Soil moisture, if the war goes on.

Yesterday KY Senator McConnell sent a letter to all the governors asking them to ignore and oppose Obama's environmental efforts, directives, and the EPA's.  Like the letter to Iran, he is siding with the enemy.

Latest forecast from both NASA and some international sources is that North America will fall into a decades long drought if the war on the environment goes on.  This map shoes areas of decreased soil moisture in brown as compared to current levels.  Your tomatoes wont' grow in that.

Next time your crazy neighbor talks about Obama's war on coal, correct him, it's a war on drought.  And the guys we are fighting are in control of the US Congress, and on the payroll of fossil fuel.

A return to newspapers taking on a "higher cause".

March 17, 2015, Front page of Englands great newspaper, the Guardian.
Today the Guardian stated it has set out to expose the fossil fuel industties, to start a movement to turn public opinion to fixing global warming, they ask for industry insiders to come forward with stores, they ask every institution to divest from fossil fuel, specifically they ask Bill Gates to divest immediately or bare the brunt of what's coming.
This is a style of social activism from a newspaper that hasn't been seen since the great William Allen White of Emporia Kansas was the soul of journalism fighting corruption with his brand of get the facts, don't let a politician answer a question with an untruth and let it stand, find out, call him out, print the fact and report that he lied.  A shame the first large paper to rejoin this ideal is not in the US.

Baked Alaska

Alaska didn't have many forest fires until the last few years.  This winter it was warmer in much of the state than in the eastern half of the 48.

Sea ice is the lowest this March ever seen off much of the state.  Palin might be able to see Russia, but over water not ice.

150 years ago an Irish Scientist John Tyndall put CO2 in a glass and shined light on it, the higher the content of invisible CO2, the higher the temperatures rose.  A few years later other scientist started calculating the warming trend that lay ahead as we burn fossil fuels, their prediction has has unfortunately come true.

Putting a fee on fossil fuel at the well, mine or port of entry aligns with conservative principals - the pottery barn rule - you break it you buy it, in this case who ever pollutes it pays to help correct it.  This puts the ability to correct it on the consumer, the ultimate polluter as we buy and use all this crap.  The fee on carbon would be given monthly to every American household equally to offset higher prices, but by making energy efficient choices of products they can save more of the dividend received and cause the market to bend towards low carbon use and a cleaner world without so many regulations.  It's based loosely on the Alaska yearly oil dividend they put on oil production.  Never thought I could learn something from the snowbillies, but so it is.

If you can read this you are not a carnivore. No, you're not.

*Carnivore has claws, herbivore fingers-toes or hooves.
*Carnivore has a short gut, herbivore a long gut up to 2.5 times their height/length.
*Carnivore do not gain cholesterol from eating  meat, herbivore get high cholesterol if they eat meat.
*Carnivore have teeth that tear, herbivore have teeth to snip off and grind.
*Carnivore drink by bringing water up on cupped tongue, herbivore pull water in by lip and suction action.
*Carnivore can get all the protein needed from meat, herbivores can get all the protein needed from plant based diet.

Cancer, heart disease, stroke, overweight, diabetes, sleep disorder, dimentia, almost all of these can be avoided, reduced, put off, or even treated with a diet of beans, nuts, fruit, vegi's, whole grain, brown rice, dark greens and spices, lots and lots of wonderful spices.   You are not designed to eat meat, you are a herbivore.

The world is changing and so should you.

What is Carbon Fee and Dividend

Carbon Fee and Dividend is the policy proposal created by Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) to internalize the costs of burning carbon-based fuels. It’s the policy that climate scientists and economists alike say is the best first-step to reduce the likelihood of catastrophic climate change from global warming.

Citizens’ Climate Lobby volunteers pride themselves in being FOR something rather than AGAINST things. So Carbon Fee and Dividend is the policy our citizen volunteers around the world are advocating FOR.

