Category Archives: Environment

Not evil, just wrong.

This woman is remarkable. I’ve watched the first section of video so far.

Posted in Environment, science, Synova's Page | 2 Comments

Mr Bad Example

Isn’t there an energy crisis or something that we all have to worry about? Guess, we can just call him “Mr Bad Example,” and be done with it. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/us/politics/29whitehouse.html?_r=2&ref=politics?xid=rss-page The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on … Continue reading

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How to Show Off Your Conservation Credentials

Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) decided he wanted to show off how green he was by driving an electric car being developed in his district to his swearing in at the Capitol in D.C. Of course no electric car actually has … Continue reading

Posted in Chris' Page, Domestic Politics, energy, Environment | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Environmental Incoherence

Pelosi says, “I’m trying to save the planet; I’m trying to save the planet.” Charles Krauthammer points out the incoherence of this: Does Pelosi imagine that with so much of America declared off-limits, the planet is less injured as drilling … Continue reading

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Earth’s Evolution

Do you ever find yourself holding views that are mutually exclusive?  If so, do not despair.  My experience is that virtually all of us do this, even if very rarely.  With the thousands of issues and millions of details pertaining … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Environment, Peg's Page, science | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

An Inconvenient Truth for Al Gore and Friends

I know that many of you think that global warming, at least anthropogenic global warming, is a fraud. I am not so sure. Either way though, I think Peter Huber has the broad contours of any attempt to address it … Continue reading

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It’s the Pollution, Stupid

Or more specifically it’s the soot, from our tailpipes, our industries, most of our electricity generation—and also from forest fires, volcanoes, and the wind. Black carbon soot is causing most of the loss of polar ice according to this recent … Continue reading

Posted in Environment, Peter's Page, regulation, science | 1 Comment

Where Do Most of Our Problems Come From?

From Congress and the unintended consequences of their actions. Bruce over at QandO has a post discussing an excellent piece by Walter Williams. Most of the great problems we face are caused by politicians creating solutions to problems they created … Continue reading

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Backdoor Kyoto — The Next Chapter

The march of the watermelons towards control of US policy continues apace: Polar bears will now be listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. But in announcing the listing, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne said the decision should … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, energy, Environment, Law, MichaelW's Page, regulation, science | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Stop the Madness

Sooner rather than later. And this: Perhaps turning food into transportation fuel would make sense if massive amounts of grain spoiled every year from a lack of demand, but that certainly isn’t the case. Farmers love the higher prices that … Continue reading

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A Cubic Mile of Oil

Over at Green Tech we get some figures that should be rather sobering for those who wish for alternative energy to be a significant source of energy in the near future: Put another way, we’d need to equip 250,000 roofs … Continue reading

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Open Minds

One of the toughest tasks to master is to keep an open mind.  We work hard to discover what we ultimately believe to be the truth.  After all that effort, often the last thing we wish to do is have … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Environment, Peg's Page, regulation, science | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Abiogenic Oil

Hoystory poses a thought-provoking question with potentially dramatic consequences for the concept of “peak oil”: What if “fossil fuels” weren’t made of fossils at all? What if the earth naturally made petroleum? What if gasoline was a renewable resource? Imagine … Continue reading

Posted in energy, Environment, MichaelW's Page, science, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

The Air Car

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More Correlation Between Pirates and Global Warming

Pirates Take French Cruise Ship and Gobal Temperatures to ‘Decrease’ It seems we have more correlation between pirates and global warming now. It may be time to update this graph with a downward and backward turn.

Posted in Chris' Page, Environment, Humor | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

The Coming Ice Age

Brrrr… it sure is cold out there. And now the data is in to prove it. Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Environment, Keith's Page | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

“If We Had Some Global Warming”

Please, if you have any humanity in you – do your part to add just a bit to global warming today. It’s important. [youtube qJUFTm6cJXM&feature=related]

Posted in Environment, Peg's Page | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

We’ll Get To That Wind Farm Application – Eventually

And by eventually, they mean decades down the road. This is a perfect example of government getting in the way of the innovation we need to dig ourselves out of our fossil fuel dependency. http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1362/1/ If you want to build … Continue reading

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Bill Clinton on Global Warming

Bill got a lot of heat over a video released by ABC News and an accompanying news story: Former President Bill Clinton was in Denver, Colorado, stumping for his wife yesterday. In a long, and interesting speech, he characterized what … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Election 2008, Environment, Foreign affairs, Lance's Page, Media | 3 Comments

