Fool's Nation

America is reaping what it has sown. We accept what was set in motion decades ago, namely a crisis oriented model instead of pursuing an energy plan to provide us with a reliable, abundant, and cheap supply of energy. Now we indignantly complain about control of sources of petroleum - the oil companies, the sovereign nations and the cartels. We have no right to tell them how and when to market their products? By not developing our own national resources in an effective manner we are at the mercy of interests that are not our own. We acquiesce to environmentalism without a serious examination of how it effects our economy and way of life. A nation with vast coal reserves is replacing it with natural gas, an incredible waste of a precious resource. We will not drill for oil in the places we know it is. We will not develop new refining capacity. We will not install new nuclear power plants. Instead we install a windmill and then pat ourselves on the back. Rich yuppies drive in hybrid cars and pat themselves on the back. How virtuous...

We have seen the enemy and he is us. We have had no real leadership for decades on this most critical aspect of our economic and national security. Now when the rest of the world desires to join the rich western nations with a lifestyle to rival our own we are taken aback that we now have to compete for resources we once claimed for our own. We hobble ourselves with unrealistic environmental impact statements and a N.I.M.B.Y mentality.

We should absolutely strive for the end of the oil age - but we have to be realistic. Green energy is a laudable goal but a viable alternative to oil is a ways off. Electric cars for commuting provide a promising concept, but we have to have cheap and abundant electrical power generation to provide any real relief. Nuclear and coal could fill the gap. Without some real leaders with a backbone we will never see it. Bio-fuels are also a promising concept, but again, it is years away from supplanting any significant portion of the oil we now use. The leadership on this issue has done nothing but pander to farmers and agribusiness, they clearly have not developed a sound strategy. Solar power and wind power are not ready for prime time, it's as simple as that.

Absent leadership from Congress and the President Americans can start getting used to outrageous energy costs and a reduction in our wealth and well being. Does anyone have any faith that a country run by Nancy, Harry and Barack will tackle this issue in a way that preserves our economic might? Well Dennis, Trent and George certainly didn't either.



CW

I Feel Threatened

Never has there been a more blatant political motivation for adding a species to the threatened species list than than there has been with the polar bear. Not only are polar bears thriving but the so-called "loss of habitat" is a pure and simple myth.

This ruling prompted by the findings of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has far reaching implications. This is not simply putting certain habitats off limits to development it is literally a stake in the heart of the U.S. economy and the American way of life. That's exactly what the environmentalists want. They honestly could care less about the polar bear.


Population Bomb
Some polar bear experts claim that numbers have increased not because of climate change but due to the efforts of conservationists. This is demonstrably true. Polar bear populations have been growing for 20 years now, estimated at 25,000 animals which is up from under 10,000 in 1970's. The reasons for the thriving population is primarily due to changes in hunting habits of the native populations in polar bear country. Protection of the harp seal has led to an increase in food sources, and the fact that polar bears themselves are no longer hunted like they once were have seen their numbers soar in 18 of the 20 distinct populations.

Pathetic photos of a polar bear floating precariously on a tiny iceberg have become the defining image of global warming, but it is misleading, intended only to curry favor for the radical environmental movement among the masses. With this ruling - if left standing after certain challenges - we are witnesses to the latest in a series of suicidal actions threatening a continuation of America as we know it. While other nations are scrambling to secure the resources they need to grow and develop America is slowly but surely cutting itself off. All the while dupes and reporters are nodding their heads.

Fight Back, For God's Sake
Fortunately there are some who will not take this lying down. The state of Alaska yesterday questioned the scientific justification for proposals to add polar bears to the US endangered species list. Gov. Sarah Palin said "First and foremost, I will do everything within my power as Governor to protect the interests of the people of Alaska . I also want to do my part to minimize the impact of the Secretary’s decision on the economy of the nation." Other groups are preparing their legal challenges to this ruling as I write this. This issue could wind its way all the way to the Supreme Court. Some comfort that...

The true motivation for this act is not to save the polar bear but to force the U.S. (and only the U.S.) to decrease CO2 emissions - which will mean serious harm to our economic fortunes. This is coming at a time when the facts are slowly eking out that show rather clearly that global temperatures do not follow increasing atmospheric CO2.

This is one of those issues that the uniformed masses will applaud until they realize that their own wealth and well being is the thing that is really threatened. By then it will be too late.



CW

It's the Batteries, Stupid

Barring an unforeseen technological breakthrough of monumental proportions we simply have to come to grips with the FACT that we will be dependent on fossil fuels for a long, long time. According to the author of "Gusher of Lies" and "Cronies", Robert Bryce, we are deluding ourselves with talk of energy independence - or more precisely we are being lied to.