Join today, it's not set-ins or yelling at town hall meetings, it's writing and talking politely, gaining trust, building political will, and it's starting to work.  We need a group in every congressional district, go here, join or start a chapter in your town.  citizensclimatelobby.org

And the heat goes on

Feb. 2014 to end of Feb. 2015 was the hottest 12 month period on earth in recorded history.  As for the month of Feb. 2015 it was the hottest on record globally. The only place with significantly below average temps was the US east coast, where all the politicians spend their winters, thus the Inhoff spectacle, "It's cold where I am therefore it can't be getting warmer in the other 99% of the world".
Look at Russia, any wonder they are feeling aggressive, it's been a warm winter, could bode ill for their wheat if they have a hot spring.

Citizens' Climate Lobby solution to pollution

Carbon Fee and Dividend

Our carbon fee and dividend proposal works like this:

A fee is placed on carbon-based fuels at the source (well, mine, port of entry).

This fee starts at $15 per ton of CO2 emitted, and increases steadily each year by $10 so that clean energy is cheaper than fossil fuels within a decade.

All of the money collected is returned to American households on an equitable basis.

Under this plan about 2/3 of all households would break even or receive more in their dividend checks than they would pay in higher prices due to the fee, thereby protecting the poor and middle class.

A predictably increasing carbon price will send a clear market signal which will unleash entrepreneurs and investors in the new clean-energy economy.

Kansas City comes clean

1,000 charging stations for cars within 2 or 3 years.  Nissan, Kansas City Power and Light, and a charger maker, teamed up for this.  Fossil fuel, the Koch's, the Chamber of Commerce, all were caught off guard, the deal was done before they could poison it.  The chargers will handle most car brands.

Kansas City will soon have the most densely populated charger network in the US, maybe in the world.

In another state VW has done something like this, but on a small scale .  Ford also got in the act a few months ago with the largest home builder in the nation (who cares the name) reaching a deal that every garage they build will be wired to accept a charger, a bigger wire and breaker now for a few dollars could save a homeowner hundreds to rewire for it later.

For the record, a car powered with electricity from dirty coal is still cleaner than burning gas, add a few watts from wind and solar and it's much cleaner.  One more tidbit, car dealers do not like selling electric cars, service is almost nil, electric motors last longer than petro engines and have a fraction of the parts that might wear out.

1984 gets to Florida with new word smithing rule

Since Rick Scott became gov. officials responsible for making sure Florida is prepared to respond to the earth's changing climate are barred from using the terms "global warming" and "climate change" in official communications, emails and reports, according to new findings from the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.  Also "sustainability" is forbidden.  

Have a nice day.

Your tax dollars burning in the train wreck.

Every few days another explosion.  An oil train, a refinery, tanker truck, a pipeline, a drilling rig.  Then there are the leaks, pipes pumping oil into the Yellowstone, onto farm land, city water sources.

This is not paid for by oil companies or railroads. The rescue and fire fighting, the closed roads, bridges, the detours that cost time and money, the bulk of that is picked up by the communities.  There are liability limits set by Congress, the maximum it will cost fossil fuel guy is set, and at a bargain rate to them.  And the fine if any is levied, he writes that off his taxes, it's a business expense, sure it may hurt a little, but as a tax deduction it means his fine lowers how much of the taxes he pays otherwise, which already aren't much, it's a sweet deal.

Bottom line, this is your fault by not reducing demand.  Find a way to use less of these products.  Write your local and US reps.  Tell them politely you want them to stop working for oil and coal and start working for a future of clean  energy and the safety of all of us.  This aging infrastructure will not get better as it gets older, failures will increase.  Starve the bastards out, buy energy efficient appliances and cars, lights, air up your tires.

new fossil fuel happy talk

Oil field sequestration is Science Fiction standing squarely on a myth, all are leaking.

You might have heard of this, it's the newest "happy talk" pretending to be "clean energy".  As the quote above said, it's a myth and the few in experimental use are all leaking.  This system is to capture CO2 from a power plant or other facility and pump into old oil wells.  First the power plant has to be near oil wells, second it is so energy intensive it takes 30% of the power plants energy to do it.  Underground CO2 is free to move around, it's not like coal where it's an integral part of the rock, it moves around, follows the pipe, moves in water, moves through earth, percolates back to the environment.  The only benefit this has is as an advertising tool for the fossil fuel industry and to take government grant money from more deserving technologies.
The best technology would be to not make CO2 when you make power, wind and solar fit that niche.