June 16, 2009
I'm Mr. White Flag Day
My friends call me Snow Miser
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. (CBS) ―
Parts of New Jersey were pummeled by a massive hail storm on Monday afternoon, leaving it looking as if a June blizzard blew through with inches of dime-sized pellets piling up.Washington Township residents were seen on their driveways breaking out the snow shovels and officials sent out bulldozers to act as snow plows to clear the streets after severe thunderstorms pounded the region. Children were seen forming hailballs.
CBS 2 HD's Christine Sloan was in Washington Township and spoke to stunned residents. This as the snow and ice piled up around them.
It was a day for snow boots and a jacket as several inches fell in what's being looked at as one freak storm.
I'm too much...
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:16 AM | Comments (7)
June 10, 2009
What About All the Jobs at the Hefty Garbage Bag Factory?
All those scientists and technicians employed to make the next greatest, stretchiest, strongest tall kitchen cinch sack with self ties and odor control?
Rubbish 'banned'FOOD, glass and drinks cans could all be banned from our rubbish bins under government proposals to be outlined today.
Nobody cares about the lives of those evil-doers in a clean, green world.
And I used to laugh at the British penchant for over regulating...
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:32 AM | Comments (12)
Take Off, Eh!
To the Great White North
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - The multiple frosts that have blanketed Western Canada in the last week are the most widespread in the top canola-growing province of Saskatchewan in at least five years, the Canola Council of Canada said on Tuesday.Two overnight frosts last week have already resulted in some Saskatchewan farmers reseeding their canola, a Canadian variant of rapeseed, said Jim Bessel, senior agronomy specialist in the province for the industry group Canola Council.
...In Manitoba, the frost is the worst in memory for its frequency and area covered, said Derwyn Hammond, the province's senior agronomy specialist for the Canola Council.
"Certainly (it's) the worst year I've seen," said Hammond, who has worked for the Canola Council for 15 years.
Reports of sightings of the Goreacle in Western Canada could not be independently confirmed.
Aside from the frosts.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:23 AM | Comments (1)
June 09, 2009
Damn You Chimpy!
Now you've stolen our Summer!
According to Long Range Expert Joe Bastardi, areas from the northern Plains into the Northeast will have a "year without a summer." The jet stream, which is suppressed abnormally south this spring, is also suppressing the number of thunderstorms that can form. The ones that do form in areas of the Ohio Valley and West are forming in places with very cold temperatures, which can lead to more electrified thunderstorms than normal this year.
Global Warming: It's Real.*
* but on Mars, not Earth.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:29 AM | Comments (3)
May 28, 2009
I'll See Your Pretentious Gorebal Hypocrisy
...and raise you a fishy smelling one.
Renowned Restaurant Nobu Warns Diners Not to Eat Its Endangered TunaCelebrity hotspot and renowned Japanese restaurant Nobu has written a note to diners at its London restaurants warning them not to eat the bluefin tuna on the menu because it is endangered, the London Telegraph reported Wednesday.
The restaurant, popular with stars like Brad Pitt and Kate Moss, calls the $50 dish on its own menu "environmentally challenged." It asks patrons to "ask your server for an alternative."
- Where to begin? The most obvious point would be the fact that they left it ON the menu. If it's ON the menu, then they must still be willing to serve it if someone hasn't any "save the bluefin" misgivings. OR...if one of their glitterati clientele rationalizes that ~ again, since it's still ON the menu ~ there must be a corresponding scombroid corpse on a cold slab in the kitchen, so...WTF? Can't let his sacrifice be in vain! Order the tuna, since he's dead already.
Gosh. Restaurant, patron, green conscience . Win, win, win.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:19 AM | Comments (10)
May 22, 2009
But It's For the Polar Bears!!
"...When the first government-mandated fuel-economy standards went into effect in the 1970s, cars got smaller and lighter, and traffic fatalities increased. The National Research Council estimated that the CAFE standards contributed to about 2,000 additional deaths per year. If these tighter standards lead to a similar increase in traffic deaths, that could mean more Americans killed each year due to President Obama's new CAFÉ standards than have been killed during the Iraq war."I'm sure the answering argument will be "If you weren't so FAT, you wouldn't be propelled through the windshield so brutally!" and Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) will become:
Corpulent Americans Face Fried Fatty Feasting End (CAFFFFE)
You know he'll do it.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:41 AM | Comments (8)
April 21, 2009
Weigh-a The Gaia Slay-a
Finally, science has shown us the true cause of Gorebal Warmening: Shoney's buffet
THE rising number of fat people was yesterday blamed for global warming.Scientists warned that the increase in big-eaters means more food production — a major cause of CO2 gas emissions warming the planet.
Overweight people are also more likely to drive, adding to environmental damage.
They are also more likely to break chairs and couches when they sit down, and to replace this furniture requires vibrant young trees to be cut down in the prime of their youth.
See, we need to cut global food production; all these people hurt Mother Terra!
Remember, people don't matter.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:53 AM | Comments (3)
February 22, 2009
Ooops! Ice Ice Baby!
Remember all the uproar about how arctic sea ice levels were at their lowest ever, causing all the cute cuddly polar bears to die of starvation and drowning because they couldn't traipse about on the ice while looking for fish sea kittens to eat discuss chemical energy transference issues with?
Well, it looks like things were misunderestimated
Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- A glitch in satellite sensors caused scientists to underestimate the extent of Arctic sea ice by 500,000 square kilometers (193,000 square miles), a California- size area, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center said.The error, due to a problem called “sensor drift,” began in early January and caused a slowly growing underestimation of sea ice extent until mid-February. That’s when “puzzled readers” alerted the NSIDC about data showing ice-covered areas as stretches of open ocean, the Boulder, Colorado-based group said on its Web site.
“Sensor drift, although infrequent, does occasionally occur and it is one of the things that we account for during quality- control measures prior to archiving the data,” the center said. “Although we believe that data prior to early January are reliable, we will conduct a full quality check.’’
The extent of Arctic sea ice is seen as a key measure of how rising temperatures are affecting the Earth. The cap retreated in 2007 to its lowest extent ever* and last year posted its second- lowest annual minimum at the end of the yearly melt season. The recent error doesn’t change findings that Arctic ice is retreating, the NSIDC said.
*as everyone knows the word "ever" is of course defined as "oh, the last 50 years or so."
Of course, don't you fear that there could possibly be any other errors in the data the Gorebalists are using. No sirree, not a chance.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:57 AM | Comments (3)
February 12, 2009
Green Grid
And I'll drink to that!
Scotch drinkers who care for the climate will soon relish their tipple in the knowledge it is providing clean renewable power in the home of whiskey.Scottish authorities have given planning permission for a consortium of distillers to build a biomass-fuelled combined heat and power plant near the heart of the whisky industry in Speyside in northeastern Scotland.
Helius Energy said on Wednesday it and the Combination of Rothes Distillers Ltd. would build the plant, which would use distillery by-products and wood chips to generate 7.2 megawatts of electricity, enough for about 9,000 homes, and heat.
