Sounds Like a Jest Now, But Let Her Get Elected, and Then You'll See, She's Serious . . .

"FAA regulations prohibit the use of cell phones, blackberries or other wireless devices that may be used to transmit negative stories about me," Clinton said.

(via Instapundit) Sen. Clinton upon introducing her new HF1 campaign plane. If she was really committed to battling human caused climate change, she'd go old school and switch to whistle-stop, private railcar, based campaign transportation (be part of the solution and not the cause, and all that rot).

Much less CO2 (assuming she hooks up to previously scheduled trains and doesn't monkey around with their schedules) going the train way.



If it was good enough for Pres. Reagan in 1984, it's good enough for Sen. Clinton.

Things Expressly Designed to Irritate Me (Or So It Would Seem)

[photo borrowed from the webpage of Southern California Disposal, also the same folks who are choosing to fly this flag]

Something new has popped up on the Santa Monica landscape, catching my eye, and irritating the hell out of me. We have a 100 foot tall tower adjacent to the Cloverfield onramp/offramp of the 10 Freeway (yes, I used an article before the name of a freeway, wanna make somethin' of it?) from which flies a 30'x50' American flag usually, but Old Glory has been replaced.

The owner of that mast has decided to fly the goddamn dirty hippie "American Ecology Flag" instead.

Here's what they have to say for themselves on their webpage (and the PDF of their press release here):

SCD Flies World's Largest Ecology Flag

Since the late 1960's, the Ecology flag has been an icon of the Ecological movement.

We are flying our large, 30 foot x 50 foot Ecology flag as a symbol that we are doing our part to reduce global warming through our recycling services and by our use of renewable, earth-friendly B100 Biodiesel fuel made from soybeans. By using Biodiesel, we are significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a leading cause of global warming. We are also lessening our nation's dependency on foreign oil while at the same time supporting American farmers.

Our hope is that the flag will serve as a daily reminder that all of us can play a role in reducing global warming by making environmentally sound choices in our daily lives.

For more information on the benefits of Biodiesel, please visit the National Biodiesel Board website at: http://www.biodiesel.org/.

Learn what you can do to reduce global warming by visiting: www.stopglobalwarming.org/sgw_actionitems.asp.

If GLOBAL WARMING (sorry, seems you always have to shout at the top of your lungs and intone the words with as much gravitas as you can muster) is your main concern, then you should be troubled by mounting evidence that switching to biodiesel is counterproductive.

I'm guessing the city is harassing them over some petty issue, so this is Southern California Disposal's sly way of tweaking our city over their green nonsense. At least I hope that's what they're doing. Clearly, 'going green' is a great excuse for garbage haulers to charge more fees, so all this green nonsense could be good for SCD's business. I'm hoping that their flying of that goddamn dirty hippie "American Ecology Flag" has more to do with motivated self interest than any desire to 'save the planet'. I don't mind greedy businessfolk duping idiot hippies into thinking they are on the hippies' side, I do mind dumb hippies duping businessfolk into following silly and counterproductive practices just because of the latest faddish nonsense regarding the latest push to 'save the planet'.

More Than a Hint of Malthus . . .

. . . contemplating the runaway Global Warming (true believers always capitalize the term) crowd, I'm getting the sense that they have more than a hint of Thomas Malthus in them.

When it comes down to it, Malthus was saying the wrong kind of people were having the wrong kind of babies in the wrong kind of places, and that as a mercy to them and the misery that would be caused for all of humanity, they must be stopped.

When it comes down to it, the Albertus Goracles of the world are saying that the wrong kind of people are using the wrong kind of energy in the wrong kind of places, and that as a mercy to Gaia, we must cripple the global economy to prevent the profligate wealthy lifestyle enjoyed by folks in the USA, Canada, Japan, and Europe from spreading any further.

What they have in common is a hatred of humanity (in the guise of a deep desire to 'save' humanity), a distrust of technology, and a blind certainty that things now are as they will ever be.

Also, both Malthus, and the Gaiaists have made leaps of illogic based on incomplete data and dismiss contradictory evidence.

Wikipedia isn't always reliable, and certainly their Global Warming entry presents its conclusions with more authority than they deserve (and leaves out most criticism over the degree that human influence can be blamed). But on Malthus I have less reason to believe they are misrepresenting him, his supporters, or his critics.

Hot-button political issues I guess become less controversial after a century or two.

