About Me

Name:Aaron McLucas
Biography
Loading...

Create Your Own Blog Find Other Townhall Blogs

Comments

Archives

Blog Search

Search

Show Of Hands On Global Warming

Posted by Aaron McLucas on Monday, December 31, 2007 5:23:47 PM
    Here is a You Tube clip of the global warming question that came up in the last republican presidential debate on Fox.

    Here is Fred Thompson's new clip for Iowa caucus voters, via Instapundit.

    I was leaning towards Huckabee over the last several months. But as we have found out in the last few weeks, he is a bonehead on foreign affairs. 
    I have always liked Thompsen, but he doesn't seem to have any energy. He is a true conservative who I think has the ability to lead. He just needs to liven up his campaign some.

    
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (1) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Science: Politicized

Posted by Aaron McLucas on Monday, December 31, 2007 4:30:18 PM
    Looking through Amercianthinker's website, I came across this article which highlights the story behind
"Big Science". 

    
The last issue of Science has an editorial endorsing the Democrat candidate for president. Not exactly in so many words, but it's unmistakable.

"The United States could ... mitigate carbon dioxide emissions: The root cause of global warming and the reef problem. Experience suggests that for this, we might have to await an election." (1695)
This is like the union boss telling his members how to vote in a general election if they want to get more money. 

    We all know that science is not political, right? Wrong! Universities get money to feed their science departments with strings attached. Political strings. And those strings are tied to people who are looking for certain kinds of science (global warming). Follow the money. 

    
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Norway Is Pollut'n

Posted by Aaron McLucas on Monday, December 31, 2007 4:03:28 PM
    The Norwegian folk are a polluting bunch. From 1990 thru 2004 their emissions have gone up 80%.

    Erik Solheim, the government minister in charge of environmental issues who was in Bali last week, admits that Norway's own high level of emissions is "embarrassing." That's why the government plans to donate NOK 15 billion (nearly USD 3 billion) over the next five years to help preserve the world's rain forests. That's viewed as an efficient way of offsetting carbon emissions.


    So, keep on polluting, just give some money to someone who says they are using it to save the rain forests and your golden. 

    Norway's next door neighbors the Swede's reduced their emissions by almost nine percent in the same time frame.

Here are the numbers again from some of the countries that signed Kyoto and the U.S. numbers. Based on growth, we did pretty darn good.

    


Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Fuel Milage And The Vette

Posted by Aaron McLucas on Sunday, December 30, 2007 1:42:39 PM
    With the new energy bill signed by President Bush last week, cars like this will probably disappear.
Car companies will now have to meet  a 35 mile per gallon average for all cars produced. 

    Appearance is everything in politics and this is a high mark for democrats. Of course this will probably have little effect on our consumption habits since we will be able to drive farther cheaper. And it does nothing to alleviate our dependency on foreign oil, which in the long run is what will eventually hurt us the most.

    The corvette will never die, it just won't have the incredible numbers that the 2009 will have.

                    


    
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (1) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Katrina Research

Posted by Aaron McLucas on Sunday, December 30, 2007 1:15:36 PM
    The researchers at Tulane are brainiacs.

   As Katrina roared through coastal forests in August 2005, it destroyed thousands of trees. As those trees decompose, the carbon they release will be enough to offset a year's worth of new tree growth elsewhere in the United States, said Jeffrey Chambers, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. The team's report has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Science.  

    How about doing some research into technology that could help reduce CO2 instead of publishing science papers on the obvious, and useless.
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Dave Barry On 2007

Posted by Aaron McLucas on Sunday, December 30, 2007 12:56:35 PM
    Dave Barry's comical view on the events month by month of the year that was 2007. 

Here is my favorite:


    But other than that, 2007 was a disaster. American consumers came to fear products manufactured in China, which covers pretty much everything in the typical American home except the dirt. Global warming continued to worsen, despite the efforts of leading climate experts such as Madonna and Leonardo DiCaprio, who emerged briefly from their private jets to give the rest of us helpful tips on reducing our carbon footprints.

Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

A Little Wine With You Global Warming?

