Lord Monckton on the End of Copenhagen

Here is the Final Wrap Up Comments

The opening comments from the interviewer is an interesting summary of The US President. But Lord Monckton seems to be stating that China has shanked the Climate Treaty. We can only hope.

Did Elizabeth May Send Him This Idea?

Your Parents F*cked Up The Planet

That's what the Green party says. It might have had an impact on the vote count in the last 4 by-elections. I wonder. 2,800 out of 95,000 cast ain't much.

Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert says it this way, with tongue in cheek, and a sense of humour.

I Woke Up Knowing What I Would Write

Then I Found Out That Friend Joshua Already Wrote It

Dear Readers, God is definitely afoot. To my post yesterday on Jim Prentice and the Canadian stand at Copenhagen, my friend Joshua writes a long comment, that was sorta about the topic, but actually was more about what I planned to write when I woke up this morning. I find this happening to me more and more each day, and so I say God is afoot.

He is a beautiful writer and has said what I planned to say better than I planned to say it. Here was his comment:

Before our first child was born, my wife and I spent hours figuring out how we would "raise" the baby.

"It's really important that a person be able to think for themselves - not just fall in with a crowd or a mob," my wife opined. Because of her own cultural background, she was highly suspicious of "popular mass political movements" especially. "Mob rule is frightening, and mobs do have actual leaders. They're called fascists, and they scare the living daylights out of me. Ungodly people from the get-go!"

So we raised our kids to not be followers of other men (as in mankind). "Whenever somebody starts pointing and shouting 'Look what's happening over there!', always rememeber to look in BOTH directions - as if you are crossing a busy street. Often, when people are told to look in one direction, it is because somebody doesn't want them looking in another direction - where the REAL IMPORTANT stuff is happening. Always give things a 'full 360' before coming to a decision. Learn to control your focus, and not let others trick you by diverting your focus to unimportant things."

Today, I'm proud to say that my kids grew up to be (let me crow!): a medical doctor currently serving in the armed forces in the Middle East; a stonemason/builder with his own business and supporting a family of five in Alberta; a young diplomat serving his country abroad. All have chosen very different paths, but they all march to the same drummer - Jehovah. Our family reunions are always brimful with love and mutual admiration and support. I always feel completely recharged after them. my wife feels the same way. Our three boys - along with a few other kids we picked up along the way - constitute our greatest accomplishment together. Every one of our kids is capable of making my wife "glow" like a young mother - it's positively weird! I see her in the middle distance talking./interacting with one or more of our children, and I see the 19-year-old girl who captured my heart with her first glance all over again. I know it sounds sappy, but there you have it. It is my belief that this is the kind of "romance" or "magic" the Holy Spirit brings to a marriage that two people have worked hard at for so long. Love and commitment to her has rendered my wife forever young in my eyes. The years have only brought more depth to her beauty.

God brings you anything you seek. But you cannot find what you seek if you don't actively LOOK for it. I always had my eye out for what is "real" and what is "true".

I wanted, and still want, "real, true love" because I wanted to be a "real, true father" to my own children. I got both - far earlier than most young men of my generation. My friends said "It'll never work." But my only living parent at the time had no doubts whatsoever that mine would prove to be an enduring marriage.

I could go on...

What does this have to do with climate or climate change?

I believe that "climate" - like charity - begins in the home. Note how often the concept of "climate and/or climate change" is linked to the word "awareness". "Awareness" ALSO starts - like charity - in the home.

Bob Dylan famously wrote: "Don't follow leaders / Watch the parking meters". Methinks Mr. and Mrs. Zimmerman did a very good job of raising young Robert.

Giving the climate change issue the "old 360", one can find as many expert "opinions" - scientific or otherwise - on one side of the debate as on the other. The truth of it is that this is a circumstance in flux, not a "truth" or a "lie".

Ultimately, of course, the only Truths that matter are God and His Divine Plan. At the individual level, the only truth that matters is finding the best way to play one's role in the fulfillment of that Plan. Finding that niche - "finding your bliss" as they say - turns your work into your pleasure and your pleasure into your service. How great a deal is THAT!?!

Oops! I think I'm rambling...

Sorry, but it's 5:55 a.m. and I've only had one teensy-weensy coffee! have a WONDERFUL SUNDAY, everybody!

Pretty deep thoughts for 5:55 am, methinks.

Jim Prentice Gets It Right

National Post Editorial Board Says So, So So It Is Sorta

The National Post Editorial Board is not a scientific group, so they can be excused for enthusiasm that is good, even if its wrong. Heck, Al Gore was enthusiastic, even if out of his tree, and despite his funky science, he did make us more aware that our environment needs our protection.

On their Editorial Board web presence today, they had this to say:

The Earth is warming, and human activity is likely to blame. Climates are changing across the world, including in Canada’s far north. In other parts of the world, some crops will fail, some species will be pressed to extinction and some low-lying territories will be flooded.

