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Are automobiles a major cause of global warming?
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As farmers rushed to find new places to plant corn, they wiped out millions of acres of conservation land, destroyed habitat and polluted water supplies, an Associated Press investigation found.
Five million acres of land set aside for conservation - more than Yellowstone, Everglades and Yosemite National Parks combined - have vanished on Obama's watch.
Landowners filled in wetlands. They plowed into pristine prairies, releasing carbon dioxide that had been locked in the soil.
Sprayers pumped out billions of pounds of fertilizer, some of which seeped into drinking water, contaminated rivers and worsened the huge dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico where marine life can't survive.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/12/3747824/the-secret-dirty-cost-of-obamas.ht- ml
Edit : read the article in the link, seems strange that they are calling an Obama disaster when Bush is the one who signed the Ethanol subsidy into law, including the fact that it pretty much had to be from domestically produced corn ( thank the corn lobbyist for this disaster if you want to blame anyone really). Again it seems to be blame Obama for things that happened before he was even in power.
Meanwhile Chris Christie Claims Weight Problem Caused by Global Warming, which also explains Al Gore getting a bit pudgy. (guardianlv.com)
Bill slimmed down, but he went vegan, which is about the same as a high ethanol diet I guess. I presume Bush II is continuing to lead by example and putting the miles on his mountain bike. (HuffPo)
For sure it was another lame duck President, GW Bush that signed onto the ethanol mandate. The article focused on the doubling of land dedicated to growing corn for ethanol under the current president B. Obama. Everything I read says clearing land for corn with take over 90 years to mitigate the loss of the carbon sink provided by the forest removed. And that does not address the biggest problem which is the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Corn producers want high yields. So they dump LOTS of Ammonium Nitrate on their crops. Anhydrous Ammonia is made from Natural Gas. Making the cost of Ethanol very questionable. It is purely a political football used to pay off the big farmers in our corporate Oligarchy. MIT scientists have debunked any GW benefit. Look at the big Ag companies to see who really benefits. It is not the American people or our environment.
Haven't seen a poll lately. This one is from Stanford as reported by AZ Central.
"It finds that in every state surveyed, most Americans support tax breaks to produce renewable energy and reduce air pollution from coal as well as efforts to boost energy efficiency for cars, appliances and buildings.
Less popular were government policies to encourage the building of electric vehicles and nuclear power plants. Most unpopular were higher consumption taxes on electricity and gasoline."
THE GOVERNMENT EFFORTS TO DATE REGARDING GREEN ENERGY HAVE MADE THINGS WORSE, NOT BETTER.
I'm looking at you, ethanol (both corn and cane based), and biodiesel (resulting in the destruction of thousands of acres of rainforest). And wind turbines are killing valued wildlife by the hundreds of thousands.
Here's just another sad chapter in the tale of government disasters:
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131113/DAA1JE8G1.html
Then ONLY significant impact on coal use and CO2 emissions has resulted from the huge increase in natural gas production from those 'evil' oil and gas companies.
Japan criticized at climate talks after slashing CO2 target
Japan's 50 nuclear plants were closed on safety concerns after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami wrecked the Fukushima reactors northeast of Tokyo. Nuclear accounted for 26 percent of Japan's electricity generation and its loss has forced the country to import natural gas and coal, causing its greenhouse gas emissions to skyrocket.
Japan's new policy was criticized in Warsaw, where about 190 nations are meeting from November 11-22 to work on a global climate pact, due to be agreed in 2015.
China's climate negotiator Su Wei said: "I have no way of describing my dismay" about the revised target.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/japan-drastically-scales-back-co2-emissions-cut-target-- 002021962--business.html
Poor countries have demanded that the developed world give them $100 billion annually by 2020 to prepare for the impacts of global warming, such as heat waves and droughts. Brazil even put forward a proposal last week that would have made rich countries pay for historical greenhouse gas emissions.
