Why efforts to curtail global climate change are doomed from the start.

A recent article published on the CNN web page was written by a gentleman named Kumi Naidoo. Kumi is the executive director for the Greenpeace International and I found the article well written.

One point he makes is to state that “most scientists tell us that we must dramatically curb greenhouse gas emissions if we are to avert catastrophic climate change.” Truer words have never been spoken, however there exists a fly in the ointment of that statement. It has to do with people. Too darn many people.

Even if all the world’s leaders were to suddenly be smitten with the desire to completely curb the careless throwing of carbon into the air. Even if we were to plunge ourselves back into the Dark Ages by outlawing the use of gasoline, diesel and coal, there would still be a minor problem.

In case no one has noticed the world population is exploding. Just since 1960, a time many of us remember, it has grown from about 3 billion to something over 6.7 billion. Multiply that number by 900 grams. That’s roughly the amount of CO2 gas that each and every one of us emit per day, every day, 24/7. Then there’s the methane gas, but I think you get the picture.

Unless we do something to drastically reduce the total population, no amount of other corrective actions we take will amount to very much in the grand scheme of things.

Yes, Mr. Naidoo, this tired old planet needed amends made, but that time was decades ago. At current growth trends, we will have 8 billion or more souls on this planet by 2025 and it will keep going up more or less logarithmically from there. Worldwide CO2 levels, currently at an all time high of over 888 parts per million (the highest levels in over four hundred thousand years), will continue ever upwards until such time as the planet will elect to bring about a new balance. More than likely this will take the form of an ice age when melting ice caps breakdown and stop the thermohaline circulation belts in the oceans. Of course we just may all die of heat prostration in a runaway greenhouse scenario. Take your pick. Either way, the time for definitive action was long ago.

A yard cross? But of course!

It seems that that whenever America works its way through troubled times, there is also an attack on the Christians who call this country their home. Lately it's been a tiny fraction who call themselves atheists and who are now complaining that they are offended by anything display of religion in public places.

Christians have turned their cheeks for a very long time and the tendency has been to cow-toe to the demands of this infinitesimally small group of men and women. I think that time is perhaps now at and end.

I urge everyone, no matter what their faith, to exercise that faith both in private and in public. If the godless among us are insulted, that's just too bad. For my part, I plan to place a cross in my front yard and will gladly speak to any who will listen about my relationship with Jesus and the Holy Father. God bless any who take up His name in this time of troubled waters.

Lame duck session rams legislation through in spite of citizen desires!

Go figure this one out. After getting pretty much zero done all last year, the lame duck session is in full overdrive. Composed, in part, by people thrown out by the America voters,  it has managed to do it yet one more time. That is piss us Americans off.  For my part, I’m walking away from this year with an after-image of whining; slightly hysterical individuals who passed questionable legislation that would have been much better off waiting for January hearings and clearer minds. Now, as the year thankfully draws to a close, I've made a News Years resolution. That is, never to listen to anything any Democrat (and most Republicans) try to push down my throat. Some of these people are a complete disgrace to the Republic and 2012 cannot get here too soon for me. (Please vote in the next election and kick these son’s of bitches out of office and out of our lives)!

Also, hands off my internet please. Net Neutrality and subsequent control by the FCC is perhaps the worst idea to come out of the rear ends of legislators for some time. (Don't fix something that ain't broke stupid)! Hey! Here's a ground breaking idea! How about working on securing Americans more jobs, or even on reducing the debt. You know, the work we sent you folks to Capitol Hill to do in the first place! Alas, I'm afraid as a final movement (as in bowel), this group of wet ends will now fuck up the last bastion of a free internet market before retiring home for the Holidays. A place they can suck eggs and tell family members what a great job they did and maybe still have someone who'll believe them.

 

Meanwhile, the glowing embers of citizen anger will continue to burn quietly in the night.

