At Home in Hespeler

Climate change should be the thing that we are all worried and concerned about as humans on this planet, how we affect the planet, our consumption, and how we treat the place that we live in.

will.i.am – Oxford University.

Seems like hypocrisy, but you would be wrong. Flying to a climate change debate in a private “hip.hop.copter,” burning “71.5 gallons of fuel, ploughing three-quarters of a tonne of CO2” for a 286 mile trip and preaching about, how we affect the planet, our consumption is actually OK:

…he’s committed to the issues and he’s written songs about it.’

So you see, it’s not what you do, it’s what you sing that counts.

Actually, isn’t it having a big f’in helicopter that counts?

Update: a small correction was made: quote was closed after the word CO2.

Welcome readers of Small Dead Animals.

Global Warming, Going... Going... Gone Nuts For The Environment Global Warming, Myles Allen, Oxford, will.i.am

I love Kate. There, I said it. It’s out there. I… Love … Kate.

There’s nothing more for it than to admit that up front. She has the best blog going, saying so much with one or two sentences, a subtle joke and a link. A video and a headline can say so much. And usually, she is right on top of things. And then there’s that picture of her working on a bike… in shorts…

This time, however, she is a year and a half behind the curve. And while it’s nice that NewBusters is on the environmental refugee non-event (“Rising sea levels, desertification and shrinking freshwater supplies will create up to 50 million environmental refugees…”), I was on top of this file in Dec, 2009, where I intoned, “… it’s going to be a hell of a month”

But unlike The Guardian or Al Gore, I provided actual evidence of my theory, proof that environmental refugees were real and living among us. Yes, in December 2009, I ran Environmental Refugee Week. Here was my list of environmental refugees:

1. Sarah Palin
2. Sanata Claus
3. The Phoenix Coyotes
4. Barack Obama

It’s lonely at the bottom, but when your other true love can’t hear you yelling up to her on her pedestal, it makes for a long, cold 17 months. Thank God I had climate change to keep me warm.

Global Warming, Going... Going... Gone Nuts For The Environment Environmental refugees, Global Warming

Who said what again?

Back in 2007 I asked, would you stop driving for 12c a litre?

Elizabeth May thinks you would. I wonder. Hasn’t the price of gas gone up more than 12c a litre this year? What has it stopped you from doing?

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. Sixty cents a litre is the starting point for serious reduction. This is just a smooth trick to get carbon taxes in play, they’ll adjust accordingly later. And we all know how hard it is to get governments to adjust down.

The Pembina Institute says British Columbia should increase its trendsetting carbon tax to $200 per tonne of CO2 emissions, equivalent to a 48-cent surcharge in the price of gasoline, if it’s serious about addressing climate change.

Carbon Tax, Economic Fundamentalism, Global Warming, Going... Going... Gone Nuts For The Environment British Columbia, Carbon Tax, Elizabeth May, John Baird, Stephane Dion

shovel it:

BRITAIN is heading for more snow storms and travel chaos as sub-zero temperatures grip the country.

The cold snap is set to continue for the week with conditions plummeting as low as minus 12 in some areas, says the Met Office.

Parts of Kent and East Anglia saw up to 20cm of snow last night

Global Warming Climategate, east anglia, kent, snow

Born, depending on whom you listen to, in Hawaii or Kenya, Barack Obama has been an environmental refugee for years.

The Sea Level Rising Behind Barack Obama

If you accept the Kenya hypothesis, Obama realized early in life that desertification was coming and left to find water, where he settled in Hawaii, Indonesia and back to Hawaii. If you accept the born in Hawaii hypothesis, the young Obama just travelled a lot. What’s clear is that in 1979 he saw the risks of living on an island in a warming, water rising world and headed for the mainland.

Landing in Los Angeles in 1979, Obama soon realized that Los Angeles was sure to burn down, fall over and sink into the ocean. New York was next, where the young Obama studied at Columbia before learning that Manhattan would also sink when the ocean levels rose. In 1984, Barack Hussein Obama, environmental refugee, landed in Chicago well away from the ravages of desertification or soggy menace of rising oceans.

Other than some winters in Boston, where he studied law, Obama stayed in Chicago until last year, when he moved to Washington DC. Still safe from the menace of global warming, Barack Obama has finally settled, finally found peace in an ever warming world.

Global Warming, Going... Going... Gone Nuts For The Environment, Uncategorized

Desertification. You’ll hear that phrase a lot as you start to meet the environmental refugees. Phoenix, a mere 350 miles from the Pacific Ocean is experiencing desertification. So close to all that potential precipitation, yet Phoenix gets an average 8.3 inches. There is only one explanation: global warming. Disagree if you want, but with an average daily temperature of 72 degrees (106 in July), what else can you call that but warm?

