What can I do about the "man-made global warming" hysteria? ...before the politicians rush into something?
If you don't believe our politicians are scientifically (and economically) morons, here's what they've done lately:
2005: a Republican Congress sent to Republican President George W(hatmeworry?) Bush an energy bill that resulted in 7 BILLION gallons of corn-based ethanol in 2007. In 2007, we diverted 25% of our corn crop from FOOD to ethanol. The price of wheat tripled in three years after the 2005 Energy Bill. Surprise?
Are your food prices going up? You're lucky. People in China and Africa are starving. But we're saving the planet, right?
Pay attention! No, regardless of what anyone believes about CO2, we're NOT saving the planet with ethanol. Princeton's Timothy Searchinger et al, Science, 2008 demonstrates that biofuels produce more CO2 than they save. Ethanol is a loser for everyone except Big Agriculture (Archer Daniels Midland etc), which benefit enormously from Federal subsidies for its production. Searchinger said that:
"We found that corn-based ethanol, instead of producing a 20% savings of carbon dioxide, nearly doubles greenhouse gas emissions over 30 years and increases greenhouse gases for 167 years."
Now, I'm sceptical that CO2 causes global warming, so I think it's stupid to waste food to reduce CO2. But, even if you believe CO2 causes warming, does wasting food to produce MORE CO2 make sense??
President Obama has now released his budget plan going forward; it includes a section called "Climate Revenues." In 2012, President Obama expects to collect $79 billion (79x10^9) in carbon tax. It's not called "carbon tax", of course; politicians - especially accomplished liars like Obama - never raise taxes. This will be a "Cap and Trade" arrangement. Every company in the US will be authorized a limit of how much carbon dioxide (CO2) it can produce ("emit"). Permission to emit more will require buying unused "carbon credits" from a company that doesn't use all its allowance, or buying carbon credits on the international market, from Russia, Saudi, Podunk, etc. Or from Al Gore.
This will be, of course, a future cost of doing business in the US. That cost will be passed to us, the consumers - 300 million of us US suckers. $79 billion divided by 300 million Americans = $263/person. A family of four will pay a little more than $1000 in 2012, in increased costs for everything, in order to "save the Planet from Global Warming."
By 2014, according to Obama's budget, the Cap and Trade windfall for our Federal politicians will rise to $237 billion. That's three times as much, or $3000/year for a family of four. By 2019, the income to Obama and friends will be (according to Obama) $646 billion. Of course, there will be fewer Americans to pay this cost, since some of us will have moved to China, India, and Brazil where our jobs will go. They're exempt from the Kyoto Treaty and limits on CO2 emissions. Only Americans, under Obama's leadership, will get screwed.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under Obama, is proposing to declare CO2 a "dangerous pollutant" leading to "global warming" and therefore a threat to the health of everyone. They are required to solicit comments from the public. If you wish to email them, here's the address:
GHG-Endangerment-Docket@epa.gov
In the “subject” line of your email, put the following:
“Comments directed to Docket ID No.EPA-HQ-OAR-2009-0171”
Then at the very beginning of your email, say the same thing again:
“Comments directed to Docket ID No.EPA-HQ-OAR-2009-0171”
Don't want to get screwed out of everything you own? Tell these people. The ones with a watermelon next to his/her name is a Democrat ("green on the outside, red on the inside"). Here's how to contact YOUR politicians:
Senator Udall at here
Senator Bennett at here
US House of Representatives at
here
Colorado representatives are:
Diana deGette (D) Zip 80224
Jared Polis Zip (D) Zip 80303
Betsy Markey (D) Zip 80524, 80631
Ed Perlmutter (D) Zip 80215
John Salazar (D) Zip 81301, 81501 ????????Watermelon??????????
Mike Coffman (R) Zip 80111
Doug Lamborn (R) Zip 81211
Governor Ritter at
President Obama and/or Vice-President Biden at
In general, you can find a contact point for any politician through Google
Google Individual politicians (e.g., Rep Nancy Pelosi) may not accept email from someone outside their district, but will accept as a member of a committee or office (e.g., Speaker Pelosi).
The Media
The Denver Post
here
Channel 4 (CBS)
here
Channel 7 (ABC)
here
Channel 9 (NBC)
here
Channel 31 (Fox)
here
"How do you know when politicians are lying? Their lips are moving."
here
here
Rev. 27 Dec 2008