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CLEAN GEORGE
Guardian environment correspondent David Adam reveals some shocking environmental news ... in his third paragraph:
The UK risks losing its international authority on climate change because of its failure to cut greenhouse gas pollution, according to a leading scientist.
Bob May, president of the Royal Society, said new figures showing that UK emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases which contribute to global warming have risen for the last two years, made it difficult for British politicians to be taken seriously on the issue.
He said: “It is very difficult to criticise other countries such as the United States if we are unable to meet our commitments. Indeed, emissions by the United States have actually declined over the last two years ...”
Excuse me? The US has actually become cleaner under the rule of enviro-hater Bush? You’d think—although May also notes that US pollutant outputs are “still some 20% above 1990 levels”—that this might rate more highly as a news story. Then again, Bush apparently reduced industrial pollution by 11% during his governership of Texas, and nobody cared for that news, either ...
Anyone actually paying attention, the air quality in the US has been improving for 30 years. It would almost be impossible to change that trend since autos alone improve their emissions quality by about 10% per year due to turnover. But leave it up to those suffering BDS to be blinded by, ahh, facts.
For anyone interested, see the pacificresearch.org for their 2005 Index of Leading Environmental Indicators report.
A recent Princeton study has found evidence that the North American continent may actually be a carbon sink, i.e., it consumes more CO2 than it emits. Too bad the US is not in a position to sell carbon credits to filthmongers like New Zealand.
See, here’s how it works Abu Qa’Qa:
First the US refuses to sign the treaty, thereby scaring other governments out of the sacrifices necessary to meet their own obligations.
Then the US quietly reduces emissions, making all those other countries look stupid without making a net reduction atmospheric levels of…gassy stuff.
If he had signed Kyoto, they would have fulfilled their responsibilities. So as you can clearly see, it’s really Bush’s fault that all the other countries release more cow farts.
Posted by tim maguire on 2005 11 10 at 03:35 PM • permalinkcuckoo, that carbon sink wouldn’t be the bristlecone pines (http://www.climateaudit.org), would it?
A recent Princeton study has found evidence that the North American continent may actually be a carbon sink, i.e., it consumes more CO2 than it emits.
And didn’t I read early on in the global warming debate that the only place the computer models did not find warming was North America? I’m almost sure I did. (PS> Global temps taken by satellite over the past couple of decades actually show a slight cooling trend—Link)
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2005 11 10 at 06:05 PM • permalinkA recent Princeton study has found evidence that the North American continent may actually be a carbon sink, i.e., it consumes more CO2 than it emits. Too bad the US is not in a position to sell carbon credits to filthmongers like New Zealand.
Maybe we should try. I think I’ll bring that up to Margo and Tim Dunlop. They’re fair-minded, maybe they’ll support it.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 11 10 at 06:07 PM • permalinkWhilst May may say that the increase in CO2 emissions makes it difficult for UK politicians to be taken seriously, he should recognise that Blair is no fool but a clever politician. I don’t agree with Blair but at least he’s seen the reality that Kyoto is a crock that can never be delivered. So to avoid not delivering on something he could never deliver anyway, he’s done the only sensible thing when he ditched Kyoto some months ago. Now I think that’s funny and it’s even funnier that there’s been so little coverage of it. Still I suppose the MSM and lefties will never admit they’ve made a mistake.
Never mind, over here in Australia our State and Territory governments are working away feverishly on a ‘crack pot’, ‘shoot ourselves in the feet’ emissions trading scheme. Have a look at the detail in some of the papers, which boils down to good old fashioned command economy stuff.
For the moment forget that no country will meet its commitments under the crazy scheme and forget about whether they could actually implement this thing at a State level (I think some US States have gone down that path), I can see it now. News item 2008 - Australian States and Territories sign up to their own Kyoto compliant emissions trading scheme at the same time as Rest of the World declares Kyoto emissions trading scheme dead.
Say, this religion sure has some hard core believers who maintain the faith, much like the carry over from 30 years ago!
But wait, they want feedback on the proposed emissions trading scheme and the deadline for submission is today, Rembrance Day, 30 years on. How appropriate! Yes they do want .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Wouldn’t that be a hoot if we made out some Bills for CO2 Credits Taken on invoices with the United States of America listed at the top and send them to some Kyoto Krazies? We could even address them to specific cities: Cambridge, England / Berkeley, California / Byron Bay, Australia. Make checks payable to George Bush, President.
I’d send a bill for $50,000 to Margo except she would probably pay it with Webdiary stock.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 11 10 at 06:26 PM • permalinkYou might be interested in this essay, which details all the doomsday predictions that never came true. Thanks to Varifrank who wrote it, and Instapundit, who linked it.