“The US, EU, Australia and Norway remain blind to the climate reality that’s hitting us all, and poor people and countries much harder,” said Harjeet Singh, spokesperson for ActionAid International. “They continue to derail negotiations in Warsaw that can create a new system to deal with new types of loss and damage such as sea-level rise, loss of territory, biodiversity and other non-economic losses more systematically.”
Rich countries have so far resisted these proposals. Australia, Europe and the U.S. have all argued that the issue should be addressed in 2015, when the world is set to discuss a comprehensive climate agreement. Developed countries have also banded together to block attempts to create a whole new bureaucracy to handle climate “reparations” to poor countries.
http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/20/epic-fail-un-climate-talks-fall-apart-as-132-c- ountries-storm-out/
If people are worried about rising seas, move inland. If they are worried about an Ice Age buy a coat. Robbing from the US and other countries based on fairy tales is just crazy. China leading the charge is really funny. They are the biggest producer of GHG. Let China chunk out $100 billion a year to tin pot dictators to further repress their people.
China (and similar dens of hypocrisy and injustice like India and Brazil), what would we do without you...other than have less places for our treacherous executive class to send jobs. Virtually every time the word "reparations" is used, it is a code word for theft. And our guilted one world coexist demographic will support it.
What a joke. They're ramping up their oil production as fast as possible to both use and to export to us 'rich countries'. and now they want to be paid twice - once for the oil, and again for our GHG emissions!
The fact is that GHG emissions will rise in the future from all the 'poor countries', and will far exceed the GHG emissions that are already dropping from the 'rich countries'.
Cold rewrites Oregon history books
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/12/07/texas-storm-setting-temperature-snow-records/- -
Too bad that "snow isn't a freak event in southern Australia in the warmer months." The whole country could use some relief after its hottest 12 months on record. (theguardian.com)
California is leading the way, as usual. (sfgate.com)
SFGATE and UK Guardian are very biased sources you used.
The end result of CA leading the charge over the cliff is a huge loss of jobs. The highest poverty rate in the nation, and rising crime in the cities that are losing businesses. Most bankrupt cities in the USA. Hope it will be worth it to all the ECO Wonks that are pushing CA into the abyss. I am getting very close to pulling the plug and getting out while the getting is good.
PS
Most of the so called climate bills passed did no good, just made life worse for those at the bottom of the food chain.
Better buy stock in China. But focus on environmental companies.
China’s Stocks Fall as Coal Shares Drop Amid Pollution (Bloomberg)
I don't think any of the oil disasters compare to Fukishima. My guess is BP will pay the price for fishery losses in the Gulf. When it is likely a combo of the deadzone caused by big Ag and the oil spill. Harder to sue a farmer in Iowa for polluting the Gulf than it is BP. Of course either way we pay the price. It all gets passed down to the consumer and tax payers.
"I would say it is the weakest in 200 years," said David Hathaway, head of the solar physics group at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
Researchers are puzzled. They can't tell if the lull is temporary or the onset of a decades-long decline, which might ease global warming a bit by altering the sun's brightness or the wavelengths of its light.
"There is no scientist alive who has seen a solar cycle as weak as this one," said Andrés Munoz-Jaramillo, who studies the solar-magnetic cycle at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass.
To complicate the riddle, the sun also is undergoing one of its oddest magnetic reversals on record.
Normally, the sun's magnetic north and south poles change polarity every 11 years or so. During a magnetic-field reversal, the sun's polar magnetic fields weaken, drop to zero, and then emerge again with the opposite polarity. As far as scientists know, the magnetic shift is notable only because it signals the peak of the solar maximum, said Douglas Biesecker at NASA's Space Environment Center.
But in this cycle, the sun's magnetic poles are out of sync, solar scientists said. The sun's north magnetic pole reversed polarity more than a year ago, so it has the same polarity as the south pole.
Could it be the sun is creating these extremes we are seeing or will the GW Cult stick with their man is all powerful mantra?
