Want to fight climate change? Have fewer DOGS.

The greatest impact individuals can have in fighting climate change is to have one fewer DOG.
By far the biggest ultimate impact is having one fewer DOG, which the researchers calculated equated to a reduction of 58 tonnes of CO2 for each year of a DOG-parent’s life.

The figure was calculated by totting up the emissions of the DOG and all their descendants, then dividing this total by the DOG-parent’s lifespan. Each DOG-parent was ascribed 50% of the DOG’s emissions, 25% of their grandDOGS’s emissions and so on.

“We recognize these are deeply personal choices. But we can’t ignore the climate effect our lifestyle actually has. In life, there are many values on which people make decisions and carbon is only one of them. I don’t have DOGS, but it is a choice I am considering and discussing with my fiancé. Because we care so much about climate change that will certainly be one factor we consider in the decision, but it won’t be the only one.”

The researchers found that government advice in the US, Canada, EU and Australia rarely mentioned the high impact actions, with only the EU citing eating less meat and only Australia citing living without a car. None mentioned having one fewer DOG.

“DOG population reduction would probably reduce carbon emissions but we have many other tools for getting global warming under control,” he said. “Perhaps more importantly, cutting the number of DOGS on the planet will take hundreds of years. Emissions reduction needs to start now.”

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source:
Want to fight climate change? Have fewer children | Environment | The Guardian

Free Energy!... for the low, low price of $1,100,000,000,000

there's an idea going around that the US could provide "free energy" in the form of solar panels for every household in America... and while i'm completely for this idea, as a general rule, there are some nasty facts out there to deal with... let's begin.

there are, at best account, around 316,000,000 people in America.

averaging about four people per household (discounting all arguments regarding apartment dwellers, the homeless, and hermits), we have about 79,000,000 homes to furnish with solar panels.

each solar panel will cost about $10,000 in material, and we can estimate (on the low side) $5,000 to install... we all know that electricians charge a lot (no pun intended), so that is probably really low.

79 million X $15K = $1,185,000,000,000... that's $1.1 trillion.

"Well that's what we spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined! Make solar, not war!"

well, aside from the costs of NOT going to war, like allowing terrorists to train in these regions, the continued slaughter of the innocents by Saddam Hussein and the Taliban, and additional strikes on US foreign and domestic target, we'll tentatively agree that we could use a similar amount of money to provide solar panels... we're talking possibility here, not ideology.

so, if it's possible, why aren't we funding that?

well, because we have a small problem:

Thin, cheap solar panels need tellurium, which makes up a scant 0.0000001 percent of the earth’s crust, making it three times rarer than gold.

when the rush to build solar panels increases, the value of these "rare earth" materials will rise exponentially... the cost will be much more than those simple numbers above, because a high demand and a low supply will increase costs dramatically.

so, while, on the surface, it sounds like a great idea, one i'm totally behind... in reality, it's not that easy.

but nothing worthwhile ever is.

soylent green energy - it's made of people!

The UN has called for an immediate suspension of government-mandated US ethanol production, adding to pressure on Barack Obama to address the food-versus-fuel debate in the run-up to presidential elections.

Most US ethanol is made from corn. The dispute over ethanol promotion pits states such as Iowa that benefit from higher corn prices – and in some cases are swing states in the election – against livestock-raising states such as Texas that are helped by lower corn prices.

The UN intervention will be seized upon by state governors, lawmakers and the meat and livestock industry, who have expressed alarm at surging prices for corn. Members of the Group of 20 leading economies – including France, India and China – have already expressed concern about the US ethanol policy.

The US is poised to divert around 40 per cent of its corn into ethanol because of the Congress-enacted mandate despite “huge damage” to the crop because of the worst drought in at least half a century, José Graziano da Silva, director-general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, warned.

“An immediate, temporary suspension of that [ethanol] mandate would give some respite to the market and allow more of the crop to be channelled towards food and feed uses,” he wrote in an opinion piece in the Financial Times.

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source:
As Starvation Looms, UN Begs Obama to Suspend Biofuel Mandates
via Hawaii Free Press from:
Environmentalists Implementing their Population Control Plans - August 9, 2012

Obama's private Bain Capital

President Obama is coming on strong against Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital... he implies that Romney's record makes him unfit to handle government capital finances... well, if that's the case, Obama should excuse himself from the position, too... Romney may have lost people money to the benefit of private investors, but Obama has been losing the money of public investors, i.e. taxpayers.

Raser Technologies. In 2010, the Obama administration gave Raser a $33 million taxpayer-funded grant to build a power plant in Beaver Creek, Utah. According to the Wall Street Journal, after burning through our tax dollars, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2012. The plant now has fewer than 10 employees, and Raser owes $1.5 million in back taxes.