I actually live in that carbon sink. The forests of the Northeast have largely grown back. We were the site of one of the early environmental disasters. The settlers cleared out the forest, and by the first half of the 19th century, the only trees between Boston and Hartford were apple orchards. Unfortunately, exposure to the sun meant that all the buried rocks from the glaciers heaved up to the surface by the action of freezing and thawing the soil. More “New England potatoes” appeared each year, and were dragged off to make those picturesque stone walls. This was more to just put the damned things somewhere than to actually build a wall, Robert Frost notwithstanding. Finally, anyone with any sense moved west to farm the Ohio valley, & the trees grew back on the abandoned farms.
BTW, the Maine paper companies actually own the land their trees grow on, and they make sure there are more trees coming along for future harvest.
emissions by the United States have actually declined over the last two years ...
That’s because Bush and Hitlerburton have so broken the American people’s will to live that we no longer even care to drive anywhere or turn on any appliances…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 11 10 at 08:42 PM • permalinkThe area i live in (Kalgoorlie) used to be known as the treeless plain. Back in the old days wood was used for everything, so rail spurs were run out all over the place for the sole use of timber carting. You look at the old photos and the description is accurate.
Nowdays most of the area is covered in scub and trees. It didnt take a Kyoto to do that, just time and being ignored.
Greenies need to have “urgent” problems, can you see greenpeace saying ” if we just leave this area alone for 50-100 years shell be right mate”. Donations might suffer a little.
Not that Id claim a multi million turnover company would be in any way influenced by that.Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2005 11 10 at 09:35 PM • permalinkFor the moment forget that no country will meet its commitments under the crazy scheme ...
You are so wrong Wand. China has. So has India.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 11 10 at 09:59 PM • permalinkYou know, a strange thing happened just now. When I read the words written by thefrollickingmole “if we just leave this area alone for 50-100 years shell be right mate”, I felt like I was reading it with an Aussie accent. So I read it aloud and sure enough I said it with an Aussie accent. I felt like Crocodile Dundee.
I’ve been reading entirely too much of this blog.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 11 10 at 10:05 PM • permalinkMelbourne readers might like to mosey on down to the Greenhouse 2005 event, being partly sponsored by your ABC. Especially for this:
And to keep our perspective, we’ll also enjoy live country pop music from the legendary Nic Dalton & the Gloomchasers through the night.RebeccaH #15 - that’s a great essay. Thanks for the link.
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2005 11 10 at 10:28 PM • permalinkThe forests of the Northeast have largely grown back.
[...]
picturesque stone walls.
I spent the first few years of my life in Connecticut, and never thought there was anything the least bit strange about a dry stone wall in the middle of a forest. It wasn’t until years later, when I saw the same kind of walls around sheep fields in Northern England, that I realized that those forests were relatively new, that they had once been grazing land. Sure enough, when you look at pictures of New England about 100 years ago, there’s barely a tree to be seen.
Another interesting fact I once heard was that there are now more White-tailed deer in America than before white settlers arrived. Black bears, armadillos, and coyotes, to name just a few species, are also increasing in number and range. But that doesn’t fit with the ‘nature in peril’ message, so you don’t hear much about it…
#12, unfortunately the State governments are not the only jurisdictions in Australia pursuing ridiculous policies regarding so-called climate change.
The Federal Government, under its mainfestly incompetent Environment Minister, has been busily supporting bans on appliances which do not meet certain energy efficiency requirements.
Minimum Energy Performance Standards
The latest folly will see well over 90% of airconditioners currently on the market banned in order to achieve a trivial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (they’re too embarrassed to publish the actual contribution this policy will make to overall greenhouse gas emissions but it’s probably under 0.000001%).
Posted by Art Vandelay on 2005 11 10 at 11:06 PM • permalink#20 wronwright
Argh .. gasp .. I guess I stand corrected. Semantices are superlatives are they not?
Of course, a non-commitment must be seen as a commitment and meeting that non-commitment is just meeting the commitment. So those countries with non-commitments actually meet their commitments.
How foolish of me not to recognise that and indeed the binding nature of those
non-commitmentscommitments.No, you’re right Wand. China and India never agreed to do anything to curtail their emissions. That is a very key reason that the US has refused to sign on to it. It won’t do anything to resolve the problem but it will do substantial harm to the US economy.
But of course the left doesn’t care. They probably don’t work anyway.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 11 10 at 11:47 PM • permalinkNicky and I have been doing our own little bit to create a carbon sink.
We have a lovely garden that attracts lorikeets, corellas, galahs, bull finches and king parrots.
