You either pay attention or pay through the nose. I would rather pay attention.
From the “Things that cross my mind just before I fall asleep” department …
If the opposite of “inconvenient” is “convenient” and the opposite of “truth” is “lie”, then by the rule that two negatives are a positive, can we conclude that Al Gore’s movie/book is actually titled “A Convenient Lie”?
Hmmmm…..
“John Baird has been Minister for the Environment for less than a month and he has already lowered the temperature by 15 or 20 degrees.”
– – Lowell Green of CFRA – –
I heard that quote last week from Lowell and noticing that our high was -15C yesterday, I thought I would share that with you.
Keep at it Mr. Baird. If you keep on mother nature the way you did the Liberal Senators changing the Accountability Act, we may have another ice age on the way!!
Last night while watching Gallery Talk on our local CTV affiliate here in Ottawa (CJOH), Norm Fetterley was on with Mike Duffy and Robert Fife for his weekly Friday night 5 minute chat.
They were briefly discussing the recent polls that indicate Canadians are most concerned about the environment this election. Being a strong skeptic that this issue is forefront because of the left leaning media, my ears perked up when Norm pointed out that in his many years he has noticed that the environment only becomes an important issue when the economy is strong. In times where the economy wasn’t so strong, the primary issue usually turned to things like healthcare.
Mike Duffy said that he tended to agree with that statement indicating that this may just be an aberration.
This made me smile because I immediately thought of all the left leaning peaceniks like David Suzuki who come crawling out of the woodwork when the economy is good. Their hands held out (so to speak) to get public speaking engagements and to create a swarming effect and buzz around the government. And swarming is exactly what it is.
Earlier today I was reading this article (H/T Jack’s Newswatch) which outlines how the media circus around the Picton trial is easing up as the throngs of journalists from overseas head on home. The swarm around a trial where almost 50 people were allegedly murdered by a single man has broken. How long before the press moves on when it comes to the environment?
My guess is that it may last through the next election, but it won’t last forever. The ice will eventually come back.
… If you tossed it away on being an environmentalista.
For those who don’t know, I went to dozens of Grateful Dead concerts in my youth. I used to have long hair, go unshaven for weeks, I wore tie-dye and Guatamalan pants and cruised around the American north east whenever the Dead were coming around. Heck, I was even at a concert in Rich Stadium in Buffalo the night before my Transform Analysis Final exam.
And one thing that I can tell you is that at a Grateful Dead concert there is lots of dancing and lots of drumming. This is not limited to the actual concert mind you, but what takes place the whole day of in the parking lot and for hours after the show. Past live concerts can be heard playing all over and if you walk around enough you find this circle of drummers. Anyone is welcome to sit in with their bongos or whatever they want to beat on. It’s actually quite surreal.
When Jerry Garcia died, I always wondered what would become of the Deadheads. What would this pro peace, anti war, anti capitalistic society do? What would the innovative ones among them do to survive? I am talking about the ones selling home made crafts and tie dyes and veggie burritos.
Now I know where they are all dancing and drumming.
(note: the video below contains some swearing, but is WELL worth the 30 minutes)
I can safely say that after watching this video, I have realized that over half the people show up at these things for the party and not the cause. I am not sure if I find that to be a good thing or a bad thing.
H/T to 905Tory
A commenter at 905Tory pointed out a link to Penn’s radio show where he interviews Patrick Moore. It is also quite enlightening. Patrick Moore WAS the International Director for Greenpeace until 1986 and grew the organization from the original fledgling it was to an entity pulling in $100 Million USD before resigning. Find out why.
After reading Greg Weston today, I am wondering if the next proposal from granola crunchers is that we all go vegetarian and stop our efforts to aid in the reproduction of cattle.
Among the many reasons to cut the bull on global warming, it turns out a staggering 24 million tonnes of annual greenhouse gas emissions are coming from the exhaust pipes of Canadian cattle and other farting farm animals.
In the overall ecological scheme of things, that means farmyard flatulence is contributing as much to heating the planet as half of all the regular passenger cars on Canadian roads today.
All I have to say is that if Cows are making up half the GHG’s that regular passenger cars on our roads make, then we really are lucky our current government opted out of Kyoto or we all may be sitting in a cart being pulled by some farm animal.
The worst offenders?
-Power Generation – 130 MegaTonnes
-Oil and Gas Industry – 133
-Oil and Gas Exports – 46
-Ordinary Passenger Cars – 50
-SUVs and Family Vans – 44
-Transport Trucks – 45
-Domestic Aircraft – 8
-Mining and Manufacturing – 139
-Chemical Industries – 22
-Mining – 18
-Steel Mills – 15
-Aluminum and Other Smelting – 13
-Cement – 11
-Pulp and Paper – 9
Home Heating – 43
Office and Institutional Heating – 38
Waste Disposal – 29
Agriculture – 55
-Animal Flatulence – 24
-Manure Management – 9
-Other – 23
So there you have it. So let’s put a few facts down. As previous Environment Minister Rona Ambrose stated, it is true that we could take every vehicle off the roads and every airplane out of the air and we would only eliminate 147 MegaTonnes, less than 75% of our target.