Global Warming, Going... Going... Gone Nuts For The Environment desertification, Global Warming, Hamilton, Jim Balsillie, Moses, Phoenix Coyotes

The North Pole: Santa’s workshop; deer with fur coats; Polar Bears drinking Coke; Abominable Snow Monsters with abscessed teeth. A way of life is disappearing with the glaciers. The Snow Monster hasn’t been seen alive in 45 years, the polar bears are dying off at a rate that can’t be explained by obesity and juvenile diabetes alone. And Santa’s workshop is now Santa’s surf and sand, where the elves stay busy waxing Santa’s board and fanny banging tequila and sprite. It all sounds too fantastic: a man who used to need a sleigh and magic reindeer can now surf at his own back door. Alas it’s true.

Global Warming, Going... Going... Gone Nuts For The Environment, Uncategorized

One day, Sarah Palin woke up, put on the coffee (fair trade, naturally), looked out the window and said to no one in particular, “where the hell did the glaciers go?“

It’s true, the glaciers are melting at an alarming rate and Alaska is surrounded by cold water. Two-hundred and thirteen communities are threatened by inland creeping tides. Sarah Palin, former mayor, governor and author has recently turned up in Hong Kong, New York, Chicago,  Grand Rapids, Cincinnati, Roanoke, Dallas andSioux Falls, SD running from the catastrophic effects of global warming: run Sarah run.

Global Warming, Going... Going... Gone Nuts For The Environment, Uncategorized

Here in Canada when Stephen Harper and Dalton McGuinty decided to ban incandescent light bulbs and force the public to use compact fluorescent bulbs (CFB’s), there was nary a peep of complaint. Oh, a few of us bloggers stepped up with some concerns.  But few seemed to really care, and far too many concluded that a little liberty was irrelevant in the face of what was good for us.

In Britain, however, the bulbs are coming off the shelves, and it’s not going over very well:

Revolt! Robbed of their right to buy traditional light bulbs, millions are clearing shelves of last supplies.

Millions of Britons are finally waking up to the fact that their beloved light bulb will disappear for good after 120 years.

Traditional 100-watt bulbs are vanishing from the High Street because of a controversial European Union decision.

Yesterday panic buyers were snapping up the remaining bulbs in a last-ditch attempt to stockpile the final supplies. Hundreds of leading supermarkets and DIY chains – including Sainsbury’s, Asda and Homebase – have already sold their last remaining bulbs after a surge in panic buying.

In Europe they took a slightly different approach, banning incandescent bulbs incrementally, 150 Watts first, now 100 Watts. Next up, 60 Watts, &tc.

And as Michael Hanlon points out, much like I did earlier, the environmental benefits are dubious. I particularly like this part:

Then there is their lifespan, because turning them on and off dramatically shortens the working life of the electronic circuits.

If a CFL is switched on and off frequently, it will probably not last any longer than an incandescent lamp, and in any case CFLs become less bright as they age.

Tell me about it. I put some in my living room last year, and am already replacing them.  But in the EU, mercury is banned as toxic, yet they will force every home owner to fill their light sockets with… mercury. I said it last May:

The mandatory conversion to CFBs is going to be a travesty, and in ten years we will be calling them an environmental menace.

I stand by that statement, even if the Daily Mail agrees.

Note: I use the term CFB’s (compact fluorescent bulbs). some, however, including the Daily Mail, use the term CFL’s (compact fluorescent lights).

Global Warming, Going... Going... Gone Nuts For The Environment, it's not easy being green, pimply minions of bureaucracy

To: Mortal inhabitants of Earth
From: the offices of Beezulbub, Belial, Lucifer and Apollyon
Hell inc.

The rulers of Hell are pleased to announce, in conjunction with the David Suzuki Foundation, the first expansion of the borough of Hell, and it’s surrounding environs.

Pending environmental study, hell will be increasing it’s boundary’s to include a full new, tenth level. Tentatively called Deritus, the new level will be eternal home to global warming deniers and other environmental abasers.

Deritus will be guarded by a three headed bureaucrat, Suzukibus. The three heads of Suzukibus shall be named Amplify, Apply and Abuse. Inhabitants will spend eternity in the over-heated environs of hell, where they will be continually told, “it’s not hot,” “nothing wrong with a little heat,” and “don’t worry, an ice age is just around the corner.” They will further be made to sort unrecycled garbage into recyclables (paper & plastic), compostables and landfill.

Hell inc. and The David Suzuki Foundation are excited by this opportunity to join together in meting eternal punishment to any and all who dare oppose the opinion as given to them by David Suzuki Ph.D.

Signed
Satan, Lord of the Underworld
Suzuki, lord it over you.

Global Warming, Going... Going... Gone Nuts For The Environment, sazuki-ism

Remember the caterwauling when John Baird released his Kyoto report, and Elizabeth May said a carbon tax would not need to be anywhere near the $195 a tonne the report said, and Stephan Dion said no carbon tax was necessary, a $20 tonne deposit system was all that was needed?

Liberal Leader Stephan Dion also rejected the $195 figure as excessive, saying that his party proposes a $20-per-tonne “deposit” instead of a tax.

“It’s a deposit that the companies will have to give to the environmental bank — and they will have this money back if they decrease their emissions,” Dion told Question Period co-host Jane Taber.

