I believe in creation by God. I don't pretend to know how he did it. I find creation much easier to believe than some fantasy of all things just happening by chance.
here's another thing we're on the same page about.
I believe in creation by God. I don't pretend to know how he did it. I find creation much easier to believe than some fantasy of all things just happening by chance.
Throwing everything up in the air and just imagining they all came together to make a person and a dog has never added up to me. Not a "chance." Pardon the pun.
Adelaide-based Northwest Carbon, a commercial company, proposed culling some 1.2 million wild camels that roam the Outback, the legacy of herds introduced to help early settlers in the 19th century.
Considered a pest due to the damage they do to vegetation, a camel produces, on average, a methane equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide a year, making them collectively one of Australia's major emitters of greenhouse gases.
In its plan, Northwest said it would shoot them from helicopters or muster them and send them to an abattoir for either human or pet consumption.
This is the kind of program our government would love to waste money on. It has all the right elements. And how much GHG will those helicopters put out in the process of shooting camels from the air. Then the trucks needed to haul away the carcasses. Maybe they can make biodiesel from the guts and scraps. Glue from the hooves. Lots of pet food for all the GHG emitting cats and dogs. I though the Aussies had more smarts than this.
Biggest thing is the Northwest Carbon will get millions in CCs to rip off legitimate businesses. :sick:
The US Army imported camels to Nevada 150 years ago. Good thing they didn't adapt here like the wild boars and many of the other non-native critters like Norway rats or carp or zebra mussels.
The Feds are looking at the same kind of idiocy here in San Diego county. The Indians turned about 40 Russian pigs loose about 5 years ago to give them something to hunt. Now the feral pigs are considered a nuisance. So the Feds want to spend millions to eradicate about 300 feral pigs.
When it comes to controlling the spread of feral pigs in San Diego County, the public hunting effort isn’t doing the job.
That has led federal agencies to launch an ambitious program that will use cage traps, corral traps, federal hunters with guns and dogs and even shooting from helicopters to exterminate the area’s population of wild swine.
Hunting is not getting the job done because of CA Fish and Game regulations and the high cost of a license and pig tag. Make it open season and let us go for them.
Gen Murofushi, an avid hunter who uses dogs to track and hunt feral pigs, believes the county's feral population is closer to 1,000 than 300. He joins some hunters who believe the Forest Service’s program will be a waste of taxpayer money and a shame, considering the DFG lists wild pigs as a game species and sells pig tags to hunters for $19.95 each.
He believes the pigs will help the ecosystem by benefiting the oak tree production (driving acorns deeper into the ground with their hooves, thus “planting” more oaks) and take pressure off deer herds by supplying mountain lions with another food source - the other white meat.
"From my experience, seeing the food source the pigs are eating, I don’t see a real impact on the native species," Murofushi said. "Looking at their scat, I mostly see acorns, grass, seeds and water plants. I’m sure there are many people who will disagree, but this is just what I see in our local mountains."
I'd go for reintroducing the Mexican gray wolf into SD county.
Record heat in half the country and the pundits say this is the new normal, thanks to GW. None really talk about the influence of the waning La Niño and increasing El Niño.
And we almost lost Omaha. Good thing the flooding didn't complicate things. (Pro Publica)
future scenario for electric power generation is that it will increasingly emerge from more varied sources of energy. General Electric seems to be taking this to heart with a new endeavor to combine wind, solar thermal and natural gas into one power plant.
A few weeks ago, Andrew Nusca described the company’s FlexEfficiency 50 design for a hybrid power plant that could more efficiently intertwine renewable energy sources with natural gas. Able to quickly boost or cut production as needed, their combined cycle natural gas plant would better adjust to uneven influxes of power coming in from solar or wind farms. According to GE, piggybacking on a traditional natural gas plant would also potentially smooth wind and solar’s integration to electricity grids and encourage their adoption worldwide.
Just such a power plant potpourri may materialize in Turkey in 2015.
On Tuesday, GE, Turkey’s MetCap Energy, and California’s eSolar announced plans for a plant that melds a natural gas facility with a 50-megawatt solar thermal plant and then links a 22-megawatt wind farm into a shared control system. The New York Times colorfully describes the plant as turning “a natural gas plant and a solar plant into conjoined twins; wind is more like a half-sibling.”
The twins in this case are not identical. The 458-megawatt natural gas sibling is definitely the chubbier of the two. Still, the steam—produced by the waste heat after burning natural gas and by boiling water via concentrated sunshine—merge to power a turbine. With 25,000 mirrors directing sunlight toward a tall tower, the set-up for the solar thermal component is similar to BrightSource Energy’s Ivanpah plant slated for southern California.
According to their website, eSolar’s towers can heat steam at more than 800 degrees Fahrenheit. GE has other gas-solar hybrid plants, but they feature mirrored parabolic troughs that don’t reach as high of temperatures. With the solar tower and their new gas and steam turbine designs, GE pins a shiny almost 70-percent efficiency rating on the plant. This has raised some eyebrows since most natural gas plants achieve efficiencies around half of that.
The NY Times:
GE calculates the figure by counting the sun and wind at zero, as a kind of hamburger helper for the natural gas. The calculation ignores the wind and sun that does not get converted to electricity, but on the other hand, the wind and sun are inexhaustible.
The company says the 530-megawatt project in Turkey, where natural gas prices are higher and renewable incentives are steadier than in the U.S., could generate enough power for 600,000-plus European households. Construction could begin as early as this year.
The University of Colorado Sea Level Research Group has been called out by the Heartland Institute for padding their sea level readings.