It is also true that with scrubber technology on incinerators that we should probably get rid of all landfills. The Netherlands has banned them all together and is now strictly using incineration. This alone could cut close to 30 megatonnes. Why are the environmentalistas not jumping on this idea? It would certainly help remove what may become the biggest pile of trash in the free world should the city approve a proposal to triple or quadruple the size of the Carp Rd. landfill in Ottawa. What a way to add another monument to our nation’s capital.
Another way to cut our emissions is to tell Kyoto to eliminate the penalty we receive for being a net exporter of oil. After all, we may be producing it, but we aren’t burning it. Saudi Arabia exports more than four times the oil we do and they are exempt from Kyoto because they are considered a developing nation. Go figure that one out.
The Saudi GDP is about 20th in the world (+/-2) and they have a population about 3/4’s that of Canada. The per capita number may be lower than us, but when the worlds 20th most prosperous nation is considered developing, think about how many nations our payment into Kyoto would be compensating? Sorry, but no thanks. A lot of oil get’s used in plastics and is not simply burned, so I don’t think we should be responsible with what other nations do with that oil.
And regarding going vegetarian, if we move from beef to broccoli, we wouldn’t eliminate the flatulence, we would just displace it.
This was taken in my car, January 17th, 2007 from the front seat while I sat in the “Canadian Position”, my body hunched over, hands between my legs while I waited for the car to warm up. I managed to get one glove off and snap this before my fingers froze off. This was one of those mornings where inhaling through your nose caused your nostrils to stick shut and inhaling through your mouth gives you an ice cream headache.
Yes, that says minus 21 Celsius. And the whole time I sat there shivering, my teeth clattering, I kept repeating. There’s no warming like global warming. There’s no warming like global warming.
I clicked my boots together three times and voila … my seat warmers kicked in.
This is priceless. H/T What’s Right is Right
Click the image below ONCE to start the video.
Ok, so maybe it’s my favourite clip from SouthPark.
If you have any trouble viewing the above video, try clicking the link below.
Well lookee lookee!! A CTV online poll.
Who do you think would do a better job of protecting the environment?
Conservatives 3789 votes (42 %)
Liberals 2413 votes (26 %)
NDP 1671 votes (18 %)
Other 1239 votes (14 %)
Total Votes: 9112
562
Remember that number.
It is the number of coal fired plants that China plans to open in the next few years. Add in the USA and India (all three exempt or not signatories to Kyoto) and the number of plants goes up to 850.
…the implications of this planned coal-fired plant construction in China, India and the U.S. It estimated these 850 plants will put five times more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than Kyoto is designed to remove, even if every other country, including Canada, miraculously hits its Kyoto target.
Pause for a second and reread that statement. Five Times what Kyoto would remove if every nation hits its target. Wow.
Lorrie Goldstein is taking on the Kyoto challenge and doing a great job. In this article he outlines how the biggest polluters are not included in Kyoto.
Something that I would like to add is that the Kyoto Protocol considers Saudi Arabia a “developing country” too which means the Saudis are not being penalized for pumping petroleum into the world while nations like Canada are.
For more, I urge people to read Lorrie Goldstein regularly. He is doing a good job trying to educate Torontonians on the myths surrounding Kyoto.
The problem with Kyoto
Debunking Hot Hysteria
More Kyoto Crimes
Well worth the time to read them.
Showing their true Liberal colours, Decima Research ran a poll which presented people with a HYPOTHETICAL situation as follows:
Decima Research asked people to choose between two hypothetical election promises – a $1,000 Conservative tax break for every household and a $1,000 Liberal break limited to households that took pro-environment action.
Fifty-one per cent of respondents said they would prefer the Liberal promise versus 28 per cent who preferred the Conservative pledge, say the survey results provided to The Canadian Press. Twenty-one per cent were unsure.
So the campaign promises were hypothetical, yet Decima chose the Liberals and the Conservatives and portrayed the Liberals as environmentally friendly. Why would they not choose the Green Party and the Liberals in this scenario with the Green Party being the one with the pro-environment tax break condition?
To make things worse, even if the two options were apolitical, the pro-environment tax break combination is far more appealing to anyone, not just those interested in the environment making it the easy choice for most. In fact, I am surprised that the results were not much higher for the pro-environment choice which means that half of respondents either did not like the plan or were not willing to answer. This is actually quite dramatic when you think about it.
How about we try this one. Choose between these two hypothetical campaign promises. a) The Liberal plan to offer a $1000 tax break per household or b) the Conservative plan to offer a $1000 tax break to households that take a pro-safety stance by joining their neighbourhood watch?
I think we know which option would win out there.
“I think what we’re seeing here is a signal that’s really about what kind of policies people want,” Decima CEO Bruce Anderson said in an interview.
“While they appreciate the idea of tax cuts they also appreciate that policy should be increasingly directed towards achieving environmental improvement. That’s what that 51 per cent are telling us they think.”
I think Bruce Anderson needs to revisit his polling skills if he thinks this poll was by any means fair or determinate of people’s feelings about the situation.
Aside from the claims Decima Research makes, I can safely say that this poll does give one clear indication. And that would be that Decima Research is clearly a biased pollster.
H/T to Political Staples