Study Says U.S. Shale May Weaken Iran, Russia
Thursday, 21 July 2011 16:01 Tom Fowler, Houston Chronicle
The natural gas boom in the U.S. has weakened Russia’s influence on European energy supplies and could keep Iran’s influence in check for years to come, according to a new study from the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.
Ending Windpower Subsidies for Deficit Reduction (failed promises have consequences)
Lisa Linowes
“The interventionist in advocating additional public expenditure is not aware of the fact that the funds available are limited. He does not realize that increasing expenditure in one department enjoins restricting it in other departments. In his opinion there is plenty of money available. The income and wealth of the rich can be freely tapped…. It never occurs to him [think Obama] that grave arguments could be advanced in favor of restricting public spending and lowering the burden of taxation. The champions of cuts in the budget are in his eyes merely the defenders of the manifestly unfair class interests of the rich.”
- Ludwig von Mises, Human Action: A Treatise on Economics (1949), 1966, pp. 856–57.
“This is where we stand in our current debt ceiling debate. Government is too big, too bloated. Washington faces a spending problem, not a revenue problem. But too many within the economy depend on the government transfers to live and to work. Yet the economy is not growing at a rate that can afford the illusion. Where are we to go from here?”
- Peter Boettke, “Why The Great Stagnation Thesis is the Most Subversive Libertarian Argument of Our Age,” July 15, 2011.
Energy subsidies are now on the table in the debt-ceiling debate now raging before Congress. But a macro approach needs to be taken to encompass subsidies in the electric generation market (wind and solar in particular), not only in the transportation fuels (oil and ethanol). (MasterResource)
Analysis: Ontario green energy plan feels the heat
An ambitious plan to feed renewable energy into the power grid of Canada’s economic heartland is under fire and could flame out altogether in the autumn, just two years after its launch.
Ontario’s opposition Progressive Conservative party, who are leading in the polls ahead of an October 6 election, has vowed to scrap a provincial program that pays above-market rates to producers of energy from sources such as the sun and wind. (Reuters)
Posted in Energy, Green scams
Gillard’s future – decommissioned already
The Gillard Government shows a wonderful solar power facility at White Cliffs to symbolise our future.
Problem is:
The solar plant is now closed but it has earned a national award that will see it preserved as a piece of alternative energy heritage.
Reason for the closure? The town got connected to the grid, and coal-fired power is cheaper. And it stays on at night. (Andrew Bolt)
Plan to one day end the use of environmentally harmful chemicals on commercial crops developed
Researchers have published a step by step plan to one day end the use of environmentally harmful chemicals on commercial crops by developing plants that produce their own fertilizer
(Edmonton) Two University of Alberta researchers have published a step by step plan to one-day end the use of environmentally harmful chemicals on commercial crops by developing plants that produce their own fertilizer.
U of A plant biologist Allen Good says the energy required to produce nitrogen fertilizers has pushed the world-wide cost for agricultural producers to a $100 billion a year. Good says that while they are necessary for high yields, those nitrogen fertilizers also damage the environment. Emissions from nitrogen fertilizers add to greenhouse gas emissions and chemical run-off from farm fields cause algae blooms in fresh water lakes and rivers. Good says the cost of cleaning up the environment adds another $50 billion to the world-wide cost of commercial agriculture fertilizers. (EurekAlert)
Posted in Agriculture, Development
The World Is Not Overpopulated
By Alex B. Berezow
An opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times declared the world to be overpopulated and even compared humanity to a cancerous growth. This reasoning is not only disturbing, but is almost certainly incorrect, as well.
The world, indeed, has a lot of people. By the end of 2011, there will be nearly 7 billion people living on the planet. But population growth rates will not sustain at those levels. An analysis byThe Economist describes how each subsequent billion will take longer and longer to achieve, until population growth eventually plateaus at around 9 billion people by 2050. (Real Clear Science)
Posted in Development, Misanthropy
The CDC vs. Life-Saving Vaccines
Is the federal agency cutting costs by refusing to approve vaccines for children?
There are two types of meningitis infection, viral and bacterial. The viral infection is not particularly serious and is usually self-limiting. The bacterial version is quite a different story. Although uncommon — due largely to the 1999 approval of a vaccine for children aged 11–18 years — bacterial meningitis is very dangerous: It has a 15 percent mortality rate, and approximately another 15 percent of those who contract it will suffer severe, long-term neurological damage, such as loss of hearing, seizures, and strokes.
Fortunately, recent research in this area has resulted in the approval of one vaccine for children as young as nine months of age — and another vaccine that could be used for children as young as two months is under FDA review.
