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Are automobiles a major cause of global warming?

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  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    edited May 2013
    We got about two inches. No problem, GM will work it out for us.

    Preventing climate change is good for business, GM declares (Detroit Free Press)

    "The declaration, now endorsed by 40 companies, was launched in Washington last month with the aim of capitalising on public concern about climate change after Hurricane Sandy and Obama's re-election in the hope of pushing a climate law through Congress.

    More than half of Americans now blame climate change for the extreme weather of recent years, acccording to a study released on Wednesday by the Yale Project on Climate Change."

    General Motors urges Obama and Congress to unite on climate change (guardian.co.uk)
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    More than half of Americans now blame climate change for the extreme weather of recent years,

    Not many years ago the consensus of the World's leading scientists was CO2 was causing GLOBAL WARMING. We are still increasing CO2 and getting cooler in the process. So they change their tune from GW to CC. hmmmm sounds like a scam to me. I can see big companies putting in solar arrays to save on electricity and possibly fossil fuel. I cannot see stealing money from the tax payers to do it. If it is sound business as GM is saying it should pay for itself. More corporate welfare in the making. And they have figured out how to get the lefties to support it.
  • carnaughtcarnaught Member Posts: 3,497
    Maybe some day they'll stop drinking the Kool-aid stirred up by Al Gore :sick: .
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    edited May 2013
    It's May 4th and I have fresh snow on the ground and the temp is in the mid-30's. I'm ready to brush off Carl Sagan's nuclear winter theory.

    Also had two turkeys in the front yard yesterday - guess the weird weather flushed them out of the woods.

    Everyone has pollen complaints this year (south of us that is); sounds like the pollen counts are going to double by 2040 the way the warming is going.
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    I have never had allergy problems in my life until they passed all these emissions laws. I think exhaust must have neutralized the pollen in the air. With leaded gas I could not breath. With ethanol gas my nose never stops running.

    Russian climate scientist are saying 200-250 years of mini ice age. That will kill off a lot more people than any GW would.
  • houdini1houdini1 Member Posts: 8,327
    That will kill off a lot more people than any GW would.

    Yes, but you are forgetting that the ice age will be called climate change...which is, of course, caused by GW. It is a new variation on the old scam, heads I win, tails you lose.

    2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460

  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    I think the GW cult will have a hard time selling their snake oil in Arkansas...

    For the first time since written weather history began in Arkansas (1819), snow has fallen in the month of May. This snow has set records for the latest snowfall and latest measurable snowfall in the state.

    The previous latest snowfall ever recorded was on April 30, 1903 at Harrison, Gravette and Fayetteville. This was not measurable.

    http://www.magnoliareporter.com/news_and_business/regional_news/article_826c709e- -b48c-11e2-8626-0019bb2963f4.html
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    edited May 2013
    Extreme weather is an indicator though, don't you know.

    The other odd pattern is the lack of tornadoes. If I was in woo-pig-sooie country, I'd rather have the snow than the tornadoes, but I guess that's supposed to change in a week or so.

    Most Americans Blame Global Warming for Extreme Weather (accuweather.com)
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    Nearly 50 percent of the population believes global warming made the droughts that plagued the Midwestand the Great Plains last year more severe. Similarly, 46 percent of Americans believe climate change exacerbated the effects of Superstorm Sandy, which battered the Northeast in October 2012.

    That means more than 50% are not fooled by the BS pushed by A Gore and his cult like followers. Carl Sagan was also a nut job with a few more degrees than Al Gore. What is scary is when they start believing the crap they are saying. If the Earth is 4+ billion years old our few thousand years will be a very tiny blip. Not worth the pain the governments are putting on the people, especially the poor that cannot afford to keep their homes warm in the longer colder winters we are experiencing.
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    edited May 2013
    Well, I didn't see the survey. The choices could be yes, no, and undecided. You're on vacation, maybe you can go look it up. :shades:

    "Almost" 50% is a surprising to me number as it is. To listen to the so-called main stream media, you'd think no one believes that people are changing the climate.
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    No one I know believes it. Remember 51% percent picked Obama to be President. He is pushing GW and his followers are on his payroll. You don't bite the hand that feeds you.
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    How do you top making national news for bigotry? Trying getting people to "Give Up (Eating) Hamburgers to Stop Climate Change."