Global warming or not, Antarctic ice and snow is not shrinking

Some highlights: We have covered Antarctica many times in past essays, and despite literally thousands of websites claiming that some calamity is occurring in Antarctica related to global warming, we side with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change … Continue reading

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Some Consensus

Let’s see if I have this straight… that means “global warming may decrease the likelihood of hurricanes making landfall in the United States,” according to researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Miami Lab and the University of Miami. … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Environment, Keith's Page | 1 Comment

Senate Committee Issues Climate-Consensus Busting Report

According to the press release (my emphasis): Over 400 prominent scientists from more than two dozen countries recently voiced significant objections to major aspects of the so-called “consensus” on man-made global warming. These scientists, many of whom are current and … Continue reading

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“I don’t like other people telling me what to do.”

Amen. One of the reasons I abhor communitarianism (and tend to see my political philosophy as the opposite of that) is because it vests communitarian thinkers with the self appointed power to tell me (and others) what to do. Provided, … Continue reading

Posted in Environment, Libertarianism, MichaelW's Page, Philosophy, Religion and theology | Leave a comment

Now, it is time to save marriage

Why? Because it is good for the environment: Divorce can be bad for the environment. In countries around the world divorce rates have been rising, and each time a family dissolves the result is two new households. “A married household … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Environment, Lance's Page | 2 Comments

Hugo Chavez and the path to mass murder II

Part I is here, but in The Ruin of Venezuela I wrote: As we have seen with Mugabe and many others, once you go down this road it is very difficult to turn things around. As the situation gets worse, … Continue reading

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The City Car

Very Cool: The City Car, a design project under way at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is envisioned as a two-seater electric vehicle powered by lithium-ion batteries. It would weigh between 1,000 and 1,200 pounds and could collapse, then stack … Continue reading

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Global Warming = California Wildfires

So says Harry Reid and other environmentalists, so it must be true. No doubt they have checked with everyone who agrees with them and they have a consensus about it. So, what caused them way back when… If there was … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Domestic Politics, Environment, Keith's Page | 1 Comment

The Subtle Oil Shock

It hasn’t been all that shocking. Why not? Greg Mankiw supplies a few possibilities. My favorites? Well let us start here: In contrast to much rhetoric to the contrary, capitalism is the most powerful weapon to achieve energy efficiency we … Continue reading

Posted in Developmental economics, Economics, Environment, Hugo Chavez, Lance's Page, Libertarianism | Leave a comment

Speaking of Common Sense

While over at Megan’s I noticed a discussion she has about Bjorn Lomborg and her main criticism of him. That is that he doesn’t give enough weight to low probability, but catastrophic events. That is in fact a weakness (and … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Economics, Environment, Lance's Page, Libertarianism | 13 Comments

Bjorn Lomborg on Al Gore and the IPCC

Bjorn looks at this in much the same way I do: This year’s Nobel peace prize justly rewards the thousands of scientists of the United Nations climate change panel (the IPCC). These scientists are engaged in excellent, painstaking work that … Continue reading

Posted in Environment, Lance's Page | 2 Comments

Another award for the Goracle-Updated with even more reactions

This just confirms what a bogus award the Nobel Peace Prize has become. Past winners have often been inappropriate, such as when murderous thugs such as Yasser Arafat were awarded for claims and intentions rather than their murderous actions. At … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Environment, Lance's Page | 2 Comments

News Brief, Chesme siah daree Edition

Cross-posted at The Conjecturer Defense & The War Mountain Runner makes the case for why mercenaries aren’t all bad, and that the real sunk costs of their use should be handled. It’s similar to David Dryer’s case for their usefulness, … Continue reading

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News Brief, Truncated For Life Purposes Edition

Cross-posted on The Conjecturer. Defense & the War Reading the Instapundit and his minions, you’d think the one reason Bush wasn’t more popular is because he’s not bombing the shit out of Iran. Luckily, most people don’t think as they … Continue reading

Posted in Environment, Foreign affairs, Notes on the war | 5 Comments

Some Consensus – II

The sky is falling, the sky is falling… Oh wait, no it’s not. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,176495.shtml A new analysis of peer-reviewed literature reveals that more than 500 scientists have published evidence refuting at least one element of current man-made global warming scares. … Continue reading

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News Brief, Kometenmelodie 1 Edition

Stewing in his own juices over at The Conjecturer. Defense & The War The Republicans are refusing to ponder any troop withdrawals. Does that now make General Petraeus a Defeatocrat? Maybe not, as he still wants troop levels to remain … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Environment, Foreign affairs, Notes on the war | 1 Comment