 

The only consolation I will take with me into 2011 will be watching Obama scamper over and embrace the Republicans as though they were long lost brothers. Sorry Harry Reid, but politics demand he now discard the far left like a man who stops to scrap dog crap off a shoe. It's too bad, though, the smell will linger for some time.

Random thoughts for a December 19, 2010

On Climate change

I have been doing research on the potential for massive climate change and can confirm that there is evidence for said occurring for anyone with eyes. Graphs showing the abrupt rise of CO2, methane and world temperatures over the last 100 years is troubling to say the least. Yet, no one appears to want to confront the issue of overpopulation as a probable root cause. What it has taken plate tectonics millions of years to accomplish, is now being accelerated a thousand fold by the presence of over seven billion human beings.

Any graph of greenhouse gases that suddenly transits from a horizontal to a near vertical line is trouble. Portended therein are changes on such a scale, that there is little that can now be done by any one person or even a nation. Countries that have aligned themselves to the Kyto (or whatever it's called) accord are spinning their wheels if they think that anything can be done to change the course of this world. Maybe if we had unilaterally acted back in the seventies, things might have been different. Now, I feel it’s simply too late. And, since mankind has been not taken corrective action, it will be left up the Mother Nature to take them for us. More than likely, her fix will result in mass extinctions on a scale that is unimaginable and which will change the fate of humankind forever.

US and the Smart Treaty… not actually very smart!

While Obama’s heart may be in the right place in trusting others to bring our country to no harm, history does not support the concept. Giving up any defensive capability, no matter how small, is not a road I would like to travel at this time. There are just too many wild cards in the game. While I deplore the need to even have weapons of mass destruction anywhere on the face of this earth, I do understand and appreciate their value as deterrence.

Congress and the Lord of the Flies

After reading this classic, I was struck by the similarities that exist between a group of children who have be marooned on an island and recent goings on in the halls of congress. The only element that seems to be missing is the pig. Where’s the f’ing pig?

The Food Modernization Act

I absolutely love the cute names of recent legislation drafted by the far left. Actually, the Food Modernization Act, aka as S-510, is a total screwing of the American public. You could just as easily call it the Federal Masturbation Act for all the new government jobs and bureaucracy that would result from its passage. When the government gets involved, you can count on bad things happening. Even the FDA has never been a real shining star in my opinion. The fact that there have been no massive fatalities due to food poisoning has been due more to luck than to anything that this bureau has done.

Food production and control needs to stay at the local level if it is to be effective. State officials that live right in the community are a far better cry than some politician’s control off in Washington. Something that was recently enforced by the total incompetence of the Department of Energy and Minerals concerning its lack of oversight in the BP oil spill. Big government spells big problems and that’s a memo.

Mediacom, the new BP of America!

Speaking of people who don’t seem very well informed, I give you Mediacom. A CF service company that seems to experience equipment failure on a regular basis, but which rarely is able to inform its subscriber base as to the reasons why.

Earlier today a significant number of us subscribers were without cable TV, the internet or telephone for much of the day. If you call this Mediacom to complain, you first have to let them know that you speak English by selecting one on the dial, otherwise they go on in Spanish. How cute. Then you get to listen to a robot tell you that yes, there is an outage in your area. So sorry Charlie. Would you like to hear that message again?

When I was finally able to get a hold of a human being, he had no idea of what was going on or for how long, if ever, it would be before all or part of my service would be restored. Now, why is it that I pay hundreds of dollars a month to a company just to be told they don’t know squat about what’s going on inside the walls of their own establishment? Hey guys, I already get that crap from my government.

Random thought for December 15, 2010

New Heightened Terrorist Threats!

In a press release by the White House, Janet Igotnoclueio released a statement warning Americans to be on the watch for the latest in terrorist threats; cranium and colon bombs.

