Climate Change- Are Our Genes to Blame for our Inaction?

[Jacko]

Another interesting article here...

In Weather Chaos, a Case for Global Warming

In general, the research suggests that global warming will worsen climate extremes across much of the planet. As in the United States, wet areas will get wetter, the scientists say, while dry areas get drier.

But the patterns are not uniform; changes in wind and ocean circulation could cause unexpected effects, with some areas even cooling down in a warmer world. And long-established weather patterns, like the periodic variations in the Pacific Ocean known as El Niño, will still contribute to unusual events, like heavy rains and cool temperatures in normally arid parts of California.

Scientists say they expect stronger storms, in winter and summer, largely because of the physical principle that warmer air can hold more water vapor.

[Jacko]

Extreme Heat Puts Coral Reefs at Risk, Forecasts Say

[D33RHUNT3R]

Glacier ice loss less than thought, study suggests - Technology & science - Science - OurAmazingPlanet - msnbc.com

OOPS ... another miscalculation...go figure...


The Great Global HOAX..

[melliedee]

Seriously, America?

Frito-Lay, the snack giant owned by PepsiCo Inc., says it is pulling most of the biodegradable packaging it uses for its Sun Chips snacks, following an outcry from consumers who complained the new bags were too noisy.

Touted by Frito-Lay as 100% compostable, the packaging, made from biodegradable plant material, began hitting store shelves in January. Sales of the multigrain snack have since tumbled.


Frito-Lay is returning to its old, nondegradable packaging, for five of the six Sun Chips flavors. It will continue to use the noisy packaging for its Sun Chips Original brand. It has been working on trying to find a quieter version of the packaging since it first introduced the new bags - a process that is continuing.

Sun Chips Bag to Lose Its Crunch - WSJ.com

Canada doesn't care about freaking loud bags!

Unlike their lilly-livered counterparts to the south, Sun Chips Canada has decided to hold the line on their jet-engine loud biodegradable bags. Instead of caving to detractors, they're offering them free earplugs.

"Our bag is loud, our bag is different, our bag is good for the environment, and our bag will remain on store shelves," says the company.

SunChips Canada To Noisy Bag Haters: Here's Free Earplugs - The Consumerist

[Jacko]

Its not just the noise...they do not compost!

From Consumer Reports ....

The claim

"World's first 100% compostable chip package," the SunChips bag said. "It breaks down completely into compost in a hot, active home or industrial compost pile." And in teeny type: "This package is suitable for industrial composting." Anyone who has opened the bag will second another note: "This bag is louder because it is compostable." In fact, it was so loud that at press time, Frito-Lay decided to use the packaging with the compostable claim only for specially marked bags of original-flavor chips.
The check

For 13 weeks, we kept one compostable bag in a home compost pile of grass clippings, wood chips, and leaves, with starter dirt mixed in. We replenished the pile and wet it when necessary. We also crinkled a new bag and measured its noise level.
Bottom line

The items in contact with the bag composted nicely, but the bag itself? Take a look at the photo. It might decay in an "industrial" compost pile, though we can't say for sure. And don't think about sneaking a compostable bag into a movie theater: When crinkled, the bag was roughly twice as loud as a Tostitos bag—loud enough that it would drown out the soundtrack.

[Rissask]

yet anther example of 'one step forward, two steps back' .

[melliedee]

Industrial composting is better than no composting at all, right? They will mostly end up in landfills, not your private backyard compost.

And that's not why people complained; they complained because the bags were noisy.

[Jacko]

Originally Posted by melliedee

Industrial composting is better than no composting at all, right? They will mostly end up in landfills, not your private backyard compost.

And that's not why people complained; they complained because the bags were noisy.

I suppose is is better...IF it is true...they apparently lied about one claim...."World's first 100% compostable chip package," the SunChips bag said. "It breaks down completely into compost in a hot, active home or industrial compost pile."

[tmc]

I haven't seen any of our intrepid global warming alarmists make mention of their guru, the Nobel Prize winning Al Gore, and his frank admission of lying to the people of the USA in order to feather his own political nest. You remember corn-based ethanol, the wonder crop that was going to help save the planet; well the fools who promoted such nonsense were finally kicked in the teeth by Mr. Gore, when he told an audience in Greece:

"It is not a good policy to have these massive subsidies for first-generation ethanol,” Al Gore told a gathering of clean energy financiers in Greece this week. The benefits of ethanol are “trivial,” he added, but “It’s hard once such a program is put in place to deal with the lobbies that keep it going.”

and

”One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for President,” Mr. Gore said.

So Al Gore was willing to spend billions of dollars of taxpayer's money on a program that he acknowledged had very little virtue, apart from helping him get elected President. These are the people many on the left wish to entrust with steering our economy; if it wasn't so serious is would be laughable. Unfortunately, the biggest joke is that the current inhabitant of the White House has less of a clue than Mr Gore, if one could imagine such a thing, and is destined to make things much worse than they have to be.

[melliedee]

On corn ethanol:

But the push to develop corn ethanol has a cost, and NRDC's Greene wonders if that's the wisest policy choice. "It's folly to do what we're doing today, which is mandating it, giving it multiple tax credits and still throwing other government subsidies at it," he said.

"We're bribing the market.... That's $5 billion a year that we could be using to help our farmers and help our industry get to the next generation of this stuff."

Lapola, looking at Brazil, notes some biofuels don't have the huge carbon footprint of sugarcane, soybean or corn. But so long as governments keep a sharp eye on land-use changes, he thinks biofuels make a good "workaround" for petroleum fuels.

"A workaround, but not a complete solution," he added. "The point is that from now on we need to evaluate more carefully our energy matrix to not incur in the same mistakes we made with petroleum."

Is Ethanol from Corn Bad for the Climate?: Scientific American

[melliedee]

Biofuel lobby's response to Gore:

As the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported in 2008, ethanol produces about 2.3 BTU of energy for every 1 BTU of inputs. That’s a big improvement from 2000 and before, when Gore supported ethanol. In fact, ethanol production keeps becoming more efficient: over the five years preceding 2009, there was a 27 percent decrease in consumptive water use, a 22 percent reduction in fossil energy use and a 7 percent increase in the amount of ethanol produced per bushel of grain.

Nor does ethanol production compete with the food supply. Using virtually the same acres as two generations ago, America’s corn farmers produced the highest corn crop on record in 2009 -– 13.2 billion bushels. About 4.2 billion bushels were used to produce a record 11.75 billion gallons of ethanol and 33 million metric tons of feed.

Mr. Hartwig of the biofuels lobby clearly disagrees. “Gore should stop apologizing for having supported ethanol,” he wrote. “He had it right the first time.”

Gore Riles Corn Ethanol Lobby - NYTimes.com

[minnjim]

"Nor does ethanol production compete with the food supply."

Maybe not. But my MIL's farmland has risen from $3000/acre to $5000/acre in just the last couple of years. The only way that value is justified is by higher prices....or higher subsidies.

[Rissask]

corn for ethanol = a really really really stupid use/waste of corn

[minnjim]

Originally Posted by Rissask

corn for ethanol = a really really really stupid use/waste of corn

Not if you own the farmland.

[Rissask]

Originally Posted by minnjim

Not if you own the farmland.

true dat