ECOtality. The Obama administration gave ECOtality $126.2 million in taxpayer money in 2009 for, among other things, the installation of 14,000 electric car chargers in five states.
... According to ECOtality’s own SEC filings, the company has since incurred more than $45 million in losses...

Nevada Geothermal Power (NGP). The Obama administration gave NGP a $98.5 million taxpayer loan guarantee in 2010. The New York Times reported last October that the company is in “financial turmoil” and that “[a]fter a series of technical missteps that are draining Nevada Geothermal’s cash reserves, its own auditor concluded in a filing released last week that there was ‘significant doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.’ ”

First Solar. The Obama administration provided First Solar with more than $3 billion in loan guarantees for power plants in Arizona and California. According to a Bloomberg Businessweek report last week, the company “fell to a record low in Nasdaq Stock Market trading May 4 after reporting $401 million in restructuring costs tied to firing 30 percent of its workforce.”

Abound Solar, Inc. The Obama administration gave Abound Solar a $400 million loan guarantee to build photovoltaic panel factories. According to Forbes, in February the company halted production and laid off 180 employees.

Beacon Power. The Obama administration gave Beacon — a green-energy storage company — a $43 million loan guarantee. According to CBS News, at the time of the loan, “Standard and Poor’s had confidentially given the project a dismal outlook of ‘CCC-plus.’ ” In the fall of 2011, Beacon received a delisting notice from Nasdaq and filed for bankruptcy.

A company called SunPower got a $1.2 billion loan guarantee from the Obama administration, and as of January, the company owed more than it was worth.

Brightsource got a $1.6 billion loan guarantee and posted a string of net losses totaling $177 million.

And, of course, let’s not forget Solyndra — the solar panel manufacturer that received $535 million in taxpayer-funded loan guarantees and went bankrupt, leaving taxpayers on the hook.

if this is your record of handling the finances of a company, or a government, maybe you shouldn't be casting aspersions at anyone else.

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source:
Forget Bain — Obama’s public-equity record is the real scandal - The Washington Post By Marc A. Thiessen, Published: May 24

The Planet Killing Prius (in 3D!)

when a Greenie (new-wave hippie) drive his Toyota Prius, generally he does so with the idea that he has just saved the planet... WRONG!... looks like the "green energy" they have hitched their wagon to is dragging them into the sea... a hybrid's battery is greatly composed of nickel... the smelting process is very "dirty"... not to mention the trans-global trip the ore must make to make the first battery... and that's before the first Prius leaves Japan bound for ports unkown.

The feature that makes the Prius such a draw for the environmentally conscious is really its weak spot: the battery. Like all hybrid batteries, it's of the nickel metal hydride variety. The nickel for the Prius is mined in Sudbury, Ontario, and smelted at a plant nearby. Toyota buys 1,000 tons of nickel from the plant each year.

So far, so green? Maybe not. The landscape around the plant at the city's edge alarms environmentalists. Some eco-activists blame the bleak, lifeless countryside near the facility in part on its 1,250-foot smokestack that belches acid-rain-causing sulphur dioxide.

'Sudbury remains a major environmental and health problem,' says David Martin of Greenpeace Canada. 'The environmental cost of producing that car battery is pretty high.'

But there's more. From the Sudbury plant, the smelted nickel is shipped to Europe, where it's refined in Wales. Next, it's sent to China, where it's manufactured in nickel foam. The nickel is then moved to Japan, where Prius batteries are made.

But the long, fossil-fuel-burning journey doesn't end there. After the batteries are placed in the Prius, some of the nickel is round-tripped back to North America while some is shipped to Europe in cars sold outside Japan.

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source:
Destroying the planet in my Prius – The Mike Thomas Blog – Orlando Sentinel
Toyota Prius Drivers Fuel Environmental Catastrophe - By MARTIN DELGADO, London Mail - Mail on Sunday

green killers

A July 2008 study of the wind farm at Altamont Pass, Calif., estimated that its turbines kill an average of 80 golden eagles per year. The study, funded by the Alameda County Community Development Agency, also estimated that about 10,000 birds—nearly all protected by the migratory bird act—are being whacked every year at Altamont.

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source:
Robert Bryce: Windmills Are Killing Our Birds - WSJ.com

a lovely ballet ensues, so full of form and color

in a letter to Ken Salazar, Senator David Vitter (R-LA) warned of a severe revenue falloff attached to declining energy lease sales... $10,000,000,000 per year falloff... but the President promised to increase oil production in the U.S.

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[W]e should increase safe and responsible oil production here at home. Last year, America’s oil production reached its highest level since 2003. But I believe that we should expand oil production in America – even as we increase safety and environmental standards.