How ridiculous the current Global Warming madness will seem from 200 years hence won't be known until then.

Will they have only been harmless human hating cranks who were just finding an excuse to feel superior to those around them?

Or will they get control of the economies of a few major countries and send the global economy into a global depression that creates an order of magnitude more misery than even their most alarmist predictions regarding the effects of warming could cause?

Time will tell, in the mean time, stories like this one (via Tim Blair) are still good for a laugh.

Also, these folks are the only honest environmentalist.

And this list of 20 Ways the World Could End has 19 ways other than Global Warming that could lead to human extinction.

I think we're more resilient than that, about the only ones that could effectively get rid of us would be the total loss of atmosphere or the whole planet being sundered apart. Beyond that, we'll innovate our way around any of the worst case scenarios and share whatever space we have left with the cockroaches and rats.

A "Green" Luther Must Arise to Denounce The "Goracle"

Seems like the 'carbon offsets' program favored by the environmentally conscious but unwilling to make personal sacrifices crowd fits in with the past practice of indulgences so well, that the antidote to said practice may end up being very similar.

Martin Luther provided his antidote to the hypocrisy he saw, not just because the church was being hypocritical, but because the church was playing fast and loose with the principals at the foundation of Christianity.

Is Papa Viridus Albertus Gore XL the new Pope Leo X?

Will somebody nail a list of demands to the main gate of one of The Goracle's mansions?

If they do, it should look something like this.

1. Our Great and Green Mother Gaia Has Willed that all her children must Curb Their emissions of the foul Carbon at all costs
2. Carbon can not be 'offset' through market schemes, all of Gaia's children must reduce, reuse, and recycle every last bit of substance that passes through their lives
3. Yet, carbon reduction can not only be an inward manifestation, one must outwardly demand others mortify themselves before Gaia and deny their own flesh
4. The penalty, the death of the entire planet, will loom as long as people are allowed to do as they will without regard to the consequences for Gaia
5. The Goracle can not absolve you of your Carbon Sins, only each individual can reduce their own footprint
6. Gaia loves all, but will also punish all if we do not repent our sins collectively
7. We can not forgive those from the past their sins, as their actions remain in the atmosphere, but we must not copy those sins
8. The Goracle is still to be revered, as his pronouncements are correct, just his methods lacking
9. Ignorant and wicked are those that preach 'greenness' while continuing to consume beyond their measure
10. Carbon offsets are a form of 'purgatory' for evil doers, but it's a false purgatory produced by greed and a desire for an easy path, there is no easy path for true oneness with Gaia
11. The Goracle can claim carbon offsets absolve those of responsibility, but Gaia knows that it is a mere market scheme meant to bilk the gullible from their money, and has nothing to do with true greenness
12. Therefore, those that preach on behalf of offsets are in error, money alone can not absolve folks of their carbon footprint, only through an ascetic denial of earthly pleasures may Gaia be appeased
13. Only those who have already perfected themselves can be offered absolution, if someone is less than perfectly Green, then their absolution has no meaning
14. The Goracle does not have special power over the environment, he does not control the laws of nature, the power he and his friends consume is just as dirty and earth destroying as that which anybody consumes
15. Those that preach contrition to Gaia must also live contrition to Gaia
16. The highest of officials must live the lives they expect others to live, to do less would be less than Green

That's enough of that, you get the idea already (you didn't really think I'd do 95 of those, did you?).

(read the real thing here)

A Modest Proposal on Stemming Global Warming

There is no greater existential threat faced by mankind of the magnitude of man-made Global Warming.

Within years, sea levels are likely to rise by feet, and by the middle of this century, expect sea levels to rise by meters, not centimeters.

I know it's true, I've seen it in an award winning film touted by the world's most important person.

Obviously, everyone should do everything they can on a personal level to limit their carbon emissions. I myself hold my breath for up to a minute at least five times a day as a way of trying to help improve my personal 'carbon footprint'.

But holding our breaths, and stamping our feet, no matter how convincingly and sincerely we do this in the developed west, won't offset the great Gaia destroying potential that could be unleashed should prosperity levels continue to rise in India and China.

