John Boehner and King Coal's factories of death

[James Hansen photo from here.]

John Boehner thinks global warming is a laughing matter. CO2? Ha, ha, says ol' John. No problem. Why we emit all kinds of CO2 into the atmosphere just by breathing in and out.

My God, the man's an intellectual giant! Why haven't all the world's scientists figured that out before. We can save the planet just by killing off all the world's heavy breathers...you know, people like Boehner and Steele and Limbaargh.


The Age of Coal and global warming

From Sierra Magazine, May/June 2009:

"The age of coal isn't over yet. More than 8,000 plants in the United States still pump billions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year, and they aren't going away any time soon. King Coal has taken a legal licking [thanks to environmentalists like the Sierra Club], but his armies of attorneys are still working overtime."

There is a ray of hope, however.

"In the last days of the Bush administration, his EPA administrator, Stephen Johnson, tried an end run around the appeals board, issuing a 'midnight memo' ruling out CO2 controls on new power plants ..."

That ruling was challenged as soon as Obama took office (the Sierra Club was involved).

"In February, newly appointed EPA administrator Lisa Jackson announced that the agency would reconsider Johnson's order, effectively killing it. Jackson also signaled that--finally--the EPA planned to use the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases."

In fact, shortly after Obama took office, the EPA "officially" found that global warming is a danger to the public. That was a first!


James Hansen, climatologist, has been sounding off about global warming for years. Hansen should know something about it, as he heads up NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies which "monitors temperatures at thousands of sites around the world and has documented an average increase of more than one degree since 1970."

Facts like that, of course, do not interfere with the thinking of such scientific brainiacs as John Boehner, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and others. The Bush administration was so threatened by Hansen they told him to shut up.

Bush, thank God, is gone. So, in December, Hansen and his wife, Anniek, appealed to President Obama to work toward a worldwide moratorium on burning coal. Sierra magazine printed the following adaptation of the Hansen's letter:

"There are a long list of things people can do to mitigate climate change. But the sine qua non for solving the problem is to stop burning coal. Coal is responsible for as much atmospheric carbon dioxide as all other fossil fuels combined, and is even more of a long-term threat given the earth's enormous coal reserves. (Oil, the second-greatest contributor to atmospheric carbon dioxide, is already substantially depleted.) The safe upper limit for atmospheric CO2 is 350 parts per million. We are currently at 385 ppm. Continued reliance on coal-fired plants will raise atmospheric carbon dioxide to nearly 500 ppm. At that level, a conservative estimate for the number of species that would be exterminated is one million. Coal plants are factories of death.

"The world must end coal emissions rapidly, through a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants and a phaseout of those that do not capture and store carbon dioxide (no commercial plants do at present). This is a great challenge but one with enormous side benefits, including reduced local pollution and a sharp decrease in the toxic mercury (a byproduct of coal-fired power plants) that is now accumulating in fish stocks throughout the oceans. If coal emissions are promptly phased out, other actions--for example, improved agricultural and forestry practices--could bring the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide out of the dangerous range and save the planet we know--the planet of stable climate in which civilizations developed."


Who could possible be against saving the plant other than coal-plant owners and operators? The Republican Party, of course!

And the religious right. Jesus is coming back soon, so who the hell cares?


Read more here - a fascinating and informative article.

The Bible tells me so

If you grew up in an "evangelical" or fundy church setting, you'll remember those words from a little ditty often sang in Sunday School...how do we know something is true? The Bible tells me so!

Some people never do leave Sunday School behind and enter the real world. One of those is a moronic Congressman from Illinois, John Shimkus, who for reasons only the devil could understand, is a member of the Energy and Air Quality Committee.

Shimkus told members of Congress that the Bible is the infallible word of God and that in the "Old Testament" you can find infallible proof there is no such thing as global warming.

The end of the earth will come in God's own time, says Shimkus. You'll know when that happens when you hear the trumpet of the Lord blaring over the earth.