Bryce is a high energy individual (pun intended). He is a journalist/author and pulls no punches with the liberal left, the conservative right and especially the fool hardy greenies. He is currently making the rounds promoting "Gusher of Lies" and he is making a lot of sense. His recent CSPAN Book TV appearance was a real eye opener for yours truly.

Politically he hails from the liberal left - but, to paraphrase him - he was a liberal who was mugged by reality. He now considers himself a centrist with conservative leanings when it comes to energy policy. He is extremely critical of the Bush administration, but not for the reasons you'd think. It's the Administration's schizophrenia on energy policy and ecology that gets him wound up. Me too. He is equally critical of the liberals and the "greens" and the whole alternative energy zealotry that abounds in the media today.

His message is not all doom and gloom, in fact he is actually optimistic about the energy future provided we all take off the blinders and act reasonably and realistically.

He believes the decarbonization of fossil fuels - something that has been happening for centuries anyway - is the solution to pollution. Natural gas, methane, butane etc are the fossil fuels of choice. Clean coal and nuclear power are also important components in the energy mix. What he doesn't put any stock in is wind, solar and ethanol to replace a significant portion of our energy needs we now rely on with oil. He has particular ire for ethanol which he believes is the biggest scam ever perpetrated on this country. I tend to agree on the grounds that it is highly subsidized with tax dollars and does very little to help the overall energy situation and/or pollution issues. He thinks using corn for fuel instead of food is immoral. Solar and wind are neither immoral nor effective. Hydro-electric may be the single most effective power source for electricity, emitting no carbon and producing highly reliable energy. But it also is so environmentally destructive that few places outside China are building new hydro dams.

It's the Batteries, Stupid
The problem with renewables is the intermittent nature of the wind, sunshine and crop availability. The Holy Grail in this scenario is the ability to store the energy - make hay while the sun shines - for those times when the wind isn't blowing and the sky is overcast. Bryce's most creative recommendation is the establishment of a Superbattery Prize of $1-10 billion for the development of a super-high-capacity battery system. The prize to paid by the government, of course. The point here is that the government would not be betting on the winner or the loser (read: ethanol) it would "incentivizing" all scientists and inventors in a competition.

His other thrust is the continued growth of Natural gas usage as a huge part of the solution for the so-called greenhouse gas problem. CO₂ emissions from natural gas are half of those of coal. Natural gas is being found at a rate faster than that of new oil reserves, it is relatively abundant, and our reserves are longer lived than our oil reserves. As Bryce explains in his interview in Mother Jones Magazine "And yet, in the current energy discussion, natural gas is kind of the redheaded stepchild. It does not get the kind of attention it deserves."

As it stands right now oil is king. Nothing short of the aforementioned breakthrough is going to supplant it. Many analysts conclude that it is going to take a mix of approaches to get us to the promised land without said miracle. The current alternatives in the renewable arena of solar, wind and bio-fuels combined will not amount to a hill of beans as the world population increases and steadily moves out of poverty. As for his particular ire for ethanol Bryce makes some good points:

...the stickiest question about ethanol is this: Does making alcohol from grain or plant waste really create any new energy?

The answer, of course, depends upon whom you ask. The ethanol lobby claims there's a 30 percent net gain in BTUs from ethanol made from corn. Other boosters, including Woolsey, claim there are huge energy gains (as much as 700 percent) to be had by making ethanol from grass.

But the ethanol critics have shown that the industry calculations are bogus. David Pimentel, a professor of ecology at Cornell University who has been studying grain alcohol for 20 years, and Tad Patzek, an engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley, co-wrote a recent report that estimates that making ethanol from corn requires 29 percent more fossil energy than the ethanol fuel itself actually contains.

The two scientists calculated all the fuel inputs for ethanol production—from the diesel fuel for the tractor planting the corn, to the fertilizer put in the field, to the energy needed at the processing plant—and found that ethanol is a net energy-loser.

All this on top of huge subsidies from federal, state and local governments. There are many other irons in the fire when it comes to making bio-fuels that look far more promising than corn based ethanol. Are they getting the attention they deserve? No. Even after reading Herbet Meyers impassioned defense of bio-fuels I still can't get past the subsidies and the tariffs imposed on imported ethanol.

Meyers rightly points out that fuel and food price spikes are more a result of increasing demand as more and more people on this planet rise out of poverty. This is fine, but it still doesn't explain our country's totally insane energy strategy or lack thereof.

One thing that Bryce says that is entirely true: the energy business is the most important and the most complicated of human institutions. I don't entirely agree with all his conclusions or his slash and burn style, particularly when it comes to politics, but, the points he raises and the evidence he cites is compelling food for thought.

