Daily Archives: July 12, 2010

$125 Billion for Solar Power Project That Produces Only 0.25 % Of Germany’s Energy

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Via Tom Nelson:

Germany’s solar subsidies, a signature project in the country’s battle against climate change, are perhaps the most wasteful green scheme on earth, producing a mere 0.25 percent of the country’s energy at a cost to consumers of as much as $125 billion. A leading member of Merkel’s Christian Democrats in the German Parliament says there is growing unease both in his party and in the Bundestag “about the scary monster we’ve created that is sucking up ever larger amounts of money for a negligible effect.”

Another epic green energy failure.

Resource Post: The Failure Of Detroit’s Progressive Agenda

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Detroit was once a great city.  It was the Arsenal of Democracy, the Automotive Capital of the world and boasted the highest per capita income for any major city in the world.

In the early 1960′s Detroit started its decline. Nearly 50 years later, it is a shell of its former greatness.

Today, the city of Detroit is an illustration of the complete failure of Liberalism and the Democrat politicians that embrace the progressive agenda.

The following links are just a few examples of the complete failure of the liberal (progressive) Democrat agenda.

  1. The Liberal Art Community is Fascinated
  2. Video: Requiem For Detroit
  3. People Leaving Detroit
  4. After 50 Years of Democrat Leadership Detroit Needs a Task Force to Construct a Grocery Store
  5. Detroit is Murder City…Again
  6. Video: Detroit from the Air Looks Like A War Zone
  7. The Liberal Economy in Detroit
  8. Silver Bullet Solutions Rather Than Focus On Fundamentals
  9. Silver Bullet Solutions Rather Than Focus On Fundamentals part 2
  10. Life After People in Detroit

One common thread in the links above is that Detroit has had a distinct lack of a conservative agenda for the last 50 years. And a conservative agenda is the only way the city can turn itself around.

Smarmy WaPo Op-Ed: Give Up Your Air Conditioner And Take The Month Of August Off

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Climategate has exposed the fact that climate scientist cherry picked, manipulated and buried data to create the result they were looking for. Furthermore, the scandal wasn’t confined to the University of East Anglia, it is wide spread.

The problem for the committed global warming alarmist becomes what to do facing these facts. One tactic they can try is the  nostalgia angle. Via a very smarmy WaPo op-ed:

In a world without air conditioning, a warmer, more flexible, more relaxed workplace helps make summer a time to slow down again. Three-digit temperatures prompt siestas. Code-orange days mean offices are closed. Shorter summer business hours and month-long closings — common in pre-air-conditioned America — return. (emphasis added)

Give up your AC,  work shorter summer hours and take the month of August off.  Sounds great except this is not true. In the pre-air conditioned 1920′s the average work week was 50 hr/week and the average worker in 1960 worked 41 hr/week. By 1988 the average work week had fallen to 39 hrs / week.  In 2009 , according to the BLS (if you were employed) the average person worked 7.5 hours a day or 37.5 hr / week.

There is a lot to be said about productivity and air conditioning. I’ll go out out on a limb and say if you take the month of August off,  you will more than likely will not get paid.

Of course, the smarmy WaPo op-ed keeps trying to romanticize bygone days:

Families unplug as many heat-generating appliances as possible. Forget clothes dryers –post-A.C. neighborhoods are crisscrossed with clotheslines. The hot stove is abandoned for the grill, and dinner is eaten on the porch.

Around town

Saying goodbye to A.C. means saying hello to the world. With more people spending more time outdoors — particularly in the late afternoon and evening, when temperatures fall more quickly outside than they do inside — neighborhoods see a boom in spontaneous summertime socializing.

Rather than cowering alone in chilly home-entertainment rooms, neighbors get to know one another. Because there are more people outside, streets in high-crime areas become safer. As a result of all this, a strange thing happens: Deaths from heat decline. (emphasis added)

Doesn’t this looks great?

About people dying from heat because they are too afraid to get outside. This is not true either. Air conditioning isn’t as prevalent in Europe as the United States. Even with all the outdoor socializing and safe neighborhoods of Europe 35,000 people died from an extreme heat wave in 2003.

I will keep my air conditioner.