    "That's right; essentially, if every fourth time someone craved, say, beef, chicken or cow milk they instead opted for a veggie burger, a bean burrito or water, we have a chance to halt the emergency," he added.

    Doesn't this nut job know we are using all our farm land to produce Ethanol? Another idea from the Kooks on the Left.

    For loony lefty syndicated columnist David Sirota, it's all just another day at the office. Sirota made national news for his bizarre and bigoted hope that the Boston bomber would turn out to be "a white American."

    http://cnsnews.com/blog/dan-gainor/lefty-sirota-we-are-incinerating-planetbecaus- e-too-many-us-eat-cheeseburgers
  • houdini1houdini1 Member Posts: 8,327
    Don't worry about the numbers, percentages, etc. These days you can pay someone to come up with whatever numbers you want, just by asking the same question in different ways. No problem.

    There is probably 10% of the population that is making money off the GW scam in some way, and another 10% who are just nut cases who will fall for anything. This 20% are so vocal and get so much media attention that it just seems like 50%.

    2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460

  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    In 1999, Al Gore, then U.S. vice president and a Democratic candidate for president, sold $6,000 worth of cows. The former senator, who spent most of his working life in Congress, had a net worth of about $1.7 million and assets that included pasture rents from a family farm and royalties from a zinc mine, remnants of his rural roots in Carthage, Tennessee. Funds from the cattle sale went to three of his kids, according to federal disclosure forms filed as part of his presidential run.

    Fourteen years later, he made an estimated $100 million in a single month.

    His work and writing on global warming have earned him a share of a Nobel Prize as well as a South Park cartoon parody in which he tries to scare school kids to his beliefs with a fictitious global-warming surrogate monster known as ManBearPig.

    Whatever you think of Gore, one thing is indisputable: leveraging his aura as a technology seer and his political and climate work connections, Gore has remade himself into a wealthy businessman, amassing a fortune that may exceed $200 million.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-06/gore-is-romney-rich-with-200-million-af- ter-bush-defeat.html
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    edited May 2013
    Puts him in good company with the Koch Brothers (just needs another $800 million lol).

    Not sure what your point is though - Al Gore Sr. had plenty of money back in the day (that would be my day, when he was my senator during my Chattanooga years). You'd rather he sit back and spend the old man's money?
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    The old man was a crooked politician in his own right. Al Jr took right after his dad. Different scam same results. GW is no different than any other political scam. The politicians get rich and the tax payers get the shaft. I don't think Sr was ever in a league with Jr for playing on the little minds of the sheep. Coldest winter and Spring on record for much of the World and the GW cult keep saying the same lame crap. Lowest number of Tornadoes, which shoots that part of the theory all to heck. My friends are up near the Canadian border waiting for the ice to melt so they can take their boat to their cabins in Canada. Last year they were in getting the cabins ready by the 15th of April.
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    edited May 2013
    Guess you didn't hear it was in the 80s in Oregon and Seattle. And California (remember it?) has already had a major fire and the rest of the West is already bracing for Fire Threat. (WSJ).

    I like policy wonks like Al. More entertaining than most of the droning. About the only pol who can wonk with him is Newt or maybe Hillary. Be a hoot to have dinner with Gore and Gingrich. Just don't bring up the subject of wives. :shades:

    Kind of surprised that your link didn't mention Al's connection with the greening of Walmart; he was a big influence on their operations. Of course most people don't think of Wally World as being all that green but lots of green stuff boils down to saving money.
  • texasestexases Member Posts: 10,706
    edited May 2013
    Believe or don't believe in GW, but the US is doing more than other countries to reduce GHG. How? The natural gas revolution.

    This also shows how US regulations are a waste of time, given the impact of China and India.
    image

    More here.
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    The other angle is that the natural gas here is resulting in cheaper coal in the EU and other countries. So plans for cleaner natural gas plants over there are getting shelved because they can't compete on price any more.