Their claim is that since the land masses are shrinking (according to them) the seas cover more area and the total volume is more. So even though the level has not risen, the total volume has, according to them, so they have to "correct" the readings. Their claim is that total volume is the same as sea level ???
The Heartland Institute calls it Tomfoolery...and so do I !! We must be right because the SLRG is contemplating changing their procedures. :P
Yeah the Colorado Warmers got caught just like the East Anglia bunch. When will they learn there are people watching what they do? The AGW agenda is out in the open and being watched for just such lies and half truths used to further their political position.
Okay, here's the bombshell. The volcanic eruption at Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano, since its first spewed volcanic ash, in just FOUR DAYS, NEGATED EVERY SINGLE EFFORT you have made in the past five years to control CO2 emissions on our planet - all of you. And now with Iceland's Grimsvotn volcano erupting on May 21, 2011, it has been a losing battle.
it's very disheartening to realize that all of the carbon emission savings you have accomplished while suffering the inconvenience and expense of: driving Prius hybrids, buying fabric grocery bags, sitting up till midnight to finish your kid's "The Green Revolution" science project, throwing out all of your non-green cleaning supplies, using only two squares of toilet paper, putting a brick in your toilet tank reservoir, selling your SUV and speedboat, vacationing at home instead of abroad, nearly getting hit every day on your bicycle, replacing all of your 50 cents light bulbs with $10.00 light bulbs ... Well, all of those things you have done have all gone down the tubes in just four days.
The volcanic ash emitted into the Earth's atmosphere in just four days - yes - FOUR DAYS ONLY by that volcano in Iceland, has totally erased every single effort you have made to reduce the evil beast, carbon. And there are around 200 active volcanoes on the planet spewing out this crud at any one time - EVERY DAY.
when the volcano Mt Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines in 1991, it spewed out more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than the entire human race had emitted in all its years on earth.
Of course I shouldn't spoil this touchy-feely tree-hugging moment and mention the effect of solar and cosmic activity and the well-recognized 800-year global heating and cooling cycle, which keep happening, despite our completely insignificant efforts to affect climate change.
And I do wish I had a silver lining to this volcanic ash cloud but the fact of the matter is that the bush fire season across the western USA and Australia this year alone will negate your efforts to reduce carbon in our world for the next two to three years. And it happens every year.
Just remember that your government just tried to impose a whopping carbon tax on you on the basis of the bogus "human-caused" climate change scenario.
Hey, isn't it interesting how they don't mention "Global Warming" any more, but just "Climate Change" - you know why? It's because the planet has COOLED by 0.7 degrees in the past century and these global warming bull artists got caught with their pants down.
And just keep in mind that you might yet have an Emissions Trading Scheme - that whopping new tax - imposed on you, that will achieve absolutely nothing except make you poorer. It won't stop any volcanoes from erupting, that's for sure...
But what you are forgetting is that those eruptions have been happening for thousands of years. We've only been adding to it for roughly 200 years. The earth is able to repair herself from her own destruction. We're adding above and beyond what she can handle.
I think the warmers at the UN IPCC only claimed we caused 15%. Pretty insignificant for all the money wasted on conferences and carbon credits. Not to mention forcing our electric rates higher with impossible alternative energy mandates.
A Battle Between North End Residents And Tourists On Segways
Residents in the North End have been complaining about an onslaught of Segway riders invading their neighborhood.
“They’re a pain in the butt, especially on like Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays,” said John Gargano. “It creates a nuisance. It creates a hazard.”
That’s why the Boston City Council members voted unanimously to ban Segways from city sidewalks.
All modes of transportation other than feet should be in the street. Worst being skateboarders, rollerblades and bicycles.
First - IIRC, the Segway isn't touted as a green alternative. It's just an alternative to walking.
I live in the Boston area and the North End is no picnic for driving.
Google Boston North End and look at images. Riding a Segway or even a bike on the streets can be dangerous.
Now I can see why residents are bothered by them. But they're the ones gentrifying the neighborhood....I wonder if the Italians left there are bothered by them?
One of our regulars here owns a Segway and considers it a green alternative for his commute to work. So just pointing out it may not be allowed much longer. Have no desire to see the traffic in Boston. Or any large city. I avoid at all costs. I often drive a 100 miles out of my way to avoid big cities. So you can be assured I will not add to the mayhem in Boston.
One of our regulars here owns a Segway and considers it a green alternative for his commute to work.
Hmm - a focus group of one. That doesn't tell the whole story.
Also, the article you posted is a little cropped. The Segways in this case aren't used for a more environmental method of transportation. They're used by a tour company to add a twist to a walking tour so people can go the see where Paul Revere made the bells used to warn the British.
It's not like Segways aren't rampant on the streets around here.
As for seeing the North End, I wasn't advising you to visit - just look at the pictures. Heck, I work 2 miles away and avoid it all costs no matter how good the food is there.
The Segway must be more of an East Coast thing. I don't believe I have ever seen one cruising around. There is one dealer in San Diego. Who would pay $6000 to $7000 for such a thing? I might consider an electric bike. Just too dangerous most places I go. Narrow streets and no bike lanes. If I have to use some dangerous form of transportation to cut GW, it ain't gonna happen.
The sound floats on the winds of Ka Le, this southernmost tip of Hawaii's Big Island, where Polynesian colonists first landed some 1,500 years ago.
Some say that Ka Le is haunted -- and it is. But it's haunted not by Hawaii's legendary night marchers. The mysterious sounds are "Na leo o Kamaoa"-- the disembodied voices of 37 skeletal wind turbines abandoned to rust on the hundred-acre site of the former Kamaoa Wind Farm.
