Dear Obama: Spend Yor Billions on Fusion Technology

One of the greatest debacles in energy and budgetary policy is the dumping of billions of dollars into unsustainable "green" alternative energy programs like wind and solar power. These technologies have far-reaching negative side effects that short-sighted politicians refuse to acknowledge.

I'm all for clean, abundant renewable energy. But instead of committing our children's future to programs that will create more problems than they will solve, let's invest in fusion energy.

It's the long-sought panacea of our energy woes--and it appears to be another step closer to reality. Behold the laser-induced fusion reaction.

The National Ignition Facility has already test-fired all 192 giant lasers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California as part of this effort. The lasers will eventually focus their power on compressing and heating a single, pea-sized fuel capsule to more than 180 million degrees Fahrenheit in order to trigger thermonuclear fusion.

"One of the major activities of the NIF is to explore the basics of fusion energy, building a miniature sun on Earth that could supply limitless, safe and carbon-free energy," said Ed Moses, National Ignition Facility (NIF) program director.

Serious ignition testing scheduled for 2010 would focus 500 trillion watts of power on the pea-sized capsule containing deuterium and tritium fuel. NIF has already produced 25 times more energy than any other existing laser system, and also became the first fusion laser facility to break the megajoule barrier and create enough energy to power 10,000 100-watt light bulbs for a second.

Why isn't this technology receiving more attention? Is the green movement so afraid of real science that it's not including it in its memos to the mainstream media? If the Obama administration can consider hamstringing the economy through cap-and-trade schemes, surely they can discuss an alternative that makes the ubiquitous (albeit vacuous) carbon emission issue moot.

Bad Obama: Global Warming Trumps Recession Recovery

President Obama is off to a bad start. By allowing states to enforce differing automobile fuel mileage and emissions standards, he's crippling the auto industry's ability to recover, forcing auto makers to squander their federal bailout funds by requiring them to meet segmented standards by 13 different states – all in the name of combating global warming. I have a feeling this is just a taste of the reckless policies we'll see pushed down our throats in the coming years. Hold tight!

Global Warming Now Imperils...Saturn

I love astronomy news. Every new discovery and mission is like the convergence of fact and science fiction.

The latest news from Titan (Saturn's biggest moon) is no different. NASA has confirmed with the Cassini probe the presence of large liquid lakes on the surface. Titan is the only body (after Earth) in the solar system to have such a feature, and it's made mostly of liquid hydrocarbons and ethane.

But alas, mankind must be endangering these pristine lakes, as global warming seems to have infected Titan:

The observations also suggest the lake is evaporating. It is ringed by a dark beach, where the black lake merges with the bright shoreline.

Book your Titan vacations now, before it's too late to enjoy the frigid, natural beauty of these incredible lakes.

Wall Street Journal: Yellow Science

I came across an excellent article in the WSJ about how just as newspaper tycoons Hearst and Pulitzer traded in methods of journalistic integrity to generate greater revenue, so have many scientists today abandoned scientific integrity in order to create greater interest and cash flow--in the area of global warming, of course.

From the article,

...Over the past several decades an increasing number of scientists have shed the restraints imposed by the scientific method and begun to proclaim the truth of man-made global warming. This is a hypothesis that remains untested, makes no predictions that can be tested in the near future, and cannot offer a numerical explanation for the limited evidence to which it clings. No equations have been shown to explain the relationship between fossil-fuel emission and global temperature. The only predictions that have been made are apocalyptic, so the hypothesis has to be accepted before it can be tested.

If yellow science overcomes real science it will not only be on account of the greed, ambition, and cowardice of our scientists but also the sloth and cowardice of a public that is unwilling to stand up and demand professionalism. This is why, as the editors of the New York Press said in 1897, I "called them yellow because they are yellow."

Read the article in its entirety.

10 Tips for a Greener You

You know about changing your incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescent ones. Turning down your air conditioning at night. Driving a fuel efficient vehicle. All the things to help reduce your carbon footprint and feel better about yourself. But did you know there are lots of other little things you can do to make the world a greener place? Here are 10 of them.

1) Take the stairs. Each 10-floor elevator ride produces roughly 35 lbs. of carbon dioxide. Over the course of a year, that adds up to over 25 tons of CO2.

2) Exercise less. All that walking (or running, or benching, or stair climbing) you're doing is polluting the air with 5 lbs of CO2 per half-hour workout. The more oxygen you need, the more CO2 you're putting out. A yearly exercise regimen can easily exceed a ton of greenhouse gas.

