The biggest difference between impoverished nations and wealthy ones is access to inexpensive energy. Rich nations have become that way by using fossil fuels, hydro power and nuclear plants. People in the poorest countries burn dung for heat and to cook food. The people in these poorest countries have no means of freezing food to preserve it; they rely on spices to both preserve meats and to hide the taste of pre-rotting flesh.
Inexpensive, reliable energy - provided mostly (and realistically ONLY) by fossil fuels - allow factories to be built, which provide jobs for ordinary people and create wealth in a town or country. (Note: Hydro and Nuke are reliable and cheap over time, but with huge initial costs.) With this wealth schools, universities and hospitals can be built and entire societies changed from hand-to-mouth existence to generative ones that allow for invention and artistic, leisure and cultural pursuits.
The reason I write this is because our power bill this month was $500, in a small house with 2 people. Last year for this month it was about $250. Why? Because the provincial government, the licensor of the energy monopoly in Ontario, made a multi-billion commitment to windmills that are incredibly unproductive and more incredibly expensive. Companies that make these contraptions or try and sell energy produced by them only exist because of the government subsidy. Our extra $3000 / year (times 4 million households) allows these companies to, among other things, support some politicians and campaign against others.
Those people who protest use of fossil fuels are either disingenuous, in someone's pocket, Bolsheviks who despise anyone but themselves having wealth, uneducated or unable to understand science and economics, or refugees from the 60s looking for meaning.
They need to be ignored or they will be creating a destiny of impoverishment for our (and their) society's future generations.
Canadian, Conservative and Sour. Satire, Cynicism, Snark and Sarcasm is Often the Best Medicine............... Stephen Harper's Favorite Blog
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Friday, September 26, 2014
The AGW PR Strategy from Hoggan Associates / Desmog Blog in 2007
From Ranting Stan
From DeSmog Blog Propaganda Manual...
From DeSmog Blog Propaganda Manual...
What will really make people act? We also live in a culture in which
celebrity rules supreme, and in which 44 per cent of the population is
‘outer-directed’. That is, they have esteem-driven needs, seeking success,
recognition and status through acquiring and displaying the ‘right’ brands,
fashionable lifestyles and other goods, services and experiences (Rose et al
2005). Cultural Dynamics’ work indicates that the outer-directed section of the
UK population offers a ripe opportunity for climate-related behaviour change.
People like this want to feel special, and are accustomed to achieving this
feeling through what they do and what they buy, rather than what they do not do
or do not buy.
Thought I'd Catch Up on Cateret Island in Papua NG to see if Al Gore was correct...
Sunday, September 21, 2014
A Weekend of Defiance
This was the weekend of the greatest march in history that will surely save Mother Earth from her murder by evil mankind. I expect like most of these events that the march will be full of sound and fury and ultimately signify nothing.
Meanwhile, I was defying age and gravity by playing in a Masters basketball tournament, in a small city an hour from Toronto on the shores of one of the world's largest fresh water lakes. Now my age is a state secret and to be honest my defiance of gravity would be measured in inches not feet. But these defiances pale when compared to the defiance against science and reality when I arrived at the new and shiny field-house in which the tournament was staged.
It is truly a marvelous facility, bright and new with hardwood slats never before suffering the pounding of the big feet of large males.
Then I went to fill up my water bottle.
Now in a modern world, where decisions were based on theory and proof, not political considerations, this activity would take about 15 seconds. But nooooo. Not now, not here. It took about 5 minutes to capture enough water to prevent my dehydration and death. I have seen a stronger trickle from a faucet with a leaky washer.
And the showers? I had to move around and do a shimmy dance to make my hair just a little bit wet.
Did I mention that my drive to the place was conducted in rain so strong that it pooled on the highway and caused at least one accident? And that it is raining similarly as I write this?
The facility is perhaps one mile from one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world. It probably increased in volume by a foot or so from the rain today.
But the politicians who would have had to sign off on this project needed to have insisted that the facility be 100% earth friendly. Which means, it doesn't matter if people can get enough water to drink or in which to wash their sweaty bodies.
This is not Arizona. Nor is it California, although clearly the stupidities from there have made it up here.
This is Ontario. We have LOTS of water. And we don't need to conserve it. Especially since any water we drink and piss away makes it back into the eco-system.
As a smart guy once said, the biggest different between stupidity and genius, is that there is a limit to genius.
