’s greenhouse gases

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 | Environment | Permalink | 2 Comments |

Gas 2.0 - Iowa’s Ethanol Plants Create 15 Percent of its Emissions:

The Des Moines Register reported the other day that Iowa’s ethanol plants contribute 15 Percent — 7.6 million metric tons out of a total of 52 million metric tons — of greenhouse-gas emissions found in the state’s new inventory of major manufacturers, businesses and power plants.

Iowa’s Department of Natural Resources found that the largest portion of the state’s overall emissions came from fermenting grain at the plants and not from burning natural gas or coal. In addition, burning biomass such as switchgrass at various industrial plants added another 0.13 million metric tons.

The emissions generated by ethanol production are one reason why some environmentalists downplay the benefit of renewable fuels, while others insist they are far more beneficial than burning fossil fuels

It’s hard to say how this would compare to an equivalent amount of gasoline production, but it does point to the fact that biofuels aren’t magically free of pollutants. (Assuming, of course, that global warming is even caused by greenhouse gases.)

Study: Disposable diapers more green than cloth diapers

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 | Environment | Permalink | No Comments |

(UK) Times Online - Blow to image of ‘green’ reusable nappy:

A government report that found old-fashioned reusable nappies damage the environment more than disposables has been hushed up because ministers are embarrassed by its findings.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has instructed civil servants not to publicise the conclusions of the £50,000 nappy research project and to adopt a “defensive” stance towards its conclusions.

The report found that using washable nappies, hailed by councils throughout Britain as a key way of saving the planet, have a higher carbon footprint than their disposable equivalents unless parents adopt an extreme approach to laundering them.

Which goes to show that the calculus of using reusables vs. disposables isn’t always clear. See, for instance, styrofoam cups vs. reusable mugs.

Alaska’s glaciers show record growth

Saturday, October 18th, 2008 | Environment | Permalink | No Comments |

Daily Tech - Alaskan Glaciers Grow for First Time in 250 years:

“In mid-June, I was surprised to see snow still at sea level in Prince William Sound”, said glaciologist Bruce Molnia. “In general, the weather this summer was the worst I have seen in at least 20 years”.

“On the Juneau Icefield, there was still 20 feet of new snow on the surface [in] late July. At Bering Glacier, a landslide I am studying [did] not become snow free until early August.”

Molnia, who works for the US Geological Survey, said it’s been a “long time” since area glaciers have seen a positive mass balance — an increase in the total amount of ice they contain.

Since 1946, the USGS has maintained a research project measuring the state of Alaskan glaciers. This year saw records broken for most snow buildup. It was also the first time since any records began that the glaciers did not shrink during the summer months.

August was first month without sunspots since 1913

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 | Environment | Permalink | 1 Comment |

DailyTech - Sun Makes History: First Spotless Month in a Century:

The sun has reached a milestone not seen for nearly 100 years: an entire month has passed without a single visible sunspot being noted.

The event is significant as many climatologists now believe solar magnetic activity – which determines the number of sunspots — is an influencing factor for climate on earth.

According to data from Mount Wilson Observatory, UCLA, more than an entire month has passed without a spot. The last time such an event occurred was June of 1913. Sunspot data has been collected since 1749.

Some scientists think that global warming in the 20th century was influenced by increased solar activity. With this decrease in solar activity we’re witnessing a natural experiment in that theory.

Al Gore’s Owning a Houseboat Would Be Like Ghandi Owning a Burger King

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 | Environment | Permalink | No Comments |

“I’ll start acting as if it’s a crisis when the people who are telling me it’s a crisis start acting as if it’s a crisis.”
 – Glenn Reynolds

Via Steve Gill via Dirty Harry’s Place. Here’s the alternative point of view from Nashville is Talking (yeah, I didn’t realize they were still online, either):

The solar panels for Al Gore’s new boat (Bio-Solar One) will be installed at Hurricane Marina tomorrow. It’s just a hunch, but I bet you won’t find a single one of the following conservatives there taking pictures for their follow-up blog posts.