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304672404579183940409194498
EPA warned of ex-official’s illegal salary, bonuses in 2010, watchdog report says
In July 2010, the EPA’s human resources office contacted Beale’s Office of Air and Radiation with a document it had prepared titled “John Beale Pay Issues,” according to the report. The head of Beale’s department was Gina McCarthy, who is now the head of the EPA. The report does not make clear whether the document was given to her.
A code on Beale’s timecard, approved by the Office of Personnel Management, initially allowed his salary to exceed legal limits.
On Jan. 12, 2011, the EPA’s Office of General Counsel warned McCarthy’s staff to “stop retention bonus pay,” and McCarthy was asked to inform Beale, according to the report. But on April 2, 2012, McCarthy “confirmed no actions taken on retention bonus due to advice” from the head of the human resources department, according to the report.
Beale’s bonus was not canceled until Feb. 5, 2013. He was forced to retire in April, when his base salary was $164,000. He will collect his pension.
Beale, who pleaded guilty in September to stealing nearly $900,000 in government pay and bonuses, is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court Dec. 18. In court papers filed this week, his attorney, John W. Kern, asked for jail time at the “low end” of the 30 to 37 months that Beale faces under federal sentencing guidelines. Beale has agreed to pay more than $1.3 million in restitution and forfeiture as part of the plea deal.
Top EPA officials have told investigators that they believed Beale’s story that he was working as a clandestine officer for the CIA and did not question his exorbitant hotel and first-class airfare bills or the bonuses he collected. The scheme began in 1994.
Isn't that about the time the whole Al Gore GW scam got going good?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/epa-warned-of-ex-officials- -illegal-salary-bonuses-in-2010-watchdog-report-says/2013/12/10/8027e570-61f2-11- e3-bf45-61f69f54fc5f_story.html?hpid=z4
There's always a few hits like that when you search the news for GW.
This one is more seasonable though:
Greenpeace’s Santa Warns that Global Warming Could Cancel Christmas (nationalreview.com)
“Dear children, regrettably I bring bad tidings,” the video begins. “For some time now, melting ice here in the North Pole has made our operations and our day-to-day life intolerable and impossible and there may be no alternative but to cancel Christmas.”
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_Recall global warming hysteria’s halcyon days? Just 13 years ago, Dr. David Viner, senior scientist at Britain’s University of East Anglia’s climatic research unit, confidently predicted that, within a few years, winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event.”
“Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said._
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/warming-593355-global-temperature.html
In 2009 Al Gore said that all the polar ice would be gone by 2014.
Apparently those GW scientists believed him, and now they, along with their ship, are encased in 10 ft. thick open ocean ice somewhere near Antarctica, waiting to be rescued. So far, three different ice breakers have tried and failed to get to them. You couldn't make this stuff up !
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
Al was talking about northern summer ice. And quoting the Navy. (link)
LOL, not for the folks on board, but at your post.
This is summer in Antarctica and they are getting frozen in. Hmmm Hope they learn something about GW. I think the Sun is doing some strange things that science is being baffled by. That will have a much more dramatic impact on our climate. Who knows we may roll around and once again the Arctic will be in the tropical zone as it once was. Who will survive. Good thing I still have all my Arctic gear.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2531159/Antarctic-crew-build-ice-helipad-help-rescuers.html
The sun has “flipped upside down”, with its north and south poles reversed to reach the midpoint of Solar Cycle 24, Nasa has said.
Now, the magnetic fields will once again start moving in opposite directions to begin the completion of the 22 year long process which will culminate in the poles switching once again.
“A reversal of the sun’s magnetic field is, literally, a big event,” said Nasa’s Dr. Tony Phillips.
“The domain of the sun’s magnetic influence (also known as the ‘heliosphere’) extends billions of kilometers beyond Pluto. Changes to the field’s polarity ripple all the way out to the Voyager probes, on the doorstep of interstellar space.”
To mark the event, Nasa has released a visualisation of the entire process.
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Wunderground points to the "polar vortex".