Meanwhile, I was defying age and gravity by playing in a Masters basketball tournament, in a small city an hour from Toronto on the shores of one of the world's largest fresh water lakes. Now my age is a state secret and to be honest my defiance of gravity would be measured in inches not feet. But these defiances pale when compared to the defiance against science and reality when I arrived at the new and shiny field-house in which the tournament was staged.
It is truly a marvelous facility, bright and new with hardwood slats never before suffering the pounding of the big feet of large males.
Then I went to fill up my water bottle.
Now in a modern world, where decisions were based on theory and proof, not political considerations, this activity would take about 15 seconds. But nooooo. Not now, not here. It took about 5 minutes to capture enough water to prevent my dehydration and death. I have seen a stronger trickle from a faucet with a leaky washer.
And the showers? I had to move around and do a shimmy dance to make my hair just a little bit wet.
Did I mention that my drive to the place was conducted in rain so strong that it pooled on the highway and caused at least one accident? And that it is raining similarly as I write this?
The facility is perhaps one mile from one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world. It probably increased in volume by a foot or so from the rain today.
But the politicians who would have had to sign off on this project needed to have insisted that the facility be 100% earth friendly. Which means, it doesn't matter if people can get enough water to drink or in which to wash their sweaty bodies.
This is not Arizona. Nor is it California, although clearly the stupidities from there have made it up here.
This is Ontario. We have LOTS of water. And we don't need to conserve it. Especially since any water we drink and piss away makes it back into the eco-system.
As a smart guy once said, the biggest different between stupidity and genius, is that there is a limit to genius.
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Friday, September 12, 2014
Tuesday, September 09, 2014
It Ain't Just Climate Scientists Who Fudge
Link
In what may be a Canadian record, a celebrated and prolific doctor has retracted nine University of Calgary studies that contained bogus data.
In the latest in a string of retractions, Dr. Cory Toth has pulled two reports from the medical literature because data and figures were “manipulated” in his laboratory at the University of Calgary medical school.
“I can’t say whether it’s an official record, but we haven’t seen anyone else in Canada retract that many papers since we launched in 2010,” said Dr. Ivan Oransky, co-founder of Retraction Watch, a U.S.-based group that shines light in some of academia’s darker corners. The group alerted the University of Calgary to problems with several of Toth’s studies.
Saturday, September 06, 2014
Vicious Beaver Attack May Not be Caused by Global Warming Climate Change
While observers say that such a vicious attack by beavers is known only against trees, it does not mean that its carniforacious appetite isn't caused by Global Warming. "We don't know for sure, but Carbon emitted by humans does seem to be the only possible cause, except for hunger. He might just be extra hungry because so many trees have died because of carbon pollution.
Link to Horrible Story Here
Link to Horrible Story Here
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Greener Means Bigger Babies?
The following study seems to indicate that children born, I surmise, to mothers that live in green, leafy neighbourhoods come in at about an ounce and a half bigger than babies born in less green and leafy neighbourhoods.
Bigger, Greener Babies
The study was done in Vancouver.
This would seem to make some sense, but we have to be careful to distinguish cause from correlation.
Are families in leafy neighbourhoods more wealthy and therefore have better diets? Is there an ethnic bias; are we comparing Anglo-Saxon babies to Asian babies? What about cities that are entirely green (say Abbotsford) compared to cities with very little foliage?
And does size matter?
Bigger, Greener Babies
The study was done in Vancouver.
This would seem to make some sense, but we have to be careful to distinguish cause from correlation.
Are families in leafy neighbourhoods more wealthy and therefore have better diets? Is there an ethnic bias; are we comparing Anglo-Saxon babies to Asian babies? What about cities that are entirely green (say Abbotsford) compared to cities with very little foliage?
And does size matter?
Friday, September 05, 2014
Snow in Kenya - September 5, 2014 - Limuru Golf Course
Source: Facebook page of a friend of a friend in Nairobi
Canada's "Have Not" Provinces Deny Fracking Benefits
The provinces that can't shoot straight, and seem to enjoy impoverishment and being economic basket cases appear set to ban shale gas recovery.
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia people have faced a propaganda tsunami against shale gas for almost a decade from the usual noises: Tides, WWF, Green Pee, etc. More effort needs to take place to refute the lies told by these lying liars.
Toronto Sun
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia people have faced a propaganda tsunami against shale gas for almost a decade from the usual noises: Tides, WWF, Green Pee, etc. More effort needs to take place to refute the lies told by these lying liars.
Toronto Sun
Thursday, September 04, 2014
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