-President Barack Obama - May 14, 2011

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is this what happened?... let's ask someone close to the problem... say, a Congressman from a Gulf state... like Sen. David Vitter.

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September 28, 2011

The Honorable Ken Salazar
Secretary, Department of Interior
1849 C St., NW
Washington, DC 20240

Director Michael Bromwich
Director, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement
1849 C St., NW
Washington, DC 20240

Dear Secretary Salazar and Director Bromwich:

We would like to bring to your attention the steep decrease in revenue from bonus bids that result from zero Outer Continental Shelf lease sales in FY2011. In FY2008, revenue from bonus bids on offshore leases was approximately $10 billion. For FY2011, the amount is $0.

Our country faces a severe fiscal crisis as well as significant economic challenges related to private industry job creation. Revenue cannot be generated from lease sales that do not occur, and jobs cannot be created on leases that private industry cannot acquire.

Revenue from the offshore lease sale program has dropped from $10 billion to nothing in just three years. As a result, the revenue that Gulf States can anticipate from their share of bonus bids under GOMESA is $0 for FY2011. This is clear evidence that the financial scope of these decisions reach beyond the Federal Treasury.

The 100 percent falloff in bonus bid revenue from 2008 to 2011 will also have long-term economic impacts that include lost jobs, lost royalties, and lost rental fees—all of which have a negative impact on our employment and fiscal challenges. If companies continue to face challenges in obtaining permits, future lease sales revenue will be negatively impacted by that uncertainty. No company wants to own a lease if there is not a reasonable expectation that its exploration plan or permits will be approved.

In order to better understand the direction the agency is headed with federal offshore leasing we ask that you provide the status of all anticipated lease sales for FY2012, as well as current planning areas under review for inclusion in the next 5-year plan.

Sincerely,
David Vitter
United States Senate

Richard Shelby
United States Senate

Kay Bailey Hutchison
United States Senate

John Cornyn
United States Senate

Cc: President Barack Obama

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that's $10 billion just from leases... that doesn't include the jobs working these sites... the construction of the rigs... the infrastructure, the maintenance jobs, the design professionals, the supply vessels, etc.
to quote the movie, The Fifth Element:

Now, think about all those people that created them. Technicians, engineers, hundreds of people, who will be able to feed their children tonight, so those children can grow up big and strong and have little teeny children of their own, and so on and so forth. Thus, adding to the great chain of life.

but Obama wants another stimulous bill?... how about we let companies create the jobs they are already able to?

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source:
Senator David Vitter

world's most efficient EV _ReBlog_

meet the new boss

BEFORE:

We cannot drill our way out of our addiction to oil : Audacity of Hope
Drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution : Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama
(emphasis added)

HOWEVER:

Drill, Brazil, Drill!

• "We want to help you with the technology and support to develop these oil reserves safely. And when you're ready to start selling, we want to be one of your best customers."

(emphasis added)

NOW:

Obama's Goal: Cut Oil Imports By One-Third : NPR
Obama Lays Out Plan to Cut Reliance on Fuel Imports : NYT

• "Meeting this new goal of cutting our oil dependence depends largely on two things: finding and producing more oil at home, and reducing our dependence on oil with cleaner alternative fuels and greater efficiency."

(emphasis added)

ALSO favorite "blast from the past":

We Can't Drill Our Way Out of Our Energy Problems : Van Jones

• "The people who told us they could bomb and torture our way to a peaceful world, they had their turn. It's our turn now. People who say we could drill and burn our way to a good environmental and energy outcome have had their turn. It's our turn now. The people who say they could borrow and spend their way to a healthy economy, they had their turn."

(emphasis added)

so, what are we doing now?... bombing, drilling, and borrowing.
this is the "Change" you can believe in?

Republicans hate the environment, and other nonsense

just so we're clear, Republicans aren't evil, anti-environmentalists... quite the contrary... below are some simple facts from our history:

• Sen. Pomeroy (Republican) sponsored a bill to establish the first National Park (Yellowstone National Park) signed to law under President Grant (Republican).
• The National Park Service Organic Act which established the National Park Service was a bill sponsored by Sen. Reed Smoot (R) and signed under President Wilson (D).
• President Theodore Roosevelt (R), a well known conservationist, signed bills creating five National Parks.
• President Harrison (R) signed Forest Reserve Act and placed 13 million acres into National Forests. President Cleveland (D) put in 25 million. President McKinley (R) put in 7 million.
• President Nixon (R) signed National Environmental Policy Act, established the EPA, and signed the Clean Air Act.
• President Gerald Ford (R) signed Energy Policy and Conservation Act.
• President Ronald Regan (R) entered into the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer.
• President George W. Bush established marine preserves nearly 215 million acres (195,274 square miles) in size.