    Warren Buffett is fighting a bunch of ranchers over using his railroad's eminent domain power to get his coal to the west coast so it can be shipped somewhere, since we don't need it in the US.
  • texasestexases Member Posts: 10,706
    Yeah, the coal is an issue, but natural gas production is exploding EVERYWHERE. Look at Australia, putting in LNG projects left and right, much of it now going to CHINA. That'll curb their coal demand...
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    Not to worry, I just put my life savings toward Solar Traps. (mcclatchydc.com).

    Should be good, I made a killing on HHO gizmo and the Tornado. :shades:
  • texasestexases Member Posts: 10,706
    Woo-Hoo! Sign me up! What's not to trust?

    "If the trap even comes close to meeting his futuristic vision, its impact could be breathtaking: It could reorder the world’s energy landscape, end the global economic drag of soaring energy costs, and eventually curb greenhouse gas emissions that are blamed for climate change.

    That all might sound rather rosy, since the previously undisclosed invention has yet to be constructed and fully tested."

    (emphasis added... ;) )
  • houdini1houdini1 Member Posts: 8,327
    edited May 2013
    I should have waited and invested in this one instead of buying that franchise selling frozen spinach on a stick.

    2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460

  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    edited May 2013
    I just put my life savings toward

    I would hope not. Any quack that claims solar will satisfy 92% of the energy needs is smoking some real strong stuff. Even 50% would be a stretch with the sun shining less than that across the globe year round.

    “This is a fundamental scientific and environmental discovery,” Ace said. “This invention can meet about 92 percent of the world’s energy needs.”

    This guy is looking for a big fat tax payer funded payday. Our cost for solar is double what it costs in Germany now. No one in the USA even has a solar PV greenhouse available like they have in the UK.
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    You don't need to "see" the sun to get energy from it. And don't forget that coal and oil came from the sun originally.
  • stephroshstephrosh Member Posts: 2
    According to the latest study the U.S. automobiles and light trucks are responsible for nearly half of all greenhouse gases emitted by automobiles globally. The 450 million vehicles on the road today account for half of the world's total consumption, generate nearly one fifth of greenhouse gas emissions, and have pervasive effects on land use and air quality.

    A few air pollutants, called criteria air pollutants, are common throughout the United States. These pollutants can injure health; harm the environment and cause property damage. The current criteria pollutants are:

    Carbon Monoxide – an odorless, colorless gas and is formed when the carbon in fuels does not completely burn. Vehicle exhaust contributes roughly 60 percent of all carbon monoxide emissions nationwide, and up to 95 percent in cities. Other sources include fuel combustion in industrial processes and natural sources such as wildfires.

    Lead

    Nitrogen Dioxide

    Sulfur Dioxide

    Ozone.

    It is said that more than 60 percent of U.S. transportation emissions come from cars and light trucks.
  • texasestexases Member Posts: 10,706
    edited May 2013
    Your numbers don't match those of the EPA:
    Share by country
    image

    US share by source:
    image

    So if US transportation is 28% of total US GHG, and US is 19% of global GHG, then US transportation is about 5% of total global GHG.

    Or did you really mean that, despite your dire statements?
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    According to the latest study the U.S. automobiles and light trucks are responsible for nearly half of all greenhouse gases emitted by automobiles globally.

    You are listening to people with a vested interest in pushing the GW scam. IPCC says 15% is from all transportation. Ask 50 scientists and get 50 different sets of answers. If you don't want to add to the GHG and CO2 ride a bike and don't eat any gaseous foods.
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    Time to hang all the eco nuts.

    Under California law, residential customers pay higher prices for additional electricity – through a system of "tiers" – as they use more. In 2001, after the energy crisis, the Legislature capped rates for the lowest two tiers and for low-income customers who receive special discounts under the California Alternate Rates for Energy program, or CARE. Subsequently, increased costs for utility services were borne entirely by upper-tier users. That dynamic drove PG&E's top-tier price to an astounding 50 cents in early 2010.

