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Are automobiles a major cause of global warming?

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  • oldfarmer50oldfarmer50 Member Posts: 24,234
    "...all they have to do..."

    Seems simple doesn't it? Except in my school district if you got caught doing that you could be fired. Our policy is the driver stays with the bus, period. But then again, my district doesn't care if you have to drive with fogged over windows either. I guess you must have a school district that actually cares what happens to the driver. You're very lucky, where do I apply?

    As I said, I don't advocate for wasting gas, just for not wasting lives.

    Oh, and in my state, that ten minute warm-up would get you a $300 fine. You are allowed 5 minutes. About 25 minutes too little to warm up our diesels with their 1950's defroster systems. :cry:

    Oh, and is booze served in this lodge? Sorry, going in there will get you canned too. :sick:

    2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible

  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    That does it - I'm calling Crankshaft. If he can't fix it, no one can.
  • euphoniumeuphonium Member Posts: 3,425
    keep pressing to make the whole resort snowboard free. ;)
  • oldfarmer50oldfarmer50 Member Posts: 24,234
    "...I'm calling Crankshaft..."

    LOL. Now you know why that bus driver was always so cranky! ;)

    2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible

  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    After this season they'll only be three US resorts left that don't let snowboarders ride. Taos changes over next season - they lost too much family business because of the ban.

    I may just move to NM in a few years; getting the itch. I wonder how many other states have a Climate Change Advisory Group?
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    It should be a good gig for a few years till the elitist politicians & talking heads come up with a new way to control the masses.

    PS
    Too late for the NM job. They gave their final report last year. It will be interesting to see if they come even a little close to what they are proposing. Looks like everyone has move into Carlsbad Caverns and ship in food by electric rail from TX. Should be cozy down there.

    http://www.nmclimatechange.us/ewebeditpro/items/O117F10150.pdf
  • iluvmysephia1iluvmysephia1 Member Posts: 7,709
    as long as the Chupacabra's leave them be.

    As for the laws banning smoking in cars with children, I, as a Respiratory Therapist, know of the nastiness of this for the children's health. Long ago, as a 8 or 9 year old kid, when the evils of cigarette smoke were not talked about much and not publicised much, I can still remember in the neighborhood I grew up in Edmonds, WA, getting in the our neighbor's '62 Chevy Nova II with my neighbor friend's mother lighting up in there. Seems to me the windows were rolled down to let air in and smoke out. But it didn't seem to matter much, I remember my eyes stinging and feeling like coughing after just a short ride to downtown Edmonds with them.

    Remembering that car has sparked my love of that Chevy compact now as an adult, but remembering that cigarette smoke still makes me cringe. The Dad used to have 3 or 4 cigarettes lit at once in various locations in the house...the neighbor kids used to laugh about it as they told us that. :D

    2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick

  • euphoniumeuphonium Member Posts: 3,425
    Where the boarders are admitted, are they not limited to certain runs dedicated to boarders including 1/2 pipes?

    Having skied since 1948 all over the West, it is my impression the boarders are usually out of control more than the skiers and the boarders scuff off the snow leaving ice below. 2005, Whistler a middle age boarder slammed into my wife, knocking her down while she was just standing by the top of the chairlift. After recovering from her concussion, she now wears a helmet. Skiers are more polite in comparison to boarders.

    As for Climate Change Advisory Group - GW is one of the centuries biggest and broadest hoaxs. I'll look for you at Bogus Basin and stay out of your way. ;)
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    No limits that I know of. Boarders are big biz; that's why only a few resorts still are holding out.

    Scuffing snow is an urban legend. So is politeness. For a while there boarding was an adolescent activity with all those ramifications. Now the youngsters have moved on to twin tips so those are the terrors of the hill. When boarders ride backwards (switch) they are still facing you - not the twin tip guys.

    Bummer about your wife - I don't hang out at the top of chairlifts since people are coming off the chairs and I don't want to get smashed either.

    The ski industry is pretty active on the global warming issue.
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    I think the UN needs to decide which way they want it. They can starve the masses or allow natural growth with the slight chance of GW.