How much can we exchange our credits for and can I get that put on a credit card? I want to shop for shoes…
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2005 11 10 at 11:52 PM • permalinkFinally, anyone with any sense moved west to farm the Ohio valley, & the trees grew back on the abandoned farms.
And those old forests were mostly evergreens, while the regrown forests are deciduous. So the brilliant New England autumn was caused by man.
Next time you see a greenie cooing over lovely New England fall foliage, tell him he’s supposed to hate it.
Drawing from the wisdom in the Liberal Theory of Economics, if W is making America/Texas cleaner, then other parts of the world are irrefutably getting filthier!
The dirt’s gotta go somewhere, right?
Probably Africa. And Iraq.
Posted by zeppenwolf on 2005 11 11 at 04:55 AM • permalinkAbu Qa’Qa:
No, I was never fortunate enough to work so closely with the fine Senator and war hero (did you know he got three purple hearts in Vietnam? Probably not, he’s very humble about it), but I’ve long been an admirer of his ability to say absolutely anything with a straight face.
Posted by tim maguire on 2005 11 11 at 10:43 AM • permalink#3, Forbes. Funny that you bring that up….
During my deployment to Kuwait, I discovered something—- the US is incredibly CLEANER than some Arab states. South of Kuwait City is the Port of Ash Shuaibah, a deep draft port and industrial area, with emphasis on the INDUSTRIAL. Air pollution is rampant. The first time I went there, I almost had an allergic reaction. Hydrogen sulfides, petroleum burn off, you name it.
The crud that they dump straight into the Gulf made me gag—it looked like pastel paints. And every single area occupied by American forces (and not a few occupied by the Iraqis) have been cleaned up, and vigorously tested for contaminants.
And Kuwait is a relatively modern nation.
So I’ve ceased worrying about what some earth worshipping greenie idiot thinks about the USA….I know that we have cleaner than a large portion of the world. It ain’t antiseptic (nor should it be), but I know just who puts their money where their mouth is…..and who is blowing smoke.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 11 11 at 11:37 AM • permalinkemissions by the United States have actually declined over the last two years
Well, there should be a dramatic decline in the last year especially, as one of the most obvious sources of ozone depleting noxious fumes and vapours has been shut down…
Posted by tree hugging sister on 2005 11 11 at 02:15 PM • permalinkwronwright,
You’re wrong. The Left does care, deeply, about the effect of Kyoto on the US economy. They want it to substantial harm!
Posted by nobody important on 2005 11 11 at 02:43 PM • permalinkI guess Alec Baldwin really did leave the country.
Posted by Monroe Doctrine on 2005 11 11 at 03:14 PM • permalinkSpeaking of “old growth” forests, scientists in Costa Rica discovered, in what was considered an old growth area, evidence of farming. They found that right in the heart of this so-called OGF people had at one time cleared it and grown corn there. So the forest everyone was worshipping as OG was, in reality, fairly recent (hundreds - not thousands or tens of thousands - of years old), and that it might have been cleared and grown back and cleared and grown back more than once.
I would think that, wherever humans have lived at one time in pre-history, the environment has been altered by one activity or other, particularly fire, which was used throughout North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Australia by the early people who lived there. There is probably very little untouched land anywhere.
A quick addendum
I want to add that we, in Sonoma County, CA, defeated a greenie proposition which was on our special election ballot last Tuesday. This was called Proposition M, and it called for the outright banning of most genetically modified food production here for ten years.
This is a very agriculture-intensive county, and if it had passed it would have been disasterous not only for the general farming community (while promoting “organic” growers, of course) including the vastly remunerative wine-producing business for which our county is justly reknowned and on which it depends for much of its revenues, but for medical research on things like animal vaccines as well. Somehow or another, in this very liberal county, reason prevailed, and this ill-conceived proposition was defeated.
I’ll believe it when the Cuyahoga River stops burning.
Posted by Some0Seppo on 2005 11 11 at 06:09 PM • permalinkThe forests of the Northeast have largely grown back.
Too true - as my Wisconsin relatives can tell you, the principal danger on the roads of rural Wisconsin are not drunken Packers fans, but deer. Not only do they leap in front of cars (particularly at dusk), but their ticks transmit Lyme disease.
I’ve read that moose have been returning to Connecticut, for the first time in 200 years. A 600-lb bull moose wandered into downtown Hartford in October 2001; it was shot with a tranquillizer and carted away. A Connecticut driver was killed earlier this year when he hit a 1,500-lb moose that wandered into the road.
The problem with getting in touch with Nature is that Nature gets back in touch with you ...
