120 Comments

1. PeterT:

God Almighty, these people commenting on youtube are just too stupid to breath….

Jul 2, 2009 - 6:21 pm 2. Charles:

Princeton Physics Professor Global Warming Testimony Before the US Senate

Sometimes the obsession for control of the climate got a bit out of hand, as in the Aztec state, where the local scientific/religious establishment of the year 1500 had long since announced that the debate was over and that at least 20,000 human sacrifices a year were needed to keep the sun moving, the rain falling, and to stop climate change. The widespread dissatisfaction of the people who were unfortunate enough to be the source of these sacrifices played an important part in the success of the Spanish conquest of Mexico.

Jul 2, 2009 - 6:28 pm 3. Mad Fiddler:

By several criteria, the use of children who may be charming actors but cannot possibly know anything about the subject they’re addressing, is a grotesque and ultimately vicious perversion of media as propaganda.

Completely apart from the actual ideational content of the message, that piece is a profound lie. The animation of the images in the sand is meant to be perceived as something done by the kid. As an animator with decades of experience, I can tell you that is extremely sophisticated and labor-intensive production. It can be done “under the camera” by a very talented person, and while it’s possible there are a few transcendent genius kids that could pull it off, it’s not likely.

It is an absolute certainty that just the animation was scripted, art-directed, storyboarded, and revised for days and days, before spending a lot of hours under the camera. It may have been a studio shot, which means that the filming could conceivably gone on over several days. (Now watch, some geek will come on claiming to have participated in the production and say, “No, a seven year-old kid did the whole thing in half-an-hour!”)

And the idea that this kid actually understands the significance of the alleged concepts and data she cites, would require us to swallow the idea that she’s had more meteorologic, geologic, astronomical, physics, and chemistry science and math training than 99 percent of secondary graduates.

But the Democrats know that having some innocent kid in a commercial works, completely apart from the merits of the message.

Remember the kid with the superimposed nuclear mushroom cloud that did so much to screw Barry Goldwater’s 1964 campaign.

Jul 2, 2009 - 6:50 pm 4. Jemima Boone:

Triumph of the Will.

Jul 2, 2009 - 6:55 pm 5. Lifeofthemind:

We need to make a deal. If you want to cut your communities carbon emissions then go ahead and do so.
However if you do then you will be denied access to any health care procedure or device that was discovered after the year 1850. You will also be denied access to any transportation or communications device that was invented after the year 1850. Seems fair to me.

Jul 2, 2009 - 6:59 pm 6. jim in virginia:

The Act Now video reminds me of Fahrenheit 451.
Let’s get rid of the Men in Suits.

Jul 2, 2009 - 7:00 pm 7. Wadeusaf:

What a scam, can’t prove its gonna happen, can’t prove its not going to happen because under normal conditions of planetary alignment and relative distance from the sun eventually we all see the hockey stick happen.

There are not black swans involved except for the ones that cause the collapse of an economy as alms to bad science. It is neigh unto a tele-evangelical declaring that the reason Obama was elected president was because we did not build enough churches, or lite enough incense. Apocalyptic Global Warming it is almost as valid as the notion of the Twelver’s only with better drugs and parties.

If the lawsuit is successful will former Vice President be forced to return the Nobel award? Will he have to forfeit the Oscar? Or will he take the Michael Moore approach. Mon dieu I keep waiting for him to show up in straw hat and striped jacket hawking Mother Gore’s patent medicinal poultice juice, good for eliminating those carbon buildups and reducing those embarrassing green house gas emmissions.

Having been validated by such stuff as screenings in the public schools by scientifically guided and truth telling teachers unions, I have no doubt that Mr. Gore will use the defense against black swans defense, described as an investment strategy by a Talieb knocker.

I do hope that legal action will bring us relief from Mr. Gores Gas.

Jul 2, 2009 - 7:01 pm 8. blert:

With Pelosi & Co it’s Triumph of the Bill.

Jul 2, 2009 - 7:06 pm 9. wretchard:

James Taranto, writing in the Wall Street Journal, is astounded at how hard some outlets are trying to spin bad economic news as “good news”. Not as bad as we thought; light at the end of the tunnel. Sample quotes include, “US Loses Just 345,000 Jobs in May, Raising Hopes” and “Economists expect the pace of layoffs to keep tapering off”. But I think the Pollyanna prize has to go to the NYT for this gem: “the figures also raised questions about whether the Obama administration, which has already passed a $787 billion stimulus plan, needed to step in again to shore up the American worker”.

Get it? The gas pedal isn’t working so press down harder.

Personally I think that behind this optimism there is probably a rising panic. This is like one of those movie scenes when the teacher gets the schoolkids to sing because she doesn’t want them to notice the volcano visible in the distance about to erupt. Watching the tone of the MSM is a good indicator. I’m waiting for the moment when the band stops playing a ragtime tune and begins “Nearer My God to Thee”.

Jul 2, 2009 - 7:28 pm 10. Walt:

Yes, global warming is a scam
But that’s not why they try
The lefties only want to jam
Their fingers in our eye
They want the world to be like them
So pure and fresh and clean
And since they’re all crème de la crème
Opposing them is mean
But here is my solution to
The problem they all fear
We’ll simply shift pollution to
The Eastern hemisphere
Here’s how it works, the plan’s a plus
That’s not been thought before
We’ll shift away the stuff from us
Onto a foreign shore
The Western hemisphere declared
Off limits to all kinds
Of stuff that makes enviros scared
And fevers up their minds
We build big fans like we do best
And run them night and day
And have them facing east and west
To blow the stuff away
To change the temps from warm to raw
We change the point of freeze
Then lower all the temps by law
A couple of degrees
Pollution gone and warming dust
That leaves the ocean rise
But as for that I fear we must
Take that as a surmise

Jul 2, 2009 - 8:38 pm 11. Brooks:

TD Lysenko, anyone?

Jul 2, 2009 - 8:39 pm 12. Marcus Aurelius:

Wretchard,

You hit it. For most of the eight years under W the economy was doing quite well as good as it was during the peak of the Clinton years, but we were bombarded with stories about the bleak economy. Now, its “funemployment”, nearly 3/8 million more people can now sleep in, skip shaving, perhaps work on their swing.

Jul 2, 2009 - 8:44 pm 13. Doug:

Wretchard,
CNN’s take is that life is better because people are finding they enjoy the simpler pleasures more than the pleasures that they can no longer afford.

I’ve always preferred when that was a choice, not a necessity.

Jul 2, 2009 - 8:44 pm 14. Doug:

Betty Nguyen
is speaking with the Your Money host, Christine Romans, about the economy.

Betty Nguyen, says,
“Christine Romans is here to explain. How did we do in the first half of the year?” ( laughing) This is Monday on CNN.

ROMANS: (giddy)
We’ve seen a spring stock market rally that has been quite incredible!
Job losses are slowing!
Consumer confidence is improving!

People are feeling a little better.
They’re feeling better because they’re spending less.
They’re saving more money.
They’re getting back to basics.
There’s a new frugality that’s making them feel better.

There was a hu-u-uuge rally in the stock market in the second quarter.
The stock market [is] telling us that it thinks things are going to get better eventually, and you’re going to see that rally.
If you are still invested in stocks — if you had faith and you were buying stocks along the way this spring, you’re buying them at cheap prices —
you’re going to see that rally when you open up your 401(k) statement.

Jul 2, 2009 - 8:50 pm 15. peterike:

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. So how do I get a job as a climate change bureaucrat?

Jul 2, 2009 - 8:56 pm 16. Tcobb:

Get it? The gas pedal isn’t working so press down harder.
Yes. In the US the “progressives” are in power now. I don’t think there is anything that can discredit them more than actually having their policies put into practice.

Jul 2, 2009 - 9:04 pm 17. Robohobo:

Mad Fiddler @ 3: “And the idea that this kid actually understands the significance of the alleged concepts and data she cites, would require us to swallow the idea that she’s had more meteorologic, geologic, astronomical, physics, and chemistry science and math training than 99 percent of secondary graduates.”

Reminds me of the scene in Men In Black where Will Smith is in the firing qual scene and dusts the little girl in pigtails! His answer is that she was carrying quantum theory texts and was the only one of the creatures that was threatening! One of the funnier in that movie!

LOTM @ 5: Yeah, the answer to any of this is okay, you first! Quit polluting by breathing! That is really where this is all going.

Wade @ 7: “…eventually we all see the hockey stick happen.”

Mmmmm, not so much. Here is the deal. I forget who but this scientist type decided to do some looking at the data because the data structure looked not right. (Which is true, being a math guy, meself.) He got the output data and asked for the program from the source, which I believe was NASA. They said, nope, it is proprietary, you can’t have it. His response was okay, don’t need it and proceeded to reconstruct the ‘black box’ (he treated the unknown program as a black box and tried to recreate the program) of the program because he had the inputs and the outputs. Math wise, you can do that. The science is tight and it is a widely used technique. What he found was that the “hockey stick” did not occur. Then he looked at why. What he found is that any system that was patched for Y2K effects did NOT have hockey stick outputs BUT that those that were not patched did. He published and NASA(?) fixed their system. They reposted the new data but did not broadcast what had happened. IOW, the “hockey stick” graph was the product of an incorrectly patched computer system and when corrected, the “hockey stick” disappeared. They have reposted the data but not told anyone of the screw-ups they made.

IOW, AGW is based on false if not fraudulent data outputs. AGW does not exist outside of normal, natural cycles. Maunder minimum, etc. Right now the solar system planets whose surface heating based on surface albedo are ALL showing the same temperature changes.

The Cap’N Tax bill currently under consideration is purely punitive to the American system and a fraud based on bad evidence. Think statist power and control. If it is passed, be sure that the way of life we have will be forced into change that will destroy it. I think that is the plan of The 0bamanation & Co. Perpetual power. Just look at what he has done and the causes he is supporting.

Jul 2, 2009 - 9:07 pm 18. ambisinistral:

Now, its “funemployment”, nearly 3/8 million more people can now sleep in, skip shaving, perhaps work on their swing.

I worked with a young woman who was a huge Obama fan. What thrilled her most about him was that Europe was going to go back to loving the United States. She liked to travel you see, and I suppose she figured she could finally take the Maple Leaf stickers off her luggage.