The ghosts of Kamaoa are not alone in warning us. Five other abandoned wind sites dot the Hawaiian Isles -- but it is in California where the impact of past mandates and subsidies is felt most strongly. Thousands of abandoned wind turbines littered the landscape of wind energy's California "big three" locations -- Altamont Pass, Tehachapi, and San Gorgonio -- considered among the world's best wind sites.
Cannibalizing parts from the original 37 turbines, Apollo personnel kept the declining facility going with outdated equipment. But even in a place where wind-shaped trees grow sideways, maintenance issues were overwhelming. By 2004 Kamaoa accounts began to show up on a Hawaii State Department of Finance list of unclaimed properties. In 2006, transmission was finally cut off by Hawaii Electric Company.
California's wind farms -- then comprising about 80% of the world's wind generation capacity -- ceased to generate much more quickly than Kamaoa. In the best wind spots on earth, over 14,000 turbines were simply abandoned. Spinning, post-industrial junk which generates nothing but bird kills.
The City of Palm Springs was forced to enact an ordinance requiring their removal from San Gorgonio. But California's Kern County, encompassing the Tehachapi area, has no such law. Wind Power advocate Paul Gipe, who got his start as an early 1970s environmental activist at Indiana's Ball State University, describes a 1998 Tehachapi tour thusly:
After the debacle of the First California Wind Rush, the European Union had moved ahead of the US on efforts to subsidize "renewable" energy--including a "Feed in Tariff" even more lucrative than the ISO4 contracts. EU governments provided government-backed securities to support utilities burdened by Feed-in Tariff costs. But last year, as the national debt of wind-intensive EU countries became unbearable, the EU subsidy bubble burst.
"The feed-in tariff... would make (utility) companies go bankrupt eventually. So...the government guarantees...to give back the money in the future -- when (they) are not going to be in the office any more. Slowly the market does not want to have these securities that they are selling. Right now there is a debt related to these renewable energies that nobody knows how it is going to be paid -- of 16 Billion Euros."
In early 2009 the Socialist government of Spain reduced alternative energy subsidies by 30%. Calzada continues:
"At that point the whole pyramid collapsed. They are firing thousands of people. BP closed down the two largest solar production plants in Europe. They are firing between 25,000 and 40,000 people...."
"What do we do with all this industry that we have been creating with subsidies that now is collapsing? The bubble is too big. We cannot continue pumping enough money. ...The President of the Renewable Industry in Spain (wrote a column arguing that) ...the only way is finding other countries that will give taxpayers' money away to our industry to take it and continue maintaining these jobs."
Hopefully common sense will be used in Congress. The time is NOW to end all the Wind and Solar scams being dumped on the US tax payer. Otherwise we end up like many EU countries that bought into the alternative energy scam, bankrupt. If it will not fly without subsidies it is not likely to every pay off.
The GW hoax is dead or dying and only those making money and living off the hoax still continue to promote it. Most everyone else has moved on, but there is always a few who don't get it.
As John Wayne once said, "Life is hard, and it's even harder when you're stupid".
VW must not have donated money to GreenPeace. VW is offering more high mileage vehicles than any other automaker including Toyota. At least 5 models that get over 40 MPG on the highway. With more on the way. The only SUV that will tow over 7000 lbs and gets 28+ MPG on the highway.
I think Inside Line called it best with the Nutjobs from Green Peace. I still remember BP saving their butts from freezing to death. They were in Prudhoe protesting and turned their truck off for the few hours while they were out harassing the workers. Their truck would not start and they were at least 30 miles out on the Arctic ice pack. BP bus driver hauled them back to Deadhorse and the cops put them under house arrest until they could get a flight out. Real idiots for sure.
Interesting news on the yttrium front (wonder how the spell checker is going to handle that!).
"The Japanese team estimated the size of the current find at around 80 billion to 100 billion metric tons, nearly a thousand times more than current proven reserves of 110 million tons as estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey. Those proven reserves are mostly in China, Russia and the U.S., but only China has been mining rare earths on a commercial scale lately, making it a dominant supplier with around 95% of the global market share."
Expect 20 years to sort out the costs (financial and environmental) and see if it's commercially feasible.
That could be a whole new industry digging "rare earths" from the ocean floor. Of course yttrium does have negative implications for our liver, kidneys & lungs. But without it we would not have red on our CRT screen or energy saving LEDs.
What will the environmentalists say about stirring up the muck on the ocean floor? It seems it would be better than destroying whole mountains in China, Afghanistan and the USA.
(Reuters) - Smoke belching from Asia's rapidly growing economies is largely responsible for a halt in global warming in the decade after 1998 because of sulphur's cooling effect, even though greenhouse gas emissions soared, a U.S. study said on Monday.
World temperatures did not rise from 1998 to 2008, while manmade emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuel grew by nearly a third, various data show.
The researchers from Boston and Harvard Universities and Finland's University of Turku said pollution, and specifically sulphur emissions, from coal-fueled growth in Asia was responsible for the cooling effect.
Sulphur allows water drops or aerosols to form, creating hazy clouds which reflect sunlight back into space.
"Anthropogenic activities that warm and cool the planet largely cancel after 1998, which allows natural variables to play a more significant role," the paper said.
Bottom line build more coal fired generation to counteract the warming. We can have our cake and eat it to. Ain't life grand? I guess that means the Warmers have been lying since 1998. They built their case on phony data. Skiers are loving this climate.
"This is unbelievable," said Salt Lake City resident Melissa Witman, who wore a red, white and blue bikini top Monday on the resort's final day of the ski season. "It's summer skiing!"
Temperatures in the 50s and 60s made swimsuits and shorts popular choices for skiers who decided to take advantage of the longest ski season in Snowbird's 39-year history.
