Global warming again

It seems that with all the snow and low temperatures we've been having lately people are beginning to doubt the battle cry of global warming that so many have been cackling about. Even I am beginning to doubt. The warm scientists are, OF COURSE, saying that the snow was caused by the global warming!!!! No wonder we are so confused. Did anyone feel warm snow? Did it feel warm anywhere? I certainly did not and neither did this topless woman.

Sorry Tuvalu

It seems that Tuvalu, an island nobody knows (it is not too far from Australia) will have to find other digs for its inhabitants. The people meeting in Copenhagen over the turmoil regarding global warming ignored its pleas to make the global warming agenda more restrictive. It seems that if things continue as they are, the little island will be covered by water in the near future. After all, the oceans' water level is rising and, for them, there is nowhere to run except to one of the continents. They do not want to have to relocate. Things are pleasant there. Sorry, but Saudi Arabia said no, we cannot be too restrictive because then we won't sell as much oil as we do now and then what??? We have to be serious about climate change but too much. This topless woman is not concerned - she does not live in Tuvalu.

Global warming not

There is a very simple explanation for this: “WASHINGTON – Americans seem to be cooling toward global warming. Just 57 percent think there is solid evidence the world is getting warmer, down 20 points in just three years, a new poll says. Only about a third, or 36 percent of the respondents, feel that human activities — such as pollution from power plants, factories and automobiles — are behind a temperature increase. That's down from 47 percent from 2006 through last year's poll. "The priority that people give to pollution and environmental concerns and a whole host of other issues is down because of the economy and because of the focus on other things," suggested Andrew Kohut, the director of the research center, which conducted the poll from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4.” As you know, people are motivated by two things: pain and pleasure (or the fear of pain and the desire for pleasure, no?) That’s pretty normal. As long as global warming causes no pain or exudes no pleasure, people will simply not give a hoot. Maybe when the sidewalk gets hot enough to burn through our shoes – maybe then we’ll care. This topless woman does not care either.

Savings Galore

This topless woman looks very skeptical to me, and rightly so. From a news story on the internet: “A year ago, Utah Governor Jon Hunstman announced the Working 4 Utah initiative, essentially putting 17,000 of the state’s 24,000 executive branch employees on a 10 hour a day, four day a week schedule. The goal for the cash-strapped state was energy savings. Now that a full year has passed, a clearer picture of the benefits is coming into focus. Learning from the lessons of Utah, here are five reasons the “TGIT” (Thank Goodness It’s Thursday) four-day, 40-hour workweek just might make sense.” This is nonsense, of course. My question is this: what do all those employees do on Friday? Sit home all day? Please. Someone calculated that the State of Utah saved almost 2 million dollars under this program. The State’s budget is about 10 billion. The amount saved was not one percent - not even one tenth of one percent. The savings was a ridiculous two one-hundredths of one percent of the budget. I say they should try something else.

Electocracy

As you know, G8 leaders are meeting in Italy this week. From Reuters: “L'AQUILA, Italy (Reuters) – G8 leaders believe the world economy still faces "significant risks" and may need further help, according to summit draft documents that also suggest failure to agree climate change goals for 2050. The Group of Eight -- United States, Germany, Japan, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia -- kicked off with debate on the economic crisis, after what one analyst called a "reality check" in recent weeks on the prospects for rapid recovery. But few big initiatives were expected as the G20, a broader forum that also includes the main emerging economies, is tasked with formulating a regulatory response to the crisis and meets in September in Pittsburgh after an April summit in London. Not mentioning China's push for a sensitive debate about a long-term alternative to the dollar as global reserve currency, the draft talked only of global imbalances. China complains that dollar domination has exacerbated the global crisis and worries that the bill for U.S. recovery poses an inflation risk for China's dollar assets, an estimated 70 percent of its official currency reserves.” I don’t think these people have a clue – they only state the obvious. I can do the same from my lawn chair. These G8 people are the Electocracy – they behave like royalty, junketing from place to place, enjoying the scenery and camaraderie of the Club but solving not a single problem. They are very much like a doctor who prescribes antibiotics for an illness your body would get rid of on its own. It’s childish. We can do better than this. The woman on the left is also quite tired of this little game. Please.

CHRYSLER

From a story from somewhere: “NEW YORK (Reuters) – Lee Iacocca, the car executive credited with saving Chrysler from bankruptcy in the 1980s, is to lose a big chunk of his pension and a guaranteed life-long company car due to the U.S. automaker's bankruptcy filing two decades later. Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli told a U.S. bankruptcy court on Thursday that Iacocca's pension would be among the obligations Chrysler will no longer have to pay if it gets bankruptcy court approval to sell itself to a "New Chrysler" to be owned by its union, the U.S. and Canadian governments and Fiat. Chrysler has also written to former executives saying that as a result of its April 30 bankruptcy filing it will stop a program that furnished company cars to former executives and directors.” Don’t be too quick to feel sorry for these executives – they’re fat cats, all of them.

AN IDEA

From a Yahoo! News story: “WASHINGTON – Tinkering with Earth's climate to chill runaway global warming — a radical idea once dismissed out of hand — is being discussed by the White House as a potential emergency option, the president's new science adviser said Wednesday. That's because global warming is happening so rapidly, John Holdren told The Associated Press in his first interview since being confirmed last month. The concept of using technology to purposely cool the climate is called geoengineering. One option raised by Holdren and proposed by a Nobel Prize-winning scientist includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun's rays.” Why not just use mirrors to shoot some rays back at the sun? Let me see, I’m sure we can come up with many other ways of cooling the climate down. How about manufacturing a giant refrigerated air unit and pointing it straight at the bad guy – the sun? Put the thing in Siberia where everything is colder. How about shooting ice cubes at the sun? How about wearing more layers of clothing so that your body heat stays with you and is not let off into the atmosphere? Is that feasible? Sure. How about capturing heat in small boxes during the day and closing the lids? Could someone invent a heat trap – like a mouse trap except for heat? Has anyone asked why it is we are trying to save the Earth anyway? Is it worth all the trouble? PLEASE.

Global warming hehe

From a Yahoo! News story: "SYDNEY – The floodlit cream shells of the famed Opera House dimmed Saturday as Sydney became the world's first major city to plunge itself into darkness for the second worldwide Earth Hour, a global campaign to highlight the threat of climate change." And you think this will help? This is something sponsored by the Wildlife Fund, an organization headed by very wealthy people whose lights in their own mansions never go out. Please!!! What a hypocritical exercise this is. Just to be somewhat contrarian, all the lights in my house will be on - all 100 of them.

Climate change

This is from a recent news story on Yahoo! "If the world's nations act responsibly, Stern said, they will achieve "zero-carbon" electricity production and zero-carbon road transport by 2050 — by replacing coal power plants with wind, solar or other energy sources that emit no carbon dioxide, and fossil fuel-burning vehicles with cars running on electric or other "clean" energy. Then warming could be contained to a 2-degree-Celsius (3.4-degree-Fahrenheit) rise this century, he said. But if negotiators falter, if emissions reductions are not made soon and deep, the severe climate shifts and sea-level rises projected by scientists would be "disastrous." It would "transform where people can live," Stern said. "People would move on a massive scale. Hundreds of millions, probably billions of people would have to move if you talk about 4-, 5-, 6-degree increases" — 7 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit. And that would mean extended global conflict, "because there's no way the world can handle that kind of population move in the time period in which it would take place." Maybe we should have known this fifty years ago???