Well, not so fast there. This is far from settled science as I noted a couple of weeks ago here.Of course, so did an early commenter Daystrom to this item:

NP, you're as guilty as the unquestioning acolytes in swallowing the nonsense that passes as settled science these days. Is the earth warming? Not in the past 10 years. Human activity is likely to blame? England warmed 4 degrees from 1700-1735 whilst the earth warmed 1 degree in the 20th century - small problem here - the 4 degrees warming was before a little thing called the Industrial Revolution, you know machines, gases and stuff. Climates are changing - Greenland's glaciers have gotten thicker not thinner. Unless you mean low lying areas like the Big Easy circa 2005, the oceans have risen at most 8 inches the past century. Why, the Goracle is so concerned that he bought an oceanfront condo in San Francisco.

But as the editorial goes on to say, after a shaky start, that Copenhagen is about a money swapping agenda that Canada does not plan to partake of. It seems we intend to stand up to the whack jobs in charge of blaming industrialized nations for something that nature does mostly on its own:

But this parade of horribles cannot be used to justify any form or remedial action. Many of the proposals put forth by environmentalists would do little to stop global warming, and would simply act as transfer-payment schemes from rich countries to poor ones. As Terence Corcoran has written at great length and with great frequency in the Financial Post, many activists are exploiting concern over climate change to justify the creation of state-managed “green economies” — socialism with a Gaian face.

Environment Minister Jim Prentice is to be commended for opposing this agenda. Mr. Prentice will head Canada’s delegation to the Copenhagen conference on climate change next month and says categorically that Canada will not sign any agreements that force painful adjustments on Western countries while major polluters such as China, India and Brazil go free.

In doing so, Canada is calling the bluff of Big Green and its army of unquestioning acolytes, who conveniently overlook the fact that developing countries are responsible for almost all of the world’s growth in carbon dioxide emissions.

It is all about green, that's true. But what it is really about is transferring my green to your bank, so you can be green too. The idea makes me green with envy, or green as in bilious. This sounds so much like Elizabeth May blaming the kids of Canada' parents for F*cking up the planet. What a bunch of folderal. How's that for a cool word to describe what's going on. Folderal means: ornamental objects of no great value. Works for me.

The Europeans who have lost their minds, as much as they have lost their way, want the haves to globally pay $100 billion (that's $100,000,000,000) annually from petty cash to help developing countries adjust to this fake climate change. For those of us in Canada, it amounts to $3,000,000,000 each and every year to this wonderful cause.

As the editorial goes on to say:

Mr. Prentice treats (this proposal) with the skepticism it deserves. If that attitude makes us the target of eco-extremists and their well-oiled propaganda machine, he says, “bring it on.”

It is about time someone declared that the emperor has no clothes, and Canadians should be proud that Mr. Prentice has done so.

One commenter Robert McClelland opined as follows:

Congratulations to the National Post for finally accepting the reality on global warming and its cause. Now the Post needs to work on accepting that the industrialized world created the problem and should be the one shouldering most of the responsibility for correcting it.

$3 billion is not much of a burden for Canada especially when that money can be put to good use solving more than one problem. For example, building solar power generating stations in Africa will help reduce ghg emissions and help provide the energy Africans need to raise their standard of living which will reduce poverty. Reduced poverty in Africa will then open up new markets for our goods and services. A three for one deal.

What a comment. Too bad NP started with that idiotic first paragraph. Now we have bandwagon jumpers seeing what they think is the light of day, but it's really a fast approaching freight train in the tunnel of unsettled science.

That $3,000,000,000 per year "not much of a burden" is about $100 per person in Canada each year after taxes. Not gigantic, but it sure does not get my vote. If we believe in Mr. McClelland's 3 for 1 deal, then the last thing we need is more bureaucracy in the way of getting the money to them.

With all the government hands in the till in this one, how much of the $100,000,000,000 a year do you think would get to where it is allegedly needed? My bet on that one, is not enough to make a difference, even if one can be made. I suggest Mr. McClelland go to Africa on his dime, ie. put his own money where his mouth is, and help build some solar generating stations if he believes in this cause. If he can make a good case for it, I am prepared to donate some of my own money to the cause, and maybe even go over and help him.

Just Sayin.

Climate Change - A Young Clamourer

A Reader Writes

I'm pretty sure, I'm going to tick this one off shortly, or already did. Don't take it personally G Johns. It's not about you. It's about the rhetoric.

This comment, which is in the indents below, from G Johns came to my recent piece on Climate Change. I will excerpt it and comment back:

I corrected it on Ms. Gyapong's blog and I will correct it again. The speaker (who is far from foolish), said "We want government to change our laws." Laws, not lives.