This is good news.
Posted in Health care
Greenpeace demands data, scientists should be conCERNed about events in Europe, and someone tell PETA that live animals are being experimented on for the cause of global warming. That’s some Pay-Per-View hippie on hippie gold just waiting to happen. (Daily Bayonet)
Posted in Climate change
Barrasso revives battle against SEC climate risk disclosure
By Ben Geman
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) is reviving his effort to block a Securities and Exchange Commission policy that pushes companies to disclose risks stemming from climate change in filings with regulators.
He reintroduced legislation Wednesday with Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) that scuttles the disclosure policy.
“In this economy, the SEC’s main responsibility should be to protect American investors and maintain fair markets,” Barrasso said in a statement. “Instead, it’s actually wasting time and resources on regulating climate change. This is yet another startling example of how the Administration is making it worse for job creators across our country.” (E2 Wire)
Posted in Climate change, Development
Act now on climate, no need to wait: top UN scientist
PARIS — The key facts on global warming are already known and leaders should not wait for the next edition of the UN climate panel’s report to step up action, the body’s top scientist told AFP.
The 4th Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, released in 2007, “is very clear,” Rajendra Pachauri said Monday in Paris, ahead of a five-day meeting of the body in Brest, France.
The fifth multi-volume assessment, which summarizes peer-reviewed science to help policy makers make decisions, is due out in 2013-2014.
“We have enough evidence, enough scientific findings which should convince people that action has to be taken,” he said after a round-table discussion with France’s environment minister, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet.
“Based on observation, we know that there will be more floods, more drought, more heat waves and more extreme precipitation events. These things are happening,” Pachauri said. (AFP)
Posted in Activists, Climate change, Propaganda
Alarmism a danger to democracy: Vaclav Klaus
Christian Kerr
FALLS in European carbon emissions can be attributed to an economic slowdown rather than the EU’s emissions trading scheme, Czech President Vaclav Klaus says.
Mr Klaus arrives in Australia today to talk on climate change in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in a tour organised by the Institute of Public Affairs.
“The relationship between economic activity and carbon emissions is very strong and very stable,” the former economist told The Australian.
When Politicians Put Experts Between a Rock and a Hard Place
I have been following closely, but not writing much on, the debate in Australia over Julia Gillard’s proposed carbon tax. How it plays out will be fascinating to watch and will provide as much a lesson in Australian politics as anything to do with climate policy.
This report from The Australian provides a great example of how politicians can make life extremely difficult for those experts who share their goals: (Roger Pielke Jr.)
Posted in Cap and tax
UN security council to consider climate change peacekeeping
Special meeting to discuss ‘green helmets’ force to intervene in conflicts caused by rising seas levels and shrinking resources (Guardian)
Posted in Climate change, Rubber room
My Comments On An AGU Meeting Announcement – Regional Climate Prediction at High Resolution
I was alerted to a meeting for the upcoming December 2011 AGU meeting. After presenting the session title and abstract, and I have some comments. The meeting is titled Regional Climate Prediction Session with the following announcement (Roger Pielke Sr.)
Posted in PlayStation® climatology
Vostok, Antarctica Current Temperatures Still Significantly Below Roman & Medieval Peaks
As the empirical evidence keeps mounting, the climate alarmist claim of a catastrophic Antarctica ice sheet melt event from “global” warming is entirely without merit. (C3 Headlines)
Posted in Climate change
NASA’s Inconvenient Ruse: The Goddard Institute For Space Studies
Larry Bell
The next time you read that NASA declares this or that day, month or year the hottest since yadda, yadda, yadda — you might want to check the source. It’s a pretty safe bet that it came from the Goddard Institute for Space Studies and probably quotes its director, James Hansen.
One would imagine that if you can trust any organization regarding reliable climate information, it would be NASA, right? Particularly a NASA organization named after Dr. Robert H. Goddard, widely recognized as the “father of American rocketry.” Think how important it is to get weather information right when launching people into space, and consider all those satellites and other high-tech stuff they have at their disposal. One would certainly believe that they could be relied on to give us the real scoop. Unfortunately, one might be very wrong, at least regarding the Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
First of all, GISS is actually only a climate modeling shop that relies on surface (not satellite) data that is mostly supplied by others. And even some top NASA scientists consider the dataset produced by GISS inferior to data provided by two other principal organizations, the National Climate Data Center’s Global Historical Climatology Network and the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (CRU) — home of the “ClimateGate” scandal. (Forbes)
Posted in Climate change
On Green Hell Blog On JunkScience.com On Corporate Energy Subsidies