Will Phoenix be the next Gobi desert? They are not that hot. The record was 118 for the 4th of July 1989. They were just under normal at 104 degrees. My folks moved to Phoenix from Albuquerque back in the 1980s. They hated it. AZ has some nice places. Phoenix is not one of them. Man has destroyed the healthy climate that once existed there.
I am more concerned about tax dollars wasted on alternatives that are just corporate welfare in disguise. The climate is what it is warmer or cooler. Thankfully China is dumping enough sulfur into the atmosphere to cool the earth.
It’s much worse than we thought. The story behind the above photo and the project itself appears here at the online Leipziger Volkszeitung newspaper. The facility is sprawled over an area of 20 acres. The Leipziger Volkszeitung newspaper wrote just before the facility went into operation:
‘The park is finally realized,’ beams mayor Carina Radon (CDU) nowadays, and praised the 7.5 million Euro investment. 36,300 modules will be installed in the weeks ahead. It will generate an annual amount of 2.7 million kilowatt-hours. The facility will produce a peak amount of 2722 kilowatts.
Wow! With that kind of performance, you’d think the facility would be well-maintained so that it could continue to generate cash – and so save the planet. Letting such investments go to hell is usually the last thing one does with a money making machine like that. The Leipziger Volkszeitung article writes:
The solar park saves the environment an emission of 34,500 tons of CO2 and one expects it will be in operation 20 years.”
20 years? As the date of the article shows, the park was set up in December, 2009 – much less than two years ago. Now it is already overgrown with weeds and on the verge of being useless. Your subsidies at work, folks. The green economy - Germany’s job engine!
That was a tongue in cheek comment. As that is how the Warmers are trying to get around the fact that IT HAS NOT GOTTEN WARMER OVER THE LAST Decade. The global temperature is stagnant leaning toward cooler. Which blows all the CO2 theories completely out of the water. You can be a denier of the facts. That does NOT change them. So the AGW cult are backpeddling claiming it is the Asians with their coal generation that has stopped the warming. My contention as ALWAYS. Man is insignificant when it comes to the climate. Pollution yes. Changing the weather, NOT.
U.N. Admits That Going Green Will Cost $76 Trillion
Two years ago, U.N. researchers were claiming that it would cost “as much as $600 billion a year over the next decade” to go green. Now, a new U.N. report has more than tripled that number to $1.9 trillion per year for 40 years.
So let's do the math: That works out to a grand total of $76 trillion, over 40 years -- or more than five times the entire Gross Domestic Product of the United States ($14.66 trillion a year). It’s all part of a “technological overhaul” “on the scale of the first industrial revolution” called for in the annual report. Except that the U.N. will apparently control this next industrial revolution.
The press release for the report discusses the need “to achieve a decent living standard for people in developing countries, especially the 1.4 billion still living in extreme poverty, and the additional 2 billion people expected worldwide by 2050.” That sounds more like global redistribution of wealth than worrying about the earth’s thermostat.
That’s because it is. The report goes on and says “one half of the required investments would have to be realized in developing countries.” In other words, $38 trillion would go to the developing world.
The survey details where that money would go. “Survey estimates that incremental green investment of about 3 percent of world gross product (WGP) (about $1.9 trillion in 2010) would be required to overcome poverty, increase food production to eradicate hunger without degrading land and water resources, and avert the climate change catastrophe.”
So eradicating hunger and overcoming poverty are now part of the climate debate.
I think it is an extension of the old food for oil program. The UN leaders are looking for ways to steal from the tax payers of the rich countries. They will line their own pockets till they get caught. Looking at places like Haiti, what has the UN done to make life better for those people?
The Children's Health program works with the UN to help stengthen health systems and prevent childhood disease and mortality.
Awarded more than 100 grants totaling $700 million. $200 million for polio eradication Helped immunize 500 million children
Our Technology Partnership works with the UN to harness mobile technology for pressing global development and humanitarian challenges.
Invested $30 million with Vodafone Foundation to modernize health data collection worldwide. Supported over more than 25 deployments of emergency telecommunications in disaster-stricken countries, including Haiti, Indonesia, and DR Congo Developed WHO Health Data Systems program and expanded to more than 25 countries in Africa, Asia, and South America.
The Women & Population program works with the UN to promote gender equality and empower women and girls around the world.
Awarded 180 grants totaling $140 million in support of empowering girls and women $50 million for HIV/AIDS prevention programs
Spain's Gemasolar concentrating solar power plant just became the first solar power plant to generate power for 24 continuous hours.
The plant uses a Power Tower design where a field of mirrors concentrate the sun's heat onto a boiler in the central tower. That boiler creates steam which turns a turbine. None of that is out of the ordinary when it comes to concentrated solar power, but the Gemasolar plant is the only one in the world to use molten salt as a heat transfer fluid, which allows for the storage and generation of electricity even once the sun goes down.
The 19.9 MW capacity plant on average is able to generate power for 20 hours a day and during the summer, many days will see 24 full hours of energy generation. The molten salt generation really makes a big difference here. Compared to the larger 21.2 MW Solarpark Calaveron plant that generates about 40 GWh per year, the Gemasolar plant generates almost triple that with 110 GWh per year.
Power storage is one of the major issues facing the growth of renewable energy generation. The wind isn't always blowing and the sun isn't always shining, but innovative storage solutions like the one at Gemasolar will be what turns renewable energy into not just a clean source of electricity but also a reliable one.
I would expect the UN to toot its own horn on what it does with the $billions it gets. I would like to see where some watchdog outfit on the ground says the UN did a great job in country XYZ with the money they have.
