Climate Change Bill Faces Hurdles in the Senate

Global warming Cap and Trade bill

Al Gore and his followers are pushing a hoax on the American people. It reminds me of the Sky is falling story that I heard when I was a child.

The primary source of energy for our planet is the sun. Puny man cannot cause any significant change to the climate of this earth, unless several nations were to detonate numerous large nuclear weapons. It certainly will not be affected by this rather silly "cap and Trade" bill.

We have begun to build Nuclear power plants again. We need more. These are the best answer to replace power plants that use fossil fuels. Western Europe produces about 75% of their electric power from Nuclear plants. We produce only 20% of our power from Nuclear plants. We were foolish to limit our construction to 20%. We could have prevented the purchase of tremendous amounts of oil from OPEC by simply building more nuclear plants. There is no valid reason to have held off building our Nuclear plant capacity to at least 80% over the last 35 years. We enriched the OPEC countries and did great financial harm to country. We also would have prevented the release of a very huge amount of carbon into the atmosphere. Remember, Nuclear plants release no Carbon, Nitrogen, Sulfur, Clorine, etc. into the air.

We have the Coal and Uranium, just not the Common Sense

The US is home some 28.9% of the world's coal deposits (238,308,000,000 tons) and some 6% of the world's known Uranium reserves (342,000 tons), yet we don't use those resources due to the hysteria of Man-Made Global Warming and the anti-nuclear nuts. We could easily be energy independent if we switched to coal and nuclear and quit burning oil in power plants with the above listed resources. It's the easiest solution to the problem, the most practical and the most cost efficient. Combined with drilling for our own oil, we'd no longer need to import anything to speak of, perhaps limiting trade with Canada and letting OPEC nations stir in their own juice. The problem as mentioned is the 'Green Machine' and it's puppets, such as Gore and to a lesser extent Obaman. Between 10 and 20 years from now, we will all (well all with common sense) look back at this time period and mock ourselves for our foolishness.

Cap and Tax

The House abomination bill will not create green jobs and is a convoluted bill as is most everything coming out of the House. Wind farms are going in the tank and there is a probem with solar technology according to some of the latest research.

I drove by a large wind turbine farm a couple of weeks ago and not a single turbine was turning and it was a cloudiy day; so any alternative solar would have been a bust also. So, smarty-pants congressmen, don't dump fossil fuels too soon and the emerging technologies there that have expanded reserves, such as extraction capabilities to obtain natural gas from shale formations.

Can every household in America afford an increase of $1500-7,000 per year to heat, cool, and turn on the lights? Not when Hussein Obama has seen over 2 million lost jobs since he swept into office and rushed through the Stimulus Bill that has only approved 53 Billion dollars thus far. The other 730 Billion went for social and political projects.

Progressives Harming Alternative Energy

{rogressives, in their naïveté, are ensuring America will lose even building on alternative energy. For years now progressives have been blocking carbon based energy development while promoting alternative energy. A world powered by wind, wave, solar, and advanced electronics they told us will make America energy self-reliant, and no longer a pawn of the Middle East. All the while, these progressives and similarly minded courts blocked US based mining of minerals, and both conservative and progressive politicians have so indebted America we’re losing control over our own assets. As written in USN&WR, this now has set the stage for a major conflict. China, flush with American cash from our spending spree and continued borrowing, now controls about 97% of the world’s rare earth metals. What China doesn’t control from domestic production, they’ve bought up in other countries, including America, and now China is cutting exports. What are rare earth metals, and who cares you ask? Well these 17 elements are essential ingredients for many of the high tech components necessary for consumer electronics, lighter weight permanent magnets as used in electrical generation, weapons systems, aircraft, and some rechargeable batteries such as used in electric vehicles. If you have a Blackberry, LED TV, or cell phone, rare earth metals are contained within. It is believed that soon after 2012 China will consume all the available production of rare earth metals thus making virtually none available for foreign based manufacturing – meaning, American commercial and military productions may be out of this key ingredient. Once again America is held hostage to a resource supplier, this time China.

How often have you heard that mining and oil drilling are bad and that we can develop alternatives that will drive our economy and make our lives better? What future do you think exists for our children when we have no fossil fuels to rely upon because we refused to invest in their extraction, and the alternative energy we were told would save us, becomes too expensive to mass produce? What will we do when the only wind turbine supplier is China, and our money has devalued to the point we can’t buy any? Our likely future results from politicians who don’t understand science or economics. What is certain is that they understand lobbyists and political dealing. Their financial futures likely already are secure, but the same cannot be said for our children. The only chance we have is for the public to wake up and understand that our future is in American self-reliance – not government control. We must accept that survival means being producers – from the raw materials, to advanced components, to finished products. We must stop relying upon a dysfunctional government and career politicians to bail us or anyone else out with our own money.

Global Warming???

