Open Thread (12/8/2009)

The N-G could start a "report release" count-down clock, including the question, "why not do so"?.    :-)     Pattsi Petrie

Have to change gears a bit here. Now that the Obama EPA has decided "greenhouse" gases are a hazard it might be nice to talk about the component of those gases that is most under scrutiny - carbon dioxide. That would be the same carbon dioxide exhaled from our bodies with every breath. So how is this supposed to play out? Do we have to stop breathing now? Is there going to be a tax on breathing?

Neglecting the human side of this and concentrating on carbon dioxide formed by the combustion of  hydrocarbons we see hydrocarbon fuels as directly in the cross hairs of a technology-challenged administration. So when your furnace kicks on tonight to heat your house and pours out carbon dioxide thank the administration for declaring your furnace a hazard. And when you drive home after work tonight and dump carbon dioxide all the way home thank the administraion. Or when you turn the lights on courtesy of a fossil-fueled power station thank the administration. Etc.

The world's reliance on fossil fuels will not be broken by declaring them hazardous. Is this simply another way to squeeze us for more taxes? The so-called green initiatives of this administration reveal a leadership that is clueless to how energy is used. Throwing up subsidized wind turbines that produce overpriced electricity won't even begin to solve the "problem". Electric cars won't solve the problem since they need electricity that is generated by fossil fuels and by nuclear plants that apparently can't even be discussed in this administration.

And this declaration by EPA is inconveniently made even as we see the global warming books have been cooked. The confluence of "science" and politics is dangerous. The systematic efforts to politically squelch discussion on warming can only lead to decisions made on fantasies

That would be the same carbon dioxide exhaled from our bodies with every breath. So how is this supposed to play out? Do we have to stop breathing now? Is there going to be a tax on breathing?

Is anyone proposing one or is that simply your persecution complex rearing its head? E. Coli in your food can make you very sick and even kill you. Does the fact that E. Coli exists naturally in your gut somehow make it instantly harmless?

you guys didn't read the hacked emails?

I haven't gone through the 60+ MB of material myself, but most of what I have seen is fairly innocuous, being taken largely out of context, and misunderstood. Mostly by people who have an axe to grind and are science denialists to begin with.