Have you ever googled for an answer to the question "what has the UN done for the World"? I don't find much other than a few little short sentences. Not much from people in the countries they have supposedly helped with the $billions spent. My guess is they have built an empire of elitists that take exotic vacations around the World. They get up on a stage and tell the World what they have done. They seem to be everywhere, what are they really doing? What I see mostly from links is requests for money to do this or that. There are so many charity scams and I would guess the UN and its groups like UNICEF and WHO are right up there building empires rather than helping people in need. Here is an example you might want to think about:
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), still reeling from a controversial Madonna fundraiser last February, finds itself embroiled in yet new questions over how much money raised by the world body through its annual holiday greeting card sales actually makes it to those in need.
UNICEF figures show that its holiday greeting card sales campaign is one of its most profitable endeavors, raising more than $155 million in 2007.
However, just over $60 million, or about 39 percent of total funds, actually made it to those in need in 2007.
UNICEF's card "partner" is industry leader Hallmark. Deidre Mize, a company spokeswoman refused any comment, explaining that Hallmark "is a privately held company."
According to the audit, some local UNICEF chapters around the world actually retained 100 percent of their card income despite an organization rule that capped such retention at 25 percent of sales.
UNICEF has 36 such "autonomous chapters" internationally.
Helping is a noble thing to do. I want to know that any money I give is being used to help. I do not give to a lot of shaky charities like the Red Cross.
I followed all the links back to 2008 on CSP. Back then they were saying it could deliver power for about 10 cents per KWH. Not sure that is a good wholesale price. I could not find any indication of what that project in Spain cost. It seems like a good idea if they keep the weeds under control. And it is not just another scam to get tax dollars. I guess only time will tell. Also how many hours per day will it produce electricity in December? I guess my optimism has been challenged too many times over the last 40+ years of hoping for a better mouse trap.
Comments
:confuse: I thought you were part of the 6000 year club?
I believe in creation by God. I don't pretend to know how he did it. I find creation much easier to believe than some fantasy of all things just happening by chance.
I believe in creation by God. I don't pretend to know how he did it. I find creation much easier to believe than some fantasy of all things just happening by chance.
Throwing everything up in the air and just imagining they all came together to make a person and a dog has never added up to me. Not a "chance." Pardon the pun.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
Considered a pest due to the damage they do to vegetation, a camel produces, on average, a methane equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide a year, making them collectively one of Australia's major emitters of greenhouse gases.
In its plan, Northwest said it would shoot them from helicopters or muster them and send them to an abattoir for either human or pet consumption.
Camels cause GW
This is the kind of program our government would love to waste money on. It has all the right elements. And how much GHG will those helicopters put out in the process of shooting camels from the air. Then the trucks needed to haul away the carcasses. Maybe they can make biodiesel from the guts and scraps. Glue from the hooves. Lots of pet food for all the GHG emitting cats and dogs. I though the Aussies had more smarts than this.
Biggest thing is the Northwest Carbon will get millions in CCs to rip off legitimate businesses. :sick:
When it comes to controlling the spread of feral pigs in San Diego County, the public hunting effort isn’t doing the job.
That has led federal agencies to launch an ambitious program that will use cage traps, corral traps, federal hunters with guns and dogs and even shooting from helicopters to exterminate the area’s population of wild swine.
Feral Pigs
Hunting is not getting the job done because of CA Fish and Game regulations and the high cost of a license and pig tag. Make it open season and let us go for them.
Gen Murofushi, an avid hunter who uses dogs to track and hunt feral pigs, believes the county's feral population is closer to 1,000 than 300. He joins some hunters who believe the Forest Service’s program will be a waste of taxpayer money and a shame, considering the DFG lists wild pigs as a game species and sells pig tags to hunters for $19.95 each.
He believes the pigs will help the ecosystem by benefiting the oak tree production (driving acorns deeper into the ground with their hooves, thus “planting” more oaks) and take pressure off deer herds by supplying mountain lions with another food source - the other white meat.
"From my experience, seeing the food source the pigs are eating, I don’t see a real impact on the native species," Murofushi said. "Looking at their scat, I mostly see acorns, grass, seeds and water plants. I’m sure there are many people who will disagree, but this is just what I see in our local mountains."
Record heat in half the country and the pundits say this is the new normal, thanks to GW. None really talk about the influence of the waning La Niño and increasing El Niño.
And we almost lost Omaha. Good thing the flooding didn't complicate things. (Pro Publica)
Cool
future scenario for electric power generation is that it will increasingly emerge from more varied sources of energy. General Electric seems to be taking this to heart with a new endeavor to combine wind, solar thermal and natural gas into one power plant.
A few weeks ago, Andrew Nusca described the company’s FlexEfficiency 50 design for a hybrid power plant that could more efficiently intertwine renewable energy sources with natural gas. Able to quickly boost or cut production as needed, their combined cycle natural gas plant would better adjust to uneven influxes of power coming in from solar or wind farms. According to GE, piggybacking on a traditional natural gas plant would also potentially smooth wind and solar’s integration to electricity grids and encourage their adoption worldwide.
Just such a power plant potpourri may materialize in Turkey in 2015.
On Tuesday, GE, Turkey’s MetCap Energy, and California’s eSolar announced plans for a plant that melds a natural gas facility with a 50-megawatt solar thermal plant and then links a 22-megawatt wind farm into a shared control system. The New York Times colorfully describes the plant as turning “a natural gas plant and a solar plant into conjoined twins; wind is more like a half-sibling.”
The twins in this case are not identical. The 458-megawatt natural gas sibling is definitely the chubbier of the two. Still, the steam—produced by the waste heat after burning natural gas and by boiling water via concentrated sunshine—merge to power a turbine. With 25,000 mirrors directing sunlight toward a tall tower, the set-up for the solar thermal component is similar to BrightSource Energy’s Ivanpah plant slated for southern California.