    "The reality is that people are dying already," said Jacques Diouf, of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "Naturally people won't be sitting dying of starvation, they will react," he said.

    The UN says it takes 232kg of corn to fill a 50-litre car tank with ethanol. That is enough to feed a child for a year. Last week, the UN predicted "massacres" unless the biofuel policy is halted.


    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/04/14/ccview114.xml
  • ruking1ruking1 Member Posts: 19,826
    It would appear to me they have already decided. :( It would also appear to me they will only do window dressing measures, ONLY if it gets out of hand. Might be a good reason for all the GW blather.
  • larsblarsb Member Posts: 8,204
    Looks like we in the US were spared the wrath of GW for March:
    link title

    Last month was the warmest March on record over land surfaces of the world and the second warmest overall worldwide.

    For the United States, however, it was just an average March, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Thursday.


    I guess all those people moving out of SUVs into smaller cars did the trick !!!

    Keep it up folks !!!!
  • kernickkernick Member Posts: 4,072
    I guess all those people moving out of SUVs into smaller cars did the trick !!!

    Conversely, we can then assume that the rest of the world was "bad", and burned more gasoline and diesel in their scooters and cars? ;)
  • larsblarsb Member Posts: 8,204
    Sure...assume away !!!
  • ruking1ruking1 Member Posts: 19,826
    I am doing my part for global warming so we do not have to migrate due to the global ice age. :)
  • tidestertidester Member Posts: 10,059
    It's curious that the "report" left out the other 75% of the globe's surface. That would be REALLY BIG part of the globe that is covered by water. The middle and upper troposphere are also mysteriously absent from "the report." Oh, that's right, the global climate models just cannot get the oceans and the rest of the troposphere right so we'll simply ignore that pesky data.

    And, BTW, I thought we weren't supposed to infer anything from annual variations let alone a single monthly anomaly! Can we really have it both ways? :)
  • oldfarmer50oldfarmer50 Member Posts: 24,234
    "...Can we really have it both ways?..."

    Sure, we can have it any way the media wants it.

    Many years ago I was worried by what seemed an ever increasing amount of crime where I lived. I happened to mention this to a friend who worked for a local newspaper. His response gave me a new perspective on how to analyze the news.

    He said that if you want to create a crime wave all you have to do is report ALL the crime. This gives the appearance that crime has increased .

    Similarly, if you report EVERY prediction or report about GW (no matter how bad the science) people will believe that there is overwhelming proof that it is happening.
    My local paper which has a distinct left-wing slant has been doing this for about 2 years. Big booming headlines followed by fluff articles which rehash the same questionable claims. No opposing views allowed.

    The trouble is, most people just read the headlines and then flip to the personal ads with an ever increasing dread that tomorrow they will be underwater.

    2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible

  • alltorquealltorque Member Posts: 535
    Oldfarmer50, you have hit the proverbial nail on the head. The media have a huge responsibility to be objective and leave off the politically-convenient headlines. Reporting "bad" science as gospel is criminal, particularly when there is no right to reply. Part of the problem is that the media owners do have political agendas and more than a few wrtiters have no real grasp of the subject they are writing about and merely re-hash what comes across the wire.

    They have enormously, and erroneously, increased peoples' fear of GW. They talk us into financial downturns, (along with their buddies in the financial markets), and very few of them serve any useful purpose.

    When I lived in Scotland we had a local headline that proclaimed :"Road Casualty Rate Doubles In Past Year". Well, it was true............that year we had two road injuries, (a young guy fell off his motorbuke and an elderly soul wandered in front a slow moving bus), neither even vaguely serious compared to just one the previous year. That one headline started all sorts of shouting for reduced speed limits, more police patrols, speed bumps; the whole works. As long as the greater population are too lazy to look a little closer than the headline the headline writers - and their masters - will continue to hold sway.

    Apologies - getting into rant territory here. Time for a cup of tea and a biscuit.
  • imidazol97imidazol97 Member Posts: 27,681
    >He said that if you want to create a crime wave all you have to do is report ALL the crime.