This is, of course, exactly the same crap spouted by fundamentalists everywhere and was preached by Jerry Falwell before he disappeared from the earth.

It was, it is, and it ever will be, CRAP; world without end. Amen.


h/t to BS Alert.

Finally! Action on global warming!

Bruce Niles, writing for the Sierra Club and picked up by AlterNet, describes "a leaked Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) document" indicating "that the agency 'is fast-tracking its response to the Supreme Court's 2007 climate decision with plans to issue a mid-April finding that global warming threatens both public health and welfare.'"

The nay-sayers, hopefully, have had their day. For eight long, benighted years, the administration of Bush/Cheney not only denied the facts of global warming, but neglected to take any substantial steps to mitigate the problem. There will be, I'm afraid, a terrible price to pay for this neglect.

And while there may not yet be light on the horizon, there is a small glimmer of hope. As Niles says, "this action by EPA will set the stage for the first-ever national regulation of CO2 in US history."


Background: On April 2, 2007, the Supreme Court in Massachusetts v. EPA, determined that CO2 (carbon dioxide) "was a pollutant under the Clean Air Act" and "ordered EPA to determine whether CO2 endangered public health or welfare, and, if so, to begin regulating CO2.

"The Bush administration unlawfully ignored the decision for nearly two years, continuing its long campaign of denial, obfuscation, and foot-dragging on global warming and other key environmental issues."


The Obama administration is moving to correct this insanity and it looks like this particular aspect of our long national nightmare might be over!


You can read the entire article here.

Bob Lutz of GM - a total crock

[Photo from wired.com]

Bob Lutz, 76, the vice chairman of General Motors, has a reputation for saying what he thinks even if what he thinks is a "total crock."

I suppose if you've worked as a high mucky-muck for General Motors for lots of years, you have to feel at least a little bit responsible for the clouds of impending doom hanging over the GM banner. But Lutz still isn't ready to accept the fact that maybe, perhaps, what's good for GM isn't necessarily good for the country.

When Lutz is not telling Toyota to "bring it on," he's pontificating about global warming. Not too long ago, he called global warming "a total crock of shit." He's excited about GM's new electric Volt, not because he's concerned about global warming, but because the Volt may help rid our country of dependence upon foreign oil.

Lutz, for some reason, walks with the flat-earth people relative to global warming. He calls the Union of Concerned Scientists a "joke group," claiming that almost none of them have a science degree.

So what does cause global warming? Sierra magazine writes that Lutz believes it is caused by "sunspots or some other cosmic juju.

"'I accept that the planet is heated," said Lutz, "but I, like many noted scientists, don't believe in the CO2 theory." As to his claim that humanmade global warming is a "total crock," he also claimed that "32,000 of the world's leading scientists" agree with him.


Oh boy. What a crock that is!

Bob Lutz provides a good example as to why General Motors is sliding down the slippery slope of irrelevance to oblivion.

While Nero, er Bush, fiddled...the world drowned

For the past eight years, global warming scientists working anywhere near the Bush administration have been forced to alter their reports to conform to the Bush ideology which promoted the notion that 1) there was no such thing, 2) if there was, humans had nothing to do with it, and 3) it wasn't a serious problem.

It was all bushit, of course, and we've reported in depth previously on not only how serious the problem is, but how the exponential growth of global warming portends the devastation of coastal areas around the world. We've noted that today, certain areas of downtown Miami are flooding at high tide!


A new study, informed by data from NASA satellites, shows that more than 2 trillion tons of land ice in Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska have melted since 2003.

The Greenland ice melt is accelerating.

Jay Zwally, a NASA scientist, said "It's [melting ice from global warming] not getting better; it's continuing to show strong signs of warming and amplification. There's no reversal taking place."


Let's see, what happened in 2003? Oh, that's right, our prezident, George W. Bush, decided he needed to play "War President." His daddy had played that game before and Georgie wanted to beat his daddy. Unfortunately, there was no such game available at PlayStation, so he invaded Iraq.