Ah...um...those're BenRaich whiskey stills, they tell me.
I'm uncomfortable.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:33 PM | Comments (1)
Green Grid
And I'll drink to that!
Scotch drinkers who care for the climate will soon relish their tipple in the knowledge it is providing clean renewable power in the home of whiskey.Scottish authorities have given planning permission for a consortium of distillers to build a biomass-fuelled combined heat and power plant near the heart of the whisky industry in Speyside in northeastern Scotland.
Helius Energy said on Wednesday it and the Combination of Rothes Distillers Ltd. would build the plant, which would use distillery by-products and wood chips to generate 7.2 megawatts of electricity, enough for about 9,000 homes, and heat.
Ah...um...those're BenRaich whiskey stills, they tell me.
I'm uncomfortable.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:33 PM | Comments (1)
Let the Trees Go Native, You Get Fire ~ Stop the Pollutants
...you get sharks?
...Most experts agree the cluster of attacks is a freak coincidence and say there is no evidence of an increase in the country's shark population. Nevertheless, some have argued that cleaner, nutrient-rich waters have boosted the animals' reproduction and drawn them into shallow waters.
Makes you wonder, don't it?
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:28 PM | Comments (2)
February 11, 2009
I Think Somebody
...rates an answer free of Gorebal gibberish.
"We've lost two people in my family because you dickheads won't cut trees down"
Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:35 PM | Comments (5)
February 04, 2009
I'm Just Posting This So...
...I can watch ebola's head explode.
The Legal Standing of Climate Models"Climate scientists have created a unique institutional system for assessing and improving models, going well beyond the usual system of peer review. Consequently, their conclusions should be entitled to considerable credence by courts and agencies."
( Burgeoning cloud of brain goo and skull fragments in 3...2...1... DUCK! )
It also helps ~ if you've a strong enough stomach ~ to read how thrilled the KoolAid drinkers were with the whole premise. A taste:
...These recent observations and measures of opinion motivate conversation, but they do not challenge the fundamental conclusions of climate change science. The Earth will warm, sea level will rise, and the weather will change. Yes there is natural variability, but we can definitively attribute much of the warming to the activities of humans. Majority opinion to the contrary does not make this less true. It is only a convenient belief that abrogates responsibility.
That's some stunning stuff, eh? The comments are worse, but I would be abrogating my responsibilities to the tender feelings of my consti'chency should I encourage such reading.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:40 PM | Comments (7)
Daddy Warmbucks
"There are some things about our world...that you know...that older people don't know."
- Photo - Beer and News
Schmaybe this whole "IGNORE YOUR IDIOT PARENTS" theme is why Lil' Al turned out to be such an upstanding citizen in his own right.
Explains a lot.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:30 AM | Comments (4)
Oh Good God
Just listen to this flippin' idiot
Reporting from Washington -- California's farms and vineyards could vanish by the end of the century, and its major cities could be in jeopardy, if Americans do not act to slow the advance of global warming, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said Tuesday.In his first interview since taking office last month, the Nobel-prize-winning physicist offered some of the starkest comments yet on how seriously President Obama's cabinet views the threat of climate change, along with a detailed assessment of the administration's plans to combat it.
Chu warned of water shortages plaguing the West and Upper Midwest and particularly dire consequences for California, his home state, the nation's leading agricultural producer.
In a worst case, Chu said, up to 90% of the Sierra snowpack could disappear, all but eliminating a natural storage system for water vital to agriculture.
"I don't think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen," he said. "We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California." And, he added, "I don't actually see how they can keep their cities going" either.
The Sky is Falling!!!!!!
Oh, by the way
Chu is not a climate scientist. He won his Nobel for work trapping atoms with laser light.
But that doesn't matter: it's in the Government's interest to tell us we're all DOOMED so they can "do something" and expand their power even further.
So in a very real sense we are doomed.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:04 AM | Comments (2)
February 03, 2009
More Gorebal Warmening, February 3rd, 2009
I could get used to this stuff.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:04 PM | Comments (9)
February 02, 2009
Change You Can Believe In
Climate change, that is
Heavy snow has fallen across large parts of the UK, disrupting travel and closing hundreds of schools.South-east England has the worst snow it has seen for 18 years, causing all London buses to be pulled from service and the closure of Heathrow's runways.
...The BBC Weather Centre said up to 6in (15cm) of snow fell overnight with more falling throughout the day and temperatures unlikely to get above 0C for the rest of the day.
Thousands of school children across England and Wales woke up to the news that their school was closed for the day.
All Surrey schools are closed, while in Essex, more than 450 shut and 255 Berkshire schools are closed. Leicestershire and Rutland gave pupils at 200 schools the day off.
Hundreds more are closed across Wales, London, north-east England, East and West Sussex, Kent, Norfolk Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Suffolk, where snow-ploughs were out on the county's roads for the first time in more than 15 years.
Almost makes me think the Goreacle must be in London...
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:26 AM
January 27, 2009
Thank God: It's OVER
No more need to worry about recycling or expensive "altermative" energy production methods
Global warming is 'irreversible'A team of environmental researchers in the US has warned many effects of climate change are irreversible.
The scientists concluded global temperatures could remain high for 1,000 years, even if carbon emissions can somehow be halted.
So now, since there's no point in doing otherwise, we can use all the coal we want and finally buy a Prius-crushing full-size pickup...all guilt free! Huzzah!
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:34 AM | Comments (10)
January 18, 2009
A Light Dusting Of Gorebal Warmening
We had a light dusting of Gorebal Warmening this morning
Very luverly to wake up to.
El Señor Grill may look cold now, but he will get a workout later.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:40 AM | Comments (1)
January 14, 2009
When Ever I Feel A Little Chill
I always look to Mt. Washington for a reality check. Right now, -18 F with 95+ mph winds, so a wind chill of -66.
Makes the 24 here in Manhattan feel down right toasty.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:19 AM | Comments (4)
January 09, 2009
When Curbing Greenhouse Emissions
...goes too fart. Presenting "The Amazing Dog Poop Ass Bag".
(With a name like that, you thought it would be Al Gore video, didn't cha?)
And always remember to lava los manos after your incredibly humiliated best friend uses the restroom.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:50 PM | Comments (13)
January 07, 2009
Offsets Are Bigger Than Al Gore
And that's BIG.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:43 PM | Comments (1)
Offsets Are Bigger Than Al Gore
And that's BIG.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:43 PM | Comments (1)
December 23, 2008
Somewhere Gaia Giggles
In Seattle, capital of Granolastan, they have wisely decided to protect fish in the salty ocean from, well, salt
The icy streets are the result of Seattle's refusal to use salt, an effective ice-buster used by the state Department of Transportation and cities accustomed to dealing with heavy winter snows."If we were using salt, you'd see patches of bare road because salt is very effective," Wiggins said. "We decided not to utilize salt because it's not a healthy addition to Puget Sound."
By ruling out salt and some of the chemicals routinely used by snowbound cities, Seattle has embraced a less-effective strategy for clearing roads, namely sand...
