Monday, December 10, 2007

Where's that global warming?

...it's 46 degrees here right now. Good-size storms have been roughing up various parts of the country. It was snowing in Oslo, Norway as Al Gore got his Nobel Prize and delivered his standard monotone speech about the "planetary emergency."

Oh, yeah...it's winter, or damn near it.



Interesting. I suppose Big Al is even now jetting off to Bali for the UN's massive global warming whinge-fest after jetting to Oslo from wherever he was last delivering his "message." For which "message," by the way, he extracts a handsome fee. You could live happily for a year on the proceeds from one Gore-blast.

I'm listening to a radio commercial right now for the new Chevrolet "Volt," an electric car for which there are no efficient batteries. Chevy has claimed we can Volt it (driving no more than 40 miles a day, which disqualifies most Californian drivers) by 2010, maybe.

Where will the Volt get its volts? In large measure, from coal-fired powerplants. Same is true for Honda's new "non-polluting" fuel-cell car. It is a law of physics that it takes energy to produce energy. The only "free lunch" in transportation is walking. And walkers need to consume energy, too.

Imagine yourself afflicted by a dangerous disease. Can you be cured by paying off people who don't have the disease?

Ummm...no.

Global warming is the same. It can be "cured" -- or at least mitigated -- by some relatively simple treatments, steps that would benefit even those who don't believe it's a serious problem. Extracting guilt-money from everyday people (do you really think you won't pay, in one way or another, for the "carbon offsets" companies and government drones buy for themselves) may make Al feel good (and richer!), but will have no beneficial results.

Conserve. Recycle. Reduce your use of non-renewable resources. Do a 10% better job than you do today and, if others do likewise, the improvements will be noticeable.

If only we can shut down the Gore-scam and keep his fat ass out of private jets and Chevy Suburbans, the improvements in quality of life will be even more apparent.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Al Gore is an idiot.

Anonymous said...

We are iffy on the whole global warming issue - thinking maybe just maybe is a cyclical sort of thing - but we have started recycling newspapers and taking our own bags to grocery shop. We tried the fancy curvy light bulb but found it provided crappy light and we couldn't read the "green" articles we were collecting.

Where do they recycle those giant batteries? in the "green" cars?

Anonymous said...

I love this post. :)

Betty

MrScribbler said...

dkmcb01 -- some of the materials in the "new" batteries will be very difficult to deal with. I suppose ways will be found to recycle 'em, but it's not happening now from what I hear.

I know some people love the LED light bulbs. I'm tempted to try them out.

Anonymous said...

By my calculations, just controlling Big Al's flatulence should save the polar ice cap. For that bit of original thinking don't you think I deserve a Nobel prize, too? :)

S

Dorrie said...

I despise those new lightbulbs with a passion! As Kelly mentioned, they give lousy light... and I hear that the production of them is worse for the climate then the old bulbs!

MrScribbler said...

Birdie -- If you don't mind having little blobs of mercury floating around if you break one of 'em -- or in landfills when they finally burn out -- and can put up with less light and more cost, those "green" bulbs are just dandy.

Charlestonjoan said...

We all should be doing our part whether or not it will make a climate difference. Taking care of the earth only makes sense.

MrScribbler said...

Joan -- I agree completely! I will do what I can, but I will not let fat blobs who are using scare tactics to make personal fortunes tell me I must "sacrifice."