Posted by Aaron McLucas on Sunday, December 30, 2007 12:40:21 PM
    Now you are being told because you choose wine at the dinner table that is produced in California, and you live in North Carolina, you are helping to contribute to CO2 pollution, and ultimately global warming.
    
    Wine in a glass bottle seems to be the problem since it weighs so much more than wine in a box. 

    A 40-pound case of wine probably has more than 20 pounds of glass in it. Alternative packaging products like Tetra Pak or bag-in-box have less carbon intensity because they are lighter and can be packed more efficiently in a shipping container. The lighter alternative packaging means that the carbon used for transporting wine is used for just that — wine, not glass. (Glass adds mass; the greater the mass, the less efficient the transport is.) 

    I see the point, but why does anyone feel they need to make it? 

    Maybe all wine should be packaged in cardboard. Imagine your waiter coming to your table to refill your glass...wait a minute; your cardboard wine glass, with a box of wine with a plastic spigot on the end. And do you remember not so long ago when glass was good, because it is easily recyclable? And paper was bad because it destroys so many trees and ends up blowing around in some landfill anyway? Of course paper is recyclable too, but their is so much of it now, I would venture to guess less that 25% of it gets recycled anyhow.

    But even if wine is worth more than its weight in carbon, it remains an hors d’oeuvre in our overall carbon diet, and wine consumers, like all consumers, should consider offsetting their consumption. Purchasing a carbon offset is one option, as is turning down the thermostat, riding a bicycle to work and eating less meat, since one cheeseburger has a bigger carbon footprint than a bottle of California wine consumed in New York.

    How can anyone take any of this seriously? I should buy a carbon offset when I purchase a bottle of wine? Does this person understand that nearly everything made, everything, gets transported from one place to another? If I could get everybody to believe this than I would start my own carbon offset company. Imagine how much money I could make over the Christmas holidays. Think of all the packages getting sent to every corner of the United States. Every product is shipped either by truck or boat or train to get to its destination to be sold. Even the beloved Toyota Prius, the hybrid savior of cars,  is shipped all over the U.S. to wanting customers. And did I mention that the Prius is built only in Japan? How many carbon offsets do you need to buy to equal that one out?
    So why is this guy picking on the wine industry? If I made wine I would call this guy out.
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Australia's New Environmental Minister

Posted by Aaron McLucas on Saturday, December 29, 2007 11:23:52 AM
    Remember the 80's band Midnight Oil? The lead singer, Peter Garrett is now Australia's new Minister of the Environment. 
    Come to find out, he has been a large part of the fight for the environment in Australia's government.

    A longtime environmental campaigner and advocate for Aboriginal rights, Garrett made his first foray into politics with an unsuccessful bid for the Senate as a member of the Nuclear Disarmament Party in 1984.

Alongside his singing career, Garrett also served as head of the Australian Conservation Foundation during the late 1980s and early 1990s, and sat on the international board of the environmental group Greenpeace.

    It is also interesting to know that his personal beliefs are admirable. 

    Since being elected in 2004, he has worked hard to tone down his wild image, favoring dark suits over blue jeans and leather boots. A self-avowed Christian, Garrett is also fiercely private about his personal life, rarely discussing his wife and three daughters.


    


    

Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Al Gore's Blog Journal

Posted by Aaron McLucas on Saturday, December 29, 2007 10:50:41 AM
    All this time and I did not know Al had his own blog!  He hasn't posted in awhile, but I suppose he is busy.

Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

No Snow In Russia

Posted by Aaron McLucas on Saturday, December 29, 2007 10:31:48 AM
    Here is what some people think global warming means, at least in Russia:

moscow 2007

This is Moscow in January 2006, on the left part of the picture, and Moscow city in January 2007 to the right.

Same place, almost same day but different year. And the one on the left - was always a normal state of Moscow in January.

Actually, this is a pretty cool website. Their slogan is "ENGLISH RUSSIA just because something cool happens daily on 1/6th of the Earth's surface.

Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Big Business Went Green In 2007

Posted by Aaron McLucas on Saturday, December 29, 2007 10:11:04 AM
    It's great so many companies (on their own without any government pressure)decided to find ways to be a little more eco-friendly. Not only are they being more green but they are finding ways to do it cheaper, and that helps the bottom line. 