The previous paragraph is in the past tense, not because she died, but because she got laid off. I ran across her taking her last box of office junk to her car. All things considered, she was quite chipper. She gushed that now she could move to a foreign country and engage in her passion — making jewelry.

Aside from the fact that craft show jewelers are a dime a dozen, I wondered how she was going to buy a ticket to anywhere; and if she could afford plane fare, what country was eager to open their borders to a vagrant posing as an artist to be an immigrant/expat/mooch? Of course I was too polite to point that out. It would not have done any good anyways and besides, she’s probably happy enough to be on Obama’s compassionately delivered dole for the time being.

My only hope is next time around the knucklehead will be too disillusioned to vote.

Jul 2, 2009 - 9:52 pm 19. Joe Hill:

They say a recession is when your neighbor gets layedd off and a depression is when you get layed off. While I have seen nothing but layoffs and Indian contractors at my leading provider of global information employers offices for some years now the recession has just hit. My neighbor a project manager with Fannie Mae, father of three oldest maybe 9, owner of a house bought at the top of the market and Obama supporter just got his redundancy notice.

He is a fine fellow with nice kids, a basset hound, and an endless “honey do” list. A little while back his Mum passed and he inherited a little money some of which he put into the house and the rest Fannie Mae stock. Needless to say the stock thing didn’t work out so well and he is probably underwater on the mortgage as well. With three young children his wife works a few hours a week as a clerk at a small local shop.

Things will get worse before they get better now even if every proaganda machine were shut down tomorrow and their editors suddenly came to terms with the world as it is and not as they wish it were.

Jul 2, 2009 - 9:58 pm 20. Cowboy:

Haha, Wretchard, I too await “Nearer My God To Thee.” Please, please let it come — that’s my hope.

I wonder if it’s coming though. We’re on permanent duty on the windmill vigil, literally and figuratively, my friend.

The Man from La Mancha is writ law in these United States these days. We’re going to find out the limit of how stupid bad things can get, how many taxes we can take, how few jobs to around we’ll tolerate, etc.

Prognosis: not good. Folks can take a lot a pain before they fight back. A lot. The United States will lose its leadership in the world before people fight back. It will, easily.

What’s the world going to do about that meanwhile, this is the question?

Jul 2, 2009 - 10:26 pm 21. Marcus Aurelius:

One of my Facebook buddies (and an “ina-anak” of mine) who went left put up a thing about how President Obama is boosting the non-profit sector. Obama certainly seems to be making war on profit. I bit my tongue.

My former gigalo was an software firm & pro services, I was in pro services. This firm is based in Detroilet and had lots of pro-services with the Big Three. This firm had major numbers of people hitting the bench, mostly from The Big Three and we had two bench clearings. Maybe more, but I quite paying attention to that company after I got caught up in the second bench clearing (I knew that silverware set I had just got for ten years wasn’t worth that much – funny, get laid off one day and receive a ten year anniversary gift the next day).

One of my former clients one of the few remaining mainframe shops in the area is thinking of moving out of state, thanfully, my skills and knowledge is somewhat diversified. I have been interviewing on a somewhat regular basis but in the end employers can ask (for instance) for 20 years of java experience and will wait until they find such a person.

Jul 2, 2009 - 10:30 pm 22. PA Cat:

19 Joe Hill

They say a recession is when your neighbor gets layedd off and a depression is when you get layed off.

There’s another version of that making the rounds:

Recession: When your neighbor loses his job.
Depression: When you lose your job.
Recovery: When Obama loses his job.

Jul 2, 2009 - 11:02 pm 23. twobyfour:

Waxman-Markey (Malarkey? Malarchy?) is part power-grab, part enviro-fantasy. Here are 50 reasons to stop it:
The Garden of Piggish Delights (a.k.a. Four legs good–two legs better)

Jul 2, 2009 - 11:15 pm 24. Marcus Aurelius:

I worked with a young woman who was a huge Obama fan. What thrilled her most about him was that Europe was going to go back to loving the United States. She liked to travel you see, and I suppose she figured she could finally take the Maple Leaf stickers off her luggage. Hehehe, I don’t recall Clinton in office did much for our nation’s likability either.

I remember once when in Toronto I was listening to some talk radio and they were going on how they found that the ole maple leaf on a backpack did wonders for them when picking up chicks overseas (i.e. the women in furren lands didn’t want Yanks or as the Aussies will say “sepos”). The funniest call was a Canuck who said the best luck he had was when he was mistaken for a Yank.

So, we’ve done bank bailouts, auto manufacturing bailouts, and we have state bailouts. CA is issuing IOUs and will pay them off by the sale of IOUs. Or out and out grants paid for by the taxpayers in the year 2525. This does not even begin to address cap and trade & a health care takeover.

On Special Report this (err last) evening Fred Barnes was apoplectic about CA and said the CA govt. needs to cut its spending and lay off state workers. Juan Williams, almost comically, chided Fred for being so cold. Charles K. defended Fred in asking why govt workers should be exempt from layoff. Krauthammer, was noting circumstances are just so that tax increases are going to be necessary. Either way, via confiscatory taxes or inflation we sill lose wealth.

Jul 2, 2009 - 11:27 pm 25. buddy larsen:

MA/21; –Patrick Byrne of Overstock dot com is right now hiring java people –and moving them to Utah. Ahhh, Utah. Among other things, the last word in “Raising Arizona”.

Jul 3, 2009 - 12:01 am 26. Realist:

Anyone with at least 1/4 of a brain who lived thru the brief “global freezing” scare of the early ’70s which quietly flubbed as all its predictions were far more than just wrong, knows that the current global warming scare — originally justified by models created BY THE SAME GLOBAL FREEZING CHARLATANS — is just as much hooey as the first attempt of these 4th rate scientists to achieve name recognition and income from engagements to speak to crowds of ignoramuses and retards. All the data shows — repeat ALL the available historic data, bar none — that although CO2 and atmospheric temperature are correlated, it is WITHOUT EXCEPTION the case that atmospheric temperature changes first, THEN much later the co2 level rises. It rises because of evaporation of co2 dissolved in the sea, more of which enters the atmosphere when surface sea temperatures are warmed. This is true for the data Gore shows in his famous “documendacity,” which he intentionally squeezes into a long time scale over a small chart so that the detail is obscured, since it shows the precise opposite cause & effect that he knows is the correct one in reality. The atmosphere has been far warmer in the past than now, and it has had at times at least 20 times the co2 concentration as at present. And… those times were wonderful times when plant and animal “biodiversity” flourished, as any botanist would tell you is the natural consequence of a little warming. That’s why life is easier in the warmer latitudes and terribly harsh in the northerly ones. We should PRAY (if religious) for global warming because it would go a long way toward ending world hunger, expanding the rain forests, increasing biodiversity and making this planet more of a heaven on earth than it already has the capacity to be. But the advocates of the global warming hoax are just SO incredibly uninformed (or such liars) that they are either unaware of (or hiding) their hypocrisy in advocating a war on non-existent man-caused warming that would, even if correct, accomplish all the other goals they claim to worship. It would be a colossal joke if these neanderthal numbskulls weren’t so populous and endowed with the voting power to destroy the lives of their betters along with their own suicides.
If you want to know about Climate Change ask a Geologist not a Meteorologist who can’t even tell you what the weather will be like tomorrow.

Jul 3, 2009 - 12:22 am 27. Ron Hardin:

I doubt the media is interested in anything other than audience eyeballs.

Jul 3, 2009 - 1:47 am 28. Ron Hardin:

Here’s my choice for media characterization page
link.

Jul 3, 2009 - 1:49 am 29. Fletcher Christian:

A few points:

To those who say “reduce CO2 emissions by stopping breathing” – sorry but that doesn’t wash. The carbon you’re releasing was fixed some time ago, probably less than a year, by some plant or other and hence is part of the Earth’s normal carbon cycle. Completely irrelevant to the fossil carbon issue. Of course, if the person doing the dying is American, he or she will indirectly stop releasing more CO2 than a citizen of just about any other country might, given that Americans use more fossil fuel per capita.

CO2 is a plant fertiliser? Maybe. However, it has been directly demonstrated that the extra plant matter is much less nutritious than without the CO2, so for raising crops it’s useless if it’s nutrition you’re after. (Micronutrients and protein, I mean.)

More usable land area. Maybe. However, it won’t be in America. Canada would be growing more crops, but the American southwest would change from semidesert to full desert, and much of the Great Plains would become as Arizona is now. Come to think of it, maybe that wouldn’t be a bad idea; Jesusland becoming a desert sounds good to me!

CO2 was higher in the deep geological past? Sure. However, that was long enough ago that the Sun wasn’t as bright. In addition, the problem with climate change as usually discussed is the speed of the change.

Random other stuff: Ocean acidification is a problem because quite a lot of aquatic organisms have calcite shells, which can’t be formed in water even slightly more acid than it is now. Also, slight warming of ocean water and melting of permafrost has the possible consequence of the release of gigatons of methane locked into said permafrost and in ocean-bottom methane clathrate deposits. Methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than any other natural substance.

Of course, there is the related issue that the comsumption of one particular form of fossil fuel creates political instability all over the world, because of where the bulk of those deposits are.

So, let’s sum up; the rest of the world is expected to live with the threat of irreversible harm to the biosphere, major shifting of climatic zones and the potential of global jihad, possibly nuclear war – all so that Americans can carry on driving SUVs and other gas-guzzlers and setting their AC to near-arctic levels. That about right?

Jul 3, 2009 - 2:07 am 30. Beverly:

“The Cap’N Tax bill currently under consideration is PURELY PUNITIVE TO THE AMERICAN SYSTEM and a FRAUD based on bad evidence. Think STATIST POWER and control. If it is passed, be sure that the way of life we have will be forced into change that will destroy it. I think that is the plan of The 0bamanation & Co. Perpetual power. Just look at what he has done and the causes he is supporting.”

AMEN, brother Robohobo! PREACH it. We need to shout this from the rooftops, relentlessly. Drive it through our fellow citizens’ thick skulls.

Jul 3, 2009 - 2:10 am 31. Beverly:

Ah. Just noticed that Fletcher, above, is posting the same lies, nonsense, and anti-science to claim that AGW will wreck the biosphere.