Actually, it sounds like the strategy Seattle has embraced for clearing their roads is called wait for Spring.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:47 PM | Comments (6)
December 22, 2008
Brrrrrrrrrrr
We had about 4" of Global Warming on Friday, and this morning it was 14 when I left the house...I love this stuff.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:10 AM | Comments (4)
December 19, 2008
Die Infidel!
Someone will be made to crawl and beg for forgiveness soon
CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers had never bought into the notion that man can alter the climate and the Vegas snowstorm didn’t impact his opinion. Myers, an American Meteorological Society certified meteorologist, explained on CNN’s Dec. 18 “Lou Dobbs Tonight” that the whole idea is arrogant and mankind was in danger of dying from other natural events more so than global warming.“You know, to think that we could affect weather all that much is pretty arrogant,” Myers said. “Mother Nature is so big, the world is so big, the oceans are so big – I think we’re going to die from a lack of fresh water or we’re going to die from ocean acidification before we die from global warming, for sure.”
Such dangerous, radical, hateful views can not be tolerated in an open society.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:20 AM | Comments (4)
December 17, 2008
Denial
It's not just a river in Egypt anymore.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:48 AM
November 18, 2008
I Sure Hope He Backs Up
Obama vows quick action to curb warmingSomebody's got to warm something, 'cause I'm freezing my ass off here!
In surprise speech, he says U.S. to help lead 'new era of global cooperation'
And just look what our balmy Florida weather's done to the Oriskany...
Last week:
Last night:
Tough to dive THAT mofo now.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:49 PM | Comments (4)
September 17, 2008
So, Tell Me How You Really
...feel about that new "drill" bill?
...Calling the process "rigged," House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) protested the less-than-24-hour period between the legislation's unveiling and yesterday's vote, during which Republicans could not offer amendments."The bill that's coming to the floor is nothing more than a hoax on the American people, and they will not buy it," Boehner said.
But, since Pelosi and her Democratic Congress bear NO responsibility for much of ANYthing at all, his opinion won't make no never-mind.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:16 AM
August 27, 2008
Dear CNN: "Lowest On Record"...
...is not the same as "Lowest Ever"
Arctic ice at second-lowest level ever
WASHINGTON (AP) -- New satellite measurements show that crucial sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has plummeted to its second-lowest level on record.
No, really, they're impartial.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:28 PM | Comments (4)
Ach, That Is The Hur'cane I Must Hav!
Gustav ist giffen der forecasters fitz
NOTWITHSTANDING...THERE IS VERY LITTLE...IF ANY...SKILL IN INTENSITY PREDICTIONS AT THESE EXTENDED RANGES. INDEED...IF ONE LOOKS AT THE LATEST WIND SPEED PROBABILITY PRODUCT INCLUDED IN THIS PACKAGE...IT CAN BE SEEN THAT THERE IS NEARLY AN EQUAL CHANCE THAT GUSTAV WILL BE A CATEGORY 1...CATEGORY 2...OR CATEGORY 3 HURRICANE AT THE END OF THE FORECAST PERIOD....ONE SHOULD
NOT READ MUCH INTO SUCH SHIFTS OF THE FORECAST TRACK SINCE THE
TYPICAL ERROR OF A 5-DAY PREDICTION IS OVER 300 MILES.
We have a long couple of days of weather pr0n ahead of us.
Bonus question: How quick a trigger will Mayor Noggin' have this time around?
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:56 PM | Comments (9)
August 20, 2008
Yes We Can
Just hitting the wires, crude inventories for the week ended Aug. 16 rose a massive 9.4 million barrels, much larger than the expected increase of 1.0 million barrels.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:01 AM | Comments (1)
August 01, 2008
A Crusader Consumer Alert
Watch what your pet Deere eats.
Rick Kitchings has been a small-engine mechanic for about 30 years, and he’s been busier than ever lately.Recently, a customer came into his shop in Savannah, Ga., with a string trimmer that had barely been used. “It looked like it just came off the showroom floor, but the motor was absolutely shot, absolutely worn out,” Kitchings said.
The owner had fueled the trimmer with an gasoline-ethanol blend, which is becoming increasingly common thanks to a federal mandate to convert to biofuels.
THAT could get pricey...
Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:52 PM
July 30, 2008
Amazing Discovery!
This just in: Ice Melts In Summer!
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) -- A chunk of ice spreading across 18 square kilometers (seven square miles) has broken off a Canadian ice shelf in the Arctic, scientists said Tuesday.... Mueller said the sheet broke away last week from the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf off the north coast of Ellesmere Island in Canada's far north. He said a crack in the shelf was first spotted in 2002 and a survey this spring found a network of fissures.
The sheet is the biggest piece shed by one of Canada's six ice shelves since the Ayles shelf broke loose in 2005 from the coast of Ellesmere, about 500 miles from the North Pole.
Formed by accumulating snow and freezing meltwater, ice shelves are large platforms of thick, ancient sea ice that float on the ocean's surface. Ellesmere Island was once entirely ringed by a single enormous ice shelf that broke up in the early 1900s.
You know, the early 1900s, when people were driving all those, er, and flying in all those, um...
I blame Bush, Samuel Prescott Bush.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:10 AM | Comments (14)
July 22, 2008
Is That a Load of Crap in Your Pocket?
There May Be Oil Offshore, But...Or are you just happy to see me?
...How much oil and natural gas is there offshore? No one really knows. According to estimates from the Interior Dept.'s Minerals Management Service [MMS], the U.S. has roughly 18 billion undiscovered and technically recoverable bbl. of oil and 76 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Eric Potter, associate director of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin, says that if these areas are opened up now, by 2025, 1 million additional bbl. per day could potentially be added to the market. Using International Energy Agency demand forecasts, by 2030 this production would equal less than 5% of U.S. daily consumption, and less than 1% of global daily consumption. "It would certainly help," says Potter. "But it won't make us energy-independent."I thought "dang! That's gloomy! It's almost like they're saying it's not worth drilling." Well, the last oil "expert" they spoke to ~ after noting that our crude would probably wind up summers else anyway ~ says flat out it's not.
...Former Vice-President Al Gore, who opposes lifting the moratorium, raised that point at a July 17 news conference on energy policy. "You take an oil deposit right off the coast of California -- that's more likely to be sold to China, -- said Gore.Well, dang! That's gloomy, especially if that's ALL the news that's fit to print about oil independence. Drilling sounds like a big waste of dead fishes and carbon emishes, even if we act now. Al Gore says so. And I'm sure that's how he means it to appear to the uninitiated in Goreschpeak. As my favorite pitchman would say:
"But WAIT!!!! There's MORE!!!!"Moseying on over to Instapundit, what to my wondering, wandering eyes should appear?
A headline 'bout 800 BILLION barrels under here!! Well, shee-it HOWDY!
It's a shame no one reads the BLM releases and then asks Al Gore about those.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:00 PM | Comments (2)
July 18, 2008
Dispensus With The Consensus!