Posted by Urbs in Horto on 2005 11 11 at 07:11 PM • permalinkFive years ago I took my family to a city on the Ohio River that is pictureque. It’s actually located across the river from George Clooney’s hometown, which is also a beautiful Mayberry type of town. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner for six for a measly $50, a truly nice feature of driving 50 miles for a dinner.
Unfortunately on the way back home, a deer decided to head butt my VW Passat. (Yes, you can get six people in a VW; it ain’t easy, but you can do it). If I had my Jeep Cherokee, I might not have mind (OK Dasher, let’s give it a go, I say I’ll win, what’ll you say?). But the deer messed up my VW badly.
Thankfully, about ten cars that travelled behind us, all with strangers, stopped to lend us a hand. What a beautiful thing that was. When the Ohio highway patrolman came he told me that deer were running the fields because it was mating time. He said ours was the 10th deer collision they had in the county that night.
The deer are trying to take over this country and me and my shot gun say I don’t think so.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 11 11 at 07:54 PM • permalinkSome0Seppo—the Cuyahoga hasn’t caught fire since 1969. There’s progress for you.
Also, among the inconvenient woodland creatures, they reintroduced the wild turkey. We were told at the time that we might never see one of these wary birds, so challenging were they to hunt. Well, the blasted vermin figured out PDQ that no one was going to BBQ them. They are now common pests in the suburbs, due to some nonsense about not being allowed to fire a gun within 500 feet of a dwelling.
I don’t know about the conifer forest bit. I’m pretty sure there were deciduous forests, although they have changed composition. The American chestnut was very common at one time and is now virtually extinct. Ditto the American elm. Conifers dominate at higher latitudes or elevations.
Some0Seppo
I’ll believe it when the Cuyahoga River stops burning.
Cleveland is still stuck in a 1970s time warp? That’s scary.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2005 11 11 at 07:58 PM • permalinkSome0Seppo—the Cuyahoga hasn’t caught fire since 1969.
Oops! Guess you’ll have to believe it now. Well, you set up the rules.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2005 11 11 at 08:03 PM • permalinkUrban legends get started with little factual tidbits like this:
The fact is that the Cuyahoga River caught fire from debris that collected in the crooked river’s bend. The short-lived fire was out before the local press reached the scene to record images of its blaze. But it was a fire that followed ones in 1868, 1883, 1887, 1912, 1922, 1936, 1941, 1948 and the most devastating of all—the 1952 blaze that resulted in nearly $1.5 million in damage.
Come on now, the television variety show jokes in the 1970s were funny.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2005 11 11 at 08:07 PM • permalinkWhen the Cincinnati Bengals play the Cleveland Browns (we’re the two largest cities in Ohio), Cincinnati fans always, ALWAYS, bring up the Cuyahoga River burning story. Pisses off the Dog Pound Puppies but good.
Course, we still haven’t found anything good to throw at the Steeler fans. Oh I hate them so.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 11 11 at 08:10 PM • permalink#35 Real Jeff:
First off, thanks for your service to our country. (My nephew—39th BCT Sgt.—served in OIF II, so I understand and respect.)
The other amazing point about air quality is that London is the cleanest it’s been in 400 years. That alone tells a rich story, for surely mankind was pumping so-called greenhouse gases into the air for hundreds of years, with none of the effects of the warming trend detected since 1975. In fact, the warming trend coincides with turnaround in air quality which began in roughly 1975.
I’m sure there’s an explaination, but the hubris of mankind that believes in utopian perfection will never be satisfied with anything less than such, so we’ll just have to keep listening to the all the big lies.
Cheers
Does the 70s time warp mean Cleveland is still run by Dennis Kucinich? That’s scarier than a burning river any day.
Posted by Paul Zrimsek on 2005 11 11 at 09:56 PM • permalinkOff topic but worth a comment.
George Megalogenis in ‘The Australian’ today:
The disconnection in the so-called terror debate is that most Australian Muslims want to be on the side of the mainstream, but many in the media and some in politics are too busy scoring points to pay them this courtesy. Consider the treatment of one of the people arrested in Melbourne, Shane Kent. The media is doing its job, digging into his background. But he won’t scar all young white males with the prickly beard of terror.
It’s wearying to read stuff like this. Megalogenis believes that a large part of the concern about terrorism in Australia can be put down to migrant bashing. One of the curious features of multiculturalism, is its lack of curiosity about other cultures and religions. As a matter of ideological conviction, they are all necessarily good and those who have reservations are equally, necessarily, racist.
Mr M. does not seem to know, or want us to know, that there is a global battle going in within Islam between moderates and extremists. Islam as a whole is shifting toward stricter, more exclusive beliefs and practices. The edge of this shift is terrorist Islamism but all Muslims feel more pressure to conform to a narrower interpretation of the Koran and to regard other religions and cultures in a less tolerant light.
