Weather, Water, Energy 4-30-07

Feelin' pretty cocky since President Gore confirmed our call on Canada's cheap and pitiful claim to be attacking global warming with a scam called "intensity reduction"--which can actually allow even more greenhouse gas emissions than before the policy. In Al's words, "a complete and total fraud." Good enough for us. Shame on Canada. . . . The latest IPCC meeting, ahead of its report on Friday, finds the participants forecasting Lord of the Flies, with the major players like US and China basically screwing the underdeveloped world to protect their own privileged lifestyles despite estimates that it would take only 0.1% of the world's GDP to clean up our act enough to survive it okay (relatively). The IPCC can't overcome selfish politics and one UN spokesperson predicts the final IPCC report will get "completely rewritten" once the politicians get their hands on it. China's trying to act like it's part of that screwed world, but, as the nation which will dominate emissions in the near future, it won't get away with it. Of course, the US isn't even pretending, making clear that its short-term economic priorities will force US to accept long-term Hell because we're too narcissistic to take necessary action. Not stupid, we know the danger is there. We just don't care enough to even accept a tax that could help us keep things from being as bad as it looks like they will be. Don't forget to keep Australia on your hit list, even if the next election may bring a change in leadership, with the opponent saying of idiot PM Howard's position on global warming: "This is the modern equivalent of arguing that the earth is flat and that NASA faked the moon landing and that Elvis is out there somewhere still flipping burgers in Florida." Once again, good enough for us. . . . In the meantime, Arctic ice is melting faster than any of the compromised and conservative IPCC computer models forecast, like 30 years ahead of predictions, due probably to underestimation of the impact of, you guessed it, greenhouse gases. . . . And to make the world even stranger, the EPA claims that Pepsi, yes, Pepsi is our most greenhouse responsible (in a good way) company. Pepsi??? Here's why. . . . Have a Pepsi with that burger or chicken sandwich. It's not like those edible mammals have an impact on methane gas emi . . . wait, yes, they do, enormous, in fact. Maybe we should all go vegetarian and live on corn and soy . . . wait, ethanol. This doesn't seem that simple anymore. . . . Norwegian scientists have come up with preferable auto fuels, based on total carbon impact. The ones we have are the worst, no surprise, but hybrids are the next worst. The best? Fuel cell powered cars using hydrogen gas obtained from methane. Now who exactly is the dealer for those vehicles? . . . Finally, some good news to end. A UN project in India looks like it will successfully supply electricity to 100,000 people through solar energy, with plans to take it on the road to other needy countries. In a couple of decades, when other nations have clearly passed us in development and progress, we may look back on our failure to create cheap, reliable power for Third World and other nations as the place where we lost our world leadership. The potential for development and economic growth has been there for decades but needed investment and confidence. We provided neither, and now other nations have stepped forward. Oh, sorry. Promised good news there, didn't I?