melt all the land and sea ice

google national geographic ice melt to see other parts of the world if all the ice melts.  Boy it sure does a job on Cuba, Florida and Alaska.

Another of your stupid ideas shot down, for free, your welcome.

correction in blue

Burning natural gas puts off 50% the CO2 as coal in generation plants, and in transportation it pollutes far less than diesel or gasoline.  We know this, and the industry runs adds on TV to drive it home, so the public believes it could help reverse the slide to global warming.  In truth it won’t, or if it does, not much and not for a very long time.

The largest use of natural gas is for electricity generation.  For a number of years now it's been replacing coal as a fuel, the replacement rate is 2.5% a year.  Sounds good so far. 

When we burn methane (natural gas) it makes CO2, a greenhouse gas, who’s molecules live for up to 100 years aloft if not absorbed into the biosphere.  If there is a methane leak at the well, pipeline or generation plant, the unburned methane rises, also a greenhouse gas and 102 20-25 times more powerful than CO2.  102 20-25 times more powerful than CO2 at trapping heat.  Methane molecules life in the upper atmosphere is about 12 years.

Estimates and early studies vary, but leaks (from well to the turbine's flame) range from 1.5% to 8% of natural gas is lost.  So it’s complicated, but like compounding of interest the numbers are rather startling when figuring; the conversion rate, the CO2 savings in burning NG over coal, the leak rates, the life and power of each destructive green house molecule. 

The worse case scenario is the 8% leak rate.  If this is true the switch to NG makes things worse for 60 years before it achieves an actual improvement.  If the rate of conversion to NG doubled to 5% a year it would take 50 years to cross into the plus column.  If however, the leak rate is 1.5%, the pay off is immediate, but it’s not much of a gain, we would be only a little better off, and I would take that small advantage.  My gut says that 1.5% is not going to stand up, the leak rate, like every ship wreck or oil platform explosion will turn out to be multiples of what the industry wants to claim.

This only looked at one item, power generation fuel substitution.  It did not look at fracking and it’s multiple layers of community damage. It did not look at transportation use of NG and the leaks in those tanks, engines, and during refueling.  Nor the hissing leaking pipes running below our streets, into our homes.  It did not look at oil wells which often (as you may smell if you drive past one) has methane escaping at the wellhead.  Refiners often flare off NG rather than capture it during refining of oil.  The overall oil and gas industry methane leak rate is unknown but might be over 15% of what we use.  The industry however says oh it’s tiny, why would we let an asset escape?  Well, maybe because your making so damn much money on it that putting improved seals in the pipeline compressor or capturing rather than flaring just isn’t worth it.  We have to remember, they are in the business of ripping resources from the earth, nothing else.

Ever wonder if the higher price energy and water stingy washer is worth it?

One of these days your gonna need a new washing machine.  I just got one, about as energy and water stingy as I could find to buy, had it 4 months, our water consumption is way down, big drop, power use is down too a few dollars a month.
Consumer report illustrates how much you can save by spending more, maybe lots more, for the energy efficiency model.

Energy use for 300 cycles a year for 10 years.  $780 for the best units, but a whopping $2,180 for the worst.  Water use, 43,200 gallons, or up to 153,600 gallons for the worst wasters.  If you have an old machine you've sent the power company a minimum of $2k the last 10 years.  Water in some markets is mucho $, so that adds up too, and me, I don't like sending it to the utility.

pick'n peppers ahead of the freeze

Went out a few minutes ago, picked the last of my bell peppers and jalapenos, all of them, even the tiny little guys the size of a big pill.  A nice last harvest. Washed and in the fridge already.
Came in chopped onions garlic celery and two tomatilla and a jalapeno, sautéed for a few minutes added oregano, cumin and smoky paprika and salt a squirt of catsup.  Wow, a good tomatilla salsa.

we shall never be younger

Pussy Riot to the Gulag Archapipelago, the warden will see you now.

With only a few months left on her prison term the 23 year old musician Nadezhda Tolokonnikova is being sent to central Siberia, 4500 Km from her family, in the dead of winter, to a frozen isolated work camp.  The gulag system lives, and Putin and the Russian Church are eager to provide their enemies the opportunity to die there.  One of the only times she was able to converse with outsiders she claimed abuse by prison officials, now the trans-Siberian railway will carry her where the cry of rape will freeze in the empty forest.  

Imagine, Snowden, the self made savior of freedom and human rights, has chosen Russia to hide in and cry how dangerous the US is.  Hell is empty, all the devils are up here.

poor doctor

Preventative Care Kills return business and profits.

90% of heart disease can be prevented, and most of it can be reversed, with a plant based diet.
Almost all high blood pressure, diabetes, gout, can be reduced to the point of calling it cured.
Most cancers can be avoided, and a few can be shrunk, by a plant based diet.
Of the top 10 killers, only gun shots cannot be impacted by diet.

None of this makes the doctors, hospitals or drug companies any money, neither does it make fast food or the meat industry money.  So, it's (their) wealth over (your) health.