Hot Air has the details on some credibility returning to the scientists. As Ed says
The paper points out that the warming seen on Earth during the period under question matched the warming seen on other planets in the solar system, a point repeatedly made by skeptics over the last few years. Mars, Jupiter, Pluto, and one of Neptune’s moons experienced the same climate shift at the same time, and Monckton assigns the blame not to SUVs or belching smokestacks, but to the only energy source all have in common: the sun. Solar activity during the past seventy years, Monckton states, exceeded what had been seen for 11,000 years, which led to the warming activity here on Earth and elsewhere in the system.
It's good to see scientists remembering the scientific method.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:52 AM | Comments (3)
June 21, 2008
Um...
...duh.
...The stiff cost of replacing a battery at your dealer helps explain why an underground aftermarket in Prius batteries is emerging.
So add the current $3-$4K premium (+ base sticker) for buying the sucker, along with the battery charge (no pun intended)(really) at about 100K miles and guess what?!?! It ain't such a bargain after all.
What a surprise.
I'm feeling like a Bene Gesserit or something, because I've been asking since the Prius was introduced:
"WHAT happens when all those batteries sh*t the bed?"
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:53 PM | Comments (8)
June 13, 2008
To the Woodshed, My Friends
He gives the Goreacle a thumping.
...If Al Gore and his global warming scare dictates the future policy of our governments, the current economic downturn could indeed become a recession, drift into a depression and our modern civilization could fall into an abyss. And it would largely be a direct result of the global warming frenzy.
My mission, in what is left of a long and exciting lifetime, is to stamp out this Global Warming silliness and let all of us get on with enjoying our lives and loving our planet, Earth.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:53 AM | Comments (4)
June 06, 2008
Bonfires Of The Vanities
Via HotAir, here's today's brilliant idea of the day
Park department staff is recommending reducing bonfires at the two beaches this summer and possibly banning them altogether next year.The park board will hear the recommendation Thursday, and the city plans to run public-service announcements and hand out brochures later this month about the effects of bonfires on global warming.
According to a memo to the park board from the staff released Thursday, "The overall policy question for the Board is whether it is good policy for Seattle Parks to continue public beach fires when the carbon ... emissions produced by thousands of beach fires per year contributes to global warming."
Tell you what, Washington: If you really are concerned why don't you ban Boeing and Microsoft from your state? They clearly have a more deleterious effect on Gaia's well being, assuming your theories are correct, than a couple of hundred wiener roasts a year. Make a difference, guys! Fight the power!
And leave the bonfires alone, because your soon-to-be unemployed butts will need every bit of heat you can get.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:49 PM | Comments (4)
Some Interesting Gorebal Warmening Stuff
This page lays out a pretty detailed and informative overview of the CO2 situation.
And here is some interesting data concerning Ye Olde Medieval Warme Periode, and what it can tell us about today.
Meanwhile I'm going home to fire up the grill.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:24 PM
May 21, 2008
Not Filling the Strategic Reserve
...sounds like a GREAT idea, given the current conditions.
The Energy Information Administration announced that crude inventory levels for the week ended May 17 fell 5.32 million barrels, marking the first decline after four consecutive weeks of inventory builds. Analyst expected stockpiles to increase by 300,000 barrels.As a result, crude oil prices spiked from the unchanged mark to a gain of 2.4% at $132.08 per barrel, marking an all-time high. Crude prices are up 16% in May, the largest monthly percent advance in nearly four years.
And that whopping 70K + barrels a day (WOW! THAT much?!?!?!) will make a HUGE difference in gasoline prices.
A group of senators called on President Bush on Thursday to halt billions of dollars in sophisticated arms sales to Saudi Arabia and several other Gulf oil producers unless they agree to pump more petroleum, reflecting growing frustration in Congress over soaring energy costs.Separately, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said that Bush should stop putting 70,000 barrels of oil a day into the government's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, saying the oil would be better left in the market place to help lower prices. The Energy Department recently announced it is extending oil shipments into the reserve, which holds 700 million barrels, through the end of the year.
(And Bush caved to the reserve pressure.)
Holy macanoni, Nancy! It's GREAT to know you're lookin' out for us. No ANWAR, no shale, no Gulf, no weapons for them A-rabs. ( Let all that filthy lucre prop up the...say...Russian or Chinese military machines, with schmaybe a little Kim Jong action on the side. There are hungry faces in NoKo, after all. I mean, who can resist them? Not any Democrat I know!) and now no spare capacity.
So, sure, why not? We're one big happy world! And spreading the wealth is a centerpiece of Democratic strateegery, isn't it? So grab yourself a cold kumba rumba cuba libre and follow the bouncing ball!
For the math impaired Congressionals busy pounding their solar calculators, work this one (Careful now. It's a WORD problem): If you have a BIG salt cavern filled to the drippy barrel brim with gooey fruits of filthy Arab gushers and then take away in (one week) fivepointthreetwomillionbarrels...HOW many days at seventythousandbarrelsperday does it take to make that up? If you really want to be Einstein-like (unless you're anti-Jewish) throw in the variables that make math so fun ~ war, pestilence, Paris Hilton (you know, stuff we can't control).
Granted, that 5.32M was stockpile drawdown vice the petroleum reserves, but the exercise is useful in pointing out how rapidly we deplete resources when the mood takes us. Gas may be $4 a gallon, but SOMEBODY somewhere's been doing some driving. And woof! There's goes another couple bucks per barrel because some trader somewhere is thinking the exact. Same. Thing.
When you're talking millions of barrels down in a 'surprise', that 70K won't be missed.
Sitting in a gas line for two hours on an odd day sucks, my friends. And that was only a couple years ago, not the '70's. I can't wait 'til the rest of the country gets to share our pain.
And thanks, Nance! Have a great summer.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:59 PM | Comments (1)
May 14, 2008
Baby You Can Fly My Car
Somewhere Gaia is crying
The Lexus LS600H, which costs £84,000, was a gift from Lexus to the 65-year-old former Beatle, who helped promote the hybrid vehicle.But instead of arriving by boat as expected, the car was flown to Britain on a Korean Air flight, creating a carbon footprint almost 100 times bigger than if it had come by sea.
Gawd, I just love this stuff.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:48 AM | Comments (2)
May 09, 2008
A Bad Case of Corn
...smut.
...What everyone is trying to avoid admitting is that the one enduring objective of ethanol supports--a purpose known to every politician who voted for them--was precisely to jack up the price of corn. And everyone knew the calculation behind that goal: the purpose of ethanol supports was to buy votes in Iowa by boosting the profits of farmers at the expense of everyone else.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:21 AM | Comments (9)
May 06, 2008
Sveinbjörn Halldórsson
Via Tim, how can you not love the manly tale of a fellow whose name does not mean "hold the door, pig boy"
Sveinbjörn Halldórsson, a 44-year-old real-estate agent from Reykjavík, drives a Chevy S10 pickup with a souped-up engine, 44-inch tires with spikes, and four kinds of radios and phones on the dashboard. Filling up the truck's 240-liter tank (about 63 gallons) for the weekend costs him nearly $500, with gas costing $7.84 a gallon. He rolls with one of many so-called gangs on Iceland's highly competitive 4x4 off-road vehicle scene....Samúel "Wolf" Thór Gudjónsson, a lanky 21-year-old electrician with long blond rocker's hair, joined with dozens of other jeep fans earlier this month to protest climbing fuel prices, blocking oil companies' depots. Others drove their jeeps through the city's streets at 5 miles an hour to demand cuts in fuel taxes.