    Senate Bill 695, enacted in October 2009, gave some relief by allowing rates in the lowest two tiers to increase gradually. PG&E managed to bring its top rate down to 34 cents today – which is still double the average cost of service, and much higher than utilities outside the state are authorized to charge.

    http://www.sacbee.com/2013/02/22/5208338/californias-electric-rate-system.html

    http://www.calwatchdog.com/2013/05/15/electricity-rate-shock-more-likely-than-bl- ackouts-this-summer/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook
  • texasestexases Member Posts: 10,706
    You have my sympathy, I've been paying about $0.08/kw-hr, retail, residential, in Dallas.
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    That is one of the reasons so many businesses are bailing out of CA. You cannot compete when your expenses are way higher than your competition. You can install solar and mitigate some of the cost. But that is not as much of a savings as many think. They are still relatively new. What will happen to your PV cells in 10 years of rain, sun and dust? Don't plan on that 25 year warranty being any good. Most have a payback close to 20 years. Read the fine print on your warranty.
  • ClairesClaires Member Posts: 1,222
    "Government agencies like the EPA typically waive so-called Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request fees for groups disseminating information for public benefit, but it’s up to the agency to decide whether a fee-waiver is justified. At the EPA, fees were waived for liberal environmental groups like Greenpeace and EarthJustice almost always. Meanwhile, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free-market think tank, “had its requests denied 93 percent of the time."

    Like the IRS, the EPA plays favorites

    Meanwhile, Germany targets climate change skeptics:
    German Ministry Of Environment Identifies, Targets American And German Enemy Skeptics In 123-Page Pamphlet

    ClaireS, Host
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  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    Follow the money. There is more to be gained by pushing the GW/CC agenda. Al Gore is the perfect example of how well you can do by pushing the GW scam. He left office in 2001 worth less than $1 million. Today he is worth over $200 million. Pretty good I would say Capitalizing on a purely liberal agenda.

    It helps to have your cronies in the IRS, DOJ and EPA to block the opposition.
  • houdini1houdini1 Member Posts: 8,327
    Interesting info. about the EPA. I hope the Republicans are as smart as you are and start digging a little.

    2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460

  • ClairesClaires Member Posts: 1,222
    edited May 2013
    It helps to have your cronies in the IRS, DOJ and EPA to block the opposition.

    Along with kids living in their mom's basements, armed with predigested spam to drop into online communities via one of his latest ventures.

    ClaireS, Host
    Automotive News & Views | Coupes & Convertibles

    MODERATOR

    Need help getting around? claires@edmunds.com - or send a private message by clicking on my name.

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  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    KTUU-TV
    updated 5/18/2013 7:47:09 PM ET

    232 days - it took over 30 years for Anchorage to set a new record for the longest snow season on record.

    The National Weather Service measured 2/10ths of an inch just after 9 p.m. Friday and 1/10th Saturday morning - breaking the old record of 230 days set in 1981-1982.

    Other parts of the city had much higher amounts of snow, however official measurements must be consistent and observed at the Sand Lake forecast office. The recent snowfall also broke the daily record for liquid precipitation, lowest maximum temperature for May 17, and a host of other records.

    Another anecdote. Our friends are holed up in Northern MN waiting for the ice to go out on their lake, so they can get to the campground and cabins. Generally they are open for tourist by this time. The lake is still frozen over. He is 75 and said this is his last year leaving CA for the Summer. Too stressful.
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    If we are producing more CO2 and it is NOT making it warmer. Someone is ripping US off.

    Climate slowdown means extreme rates of warming 'not as likely'

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22567023
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    1975 : Tornado Outbreaks Blamed On Global Cooling

    http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/1975-tornado-outbreaks-blamed-on-g- lobal-cooling/
  • houdini1houdini1 Member Posts: 8,327
    I saw that and I am glad you posted it. It is very odd how "the vast majority" of the scientists agreed that global cooling was the big problem back in 1975, and now, just 30 some years later (no time at all concerning climate) it is global warming that is the "problem".

    But the debate is over? I think I might agree with that. The debate is over, and the warmists have lost !

    2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460

  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    A two minute battery swap makes sense but another pioneer got shot full of arrows.

    Fallout From Failure of Battery Swap Plan (NY Times)
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    My question with all such deals. How much was put up by tax payers? And how much did the people on top end up with? I remember too many scams in the 1970s where people put up $25k to get enormous returns and a great tax write-off. From drilling wells, to alfalfa center pivots in Nevada to the latest dial-up modem. I don't remember anyone even getting their investment back.