    Remember the summer of the shark attacks. I'll bet it was the same number and patterns as other years, but the media decided to play on that and everyone became afraid of shark bites. I even took out sharkbite insurance and I'm 200 miles from Lake Michigan, in case a shark wandered in there or came up the Missippi River and Ohio River. :P

    It's the same with political games but that's a topic for another discussion. However the media folk can effect their own personal power by choosing the topics and misrepresenting data or leaving the data incomplete as in the accident doubles example.

    2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,

  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    The media have a huge responsibility to be objective and leave off the politically-convenient headlines. Reporting "bad" science as gospel is criminal, particularly when there is no right to reply

    You both have pinpointed the problem. Though the media has a long history of slanting the news to keep control of the masses. William Randolph Hearst may have been one of the worst or should I say best at biased news to sway popular opinion in the direction he felt was correct. It is a tool of the elitist. Just as Hearst did not believe most of us had the brains to come out of the rain, same goes for our current day news people. Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch being prime examples. Murdoch being the smarter of the two. He has turned many folks against conservative principles by using in your face right wing talking heads to distort the news. ALL of the majors are Liberal elitists wanting to gain control of the people. Murdoch being a social friend to Hillary.

    The Media has jumped on the GW bandwagon and are beating the horses to death.

    It must be that they are hoping to get the advertising rights on selling carbon credits.

    Maybe the warm march is a result of volcanic activity here in the islands. It is dumping 100s of tons of SO2 into the atmosphere daily. Where is Al Gore when you need him?
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    No opposing views allowed.

    I've been enjoying reading the papers that allow comments at the end of the stories. You can find some interesting opposing (and supporting) viewpoints there amidst a lot of dreck.

    If anyone missed An Inconvenient Truth as I did, and wants to see the quickie version (great for those of us with short attention spans), Ted.com has a vid of Al speaking in Monterey.

    Ted.com

    Lots of other interesting talking heads there, from Isabel Allende to Stephen Hawking.

    One of the site sponsors is BMW (topical eh? :shades: )
  • imidazol97imidazol97 Member Posts: 27,681
    The media folk aren't necessarily the shaprest acorns under the tree. As a talk show host commented, most media folk in college or school have a goal of "changing the world." I believe this is why they so easily fall for the concept that "fixing" global warming will save the earth. However there is no "fix" because there's no way to tell there is a problem or to tell when it would be completely "cured." And there's no way to determine autos as a cause or not a cause.

    That's an ideal situation for those pushing the concept of doom and gloom; there's no way to tell when it's over. The idea that the science being presented may not be valid is far beyond their level in the media.

    I've tried to present this with no vitriol.

    2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,

  • ruking1ruking1 Member Posts: 19,826
    I am hoping to get a few more SPRING SNOW skiing days in before the official close of the place,(April 27,) I normally like to go. 27 degrees as of this writing. Gotta love this global warming.
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    Al Gore needs to study our Constitution. In the few minutes I watched he used the term Democracy a dozen times. WE ARE NOT a Democracy. We are a Republic. And that is fortunate. As it protects US from wackos like Gore.

    PS
    I changed out all my light bulbs and sold the Hot tub and my electric bill dropped more than 50%..... I don't need a law to tell me what will save money. Education without political agenda is good, more laws are not needed.
  • ruking1ruking1 Member Posts: 19,826
    Actually where I live, the biggest obstacles getting off housing energy "addiction/s" are the governments at almost all levels (local, county, and the various regional authorities, state, region, fed, world, etc (fees and taxation/s generation for those that think this complicated) ,. Be that as it may, plus the near impossibility of getting the local power monopoly to agree, it would be neat to put the high draw units (air conditioning unit, refrigerator, HOT TUBS, etc) on circuits fed by solar panels backed up by the local power monopoly. Really a can do easy, if one understands simple math. Just put app 2x or greater the solar power generators at 150% max actual draw. The overage can be stored (batteries) or sold to the power monopoly. While sell back should actually yield a check sent to the generator by the power monopoly, the actual gig is ZERO is the stated amont you can pay to the power monopoly per mo. Of course the 5 to 30k it currently takes might be seen has another obstacle. :lemon:

    The nexus here: by far housing energy use is greater than the auto passenger vehicle fleet use described in the US as 12,000 to15,000 miles per year by the average driver and registered (2006) 251.4 M vehicles.