Demonstrations are rare in stoical Iceland, a country of only 300,000 people. But the threat to jeep habits is just too much. Alfred "Spotti" Bergisson, a 26-year-old plumber who drives a beefed-up Toyota Land Cruiser, is willing to fight for his right to party. "I just want to go where I want to go," he says. "I get energy in the mountains. I think there."
Reykjavík's 6,000-strong 4x4 Club has clout. It previously talked the government into letting its once-outlaw trucks pass inspections, despite supersized wheels with studs that rip up roads. Many of the trucks wouldn't be street-legal elsewhere in Europe.
That's 2% of the population; the equivalent of a group in the US with 6 million members. That's some clout, folks.
And who says local craftsmanship is dead?
Many 4x4 enthusiasts wield their own blowtorches, rebuilding big American and Japanese 4-wheel-drive off-roaders to suit their taste. Local innovations include exhaust-fed balloons that can lift cars out of snowdrifts, and the "bumper dumper" -- a flip-down toilet seat on trucks' rear end for use in the wild.
A toast to you, my lads!
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:50 AM | Comments (2)
April 24, 2008
Wouldn't That Almost Qualify As
...Free Trade?
... Right now, the biofuel market is being grossly distorted by subsidies and trade barriers in the United States and the European Union. These make it rewarding to produce ethanol from corn or grains that are far less productive than sugarcane ethanol, divert land from food production (unlike sugarcane), and have dubious environmental credentials.What sense does it make to have a surplus of environmentally friendly Brazilian sugar-based ethanol with a yield eight times higher than U.S. corn ethanol and zero impact on food prices being kept from an American market by a tariff of 54 cents on a gallon while Iowan corn ethanol gets a subsidy?
“It would make a lot more sense to drop the tariff, drop the subsidy, and allow Brazilian ethanol into the United States,” said Philippe Reichstul, the chief executive of a biofuel company in São Paulo. “Pressure on U.S. land will be slashed.”
Actually, I'm sure is does, for two reasons:
1) Makes sense to.
2) Someone doesn't want to.
Tutti Frutti!
Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:12 PM | Comments (1)
April 23, 2008
The Rising Tide
...The Colorado mountains are poised to unleash more runoff than they have in 11 years. Streams in Washington and Oregon are forecast to carry up to 50 percent more water than usual. Lake Powell, stretching more than 100 miles across Utah and Arizona, is expected to rise 50 feet from its current depleted state."Overall, the entire West looks pretty good, Colorado and the Pacific Northwest in particular," said Tom Perkins, a senior hydrologist with the National Water and Climate Center in Portland, Ore.
"There's no part of the West that's really what you'd call hurting."...The reason was an unusually strong jet stream — it was "on steroids," LeComte likes to say — that pushed this past winter's storms across more of the West than expected. Cold weather helped by allowing the snow to build up instead of melting away rapidly, Perkins said.
...lifts all before it.
...They are reluctant to say whether the deep snow signals the end of the drought or is just another interruption."It so much depends on your definition of drought," said LeComte, the NOAA drought specialist.
"I'm afraid variability is kind of normal in the West," he said with a chuckle.
That's usually true of weather in general, n'est pas?
Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:21 PM | Comments (7)
April 22, 2008
Dawn's Early Light
...may be breaking through the fog at last.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Tuesday that rising food prices pose as great a threat to world prosperity as the global credit crunch, warning that spiraling prices threaten to reverse progress made to alleviate poverty in the developing world.Ya think? You can't eat ethanol (although Bingley frequently tries to knock back a snort or two, in the interest of going green) and few benefit from the fields whence it is planted. (No ethanol locally in Bangla-cola, for instance.)The British leader, who is meeting in London with World Food Program executive director Josette Sheeran, development charities and farmers, said urgent action to stimulate food production is needed, including a review of the impact of biofuels on global agriculture.
...Brown said he fears the use of agricultural land to produce biofuels -- intended to help tackle climate change -- may be a key factor in driving up prices.
..."Biofuels, intended to promote energy independence and combat climate change, we now know are frequently energy-inefficient," Brown said.
This could very well be the first major "do-over" in the frenzied goose-stepping Gorebal warming has forced on us. I can't wait to hear what the folks who've been heavily investing in ethanol production have to say when the rude shock becomes official.
Sorry fellas ~ my the world's pantry trumps your plant.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:47 AM | Comments (5)
April 21, 2008
Gaia Gives Earth Day...
...the cold shoulder
So much for global warming. Earth Day festivities went ahead despite the blast of frigid weather yesterday.Vendors and presenters from various eco-friendly groups, including Bullfrog Power, CO2 Reduction Edmonton and the local solar energy society, crammed into a lone tent in Hawrelak Park after a blizzard forced them to abandon their original locations.
Current conditions in Edmonton: Light snow, -11 °C
Global Warmencooling!
Aieeeeeeeee!!!!!!!
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:45 AM | Comments (6)
April 08, 2008
Gorebal Warmening! It's Everywhere!
As noted below yesterday saw snow showers in London.
And 3 inches of snow in other parts of Southern England.
And our good friend Dave E. points out to us that parts of northern Minnesota got 2 feet of snow yesterday, as well.
A "coincidence"? Some "climate change" schmaybe?
Or just the first indications of some Goreacleian plot of Gaian proportions that will culminate at that Carbon Offsetathon to end all Offsetathons to be held this August in Denver?
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:56 AM | Comments (3)
April 07, 2008
Is The Goreacle In London?
I assume so since it's April 7th and they're having snow showers.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:00 AM | Comments (1)
March 28, 2008
Earth Power Hour!
It sounds like some kinky Enviro-pr0n movie from the 70s, doesn't it? Well, this Saturday our friends in Australia will be turning out the lights for ONE WHOLE HOUR to show how much they CARE about Gaia. Well, actually, our real friends will be trying to use as much power as possible, and we'd like all of you to join them.
"Honey, let me light that cigarette for you!"
Now, I have no idea what time it is here in NJ when it's 8 pm on Saturday in Sydney (I'm guessing they'll be well into Monday at that point), but I do know that this Saturday at 8 pm I'll be making the most Gaia-phobic meal I can think of (and cobble together in a reasonable amount of time) and I hope y'all will join me in doing your part to show how much we appreciate consuming all the varied energy sources she has so kindly provided.
Dinner is served!