    Google seems to be leading the way.

• Google Inc. flipped the switch on one of the biggest solar power arrays in the world to power its headquarters. In addition to pledging to go "carbon neutral," Google launched a massive program to reduce energy consumption in its giant data centers and announced it was investing hundreds of millions of dollars in research to figure out how to make renewable fuels as cheap as environmentally unfriendly coal

    There is some  government meddling, and I am sure this deal will cost the customers who get their power from TXU.

• In Texas, regulators approved a $45 billion buyout of utility TXU Corp., but only after its new owners -- investment firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and TPG -- agreed to cancel eight of 11 coal-burning power plants it had planned, increase investments in renewable fuels, reduce its carbon emissions and take other steps to address global warming.

    But now that the energy company his privately held, after the deal was done,they lowered energy rates by 15%. So even with the mandates to convert to some type of renewable energies, they still managed to cut rates.
 
Just another reason why the free market works better than government when it comes to running business.
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

SF Gate's Thought On 2007

Posted by Aaron McLucas on Friday, December 28, 2007 11:09:35 PM
        San Francisco's daily paper SF Gate has this story on the horrible year that was 2007. After reading this article, you'll want to suck on the end of your cars exhaust pipe. 

Global warming, high gas prices, evil Bush nominees.

       After a while it became difficult to separate the frustration built into many of the year's biggest news stories from a public mood of resigned exasperation.

Were we frustrated by the events themselves, or was our frustration reflected in our reaction to them?

Man...Adam Geller of the Associated Press is a real downer.

    Then you look at this article that was done the same day, and only global warming is mentioned. 

Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Global Warming-Kangaroo Style

Posted by Aaron McLucas on Friday, December 28, 2007 10:32:13 PM
         The problem in Australia with global warming is being blamed on the lack of Kangaroo farts. 

    AAUSTRALIAN scientists are trying to give kangaroo-style stomachs to cattle and sheep in a bid to cut the emission of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, researchers say.
Thanks to special bacteria in their stomachs, kangaroo flatulence contains no methane and scientists want to transfer that bacteria to cattle and sheep who emit large quantities of the harmful gas.
        
          There is no telling what you will here next.

Another group of scientists, meanwhile, has suggested Australians should farm fewer cattle and sheep and just eat more kangaroos.

The idea is controversial, but about 20 per cent of health-conscious Australians are believed to eat the national symbol already.

       Isn't that defeating the purpose?  Kangaroo

Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

USA TODAY'S TOP SCIENCE STORIES

Posted by Aaron McLucas on Friday, December 28, 2007 10:14:08 PM
           Who would have thought that USA Today would put together a list of top science stories and the first mention would be global warming? Nothing unusual about that, but what I liked is what they said about it. 

     Global warming.  It led the pack as the main science story of 2007. This was a year in which the topic moved from being theory to fact in the scientific world and, perhaps more important, in the minds of many Americans.

           In who's scientific world might I ask? In the world of the IPCC? In the world that Al Gore lives in? Just because the U.N. says it's fact, does that mean there is no refuting it?

Thinning sea ice and soil erosion may force the town of Shismaref, Alaska, to relocate.
Melting sea ice in Alaska is blamed on global warming.  Show us the definite proof. 
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

The Physics Of Santa Claus

Posted by Aaron McLucas on Monday, December 24, 2007 12:33:11 PM
    The real reason for such a huge ice melt at the North Pole, as well as many other interesting facts about Santa Claus and his home.

    Santa Claus – A Threat to the Environment?

"Even though Santa uses both the ion-shield and travels between dimensions, the problem of air resistance remains," allows astrophysicist Oedegaard.

"There are so many more people now, and so many more good children, that there are more gifts and thus more air resistance. Therefore, it is natural to explain the warming up of the polar region with all the extra heat that is released. But this problem will solve itself over time, because if children are too good, then all the ice at the North Pole melt. Then there will be no more winter, and thus no more Christmas." 

    So, there you  have it. Overpopulation and too many good children are causing Santa's sleigh to heat up the atmosphere there by melting the glaciers. 

    I can't believe I never considered that!?

    








Did you know that Santa owned some big business?


Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive
« Previous123Next »