I don't know if Deborah got it wrong. She is pretty smart, and has been a journalist for more than a few weeks, so I'm sticking with her reporting. However, let's say the speaker said what the commenter wrote me. If you don't think that the laws of this land, and those that the alleged smart ones who want to fix what their parents busted, want enacted will change our lives, continue to delude yourself. I have almost 60 years of service to this land and planet in, as does Deborah, so I am not impressed either way.

The planet is going to be ok. Your grandchildren and even children are the ones to be worried about. Sadly, recycling, and CFL bulbs, and an aversion to gas guzzlers is not even marginally enough to address the problem at hand.

I don't recall saying that it would address "the problem at hand." By the way, what is the real "problem at hand?"

I challenge you to find any "settled science," period. Perhaps other than laws like gravity. In the case of the climate crisis, it would appear that you need to actually review the science and also identify where the funding comes from for any of the very few dissenting pieces.

Mr/Ms Johns your delusion is showing, also your background in arts, rather than sciences. There are not a few dissenting pieces. There are a lot of scientists who have spoken out about the real science, not the junk science of Al Gore, whose honorary Ph.D in Climatology stands for Piled High and Deeper. Inconvenient Truth was more Inconvenient than True. Wake Up Call, Yes. Fact, not as much.

The scientists, who have not been shut up for disagreeing with the alleged settled science, seem to believe that 95% of CO2 emissions are in nature, and that the sun and earth's placement have a more significant influence on temperature than CO2 for starters.

When we are force fed a certain diet of stuff about Climate Change to the point where it becomes a religion, I get my back up. It gets to be a "Been There. Done That" thing. So jump on your band wagon if you will. I am a skeptic.

In response to comment 1: Correct - "Did you READ...?" The media will do anything to create a controversy, even make up nonsense like that. There would be no benefit to Jeh covering himself in fake blood. The protest was not about brutality, but rather the fact that the House of Commons is actively delaying any progress on adequate climate action.

I want what I want when I want it.

Please don't patronize the young. Please don't tell us that we have set our ambitions too high. Our ambitions are simply to survive the mess that has been left to us.

I knew when I said that myself about 40 years ago, that it might come back to haunt me. And around we go. Your ambitions are not too high. Your knowledge is too low.

To quote a great woman, "Those were our children we threw out of the House of Commons today. Those were the best, the brightest, the most dedicated, the most responsible young adults in Canada. [...] And that is heartbreaking. That is a sad statement on democracy."

I wante dto figure out who that great woman was. Well, that great woman is Green Party Leader Elizabeth May. If, in fact they were the best and brightest, it might be time to move folks. They were the ones who agreed with her and her latest campaign slogan that says: Your parents f*cked up the planet. It's time to do something about it. Live green. Vote green." This is recycled from my youth. And around we go.

How old will you be in 2050?

Last question to me. Well, smart one, you do the math. The facts to calculate it are up above.

However, I like what Debora Gyapong said in her Fill the Hill piece:

Back to the rally. How I remember those things when I was younger and yearning for, er, something transcendent, bigger than myself.

At the end of the rally, they taught everyone to use their arms like the hands on the face of a clock to "Tck Tck Tck" towards doomsday or something because the level of carbon in the atmosphere has risen to 390 ppm, when it should be 350 ppm and unless we dial things back, life as we know it on the planet will be unsustainable.

So, here were these 2,000 people all tilting like windmills. They were supposed to be in unison.

But they weren't. They seemed to be having a lot of fun.

I dunno. I would feel silly doing something like that. But then I'm 60.
Back in the day, I chanted, "One two three four, we don't want you f*cking war."
I hope I never chanted "No justice, No peace" Ugh. I hate that almost as much as I hate the "Hey hey, ho, ho blah blah blah has got to go."

These were mostly nice Canadian kids with a smattering of old lefties.

In a way it makes me a little sad because the "collective" is no replacement for "communion."

And environmentalism ---I don't know---there is a big difference between wanting to be a good steward of your environment vs. wanting some big government scheme to take control over your life to socially engineer radical equality.

Thanks Deborah for the sanity check.

Musing on CO2 Emissions

Wondering

Tonight on the local news was an article that I only partially caught. In it the news reader referenced a new book out about the carbon footprints of animals, or more appropriately the carbon fartprints of animals.

I was laughing too hard to take it seriously, and missed most of it, but I'm OK, didn't really hurt myself. The floor is soft, and I missed the coffee table narrowly, in a gale of laughter.

It seems that animal flatulence is a serious problem for climate change phobes. I have a friend who can clear a room, and often does. If they find out, whoever they are, they'll probably want him tested, and maybe put down.

Apparently, 2 pet hamsters have the same carbon fartprint as a plasma television set. Well, we don't have pet hamsters, and don't even own a plasma TV. We are a little behind in the technology of entertainment, so are we better than 2 hamsters, or do the old TVs break wind like 4 hamsters, or even more? Inquiring minds are asking.

