CBO Warns: Cap-N-Trade Will Hurt The Economy

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently testified before Congress that the cap-n-trade policy proposed by the Obama administration, and strongly support by many members of Congress, would be disastrous for all Americans:

CO2 And You

"Under a cap-and-trade program, consumers would ultimately bear most of the costs of emission reductions."

This is not just about money; it is about a commitment to integrity. Too often we allow our politicians, spurred on by misinformed activist, to throw billions of dollars away for the "feel good cause" of the day. After all of the panic, driven by emotion and not intellect, the American tax payers are left holding the bill, while the activist move onto the next great "threat to mankind." Is cap-n-trade the next abuse we must endure?

Happy Earth Day: Eat A Cow, Save The Environment

Every year a remnant of the hippie movement, Earth Day, is celebrated across the world. Earth Day is as antiquated as the word hippie, and just as stupid. The only thing I am thankful about this year is the fact that Earth Day 2009 occurs during school vacation; which means my son’s school will not have the opportunity to parade the kids out of the classroom and turn them into Little Green Warriors, wunder-kids for a dogma that got its start promoting zero-population growth, and serves now to indoctrinate a new generation in a fallacy.

I remember the first Earth Day, and fortunately, I had older teachers who didn’t drop acid, listen to Vanilla Fudge, or felt the need to “fight the power.” No, as the first Earth Day approached, we did radical things like studying math, history (real history, not the revisionist history my son has to poke holes in everyday), and science (I mean real science, not the propaganda surrounding Earth Day celebrations). Those were the days!

For those of you that are shouting – “You don’t you care about the environment!” I do care about the environment, but I will not succumb to a false canon that is pushing bogus solutions to phony issues. The real “flat Earthers” are those that have moved from one fad cause to the next fad cause. The common theme in all of these causes is “its mankind’s fault!” I am not saying that we have always been good stewards of our planet, but we do not solve problems by laying false blame, based on false science, with the belief that “the ends justify the means.” When a cause lacks integrity, it only sidetracks attention from the real issues, which deflects where the real focus should be, and diverts needed resources (people, money, ideas) in the wrong direction.

The current green movement’s roots are planted in the soil of the zero-growth movement (the true focus of the first Earth Day) of the 60’s, then moved to the “next Ice Age” faction of the 70’s, to the Ozone Hole gang of the 80’s, to the Global Warming interest group of the 90’s, to its current incarnation as Climate Change soldiers. Their momentum loses steam once people start to take a hard look at the “evidence.” But that doesn’t bother them, they just “rebrand” the cause and move their army with them.

Junk Science: Junk Fit To Be Debunked
Green Hell Blog

Progressive Fascist Alert: Jonathon Porritt

History is filled with Progressive dolts and their followers. The latest addition to the Progressive Dolt Hall of Fame, Jonathon Porritt.

Jonathon Porritt, who chairs the British government’s Sustainable Development Commission, says curbing population growth through contraception and abortion must be at the heart of policies to fight global warming:

Times On Line: Jonathon Porrit's "Brave New World"

“I am unapologetic about asking people to connect up their own responsibility for their total environmental footprint and how they decide to procreate and how many children they think are appropriate,” Porritt said.”

Mr. Porritt is just another of example of a “dangerous Progressive.” Progressives are harmless when they are sitting in their favorite coffee house, sipping on a soy latte, while talking about solving the worlds problems (imagined or real) within the confines of their fantasy world. The danger is when they are set free on an unsuspecting world to promote “their solutions.” Solutions usually based on a false or exaggerated problem.

Porritt, like so many other Progressives, has no difficulty placing a price tag on human life, usually in the name of “saving mankind.” He speaks of “volunteerism” in achieving a “low population” goal, somehow suggesting free will. It starts with a “simple resolution” from the government-suggesting adherence. But when casual commitment falls short of the intended goal, what was once promoted as a “suggestion” soon becomes “mandatory.” As we are being forced to do something, we are reminded “it is for our own good!”

The myths of overpopulation, like those of global warming, are used to scare people into drastic measures to “combat” the problem. Like the fascist of the past, the scare tactics only work so long as the population is willing to act like lemmings, and follow these ill-informed “do-gooders” over the cliff.

As for Mr. Porritt suggestion, it is a good thing his mother didn’t feel the same way.

Obama's "First" Socialist Appointment

Former Clintonista, and current Obamateer, Carol Browner has socialist ties…..I am socked!