For the next five years:

He laughed at all those fools who worried about global warming.

He went to Texas and cut brush on his "ranchero." The MSM, trailing along, took pictures as he pretended to be a cowboy.


Meanwhile, behind the curtain of delusion, the play went on: God spoke to Bush, soldiers died, Iraq was devastated, Afghanistan became a bad joke, financial institutions went berserk, the Constitution was shredded, christianist organizations received tens of millions of taxpayer dollars for faith-based something or other, more people fell below the poverty line, more children and elderly went without health care, war veterans were mistreated if treated at all, former allies around the world mocked us for electing the Chimp, TV evangelists got top billing at the White House to insist on bombing Iran to instigate the Rapture, oil companies reaped insane profits, the really rich were gifted with tax breaks, the middle class began to disappear ...

The ice melted. Those who dared point this out were told to revise their minds.

The country fell apart.

The world began to drown.

At a meeting of world leaders, no one would shake his hand. In a final, secret trip to Iraq, a journalist (not one of ours) threw shoes at him - the ultimate insult.

Not good enough.

Impeachment, anyone?

The Maldives (& Miami Beach) & rising seas

Miami at high tide

Those who are as yet unconvinced that global warming is real and largely the result of human activity, will probably not change their minds by what follows. Sarah Palin, for example, in the face of overwhelming evidence, still maintains global warming is a natural occurrence.

AOL News reports that the Maldives is in danger of "sinking" into a rising ocean. "The Maldives is an archipelago of almost 1,200 coral islands located south-southwest of India. Most of the islands lie just 4.9 feet above sea level."

While the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is forecasting sea levels will rise 7.1 inches by the end of the century, some scientists argue that sea levels are rising much faster that expected and that forecast is dangerously flawed. Indeed, there is evidence of this right now.

The president of the Maldives, Mohamed "Anni" Nasheed, is so concerned about his nation's vulnerability that he is taking steps to move his entire nation to higher ground. A portion of the $1 billion that the Maldives takes in each year from tourism is being held in a special account to buy a new homeland.


Maybe Miami should begin taking similar steps instead of building new high-rises next to the ocean.

Eye on Miami reported on the danger Miami is facing from rising seas back on October 1. "On sea level rise, we're waiting. For the most part the local conversation is not whether sea level rise will occur but when."

It is especially interesting that the projections put forward by "the science committee of the Miami Dade Climate Change Advisory Task Force" do not reflect "the possibility of a catastrophically rapid melt of land-bound ice from Greenland, and it makes no assumptions about Antarctica."

Indeed, other scientists, including James Hansen of NASA, are much more pessimistic. The ice is melting just about everywhere, and the seas are rising more rapidly than anyone has projected. Some scientists predict that much of Miami Beach could be underwater by 2012.

One piece of evidence to support that has to do with the rising tides along the southeastern Florida shore. A climate change scientist noted that "tides are running about 6-8 inches above that predicted."

In other words, "when" is now.

The photo above shows tidal flooding in downtown Miami. "It has become the regular twice a day occurrence of the tide. ... low lying streets all over Miami and Miami Beach are experiencing increasingly regular, non weather event, flooding."

Eye on Miami notes further that "this flooding is a very recent phenomenon otherwise the condo's foundation and surrounding infrastructure could never have been completed."

The photographer insisted salt water flooding in Miami's downtown happens on a regular basis.


The evidence tends to show that the rise in sea levels is increasing at a much faster pace than anticipated. Thousands of miles of U.S. coastline are vulnerable. The Bush administration has not only refused to deal with the issue, but has fought any and all attempts to mitigate human causes of global warming.

It appears we will have to wait for the Obama administration to take action. We can only hope it is not too late.

Read more from Eye on Miami here.

As the Arctic goes, so goes ...