How’s this for a slice of prime paranoia, Moonbat style: “So, let’s sum up; the rest of the world is expected to live with the threat of irreversible harm to the biosphere, major shifting of climatic zones and the potential of global jihad, possibly nuclear war – all so that Americans can carry on driving SUVs and other gas-guzzlers and setting their AC to near-arctic levels. That about right?”

Amazing, isn’t it? These people and their fallacious arguments are as tenacious as the zombies in the Night of the Living Dead. It’s exhausting, really, to refute them over and over, only to have them stick their arms through the windows and grab for our necks AGAIN.

I particularly appreciated the little detail he slips in there that Americans’ driving SUVs is what causes Muslim fanatics’ heads to explode. I suppose if we all started getting around in Priuses, Bin Liner would send us a note saying, “Sorry, Bradford, old fruit: now that you’re not trashing the Biosphere with your lousy SUV and buying all our oil, we’re ready to call off the global Jihad!”

Yeesh.

Jul 3, 2009 - 2:19 am 32. Realist:

Fletcher come back when YOU or indeed ANYONE has proved that MAN MADE CO2 changes anything let alone irreversibly . If you want to preach your Green NAZI Gospel go to a ‘libtard’ or Obambi worship site where gullible fools go people here don’t fall for your BS. Climate Change is a long cycle controlled MAINLY although not exclusively by the Suns activity which is why the earth has been COOLING since 1998 . Now I know this is an INCONVENIENT TRUTH for all you Green NAZIS as it completely blows out of the water all your SUV and Gas Guzzler BS unless of course you want to introduce a NEW THEORY do you ‘Time Sensitive CO2′. You Green NAZIS are pathetic.

Jul 3, 2009 - 2:22 am 33. Realist:

THE SUN IS BEHIND GLOBAL WARMING

The consensus Gree NAZI view is that man-made CO2 is causing the lion’s share of global warming. But natural changes in the Sun’s power are really to blame.

There is good evidence that the cause of global warming is an increase in the intensity of the Sun’s heat. Indeed, global temperatures appear to be more closely related to solar activity, which is constantly changing, than to levels of CO2 in the atmosphere and the earths temperature has been declining since 1998 in line with a decrease in Sunspot activity.

After all, the Earth warmed up more during medieval times than during the 20th century no SUV ’s ar gas guzzlers then, and it cooled down considerably during the Little Ice Age of the 16th and 17th centuries – without any manmade event that would have affected CO2 output.

Temperatures also dipped between 1940 and 1975 – a period of intense industrial activity and massive coal usage.

Meanwhile, data from between 1880 and 2000 shows a close correlation between increased solar activity and higher average temperatures on Earth. So couldn’t it be that the Sun is responsible for heating us up after all?

THE MALDIVES AREN’T SINKING

It has become a key part of the climate change mantra that some of the world’s most beautiful islands are at risk of sinking below the waves, thanks to sea level rises caused by global warming.

But so confident are property owners in the Maldives that the sea is receding, they are building a flurry of lavish seafront hotels. Meanwhile, Tuvalu in the Pacific – also cited as being most at risk – has actually seen a fall in sea levels.
Maldives

The Maldives aren’t sinking: Property owners continue to build lavish hotels

CO2 LEVELS ARE NOT AT UNPRECEDENTED HIGHS

Today, about 0.038 per cent of the atmosphere consists of carbon dioxide, the main man-made climate change gas. This figure has certainly risen over the past 200 years or so – the ‘pre-industrial’ level of CO2 was closer to 0.02 per cent.

But what is often ignored is that in the Earth’s past, carbon dioxide levels have often been as much as ten times higher than they are today.

For example, during the Cretaceous era, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, CO2 levels were five to ten times what they are today. The planet was certainly warmer then, but life thrived and there was no runaway greenhouse catastrophe of the sort that the doom-mongers insist we face if we let levels rise further. They also, it should be noted, came down again naturally.

POLAR BEARS ARE NOT DYING OUT…

The doom-mongers love showing us images of polar bears in peril, floating on isolated ice rafts. But most populations are doing very well, thank you. Despite the (limited) melting seen in the Arctic ice cap over the past 50 years, polar bear numbers have more than doubled since 1950 – and that’s despite the fact that 50 to 100 bears are now shot every year.

Indeed, polar bears aren’t bothered by the odd stretch of open water – they are very capable swimmers.

In fact, it is not even clear that the Arctic ice is melting. The summer of 2008 was the coldest in Anchorage, Alaska, for 40 years.

…NOR ARE THE PENGUINS

And it’s a similar story at the South Pole. Although some Antarctic penguin colonies, especially those near human bases, have decreased in size, overall, penguin numbers are steady or increasing.
Gentoo penguins

Penguins are not dying out: Overall numbers are steady or increasing

THE GULF STREAM IS NOT UNDER THREAT

Some scientists have warned that if the Arctic ice cap melts, the resulting flood of cold water in the Atlantic could push the Gulf Stream – the warm current which keeps Britain relatively balmy – further south. If this happens, they have made dire predictions that northern Europe could become a frozen wasteland.

Unfortunately for them, there is no evidence to support this view. In fact, the Gulf Stream is as strong as ever – and is getting warmer, not colder. Nor is it changing direction.

GLOBAL WARMING MIGHT EVEN BE GOOD FOR US

A warmer climate and an increase in CO2 will be a boon for farming and agriculture in general. One can even envisage returning to the warmer landscape of Roman times, when vineyards were common in England.

With less severe winters, it will also be possible to grow many crops that, because they are susceptible to the occasional frost, cannot be grown at present.

THERE ARE FEW ‘BAD’ FOODS
Young woman eating hamburger

No ‘bad’ foods: Hamburgers provide good nutritional value

Received wisdom, repeated by many doctors and public health professionals, says we can remain fit and avoid disease by cutting out certain ‘bad foods’ from our diets.

Indeed, it is variously claimed that 35-50 per cent of all cancers are caused by the food we eat.

But while they are despised by the culinary elite, readily available hamburgers, sausages and pizzas have provided good nutritional value for many low-income families, who in previous days could afford only low-protein, high-carbohydrate, high-fat meals such as bread and dripping, and chip butties.

In fact, fears about hamburgers and sausages in Britain are especially irrational. Most countries have a national dish based on minced or processed meat – and none is suffering from an epidemic of junk food-inspired illness.

For example, meatballs are used in many guises in the Middle East, chopped meat on a bed of onions is a national dish in the Balkans, and mince is also used in countless Italian sauces.

The terrines and pâtés of France and Belgium also contain processed chopped meat. Obesity is not caused by these foods, but by those who choose to gorge on them.

Studies claiming to show the negative impact of a ‘junk food’ diet usually have little scientific validity.

ORGANIC FOOD IS NO BETTER FOR YOU

A widespread belief has emerged that organic foods are better for you than others because they do not contain ‘chemicals’ used in large- scale conventional farming.

This dogma is wrong. All plant nutriment comes from the air, in the form of CO2, and from water-soluble chemicals in the soil.

The composition of these chemicals is the same, whether they come from a plastic bag or from ‘natural’ manure or compost. They are certainly the same by the time they are on your plate.

THERE’S NO NEED TO CUT BACK ON SALT

Salt is an essential food. Without it, we would die. Land-based mammals-such as humans control their body temperature by sweating and panting.

Sweating is impossible without sufficient salt. In fact, strenuous exercise in a person depleted of salt causes overheating and death.

The Government has caved in to the anti-salt zealots in its advice to reduce salt intake. However, there is, in fact, very little, if any, truly scientific evidence that cutting back on it will do you any good.

TURKEY TWIZZLERS ARE FINE

The much-disparaged Turkey Twizzler, bugbear of TV chef Jamie Oliver, is made of recovered turkey meat and provides the same amino acids as normal turkey breast.

Corned beef, now an unfashionable meat product, is also no less nutritious than any other beef, although, like Turkey Twizzlers, it is also a reclaimed meat product.
Bernard Matthews’ Turkey Twizzlers frozen foods.

Turkey Twizzlers are fine: The recovered meat provides the same amino acids as regular turkey breast meat

WE DON’T KNOW WHAT CAUSES HEART DISEASE

The medical (and social) consensus is that cardiovascular disease is caused by being overweight, by having a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet and by unhealthy activities such as smoking.

While being morbidly obese, eating nothing but lard and smoking 60 a day will probably lead to an early grave, there is nevertheless a lot of confusion about the precise link between lifestyle and this, the biggest killer of all.

Many people with high cholesterol levels in their blood do not get heart disease. Many people with very low levels do.

The very low levels of heart disease recorded in some populations, notably the Japanese, may have more to do with cultural variation and prejudice than with medical reality (in many societies, what are, in fact, heart attacks are often listed on death certificates as ’strokes’).

Furthermore, some of the lowest levels of cholesterol and arterial sclerosis are to be found in populations such as the Inuit and Siberian hunter-gatherers, who live on a diet which is incredibly high in saturated fat.

TAKE HEALTH ADVICE WITH A PINCH OF SALT

Everything seems to be bad for you these days, but there is also plenty of scientific evidence to the contrary.

Eggs seldom contain salmonella, even if some chickens do. Cholesterol in the diet does not cause fatty deposits in your arteries. There is probably little difference between the effect of saturated and unsaturated fats.

In those with normal kidney function, salt does not cause high blood pressure. Those with a body-mass index of between 25 and 32 live as long as or longer than those with a lower BMI. And avoiding the sun causes vitamin D deficiency; a suntan is nature’s natural sun block, although sunburn is to be avoided.

MERCURY FILLINGS ARE PROBABLY HARMLESS

Anti-mercury campaigners believe that the mercury used in dental fillings will make you ill (mercury is a potent poison).

But a single amalgam filling provides just 0.03 micrograms/day of mercury, which is almost 3,000 times less than the safety level permitted for persons with occupational exposure to mercury, and is too small to be responsible for any symptoms.

Extracted from Global Warming And Other Bollocks: The Truth About All Those Science Scare Stories by Professor Stanley Feldman and Professor Vincent Marks, to be published by Metro on July 8 at £9.99 © 2009 Stanley Feldman and Vincent Marks. To order a copy (p&p free) call 0845 155 0720.

Science and ideology don’t mix. They never have and they never will. The house of cards that is the science behind “climate change” is collapsing at exactly the same time it is being imposed by the Obama administration and Congress as an ideological “truth.” America is facing the perfect storm of an imploding scientific theory that will be enforced by the rule of law.

