Archive for the 'Environment' Category

It’s hard to understand why anyone takes Fox News seriously

Once again, the folks at Fox News have decided that scoring political points is more important than maintaining their credibility. This time around, they’re taking shots at Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s proposal to paint roofs, roads, and pavements light colors in an effort to combat global warming:

Energy Secretary’s White-Paint Proposal Puzzles Climate-Change Experts

Energy Secretary Steven Chu stunned the audience at a London scientific conference Tuesday with a radical but simple proposal to combat global warming: Paint all the roofs of all the buildings in the world white.

According to the Times of London, the actual proposal is to paint the roofs of flat buildings white, lighten the colors on the roofs of other buildings, and lighten roads and walkways to the color of concrete.

The Fox spin continues:

If we did so, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist said, and if we also made sure the world’s roads and sidewalks were light-colored, it would have the same effect on global warming as taking all the cars in the world off the world’s roads for 11 years.

But at least one science expert thinks Chu is nuts.

“It’s past simplistic — it’s ridiculous,” says Steven Milloy, publisher of junkscience.com and an avowed climate-change skeptic. “Imagine the glare on roads, in urban areas, imagine the UV radiation bouncing around. Snow blindness would be replaced by road blindness.”

Note how legions of “climate change experts” gasping in stunned amazement has been replaced by the bleating of a Steven Milloy, a lobbyist and public relations executive who is a paid advocate for ExxonMobil. And the problem of “road blindness” is specifically addressed within Chu’s proposal:

Building regulations should insist that all flat roofs were painted white, and visible tilted roofs could be painted with “cool-coloured” paints that looked normal, but which absorbed much less heat than conventional dark surfaces. Roads could be lightened to a concrete colour so they would not dazzle drivers in bright sunlight.

Fox does quote an opposing point of view, though:

But Dr. Gordon Bonan, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., says there’s a kernel of truth in the science behind Chu’s idea.

“That’s been a pretty standard idea many for many years now,” says Bonan. “It’s related to the idea of an urban heat island — that a big city will generate a large amount of heat. In urban planning and urban design, the idea is that painting roofs white will absorb less solar radiation and keep the city cooler.”

A standard idea for many years now? So how is it that all of those climate scientists were shocked to hear Chu’s proposal? You don’t suppose Fox is lying about that, do you?

Also, notice how a single expert, Gordon Bonan, is counterbalanced by a single non-expert, Steven Milloy. Milloy’s views are given much more space in the article, despite the fact that he has no expertise in the field of climatology, and despite the fact that he’s voicing an opinion that runs directly counter to one that has been “pretty standard for many years now” among the world’s climate experts.

Fox presents Milloy’s views without disclosing his association with ExxonMobile, even when Milloy’s arrogance gets the better of him, and he winds up discrediting himself:

Milloy says he’s certain that it would be a huge waste of time and money.

“How would this accomplish anything? What’s the expense?” he asks. “This shows you how even Nobel winners get lost when they step outside their fields of expertise.”

Remember that climate change is outside Milloy’s field of expertise. Malloy has a law degree and a graduate degree in hygiene and public health, and he’s shown remarkable aptitude in the fields of public relations and fundraising. The man he’s criticizing, Steven Chu, was awarded the Nobel prize in physics, and was the director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for five years before Obama named him Secretary of Energy. Given the fact that the Berkeley laboratory specialized in solar energy research during Chu’s tenure, I think it’s safe to say that he knows more about solar radiation than Steven Milloy.

So there you have it: given a proposal that’s based on uncontroversial scientific principals, Fox News quotes an oil industry shill and pretends that most climate scientists agree with him. Welcome to the No Spin Zone.

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Check out Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), questioning Energy Secretary Steven Chu (who is a Nobel laureate):

The really funny part? Barton thinks that Chu was “baffled” by his question.

…it turns into biolard when the weather gets cold.

That’s just one disadvantage. The other is that, like regular diesel, biodiesel releases greenhouse gasses when it’s burned. It’s time to stop burning carbon to fuel our cars and power our lights.

We shouldn’t be spending any money on developing biodiesel, waste-to-energy plants, and ethanol. Instead, we should be subsidizing solar and wind power, and funding the development of electric cars.

Grateful residents of Harriman, Tennessee got an early Christmas gift as their homes were literally flooded with byproduct from clean, affordable fuel that will help them keep warm through the winter months. The Tennessee Valley Authority generously provided the coal ash free of charge, along with gallons and gallons of delicious, refreshing water. There are few things more important for human survival than water and fuel for heat, but not everyone in Harriman appreciated the gesture:

What may be the nation’s largest spill of coal ash lay thick and largely untouched over hundreds of acres of land and waterways Wednesday after a dam broke this week, as officials and environmentalists argued over its potential toxicity. Holly Schean, a waitress whose home, which she shared with her parents, was swept off its foundation when millions of cubic yards of ash breached a retaining wall early Monday morning, said, “They’re giving their apologies, which don’t mean very much.”