It’s likely you won’t hear much about the fact that the boat carries enough fuel for a year’s use and is called the Toyota Prius of boats by the company that sold it to Gore. Those facts, it seems, have a distinctly liberal bias.

So Gore is planning to install solar panels on his oversized houseboat, presumably after the state of Tennessee assigns it a new Zip code. That’s nice. Thing is, solar panels have a long payback period, not only in terms of price but in terms of the environmental resources that went into building them. It’s hard to imagine getting that environmental payback on an infrequently-used pleasure craft. In other words, it seems unlikely they’ll generate enough power over their lifetime to offset the energy that went into building them.

Biodiesel makes environmental sense when it’s made from fryer oil that would have been thrown out. When made from virgin oil there’s probably no environmental benefit due to the massive petroleum inputs in modern agriculture. In any case, that biodiesel could have been used for necessary transportation, rather than weekend entertainment.

Honestly, though, I wouldn’t care and neither would anyone else if Al Gore weren’t a world-class environmental scold and hypocrite who thinks sacrifice is only for people who are too poor to buy solar panels.

Previously:
- So Much for Al Gore’s Solar-powered Salvation
- Al Gore Wins Nobel Peace Prize
- Megan McArdle on Al Gore’s Carbon Offsets
- Environmental Hypocrisy

Good News on the Plug-in Electric Hybrid Front

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 | Environment | Permalink | 1 Comment |

From Ron Bailey at Reason:

In 2006, a U.S. Department of Energy study concluded that if 84 percent of all cars and light trucks were plug in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), fueling them would not require any additional electric generation capacity. The study assumes that the PHEVs would travel an average of 33 miles per day solely on electric power and could be charged using off-peak power at night. PHEVs would cost between $6,000 and $10,000 more than conventional cars. Such a PHEV fleet could reduce oil consumption by 6.5 million barrels per day, or approximately 52 percent of our oil imports.

That’s good news. One of the concerns about electric power for cars is that the existing power generation and infrastructure wouldn’t support it. This DOE report suggests that those concerns are largely unfounded.

Anchorage on Track for Coldest Summer in 38 Years

Saturday, July 26th, 2008 | Environment | Permalink | 1 Comment |

Anchorage Daily News - Gloomy summer headed toward infamy:

Right now the so-called summer of ‘08 is on pace to produce the fewest days ever recorded in which the temperature in Anchorage managed to reach 65 degrees. That unhappy record was set in 1970, when we only made it to the 65-degree mark, which many Alaskans consider a nice temperature, 16 days out of 365. This year, however — with the summer more than half over — there have been only seven 65-degree days so far. And that’s with just a month of potential “balmy” days remaining and the forecast looking gloomy.

…

In terms of “coldest summer ever,” however, a better measure might be the number of days Anchorage fails to even reach 60. There too, 2008 is a contender, having so far notched only 35 such days — far below the summer-long average of 88.

It’s as if those silly Alaskans liked the global warming. Must be those long nights that make ‘em crazy. That or all the drinking.

Global Warming - Is There Anything It Can’t Do?

Monday, June 23rd, 2008 | Environment | Permalink | No Comments |

The Warm List - a compendium of everything that has been blamed on global warming.

So Much for Al Gore’s Solar-powered Salvation

Thursday, June 19th, 2008 | Environment | Permalink | No Comments |

Al Gore got busted last year for his Nashville mansion’s energy-hogging ways. After he was caught enlightened he decided to make his house more eco-friendly, with geothermal heating, more efficient lighting, and solar panels.

Now he’s been busted again, with even higher energy bills than before the upgrades. Spokesperson Kalee Kreider says the bills don’t yet reflect the efficiency upgrades.

Most people are focusing on Gore’s failure to control his own domestic energy consumption. That’s legitimate, but here’s what I noticed in that last link: “the house’s 33 solar panels only supply 4 percent of its power needs, per Kreider.”