3) Eat fewer raw vegetables. Did you know that the average human passes gas equivalent to 1.25 lbs of carbon dioxide per year? Change your diet of fresh vegetables in favor of processed meats and white bread, and you could produce flatus equaling as little as half a pound per year.

4) Clear forests to plant more trees. Wood is an excellent way to "lock in" carbon for long-term storage. If you have forested property, you should clear-cut all the trees, then store them in a cool, dry space for maximum carbon retention. Meanwhile, plant new trees in their place to soak up additional carbon. Wait 20 years. Repeat.

5) Limit your activism. The average American activist event produces 25 tons of carbon dioxide. Regardless of your political affiliation or issue, limit your activity to the walls of your home. Have a big conference call or web chat. Write letters to your senators. No matter the subject, you can be sure that it will be nicely tinged with green.

6) Hold in your sneezes. Surprisingly, a sneeze produces three times the CO2 as a typical breath does. Simply remembering to plug your nose and keeping that sneeze on the inside will significantly reduce your carbon footprint.

7) Wear white. Dark clothes attract the heat of the sun, and act as a super-magnet for heat. While your black turtleneck can help you make that perfect tragically hip statement, think of what it's doing to the environment. Switch to white. Your conscience will thank you.

8) Grow algae. Studies have shown that algae-infested waters capture fifteen times more CO2 than clear waters. If you have water on your property, or own a pool, let the algae take over. The desire for beauty and cleanliness doesn't justify eliminating our green, carbon-friendly ally.

9) Avoid gardening. You might think that back yard gardening is one of the greenest things you can do. But you'd be wrong. Mulching, tilling and plowing all release massive amounts of carbon dioxide. Some of that CO2 is recaptured in the form of grown vegetables, but those vegetables, once consumed, revert to a deplorable CO2 producing state, leaving your carbon deficit greater than it was before. Better to leave the food production to the big farmers that know how to be environmentally friendly.

10) Pass this information along. Just think. If everyone followed these few simple rules, global warming would be a thing of the past. Do your part, and let all your friends know about this simple list of ways to be greener.

Global Cooling?

If the data in this article is indicative of a larger trend, global warming could soon be revealed as the hoax it is:

The total amount of global cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C -- a value large enough to wipe out nearly all the warming recorded over the past 100 years. All in one year's time. For all four sources, it's the single fastest temperature change ever recorded, either up or down.

The Democrats should come into power just in time to mandate spending billions to reduce carbon emissions and give the economy a nice big sucker punch on top of all its other problems. All for a political fad that will be rendered obsolete in a few years.

The next few years are going to be a long winter...

I Should Be a Reuters Editor

So much of the global warming craze is taken at face value, it calls into question the journalistic integrity of almost all of the mainstream media. Reuters is no exception, so I've taken it upon my self to edit the following article:

LONDON (Reuters) - There is a 25 percent chance that a severe heat wave will strike England and kill more than 6,000 people before 2017 if no action is taken to deal with the health effects of climate change, a report said on Tuesday.

The report for Britain's Department of Health estimated more than 3,000 people could die in an intense summer hot spell in southeast England, with just as many more dying from heat-related deaths over the summer.

Until 2012, when London stages the summer Olympic Games, the odds of thousands dying in summer heat each year will be 1 in 40, the report said, and thousands more could die each year as a result of other effects of global warming and air pollution.

"In terms of conventional thinking about risks to health, a risk of 1 in 40 is high," the report said.

Here's a more accurate version:

LONDON (Reuters) - There is a 25 percent chance that a severe heat propaganda wave will strike England and kill dupe more than 6,000 people before 2017 if no action is taken to deal with the health dubious effects of climate changejunk science, a report said on Tuesday.

The report for Britain's Department of Health Alarmism estimated more than 3,000 people could die react ignorantly in an intense summer hot spell campaign of misinformation in southeast England, with just as many more dying from reacting to heat-related deaths alarmist junk science over the summer.

Until 2012, when London stages the summer Olympic Games, the odds of thousands dying blindly accepting in summer heat self-destructive hogwash each year will be 1 in 40, the report said, and thousands more could die convert each year as a result of other effects initiatives of global warming conquest and air pollutionintimidation.

"In terms of conventional thinking about risks to healthfreedom, a risk of 1 in 40 is high," the report said.

Hey, that was fun. I could do this for a living.

Here Comes Global Cooling?

Companies today are spending billions in the name of being "green" to slow down global warming. So I'm sure they'll be laughing in a few years as the planet drops into another "little ice age." "Well, we laid off 2,500 employees, and lost 25% of our market share, but at least we're green. Now turn up that thermostat!"