Now, in fairness to hamsters, Dan Fink worked on a way to make his hamster carbon neutral as it were. Skippy is a Syrian hamster, and was selected because of his energy and nocturnal habit of running on his wheel all fricking night long. Fink, being no fink, tried many things but eventually succeeded, sort of. As reported here:

Finally, after Fink glued 14 magnets to a steel ring and fashioned two coils out of 30-gauge wire, he mounted the whole contraption on Skippy's cage. He then hooked up two LED lights to the alternator. Together, they shone bright enough for Fink to find the bathroom in the dead of night. And even though the little rodent was voltage-deficient, "he had torque to spare," Fink says, so he added another light, and another, the resistance increasing with each new load. He got up to six lights before Skippy showed any fatigue.

No report on the impact that the magnets and exposure to electromagnetic fields are having on Skippy yet.

But, there is some question about cow farting, and how to reduce it. It seems that animals, of which cows are a big one, both individually and collectively, contribute 30% of the methane in the atmosphere. Also, the international meat industry, as a whole, or as a hole, produces 18% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. See this blog item here.

Ronald Reagan who was my kind of US President, because he made no pretensions about the fact that he was an actor and not a really good one, unlike others who are just bad actors, but deny it, apparently had thoughts on global warming years ago as referenced in the blog item linked above:

About 30 percent of the methane in the atmosphere results from microbial action in animals' digestive tracts. This prompted Ronald Reagan's dismissive comment that humans couldn't be held accountable for global-warming gases (of which methane is the most potent), because the most significant source is bovine flatulence.

As contemporary critics noted, however, Reagan overlooked the fact that animal husbandry has vastly increased the number of cattle, making cow farts very much a human-influenced commodity.

I frankly don't know what to make of it, but do not intend to fret or lose sleep. I just find it interesting, because next they (them again) will realise that trees and other plants are big contributors to CO2 emissions, during their life cycle and also when they decay.

I think that I will just put on my tin foil hat, and wait for The Visitors.

Climate Change - Fact, Fiction or Human Right

The Young Are Clamouring

I am not a global warming, climate change freak. We recycle, use those funny light bulbs, drive fuel efficient cars that we keep tuned, and leave our RV parked most of the time to conserve. We do other stuff too, in hopes that there will be a planet left for our grandchildren. But, I am not certain that there is any settled science about this issue either.

But, some of the rhetoric is starting to get to me.

Deborah Gyapong attended the Fill The Hill demonstration at the Parliament Buildings on the weekend. I wonder if it was more Fool on the Hill. She has this to say about it.
Deborah Gyapong: Fill the Hill demonstration on Climate Change

There she heard this pearl of wisdom.

One of the speakers said, "We don't want government to tell us to change our light bulbs. WE WANT GOVERNMENT TO CHANGE OUR LIVES."

That one was definitely a Fool on the Hill. The government has been changing our lives for ever. If it worked we would not be calling for more of it now, would we?

Now, over in Nova News today is an article titled "Wolfville student part of Canadian delegation for climate change". Thea Whitman, the grad student of the article went out on a limb with this quote:

Climate change has shown itself to be far more than an environmental issue: it’s a human rights issue. The consequences of climate change are already affecting livelihoods of people around the world, Whitman says, including Canada’s vulnerable northern communities.

So, now this unsettled science, and it is every bit that, is also a Human Right. Fortunately, she is over on the right coast, and maybe Barb Hall, who can make anything a human right will not hear it. The last thing that Barb needs is a new windmill to tilt at, because her boss, Dolton McGuff thinks that her sh?t doesn't stink. Now that's climate change for you.

I love the energy of our young people. This generation is going to cure all the ills of the world, just like we were going to, and likely with the same success we had. Too bad, they like us are being lied to.

I don't want to curb their enthusiasm, because that is an energy that should be used for good. Of course, climate change stuff like Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" are considered gospel, even if Gore himself doesn't live it. Opinions or science that does not support the principles of Inconvenient Truth is the actual inconvenient truth.

Take for example the Wall Street Journal report here claiming factually that the earth's temperatures have been going down for 12 years, reporting on the BBC item here.

There, of course is other scientific evidence that says that there is a lot of smoke and mirrors in this whole climate change thing, that the sun and not CO2 is the big determinant of temperature. Duh, never saw that one coming. And, of course the facts that 95% of all CO2 emissions are not man made, but from nature.

I am not in the least in favour of polluting our environment. Heck, I'll wear a CO2 catcher in my
underwear if it will help, and on that topic, I have read that cow flatulence is a big contributor to CO2 in the air. And I know that their sh?t stinks. I've spent enough time on dairy farms to know that.

But, let's think before we speak, and find out the truth. I think we are being lied to.