The Arctic began warming back in the 1960s. That warming trend has continued and has increased. Robert Boyd of McClatchy Newspapers, referring to a report by an international team of scientists, notes that "Temperatures in the Arctic last fall hit an all-time high -- more than 9 degrees Fahrenheit ... above normal -- and remain almost as high this year."

The loss of sea ice in the Arctic warms the oceans and causes "global sea levels to rise even faster than predicted." While global warming is not the only cause, it is the most important one. And what happens in the Arctic has a world-wide impact.

Renee Schoff, also of McClatchy, reports that scientists are insisting the United States take
action on climate change. She quotes James Hansen, NASA climate scientist, who has repeatedly stressed that Congress and the president "must define a course next year in which the United States exerts leadership commensurate with our responsibility for the present dangerous situation."

The danger comes from the fact that our options are closing. If something isn't done now, we may lose the opportunity to protect the planet. We must "reduce the level of gases enough to prevent changes such as rising oceans and dying plant and animal species." The result of inaction will lead to disastrous climate changes that spiral dynamically out of humanity's control."


The Bush administration has, for many years, denied the reality of global warming, even going so far as to rewrite scientific reports to coincide with that denial. The Bush administration's policies over the past eight years have not only been ineffective as far as dealing with climate change goes, but have actually increased the problem.

John McCain, contrarily, though belatedly, said "We know that greenhouse gas emissions, by retaining heat within the atmosphere, threaten disastrous changes in the climate.

President-elect Obama cautions that "There can no longer be any doubt that human activities are influencing the global climate and we must react quickly and effectively."


Already, some Repugs are touting Governor Sarah Palin for their presidential candidate in 2012 (that is, of course, if god approves)! Consider Palin's take on global warming and the environment in general.

The Alaskan governor has "questioned the science behind predictions of sea ice loss linked to global warming." Not so long ago, "the state of Alaska under Palin's guidance sued Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in an attempt to reverse his decision to list polar bears as a threatened species. Palin said that scientists' predictions that global warming will eliminate the ice where the bears live in summer were unreliable."

That, in spite of the fact, that because 2007 set a record low for sea ice in the Arctic, reindeer, walruses and polar bears were threatened as their habitat was being destroyed.


As the Arctic goes, so goes the rest of the world. Anyone seeking public office should be questioned thoroughly on his/her understanding of global warming. The reality of global warming, whether caused by human activity or nature, can no longer be denied. To ignore or deny global warming is to invite catastrophe.

The last one to die

President George W. Bush has resolutely refused to establish any kind of timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. John McCain has not only praised Mr. Bush for maintaining this position, but has used it as a test of character against Barack Obama. McCain has mocked Obama's desire for a withdrawal timeline, saying that Obama would rather be president than win a war.

Mr. Bush has changed his mind and evidently failed to consult with Mr. McCain.

According to a story by NPR, "American and Iraqi negotiators have reached a tentative agreement governing the use of American forces in Iraq over the next three years...

"The draft Status of Forces Agreement, or SOFA as it's called ... hasn't been released to the public."

SOFA contains two items which appear to be sticking points for both sides - the U.S. and the Iraqis. One says that American personnel, military and civilian, who are "accused of committing serious crimes while off-duty and off-base can be tried in Iraqi courts."

The other sticking point is the timeline. "The draft calls for all American combat troops to be out of Iraq by 2012."


McCain, as Senator Obama has pointed out, was wrong about the Iraqi invasion from the beginning and he's wrong about what to do now.

The war in Iraq cannot be "won" because it is not a war, it is an occupation, and we are involved in fighting native insurgents, not to "win" anything, but to keep the peace until the politicians can get their heads together and figure out an ass-saving way to get out of the mess.

It appears the end may be in sight. And as the Iraqi situation begins to draw to a close, sadness washes across us for once again we are bludgeoned with the realization that it was all so unnecessary.

Saddam Hussein had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11, and in fact was a hated enemy of our real enemy -- the man who did perpetrate 9/11, Osama bin Laden. Saddam was not a nice man, but he was no threat to the United States, in spite of the rhetoric spewed across our land by Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and the rest of the neocon desk "warriors."

