Category Archives: global warming

EPA funding “arts to help students understand the impacts of air pollution on the environment and their health.”

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In the grand scheme of things this is not even a rounding error in the Federal budget, but it is just so stupid:

(Denver, Colo. – Dec. 12, 2011) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it awarded more than $1 million in grants to 46 non-profit and tribal organizations working to address environmental justice issues nationwide. The Repertory Dance Theatre and the Utah Society for Environmental Education are two nonprofits in Utah receiving $25,000 each.

“Community-based action and participation in environmental decision-making are critical to building healthy and sustainable communities,” said Lisa Garcia, EPA’s senior advisor to the administrator for environmental justice. “By supporting local environmental justice projects in under-served communities, we are expanding the conversation on environmentalism and advancing environmental justice in communities across the nation.”

The Repertory Dance Theater uses the arts to educate Salt Lake City youth about the impacts of air pollution. The organization will conduct Arts/Environmental Residency Programs in K-6 schools in the west and central areas of Salt Lake City and will use the arts to help students understand the impacts of air pollution on the environment and their health. The project intends to produce innovative lectures, demonstrations and movement classes in 10 elementary schools.

Rather than wasting tax payer money trying to create the next generation of enviro-fanatics through the use of movement classes, how about having the kids focus on the 3R’s.

Obama Regime: Hey, you can save money on energy while we make it more expensive

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While driving around town today,  I caught a radio spot from our government extolling the virtues (and monetary savings) from using less energy. The spot was much like the following ‘helpful’ ad from the US Department of Energy:

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The first two thoughts that came to mind listening to this nonsense was:

1. Stop wasting money producing and broadcasting these stupid ads. This will be an immediate savings for tax payers.

2. “Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad. Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it — whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, uh, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.”

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While our government nannies are trying to coerce us into saving energy, the Obama regime is doing everything in its power to block development of real energy resources in favor of his green energy scheme.

Oh, and if you think all this capping of ‘green house’ gasses and green energy is needed to save the ENTIRE planet from global warming, think again. Even hard core global warming fanatics are having to admit the so-called problem is not really as severe as first predicted.

Lead author Andreas Schmittner from Oregon State University, US, explained that by looking at surface temperatures during the most recent ice age – 21,000 years ago – when humans were having no impact on global temperatures, he, and his colleagues show that this period was not as cold as previous estimates suggest.

“This implies that the effect of CO2 on climate is less than previously thought,” he explained.

By incorporating this newly discovered “climate insensitivity” into their models, the international team was able to reduce uncertainty in its future climate projections.

The new models predict that given a doubling in CO2 levels from pre-industrial levels, the Earth’s surface temperatures will rise by 1.7C to 2.6C (3.1F to 4.7F).

That is a much tighter range than the one produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) 2007 report, which suggested a rise of between 2.0C to 4.5C

Of course, this still doesn’t explain why surface temperatures in my back yard have been slowly declining since the late 1930′s:

How can the mean temperature in my back yard drop at a rate of 0.0018 deg / year over the last 70+ years when the ENTIRE Planet is supposedly suffering from a catastrophic warming trend?

2012 Presidential Race: Newt’s Positions on the Issues and His Record

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I guess an “Answering the Attacks” web page is an effective way for Newt to answer his critics.  The page gives some fairly detailed answers to the many criticisms of him. This one is my favorite:

Q: So why did Newt do the ad with Nancy Pelosi in 2007 calling for action to address climate change?

On November 8, 2011, Newt told FOX News’ Bret Baier that doing that commercial with Pelosi was “probably the dumbest single thing I’ve ever done”.

You got that right.

Get your heat on: Our governmental nannies in Washington think we are helpless

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Really; they do.

Via the EPA’s ‘Greenservations’ web page:

For better or worse, cold weather has arrived and it’s time to “get your heat on.” You may have already switched your thermostat over to the heating mode and had one of those “please, please, please start” moments! While you are waiting to hear that familiar “whoosh” of warm air, you try to remember if you had a preseason heating maintenance service… was that this fall or last year? Did they check the heating system when they last serviced the central AC? Is it operating at its peak efficiency and doing so safely? Will it work all season long?

Then, the heat kicks on and those panicked thoughts melt away.