Make no mistake: the big bad wolf of truth is about to blow the straw house of global warming to bits. This is why there was a sudden shift, in the last nine months, from the use of “man made global warming” to “climate change” by the proponents of the theory.

The scientific tug of war over whether or not the planet is heating or cooling has been going on for over 100 years. The difference between the past and our current situation is that governments around the world are passing (or attempting to pass) draconian laws and enforcing (or attempting to enforce) authoritarian treaties in order to “regulate” the planet’s temperature.

The predictions of impending doom are nothing new. Business and Media Institute published an article titled “Fire and Ice” that details the media’s historical treatment of the debate. The article includes these two charts of historical time lines that say it all:

time line

time line

I predicted months ago (in a couple of different places), “Man made global warming” would be replaced with the new term “climate change.” The reason for this shift: the proponents of man made global warming are having a tough time with the evidence.

The original hypothesis foretold, and the computer models affirmed, an exponential increase in temperatures was being caused by the exponential increase in man made green house gases. The exponential increase in CO2 is, apparently, occurring; but the exponential increase in temperature (predicted as a result of the increase in CO2) is not.

The earth’s overall temperature in the last several years has either remained steady or slightly decreased — depending on which side of the issue is interpreting the data. No one is maintaining that the world is getting warmer and warmer every single year, which was the initial prediction.[i]

Nevertheless, the current administration is risking America’s economic future on “green” energy in an effort to solve an unproven crisis. The cap and trade legislation is moving ahead in spite of the fact that the United States is already one of the leading nations in curtailing CO2 output.

Other countries, which are rapidly expanding their manufacturing base, are doing exactly the opposite. China, for example, now uses more coal for producing power than the US, Europe, and Japan combined. President Obama, on the other hand, has openly called for the destruction of the coal industry in the United States.

Obama wants to build windmills instead:

We’re going to have to, I think, invest heavily in clean energy. And if we have a cap and trade system, we can generate $150 billion over ten years to invest in solar and wind and biodiesel and train people to build windmills and build solar panels and make buildings more energy efficient. And make alternative fuels.

There are two problems with the President’s approach. Windmills don’t reduce the amount of CO2 (if that is really the issue) and windmills don’t provide nearly the amount of energy promised.

The President has promised to pump billions of dollars into new “green” energy systems. Hundreds of companies will lay claim to the federal dollars and America will soon have a new Silicon Valley that produces windmills and solar panels. The problem with this strategy is that, absent subsidies and regulations, there is no real market anywhere in the world for these products.

So while America fails to provide inexpensive and reliable energy sources that would attract and hold real manufacturing in the United States, countries like, China, Japan, India (and even most countries in Europe) will move, full steam ahead, with fuels including nuclear, coal, and natural gas. These are far more efficient forms of energy production than wind or solar.

Look down the road America. In ten years, energy prices in the United States are going to go through the roof. China, by comparison, will have less expensive (and more abundant) energy, cheaper labor, and fewer regulations. Who, in his or her right mind, would start a new manufacturing company in the US when faced with such obstacles?

How much will this new cleaner energy cost the average citizen? CNN recently reported:

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that under a hypothetical cap and trade law, this would cost a household an average of $1,600 a year for the first ten years…

This means that every family in America will be paying more money for less reliable energy.

Obama’s proposal is based on environmental ideology — not on science. He has proposed a system that is guaranteed, in the long run, to provide fewer jobs and more expensive energy for all Americans.

That is a lot of change … and no hope.

Jul 3, 2009 - 2:27 am 34. Fletcher Christian:

Beverly, I actually agree with you. It could be made much simpler; for an example of one of the measures, a very large tax increase on gasoline. Of course, that measure would be the final nail in Detroit’s coffin, given that Americans either don’t know how to make fuel-efficient cars or just plain don’t want to.

How about a mandatory minimum temperature setting of 75 deg F on AC equipment? How about mandatory door curtains on industrial buildings and loading bays?

Jul 3, 2009 - 3:00 am 35. Peter Boston:

Can we still call it the Enlightenment when it’s so obvious that people with infinitely more “knowledge” at their disposal are perhaps even more orthodox and more superstitious than their 1,000 year old ancestors?

The people who so ardently seek poverty, misery and death should have it. And be done with them.

Jul 3, 2009 - 5:09 am 36. Aristide:

Act Now! Sieg Heil! Act Now! Sieg Heil!

Jul 3, 2009 - 5:19 am 37. Clioman:

What’s the difference between a cult and a religion? Funding. And to a believer, what’s even more satisfying than money willingly given? Why of course, it’s when you can take money from the unwilling hands of disbelievers.

Jul 3, 2009 - 5:21 am 38. Harry MacD:

Fletcher:

The premise of AGW is flawed. Paleo climate records of multiple deglaciation cycles conclusively demonstrate that (1) increases in CO2 come app. 800 years AFTER temperatures begin increasing and (2) when temperatures begin to fall from their peak, they fall for a similar period despite increasing levels of CO2.

CO2 increases lag increases in temperature, and are a result, not a cause of global warming.

The asserted residence time of anthropgenic CO2 necessary to support the fraudulent claims of the warmists is obviously false given the gigantic size of annual CO2 exchange between the various sources and sinks as a percentage of the total volume of CO2 in the atmosphere.

The asserted amplification of warming from water vapor is also false and fraudulent. Increased water vapor causes increased cloud formation, which increases albedo.

The empirical data falsifies the models and theories of the warmists at nearly every turn, but still they persist, and suppress those who dissent. It is not actual science; it is political science or secular religion.

There has never been a runaway warming in the past, and there won’t be in the future. Even if there is, adaptation would be cheaper than the insane delusion of managing the climate by regulating the single variable of CO2 emmissions.

Jul 3, 2009 - 5:41 am 39. Wadeusaf:

17. Robohobo: Them hockey sticks refer more to a collapsing solar system, but you are right, we won’t be around to see that either. The Reverend Mr. Gore however, contends that man made contributions to the atmosphere are going to cause the blade thin sliver of habitable gaseous mixture on the earth’s time line, to dissipate into some other sustainable gas mix era, and it is in that context the AGW hockey stick science has been shown to be bunk.

@ 29. Fletcher Christian:

“Of course, there is the related issue that the comsumption of one particular form of fossil fuel creates political instability all over the world, because of where the bulk of those deposits are.

“So, let’s sum up; the rest of the world is expected to live with the threat of irreversible harm to the biosphere, major shifting of climatic zones and the potential of global jihad, possibly nuclear war – all so that Americans can carry on driving SUVs and other gas-guzzlers and setting their AC to near-arctic levels. That about right?”

As an indicator of human economic activity, the ability to choose to drive an SUV is a measure of freedom, and market forces. It is not the measure of a gnats wing’s velocity having any ability much less the probability to cause a hurricane, or tornado or even a decent cooling puff of air.

As an ingredient in the process of photosynthesis (6CO2 + 6H2O + Energy results in C6H12O6 + 6O2), CO2 is a major component, and it plays an equally auspicious role in the respiration of plants.

The problem is not the economic activity itself or in progress as a means of promoting wider spread abundance, but in the cash flow of reward and risk and the power purchased in being able to control economic behavior. If I cannot drive my suv, some poor sot in some third world country may not be able to afford to educate his children or give the drugs required to save lives and combat hunger as a consequence.

Oh, and the ability of a truck to seal a dock door, does more to maintain temperature of a climate controlled warehouse or “industrial building” than a curtain. Most warehouses are not climate controlled and those that are do zealously monitor the price of power.

Jul 3, 2009 - 5:54 am 40. Bill C.:

Fletcher, how can you both agree with Beverly, yet post what you wrote in #34? The only phrase that comes to mind is “double-think” (or “lie”).

How about we don’t limit freedom by limiting mobility? Or let people decide whether an expenditure on energy usage is worth it?

Do you think any of your grand ideas for imposing more rules would have the slightest effect on the level of CO2 in the atmosphere (not that CO2 has a controlling effect on global temperatures)?

Please educate yourself on predicted “global warming fingerprints” vs. observed data. Then research to what extent high altitude cloud formation is included in AGW models (it isn’t). If you understand what you find, you will not be able to parrot the talking points so confidently.

Jul 3, 2009 - 5:54 am 41. RWE:

I think that where this is heading, ultimately, is criminal trials for those who predicted, promoted and profited from the Global Warming brand of fascism.

I just hope that by that time we will have learned of the considerable judicial utility of having the firing squads held right outside the courthouse 15 min after the verdict is pronounced.

Jul 3, 2009 - 6:21 am 42. Paul:

Mr. Christian,

In regards to your post above, let’s go through each of your AGW talking points.

1) The carbon you’re releasing was fixed some time ago, probably less than a year, by some plant or other and hence is part of the Earth’s normal carbon cycle. Completely irrelevant to the fossil carbon issue.

How do you think fossil carbon became fossil carbon? It’s still part of a carbon cycle, just a bit longer than what you describe. The fossil carbon would eventually be recycled into the atmosphere, anyway.

2) CO2 is a plant fertiliser? Maybe. However, it has been directly demonstrated that the extra plant matter is much less nutritious than without the CO2, so for raising crops it’s useless if it’s nutrition you’re after. (Micronutrients and protein, I mean.)

This is a red herring if I ever saw one. CO2 is to plants as O2 is to animals. They need it to survive. There are countless studies and experiments that time and time again have shown that increased atmospheric CO2 increases plant mass, hardiness, and resistance to drought.

More usable land area. Maybe. However, it won’t be in America. Canada would be growing more crops, but the American southwest would change from semidesert to full desert, and much of the Great Plains would become as Arizona is now. Come to think of it, maybe that wouldn’t be a bad idea; Jesusland becoming a desert sounds good to me!

Did a computer model tell you that? It seems to me that the computer models are having a tough time predicting temperatures despite CO2 concentrations continuing to rise. Now, you tell us that the Great Plains will be a desert. Based on what? Crappy computer models? You know what they say about computer models? GIGO

CO2 was higher in the deep geological past? Sure. However, that was long enough ago that the Sun wasn’t as bright. In addition, the problem with climate change as usually discussed is the speed of the change.

So, you’re saying that the Sun does have something to do with climate change, eh? As far as speed goes, ever here of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum?

Ocean acidification is a problem because quite a lot of aquatic organisms have calcite shells, which can’t be formed in water even slightly more acid than it is now.