There was a company giveaway one year and a woman won a "cruise" to Antarctica. She swapped the prize with a coworker - more of an "adventure guy" that I had met a few times. That guy went on the cruise and the ship sank. The passengers wound up in cattle car conditions on the Chilean rescue boat.
I have had several friends that worked at that permanent station in Antarctica. No way would I go that remote. At least in Prudhoe I could fly, drive or take a barge ride out. With a little more warming a trip across the Arctic may make for a nice vacation. NOT.
I think I'm on that vacation right now. Windy, a few inches of new snow and the wind chill is coming in at -8 °F. We're walking to town shortly for breakfast where all the talk will be about the weather (as opposed to GW or climate change).
Ah, never mind, we're driving. Seeing the neighbor's garbage can fly down the street gave us second thoughts. And now the neighbor has chased it down and is taking it to his garage. Bare handed. Tougher old bird than I am!
I will not believe those compiling the data until our two local RAWS are accurate. They are spot on with my thermometer until the sun gets up a ways. Then they shoot up at least 10 degrees above actual ambient temperature. That has been one of the arguments from the beginning against the GW Agenda. And as close as I can tell all the ice did not melt out of the Arctic last Summer as Egore prophesied while giving his undeserved Nobel prize speech. In fact there was more ice this summer than 2007 when he gave the speech. Climate scientist cannot predict the weather for next week all that well. Predicting 10-20-100 years ahead is pure poppycock.
Polar vortex? Hmmm.. why didn't all those esteemed scientists come up with some wild theory like this to explain the LOSS of ice in the northern hemisphere? I guess that just didn't fit their agenda, eh? Instead, up north, it is just all those pesky greenhouse gases. How funny.
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@gagrice, didn't that Berkeley guy review all the weather station info and determine that the out of whack stations didn't make any difference to the data, nor did the urban heat island effect? Yeah, here we go. (carbonbrief.org).
It doesn't make a difference because ALL the data is being manipulated anyway. Nothing will compromise already compromised data.
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Well, there's data and there's stuff you can see by looking. Like mangroves moving north. (smithsonianmag.com)
You may prefer mangroves and manatees to the salt marshes, but Floridians are also getting Brazilian pepper and Asian psyllid as it warms.
I will give you the current example. RAWS is sending back to the NWS a temperature of 65.6 degrees, Fact is it is only 54 degrees out of the sun. No way they can put all those temps in without screwing up the overall data. If it happens at my two RAWS it happens all over the globe. And other studies have said just the opposite. Anyone from Berkeley has questionable motives. Maybe the Koch brothers have decided to join and make money. Latest is CCS to extract oil using Coal powered generators.
Tidester had a word for that "garbage" data, like my occasional error in my gas logs. It all evens out in the wash. Mueller from Berkeley was the denier who changed his stripes, you'll recall.
I am on the GIGO side of the CC story. I am with Australia, Canada, UK and even Japan that have toned down their gungho views of CC/GW. It is purely a political issue anymore. The Liberals that want to tax the people and call it a carbon tax are losing elections around the globe. When you can no longer afford electricity for your home because of GW mandates you may wonder if it was such a good idea to elect people that push that agenda. The GW Liars at the NWS are recording this very minute that we are at 73.7 degrees F. When in FACT it is 61 degrees and I am bundled up in my home wearing a wool shirt to save on very expensive propane at $3.29 GGE. I really need to move to a state where there is some sanity in the government.
Many more have gone from believers to deniers than the other way around. I guess they put integrity ahead of a big fat check from the GW pushers in the various governments.
Al Gore says any scientist who disagrees with him on Global Warming is a kook, or a crook.
Guess he never met these guys
Dr. Edward Wegman--former chairman of the Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics of the National Academy of Sciences--demolishes the famous "hockey stick" graph that launched the global warming panic.
Dr. David Bromwich--president of the International Commission on Polar Meteorology--says "it's hard to see a global warming signal from the mainland of Antarctica right now."