Heck, we'll need to warmenize all we can as the forecast for Saturday night is in the upper 20s, which is well below normal for the end of March.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:55 AM | Comments (4)
March 20, 2008
How Right You Are
...“It’s kind of ironic that on the one hand, the agency is saying, ‘Don’t worry, it’s a very small amount of mercury.’ Then they have a whole page of [instructions] how to handle the situation if you break one,” she said.And your average, say, banker (not to mention trailer park dweller or apartment denizen) has no CLUE what to do with the squiggly thing goes POP!
So let's just force EVERYONE to buy them. (We'll worry about that Minamata kinda stuff if it and when it happens.)
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:04 AM | Comments (2)
March 19, 2008
A Guest Post by Ebola: It's Really Disappointing
...That could mean global warming has taken a breather. Or it could mean scientists aren't quite understanding what their robots are telling them.
...that everyone is so enthralled by global warming that they have to determine this information as it's "taking a break", like some recalcitrant teenager studying. But of course the scientific community, and definitely the socio-political community all have a big problem with "uh, I'm wrong."
Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:55 PM | Comments (5)
March 10, 2008
More Heretics Coming Out Of The Closet
Tim has all the scandalous details of this obviously deranged individual
"Runaway greenhouse theories contradict energy balance equations," Miskolczi states. Just as the theory of relativity sets an upper limit on velocity, his theory sets an upper limit on the greenhouse effect, a limit which prevents it from warming the Earth more than a certain amount.How did modern researchers make such a mistake? They relied upon equations derived over 80 years ago, equations which left off one term from the final solution.
In the gloried spirit of impartial scientific research, NASA refused to publish his theory.
Miskolczi believes their motivation is simple. "Money", he tells DailyTech. Research that contradicts the view of an impending crisis jeopardizes funding, not only for his own atmosphere-monitoring project, but all climate-change research. Currently, funding for climate research tops $5 billion per year.
I'm shocked.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:12 AM | Comments (3)
February 28, 2008
Whoops! You Thought It Was Just Teddy Kennedy
...being an elitist pig.
Wind farms may threaten whooping cranes
Three steps forward and two steps back.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:27 AM | Comments (6)
February 25, 2008
Check Your Figures, Al
For that little gain, I'm not willing to suffer the pain of a $3 chocolate creme-filled Dunkin' Donut.
Driving is as American as apple pie. At more than 9m barrels a day, gasoline accounts for almost half of US oil demand, and more than a 10th of that of the world. Capitol Hill wants to curb this. Use of biofuels, mainly ethanol, is to be expanded five-fold to 2.4m b/d by 2022. In addition, new cars must achieve
35 miles per gallon by 2020, up from 21 mpg today.Will it make a difference in 10 years? Ethanol provides only two-thirds the energy gasoline does, and the dominant corn-based variety requires a lot of energy to make. So the extra 1.3m b/d of ethanol possibly on the market by 2017 would actually displace only 700,000 b/d of gasoline consumption.
And I can't imagine what the corn to feed Bingley's fat little heifers is gonna run.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:29 AM | Comments (11)
February 22, 2008
Is Al Gore In Town?
We're finally getting some nice snow, so I just kinda figured...
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:54 AM
January 27, 2008
The 'Single Sheet' Whitehouse Plot
...and it's straight from the horsey mouth. (Proving, yet again, there is nothing too small for the maestro's evil Rovian machinations.)
...Last spring, you were held up as a parody of environmental correctness when you proposed restricting the use of toilet paper to one square per bathroom visit. What was that about? I think it’s a fantastic and eye-opening example of how the media is operated by political figures, of how Karl Rove was humiliated in the media and how, within 24 hours, he was able to humiliate me and take any sort of credibility away from me.What are you saying? You think Karl Rove leaked the toilet-paper story to the press after you and Laurie David sparred with him about global warming at the White House correspondents’ dinner? I cannot tie him directly to that leak, but within 24 hours of our exchange, as we were leaving D.C., it was on the CNN ticker tape: “Sheryl Crow has proposed that we legislate toilet paper to one square.”
Did you ever actually suggest that? It was always a joke. It was part of a shtick...”
Karl says you already know where to shtick it.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:38 PM | Comments (7)
January 16, 2008
Tree Hugging Earth Mother That I Am
...I can still tell when the pot is calling the kettle "terrorist".
... Japanese officials said Sea Shepherd must agree not to attack the whaling vessel during any rendezvous to turn over the two protesters. Watson refused to comply, demanding an "unconditional" release."When people hold hostages and make demands, that's the behavior of a terrorist organization," he said. "I'm not going to acquiesce to their demands."
Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:05 PM | Comments (6)
January 11, 2008
More Proof Of Gorebal Warmening
Crisis! We must stop all carbon production now!!!
Scotland's ski centres have had the "best snow for years" as a result of the country's recent wintry weather.All five of the country's snow sports areas have opened early - an achievement which operators said was highly unusual.
All the areas reported superb snow, with most main runs complete and ample nursery areas.
A Scottish climate scientist examines the profound effects AGW is having on Scotland
Feel the Consensus.
Become the Consensus.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:21 AM | Comments (3)
January 03, 2008
In Honor of Global Warming
...and the frozen Iowa Caucusoids, I give you balmy Bangla-cola...
...on a typical Thursday morning.
Keepin' it real*.
In the Sunshine State.
(*Polar bears not included.)
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:10 AM | Comments (9)
December 31, 2007
Bush Creates Rampaging Army Of Zombie Glaciers
I thought all these damned glaciers were supposed to be gone by now
INDIANAPOLIS -- An Antarctic cruise turned scary for former Indiana Gov. Joe Kernan when a Norwegian cruise ship on which he and his wife were passengers lost engine power during an electrical outage and struck a glacier.The ship was carrying some 300 people. No injuries were reported.
The MS Fram hit the ice near Browns Bluff in the Antarctic, where it had stopped to view a penguin colony, Kernan said.
"Most folks could see the glacier approaching as the boat made contact with it," Kernan told The Associated Press in a phone interview from the ship Sunday. He said that the experience was scary "because you just don't know what's going to happen."
This just keeps getting worserer and worserer! Not only has Chimpy McHitlerstein created marauding gangs of jellyfish; now he's created zombie glaciers that attack boats carrying Democrat ex-Governors!
Is there any eevul he won't do?
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:12 AM | Comments (3)
December 18, 2007
Tell-Tale Signs of Exhaust
...fumes.
...Now since the Democrats insisted on keeping the tax increase in the bill, it meant that they were going to have to get 60 votes to invoke cloture before they could try and pass it. Then the bill would be sent to a certain death by presidential veto. It was a doomed bill, and a clear waste of everybody’s time. In other words, Thursday was just a typical day in the Senate under Democratic leadership, 2007. How did the vote go? 59-40-1, one shy of invoking cloture and clearing the hurdle to full passage in the Senate.Remember the Democrats on stage in Iowa mid-day Thursday? Four of them are current United States Senators: Barack Obama, Hillary ‘Hand-raiser’ Clinton, Joe Biden and Christopher Dodd. They were all called back to Washington Thursday morning to cast this energy vote, and then they all bailed out immediately after the Senate session to return to the debate stage in Iowa. Anyone out there able to calculate the energy expended from four round-trip airplane rides to D.C. and back for a failed vote on a polluted energy bill? What about the carbon footprint left by the Democrats Thursday alone, and the irony of Hillary Clinton trying to get the ridiculous debate moderator to do a hand-raising of the candidates on who believes in global warming and mankind’s impact on it?