According to their website, eSolar’s towers can heat steam at more than 800 degrees Fahrenheit. GE has other gas-solar hybrid plants, but they feature mirrored parabolic troughs that don’t reach as high of temperatures. With the solar tower and their new gas and steam turbine designs, GE pins a shiny almost 70-percent efficiency rating on the plant. This has raised some eyebrows since most natural gas plants achieve efficiencies around half of that.
The NY Times:
GE calculates the figure by counting the sun and wind at zero, as a kind of hamburger helper for the natural gas. The calculation ignores the wind and sun that does not get converted to electricity, but on the other hand, the wind and sun are inexhaustible.
The company says the 530-megawatt project in Turkey, where natural gas prices are higher and renewable incentives are steadier than in the U.S., could generate enough power for 600,000-plus European households. Construction could begin as early as this year.
Future of electric car batteries?
And you can vote on which Beetle Engine you'd choose too !!!
Their claim is that since the land masses are shrinking (according to them) the seas cover more area and the total volume is more. So even though the level has not risen, the total volume has, according to them, so they have to "correct" the readings. Their claim is that total volume is the same as sea level ???
The Heartland Institute calls it Tomfoolery...and so do I !! We must be right because the SLRG is contemplating changing their procedures. :P
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it's very disheartening to realize that all of the carbon emission savings you have accomplished while suffering the inconvenience and expense of: driving Prius hybrids, buying fabric grocery bags, sitting up till midnight to finish your kid's "The Green Revolution" science project, throwing out all of your non-green cleaning supplies, using only two squares of toilet paper, putting a brick in your toilet tank reservoir, selling your SUV and speedboat, vacationing at home instead of abroad, nearly getting hit every day on your bicycle, replacing all of your 50 cents light bulbs with $10.00 light bulbs ... Well, all of those things you have done have all gone down the tubes in just four days.
The volcanic ash emitted into the Earth's atmosphere in just four days - yes - FOUR DAYS ONLY by that volcano in Iceland, has totally erased every single effort you have made to reduce the evil beast, carbon. And there are around 200 active volcanoes on the planet spewing out this crud at any one time - EVERY DAY.
when the volcano Mt Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines in 1991, it spewed out more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than the entire human race had emitted in all its years on earth.
Of course I shouldn't spoil this touchy-feely tree-hugging moment and mention the effect of solar and cosmic activity and the well-recognized 800-year global heating and cooling cycle, which keep happening, despite our completely insignificant efforts to affect climate change.
And I do wish I had a silver lining to this volcanic ash cloud but the fact of the matter is that the bush fire season across the western USA and Australia this year alone will negate your efforts to reduce carbon in our world for the next two to three years. And it happens every year.
Just remember that your government just tried to impose a whopping carbon tax on you on the basis of the bogus "human-caused" climate change scenario.
Hey, isn't it interesting how they don't mention "Global Warming" any more, but just "Climate Change" - you know why? It's because the planet has COOLED by 0.7 degrees in the past century and these global warming bull artists got caught with their pants down.
And just keep in mind that you might yet have an Emissions Trading Scheme - that whopping new tax - imposed on you, that will achieve absolutely nothing except make you poorer. It won't stop any volcanoes from erupting, that's for sure...
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Residents in the North End have been complaining about an onslaught of Segway riders invading their neighborhood.
“They’re a pain in the butt, especially on like Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays,” said John Gargano. “It creates a nuisance. It creates a hazard.”
That’s why the Boston City Council members voted unanimously to ban Segways from city sidewalks.
All modes of transportation other than feet should be in the street. Worst being skateboarders, rollerblades and bicycles.
I live in the Boston area and the North End is no picnic for driving.
Google Boston North End and look at images. Riding a Segway or even a bike on the streets can be dangerous.
Now I can see why residents are bothered by them. But they're the ones gentrifying the neighborhood....I wonder if the Italians left there are bothered by them?
Hmm - a focus group of one. That doesn't tell the whole story.
Also, the article you posted is a little cropped. The Segways in this case aren't used for a more environmental method of transportation. They're used by a tour company to add a twist to a walking tour so people can go the see where Paul Revere made the bells used to warn the British.
It's not like Segways aren't rampant on the streets around here.
As for seeing the North End, I wasn't advising you to visit - just look at the pictures. Heck, I work 2 miles away and avoid it all costs no matter how good the food is there.
Some say that Ka Le is haunted -- and it is. But it's haunted not by Hawaii's legendary night marchers. The mysterious sounds are "Na leo o Kamaoa"-- the disembodied voices of 37 skeletal wind turbines abandoned to rust on the hundred-acre site of the former Kamaoa Wind Farm.
The ghosts of Kamaoa are not alone in warning us. Five other abandoned wind sites dot the Hawaiian Isles -- but it is in California where the impact of past mandates and subsidies is felt most strongly. Thousands of abandoned wind turbines littered the landscape of wind energy's California "big three" locations -- Altamont Pass, Tehachapi, and San Gorgonio -- considered among the world's best wind sites.
Cannibalizing parts from the original 37 turbines, Apollo personnel kept the declining facility going with outdated equipment. But even in a place where wind-shaped trees grow sideways, maintenance issues were overwhelming. By 2004 Kamaoa accounts began to show up on a Hawaii State Department of Finance list of unclaimed properties. In 2006, transmission was finally cut off by Hawaii Electric Company.
California's wind farms -- then comprising about 80% of the world's wind generation capacity -- ceased to generate much more quickly than Kamaoa. In the best wind spots on earth, over 14,000 turbines were simply abandoned. Spinning, post-industrial junk which generates nothing but bird kills.