Washington Times: Obama's "Climate "Czar has Socialist Ties

Immediately after the story “broke (some smart intern ran a goggle search, nice investigative work!)” Socialist International “removed” Ms. Browner’s biography and picture, yet one article that escape the purge of the Socialist International web page identified Browner’s commission position:

Socialist International web page: Browner Commission Links

Carol Browner is nothing more than a female version of Al Gore (and just as annoying). Browner is not a trained scientist, having earned a BA in English. But her policy position are based on faulty “science” and if implemented extremely dangerous to the security and financial viability of the United States of America:

http://www.ondayone.org/user/837

Reassert the Position of Independent Science: Translation – The science is settled on the issue of climate change.

Embrace a Cap-and-Trade Requirement: Translation – The environmentalist pyramid scheme. Government sanctioned extortion based on a fairy tale pandemic.

Direct the EPA to Regulate Carbon: Translation – Lets make sure we put the final nail in America’s prosperity based on faulty science/data (or outright myths).

More of Browner:

Michelle Malkin: Crooked Carol Browner - Obama's Ethically Challenged Energy Czar
Junk Science: Browner's plan would kill the Hudson

NOTE: This is America, can we please stop using the term Czar. Although in this case, if the socialist title fits, wear it.

No Matter What Happens, Someone Will Blame Global Warming

Global warming was blamed for everything from beasts gone wild to anorexic whales to the complete breakdown of human society this year -- showing that no matter what it is and where it happens, scientists, explorers, politicians and those who track the Loch Ness Monster are comfortable scapegoating the weather.

FOXNews.com takes a look back at 10 things that global warming allegedly caused — or will no doubt soon be responsible for — as reported in the news around the world in 2008.

1. Cannibalism

In April, media mogul Ted Turner told PBS's Charlie Rose that global warming would make the world 8 degrees hotter in 30 or 40 years. "Civilization will have broken down. The few people left will be living in a failed state, like Somalia or Sudan, and living conditions will be intolerable," he said.

Turner blamed global warming on overpopulation, saying "too many people are using too much stuff."

Crops won't grow and "most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals," Turner said.

2. The Death of the Loch Ness Monster

In February, Scotland's Daily Mirror reported that 85-year-old American Robert Rines would be giving up his quest for Scotland's most famous underwater denizen.A World War II veteran, Rines has spent 37 years hunting for Nessie with sonar equipment. In 2008, "despite having hundreds of sonar contacts over the years, the trail has since gone cold and Rines believes that Nessie may be dead, a victim of global warming."

3. Beer Gets More Expensive

In April, the Associated Press reported that global warming was going to hit beer drinkers in the wallet because the cost of barley would increase, driving up the price of a pint.

Jim Salinger, a climate scientist at New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, said Australia would be particularly hard hit as droughts caused a decline in malting barley production in parts of New Zealand and Australia. "It will mean either there will be pubs without beer or the cost of beer will go up," Salinger said at a beer brewer's convention, the AP reported.

4. Pythons Take Over America

Giant Burmese pythons – big enough to eat alligators and deer in a single mouthful – will be capable of living in one-third of continental U.S. as global warming makes more of the country hospitable to the cold-blooded predators, according to an April report from USAToday.com.

The U.S. Geological Survey and the Fish and Wildlife Service investigated the spread of "invasive snakes," like the pythons, brought to the U.S. as pets. The Burmese pythons' potential American habitat would expand by 2100, according to global warming models, the paper reported.

"We were surprised by the map. It was bigger than we thought it was going to be," says Gordon Rodda, zoologist and lead project researcher, told USAToday.com. "They are moving northward, there's no question."

5. Kidney Stones

A University of Texas study said global warming will cause an increase in kidney stones over the next 30 years, the Globe and Mail reported in July.

Scientists predict that higher temperatures will lead to more dehydration and therefore to more kidney stones. "This will come and get you in your home," said Dr. Tom Brikowski, lead researcher and an associate professor at the University of Texas at Dallas. "It will make life just uncomfortable enough that maybe people will slow down and think what they're doing to the climate."

6. Skinny Whales

Japanese scientists, who have claimed that the country's controversial whaling program is all in the name of science, said in August that if they hadn't been going around killing whales, they never would have discovered that the creatures were significantly skinnier than whales killed in the late 1980s, the Guardian reported in August.

The researchers said the study was the first evidence that global warming was harming whales by restricting their food supplies. As water warmed around the Antarctic Peninsula, the krill population shrank by 80 percent as sea ice declined, eliminating much of the preferred food of the minke whale.