2012. That's the proposed withdrawal date. That will be the actual date if SOFA is approved by the respective governments involved.

* * * *

The Associated Press reported today that "at least 4,185 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003."

Here are some other numbers:

Britain - 176
Italy - 33
Ukraine - 18
Poland - 21
Bulgaria - 13
Spain - 11
Denmark - 7
El Salvador - 5
Slovakia - 4
Latvia and Georgia - 3 each
Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand and Romania - 2 each
Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan and South Korea - 1 each.


While we credit these men and women for their commitment to their countries and to whatever ideals drove them to fight in Iraq, the terrible, horrifying, eternal fact is that each died in vain.

Not one single death was necessary! Not one! But how many more will die needlessly in the next four years?

Their blood drips from the hands of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, Dick Rumsfeld and the neocons who cooked up this godawful disaster. Frankly, if there is a god, he's gonna get 'em, whether they believe in Jesus or not!


And I can guarantee that one of the questions most present in the minds of those still left in Iraq as the months and years slip by is simply this: "Will I be the last to die?"

Brigitte Bardot slugs (verbally) Sarah Palin

People my age will remember with lecherous fondness the French actress, Ms. Brigitte Bardot. She was, in those times, for us young men, the epitome of a sexpot!

Bardot has always been feisty, has always gone her own way and never hesitated to speak her mind. Sometimes that has gotten her into trouble. Some have said that she's a bigot. Or was. Maybe.

But she hasn't mellowed much over the years.

Bardot, regally pissed when confonted by the monumental ignorance that is Sarah Palin, wrote the Alaska governor an "open" letter which went like this:

"I hope you lose these elections because that would be a victory for the world. By denying the responsibility of man in global warming, by advocating gun rights and making statements that are disconcertingly stupid, you are a disgrace to women and you alone represent a terrible threat, a true environmental catastrophe."

Aidan Maconachy notes that Bardot is an animal rights activist and is angry "by Palin's emphasis on oil exploration at the expense of polar bear habitat.

"In a final shot, Bardot picked up on Palin's self-reference as a 'pitbull wearing lipstick.' She implored the governor to refrain from comparing herself with dogs.

"She wrote:

"I know them well and I can assure you that no pitbull, no dog, nor any other animal is as dangerous as you are."


We say, well said.

More here.

Osama and Bush - who's the "real" terrorist?

Consider this: On September 11, 2001, some 3,000 people - most of them American citizens - were murdered when a group of predominately Saudi Arabian terrorists flew airplanes into the Twin Towers.

Consider this: Saudi Arabia, the breeding ground for not only Osama bin Laden, largely believed the one responsible for this terrorist attack, but also for 15 of the 19 people involved, has been a close ally of the United States for many years in spite of the fact that it is an autocratic and despicable Islamic dictatorship under which the people enjoy few personal freedoms and brutal suppression reigns.

Consider this: In the months preceding the 9/11 attack, George W. Bush and his administration were given "intelligence" which advised them that such an attack was imminent. Such an attack would be "led" by Osama bin Laden. Such an attack would likely involve airplanes flying into buildings. All of these things were known to Bush, Rice, Cheney, Rumsfeld and others in the Bushit Administration in the summer of 2001! George W. didn't care. He ignored the intelligence. From Day One, the Bush Administration was focused on contriving reasons to attack Iraq.

Consider this: On the basis of a series of lies, all now well-documented, George W. Bush instigated a preemptive attack, in 2003, on a country that was NOT a threat to the United States in any way whatsoever.

Consider this: The attack became an invasion became an occupation. The Bushites, including John McCain, said the Americans would be welcomed by the Iraqis for destroying their country; they said it would be a short war; they said it could be done on the cheap, only $50-60 billion.

Consider this: The war has continued for five years, is costing $10 billion per month [in borrowed money], has cost nearly $800 billion since its inception, and no end is in sight. In fact, the war in Iraq has nearly bankrupted the United States.