The City of Palm Springs was forced to enact an ordinance requiring their removal from San Gorgonio. But California's Kern County, encompassing the Tehachapi area, has no such law. Wind Power advocate Paul Gipe, who got his start as an early 1970s environmental activist at Indiana's Ball State University, describes a 1998 Tehachapi tour thusly:
After the debacle of the First California Wind Rush, the European Union had moved ahead of the US on efforts to subsidize "renewable" energy--including a "Feed in Tariff" even more lucrative than the ISO4 contracts. EU governments provided government-backed securities to support utilities burdened by Feed-in Tariff costs. But last year, as the national debt of wind-intensive EU countries became unbearable, the EU subsidy bubble burst.
"The feed-in tariff... would make (utility) companies go bankrupt eventually. So...the government guarantees...to give back the money in the future -- when (they) are not going to be in the office any more. Slowly the market does not want to have these securities that they are selling. Right now there is a debt related to these renewable energies that nobody knows how it is going to be paid -- of 16 Billion Euros."
In early 2009 the Socialist government of Spain reduced alternative energy subsidies by 30%. Calzada continues:
"At that point the whole pyramid collapsed. They are firing thousands of people. BP closed down the two largest solar production plants in Europe. They are firing between 25,000 and 40,000 people...."
"What do we do with all this industry that we have been creating with subsidies that now is collapsing? The bubble is too big. We cannot continue pumping enough money. ...The President of the Renewable Industry in Spain (wrote a column arguing that) ...the only way is finding other countries that will give taxpayers' money away to our industry to take it and continue maintaining these jobs."
The Rest of the Story
Hopefully common sense will be used in Congress. The time is NOW to end all the Wind and Solar scams being dumped on the US tax payer. Otherwise we end up like many EU countries that bought into the alternative energy scam, bankrupt. If it will not fly without subsidies it is not likely to every pay off.
The GW hoax is dead or dying and only those making money and living off the hoax still continue to promote it. Most everyone else has moved on, but there is always a few who don't get it.
As John Wayne once said, "Life is hard, and it's even harder when you're stupid".
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Volkswagen Draws Ire of Greenpeace, Rebel Alliance (Straightline)
I think Inside Line called it best with the Nutjobs from Green Peace. I still remember BP saving their butts from freezing to death. They were in Prudhoe protesting and turned their truck off for the few hours while they were out harassing the workers. Their truck would not start and they were at least 30 miles out on the Arctic ice pack. BP bus driver hauled them back to Deadhorse and the cops put them under house arrest until they could get a flight out. Real idiots for sure.
"The Japanese team estimated the size of the current find at around 80 billion to 100 billion metric tons, nearly a thousand times more than current proven reserves of 110 million tons as estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey. Those proven reserves are mostly in China, Russia and the U.S., but only China has been mining rare earths on a commercial scale lately, making it a dominant supplier with around 95% of the global market share."
Expect 20 years to sort out the costs (financial and environmental) and see if it's commercially feasible.
Rare-Earth Reserves Found in Pacific Ocean (WSJ)
What will the environmentalists say about stirring up the muck on the ocean floor? It seems it would be better than destroying whole mountains in China, Afghanistan and the USA.
(Reuters) - Smoke belching from Asia's rapidly growing economies is largely responsible for a halt in global warming in the decade after 1998 because of sulphur's cooling effect, even though greenhouse gas emissions soared, a U.S. study said on Monday.
World temperatures did not rise from 1998 to 2008, while manmade emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuel grew by nearly a third, various data show.
The researchers from Boston and Harvard Universities and Finland's University of Turku said pollution, and specifically sulphur emissions, from coal-fueled growth in Asia was responsible for the cooling effect.
Sulphur allows water drops or aerosols to form, creating hazy clouds which reflect sunlight back into space.
"Anthropogenic activities that warm and cool the planet largely cancel after 1998, which allows natural variables to play a more significant role," the paper said.
Bottom line build more coal fired generation to counteract the warming. We can have our cake and eat it to. Ain't life grand?
I guess that means the Warmers have been lying since 1998. They built their case on phony data. Skiers are loving this climate.
"This is unbelievable," said Salt Lake City resident Melissa Witman, who wore a red, white and blue bikini top Monday on the resort's final day of the ski season. "It's summer skiing!"
Temperatures in the 50s and 60s made swimsuits and shorts popular choices for skiers who decided to take advantage of the longest ski season in Snowbird's 39-year history.
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http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2011/07/05/20110705phoenix-d- ust-storm-abrk.html
Have you read the latest from American Scientific. They are blaming the Asians for the current Global Cooling.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/search/?i=1&q=global+warming&sort=publish_date- &u1=q&x=0&y=0
And so much for solar in Germany. Less than two years old and they look abandoned to me. Sounds like the same government scams we are faced with.
Anthony Watts has a Smart EV. Did not know they were being sold here.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/07/04/fly-your-flag-2/#more-42675
for every story you can post written from the "denier" viewpoint, I can counteract with more from the "warming" camp.
Nothing has been decided yet folks....
You can still find tons of stories about climate change, and NASA is still reporting warm years.
So, in essence, nothing has changed. Scientists still argue, as do we.
:shades:
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It’s much worse than we thought. The story behind the above photo and the project itself appears here at the online Leipziger Volkszeitung newspaper. The facility is sprawled over an area of 20 acres. The Leipziger Volkszeitung newspaper wrote just before the facility went into operation:
‘The park is finally realized,’ beams mayor Carina Radon (CDU) nowadays, and praised the 7.5 million Euro investment. 36,300 modules will be installed in the weeks ahead. It will generate an annual amount of 2.7 million kilowatt-hours. The facility will produce a peak amount of 2722 kilowatts.