That’s interesting. How would you explain the presence of limestone formations 1,000s of feet thick that are made up of nothing more than the shells and testes of marine invertebrates. These carbonate formations were formed hundreds of millions of years ago when CO2 concentrations were in the 1,000s of ppm and earth’s temperature averaged 20-22C. I thought that their shells couldn’t form. Maybe the laws of physics and chemistry were different back then, eh?

Also, slight warming of ocean water and melting of permafrost has the possible consequence of the release of gigatons of methane locked into said permafrost and in ocean-bottom methane clathrate deposits. Methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than any other natural substance.

Actually, my dear Fletcher, we are working on alleviating that problem even as we speak (write). Methane (aka natural gas) is being drilled and produced in a lot of these areas. Now if the Obama administration would allow them to exploit these deposits are energy problems would be alleviated to some extent and we would be getting rid of that nasty methane at the same time.

Jul 3, 2009 - 6:32 am 43. trangbang68:

Those on the side of liberty ought to make a counter video with a starving urchin castigating the Harvard suits who are wrecking our economy and driving the middle class to penury.

Jul 3, 2009 - 6:48 am 44. trangbang68:

Fletcher, ever with a snarky antichristian comment not germane to the conversation; I wouldn’t worry about Jesus land becoming a desert so much as the cities where the urban elites live turning into violent hell holes when the underclass start getting really hungry when Obama-nomics kills the golden goose of American economic dynamism.
Incidentally, if such a place as Jesusland really existed it would be in the deep south not the great plains. How them Muslims treating you in post-Jesusland?

Jul 3, 2009 - 6:53 am 45. peterike:

The most accurate name spin is Waxman-Moloch.

Jul 3, 2009 - 7:27 am 46. Lucy:

Apparently a child is being used because there is an inherent biological desire to protect children. Seeing a child concerned/terrified of global warming will short-circuit rationality and get adults on the AGW bandwagon. Yet the people who made this vid are the same people who want public funding for abortions. So, much like the Iranians who sent children to clear minefields, the left uses children for their own ends without genuine concern for their wellbeing or even existence.

Jul 3, 2009 - 7:35 am 47. Jeff:

If we’re using children for this pitch, what the *bleep* is an expletive doing in the sum-up of the ad, a particularly hostile and nasty one at that?

Jul 3, 2009 - 7:56 am 48. peterike:

Anyone who screams about AGW and is not, simultaneously, demanding we move full speed forward in building the only legitimate, immediately available alternative power source — nuclear plants — is a hypocrite, a fraud or a fool.

The AGW nuts aren’t even consistent within the context of their own delusions. Who says A must say B. They say A, but they refuse to even acknowledge B.

Anyone who screams about gas-guzzling SUVs supporting jihad and is not simultaneously demanding we move full speed forward in drilling for the massive oil assets available on American soil is a hyporcite, a fraud or a fool.

It would not stop jihad anyway. China and India and Japan and Europe will happily buy up every drop of Middle Eastern oil. They buy most of it now anyway. Only an ignorant fool thinks that it is solely the US which “funds” jihad. The real shame is economic. We send billions of dollars out of the country when that money could circulate here. We employ tens of thousands in producing oil, only we employ them in other countries.

The real shame of Waxman-Moloch is that a TRUE energy bill could actually produce incredible benefits. Start building nuke plants as fast as possible. Start drilling everywhere we can. It would produce jobs. It would create wealth. It would even — pointlessly — decrease CO2 production as we could start taking coal plants off-line.

What it wouldn’t do is hand ultimate economic control over to Washington, which is the only real purpose of the AGW exercise. It’s Al Gore’s World after all, not yours and mine.

Jul 3, 2009 - 8:03 am 49. erc rodson:

A lot of this stuff is based on the Teakettle Principle:

A family goes to the beach,and the small daughter complains that the ocean water is too cold. With great show and ceremony, her father goes back into the beach cottage and heats a teakettle full of water on the stove. When it boils, he carries it to the shore and, again with great flourishes, pours it into the ocean.

“Try it now, honey”, he says, “you’ll likeit a lot better.”

After dipping in a foot, she responds: “Oh, yes, Daddy! That’s much better now.” And happily wades in.

This is the Teakettle Principle. It is to take a true phenomenon and grossly exaggerate it’s impact. AGW is an example.

I would give you more examples, but my family is taking me to the beach today. (Point Reyes)

Jul 3, 2009 - 9:23 am 50. Kinuachdrach:

“Anyone who screams about AGW and is not, simultaneously, demanding we move full speed forward in building the only legitimate, immediately available alternative power source — nuclear plants — is a hypocrite, a fraud or a fool.”

That deserves to be repeated, Peterike.

Apparently, one of the things that the Pelosi-Obama “Cap on Trade” bill does not do is encourage the building of nuclear power plants.

But don’t worry, the nomenklatura will do quite nicely.

Leftists worry that diminishing oil resources will mean wars. Indeed it will. What the leftists haven’t recognized is that it will mean civil wars.

Jul 3, 2009 - 9:24 am 51. WillDoMathForFood:

But…but…but…the first video had cute kids and music and people dancing on the sand, and there was a BEAKER! A BEAKER! Well, a cartoon of a beaker…but, OMG, how can you argue with a BEAKER??? We’re all gonna DIE!!!

Jul 3, 2009 - 11:12 am 52. Lifeofthemind:

Wasn’t Beaker one of the Muppets?

Jul 3, 2009 - 11:42 am 53. peterike:

If you want to educate any poor, deluded souls about AGW, this isn’t a bad place to start. Very easy reading.

http://spectator.org/archives/2009/07/01/cap-and-trade-dementia/

Is there some way we can have this sent to every school child in America?

Jul 3, 2009 - 11:44 am 54. Fen:

Global Socialist: “How about a mandatory minimum temperature setting of 75 deg F on AC equipment?”

Go pound sand. My wife needs 73 minimum, for health reasons.

How about a mandatory execuction for socialist pigs like yourself?

Do you even PAY taxes?

Jul 3, 2009 - 11:45 am 55. Fen:

And anyone want to bet that Fletcher and his “elite” buds will get an exception to a 75 degree min?

One set of laws for them, another for the rest of us. We’ve seen it all before – Moscow residents burning their own furniture to survive the Winter, while the Politburo redirects lumber resources to build their dachas on the Black Sea.

If the walls come down, don’t forget that people like Fletcher are your Enemy. Self-defense is justified.

Jul 3, 2009 - 11:50 am 56. Beaglescout:

We need someone with deep pockets financing counter commercials to these kinds of commercials. There should be a kid drawing the sun in the middle of the solar system, listing how co2 and other gases boil out of the stratosphere into space every day, and demonstrating that if we stop producing co2 not only will plantlife die off, but the atmosphere will start cooling drastically. Then have the kid say that the world economy is now X Trillion and if all these anti CO2 laws are passed it will make the economy contract by 10-20%. That means the kid will grow up in a collapsing economy, unable to work a meaningful job, having to settle for less, in a world where hope for the future has been replaced with hatred of machinery and envy of those who save resources and attempt to make something of them.

Jul 3, 2009 - 12:03 pm 57. WillDoMathForFood:

Actually, on closer inspection, I think it’s supposed to be a thermostat. Whew. I guess we’re OK after all.

Jul 3, 2009 - 12:15 pm 58. no mo uro:

Those of you who have been skeptical of my numerous posts regarding the inherent anti-Christian bigotry of the left, re-read Fletcher Christian’s post referencing “Jesusland” and answer me this:

How little distance is there between where Fletch is philosophically, and where he would have to be to build death camps for people who like to go to church on Sunday?

Jul 3, 2009 - 12:51 pm 59. Lifeofthemind:

“Fletcher Christian” has been called out before for anti-American and anti-Semitic bigotry.

Jul 3, 2009 - 1:02 pm 60. peterike:

“Fletcher” is a Scottish name meaning “maker of arrows.”

So do we have “maker of arrows” shooting them at Christians?

Cute.

Jul 3, 2009 - 1:18 pm 61. blert:

Who’d ever want Fletcher Christian on his crew anyway?

He obviously has issues with authority.

Jul 3, 2009 - 1:27 pm 62. Al_Batross:

So far, this year is looking pretty good for the proponents of solar activity as the major driver of climatic variation.
I am enjoying the relatively cool weather where I am, and admiring the interesting clouds.
I will be very interested to see how the June eruption of Sarychev Peak will feed into the mix. Checking just now, I read that the ash was blasted as high as 54,000 feet. From there, it would have fallen back into the jetstream for distribution around the world and that, unless the ash has a very low sulpher content, should have a cooler summer/wetter winter effect.
odd that the annoying video was filmed on what seemed to be a grey and damp day….

Jul 3, 2009 - 2:09 pm 63. oMan:

Walt (#10). You are scary good, man. SCARY good. Thanks.

Jul 3, 2009 - 3:18 pm 64. buddy larsen:

Trang and Lucy (hey where’s Linus?) 43 & 46; recall that at least until people started giving up in pure frustration, there was quite an effort to point out to the green left what their prescriptions would mean for a hand-to-mouth third world –including of course the children.

Jul 3, 2009 - 3:22 pm 65. Doug:

36. Aristide said,
“Act Now! Sieg Heil! Act Now! Sieg Heil!”

Fletch cannot see you:
He received the first new Chi-Com Computer w/filter.

Jul 3, 2009 - 3:30 pm 66. Doug:

Fletch said:
Also, slight warming of ocean water and melting of permafrost has the possible consequence of the release of gigatons of methane locked into said permafrost and in ocean-bottom methane clathrate deposits. Methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than any other natural substance.

Paul replied:
Actually, my dear Fletcher, we are working on alleviating that problem even as we speak (write). Methane (aka natural gas) is being drilled and produced in a lot of these areas. Now if the Obama administration would allow them to exploit these deposits are energy problems would be alleviated to some extent and we would be getting rid of that nasty methane at the same time.
—
Several hundred million Americans Patriotically converting harmful methane into harmless CO2 in their homes, cars, and places of work.
—
One wonders how the farmers in Iceland just a few hundred years ago could til the soil while breathing all that methane.