Consider this: Everyone involved with the Iraq war was wrong and everything they said about the Iraqi invasion was wrong. Still, their lies continue today.

McCain and his sidechick, Palin, harp on the so-called "Surge" and how successful it was, but not once have either of them explained exactly what that means. They've never answered the question as to what made it "successful" -- and what "success" means in this situation.

The problem is that McCain and his sidechick, Palin, don't have a freaking clue about Iraq or the Surge or anything else in the Middle East. If the Surge was successful -- and that is still an open question -- it's success was due primarily to the fact that a large group of insurgents laid down their arms.

Consider this: George W. Bush, his administration, and his cronies in Congress, used the 9/11 attacks to create an attitude of fear in the American people ("The terrorists are coming, the terrorists are coming"). They lied to the American people about, not only the nature of the threat, but the source of the threat.

Because George and the neocons started the war to ensure access to the Iraqi oil fields, a purpose to which they could not admit, they spread lies about Saddam Hussein, about al Qaeda and about the terrorist "threat." Saddam, they said, had weapons of mass destruction, perhaps nuclear weapons, poised to attack the United States. Iraq, they said, was behind 9/11 (people still believe that one). Iraq was harboring terrorists, they said.

All of this was bullshit.

Consider this: The result of these lies and the incredible, unbelievable stupidity, as well as the unbridled greed of the Bushites and neocons has led to:

4,177 American dead in Iraq

30,795 Americans maimed in Iraq

96,289 Iraqis killed (according to Iraq Body Count)

1,273,378 Iraqis killed (according to justforeignpolicy.org)


Summary:

1) Osama bin Laden, noted and notorious terrorist, is directly responsible for the deaths of 3,000 Americans which resulted from the attacks by his minions on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. Osama bin Laden should be captured and should stand trial for his evil ways and dastardly deeds.

2) George W. Bush and the leaders of his administration, notorious neocons and god-lovers, are directly responsible for the deaths of 4,177 Americans, the maiming of almost 31,000 Americans, the killing of some ONE MILLION Iraqis (many of them women and children), the destruction of the country of Iraq, and a raging and growing anti-American sentiment around the world.

3) George W. Bush lied and led the United States into an unnecessary, brutal and costly (in every way) war - these are indisputable facts with numerous historical documents of the highest caliber to back them up.

4) So who's the real "terrorist?"

Answer:

a) Osama bin Laden
b) George W. Bush
c) All of the above

Senator James Inhofe questions Obama's patriotism

James Inhofe, U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, has long been know for making extraordinarily stupid comments. Inhofe refuses to believe (along with Sarah Palin) that climate change is caused by human beings. In fact, Inhofe said that he has "compelling evidence that catastrophic global warming is a hoax."

Inhofe is a fundamentalist Christian. He has compared the environmentalist movement to the Third Reich. Environmentalist is all a "big lie." Not so long ago he "compared the United States Environmental Protection Agency to the Gestapo." He said that then EPA administrator, Carol Browner was like Tokyo Rose, and that the Weather Channel was behind the hoax of global warming.

In fact, said Inhofe, global warming is "the second-largest hoax ever played on the American people, after the separation of church and state."

What does it say about the people of Oklahoma who voted this neanderthal into office?


The Tulsa World reported yesterday that Inhofe, while attending a breakfast for his state's delegation at the Republican National Convention, challenged Senator Barack Obama's patriotism.

Inhofe told the group that voters need to ask this question when they get into the polling booth on election day:

"Do you really want to have a guy as commander in chief of this country when you can question whether or not he really loves his country?

"That's the big question," he said.


When confronted later, Inhofe tried to "clarify" his comments. "I am not questioning Sen. Obama's patriotism, but you have to question why at times he seems so obviously opposed to public displays of patriotism and national pride, like wearing an American flag lapel pin."


And he said that with a straight face, proving clearly that he is an idiot and a dangerous lunatic.