Wow! With that kind of performance, you’d think the facility would be well-maintained so that it could continue to generate cash – and so save the planet. Letting such investments go to hell is usually the last thing one does with a money making machine like that. The Leipziger Volkszeitung article writes:
The solar park saves the environment an emission of 34,500 tons of CO2 and one expects it will be in operation 20 years.”
20 years? As the date of the article shows, the park was set up in December, 2009 – much less than two years ago. Now it is already overgrown with weeds and on the verge of being useless. Your subsidies at work, folks. The green economy - Germany’s job engine!
http://notrickszone.com/2011/07/04/weed-covered-solar-park-20-acres-11-million-o- nly-one-and-half-years-old/
But Gary, you can't possibly believe that.
Because all along in this issue, you have ALWAYS said that "Man is too insignificant" to affect the global climate.
So you can't believe that, or it puts one of your main points to bed.
Two years ago, U.N. researchers were claiming that it would cost “as much as $600 billion a year over the next decade” to go green. Now, a new U.N. report has more than tripled that number to $1.9 trillion per year for 40 years.
So let's do the math: That works out to a grand total of $76 trillion, over 40 years -- or more than five times the entire Gross Domestic Product of the United States ($14.66 trillion a year). It’s all part of a “technological overhaul” “on the scale of the first industrial revolution” called for in the annual report. Except that the U.N. will apparently control this next industrial revolution.
The press release for the report discusses the need “to achieve a decent living standard for people in developing countries, especially the 1.4 billion still living in extreme poverty, and the additional 2 billion people expected worldwide by 2050.” That sounds more like global redistribution of wealth than worrying about the earth’s thermostat.
That’s because it is. The report goes on and says “one half of the required investments would have to be realized in developing countries.” In other words, $38 trillion would go to the developing world.
The survey details where that money would go. “Survey estimates that incremental green investment of about 3 percent of world gross product (WGP) (about $1.9 trillion in 2010) would be required to overcome poverty, increase food production to eradicate hunger without degrading land and water resources, and avert the climate change catastrophe.”
So eradicating hunger and overcoming poverty are now part of the climate debate.
UN RIP-OFF
Globalization, no?
But the hatin' is a little much here, amigos:
http://www.unfoundation.org/our-impact/by-the-numbers/
The Children's Health program works with the UN to help stengthen health systems and prevent childhood disease and mortality.
Awarded more than 100 grants totaling $700 million.
$200 million for polio eradication
Helped immunize 500 million children
Our Technology Partnership works with the UN to harness mobile technology for pressing global development and humanitarian challenges.
Invested $30 million with Vodafone Foundation to modernize health data collection worldwide.
Supported over more than 25 deployments of emergency telecommunications in disaster-stricken countries, including Haiti, Indonesia, and DR Congo
Developed WHO Health Data Systems program and expanded to more than 25 countries in Africa, Asia, and South America.
The Women & Population program works with the UN to promote gender equality and empower women and girls around the world.
Awarded 180 grants totaling $140 million in support of empowering girls and women
$50 million for HIV/AIDS prevention programs
http://ecogeek.org/component/content/article/3551
Spain's Gemasolar concentrating solar power plant just became the first solar power plant to generate power for 24 continuous hours.
The plant uses a Power Tower design where a field of mirrors concentrate the sun's heat onto a boiler in the central tower. That boiler creates steam which turns a turbine. None of that is out of the ordinary when it comes to concentrated solar power, but the Gemasolar plant is the only one in the world to use molten salt as a heat transfer fluid, which allows for the storage and generation of electricity even once the sun goes down.
The 19.9 MW capacity plant on average is able to generate power for 20 hours a day and during the summer, many days will see 24 full hours of energy generation. The molten salt generation really makes a big difference here. Compared to the larger 21.2 MW Solarpark Calaveron plant that generates about 40 GWh per year, the Gemasolar plant generates almost triple that with 110 GWh per year.
Power storage is one of the major issues facing the growth of renewable energy generation. The wind isn't always blowing and the sun isn't always shining, but innovative storage solutions like the one at Gemasolar will be what turns renewable energy into not just a clean source of electricity but also a reliable one.
Have you ever googled for an answer to the question "what has the UN done for the World"? I don't find much other than a few little short sentences. Not much from people in the countries they have supposedly helped with the $billions spent. My guess is they have built an empire of elitists that take exotic vacations around the World. They get up on a stage and tell the World what they have done. They seem to be everywhere, what are they really doing? What I see mostly from links is requests for money to do this or that. There are so many charity scams and I would guess the UN and its groups like UNICEF and WHO are right up there building empires rather than helping people in need. Here is an example you might want to think about:
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), still reeling from a controversial Madonna fundraiser last February, finds itself embroiled in yet new questions over how much money raised by the world body through its annual holiday greeting card sales actually makes it to those in need.
UNICEF figures show that its holiday greeting card sales campaign is one of its most profitable endeavors, raising more than $155 million in 2007.
However, just over $60 million, or about 39 percent of total funds, actually made it to those in need in 2007.
UNICEF's card "partner" is industry leader Hallmark. Deidre Mize, a company spokeswoman refused any comment, explaining that Hallmark "is a privately held company."
According to the audit, some local UNICEF chapters around the world actually retained 100 percent of their card income despite an organization rule that capped such retention at 25 percent of sales.
UNICEF has 36 such "autonomous chapters" internationally.
Helping is a noble thing to do. I want to know that any money I give is being used to help. I do not give to a lot of shaky charities like the Red Cross.