The dramatic cooling I'm talking about is linked to solar activity, and many scientists believe we are on the brink of a period of solar hibernation that threatens to cool the planet significantly the next few years, and which will last for a hundred years or more.

From the article,

Patterson, sharing Tapping's concern, says: "Solar scientists predict that, by 2020, the sun will be starting into its weakest Schwabe cycle of the past two centuries, likely leading to unusually cool conditions on Earth."

"Solar activity has overpowered any effect that CO2 has had before, and it most likely will again," Patterson says. "If we were to have even a medium-sized solar minimum, we could be looking at a lot more bad effects than 'global warming' would have had."

Friends, the time for debate is long gone. It's time for us to act--right now--to save our children and grandchildren from a dismally cold future that threatens the very survival of mankind.

Global Cooling? Blame It On Global Warming

Supporting the idea that global warming is nothing more than a dogmatic pseudo-religious movement, the earth has experienced a year of global cooling. Just a few items of evidence from the Washington Times:

Antarctica is getting colder. Neither the intensity nor the frequency of hurricanes has increased. The 2007 season was the third-quietest since 1966. In 2006 not a single hurricane made landfall in the U.S.

South America this year experienced one of its coldest winters in decades..

Johannesburg, South Africa, had the first significant snowfall in 26 years. Australia experienced the coldest June ever. In northeastern Australia, the city of Townsville underwent the longest period of continuously cold weather since 1941. In New Zealand, the weather turned so cold that vineyards were endangered.

Recent weeks have seen the return of unusually cold conditions to the Northern Hemisphere. On Dec. 7, St. Cloud, Minn., set a new record low of minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit. On the same date, record low temperatures were also recorded in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

The Canadian government warns that this winter is likely to be the coldest in 15 years.

Finally, David Deming, the writer, concludes quite concisely:

If you think any of the preceding facts can falsify global warming, you're hopelessly naive. Nothing creates cognitive dissonance in the mind of a true believer. In 2005, a Canadian Greenpeace representative explained “global warming can mean colder, it can mean drier, it can mean wetter.” In other words, all weather variations are evidence for global warming.

Meanwhile, the auto industry, reeling from economic downturn, face even greater obstacles ahead with the soon-to-be-passed energy bill, requiring 35 mpg by 2020. The power companies are investing billions into new "carbon-neutral" technology – which by then will be understood as money down the drain.

Global Warming has to be the only religion bent on the self-destruction of its adherents. In fact, sounds more like a cult to me.

Awesome Quote of the Day

"Climate change is a non problem. The right answer to a non problem is to have the courage to do nothing. The UN conference is a complete waste of our time and your money and we should no longer pay the slightest attention to the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.]"

From Lord Christopher Monckton, a UK climate researcher attending the UN climate conference at a posh resort in Bali, Indonesia.

His colleague, Australian scientist Dr. David Evans, noted that,

"This is the most lavish conference I have ever been to, but I am only a scientist and I actually only go to the science conferences.

Most of the people here have jobs that are very well paid and they depend on the idea that carbon emissions cause global warming. They are not going to be very receptive to the idea that well actually the science has gone off in a different direction."

Weather Channel Founder Disagrees with Global Warming Elite

Can the founder of the Weather Channel be blackballed by global warming elitists?

Yes, I believe they can.

Here's what that guy, John Coleman, said:

It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create in allusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental whacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the “research” to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a consensus.

Environmental extremists, notable politicians among them, then teamed up with movie, media and other liberal, environmentalist journalists to create this wild “scientific” scenario of the civilization threatening environmental consequences from Global Warming unless we adhere to their radical agenda. Now their ridiculous manipulated science has been accepted as fact and become a cornerstone issue for CNN, CBS, NBC, the Democratic Political Party, the Governor of California, school teachers and, in many cases, well informed but very gullible environmental conscientious citizens. Only one reporter at ABC has been allowed to counter the Global Warming frenzy with one 15 minutes documentary segment.

I do not oppose environmentalism. I do not oppose the political positions of either party. However, Global Warming, ie Climate Change, is not about environmentalism or politics. It is not a religion. It is not something you “believe in.” It is science; the science of meteorology. This is my field of life-long expertise. And I am telling you Global Warming is a non-event, a manufactured crisis and a total scam. I say this knowing you probably won’t believe a me, a mere TV weatherman, challenging a Nobel Prize, Academy Award and Emmy Award winning former Vice President of United States. So be it.

I have read dozens of scientific papers. I have talked with numerous scientists. I have studied. I have thought about it. I know I am correct. There is no run away climate change. The impact of humans on climate is not catastrophic. Our planet is not in peril. I am incensed by the incredible media glamour, the politically correct silliness and rude dismissal of counter arguments by the high priest of Global Warming.