So many solar panels, so little difference. Compare Gore’s increase in energy use and the minimal impact of his home’s solar panels to the Live Earth Pledge that he was party to:

The Live Earth Pledge (or the Seven Point Pledge) is a petition promulgated by the Live Earth campaign, urging governments to adopt a variety of environmental protection laws.

The pledge, spearheaded by Live Earth founder Al Gore, consists of seven points “directly designed to put pressure on governments and on businesses, but do so by asking people around the world to help to focus that pressure”.[1] Among others signing the pledge with Gore are U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, both Democrats like Gore.[1] The pledge will also be presented to Live Earth concert attendees, who will be asked to sign.[2] According to Gore, “The climate crisis will only be stopped by an unprecedented and sustained global movement.”[3]

1. Within the next 2 years, countries have to join an international treaty to cut global warming pollution by 90% in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in a short timespan.
2. The signees will try to live as carbon neutral as possible.
3. A moratorium has to be established on the construction of coal-burning facilities that do not have the capacity to safely trap and store the CO2.
4. The signees will work for a dramatic increase in the energy efficiency of their homes, workplaces, schools, places of worship and means of transportation.
5. Laws and policies have to be created that expand the use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
6. The signees will plant new trees and help preserve and protect forests.
7. The signees will buy from businesses and support leaders who support their commitment to solving the climate problem.

If the guy who wrote the Live Earth Pledge can’t live up to it, how can anyone else?

As far as solar, I’m 39. I’ve been hearing that solar power is right around the corner since the 1970s. Every year we’re told that there are new breakthroughs in solar technology that will finally make solar competitive with other energy sources. It still hasn’t happened. I’d love for solar to work, but until and unless solar achieves the long-promised gains in efficiency I’m not holding my breath.

Sunspot Activity Down, Temperatures Down

Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 | Environment | Permalink | 3 Comments |

One theory about the Earth’s warming is of course that it’s caused by changes in the amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The other theory is that it’s caused by variations in solar activity. Here’s more evidence for the latter.

Montana State University - Sun goes longer than normal without producing sunspots:

Dana Longcope, a solar physicist at MSU, said the sun usually operates on an 11-year cycle with maximum activity occurring in the middle of the cycle. Minimum activity generally occurs as the cycles change. Solar activity refers to phenomena like sunspots, solar flares and solar eruptions. Together, they create the weather than can disrupt satellites in space and technology on earth.

The last cycle reached its peak in 2001 and is believed to be just ending now, Longcope said. The next cycle is just beginning and is expected to reach its peak sometime around 2012. Today’s sun, however, is as inactive as it was two years ago, and scientists aren’t sure why.

“It’s a dead face,” Tsuneta said of the sun’s appearance.

Tsuneta said solar physicists aren’t like weather forecasters; They can’t predict the future. They do have the ability to observe, however, and they have observed a longer-than-normal period of solar inactivity. In the past, they observed that the sun once went 50 years without producing sunspots. That period coincided with a little ice age on Earth that lasted from 1650 to 1700.

This past winter was the coolest winter in the U.S. since 2001 and last month was the coolest May globally in quite a long time.

Environmental Ghoulism

Monday, June 2nd, 2008 | Environment | Permalink | 6 Comments |

Via Ace of Spades comes this Australian Broadcasting Corporation greenhouse calculator to calculate when you should die to protect the planet.

I went through the ABC’s greenhouse calculator once and found out I should die at age 2.8, according to them. For the planet. I tried again giving the “average” answer for all questions and ignoring the question about how my money is spent (same as the first time). With those answers the people who made this software say that I should die at age 24.3.

This is a ghoulish, anti-human approach to environmentalism. I can’t believe someone would write software for an audience of children telling them when they should die.

Alt title: Greenhouse Calculator is death, Logan. Unless you run!