One unfortunate side effect of prosperity is increased energy demand and consumption. Until scientists perfect solar power constructed from purely organic, non-toxic, non-genetically modified, and sustainable compounds using skilled union artisans to construct said power cells, there is no source of power generation that shouldn't be opposed with phenomenal and fanatical vehemence. For example, coal, if anything in this postmodern world could still be described as evil, coal would be it, petroleum, see coal, nuclear power, it's too industrial to be trusted, accidents are sure to happen, and then the whole world is doomed, windmills, they are inefficient and kill birds, tidal harnesses, they harm views and are unproven, hydroelectric, they destroy the fisheries of migrating fish, and are also aesthetically undesirable, biodiesel, it shows promise, but it's too much like petroleum to be trusted.

So in other words, there is no way to generate electricity without exacerbating the problem, so on a global basis we must find an acceptable manner at reducing demand now and in the foreseeable future. It's for the good of all humanity, and the survival of the very planet depends on it.

My modest proposal for solving this intractable problem?

Espionage.

We must direct intensive espionage efforts at both the Chinese and Indian governments and provoke those two nations into a war. It's the planet's only hope. Once these two behemoths start sending wave and wave of their own citizens to death in a long war against each other, the problems caused by man-made emissions will disappear. I wish we lived in a world where we could encourage these people to become more prosperous, and more free, but unfortunately, that's not the world we live in. The world we live in is one where people can't be trusted, and they must be fought as a disease that infects the purity of Gaia.

Don't let recent reports of increased dialogue between these countries dissuade us from doing what is needed. No matter how much it may seem as if these countries would be crazy to attack each other, it must be the top priority of anyone interested in saving this planet to make this conflict happen, ASAP.

As an added benefit of this conflict, given both countries have access to nuclear bombs, there should be at the endgame of their conflict a nuclear exchange. If they manage to create just enough of a Nuclear Winter to counterbalance the ongoing Global Warming, then their sacrifice of a billion or so souls between the two countries should help rectify the precarious position we see ourselves in with regards to Global Warming.

It's a modest proposal, I admit, but one that all the world governments should turn their attention to, and make this happen.

There will be hardships outside of India and China, tech calls will go unanswered, Wal-Mart shelves will be harder to fill with product, but we live in dire times, and everyone must expect somebody else to shoulder an onerous burden, if we are to save our poor sick Gaia.

I get no pleasure out of suggesting that the world community conspire in the slaughter of over a billion people, but no other alternative suggested could possibly be effective in rectifying this dire, dangerous, and existentially threatening dilemma we are faced with.

He's Too Busy Saving the Planet to Be Bothered WIth a Piddling Little Job Like "President"

"Gore was the US negotiator for the international Kyoto Protocol that set global goals on emission of so-called greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, produced by the burning of fossil fuels such as oil and coal. The protocol was agreed in 1997 and took effect in February 2005, but Bush refused to ratify it, citing its high economic cost and the fact that China and India, the world's largest producers of greenhouse gases after the United States were, as developing nations, not bound by it. "

Hey, folks, hate to tell y'all, but it wasn't Bush who "refused to ratify it", it never came to a vote in the Senate for ratification (who's constitutional responsibility is treaty ratification, with the addition of a presidential signature). While Vice-President Gore was negotiating our economic surrender, the Senate passed the Byrd-Hagel Resolution refusing to participate in any scheme that doesn't include developing nations. Was the vote close? Was it just those nasty Republicans holding out? If you don't know the answers to those questions, then you've been believing everything you read (95-0 against Kyoto was the result, in case you don't remember).

Also, since 1997, the United States has done much better than Western Europe at reducing the rate of increase in carbon emissions, even while having a more robust economy. The only way the EU can claim meeting Kyoto as a whole is by pushing the origination dates for measurement back to 1990 and incorporating their formerly Eastern Bloc members in the calculations. Given the past polluting habits of Warsaw Pact nations, it was natural for those nations to see vast improvements over short time periods.

Not only is Kyoto dubious in its likely effect (given that any 'carbon' savings in the developed world would be dwarved by 'carbon' increases in China and India as they prosper), but the game was rigged from the very start to punish the United States and institute a new global bureaucracy (led by the Europeans, naturally) of 'carbon police' who would go about punishing anybody not meeting their rather arbitrary standards.

The United States has acted better on the environment than the various scolds hating on us. Furthermore, excluding the 2.4 billion folks in India and China who are playing catch-up in terms of energy consumption (again Canada and India have roughly energy use parity, while China's per capita access to kWh is miniscule).