Jul 3, 2009 - 3:50 pm 67. Doug:

“Climate scientists such as James Hansen expect that methane clathrates in the permafrost regions will be released as a result of global warming, unleashing powerful feedback forces which may cause runaway climate change that cannot be controlled.”
—
As opposed to the present NORMAL conditions in which we excercise total control.
Or rather, The Messiah does when he’s not busy parting the seas.

Jul 3, 2009 - 4:01 pm 68. buddy larsen:

re “Sieg Heil!”, ole Hitler was your perfect modern greenie –the land, the seasons, the pagan rites, no smoking, no booze, no dissenters, all veggies & plenty of good old state spending, power, control & common-sense methamphetamine logic.

Jul 3, 2009 - 4:15 pm 69. Doug:

…and, he was really good around children.

Jul 3, 2009 - 5:01 pm 70. Doug:

Use Condoms or Make Hitler

A series of German condom advertisements feature a sketch of a sperm made to look like Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Laden or Mao Zedong. Their not so subtle message being,
“Better wrap it up… unless you want to bring evil into the world!”
The ads are arresting and hilarious, but the self-flagellation inherent in them strikes me as being distinctly German:
I can’t imagine many American dudes susceptible to the suggestion that their sperm wear swastikas, or, to use a more purely American parallel, KKK outfits.
(Obviously, their sperm have 90 mile an hour fastballs, good looks and a working familiarity with the art of the deal).

It’s a dark take on procreation, informed by an everyday awareness that people can go really, really bad.
Of course, people can go good as well, and I almost expect to see these images re-purposed for an anti-condom or pro-life campaign, with sperm made to look like Jesus, Abe Lincoln or Martin Luther King Jr.

Jul 3, 2009 - 5:15 pm 71. Doug:

The message: Use a condom, and be sure you’re not bringing the next Osama bin Laden, Adolf Hitler or Mao Zedong into the world.

Jul 3, 2009 - 5:23 pm 72. Doug:

Yellow Alert -Incoming UFOs

Jul 3, 2009 - 5:50 pm 73. buddy larsen:

Whoever thought up the ad, good thing he was around to do it!

Jul 3, 2009 - 6:02 pm 74. Doug:

The Obligatory One:

“I would love to see one with W face on”

Kindly Sergio

Jul 3, 2009 - 6:48 pm 75. bogie wheel:

How about a mandatory minimum temperature setting of 75 deg F on AC equipment?

I already have a very effective temperature control mechanism for my abode. It’s called my electric bill.

And I do my own form of “carbon credit swapping” seasonally. I keep my house quite cold in the summer because I hate to be hot. And I keep it quite cold in the winter because I don’t mind being cold.

When Obama keeps the White House at 65 degrees in the winter like I keep my place, instead of the balmy & tropic 78 he maintained for his personal comfort this past winter (cuz he’s from Hawaii, dontcha know), perhaps then I might, just might, be inclined to listen to what he has to say on domestic temperature adjustments. Until then, it’s like Fen said — laws for thee but not for me.

BTW, I drive a Ford Focus. Before that, for 14 years I drove a Toyota Tercel (which I bought used). And I take the bus to work.

Jul 3, 2009 - 6:51 pm 76. Doug:

Richard Fitzwell said,

“Where’s the Barack Husein Obama one?

He’s already pretty much a douche, but I guess he can be a sperm the world should stop. “

Jul 3, 2009 - 6:55 pm 77. Mad Fiddler:

Dear Fletcher Christian,

I’ve done some reading about methane clathrates. Haven’t seen a word about “global warming” having any effect. The critical fact is that the bulk of methane clathrate deposits are found embedded in the silt strata of benthic ocean bottoms.

DEEP.

The waters at those depths are near freezing at all times, regardless of surface temperatures. (Well, except for volcanic vents.)

Now, I gotta admit right off that I’m just relating information from what I’ve read – I haven’t been down in a bathyscaphe, nor brought up and examined ice cores myself.

Methane clathrates are made up of frozen water ice with methane molecules fixed in one of several geometric matrices possible between the methane and water molecules. Although some atmospheric methane is found fixed in polar ices, they occur mainly in the deep places of the ocean because of methane seeping up through geologic faults from magma. The clathrates can be stable (i.e., remain frozen) up to 18 degrees centigrade at deep sea pressures.

The thing that really does seem to release methane in substantial quantities from those deposits is geothermal warming from magma near the surface.

Interestingly, a map of the occurrence of methane clathrates shows them concentrated around the “Ring of Fire” – the subduction zones where the Pacific plates are being pushed under various continental plates. This suggests that the deposits are both formed AND later released into the atmosphere… by the action of the tectonic plates in their inexorable movements.

Not arguing with *you* F.C., just pointing out that any methane released from the depths of the ocean is likely from vulcanism NOT any anthropogenic etiology.

Jul 3, 2009 - 7:03 pm 78. buddy larsen:

Those darn Himalayas, laying there lewdly with vast areas of their carbon strata exposed, shoot jie-normous co2 into the air, every time some Aolian, Precip, or Fluvial sailor blows by, drops in, or flows past, which they do endlessly.

Steven Chu should paint the Himalayas white too, soon as he gets finished with all the little human rooftops across the scattered continents and beyond the great duh vide.

hey, did Sherwin-Williams get a bail out?

Jul 3, 2009 - 7:50 pm 79. Doug:

You’ve just increased the workload, Fiddler.
Now we have to stop Tectonic Change.

Jul 3, 2009 - 7:52 pm 80. Doug:

…but you did satisfy my curiosity about how the Icelandic Farmers survived the
Global Methane Crisis.

Jul 3, 2009 - 7:53 pm 81. Doug:

Do Volcanoes Spew Vulcans?

Jul 3, 2009 - 7:55 pm 82. Doug:

(of the Star Trek Sort)
Obviously there’s only ONE God of Fire.
PBUH

Jul 3, 2009 - 7:58 pm 83. Doug:

He’s got a magmatic personality.

Jul 3, 2009 - 8:03 pm 84. erc rodson:

Don’t mess with Pele, Brah… Goddess, not God, she be.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pele_(deity)

Jul 3, 2009 - 8:07 pm 85. buddy larsen:

i’ve never met her but i think i lava

Jul 3, 2009 - 8:10 pm 86. bogie wheel:

Doug and Buddy -

Mystery solved. I now know who broke into the schnapps.

Jul 3, 2009 - 8:17 pm 87. Doug:

Right:
Buddy

Jul 3, 2009 - 8:28 pm 88. Realist:

Why is it that Americans get everything Ars* about face:-

1) 89% of violent crime in the USA is committed by Blacks and Hispanics yet on TV and in Hollywoodland all blacks and hispanics are either The BOSS, The very clever Lawyer, The Scientist, The Computer Expert, the cookie but Brilliant nerd and the hero’s bestest, longest and most true friend ever but NEVER the criminal.

2) Michael Jackson and O.J. both rejected their blackness paedophile MJ even turned himself in to an ugly white drug addicted woman who BOUGHT three white children. But in an example of sublime STUPIDITY Jesse Jackson, Farrakand and Al Sharpton are orgasmically treating him as a paragon of black virtue and an example to blacks everywhere. Let me say if blacks think MJ is an example to be emulated then they really have had it.

3) Left wing Moonbats and idiotic Liberals and Green NAZI’s vote in to power a Mohammedan LIAR Messiah and narcissistic megalomaniac who is well on his way to destroying the economy of the USA and setting up a dynasty and the gullible, hysterical emotional fools who put him in to power are STILL too stupid to wake up and smell the coffee.

4) Affirmative action is RACISM writ large.

This was supposed to be the century of the USA and pax Americana but they have blown it already and its only 2009 and why through sheer STUPIDITY thats all.

Jul 3, 2009 - 8:28 pm 89. Doug:

erc, Brah, I no can da kine if you no like da kine.

Jul 3, 2009 - 8:33 pm 90. Realist:

Just to back up what I said about Hollywood and TV’s reverse racism.

NBC’s Law & Order:
Entertainment Serving the Elite
By Nicholas Stix

Throughout history elites have used narratives, usually based on actual events, to shape and control the picture of the world they impose on the societies they rule. Sometimes those narratives depict the heroism of ancestors in the hopes that a dramatic retelling of past exploits will motivate young listeners to emulate them in behalf of the elites. In societies ruled by more ideologically inclined elites, those tales often take the form of morality plays that shape and mold the outlook, values, and judgments of the ruled.

Here in the U.S., elites use the corporate entertainment industry and its vast television audiences to shape the outlook of their constituent populations. But instead of using truthful narratives, American elites resort to lies and distortions so that actual events can be twisted and bent to conform to the propaganda needs of their left-wing ideology.

Consider the case of NBC’s Law & Order, an extremely popular television show. L&O’s left-wing producer, Dick Wolf, controls a stable of five crime-oriented shows (also Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, L.A. Dragnet and Crime & Punishment), making him one of the most powerful men in television. For years, Law & Order, which is filmed in Manhattan, advertised its episodes as being “ripped from the headlines,” a claim Wolf and star Jerry Ohrbach still make in interviews. But instead of depicting reality, Wolf’s scriptwriters take high-profile crimes committed by blacks, and replace the bad guys with whites, even inventing white racist criminals that bear no relation to anything seen in New York during the past 100 years.

And so, even though more than 89 percent of suspects in violent crimes are black or Hispanic according to NYPD crime reports, L&O presents a looking-glass world in the grip of a white crime wave. In “Teenage Wasteland,” an episode that originally aired on February 7, 2001, the true case of a group of black teenagers who ordered Chinese food, and murdered the delivery man, is turned into a group of middle-class, white kids. “Myth of Fingerprints” (November 14, 2001) tells of a white, female forensics chief whose years of false testimony has sent many innocent men to jail.

One of those innocents was murdered in prison, resulting in the official’s conviction for manslaughter. “Fingerprints” was loosely based on the real case of former Oklahoma City supervising forensic chemist Joyce Gilchrist, nicknamed “black magic,” for her seeming forensic wizardry. Gilchrist’s lab techniques and court testimony had come under scrutiny by federal and state authorities. Critics charged she gave false testimony causing 23 men to be sentenced to death, eleven of whom were executed. Joyce Gilchrist is black, but unlike the fictional white official, was never prosecuted, though she was fired for alleged “flawed casework” and mismanagement.