What would we do without our government telling us how to manage our homes?

Then of course, what would an EPA publication be without our government nannies give us helpful ‘tips.’ This time it is about furnaces:

  1. Manage your temperature settings at your thermostat or better yet get a programmable thermostat to set your house temperature smartly while you are home, asleep or away. High bills are directly related to how long your system operates.
  2. Check your air filter and change it when it’s dirty. Dirty filters reduce air flow and allow dust accumulation on the system’s components. This simple action can have a profound impact on your system’s longevity and efficiency.
  3. Walk your ducts in your house and look at where they are attached to the registers. See dust streaks? Feel air leaking out? Seal these little leaks with metal tape.
  4. If your home is uncomfortable or you have high bills and just don’t know where to start, seek a professional home performance contractor. They will perform a comprehensive review of your home’s energy use and provide detailed guidance on making the right improvements for overall comfort and efficiency. For more energy efficiency guidance, visit the ENERGY STAR website.
Well, I beg to differ about tip number 1. High energy bills are directly related on how our government restricts the utilization of our natural resources and how it is forcing the folly of ‘green energy’ upon us.
One last point, if we are experiencing run away global warming, why worry about furnaces. I mean, the way lib’s act about global warming, furnaces will be a thing of the past in no time.
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Radical environmentalists say we should press for a better distribution of wealth to ‘combat’ global warming

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Radicals are dropping all pretenses about what the environmental movement is really about.

Via the U.K. Guardian:

In other words, it can make a contribution. But the other 81-84% will have to come from reducing consumption and changing technologies. The UN report concludes that “even if zero population growth were achieved, that would barely touch the climate problem“.

This should not prevent us from strongly supporting the policies which will cause population to peak sooner rather than later. Sex education, the report shows, is crucial, as is access to contraception and the recognition of women’s rights and improvement in their social status. All these have been important factors in the demographic transition the world has seen so far. We should also press for a better distribution of wealth: escaping from grinding poverty is another of the factors which have allowed women to have fewer children. The highly unequal system sustained by the rich white men who fulminate about population is one of the major reasons for population growth.

According to this eco-warrior we need to lower our standard of living, spread the wealth around and have a lot fewer children.

Actually, this sounds a lot like things ‘mainstream liberals have proposed over the years.

An extra big tip O’ the hat to Tim Worstall  (from the Adam Smith Institute) who also points out that our intrepid eco-warrior “misrepresented” the population data.

U.S. Looking at Mexico to construct desalination plant and provide more water

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Via Fox News Latino:

Mexico may start sending water north as four major U.S. water districts help plan one of two huge desalination plant proposals in Playas de Rosarito, about 15 miles south of San Diego. Combined, they would produce 150 million gallons a day, enough to supply more than 300,000 homes on both sides of the border.

The plants are one strategy by both countries to wean themselves off of the Colorado River, which flows 1,450 miles from the Rocky Mountains to the Sea of Cortez. Decades of friction over the Colorado, in fact, are said to be a hurdle to current desalination negotiations.

Why would U.S water districts want to set up desalination plants in Mexico? You guessed it, overbearing environmental regulations in the U.S.

The proposed plants have also sparked concerns that American water interests looking to Mexico are simply trying to dodge U.S. environmental reviews and legal challenges.

Desalination plants can blight coastal landscapes, sucking in and killing fish eggs and larvae. They require massive amounts of electricity and dump millions of gallons of brine back into the ocean that can, if not properly disposed, also be harmful to fish.

But desalination has helped quench demand in Australia, Saudi Arabia and other countries lacking fresh water.

Fish larvae are more important than humans according to the EPA.

Global warming protests are so 2008… In 2011 it’s Occupy Wall Street

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Since the wheels are rapidly falling off the global warming / climate change hoax, where are you going to find your average liberal malcontent?

Occupying Wall Street.

There list of grievances against corporations include:

  • They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
  • They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
  • They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.
  • They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
  • They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
  • They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
  • They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
  • They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
  • They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
  • They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
  • They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
  • They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

I find it interesting that our misguided liberals are protesting things that, for the most part, liberal policies created and liberals in government have supported.

When you look at areas that have seen the most exorbitant inflation, higher education and health care, you find government intervention within those markets.