The whales studied had lost the same amount of blubber as they would have by starving for 36 days, but the global warming connection couldn't be proven because no krill measurements are taken in different regions.

7. Shark Attacks

A surge in fatal shark attacks was the handiwork of global warming, according to a report in the Guardian in May.

George Burgess of Florida University, a shark expert that maintains an attack database, told the Guardian that shark attacks were caused by human activity. "As the population continues to rise, so does the number of people in the water for recreation. And as long as we have an increase in human hours in the water, we will have an increase in shark bites," he said.

Shark attacks could also be the result of global warming and rising sea temperatures, the Guardian said. "You'll find that some species will begin to appear in places they didn't in the past with some regularity," Burgess said.

8. Black Hawk Down

Although it happened in 1993, the crash of a U.S. military helicopter in Mogadishu that became the film "Black Hawk Down" was blamed on global warming by a Massachusetts congressman in 2008.

"In Somalia back in 1993, climate change, according to 11 three- and four-star generals, resulted in a drought which led to famine,” Rep. Edward Markey told a group of students who had come to the Capitol to discuss global warming, according to CNSNews.com. "That famine translated to international aid we sent in to Somalia, which then led to the U.S. having to send in forces to separate all the groups that were fighting over the aid, which led to Black Hawk Down."

9. Frozen Penguin Babies

Penguin babies, whose water-repellant feathers had not grown in yet, froze to death after torrential rains, National Geographic reported in July.

"Many, many, many of them—thousands of them—were dying," explorer Jon Bowermaster told National Geographic. Witnessing the mass penguin death "painted a clear and grim picture" of global warming.

"It's not just melting ice," Bowermaster said. "It's actually killing these cute little birds that are so popular in the movies."

10. Killer Stingray Invasion

Global warming is going to drive killer stingrays, like the one that killed Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, to the shores of Britain after a 5-foot -long marbled stingray was captured by fishermen, the Daily Mail reported in June.

A single touch can zap a man with enough electricity to kill, the Mail said, and global warming is bringing the Mediterranean killers north.

"Rising sea temperatures may well have brought an influx of warm water visitors," sea life curator Alex Gerrard told the Mail. "Where there's one electric ray, it's quite likely that there are more."

Original Fox News Story

More Than 650 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims

On the same day that President-elect Obama announced key appoints to his energy team, including a newly created position to focus on addressing “man-made, climate change,” a new report was released disputing the cause.

Over 650 dissenting scientists from around the globe challenged man-made global warming claims made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former Vice President Al Gore, as documented in a new 231-page U.S. Senate Minority Report:

EPW Senate Report

Whether you agree or disagree with the cause of “global warming,” or for that matter if there is even a crisis to be concerned about, you would think that every media outlet would carry some kind of story about the report. You would be wrong.

Run a search for “Senate Minority Report dissent,” and you will find that not one major news outlet carried the story. The United States of America is about to enact laws that will cripple its economy (worst than it is now), and the only response we can get from the Fourth Estate is the sounds of crickets chirping.

Is it any wonder that the NY Times, NBC, and other media outlets are losing viewership and laying off employees?

Governor Palin: Alaska Is Ready To Help America

Alaskan Governor Palin is showing the type of leadership that many in DC seem to have abandoned for the sake of political expediency.

Governor Palin, frustrated with the inaction by Congress to solve our energy and economic needs, took her case to the American people. Governor Palin posted a guest posting on Senator John Cornyn’s webpage:

Palin: Alaska Wants To Serve America

To Governor Palin’s point, any discussion of a broad base energy plan must include ANWR. Governor Palin is once again showing the type of leadership that would make her a perfect Vice Presidental pick for McCain.

Huge Volcano's Erupting Under the Arctic: No Big Deal!

Lets play of game of “Internet Scavenger Hunt.” It is a simple game. I will give a subject to search on, and you try and find it.

First run a “News” search on “Arctic Could Be Ice Free.” How many articles did you get back? Probably in excess of 450 stories from numerous different news outlets.(Including Fox, CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, etc). Many will focus on a news story (LiveScience: Melting Arctic Ice) dated on June 26, 2008.

Now run another “News” search on “Volcano's Erupting Under The Arctic.” How many hits came back? Less than 20 (which included Fox, but not ABC, CBS, or NBC)! This story was featured in LiveScience as well, and appeared on June 28, 2008.