The T.V.A., Ms. Schean said, has not yet declared the house uninhabitable. But, she said: “I don’t need your apologies. I need information.”

I think Ms. Schean is correct in saying that she doesn’t need an apology. What she needs is a huge warehouse to store all of her good luck! Coal ash comes from coal, which is America’s most abundant source of clean energy. Tens of millions of dollars worth of coal were burned to produce all that ash, and Ms. Schean got a couple of million cubic yards of it for free. It’s like winning the lottery without even buying a ticket!

Federal officials assured the public that the coal ash is harmless, but naturally the gravel eating tree-huggers and the pointy-headed scientists have a different opinion:

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Watch out ya don’t get cancer on yer hands, eh?

Looks like the oil sands that helped save Canada’s economy during the recent oil shock are helping to wreck Canada’s environment:

George Whiteknife, known as Sloan, has lived in Fort Chipewyan all his life. He provides much of the food for his family and dogs by hunting, fishing and trapping. Sloan, a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, says he first began noticing something was different about eight or 10 years ago, when for a period of a couple of weeks, the fish in Lake Athabasca seemed to disappear and his fishing net came out of the water covered in a black, oily substance.

There have been reports of deformed fish with tumours, of muskrats found dead in their dens, of whitefish turning red. Some hunters and trappers were saying the meat tasted unusual. No one will now drink water from the lake, some refuse even after the water has been treated.

The oil sands industry, based around Fort McMurray, relies on the Athabasca River for water to help extract the oil from the sand. Waste water from the process is re-used many times, but it contains such high concentrations of naturally occurring elements like arsenic and mercury that it must be stored in vast, man-made lakes surrounded by earthen dykes, known as tailings ponds. Government and industry officials say no tailings water ever ends up back in the river, and point to data collected by their scientists to back this up.

However, in a report for the local Nunee Health Board last year, environmental scientist Kevin Timoney found higher levels of contaminants in the water downstream from the oil sands plants, suggesting that tailings could be leaking into the water system. Once in the water, the contaminants - which also include napthenic acids and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) - enter the food chain. Some of the most popular fish have so much mercury in them that they should not be eaten, Dr Timoney cautions.

His conclusions are broadly backed up by David Schindler, a water ecologist and the Killam memorial professor of ecology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

“I think it’s very unlikely that mining on that scale is not increasing all of the amounts of pollutants coming… into the river,” he says.

The problem for the locals extends beyond having to eat canned fish and drink bottled water:

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The manufacturer has already shipped my ice line for this year; I picked up some new tackle to try out, too.

My Minneapolis Park Board fishing docks have been pulled.

The cats have retreated to their deep holes, the milfoil has started to sink and the muskies, bass and pike are cruising the declining weed line picking off the increasingly desperate sunfish, although they are perfectly willing to take suckers and shiners, too.  And I sure as hell aint going wading to reach the outside weed line after turnover.

Traditionally I could count on walking on water sometime within the next two or three weeks, but yesterday it was 70 degrees here with 60’s forecast well through next week.  Looks like another winter of no ice until the new year just like the last three.  Used to be that we could count on fishable ice every year by the middle of November and be dead certain of it by the end of the month.  Not so anymore.

Dave Genz must be turning over in his grave about now!  Wait a minute he’s not dead yet.  I guess the trap attacks are just going to have to wait a while to go after that first ice bite, again.

I suppose I will just have to look on the bright side and be thankful that I have so much extra time to get my shack and equipment ready and organized.   I also have a flasher, a whole bunch of little sticks and a power auger with which I drill a whole lot of holes every time I go out (make what jokes of that you want - it’s no skin off my nose), and I dress a whole lot warmer than you can get with red flannels or even a wool union suit, too.  Just because we walk on water, doesn’t mean we are dumb enough to dress like St Peter or like the misconceptions of those from where it really doesn’t get cold, either.

BTW to the rock head from where they don’t get ice, yes, you can catch bullheads through the ice, but I never have.  I normally target crappies, perch, and sunfish, and the occasional walleye and that also once in a while means a something large with sharp edged teeth which is a contest one usually loses with 2# panfish line.

Not an open thread by the way, although I will tolerate a pretty broad interpretation of what is on topic.  Go ahead and have some fun with it.  I gotta go see if my shiners survived the night in the back of the car.

From the Washington Post:

The Environmental Protection Agency, under pressure from the White House and the Pentagon, is poised to rule as early as today that it will not set a drinking-water safety standard for perchlorate, a component of rocket fuel that has been linked to thyroid problems in pregnant women, newborns and young children across the nation.