There is no evidence what so ever that human activities create global warming. Records do not exist (except as anecdotes), climate changes cyclically and in the last ten years average global temperatures are going down. More than half scientists (whos contracts do not involve government funding) do not believe in this garbage. Our politicians (mostly democrats but some equally stupid republicans) have no idea about science. They are lawyers for God sake. By the way pollution over Beijing has absolutely nothing to do with temperature and everything to do with air quality. By the way, ask average person what he will prefer - unemployment or slightly polluted air and you probably will not be surprised to here that jobs take precedent.

So - STOP CONGRESS FROM KILLING JOBS AND INCREASING TAXATION

Air Pollution is not evidence of 'man-made' Global Warming

The pollution over Beijing and other East Asian cities has nothing to do whatsoever with increased levels of CO2, let alone a sign of 'man-made' Global Warming. It has to do with either poor or completely lacking filters on smokestacks, whether they are from factories or power plants. The US went through that same kind of period in the 60s and 70s when emissions were some half as high as they are now. Despite carbon emissions doubling in the US over the past 40 years, the air quality has improved because of implementing filters.

According to the 2003 World Almanac and Book of Facts, as of 1970, the US emitted 445,709,000 tons (891,418,000,000 pounds) of 'airborne pollutants,' a figure which dropped to 179,460,000 tons (358,920,000,000 pounds) in 2000, or a 148.4% decrease, despite the fact that the population of the US increased from 203,302,031 in 1970 to 281,421,906 in 2000 or a 38.4% increase. All in all that is a 243.8% decrease in tons of pollutant per person over that 30 year period. China is at the 1970 stage with regard to its airborne pollutants, or slightly before. With proper filtering, China can expect similar decreases in the amount of smog, soot and other airborne particles which are hazardous to health.

For the record, the 'airborne pollutants' in question are Lead, Carbon Monoxide, Nitrous Oxide, Sulfur Dioxide, Particulate matter (soot and other small particles) and Volatile Organic Compounds (fumes such as those released by gasoline and paint). Ozone, and thus smog is formed by the reaction between Nitrous Oxide and or Volatile Organic Compounds and solar radiation.

In summery, there is no coloration between airborne pollutants and CO2, let alone it being a sign of 'global warming.' It is a sign of early industrialization, nothing more.

In response to the skepticism

I'd encourage the skeptics over the man-made climate change to think of the sky in Beijing.

The current consumption of dirty, noxious energy reminds me of human smoking habit

Global Warming

I apologize for my use of here where hear should appear in my previous comment.

Re Global Warming Controversy

Why, in all the hand-wringing discussions, debates, symposiums, ad nauseam, do we here little to no comprehensive discussions as to what role "Mother Nature" plays in this whole scenario.

It has been only 35 years since the big scare was global cooling. At least one proposed solution to this problem was to somehow launch huge quantities of carbon dioxide into space.

Now my favorite question to fans of man-made global warming: What do you suppose caused global warming that followed the last ice age?

The only Green in the Green movement is that of Money

Indeed, there is no evidence for man-made Global Warming, it is the new 'fad,' and it has so many holes in it that if one scratches the surface it completely falls apart. It is driven by special interest groups such as 'green' companies, the environmentalists, scientists looking for an easy, low-workload and high paying career and politicians who seek to get elected through fear. The Earth's climate is best summed up by Dr. Tim Patterson "The only real constant about climate is change. It changes continually."

For those who are interested, the facts which deal the greatest blows to the whole man-made Global Warming theory are the following:

-The average temperature of the Earth has not risen since 1998, in fact it has fallen despite increased carbon emissions

-Carbon Dioxide levels have always followed temperature changes, not caused them

-The sharp rise in global temperatures in the 90s corresponds exactly to the 1989-1992 shutting down of half of the world's then 12,000 weather monitoring stations, mainly in Russia and Canada

-Temperature increases have been observed on Mars and elsewhere in the Solar System

-Water Vapor is responsible for 95% of the Greenhouse Effect, none of which is man-made

-Carbon Dioxide is responsible for 3% of the Greenhouse Effect, of which less than 4% is man-made

-During the 20th century, more warming occurred prior to 1950 than after it, despite the fact that emissions being drastically smaller prior to the post WWII economic 'boom'.

-The temperature during the past 10,000 years have been unusually stable, the climate normally fluctuates far more often, thus making the beginning of a warming period seem natural

-There is a strong correlation between the temperatures of the past 250 years and the sunspot cycle

-The East Antarctic Ice Cap, home to 70% of the world's ice has been growing since 1970

-The Greenland Ice Cap, home to 5% of the world's ice is the same size now as it was in 1920

Now I have heard counter-arguments that 1998 was a 'fluke year' and that '10 years is too short of a time span to say that Global Warming has stopped.' However these same people were the ones who in 1998 were saying that 'this is the year of proof,' 'See, our models are right,' 'this is it.' As time continues to pass with little temperature change and a continuing rising CO2 level, support for this theory will decrease, albeit gradually as the 'Green' movement and their allies have a lot of money invested in it.

In time, the truth will come out and the Greens will be chastised for being the radicals that they are, while people such as Gore will be shunned. It can't come too soon for those of us who are not of the 'sheep mentality' willing to believe everything an 'expert' tells us, for Hitler had many 'experts' telling the population about racial theories....and people believed them.