Not as funny as it sounds, Australia is the first country to introduce a carbon tax on “emissions” for industries including the Agriculture industry.

Or we could use them for our “greener” purposes. Maybe we could start running our cars on moose gases? Every night you’d plug your car into the rear of a moose, and it’s anal energy would be sucked into the “gas” tank while you slept soundly knowing “you so greeeen”.

I’d love for Pelosi to be told to “get her OWN oil!” It’s like those screwballs in Nantucket who don’t want those “loud, ugly, oil-belching, enviro-toxic” windmills in their water… but yet they definitely want energy! Make them a deal… what energy they make, they can use. We’ll see how fast they put up windmills… and oil rigs, and nuke plants.

I have yet to meet an intelligent, honest person repeating anything from Al Gore.

The climate-alarmists have yet to explain why – if man is the cause of this – do our fellow planets warm and cool right along WITH us!

Either way, I do think it’s crap for people to whip around like a snake and bite GE for doing what it was told it could do in the first place. I feel the same way about banks that invested in slavery a hundred years ago being made to cough up money now. Yeah, it sucked but this is a terrible precedent. First, because then we live in an unstable world where every law is suspect because you have to assume that it could be reversed at any minute and you’ll be penalized. And second, because it sets the stage for suing anyone at any timxe for any connection to something that at some time did something unpleasant to someone. Did I have an uncle who beat somebody up in the 1920s? Sue me now. Why not? SUE EVERYBODY!

A mild chuckle to Secret Squirrel. Managing to work Oprah in was the best part.

Big oil, big oil… blah blah blah. Are there people who actually think we should not use the oil? It’s an amazing substance that has so many uses. I don’t doubt there will be other things down the road. But what’s the point of saving it? The renewable argument just doesn’t work for me. When it’s gone, you use something else. Are you going to lament that we have no oil? Only if we have no replacement. It’s not like watching the last rare animal die in a zoo. And then there’s the pollution angle. Does anyone realize how much we have reduced pollution caused by using oil? Now of course, everything we have done is being undone quickly by the billions of Chinese who have cars now and don’t give a hoot about the environment or much of anything else for that matter. I laugh at anyone who acts like we’re the evilest country in the world. Ha.

Steve, I actually read a book recently that made reference to (though I believe not quite using the term) “Big Beef.” I kid you not. They were not being funny, either. Or fresh, or cute.

And last but not least: global average temperature… I seem to recall that the average global temperature of the earth has gone through monstrous changes throughout the many, many (many many many many many) years our blue and white globe has be twirling through the heavens. Can someone please tell me how you (or anyone) knows what the “right” temperature is supposed to be. Which is not to say that we’re not clever people who may be able to try to make the environment sit up, beg, and fetch sticks for us. You know, if they have to put some big beach umbrellas in orbit to give us some shade, that’s fine by me. But I am really unwilling to take blame or feel guilt for something that happens whether I do anything at all, or not.

Humans exhale 724 pounds of carbon a year…we should just start rationing breaths.

Montana: Global temperature has stayed the same since 2001. And you also failed to mention that the South Pole is actually thicker in places.

Chris: Did you know that the Exxon oil company actually paid more than it made in taxes? And did you know that BIG OIL (the US companies the mainsteam media usually lists) only control 5% of America’s oil?

Al Gore has made the Nobel Prize a joke. If i ever obtain it (VERY unlikely) i will refuse it citing this instance.

Ha! This is what I’m talkin’ ’bout, baby! Global warming is caused by bovine methane emissions! Maybe we need an “emissions” tax on the beef industry? Or as the media would call them… Big Beef. Perhaps we can enact methane credits to go with our carbon credits, and we’ll let the Dow control the exchange rate. If I ever create a sci-fi RPG I’m going to make my futuristic world practice commerce using only methane credits.

You had to know that eventually the Greenpeacers and Peta-nuts would find a way to reach common ground here.

Chris and Montane ::

Let me talk about scientists and researchers. I had some exposure at RPI to research work, grants, and how it all plays out… I’m no expert but I had some exposure. I also have contacts who work for an institution that handles grant management and allocation for many, large medical research facilities. Now, if you’re a climatologist who specializes in global warming then environmental alarmism with regard to global warming benefits your wallet… and if you’re not then it’s a little harder for you to get your grants… a little harder for your paper to get published in the front of your field’s journal… etc. It reminds me of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton… their money flow is predicated on racial tensions, and when racial tensions die down they lose their gin & juice… so whenever I see those clowns yelling about race issues I have to be very skeptical (which is unfortunate because some of what they say may have some truth in it).

A good book to read is called Selling Science by Dorothy Nelkin. If you truly think that scientists have nothing to gain from media hype and drummed-up public hysteria then you really need to open your eyes.

As far as the big oil thing… if you think I’m going to say that oil companies are sincerely looking out for everyone you’re wrong. I wouldn’t want them, too, anyway… that wouldn’t be good capitalism. I want them to do whatever they can to be the most competitive (within law). However, being a nuclear engineer gives me a very unique perspective. I’ve heard every hollow complaint and faulty line of thought about why nuclear power is BAD for the environment… and it’s all claptrap cloaked in subterfuge. If people really wanted to help free us from big oil and reduce pollution they would embrace nuclear power (which is actually starting to happen) but many choose to merely echo hysterical calls for anti-capitalist legislation rather than trying to actually SOLVE the problem.

One thing that the big oil thing reminds me off is the multi-year saga still playing out in the Hudson valley over the dredging of the Hudson River. GE dumped a *LOT* of PCBs in it back in the day when it was legal… and since then it’s been buried pretty securely in the riverbed. But enviro-nuts want to punish the big evil mean GE company and have them pay mega-cash to dredge it all up to “clean” it. Forget the fact that the majority of the people who actually live closest to the river DO NOT want this AT ALL! Forget the fact that this was legal for GE at the time. Forget the fact that this will severely crap up the river for years after stirring everything up. Now, of course, GE is fighting this (and I would, too) but they are doing it because they don’t want to pay big money (and I don’t blame them). When I hear a dredging opposition ad from GE on the radio or on TV I maintain my skepticism… but that doesn’t mean I don’t agree that dredging is a terrible idea and terrible for the river.

I agree that being an environmentalist (even though that has connotations of economic ignorance) is a good thing at heart. I even consider myself a Green Conservative. But I also hold high levels of skepticism when dumb college students who’ve never left the States scream and yell about how much the US is killing the planet. I am skeptical of Al Gore flying jets to talk about the damage flying jets does to the Earth. I am skeptical of a Virgin Airways tycoon who touts environmentalism but says he won’t give up his airline because if he does someone else will fill the void. Oh… so then why should I not by that SUV, because then someone else will buy it, right? Hypocrisy and hysteria.

Oh, I tempered my original post a bit when i saw that nowhere did I acknowledge the climate actually getting hotter or that man can have an effect.

Ultimately it doesn’t matter. Environmental conservation is a worthy end unto itself. Also we are using up non-renewable resources to fuel our world, and as ‘non-renewable’ suggests this cannot continue indefinitely. If this is the prod that gets us to stop relying on fossil fuels, then good.

The only people who benefit from denying climate change is BIG OIL and corporations who would lose profits if they had to address the problem of pollution.

Getting harder to to confuse people, huh?