LiveScience: Volcano Erupting Under Arctic

Here is the catcher. Both the melting arctic ice story and the volcano eruptions came to light during the same week. To any reasonable person, the connection would warrant a closer look. However, without any research, and no validation, Robert Reeves-Sohn of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution stated - "We don't believe the volcanoes had much effect on the overlying ice."

Really!? Volcano's expel heat, which rises and warms the water. The currents carry the heated water around the polar cap, which in turn would warm the ice. And what happens to ice when it warms....thats right, it MELTS!

But hey, why would we ever suspect a connection between volcano's and melting ice?

Czech President Ask - What is Endangered: Climate or Freedom?

Czechoslovakian President Václav Klaus spoke before the National Press Club in Washington, DC about his new book “Blue Planet in Green Shackles.”

Mr. Klaus has long been a critic of many elements of the climinate change movement, comparing their tactics to that of the Communist:

Czech President warns the world

President Klaus has challenged former Vice-President Al Gore to a debate on the subject of climate warming. President Klaus will not be holding his breath while awaiting Mr. Gore's answer.

To view President Klaus' entire address before the National Press Club. click on the link below (you will be redirected to CSPAN):

CSPAN: National Press Club Video - President Klaus

Democratic Policies Are To Blame For Our Energy Problems

This week Congress called the oil executives before the House for “hearings.” What in fact happened was not about solving the problem at hand, but what Democratic do best…belittle, chastise, and blame others for their own incompetence!

Witness this exchange between the “esteem” Congresswoman Maxine Waters (pay close attention to what happens at 1:13 into the video):

The equation is easy. Socialism = Liberalism = Progressivism = Failure.

This November, if we go to the polls and further strengthen the Democrats hold on this country, Ms. Waters threats will become reality. History has shown us that “socialism” does not stop at taking over one element of industry.

Gas prices did not go through the roof until the Democrats took control of Congress. The Democratic Party’s failures, and the inaction of the Republican Party, over these past decades has placed America in this position:

• Failure to build additional refineries to create reserves faster
• Failure to allow drilling off-shore and in protected areas
• Failure to encourage exploration for new sources
• Failure to expanding nuclear power options
• Failure to support a transit system that provides transportation faster, cleaner, and cheaper

It is time for us to stop blaming big oil, look in the mirror for who is to blame, and then work together to solve an issue threatening to cripple our nation!

The Runaway Polar Bear Express

The battle for the “fate” of the polar bears rages on. Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin announced that her State will fight the recent placement of the polar bear on the Endangered Species List:

Alaska: Anyone Know A Good Lawyer?

The decision by the Interior Department was more about “appeasement” than about whether the polar bear is in danger. President Bush was correct about the nature of appeasement, as this next story so soundly demonstrates. The original environmental groups that fought for the Endangered Species listing have filed another lawsuit on “behalf” of the polar bears:

Thanks, But We Are Not Done Yet!

The first question I had was “what” (or more precisely – “who”) is the “Center for Biological Diversity (CBD)?” The CBD mission statement pretty much summarizes who and what they are. The Center for Biological Diversity was created to “ensure species equality.” Maybe they can get a really, really, REALLY good lawyer that can convince the courts that the animals are protected by the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution.

To make matters worse, there are many scientists who feel that this move was unnecessary:


Polar Bears Thriving

Science Daily: Polar Bears Endangered...Really?

I love polar bears just as much as the next person, but the environmental groups that sued for this action to be taken are politically motivated. These groups are just another example of the irresponsibility of “judicial activism,” attempting to use the courts to legitimize their cause. In doing so, they damage the integrity and the intent of the judicial system.

Study Questions Link Between Global Warming and Hurricanes

Meteorologist Tom Knutson is about to find himself an outcast within the scientific community:

Knutson: Few Hurricanes As Earth Warm

I have not seen a copy of the report, and will reserve any critique until I have had a chance to look at Knutson's findings.

This will not be the last such report on Climate Change. But this report does illustrate that there is dissension within the science community as to the cause and effect of Global Warming. We can expect to see Dr. Knutson attacked and discredited over the next few days . To challenge ANY aspect to Climate Change will not be tolerated, a lesson many before Dr. Knutson's learned the hard way.

Nature Geoscience Website

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Website

Green Indeed!

In the absence of Woodstock, Lolapoolza,and the resurrection of Jerry Garcia, the modern day hippie has only the Live Earth Concerts to fall back on. One of the performers, Madonna, however has (as Ricky Ricardo would say) "some splaining" to do:

Madonna - Say It Ain't So!

The reality is that more energy and money will be wasted supporting the concerts than the cause is worth.