Posted by
Sgt.Stryker on Thursday, June 11, 2009 4:21:25 AM
I had an interesting encounter on Mother's Day with a relative who shall remain nameless, since I need to keep the peace. He was chiding my oldest son about the carbon footprint left by my son's incessant texting. While I'm fairly sure it was meant somewhat in jest, I had to intercede, if for no other reason than to ensure some balance. Opting for my usual tactless approach, I asked why leaving a carbon footprint is a problem. He looked at me and asked if I was kidding, and when I assured him I wasn't, I proceeded to inform him that man contributes just .28% of the greenhouse effect. He put his hand up, rather dismissively, and told me that if I didn't believe in man-caused, carbon-based global warming, there was no point in discussing anything else and he walked away. I was a little upset, because NO ONE does THAT to ME!! I took 2 hours the next day to compose a long email to him, but thought better of sending it. Someone's gotta be the adult in the family.
Instead, I will just continue commenting on some of the low-hanging fruit relating to the increasingly contentious subject of global warming/climate change. Revenge is a dish best served unimpacted by global warming...or cold, if you will. Call me a denier.
The latest....
On the heels of Queen Nancy's escape from the Gitmo torture debacle in D.C. to China to chide them about the climate, we got the news last week from NASA that sunspots and solar flare activity have been at very low levels.
"If our prediction is correct, Solar Cycle 24 will have a peak sunspot number of 90, the lowest of any cycle since 1928 when Solar Cycle 16 peaked at 78," says panel chairman Doug Biesecker of the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center."
While this flies in the face of the carbon-based AGW evidence, it is certainly not a cause for celebration.
"Even a below-average cycle is capable of producing severe space weather," points out Biesecker. "The great geomagnetic storm of 1859, for instance, occurred during a solar cycle of about the same size we’re predicting for 2013."
The 1859 storm--known as the "Carrington Event" after astronomer Richard Carrington who witnessed the instigating solar flare--electrified transmission cables, set fires in telegraph offices, and produced Northern Lights so bright that people could read newspapers by their red and green glow. A recent report by the National Academy of Sciences found that if a similar storm occurred today, it could cause $1 to 2 trillion in damages to society's high-tech infrastructure and require four to ten years for complete recovery. For comparison, Hurricane Katrina caused "only" $80 to 125 billion in damage."
I've addressed the issue of sunspots (or lack thereof) in a previous post ("Cool Thoughts on Global Warming"), and it is just one of the more vexing issues contradicting the greenie's emphasis on CO2-based "global warming". I've yet to hear a compelling refutation. Believe me, I've been looking.
On another front, while king bho and the car "czars" position themselves to dictate GM's product line (too small and too dangerous) to combat the "scourge" of carbon-based AGW, the Heartland Institute is releasing "Climate Change Reconsidered: The 2009 Report of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC),” (link here), "challenging the scientific basis of concerns that global warming is either man-made or would have harmful effects." This report is a rebuttal of the UN's International Panel on Climate Change report, and "demonstrates overwhelming scientific support for the position that the warming of the twentieth century was moderate and not unprecedented, that its impact on human health and wildlife was positive, and that carbon dioxide probably is not the driving factor behind climate change." Let's hope that the good Representatives Waxman and Markey have the good sense to examine some of this evidence before they try to cram their bill down our collective throats. Unfortunately, Waxman has already admitted that he didn't even know what was in the bill. Given the tax revolt percolating in California, it's possible he will get voted out in 2010. We can only hope.
On the legal front, there is this answer in the Seton Hall Law Review to a lawsuit filed by the Inupiat Eskimo community of Kivalina, Alaska against Exxon in 2008, alleging that carbon and other greenhouse "pollutants" emitted by Exxon, one of "the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the United States", had destroyed the ancestral habitat of the tribe. A fascinating read, the legal team tears down the case against carbon being labeled as a pollutant by the EPA, noting that "Carbon dioxide is one of the most ubiquitous substances in nature. It is an essential element of both inorganic earth processes and of the organic cycles of the biosphere. The sources of atmospheric carbon dioxide are vast and are part of an enormously complex chemical system with many unknown or poorly understood variables. Even in its present-day atmospheric concentrations carbon dioxide can be considered neither an “irritant” nor a “contaminant,” but is simply an integral part of the biogeochemical carbon cycle" and therefore cannot be responsible for habitat destruction for purposes of litigation. Once again, hope enters the picture...I hope that this whole cap-trade/carbon tax nonsense ends up in court if Congress is silly enough to pass any legislation based on carbon as a pollutant.
In the mean time, Michael Moore of "Roger and Me" fame weighed in on the demise of GM, and he couldn't resist the obligatory "green" diatribe. "The products built in the factories of GM, Ford and Chrysler are some of the greatest weapons of mass destruction responsible for global warming and the melting of our polar icecaps. The things we call "cars" may have been fun to drive, but they are like a million daggers into the heart of Mother Nature. To continue to build them would only lead to the ruin of our species and much of the planet." Moore wore out his welcome long ago. While "Roger and Me" was certainly an interesting documentary, he has partaken of way too much liberal Kool-aid to be taken seriously ever again. His movie "Sicko" was a sick joke and demonstrates just how far gone he really is. Unfortunately, he is probably just as much an expert on "climate change" as Al Gore or anyone in Congress...
On a more positive note comes this tidbit via National Review Online and their Planet Gore blog-
Read Their Lips: No New Energy Taxes [Chris Horner]
. . . as Benny Peiser notes today:
All over Europe, the centre-left has been haemorrhaging core voters. The fact that UKIP, an openly climate sceptical party, has beaten Labour to second place is a clear signal. It suggests that any party promoting unpopular climate policies and green taxes that will further increase the cost of energy, transport and travel for ordinary families risks being punished in future elections. As far as Britain is concerned, the Labour government and its green agenda is finished. Let that be a warning to President Obama and other would-be salvationists.
Here's the bottom line. The sun is the ultimate arbiter of the earth's climate. Seasonal weather patterns can be affected by any number of minor contributors, including El Nino and La Nina, but it is obvious that there is still much to learn before we take the planet and all of the world's economies back to the Dark Ages. Most of us intuitively believe in the "Sun King" and his effects, but there is a very vocal minority that believes in his arch nemesis, the one I've named after the Beatles song "Gnik Nus," who consists of carbon, methane, and whatever other substances the greens can try to tax. Although barry and his ilk are intent on "leveling the playing field" by taking us all down to poverty levels not seen since early last century, it is imperative that we attack them with the truth at every turn. I've said it before, and I will keep on saying it until they reverse course or they are defeated-the "climate change crisis" is one of the biggest weapons the statists will use to redistribute the world's wealth. I hope all of you will stand with me and say "Not On My Watch".
The Sun King Rules!