    All these EV, Solar, Wind, CC deals seem like flim flam operations with the biggest perpetrator being Al Gore and his GW scam. The tax payers, early adopters and consumers are the big losers. George Hull said it best, There's a sucker is born every Minute".
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    I thought that was WC Fields. :shades:
  • houdini1houdini1 Member Posts: 8,327
    edited June 2013
    I thought it was P.T. Barnum...but I was wrong. It was indeed George Hull. The things you learn here.

    It is not the things you know or don't know that get you in trouble. It is the things you think you know, but don't. :)

    2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460

  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    I thought it was P.T. Barnum...but I was wrong.

    I did also. Knowing what a stickler our hosts are for facts, I googled it before making a fool of myself. So we both learned something. Too bad some people cling to beliefs even when the facts say otherwise. Like the myth of global warming. Just got an email from our friends up on the lake in Canada. They would love to have some of that GW Al Gore won't shut up about.

    He has grown heirloom tomatoes up there for a long time. This is the second year they are just not getting warm enough.
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 57,139
    edited June 2013
    I wonder how much pollution is generated by negligently maintained traffic controls. I swear, it is getting worse in my fair city. You'll have 10 cars stop for nothing, sit there and idle, and take off. Why? Oh, the amazingly skilled "engineers" who aren't unfireable overpaid untouchable simps, nope. Why won't the greenies chase down the "traffic engineers"? Maybe the greenies are cut from the cloth.
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    Most Greenies are clueless about the reality of pollution and saving energy. Most of our lights around here are the smart lights. They have a camera up top that sees you coming and changes the lights. If no one is waiting at the street it will not change. So much better than the old fashioned poorly timed lights. I think LA has installed the smart lights to eliminate just what you are complaining about. Here is an option you might put to your city council.

    Were you aware of the fact that you waste one week per year sitting in traffic?

    This “smart” traffic light could cut commutes by 60 percent

    http://www.ecnmag.com/articles/2012/11/%E2%80%9Csmart%E2%80%9D-traffic-light-cou- ld-cut-commutes-60-percent
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    The "green" problem with traffic engineering is that one of those smart lights likely costs $100,000 to buy and install. It's tough convincing the taxpayers that immediate pain results in long term gain, just like it's tough convincing anyone to wait for a seven or ten year (or longer) payback to go solar on their roof.

    Roundabouts are great unless you have to buy the ROW and there's a gas station on two corners and a McDonalds and a Walgreen's on the other two.

    Removing stop signs in neighborhoods would be relatively cheap and would save a lot of gas however.
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    Removing stop signs in neighborhoods

    The body shops would love that.

    just like it's tough convincing anyone to wait for a seven or ten year (or longer) payback to go solar on their roof.

    That to me is not the issue. It is getting a warranty settled on defective PV cells when the company has gone bankrupt. The failure rate in the EU is around 34%. Not a good prospect. And maybe much of the reason so many are going bankrupt.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/29/business/energy-environment/solar-powers-dark-- side.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

    The "green" problem with traffic engineering is that one of those smart lights likely costs $100,000 to buy and install.

    I would be surprised if they are less than half a million per intersection. They have installed 4 intersections that were 4-way stops in our little town. Not sure there is any advantage to having lights vs stop signs.
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 57,139
    My city has semi-smart lights - ones that can tell if a car is sitting at an intersection. But only at random points, with "dumb" lights (on a sequence) at others - so they don't match up. And at some of the "smart" intersections, a car will approach from a side street, instantly get green - causing 20 cars to stop to let it out, rather than waiting for a traffic gap - doesn't seem very smart. And then some of the dumb sequences where you'll get endless reds if you go the speed limit - but go 15 over or way under, and you'll catch more greens. Funny. Even funnier that my mother lives in a podunk town where years ago they managed to sync the greens on the main drag, but here in the city, nope.

    I'll give them credit that some intersections finally have a blinking yellow left (but it comes on at random times, and requires tremendous signage thanks to the dumbed down driver standards), and some sequenced lights have a weekend setting - but not all, and not uniformly used.

    So much fuel has to be wasted due to bad traffic controls.
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 57,139
    Shoddy Chinese products? Say it aint so :shades:

    Regarding stop signs, you find a lot less of them in other first world areas, but also more attentive drivers.
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