“Undoing America’s Ethanol Mistake”

Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 | Environment | Permalink | 1 Comment |

A U.S. Senator is calling for a freeze in ethanol subsidies rather than continuing on the present course of expanding them through 2022.

On December 19, 2007, President Bush signed into law the Energy Independence and Security Act. This legislation had several positive features, including higher fuel standards for cars and greater investment in renewable energies, such as solar power. However, the bill required a huge spike in the biofuel production requirement from 7.5 billion in 2012 to 36 billion gallons in 2022. This was a well-intentioned measure, but it was also impractical. Nearly all our domestic corn and grain supply is needed to meet this mandate, robbing the world of one of its most important sources of food.

We are already seeing the ill effects of this measure. Last year, 25 percent of America’s corn crop was diverted to produce ethanol. In 2008, that number will grow to 30-35 percent, and it will soar even higher in the years to come. Furthermore, the trend of farmers supplanting other grains with corn is decreasing the supply of numerous agricultural products. When the supply of those products goes down, the price inevitably goes up. Subsequently, the cost of feeding farm and ranch animals increases and the cost is passed to consumers of beef, poultry, and pork products. Since February 2006, the price of corn, wheat, and soybean has increased by more than 240%. Rising food prices are hitting the pockets of lower-income Americans and people who live on fixed incomes.

While the blame for higher costs shouldn’t rest exclusively with biofuels – drought and rising oil costs are contributing factors – the expansion of biofuels has been a major source of the problem. The International Food Policy Research Institute estimates that biofuel production accounts for between one-quarter and one-third of the recent spike in global commodity prices. For the first time in 30 years, food riots are breaking out in many parts of the globe, including major countries such as Mexico, Pakistan, and Indonesia. The fact that America’s energy policies are creating global instability should concern the leaders of both political parties.

Hat tip to DRK at Patterico.com.

Celebrity Environmental Hypocrisy

Monday, May 5th, 2008 | Environment | Permalink | No Comments |

Daily Mail - You hippy-crites! When it comes to saving the planet do celebrities practise what they preach?:

John Travolta

WHAT HE SAYS: “Everyone can do their bit,” Travolta said when he visited Britain last year to promote the launch of his little-seen movie Wild Hogs, and went on to declare that global warming is “a very valid issue - we have to think about alternative methods of fuel”.

WHAT HE DOES: Travolta, a licensed pilot, owns five private planes - a customised £2million Boeing 707, three Gulfstreams and a Learjet - which he keeps in his garden next to a private runway.

When he was flying himself back to the U.S. the staggering scale of his environmental vandalism was revealed when he landed the 707 in Ireland to refuel and it was reported that he was the only person on board the flying stretch-limo. In a normal configuration, a 707 can carry 150 passengers.

Time Magazine, Paul Krugman Admit Biofuels are Snake Oil

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 | Environment | Permalink | No Comments |

Time The Clean Energy Scam:

But several new studies show the biofuel boom is doing exactly the opposite of what its proponents intended: it’s dramatically accelerating global warming, imperiling the planet in the name of saving it. Corn ethanol, always environmentally suspect, turns out to be environmentally disastrous. Even cellulosic ethanol made from switchgrass, which has been promoted by eco-activists and eco-investors as well as by President Bush as the fuel of the future, looks less green than oil-derived gasoline.

Meanwhile, by diverting grain and oilseed crops from dinner plates to fuel tanks, biofuels are jacking up world food prices and endangering the hungry. The grain it takes to fill an SUV tank with ethanol could feed a person for a year. Harvests are being plucked to fuel our cars instead of ourselves. The U.N.’s World Food Program says it needs $500 million in additional funding and supplies, calling the rising costs for food nothing less than a global emergency. Soaring corn prices have sparked tortilla riots in Mexico City, and skyrocketing flour prices have destabilized Pakistan, which wasn’t exactly tranquil when flour was affordable.

The New York Times’ Paul Krugman is forced to agree:

The subsidized conversion of crops into fuel was supposed to promote energy independence and help limit global warming. But this promise was, as Time magazine bluntly put it, a “scam.”