They stink to the high heavens and give you a headache to boot.
A Swill Salute to Duane for spotting the contrails.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:43 PM
December 11, 2007
Ho Boy!
..."Most of the people here have jobs that are very well paid and they depend on the idea that carbon emissions cause global warming. They are not going to be very receptive to the idea that well actually the science has gone off in a different direction," Evans explained.That's enough of that kind of talk!
Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:44 PM | Comments (3)
December 10, 2007
I Am Deathhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Gawd, what a horrible image to wake up to.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:27 AM | Comments (10)
December 07, 2007
If Bingley Was a 'Researcher'
...he'd sound like this.
..."Well, why shouldn't we feed them, if they're really so hungry?" he says, hankering for the days when he was allowed to take to the ice with a bottle of Scotch (for himself) and a tub of lard (for the bears).
Oh, for the civilized days of yesteryear.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:33 PM
December 04, 2007
Sunday Morning Snow
A light dusting was very pleasing to wake up to!
Gets one in the Christmas spirit.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:59 AM | Comments (3)
December 01, 2007
"Hospital Seeks Brain Surgeon"
...No medical training required
CBS is getting desperate.The network has posted an ad seeking a reporter to cover the “eco beat” – with some interesting requirements.
“CBS is expanding its coverage of the environment,” the ad reads. “We seek a talented reporter/host for Internet video broadcast. We are looking for smart, creative, hard working up and comers, who can bring great energy, creativity and a dash of humor to our coverage. A deep interest in the environment and sustainability issues will serve you well.”
So you would think such a job would require a science background or years of covering environmental news? Not exactly.
“You are wicked smart, funny, irreverent and hip, oozing enthusiasm and creative energy,” the ad reads. “This position requires strong people, reporting, story telling and writing skills. Managing tight deadlines should be second nature. Knowledge of the enviro beat is a big plus, but not a requirement.”
Send in that resumé today; we'll have the New Republic vet your fake but accurate credentials!
And to enhance the position's Gorezilla Appeal
Ironically, the ad shows irreverence to what kind of carbon footprint the job duties might require. The ad includes: “Be prepared to see America. Heavy domestic travel.”
You can't make this stuff up, kids.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:23 AM | Comments (6)
November 25, 2007
How Do You Avoid Those Ugly Holiday Family Fracases
...at Gramma's? You know, the sister-in-law who drives an Excursion, the pig brother-in-law who is a methane well-head or Grampa who just knows what buttons to push, cranky old bastard that he is and who should be dead by now anyway if he had any decency? Not to mention your basic hardened capitalist versus...well...you ~ the tree hugger home from college in California/Washington/any liberal arts U? Don't fret, gentle readers. Besides green tips and reviewing books like "Sex in a Tent", the Sierra Club has thoughtfully provided your talking points for conflict diffusion/resolution dialogue.
...“We’ll see how much we can avoid a dinner table argument this year,” Ms. Roby, 22, said. “There’s always that uncle or grandfather who knows what you care passionately about and is going to say anything he can to rile you up.”Dr. Wallin said that environmental activists can avoid arguments by trying to lead by example, not by lecture. “Don’t force them to change,” she said. “It may take two or three seasons, but you are not going to get anywhere by showing up and thumbing your nose.”
(Anxious greens can consult the Sierra Club’s Web site, which provides actual scripts to recite during dinner-table debates. For example, when “Aunt Mim” shrugs off global warming, the activist might respond:
“A delicate balance has been thrown out of whack, and the consequences are really rather frightening. At this pace, Mim, we could see an ice-free Arctic by midcentury.”)
(Delicately leaving out the obvious point that sanctimonious old bitch 'Aunt Mim' should damn well be dead by mid-century anyway if there's any warm global justice.)
I guarantee you that, should you utter these sensible, non-inflammatory words, Gramps will get off your ass, Dad will be thrilled with every one of the tens of thousands he's already spent on your education, look eagerly forward to the next tuition bill and Aunt Mim herself will recognize the second coming in your idiot savant 22 year old brain. Guaranteed.
And no one will yell at anyone any more ever again.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:32 PM | Comments (4)
November 21, 2007
Bush Creates Roaming Gangs Of Marauding Jellyfish
And the salmon sleep with the fishes
DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) -- The only salmon farm in Northern Ireland has lost its entire population of more than 100,000 fish, worth $2 million, to a spectacular jellyfish attack, its owners said Wednesday.The Northern Salmon Co. Ltd. said billions of jellyfish -- in a dense pack of about 10 square miles and 35 feet deep -- overwhelmed the fish last week in two net pens about a mile off the coast of the Glens of Antrim, north of Belfast.
Managing director John Russell said the company's dozen workers tried to rescue the salmon, but their three boats struggled for hours to push their way through the mass of jellyfish. All the fish were dead or dying from stings and stress by the time the boats reached the pens, he said.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:55 PM | Comments (7)
October 29, 2007
Maybe These Guys Haven't Got the Message Yet
“Young people now have a lot of possibilities for the future.”ACK!! No, No , NO! It's doom, we' re DOOMED DOOMED doomdedy doomdoomdoomed!!! More evidence of the apolcalypse...
Its four oldest trees — in fact, the four oldest pine trees in Greenland, named Rosenvinge’s trees after the Dutch botanist who planted them in a mad experiment in 1893 — are waking up. After lapsing into stately, sleepy old age, they are exhibiting new sprinklings of green at their tops, as if someone had glued on fresh needles.“The old ones, they’re having a second youth,” said Mr. Bjerge, 78, who has watched the forest, called Qanasiassat, come to life, in fits and starts, since planting most of the trees in it 50 years ago. He beamed like a proud grandson. “They’re growing again.”
Talk about a mixed frickin' message... As for 'Greenland' just being real estate hype...
...Greenland, a self-governing province of Denmark, was settled by the pugilistic Viking Erik the Red in the 10th century, after his murderous ways got him ejected from Iceland. Legend has it that he called it Greenland as a way to entice others to join him, and, in fact, it was.It was relatively green then, with forests and fertile soil, and the Vikings grew crops and raised sheep for hundreds of years.
Until frozen over during the Little Ice Age, which incoveniently for the farmers, came out of nowhere. Got damn cold. I love how they say they're growing AGAIN. Things have to have been green and hospitable ONCE for them to do it AGAIN, n'est pas? And the Greenlanders they talk to are positively giddy about turning the southern part of the island into a self sustaining agri-belt.
Al Gore may be having a cow about glaciers but in Narsarsauq they're on the phone ordering from the Burpee catalogue. "Shit howdy! FRESH beefsteaks next year!"