Yeah, this guy's pretty much toast. He dares to contradict the "high priest of Global Warming." Personally, I think it's too late to change our societal bent toward this ridiculous notion. Too many companies have invested in appearing "green." Too many egos will be hurt to accept that they have been duped into espousing global warming. And too many elitists have too much power at stake to watch it evaporate in the face of sound reasoning that has a voice.

Only after a decade or two will society accept its folly--long after it has paid a heavy price for its beliefs.

By the way, here's an excellent (and rare) contrarian piece from 20/20.

Gore a Mac Fan

As if I needed another reason to dislike Al Gore, here we see him in front of his Macintosh computer. He's not just a hip, caring, carbon-conscious environmentalist. He's also a hip, trendy, do-my-thinking-for-me Mac fan.

At least now we know what platforms go hand-in-hand.

Carbon Credits A Sham. Why Am I Not Surprised?

This story, linked from Drudge, is just more evidence that the self-proclaimed "environmentalists" are really capitalists in thiefs' clothing.

"Here, pay me to take away your ignorant guilt. I'll pocket your money, then do next to nothing to improve the environment. Because secretly, I know this global warming business is a sham."

Read the story.

Global Warming Sense from the Czechs

So it takes a leader from the Czech Republic to tell it like it is. I'm referring to Czech President Vaclav Klaus in his letter to the U.S. Congress, in which he states,

"Communism has been replaced by the threat of an ambitious environmentalism."

To the clear thinking, the parallels between rabid environmentalism and communism are apparent and striking. But Klaus paints the picture even more succinctly:

"This ideology preaches earth and nature and under the slogans of their protection – similarly to the old Marxists – wants to replace the free and spontaneous evolution of mankind by a sort of central, now global, planning of the whole world.

He goes on to state mankind's impotence on effecting change within something so large and robust as the climate of the entire planet.

'No government action can stop the world and nature from changing. Therefore, I disagree with plans such as the Kyoto Protocol or similar initiatives, which set arbitrary targets requiring enormous costs without realistic prospects for the success of these measures."

Why does it take a former Eastern Bloc country to have the mettle to speak out about the obvious? Thank goodness Reagan brought down the Iron Curtain, or these anti-environmentalist words would be repressed...much the same way they're repressed here in the U.S.

Read the article.

Global Warming: Brothels Now On The Bandwagon

Is there nobody who won't blame their problems on global warming?

According to this story, brothels in Bulgaria are losing their elite employees because "because a lack of snow has forced tourists to seek other pleasures."

O dry my sobbing eyes.

Next up: Global Warming Made Me Forget To Shave.

More New Species Found

Looks like we won't run out of new species to kill off anytime soon. Linked from Drudge, we learn from AP that 20 new ocean species have been found around Indonesia. The researchers cataloged more than 130 species total, which means that fully 15% of their find was a new, undocumented animal.

We need to accelerate our worldwide fishing efforts and increase our ocean pollutants if we are to have any chance of outpacing this outbreak of new life. Stoke the furnaces!

More Man-made Environmental Doomsday Blather

If you're incredibly bored or stupidly interested, here's an article about the increasing acidification of the oceans brought on by--you guessed it--mankind.

The stupidity is immediately apparent as the article starts off by posturing the urban legend about coke-dissolved teeth as fact. The rest is just nonsense, with no evidence that anything is being harmed by diminutive increases in water acidity.

Why do these people hate humanity so much? Can't hate something else? Like cancer or hunger?

Al Gore On Earth's "Full-scale Planetary Emergency"

All style, no substance. If rhetoric was cats, Al Gore would put crazy old cat women to shame. Seriously.

I don't have time left today to give this Space.com article a scathing enough review, but there's enough hot air in Gore's speech to the Wirefly X Prize Cup Executive Summit 2006 to induce global warming on a scale beyond his wildest happy fantasies (which are wild enough already).

He treats us to some wonderful gems. On the possibility of mankind emigrating from Planet Earth:

"We didn't do a really good job of evacuating the city of New Orleans [due to the onslaught of hurricane]."

On our planet's "rising fever,"

"If the crib catches fire you don't say: ‘Hmmm, how fast is that crib going to burn? Has it ever burned before? Is my baby flame retardant?"

On Earth studies,

"It's still shocking to me that we have more detailed information in some fields about Mars and Venus than we have about Earth."

His speech appears to be littered with so much hyperbole, without the backing of reputable scientific theory, that it's more an exercise in gratuitous blather than a reasonable call to caution.

Read it for yourself. You'll see. Thank goodness he didn't win in 2000.