So, when you see liberals protesting that they are “being held hostage by student loans ” it is amazing to see them going after “big business.”

Who’s fault is it that they take out a $60K student loan? Is it Wall Street’s fault?

And to round out the Occupy Wall Street list of grievances, here are a couple more:

  • They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
  • They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.

I guess they needed to throw a bone to the die hard tree huggers.

Cluelessness Running Wild In DC: The DOE’s Solar Decathlon

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What is the Department of Energy Solar Decathlon?

The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon is an award-winning program that challenges collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency.

The first Solar Decathlon was held in 2002; the competition has since occurred biennially in 2005, 2007, and 2009. The next event will take place at the National Mall’s West Potomac Park in Washington, D.C., Sept. 23–Oct. 2, 2011. Open to the public free of charge, visitors can tour the houses, gather ideas to use in their own homes, and learn how energy-saving features can help them save money today.

The U.S. Department of Energy is sponsoring a contest for colleges from around the world at $100K a piece (I guess the DOE hasn’t gotten the memo that our government is BROKE) to construct cost-effective solar-powered homes.

How much power will the solar-powered homes produce? Via The Weekly Standard:

Teisha Villegas, a fifth year architecture student at CCNY, was a bit cagey with the details, but it looked nice inside! “I’m not sure,” Villegas said when I asked how many kilowatts the 40 solar panels on the roof were bringing in today. “I haven’t had a reading on a bright sunny day.”

The house has the potential to bring in 8 kilowatts of energy (although not on a day like this).

How cost-effective are these homes?

When I asked how much the house cost, Villegas was again slow to reveal the details. “Not one of the cheap ones,” she said, saying that since it was built in New York City it had to meet the city’s strict codes. “I can’t say the price tag because we’re still negotiating with the affordability people.” One element of the competition is to be able to build affordable green energy housing.

Finally, Villegas conceded the price tag came to about $450,000, “which is just parts” since CCNY students did all the labor. Another student from the same team, Yinery Baez, also a fifth year architecture student, said that $500,000 is a more accurate figure, but that they believe the price could be dropped to about $300,000 if it were ever to be mass produced.

I’m not sure these guys have ever heard about the general cost estimating rule of thumb for new home construction: 25% material, 25% labor, 25% land cost, 12.5% builder profit, & 12.5% builder overhead. Using this estimation, the home they built would cost nearly $2,000,000. However,it would be really, really energy-efficient; saving you money on your energy bills.

How much square footage will $500,000 of energy-efficient construction material purchase?

Depending on who you asked, the square the footage of the home is either 650 (Villegas) or 750 (Baez).

I find it surprising that our contestants don’t know how big the structure they constructed is, because the rules are very specific about square footage (and all the calculations required to design the systems for the home):

6-2. Finished Square Footage

The finished square footage, as defined by ANSI Z765-2003, “Square Footage—Method for Calculating,” shall be at least 600 ft2 (55.7 m2), but shall not exceed 1000 ft2 (92.9 m2).

To sum up the ‘Solar Decathlon’ we, the American tax payers, are subsidizing a contest (and teams from China, New Zealand, Canada & Belgium) to develop cost-effective solar-powered homes. And what do we get? Homes barely larger than sheds that would cost nearly $2,000,000 to build.

What a deal.

And, solar-powered houses don’t work so well when it rains.

God has a great sense of humor.

Australian Government Tips For Living Green During Winter Months

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Something to look forward to from our government in a few months.

AUSTRALIANS are being urged to play board games and snuggle up under a rug with a pet or their families to help cut power bills.

On its LivingGreener website, the federal government urges switching off the TV and heater and finding old-fashioned ways of keeping snug and occupied.

Of course this is being sold by the Australian Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet as “tips on how to save energy & money.” It seems to me that Mr. Cobet thinks the people of Australia aren’t ‘sophisticated’ enough to figure this out for themselves.

It is amazing how romanticized living condition’s in the 1800′s and earlier are portrayed. Look at this picture of a South Dakota log cabin from around 1890:

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Sure is a simpler time. No pesky furnace or air conditioning. No energy wasting TV or inefficient incandescent light bulbs. Heck, you can snuggle by the fire and read a book or play a board game to pass the hours.

Back in the simpler times, people didn’t live that long... But they lived green.