Prof. Paul Reiter--Chief of Insects and Infectious Diseases at the famed Pasteur Institute--says "no major scientist with any long record in this field" accepts Al Gore's claim that global warming spreads mosquito-borne diseases.
Prof. Hendrik Tennekes--director of research, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute--states "there exists no sound theoretical framework for climate predictability studies" used for global warming forecasts.
Dr. Christopher Landsea--past chairman of the American Meteorological Society's Committee on Tropical Meteorology and Tropical Cyclones--says "there are no known scientific studies that show a conclusive physical link between global warming and observed hurricane frequency and intensity."
Dr. Antonino Zichichi--one of the world's foremost physicists, former president of the European Physical Society, who discovered nuclear antimatter--calls global warming models "incoherent and invalid."
Dr. Zbigniew Jaworowski--world-renowned expert on the ancient ice cores used in climate research--says the U.N. "based its global-warming hypothesis on arbitrary assumptions and these assumptions, it is now clear, are false."
Prof. Tom V. Segalstad--head of the Geological Museum, University of Oslo--says "most leading geologists" know the U.N.'s views "of Earth processes are implausible."
Dr. Syun-Ichi Akasofu--founding director of the International Arctic Research Center, twice named one of the "1,000 Most Cited Scientists," says much "Arctic warming during the last half of the last century is due to natural change."
Dr. Claude Allegre--member, U.S. National Academy of Sciences and French Academy of Science, he was among the first to sound the alarm on the dangers of global warming. His view now: "The cause of this climate change is unknown."
Dr. Richard Lindzen--Professor of Meteorology at M.I.T., member, the National Research Council Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, says global warming alarmists "are trumpeting catastrophes that couldn't happen even if the models were right."
Dr. Habibullo Abdussamatov--head of the space research laboratory of the Russian Academy of Science's Pulkovo Observatory and of the International Space Station's Astrometria project says "the common view that man's industrial activity is a deciding factor in global warming has emerged from a misinterpretation of cause and effect relations."
Dr. Richard Tol--Principal researcher at the Institute for Environmental Studies at Vrije Universiteit, and Adjunct Professor at the Center for Integrated Study of the Human Dimensions of Global Change, at Carnegie Mellon University, calls the most influential global warming report of all time "preposterous . . . alarmist and incompetent."
Dr. Sami Solanki--director and scientific member at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany, who argues that changes in the Sun's state, not human activity, may be the principal cause of global warming: "The sun has been at its strongest over the past 60 years and may now be affecting global temperatures."
Prof. Freeman Dyson--one of the world's most eminent physicists says the models used to justify global warming alarmism are "full of fudge factors" and "do not begin to describe the real world."
Dr. Eigils Friis-Christensen--director of the Danish National Space Centre, vice-president of the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy, who argues that changes in the Sun's behavior could account for most of the warming attributed by the UN to man-made CO2.
Wow...that's rich...talk about the pot calling the kettle black..
Regarding your list...as Teri Hatcher said, on her way out of Jerry's apartment after he managed to put his foot in it, about her own boobs..."they're real and they're SPECTACULAR!"
What a line-up..perfect..where are you Gore? Have a looksee here..idiot.. pffttttt
I read this somewhere recently and will try to hit the main points:
The U.S. has only about 450 elected politicians who make decisions affecting the other 300 million of us. These 450 people are legally and morally responsible for all the domestic problems that currently plague our country. All these problems exist because these 450 people want them to exist.
If our tax code is ridiculous and unfair, it is because they want it this way.
If the budget is in the red, it is because they want it this way.
If we have troops in many foreign countries, they want it this way.
If we have a 20 trillion national debt, they are responsible and want it this way.
If our infrastructure is a mess, it is because they want it this way.
If we don't have term limits, it is because they want it this way.
All of these problems could be solved if that is what they wanted.
Remember this the next time you vote. If you vote to keep any of these 450 people, it is because you want it this way.
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