    They would REALLY REMOVE the obstacles to LESS energy use if it were REALLY that important. So really all this global warming stuff is the NWO mechanisms- aka CODE, by which all of the costs, fees, taxations, on energy development, R & D, distribution, use and consumption are sent UP!!!!
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    I think it's accepted usage to describe a system of competitive elections as a democracy. And I think you can say the US is a representative democracy, so it's just shorthand.

    Direct democracy seems to work ok in Switzerland btw, and certainly many US states use the initiate/referendum system with varying degrees of success. Wiki seems to cover the options well.

    I'm not ready to part with my hot tub yet. :shades:
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    You keep the hot tub, I will keep the SUV. It looks from the first bill I have gotten since selling the SPA that it was using about $50 per month in electricity. We used it 3 times in the 6 months since we bought this home. It sold so fast on Craigslist that I believe it was under priced.

    Direct democracy seems to work ok in Switzerland btw,

    How many illegal aliens do you think they have voting in their elections? That is a very closed society that can hardly be used as an example for US.
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    The fact is that there are working direct democracies out there and the Swiss are the best known example. Not my cup of tea, but it can work. 20% of their population are immigrants btw.

    And we're both off-topic. :shades:

    I assumed my tub would cost $1 a day but it's way less than we expected. Maybe it's more efficient since it's hooked into the 220 circuit. It gets used at least 3 times a week - usually gets more use than the Subaru. (to sort of stretch to get topical).
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    My Catalina 7 foot spa was also 220V. I left it on the lowest setting which was 80 degrees. I also bought a very good cover. Not sure if the CFLs we replaced had very much impact, as we turn lights off most of the time. And to keep on topic I use my SUV a lot more than a hot tub.
  • ruking1ruking1 Member Posts: 19,826
    Lets see, 50 per mo, @ 3.73 per gal RUG, converts to 13.4 gals @ 25 mpg= 335 commute miles! Are we on topic now? :shades:
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    Yeah, but you lost me on the math, lol. I think you stuck a hockey stick in that tub.
  • oldfarmer50oldfarmer50 Member Posts: 24,234
    "...I'm not ready to part with my hot tub yet..."

    Not till they pry it from your warm wrinkled butt! (sorry Mr. Heston)

    2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible

  • ruking1ruking1 Member Posts: 19,826
    Just don't ask me to convert $50. into kilowatts! :lemon:
  • tidestertidester Member Posts: 10,059
    Just don't ask me to convert $50. into kilowatts!

    I doubt that Steve or anyone else would ever ask such a question. However, asking how to convert $50 into kilowatt-hours would be meaningful. :P
  • ruking1ruking1 Member Posts: 19,826
    Off topic, there is no doubt that is where it is going. Now if we think the price of fuel is BAD, what will you do when the price of energy for the home (most power is used for/in the home?) goes up? Again same issue-global warming. :lemon:
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    Electricity on the Big Island is 45 cents per KWH. About 3 times the rate I pay in San Diego. They mostly use oil to generate their power. Most homes do not have heat or AC on this side. Just the tropical breezes to stay comfortable. This condo does not have any CFL bulbs.

    PS
    Most of the VWs I see are TDI powered. Diesel is about the same as CA prices.
  • ruking1ruking1 Member Posts: 19,826
    Further north of San Diego, .45 per KWH would be app 3.8 x
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    A bit off-topic, but "gases mainly formed from the emissions of car exhausts prevent flowers from attracting bees and other insects in order to pollinate them. Pollution is dulling the scent of flowers and impeding some of the most basic processes of nature, disrupting insect life and imperilling food supplies."

    Why flowers have lost their scent
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    Just before we left home for Hawaii I took pictures of our Pride of Madiera flowers that are covered with bees, moths, hummingbirds and butterflies. I have a close friend that is an exterminator that had not seen any bumblebees in several years. We have a lot of them in our flowers. That must mean we are close to pollution free. If we can just keep the city folk from encroaching on our bit of paradise in Alpine I will be happy.