Could advanced battery technology be the breakthrough we are waiting for? I for one hope so.




CW

The Next Big Thing

Please visit TimothyBirdnow.com to read my article "The Next Big Thing".

http://www.timothybirdnow.com/?p=668

I discuss how every thirty years or so a new innovation or invention comes along to fundamentally change our way of life.



CW

Adding Insult to Injury

You just have to wonder about some people in America...

Imagine if you will someone proposing the Holocaust Memorial structure built in the shape of a swastika. Obscene isn't it. So when the plans for the United Airlines Flight 93 memorial in Shanksville, PA was announced you can imagine how some people would be outraged that is was going to be in the shape of a crescent and it was facing Mecca, to add insult to injury it was going to be called the"Crescent of Embrace".

[See this FOX News article for a graphical representation]

form the article:
Some critics say its crescent-shaped design call to mind Islam or subtly include the hijackers alongside the passengers and crew.

The National Park Service, which is managing the construction of the memorial, denied those claims, but changed the design to more of a circle, and dropped the name.

Please... OK, if they are being upfront why would they use the word "Crescent" in the first place? Another feature is a separate section of the wall – centered exactly on the bisector of the giant crescent – that is in the exact position of the star on an Islamic flag.

My guess is that somewhere in all of this is the attitude that America is to blame for victimizing the Islamic world for all these years - that the hijackers had legitimate grievances and they just chose an inappropriate way the redress these grievances.

The architectural firm Paul Murdoch Architects of Los Angeles claims Islam has nothing to do with the memorial and that a vast majority of the families of the victims are endorsing the design. I would just ask them the same question I asked at the beginning of this post... Such a design should never have made it off the drawing board.



CW

San Pietro at Dusk

In honor of the papal visit to the United States I painted this colorful image of St. Peters Basilica in Rome. OK that's not really true - this was painted for my daughter who received this picture on a post card from a friend who was visiting Italy. (Click on the image to see a larger view)

"San Pietro at Dusk"
20 X 24 (acrylic)
2008

Please click over to my online art gallery http://static-art.blogspot.com/ to see more of my paintings. I hope you enjoy!



CW

Global Cooling Making the News

How interesting that more and more articles are appearing in the news speaking to the possibility that global cooling is actually taking place before our very eyes. Despite the sky is falling hysteria about Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming, real data on the state of the global climate is starting to become hard to ignore. This is particularly interesting in light of the never ending winter we seem to be afflicted with as May 1st comes rolling in with March-like temperatures.

Recent articles in mainstream publications and websites have raised some doubts that CO2 has anything to do with rising global temperatures. NPR's article on the unexpected "missing heat" data collected by ocean buoys deployed in 2003 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been cited in other high profile news sites and blogs.

Thankfully more and more scientists are finally coming forward and putting the brakes on "the debate is over" rhetoric. Deroy Murdock has an excellent synopsis of this welcome trend in this Scripps-Howard News Service piece today: Globe may be cooling on Global Warming

from the article...

Chapman [Dr. Phil Chapman was a Massachusetts Institute of Technology staff physicist, NASA's first Australian-born astronaut, and Apollo 14's Mission Scientist.] believes reduced sunspot activity is curbing temperatures. As he elaborates, "there is a close correlation between variations on the sunspot cycle and Earth's climate." Anecdotally, last winter brought record cold to Florida, Mexico, and Greece, and rare snow to Jerusalem, Damascus, and Baghdad. China endured brutal ice and snow.

NASA satellites found that last winter's Arctic Sea ice covered 2 million square kilometers (772,000 square miles) more than the last three years' average. It also was 10 to 20 centimeters (about 4-8 inches) thicker than in 2007. The ice between Canada and southwest Greenland also spread dramatically. "We have to go back 15 years to find ice expansion so far south," Denmark's Meteorological Institute stated.

"Snows Return to Mount Kilimanjaro," cheered a January 21 International Herald Tribune headline, as Africa also defies the "warming" narrative.

These facts extinguish the smoking gun the true believers cite every time the subject is raised on the TV news or the History/Discovery Channels. The polar ice caps are melting! The glacier on Mount Kilimanjaro is disappearing! The oceans are boiling, killing the coral reefs leading to more frequent and more severe hurricanes! My personal favorite - polar bears - victims of SUV's.

Of course one cold winter proves nothing, I'm willing to accept that. But trends (and facts) point to a real possibility of significant global cooling. Nothing good will come of it, nothing. The sooner serious scientists can exonerate CO2 the closer we will come to averting the real disaster - politicians monkeying with energy policies. I hope we're not already too late.

When one of those smug "the debate is over" jerks gets all up in your face I have the perfect come backer: "How would you like my carbon footprint up your ass, buddy?"



CW