The one thing that's bugging me and needs further explanation is polar bears. Assuming that the pack ice retreated the same way it has now when Greenland turned...um...green, WHAT did the polar bears do? I mean there HAD to have been polar bears lumbering around, stealing sheep or something. They adapted then, right?
Common sense ~ they HAD to have or there wouldn't be any here now. We'd be digging their frozen, partialy thawed, retch inducing corpses out of permafrost otherwise: fodder for Discovery Channel's "Raise the Frozen Carcass ~ Look at Those Tiny Gonads (the technical term)" series. Somebody needs to ask one what he remembers. I'll let Bingley do that ~ he's the people person out of the three of us.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:50 AM | Comments (2)
October 14, 2007
Peace
...be with you.
...And leave us remember three statements our Nobel Prize winning former Vice President-cum-almost-President Al Gore once said after shaking hands and shaking the trees at a Buddhist temple fund-raiser: 1) It wasn't a fund-raiser, it was a "community outreach event." 2) It wasn't a fund-raiser, it was just "finance-related." 3) It wasn't a fund-raiser, it was a "donor-maintenance meeting."
I'd forgotten what a prize Al...
...really is.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:49 PM | Comments (2)
October 12, 2007
That SUCKING Sound You Hear
...is the A[ss- kissing] P[ornographers] workin' Gorezilla over tag-team fashion.
Nobel Vindication for Gore, ScientistsFor years, former Vice President Al Gore and a host of climate scientists were belittled and, worst of all, ignored for their message about how dire global warming is.
... Gore, who learned of his award from watching the live TV announcement—hearing his name amid the Norwegian—was not celebratory Friday. His tone was somber. He spoke beside his wife, Tipper, and four Stanford University climate scientists who were co-authors of the international climate report. Outside the building, schoolchildren held a sign saying, "Thank you Al."
For years, there was little thanks.
Pity the poor pudgiferous prophet ~ crying in the wilderness, naked and mewling for succor.
Cry me a wet hankie. Why do I ALWAYS find this revolting drivel right before dinner?
Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:35 PM | Comments (6)
The Nobel Peace Prize To Gore
Oh Jimminny H Christmas on a pogo stick, what has he actually done to deserve this?
(CNN) -- Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their work to raise awareness about global warming."An Inconvenient Truth," a documentary featuring Al Gore, won two Academy Awards this year.
Gore said he was "deeply honored," adding that "the climate crisis is not a political issue it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity," according to a written statement.
The former vice president said he would donate his half of the $1.5 million prize to The Alliance for Climate Protection, a U.S. organization founded by Gore that aims to persuade people to cut emissions and reduce global warming.
During its announcement, the Nobel committee cited the winners "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."
As my Bride and I were discussing last night, the US Military and specifically the task force headed by the USS Abraham Lincoln have done a hell of a lot more to provide peace and humanitarian assistance in a real way to impoverished people than Globe-Tromping Gorezilla and his "Cannes-Do" lifestyle ever has.
This award has completed its slide into total irrelevance and political feel-goodery. It is a blatant attempt to influence the next US election cycle. Luckily, the good people of the United States are far more interested in the Britney Spears than they are Nobel laureates.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:50 AM | Comments (16)
October 09, 2007
The Peril Of The Cascade Consensus
A very surprising article in today's Pravda on the way herd mentality and public fear of rebuke, and frankly very sloppy and lazy 'research', led to widely praised "consensus" that was, well, wrong
In 1988, the surgeon general, C. Everett Koop, proclaimed ice cream to a be public-health menace right up there with cigarettes. Alluding to his office’s famous 1964 report on the perils of smoking, Dr. Koop announced that the American diet was a problem of “comparable” magnitude, chiefly because of the high-fat foods that were causing coronary heart disease and other deadly ailments.He introduced his report with these words: “The depth of the science base underlying its findings is even more impressive than that for tobacco and health in 1964.”
That was a ludicrous statement, as Gary Taubes demonstrates in his new book meticulously debunking diet myths, “Good Calories, Bad Calories” (Knopf, 2007). The notion that fatty foods shorten your life began as a hypothesis based on dubious assumptions and data; when scientists tried to confirm it they failed repeatedly. The evidence against Häagen-Dazs was nothing like the evidence against Marlboros.
The article describes quite clearly how this came to be, and how the 'researchers' all either relied on one flawed report or simply caved in to peer/media pressure.
I found it exceedingly interesting that the author never even hints at the 800 pound Gorezilla in the room, as instructive as this story is relative to the current Global Warming climate.
(h/t Insta)
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:18 AM | Comments (2)
October 08, 2007
Chill Out
I love a logical, calm discussion.
All eyes are on Greenland's melting glaciers as alarm about global warming spreads. This year, delegations of U.S. and European politicians have made pilgrimages to the fastest-moving glacier at Ilulissat, where they declare that they see climate change unfolding before their eyes.Curiously, something that's rarely mentioned is that temperatures in Greenland were higher in 1941 than they are today. Or that melt rates around Ilulissat were faster in the early part of the past century, according to a new study. And while the delegations first fly into Kangerlussuaq, about 100 miles to the south, they all change planes to go straight to Ilulissat -- perhaps because the Kangerlussuaq glacier is inconveniently growing.
A Swill salute to Powerline.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:42 AM | Comments (7)
September 14, 2007
Lileks Bitching About a Frost
...got us going on this. Not to mention a 'Record Lows' headline on Drudge ("Chicago Record COLD TEMPS!"). So, right this minute mind you (9:09 p.m.CST), it's 52.8 ° in Chicago, with the following addendum :
Clearing this evening. Unseasonably cool with near record breaking temperatures likely. Lows in the upper 30s...except in the mid 40s downtown. Northwest winds 10 to 20 mph diminishing to 5 to 10 mph.
I'll bet they wish they were in Anchorage right about now. 56° and...
Partly cloudy in the evening becoming mostly cloudy with a chance of rain after midnight. Lows in the 40s. Light winds.
Somebody needs to adjust their carbon offsets.
For the record, Bangla-cola in September still sucks.
Thanks for nuthin', Al.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:09 PM | Comments (9)
August 23, 2007
"It's Not About the View...
...from Ted Kennedy's porch."
In HIS world, it is.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:58 AM | Comments (5)
Feel Free to Order
...as much as you like ~ just don't try this at home. (These people are experts.) It's for a good cause, it's good for the earth and I'm sure that Sheryl "One Sheet" Crowe would approve.
Hell, she's probably out there scooping as I write.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:27 AM | Comments (4)
August 03, 2007
I Can Hear the Spin Starting Now
...and I'm not talking the cyclonic kind.
Forecaster lowers year’s hurricane prediction...“We’ve lowered our forecast from our May predictions because of slightly less favorable conditions in the tropical Atlantic,” said Philip Klotzbach, a member of Gray’s team at Colorado State University.
"I invented hurricanes and I'll say when we get more or less. Got that, Gray guy?"
Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:44 PM | Comments (6)