    We are at the 2000 foot level so little chance of GW raising the sea to our level.

    image
  • ruking1ruking1 Member Posts: 19,826
    I could sure use some relief from the ones that come around my place!! I don't even have a small cultivation of plants!! They must know I use a TDI!!! :shades:
  • iluvmysephia1iluvmysephia1 Member Posts: 7,709
    has anyone else read that article about bees supposedly disappearing from the U.S.landscape? Apparently the bees are not fighting something off that they oughta, or it's just GW. Gotta be global warming on that one. 1/3 less bees in the continental U.S. now than there were a few years ago.

    2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick

  • ruking1ruking1 Member Posts: 19,826
    They actually have it down to two root causes: 1. virus 2. neuro transmission interruptions and genetic damage due to modern pesticide use programs.
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    I'm in the cell phones are messing up the bees navigation group. Proof is all three of our places are bee havens and we DO NOT use any cell phones. That is proof enough for me... :blush:

    The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.

    Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.

    The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.

    CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.

    Other apiarists have recorded losses in Scotland, Wales and north-west England, but the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs insisted: "There is absolutely no evidence of CCD in the UK."

    The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".

    No one knows why it is happening. Theories involving mites, pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all have drawbacks.

    German research has long shown that bees' behaviour changes near power lines.

    Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a "hint" to a possible cause.


    http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/are-mobile-phones-wiping-out-our- -bees-444768.html
  • iluvmysephia1iluvmysephia1 Member Posts: 7,709
    bring up a vague point about bees disappearing and Viola' you get a possible answer for it! Well, I joined the cell phone craze about a year ago, so I'm partly to blame for the bees taking off from home and never coming back. Only to die slow, painful deaths far from the Queen Bee.

    This story does have a few corrolations going on with it, doesn't it? :blush:

    2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick

  • oldfarmer50oldfarmer50 Member Posts: 24,234
    "... Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occur when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear..."

    CCD is a real problem in the farming business. I don't think they've come up with any real science to blame it on any one factor. Global warming is the least likely cause because honey bees have a wide range of tolerance. Pesticides might explain it but don't see why it wouldn't have happened decades ago when pesticides were much stronger and more persistent (think DDT). Same with cell phones. They've been in use for years. Why would this condition happen now?

    The only thing for sure is that any one with an agenda will twist the available information to suit their purposes. Me, for example, I blame it all on my mother-in-law. ;)

    2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible

  • ruking1ruking1 Member Posts: 19,826
    Indeed I think the fact they have not further distilled how it really works, almost excludes global warming as a factor. The other is they have not even put together a cure/s and/or policies. Next even with those identified and experimented with they still have not a clue of the possible out comes.
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    My wife and I are considering a couple bee hives. We are a cell free zone with no high voltage power lines anywhere close by. We have lots citrus on our place and all the neighbors around us. With the high price of honey and electricity it may be a wise decision. We can sell the honey and make candles for our light. Being on a hillside if Al Gore has his way we can dig our cave right where we are now. A cave with a view.

    PS
    The tomatoes in the Straw bales were 2 foot high when we left for Hawaii.
  • imidazol97imidazol97 Member Posts: 27,681
    Was this the topic where I mentioned straw gardening? And put up links?

    So you tried it! Great. Let us know. Pictures?

    2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,

  • houdini1houdini1 Member Posts: 8,351
    I am quite shocked that Al Gore has not taken up the cause of the honey bees and laid the fault of their demise at the feet of man made global warming.

    He could be brokering those carbon credits like mad! After all, I am fairly certain that he invented the concept of the bee hive. :)

    2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460

  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    yes it was your links and Steve's that got me going the next day. We think it is going to be a great way to keep the rabbits and squirrels out of our tomatoes. I have 7 bales set up. I will take some pics when we get home. Should have some tomatoes as there were a few blooms when we left. The summer squash were up and doing well also.
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