Those outside this battle for hearts and minds have a stake in it because more and more of us have become its collateral damage. George Megalogenis’ arguments are antiquely pre-9/11. If he and others in the multicultural lobby want to make a real contribution to this debate they should be pointing out that non-Muslims in Australia should be doing all they can to help the moderates in this great schism. That invloves being the open, generous Aussies that we generally are and helping moderate Muslims stand up to Islamist mafias who spread hatred and intolerance.
Mr M. might like to ask in the light of this whether or not he is an unwitting tool of the extremists. When PC censorship serves to shut down discussion altogether, the Islamists are left to intimidate fellow Muslims and get on with their jihad against kafirs without interference.
The emboldened portion of the quotation is a good example of the absurd relativism that mars so much left commentary on terrorism and deals it out of any chance of making a real difference in what has become a world-shaping struggle.
Even if Mr. Bush could lay his hands upon the waters and cleanse them or repopulate the skies with a wave of his hands, there will be some mock-turtleneck wearing cognoscenti stroking his chin and declaiming that its the President’s fault that the auto companies still make SUV’s and V-8’s that run on that icky fossil fuel.
Posted by Pat Patterson on 2005 11 12 at 02:07 AM • permalinko/t BBC should come clean on the agenda behind the exponentially shark jumping “The Bill.”
Tonight, an anglo butcher’s son puts a pig’s head on the doorstep of a Muslim lady’s house and sprays graffiti on an Islamic school. Then a sacked cop (sacked for being racist to a non-anglo policewoman and spitting on her)- steals a halal butcher’s van,handcuff’s his fellow anglo officer inside it,fills it up with containers of petrol and drives it at full speed into his own police station…..o/t Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle lined up with anty to abuse John Howard tonite
Notice how curiously alike the two of them are ..impossible but….
Anty has just discovered a new phenomenon,The Cult of the Suicide Bomber.
Strange—they’ve been reporting them for years but perhaps they’re getting too close to Ultimo for even mucho tolerant Aunty’s comfort.Even though prudent anty is locking her doors,nation wide.
Unlikely.More likely they’re getting a teensy weensy inkling that they’ve backed the wrong horse and are scrambling all their dissimulators to crawl /merge back into the crowd.Don’t waste your time, it won’t wash…Off topic. Anybody else read this?
Cameraman AssaultedOk, so the Cuyahoga River quit burning. But you can’t tell me a Republican signed a bill establishing the Environmental Protection Agency. That’s just crazy talk.
Posted by Some0Seppo on 2005 11 12 at 11:55 AM • permalinkRebbecaH — Er, that was Richard Nixon… I believe Sepp is attempting irony.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 11 12 at 01:12 PM • permalinkRob 45 Read
It should be our mission to persuade as many lefties as possible to vow to NEVER eat food that contains DNA; like GM food does.
It would also be prudent to warn them about the many many dangers posed by di-hydrogen oxide. They definitely need to avoid THAT.
Wron 51 Wright
Course, we still haven’t found anything good to throw at the Steeler fans.
You could try developing some sort of football team to ... nahhhh, never mind.
Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2005 11 12 at 06:48 PM • permalinkWhat role has the Bush Administration played in this reduction of harmful emissions? I agree that credit is due to those responsible, so if someone can demonstrate how Bush Jnr has achieved this I will applaud loudly.
The_Real_JeffS, your anecdote about Kuwait is a fair one, but your assertions about the US are off the mark. The numbers show that the west - no, not just the US - is primarily responsible for environmental degradation. The rest of the world is doing its best to catch up - and will do so soon - but when it comes to energy use per head and pollution (consumption) per capita we are miles ahead. Surely you aren’t denying that.
Crash, good to see you are still throwing those “O/T” comments into the mix. Do you have your own blog yet? I would honestly like to read it. You seem to cast a pretty wide net when gathering your news and views (and although I may disagree with ‘em I’d still like to read ‘em). Also, do you have a pseudonym? I think I’ve seen you around. ;-)
RebbecaH — Er, that was Richard Nixon… I believe Sepp is attempting irony.
We have a winner!
And yes, the old jokes about a river, a river for Jeebus’ sakes, burning are funny.
dirtbikeoption, you’re right, the US doesn’t care.
Posted by Some0Seppo on 2005 11 12 at 08:39 PM • permalink
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Well, since every left leaning, earth worshipping, greenie socialist goes berserk whenever the name of Emperor Haliburton Chimpy McBusHitler is mentioned, it’s hardly surprising that credit isn’t being given where credit it due.