This is especially true of corn ethanol: even on optimistic estimates, producing a gallon of ethanol from corn uses most of the energy the gallon contains. But it turns out that even seemingly “good” biofuel policies, like Brazil’s use of ethanol from sugar cane, accelerate the pace of climate change by promoting deforestation.

And meanwhile, land used to grow biofuel feedstock is land not available to grow food, so subsidies to biofuels are a major factor in the food crisis. You might put it this way: people are starving in Africa so that American politicians can court votes in farm states.

See also:
- Jane Goodall Condemns Biofuels
- Corn, Rapeseed Biofuels Produce More Greenhouse Gases Than Fossil Fuels
- New Scientist: “Forget biofuels - burn oil and plant forests instead”
- Rolling Stone: “Ethanol Scam: Ethanol Hurts the Environment And Is One of America’s Biggest Political Boondoggles”
- Biofuel Demand Cutting into Food Aid for Africa

Green Beards for Environmental Hypocrites

Sunday, April 6th, 2008 | Environment | Permalink | 13 Comments |

From CBS via Sine Qua Non:

Environmentally conscious Leonardo DiCaprio is practicing what he preaches these days. The actor recently added an eco-friendly apartment in New York City to his impressive list of earth-healthy possessions, which already include a hybrid car and a solar paneled home in Los Angeles.

Solar panels? Wow! That sure must be one environmentally friendly house. Now don’t you feel ashamed for living in your non-solar powered house, you environmental ogre, you?

Don’t get too ashamed just yet. Here’s a picture of DiCaprio’s Los Angeles house.mansion estate.

It’s a good thing DiCaprio has a Prius. Otherwise the gas bill for commuting from the mansion to the pool would be murder.

Solar panels or no, the actor’s mansion uses more power than yours or mine. The solar panels are a green beard to hide a consumptive lifestyle that is at odds with his eco-friendly public image and his environmental documentary. DiCaprio is not “practicing what he preaches.” He’s preaching “do as I say, not as I do.”

Hat tip to Instapundit.

See also:
- Environmental Hypocrisy
- Lifestyles of the Rich and Hypocritical Live Earth Performers

Thaddeus Tremayne

Sunday, March 30th, 2008 | Environment, Quotes | Permalink | No Comments |

“With each passing day I become more convinced that the ‘green’ movement is actually a millenarian psychosis; a mental and spiritual sickness borne, perhaps, from some degree of civilisational exhaustion.”
 – Thaddeus Tremayne

NPR: Cooling Temperatures? Must be Instrument Error!

Thursday, March 20th, 2008 | Environment | Permalink | No Comments |

NPR - The Mystery of Global Warming’s Missing Heat:

Some 3,000 scientific robots that are plying the ocean have sent home a puzzling message. These diving instruments suggest that the oceans have not warmed up at all over the past four or five years. That could mean global warming has taken a breather. Or it could mean scientists aren’t quite understanding what their robots are telling them.

Right. Now that the temperatures are the lowest since 2001 according to NOAA, there must be something wrong with the instruments. Huh. That’s odd. They were working fine back when the temperatures were going up.

Related - Here’s a story ripped from the headlines. Ripped from the headlines of 1922:

The Arctic ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot, according to a report to the Commerce Department yesterday from Consul Ifft, at Bergen, Norway.

Reports from fishermen, seal hunters and explorers, he declared, all point to a radical change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard-of temperatures in the Arctic zone. Exploration expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met with as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes. Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed the gulf stream still very warm.

Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared. Very few seals and no white fish are found in the eastern Arctic, while vast shoals of herring and smelts, which have never before ventured so far north, are being encountered in the old seal fishing grounds.

Lots more examples of early 20th century warming at the link. It’s almost as if sometimes it’s hotter and sometimes it’s colder. I call this my Theory of Sometimes It’s Hotter and Sometimes It’s Colder.