According to a near-final document obtained by The Washington Post, the EPA’s “preliminary regulatory determination” — which was extensively edited by White House officials — marks the final step in a six-year-old battle between career EPA scientists who advocate regulating the chemical and White House and Pentagon officials who oppose it. The document estimates that up to 16.6 million Americans are exposed to perchlorate at a level many scientists consider unsafe; independent researchers, using federal and state data, put the number at 20 million to 40 million.

The new EPA proposal — which assumes the maximum allowable perchlorate contamination level is 15 times what the EPA had suggested in 2002 — was heavily edited by officials of the White House Office of Management and Budget. They eliminated key passages and asked the EPA to use a new computer modeling approach to calculate the chemical’s risks.

“They have distorted the science to such an extent that they can justify not regulating” the chemical, said Robert Zoeller, a University of Massachusetts professor who specializes in thyroid hormone and brain development and has a copy of the EPA proposal. “Infants and children will continue to be damaged, and that damage is significant.”

Zoeller said scientific studies have shown that a small reduction in thyroid function in infants can translate into a loss of IQ and an increase in behavioral and perception problems. “It’s absolutely irreversible,” he said. “Even small changes in thyroid functions early on have impacts on functioning through high school and even into people’s 20s.”

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Rubbish!

What is?

According to some our blog is. So are lots of our ideas, principles, beliefs, and so on.

Why, we’ve even been told on more than one occasion that all we ever write about is rubbish.

Well, today we ain’t intending to dispute it.

People power. Don’t you just love it?

(Cross posted from How This Old Brit Sees It)

Concerns about environmental damage are undermining support for McCain’s plans to expand offshore drilling

A recent poll indicated that while a slight majority of Americans want more areas to be opened for oil drilling, around 3/4 of Americans think that we should focus our efforts on investing in new energy technology, rather than on expansion of drilling. Since John McCain has made support for more drilling a centerpiece of his campaign, that result would seem to favor Obama.

Also, most Americans don’t think that more drilling will significantly lower gas prices (they’re right), and they think that the Bush/McCain proposals to expand drilling are more likely to enrich oil companies than to lower the price of oil.

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Pope Benedict prepares to sacrifice yet another child on the Altar of Chastity

Poverty and environmental degradation have many causes, but one of the primary causes is population growth. If world population continues to grow exponentially, no amount of redistribution, conservation, or technological development will halt an eventual, inevitable decline in living standards.

Right now, the total world fertility rate is 2.58 births per woman. A 20% reduction in that fertility rate would bring it below the replacement level of 2.1, allowing us to achieve a stable world population for the first time in history.

Right now, 41% of all pregnancies worldwide are unintended. So it’s clear that we have a historic opportunity.

Unfortunately, we’re not taking advantage of that opportunity. One institution that’s frequently blamed is the Roman Catholic Church. We’re told that Pope Benedict knows that his pronouncements on the subject are mostly ignored in countries like Canada and France, but are taken very seriously in places like Haiti and Burundi. So Ireland has managed to achieve a zero growth rate in its native population (all of Ireland’s population growth now comes through immigration), while the population of the Philippines has ballooned to 90 million.

But Church policy appears to have far less impact than government policy.

During the 1990s, population growth rates fell considerably in Latin America, despite the influence of the Catholic church. Today, nearly all of the countries experiencing high fertility rates are in either Africa or South Asia, suggesting that the problem is not any stigma that might be attached to birth control, but unavailability of birth control.

And so, naturally, President Stupid has has refused to provide congressionally approved aid to the United Nations Population Fund. This is especially ironic when you look at a list of the nations currently experiencing the highest fertility rates, and you realize that many of them are the very nations which produce the most dangerous anti-Western terrorists. Somalia, Afghanistan, and Yemen are among the 6 most fertile countries, and D.R. Congo, Angola, Western Sahara, Oman, Chad, and the Gaza Strip are all among the top 20 most fertile. Bush’s refusal to provide birth control is helping to destabilize the some of the most violent regions of the world.

I’m not a population alarmist, and I don’t think that limiting population growth is a panacea. I think that with better technology and more equitable distribution of resources, the people of the world can enjoy rising living standards even if the population grows to 10 billion. And if we were to achieve zero world population growth, that would leave wealthy nations with declining populations, and African countries with rising populations. So zero population growth wouldn’t lead to stable national populations unless countries like Germany and Japan start taking more immigrants. From Africa. That’s going to take a very profound cultural shift.

But while stepping up efforts to make birth control more available won’t solve all of our problems, it is a necessary precondition to overcoming many of our most serious challenges. Hopefully, our next president will end Bush’s policy of obstructionism on this issue.