Apparently some smooth talking extremists have recruited dopey-eyed young idealists into volunteering for a full lobotomy procedure. The cranial cavity thus created will be stuffed with high explosives and electrodes planted in the basal ganglia will enable Jihadist leadership to control the person from afar via remote control. Expects are cautioning citizens to be wary of anyone walking around in a jerky manner who is also wearing a black mask. (Duh). Other living bombs, they caution will be much easier to spot as these may be men who have had a pound of explosives shoved up their rectums. Watch for anyone who walks funny and who shows a sense of profound urgency on their faces. Ignore the ones in suits. Those are Democrats.

The lame and getting lamer duck session!

What part of ‘you’re outta here’ do the recently ousted Representatives and Senators not get? Do everyone a favor and PLEASE JUST GO HOME. Ramming another trillion down the throats of Americans, giving Russia the upper hand on missile defense and passing crappy tax legislation (that all sides admit is crappy) is no way to run my country.

A recent Gallup pole shows congress enjoying an all time low approval rating of just 13%. What happens, I wonder, when get gets down to zero? Perhaps we'll find out!

The SPC theory of a trigger for the next ice age!

While standing outside fueling my car recently, someone at the next pump asked me if I thought we might have a hard winter. ‘Duh’, I thought. It was about twenty degrees that day in early December and winter hadn’t even officially arrived. But, his remark did cause me to think about the recent snowstorms that have occurred in the northern tier of states, especially in Wisconsin where the mercury has already dipped to zero a few times and Milwaukee just went through a blizzard. So, I responded with, ‘No, I don’t think so and neither does Al Gore’.

As I paid for my gas, I reflected on a personal theory of mine which I like to refer to as the SPC trigger, and whether there was any validity to a theory that it is not one but a combination of factors that can bring about sudden changes in the earth’s climate. The term SPC refers to solar output, precessional rotation of the earth, and Carbon Dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Three major influences that can be game changers in the climate of earth.

Solar Output

Scientists have tracked the output of the sun for a long time and now know that it changes over time. This change is linked to sunspots which follow an eleven year cycle and which may be involved in longer cycles that are poorly understood. What is known is that the last ‘Little Ice Age’ occurred during a time of prolonged absence of sunspots in or around 1750. Refer to the Maunder Minimum for more information on this.

Earth’s Axial Precession

Axial precession is the movement of the rotational axis of an astronomical body, whereby the axis slowly traces out a cone. In the case of the Earth, this type of precession is also known as the precession of the equinoxes or precession of the equator. The Earth goes through one such complete precessional cycle in a period of approximately 23,000 years, during which the positions of stars as measured in the equatorial coordinate system will slowly change; the change is actually due to the change of the coordinates.

The change in the tilt of the sun over this period of time affects the total amount of energy that reaches and thus warms the earth. Due to this wobble, a climatically significant alteration can take place. When the axis is tilted towards Vega the positions of the Northern Hemisphere winter and summer solstices will coincide with the aphelion and perihelion, respectively. This means that the Northern Hemisphere will experience winter when the Earth is furthest from the Sun and summer when the Earth is closest to the Sun. This coincidence will result in greater seasonal contrasts.  At present, the Earth is at perihelion very close to the winter solstice.

CO2 Levels

CO2 has been shown to be directly tied to past ice ages in the sense that just before each one the earth recorded record high levels (see map). One theory reads as follows: ‘Many scientists fear that global warming could affect the deep ocean global conveyor belt. If global warming leads to increased rain, as some believe it might, the added fresh water could decrease the salinity levels at the poles. Melting ice, another possibility of global warming, would also decrease salinity levels. Regardless of the means, the end scenario is the same: Warmer, less dense water won't be dense enough to sink, and the global conveyor belt could stop -- having far-reaching and devastating consequences [source: NOAA: "Currents"].

Recently, the amount of CO2 in the air was measured at 387 parts per million (408.47 ppm as of Dec 2018), which is significantly higher (click on graph above) than previous levels were just prior to a major shift in global temperatures downwards.