“Runaway greenhouse theories contradict energy balance equations”

Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 | Environment | Permalink | 2 Comments |

Dailytech - Researcher: Basic Greenhouse Equations “Totally Wrong”:

Miklós Zágoni isn’t just a physicist and environmental researcher. He is also a global warming activist and Hungary’s most outspoken supporter of the Kyoto Protocol. Or was.

That was until he learned the details of a new theory of the greenhouse effect, one that not only gave far more accurate climate predictions here on Earth, but Mars too. The theory was developed by another Hungarian scientist, Ferenc Miskolczi, an atmospheric physicist with 30 years of experience and a former researcher with NASA’s Langley Research Center.

After studying it, Zágoni stopped calling global warming a crisis, and has instead focused on presenting the new theory to other climatologists. The data fit extremely well. “I fell in love,” he stated at the International Climate Change Conference this week.

“Runaway greenhouse theories contradict energy balance equations,” Miskolczi states. Just as the theory of relativity sets an upper limit on velocity, his theory sets an upper limit on the greenhouse effect, a limit which prevents it from warming the Earth more than a certain amount.

No Country for Cold Men

Sunday, January 13th, 2008 | Environment | Permalink | 1 Comment |

First snow for 100 years falls on Baghdad.

How Clean is Your Electricity?

Friday, December 28th, 2007 | Environment | Permalink | 9 Comments |

Enter your zip code on this EPA page and find out. Here are the results for Louisville, TN (zip code 37777):

We’re better than the national average on hydro (thanks, TVA!) and worse than the national average on coal (thanks, TVA).

A Flood of Biblical Inconvenient Truthical Proportions

Thursday, December 27th, 2007 | Environment | Permalink | 14 Comments |

Dave Lindorff in the Baltimore Chronicle - Global Warming Will Save America from the Right…Eventually:

So the future political map of America is likely to look as different as the much shrunken geographical map, with much of the so-called “red” state region either gone or depopulated.

There is a poetic justice to this of course. It is conservatives who are giving us the candidates who steadfastly refuse to have the nation take steps that could slow the pace of climate change, so it is appropriate that they should bear the brunt of its impact.

The important thing is that we, on the higher ground both actually and figuratively, need to remember that, when they begin their historic migration from their doomed regions, we not give them the keys to the city. They certainly should be offered assistance in their time of need, but we need to keep a firm grip on our political systems, making sure that these guilty throngs who allowed the world to go to hell are gerrymandered into political impotence in their new homes.

There will be much work to be done to help the earth and its residents—human and non-human—survive this man-made catastrophe, and we can’t have these future refugee troglodytes, should their personal disasters still fail to make them recognize reality, mucking things up again.

It should be considered acceptable, in this stifling new world, to say, “Shut up. We told you this would happen.”

I’m so glad this guy is looking on the bright side. Sure, he believes that global warming may ravage the planet, but if it kills just 1 million red staters won’t it all be worth it?

The Kyoto-Carbon Disconnect

Monday, December 17th, 2007 | Environment | Permalink | No Comments |

Mark Steyn:

At the recent climate jamboree in Bali, the Rev. Al Gore told the assembled faithful: “My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here.” Really? The American Thinker’s Web site ran the numbers. In the seven years between the signing of Kyoto in 1997 and 2004, here’s what happened:

• Emissions worldwide increased 18.0 percent;

• Emissions from countries that signed the treaty increased 21.1 percent;
• Emissions from nonsigners increased 10.0 percent; and
• Emissions from the United States increased 6.6 percent.

Here’s the American Thinker story, with a link to the U.S. Census numbers. The data only goes through 2004, but a year or two ago U.S. carbon emissions descreased a few percent from year to year. That story sure didn’t get much attention.

Swiss Scientist Claims IPCC Rigged Climate Change Data

Monday, December 10th, 2007 | Environment | Permalink | 1 Comment |

Read about it at QandO.