Seven months after the October, 2002 Washington, D.C. sniper case was closed with the arrest of suspects John Muhammad and Lee Malvo, L&O dramatized the case, but with the shooter as a white man! (”Sheltered”; May 14, 2003.) “Smoke” (May 21, 2003) opens with the death of a child, whose adoptive father, a famous entertainer, had dropped him, while dangling him from a hotel room window. The detectives eventually discover that the entertainer would also arrange for underage boys to accompany him to his mansion, where he would sexually violate them. When I told a not particularly media-savvy neighbor who is the mother of four small children that story line, she immediately said, “Michael Jackson!” But on L&O, the character was depicted as a white comedian. Remember the Danny Almonte case? Almonte was the 14-year-old Dominican fraud who — through the connivance of his father, Felipe de Jesus Almonte, and Bronx-based, Dominican Little League coach Rolando Paulino — passed himself off as a 12-year-old, in order to play in the 2001 Little League championships. But in “Foul Play” (May 1, 2002), the coach magically becomes a blond-haired, white man, who is somehow convicted of a murder committed by the player’s father.

L&O’s creative team must read some interesting publications, since many of their “ripped from the headlines” stories never happened, but suit any left-winger’s paranoid fantasies quite well. Consider their obsession with non-existent, murderous white supremacists, whom they depict as besieging Manhattan. In “Open Season” (November 20, 2002), a William Kunstler-like defense attorney is murdered while celebrating the acquittal of a guilty-as-hell black defendant for shooting a white policeman. The killer, a member of a white supremacist group, then uses his defense attorney to unwittingly pass along information to his co-conspirators, who murder a prosecutor in another state. The defense attorney is charged with aiding and abetting the supremacists, before she is shot by a female supremacist. The real basis of the episode was the indictment of radical attorney, Lynne Stewart, of consciously aiding and abetting Moslem terrorist Sheik Abdul Rahman, the convicted ringleader of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. In “Prejudice” (December 12, 2001), a racist, white real estate agent progresses from writing a letter to his co-op board in an effort to keep an interracial couple out of his building, to flashing a gun at a black colleague, to murdering a black man who beat him to a taxi. Such a case would have been fantastic in 1951, let alone in 2001. In “Genius” (April 2, 2003), a white, violence-embracing ex-con-writer stabs a white cabby to death. Viewers are then given mixed messages, as the cab driver turns out to be a fugitive, white supremacist racial murderer.

In another surreal L&O touch, ordinary black New Yorkers are repeatedly shown to be victims powerful white overseers. In “Kid Pro Quo” (April 30, 2003), the dedicated director of admissions at a tony private school is murdered by her corrupt racist boss. The victim sought to get a deserving but poor black girl admitted, but was overridden by the boss, who’d taken a bribe to accept the inferior child of a Jewish pornographer. And then there’s the homophobia angle. In the real world, Manhattan is, like San Francisco, one of the most gay-friendly areas in America. But not in L&O’s alternate universe. In “Girl Most Likely” (March 27, 2002), a private school student murders her lesbian lover, in order to hide the fact that she is gay. Last, but not least, comes xenophobia. In “Patriot” (May 22, 2002), a pale, blonde-haired former special forces officer kills a Moslem immigrant he had surveilled, and whom he suspected of being a terrorist. The prosecutor presents the imaginary patriot as a fire-breathing, chest-thumping, jingoist monster, even as the story suggests that the dead man really was a terrorist.

Now beginning its fourteenth season, Law & Order, a top-rated show and perennial Emmy nominee for Outstanding Drama Series, serves as a willing tool for the elites’ culture war against Middle American whites. No wonder it receives awards and recognition from its corporate masters.

Jul 3, 2009 - 8:33 pm 91. Realist:

Oh and 96% of American Blacks voted for the LIAR Messiah the Mohammedan Barrack HUSSEIN Obama now try and convince me that was not a RACIST act on their behalf.

Jul 3, 2009 - 8:36 pm 92. Doug:

Not always.
Often just ignerant.

Jul 3, 2009 - 8:39 pm 93. Realist:

Funny how their ignorance makes them vote RACIST then isn’t it? Still racism is ignorance I suppose.

Jul 3, 2009 - 8:41 pm 94. Gaffe Prices:

This reminds me of that sixties movie where the hip younger generation takes over and the O’henry ending is that now the under 10 yrs old set is now set to take power from the under 30 set.

But the twist is to conscript the child as wiser than the adults based on the reasoning used above.

What was the name of that movie?

Jul 3, 2009 - 8:56 pm 95. Doug:

Pele‎

Jul 3, 2009 - 9:16 pm 96. buddy larsen:

I don’t watch Law and Order –i watch a gardening show, Lawn Ardor.

but seriously, the powers that be clearly hope to achieve some sort of racial result, else they wouldn’t hammer the topic so relentlessly –with so many lies, to boot.

Question, assuming the powers know what any ten year old knows about human nature, how can they be blowing it so badly, that is, if harmony is actually the preferred result?

Jul 3, 2009 - 9:21 pm 97. Doug:

Gaffe,
It reminds me of “5 Characters in search for an Exit”
…A collection of questionmarks.
Improbable Entities, stuck together in a pit of darkness.
No logic, no reason, no estimation.
Just a prolonged nightmare in which fear, loneliness, and the unexplainable walk hand in hand through the shadows.

Jul 3, 2009 - 9:27 pm 98. Realist:

Buddy its not the brainwashing authorities who are blowing it its the 89% of violent criminals who give lie to the propagandists fantasies.

Jul 3, 2009 - 9:57 pm 99. Fletcher Christian:

Me antisemitic? Guilty as charged – Arabs are Semites. Not all Jews are.

Americans not buying as much oil will not change bin Laden’s mind? Correct. However, less of a market for oil means either a lower price or lower sales – in either case, less money for Jihad.

The business about methane clathrates – well maybe, although there are some in marginal spots that might be vulnerable. Possibly more important, there is also a very large amount oof methane locked up in Arctic permafrost – which is receding, thus releasing the methane. Use of natural gas for energy is irrelevant to this for at least two reasons – the methane would not be released for a very long time if ever without human help, from deposits thousands of feet down – and I challenge anyone to find a way of collecting the methane from millions of square miles of tundra for this purpose.

What to do? Simple. Invest in alternative energy – the sorts that actually work economically, or might. Polywell and focus fusion, OTEC, pebble-bed nuke, wave power, SSPS. And stop wasting the stuff – most of the ways of doing that are easy, and a lot aren’t being used enough.

Once done, mine the Persian Gulf, blow up all pipelines leading out of that area – and let the jihadists find out whether oil is edible.

Jul 4, 2009 - 12:29 am 100. Realist:

Fletcher where do you get all of your Fairy Stories from I hope its not from your ’special’ Fairy friends. The perma frost is NOT melting, and the Arctic Ice is thicker now than it was in the 1920’s. The earth has been COOLING for the last 10 YEARS have you STILL not got the message MOONBAT so if your idiotic Global Warming theories were true we would need MORE CO2 not less. By all means reduce dependency on ARAB Oil but do it sensibly and sensibly does not mean by taxing Coal out of existence not allowing Nuclear Power Plants and not allowing onshore or close offshore drilling. And all you get with lots of Windmills is lots of Don Quxiote’s.

Your MOONBAT stories would stack up a lot better if your Communist Mohammedan leader Obambi was not trying to destroy America with these Moronic Bills that enforce all the stupid restrictions and taxations I listed above.

Jul 4, 2009 - 12:46 am 101. buddy larsen:

Realist, it’s the brainwashing authorities who’ve made that behavior acceptable. One of the things they do in order to keep a voting bloc on the plantation and unable to accumulate any of that independence-creating private property. Degrade a people with blandishments and keep ‘em stewing until you need ‘em for a few days every two years to go vote for your crook. The first Civil War freed their bodies but they need another one to free their spirits. Would there be 70% illegitimacy and 60% HS dropout rates –without government help? Hell no there wouldn’t be –there wasn’t up thru the 60s until all those Democrat social workers came looking for poor people to co-opt, corrupt, & kidnap.

Jul 4, 2009 - 1:16 am 102. Realist:

The biggest most blatant form of RACISM in the USA today is Affirmative Action. Look what is has got you Sotomayor and all the other PLACEMENTS in Government and the Obamanation himself the Affirmative Action , Credentials Hiding, Laughing Jackass, Teleprompter Kid Barrack HUSSEIN O-BOW-ma the first Mohammedan BOGUS POTUS of the deluded gullible emotional USA.

Jul 4, 2009 - 1:23 am 103. buddy larsen:

a kid on a playground could’ve explained ‘backlash’ to anybody but the professional do-harmers –i mean, do-gooders.

Jul 4, 2009 - 1:35 am 104. Realist:

There is something childlike and pitiable in gullible Moonbats and Green NAZI’s like Fletcher who continue to parrot debunked theories because they have invested so much of their own credibility in them. I am not sure however the the Al Gore’s and the Obambi’s of this world are so childlike with them its all about grabbing power.

Jul 4, 2009 - 1:45 am 105. Fletcher Christian:

Realist -

I am in favour of reducing fossil fuel use for several reasons. One is the possible effect of increasing CO2 concentration on the climate, and in this matter we have little but models to guide us – but many people think that (in this geological era, not the Carboniferous) 500ppm (for the sake of argument) might just be a tipping point. We aren’t there yet, but we won’t be long getting there with current trends. There are quite a lot of positive feedback mechanisms that could well come into play.

Sure, it might not happen – but it might. Possible consequences include hyper-hurricanes causing huge amounts of damage in subtropical zones, worldwide flooding, and northwest Europe becoming an Arctic wasteland. The only way to test the models is to run the experiment. I would rather not. Especially as one possible (admittedly unlikely) outlier is a Venus-like hothouse.

Another reason; with the possible exception of natural gas, fossil fuels are much too valuable as chemical feedstocks to burn.

Third reason; financing those who want to kill us is a bad idea, m’kay?

Fourth reason; burning coal in particular releases pollution that we really can’t get rid of. A coal-burner releases far more radioactivity than a nuke plant.

Fifth reason; some of the really useful (at least potentially) alternative energy sources have side benefits. OTEC fertilises the tropical and/or subtropical ocean and cools the surface, with three results – more food supply, less hurricanes and more CO2 sequestration. Focus and/or Polywell fusion create clean energy (quite possibly, with no radioactivity) and potentially help to decentralise the energy system (either could well be practical in small units). Either also gives us a possibility of ultra-high Isp reaction engines for space use. SSPS has rather obvious benefits. And wave power could well reduce erosion damage to shorelines.