Some Consensus

The “reality based” ideologues often decry when politics get in the way of science, but that certainly seems what they are doing with regards to global warming. But then, hey, making overblown claims based on the scantiest of evidence, real … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Economics, Environment, Keith's Page | 2 Comments

The “Bull Moose of Climate Change” reminds me of “A Modest Proposal”

I sauntered over to Instapundit today and noticed this story: Norway is concerned that its national animal, the moose, is harming the climate by emitting an estimated 2,100 kilos of carbon dioxide a year through its belching and farting.Norwegian newspapers, … Continue reading

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News Brief, Pizazz We’re Gonna Give It To You* Edition

Would much rather be back at The Original Conjecturer. Defense How to make an EFP. The difficulty of sea mines. These two takes on the SCO exercises (covered in sometimes much greater depth here, at Registan.net, and Bonnie Boyd’s Central … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Environment, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, social science | 1 Comment

News Brief, My News Brief Beat Up Your Honor Student Edition

Defense Phillip Carter has some choice things to say of the Scott Thomas Beauchamp affair: “Anyone who finds Beauchamp’s story incredible merely because it’s upsetting has no idea what war can do… How, then, should journalists tell the story of … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Environment, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war | 12 Comments

Global Warming: The Early Years

As an ideal follow up to my most recent post on Anthropogenic Global WarmingTM, Keith forwarded me an interesting tidbit from the Washington Times’ “Inside the Beltway” round-up: D.C. resident John Lockwood was conducting research at the Library of Congress … Continue reading

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On The Wings Of Butterflies

My favorite class of all time was a course on chaos theory that I took my senior year in college. I think it was listed as part of the Chemistry Department’s curriculum (hey, whaddya know, it still is!), but it … Continue reading

Posted in Environment, Media, MichaelW's Page, Technology | 2 Comments

News Brief, This Is My Sundown Edition

Cross-posted on The Conjecturer. Defense DARPA wants many outrageous things—an oil-free Air Force, invisibility cloaks, piezoelectric bodysuits, kill-proof animal-esque soldiers, and so on. For the latter, my quite serious question is: at what point do these enhanced soldiers cease being … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Environment, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war | 2 Comments

News Brief, Much Much Better Off Edition

Defense As usual, Cathy Young chimes in on the Beauchamp debate with several highly cogent points: “I think there are good reasons to question Beauchamp’s accuracy, and neither TNR nor liberal bloggers are doing themselves any favors by coming uncritically … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Environment, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war | 4 Comments

Bio-Fuel Increases Price of Ice Cream

The increase in the amount of bio-fuel production, specifically ethanol, is driving up the costs of anything that feeds or is produced with grain. This is leading to higher prices for milk, ice cream, cereal, and a host of other … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Economics, Environment, Keith's Page, Technology | 2 Comments

Supporting carbon creds means no street cred

Since the entire concept of carbon credits emerged a few years ago, I’ve constantly found myself questioning not only the actual effectiveness, but also the underlying motivation behind them. Donating or purchasing carbon credits basically seemed, to me at least, … Continue reading

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Trading Dependencies

Instapundit links to an article in Reason about how the increased production of ethanol is leading to higher prices for food. I also think it could lead to increasing reliance by America on foreign grain. Which, as we saw with … Continue reading

Posted in Developmental economics, Domestic Politics, Economics, Environment, Keith's Page, Technology | Leave a comment

News Brief, I Worked Late Then Went to the Wilco Show Edition

Cross-posted on The Conjecturer. Defense Follow up to the story on the pathetic number of fluents in Arabic currently stationed at the Baghdad Vatican-Embassy (and shame on me for not noticing this): the 3/3 proficiency level is virtually useless—both because … Continue reading

Posted in Developmental economics, Domestic Politics, Economics, Environment, Foreign affairs, Notes on the war | 6 Comments

All Your Weather Base Are Belong To Us

“Kyoto, we have a problem.” Few things annoy me more than the modern Lysenkoism of Anthropogenic Global WarmingTM and its rapturous congregation who viciously condemn any who dare challenge their scriptures. Each day it seems that we are bombarded with … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Environment, MichaelW's Page, Religion and theology | 2 Comments

The Green Party and National Security: An Interview with Alan Augustson

A few weeks back I posted a facile little rebuke aimed at the national security implications of Green Party presidential candidate Alan Augustson‘s political platform. Alan responded to this in such a way that I realized I had little idea … Continue reading

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