Pres. Clinton did the right thing in ignoring this idiotic, ineffective, and hypocritical new push by Eurocrats to impose a new set of penalties on countries that don't jump through their hoops. Vice-President Gore did an awful job at pushing for a workable agreement and framework that would recognize the realities of the situation. His 'signature' on the Protocol is just an empty gesture from an empty headed politician (how many other Vice-Presidents went around signing Protocols/Treaties?).

Grrrrr, Arrgggggh.

This crap makes me pre-verbal. The wiki on this is surprisingly fair-minded, I guess the Kyoto Protocol is so ridiculous that they can't help but expose it's hypocrisy.

But, mainly I'm a little sick of wire services like the Agence France Press not only pushing their agenda through a purported 'hard news' story, but getting their facts wrong in the process.

You're entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.

If this was the greatest, most dire threat to mankind since we first rubbed sticks together and harnessed fire, you'd think that candidate Gore would have made it central to his 2000 presidential campaign. Instead he ran away from his self-created image of "Al Gore, Savior of the Planet, Great Gleaner of All That's Green, and Portentious Potentate of Pollution Preventing Policy".

At least the AFP admitted in the article that he was defeated in the 2000 election, that's progress.

Eco-Chic Didn't Last Long . . .

. . . at least in the music industry.

Because I know people who know stuff, I can tell you that big black Escalades are once again in high demand amongst local companies that rent out such vehicles.

There's a whole subset of the car rental industry hereabouts that handles luxury cars from top of the line Ferraris to the most outrageously 'pimped out' SUVs.

During awards season, they get real busy, a lot of folks fly in from NYC, and want to travel in luxury while tooling around L.A.. Also, there aren't a whole lot of quality hotel rooms in Downtown (yet, there are some massive projects in the pipeline that will change that), so the folks arriving for the Grammy's are most likely staying in either Beverly Hills or Santa Monica.

For the Oscars, there will be some uptick in Prius demand, no doubt (and yes, those are rentable hereabouts as well), especially with Gore being annointed as the prophet of our age during the ceremonies. Of the people that expect you to drive around in less car than you may want, know that few of them use their green econo-boxes as their sole mode of transport and will rent these buckets to arrive at events where big SUVs might be seen as obscene.

I'm no fan of SUVs personally, and I believe it was short-sighted and stupid policy when the government instituted the rule set that made building these things more desirable and profitable for car companies.

All those years of huge profits have dried up for GM and Ford (the biggest beneficiary of the less stringent 'truck' standards compared to 'car' standards, during the SUVs' hey-day). At the peak of the Navigator craze, Ford spent about $11,000 to make them and sold them wholesale at about $40,000. They went from making obscene per unit profits on hot sellers, to losing more money than any company in US history last quarter.

But with all that said, gasoline is the best fuel on many levels for powering cars, and folks should make the choices that make sense for themselves on an individual basis. Dreams of Hydrogen fuel cells, or full plug-in cars, are just that dreams, and if you study the numbers (as Popular Mechanics has done), don't make sense from both a cost and pollution stand point (with the cavaet that plug-in would be great, but only if we got most of our power from nuclear power instead of coal and natural gas as we do now).

But back to the original point, I'm glad folks will be rolling to the Grammys in big black Escalades, it's the American Way.

Do it with pride.

(also, this post should contain tons of links, but it's a lazy Saturday, so just pretend the links are there, you can find the PopMech article I refer to pretty easily your own damn self, and as far as the sorry state of Ford and the ridiculous profits they made in the 90s, that's pretty well documented, also)

UPDATE (14 FEB 07 4:15pm)

Welcome (?!?) Green Living Magazine visitors, stay around, or read this recent post, or these old post. Think of it as a cardiovascular work out (as your blood pressure may rise a bit).

Also, I know y'all probably just did a search for terms like 'eco-chic' and figurd this piece would fit in, but you may want to try and read what folks have to say before linking them, just a suggestion, don't want to seem ungrateful for the linkage.

Thanks for the link, next time I swig a Labatt's Blue, you'll be in my thoughts.

86 Degrees

That would be the current temp where I sit, about 2000m from the big blue Pacific.

Rough life, this.

Global Warming?

Bring it on, I say.

(compare and contrast)

For some interesting countervailing thoughts regarding current global warming hysteria, visit this Don Surber post (hat tip Instapundit, who also includes an unusually long post about his own thoughts at this link).