A low-CO2 economy does not have to be low-energy. I disagree extremely strongly with those who think it does.

One last point; we have a limited supply of fossil fuel and particularly oil. Perhaps we ought to be using some of the time left to prepare for the time when it runs out?

Jul 4, 2009 - 2:15 am 106. Doug:

“we have little but models to guide us -”
—
We have historical FACT in THIS geological era:
Iceland supported agriculture, and the World did not broil in a Methane induced out of control heating.
…before the fossil fuel revolution.
—
Water vapor is far more influential re the heat budget than CO2.
Where does the obsession with CO2 come from?
—
OTEC cannot economically power the grid, and it can just as easily be argued that it pollutes the ocean.
—
Nuclear is certainly viable for the World Market, but until the Eco-obsessed here are dead and buried, it also is DOA.
—
“There are quite a lot of positive feedback mechanisms that could well come into play.

Sure, it might not happen – but it might. Possible consequences include hyper-hurricanes causing huge amounts of damage in subtropical zones, worldwide flooding, and northwest Europe becoming an Arctic wasteland. The only way to test the models is to run the experiment. I would rather not. Especially as one possible (admittedly unlikely) outlier is a Venus-like hothouse.”

Hysteria, pure and simple:
Address my point about Iceland!

Jul 4, 2009 - 3:17 am 107. Realist:

Naive unthinking little Green NAZI Fletcher as has been pointed out to you COUNTLESS times the earth has been COOLING for the past 10 YEARS while CO2 has still been RISING . So your whole CAUSE AND EFFECT nonsense has been blown out of the window but still you persist in trying to tell us how wicked CO2 is like a spoiled child who just WON’T take no for an answer.
Your story has been blown your cover has been busted and your nonsense theory has been exposed for stupidity it is.
When the green NAZIS realised their cover was blown they then started calling it Climate Change instead of Global Warming and now they are trying to morph their CO2 LIES into a concern over GENUINE pollutants you NAZIS are nothing but opportunist LIARS doing and saying anything just to get what you really want and that is POWER. Not that I think YOU personally want power Fletcher you are just a useful idiot parroting the Gospel of Gore while not understanding anything you are talking about.

Jul 4, 2009 - 4:00 am 108. Doug:

“Where does the obsession with CO2 come from?”
—
Rhetorical, of course.
The reason is obvious:
Our prosperity, our freedom, our security are all dependent on an economy which generates CO2.

Jul 4, 2009 - 4:39 am 109. Doug:

Climatic History

Medieval glaciation
Climatic deterioration began in the 1200s; glaciers expanded in Iceland and in the Alps. Vineyards had declined in Germany by the 1300s and had completely disappeared in England.
Fishing replaced cereal grains as the main source of food in Iceland, and sea ice expanded southward between Greenland and Iceland.
Around 1340-50 the more northerly of the two Greenland communities was abandoned to the native Inuits.

Medieval climatic optimum
In North America, pollen and charcoal in sediments from Chesapeake Bay record climatic changes over the last 1000 years (Brush 1991). During the Medieval climatic optimum, large influxes of charcoal, sediment, and metals indicate more frequent forest fires and higher rates of erosion in the surrounding basin.
Forest in the Chesapeake basin recovered, and erosion diminished, during the following few centuries of cold climate. In southern Florida, sea level was at least ½ m higher than now from the first through tenth centuries (Froede 2002).

Jul 4, 2009 - 5:02 am 110. Fletcher Christian:

“Our prosperity, our freedom, our security are all dependent on an economy which generates CO2.”

Wrong. Just plain wrong. They all depend on energy. Fossil fuels are not the only source of that; they aren’t even the only way to transport it. The only reasons why other sources aren’t being used are greed (on the part of the fossil fuel companies and the politicians their lobbyists bribe) and inertia.

Of course changing to an economy where fossil fuels are minimally used would cost money. How much have Jihad and the Middle East wars, coupled with anti-terrorist measures on home soil, cost so far? Just about all those costs should be charged to the oil industry. After all, oil money is what’s paying for the jihadi weapons and all the Wahabist madrassas all over the world.

Jul 4, 2009 - 8:30 am 111. Doug:

“The only reasons why other sources aren’t being used are greed (on the part of the fossil fuel companies and the politicians their lobbyists bribe) and inertia.

Of course changing to an economy where fossil fuels are minimally used would cost money.”
—
LOL
It would cost money, but economic realities have nothing to do with it, only “greed!”
You contradict yourself, sir!

Greed = Democrat “Leaders” and leading Greenies that burn more petroleum than any of us,
warn of Global Warming,
and vote down any notion of domestic drilling or energy development in general.
…except for token “renewables” (which account for less than 5% of our energy budget)
—
Obviously, you have no intention of ever addressing my Iceland questions.

Jul 4, 2009 - 8:47 am 112. Realist:

Fletcher You have avoided all the points that both Doug and I have put to you and instead pick on a very bland point to argue now why is that MOONBAT.

Jul 4, 2009 - 8:47 am 113. linny:

not chidlike innocence.
childish ignorance

Jul 4, 2009 - 11:05 am 114. Gaffe Prices:

Wretchard: in addition to your many talents and skills, which I’m sure you carry in a humble and grateful heart, you are becoming quite the VJ.

those ads where the child is telling me what a stupid adult I’m supposed to be, not to mention the vengeful ACA ad agencies other brilliant work, like they did with various kids saying “why don”t we have health care” (remember that one?) I find really gives me a bad case of the creeps.

Jul 4, 2009 - 2:09 pm 115. geoffgo:

Fletcher C,

Consider this factoid. Krakatoa, Pinatubo, Vesuvius, Mt St Helens and the current eruption off the Russian east coast have put more Co2 and other undesirable polutants into the atmosphere, than mankind has in its entire history.

Jul 4, 2009 - 5:45 pm 116. comatus:

Magic Christian owes me for all the good green things I’ve been doing since I first converted to no-chemicals gardening and hydronic heat in 1963. The little puke is still shitting yellow and he thinks he can tell ME how I’m going to lead my life?

Clean up your own filthy little life, greenie, and give me 30 or 40 YEARS worth of honest, self-motivated, non-coerced enviro cred, and maybe–maybe–we’ll talk. Until then, you’re just another member of the cute but idealistic younger generation, unlikely to be taken seriously, and here’s a pat on the head, you cute little snotnosed brat.

Jul 4, 2009 - 5:53 pm 117. buddy larsen:

ever walk thru the house in the dark barefooted and krakatoa on the coffee table?

Jul 4, 2009 - 8:22 pm 118. Gaffe Prices:

“Where does the obsession with CO2 come from?”

Beats me. Co2 is the best fiend anybody ever had. In a single molecule, it contains the most important atom of life: Carbon. Plants breathe it, or rather, they consume the carbon and use it to build their cells, and uh, (ok I don’t know what they do w/ the 2 hydrogen molecules, those are waste products as far as the plant is concerned).

C02 is far more useful than the O2 molecule, except that it is the o2 molecule that animals need so as to cleave it in half and bond it w/ carbon atoms they have accumulated by eating food w/ carbon in it. And by doing so provide the otherwise impoverished plants w/ what they need to prosper.

this cycle has repeats itself gogol times throughout the eons recycling the same carbon back and forth between its temporary Co2 form and then broken down to remove the carbon and synthesize it elsewhere, while the corrosive and reactive O2 is expelled as a waste product which makes up 21% of the atmosphere.

So, no problem. Been doin it for ages. the plants keep saying, “That’s just more for me.”.

My question is: what about the Carbon Monoxide (CO) molecule? Why does no one talk of that? If there’s any pollution, its that red/yeller haze that coats our cities.

But more importantly, what, or how is the CO molecule eventually broken down to provide a Carbon atom and that single hydrogen atom?

And we all know where CO comes from: incomplete combustion of Carbon, such as wood fires and internal combustion engines. It you want a villain gas, there it is. But in the scheme of things, Carbon Monoxide is still metabolized (broken down) in the natural course of things, or else man should be twice eternally shamed, demonized, and blamed for that Faustian bargain he made so long ago w/ the fire he discovered to keep from freezing his appendages off. Bad, Bad Dog Man!

Yeah right, let’s dump cars as our means of transport so we can die of Typhoid Fever from all the horse manure in the streets, just like we used to. Great Idea That!

It seems fitting (in a sick way) that it be Ubhamas to make me die or be all mangled from the car crash we’ll git into driving one of those goll-durn crackerbox clown cars.

I’d rather see a return of the Corvair than that alternative. Those last Corvairs coming off the line were stylish and sporty, and I’ll bet the chicks nowadays would think they were new and cool, since their historical knowledge could be fit on a fingernail, underneath the nail polish.

P.S. Agreed, we’ve got to stop techtonic shift.

Jul 6, 2009 - 1:41 am 119. Gaffe Prices:

#61@ buddy larsen:
re “Sieg Heil!”, ole Hitler was your perfect modern greenie –the land, the seasons, the pagan rites, no smoking, no booze, no dissenters, all veggies & plenty of good old state spending, power, control & common-sense methamphetamine logic”

Don’t forget forget advanced stage syphilis logic he picked up at that notorious “Beer” Hall, where Hitler learned how to do “the Putsch”.

And don’t even get me started on those slutty Himalayas

Jul 6, 2009 - 2:05 am 120. Realist:

Gaffe just a small chemistry lesson CO2 is Carbon and 2 OXYGEN atoms its not Carbon HYDROXIDE its Carbon Dioxide. Plants as you say use the Carbon and exhale the OXYGEN which is good for us as we breath it. In no way whatsoever is CO2 a pollutant this is yet another big Green NAZI LIE.
And just as Global Warming changed to Climate Change once that LIE was exposed just wait for CO2 to morph in to real polluting emissions which of course any sane person wants to minimise. But of course the STUPID American Congress has already swallowed the CO2 LIE and now you have the Cap and Trade ABOMINATION. Why are Americans so stupid is it your education system your idiotic Celebrity obsessed MSM or your LYING Politicians or a combination of all three with gullibility thrown in for good measure?

Jul 6, 2009 - 3:00 am

Sorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.