“It’s like when you have your bottle of Coca-Cola and you bring it back to the grocery store. You get your money back. It’s not a tax.”

Not a tax. That has been Stephan Dion’s line from the start. No Carbon tax.

If that is true, why did Dion’s Industry Critic and co-chair of the Liberal Party of Canada’s election platform committee, Scott Brison, pen an article today in which he says: “It is clear that… governments eventually will put a price on carbon.”

What is a price on carbon, put their by governments, but a carbon tax? Dress it up however you want, but Scott Brison called a carbon tax a sure thing. And since he’s helping write their platform, we must assume it’s now Liberal policy.

Carbon Tax, Global Warming, Going... Going... Gone Nuts For The Environment, Kyoto

When it comes to global warming, there are three questions you need to ask yourself:

1. Is the global climate warming?
2. Will it be catastrophic?
3. Is it anthropomorphic (man made).

If you answered no to any or all of the above questions, then continue on with life. If, however, you answered yes, yes and well… yes, STOP! what you are doing and fix it now.

You see, those who believe, they are coming, and they will try to change everything. And equivocators, who want to straddle the fence, are emboldening them.

How else to explain such a piece as Pat Watson’s in todays Toronto Sun: Will It Be Your Money Or Your Life?

And sure we can assuage our guilt by throwing our empty plastic water bottles into the recycling bins and switching to compact fluorescent bulbs. But what we need to get into our “new” way of thinking is that trying to do the old actions with some slight new twist is not really going to turn this behemoth around. It’s not recycling bottles and plastics that will really help, but not using them at all.

Plastic — and there are myriad products made from it — is a petroleum by-product. And while it has revolutionized the consumer industry, it has put us in all kinds of peril. Take a look at the rising incidence of cancer worldwide and the relationship between that and the chemicals found in plastic products.

What is so frustrating is there is a critical mass emerging that wants change and wants to change, but the system of our lives is so tied to subsequent environmental damage that it will take more than separating our garbage into different bins to make it happen.

Critical Mass emerging? That’s you equivocators. Eliminate plastic, even though it has revolutionized, not just the consumer industry, but the world. (What is the consumer industry anyway?) But the worst is yet to come:

In this 21st century we face a real fork in the road that in truth really means we would have to completely change the way we exist on Earth.

It means not wanting or giving value to the things we used to. It means pantyhose can no longer be an option for looking well dressed. It means the use of nail polish has to end. It means no longer packaging water in plastic bottles. It means air travel as we now know it can no longer be seen as the way to go. It means when we talk about the advantages of hosting something like a grand prix race for two days we should have better reasons for allowing it and the kind of pollution that comes with it then it will bring an estimated $50 million to the city.

The main reason given for so much of why we cannot accelerate the changes to save the planet, and by extension our sorry selves, is it will be a shock to the (economic) system: Job losses, tax losses and the like.

Here’s the thing, as if it’s not too obvious: It’s the way we are making money that is killing this planet and causing an increase in preventable diseases. So what’s it going to be: Your money or your life?

See, no pantyhose, nail polish, air travel, car races (not to mention cars, which she somehow neglected, but it’s the obvious end result).

So what is it going to be people, your way of life, your ability to feed your family, or save the planet from yourself and your family?

There is no fence here. People like Pat Watson want to take away everything you have, and will succeed if we just sit around waiting for it to blow over.

freedom for the individual is the only truly progressive policy, Global Warming, Going... Going... Gone Nuts For The Environment

From the Desk of Farley Mowat
Dear Green Party Friend:

Eighty-six years as participant and observer have convinced me we are facing an ecological and environmental crisis that could precipitate the greatest die-off in the history of our planet.

The current situation is so ominous and the potential for disaster so diverse and imminent as to threaten not just human life but all of animate creation. If this sounds like Chicken Little, it is because this time the sky truly may be falling.

The unwillingness of the powers-that-be to accept the scope and urgency of the threat convinces me that the cement-heads who currently control our destiny are incapable of responding to the approaching tornado. They will remain engrossed in their own self-interests, trusting that a consortium of super-science, technology, and the Entrepreneurial Gods will see them safely into Heaven on Earth.

I don’t believe it will. Which is why I am now giving my support to the Green Party, the only political entity demonstrating a real and potential effective concern for the planet and its myriad inhabitants.

All of its inhabitants!

For it is not just we human beings who are at risk. We are all in the same crucible together – and the temperature is rising rapidly, both figuratively and actually.

The Green Party, led by Elizabeth May, is the one political party clearly committed to averting the catastrophic consequences of our continuing to treat the Earth as mere dirt beneath our feet, so it is imperative that we elect Green Party members to our next parliament. This cannot happen without a lot of help from a lot of us.

The Harper Conservatives boast of their war chest of $15 million, and their War Room from which they will send out their Attack Ads and fire their Media Barrages. The Green Party and its leader, Elizabeth May, have only the Green Hope Chest, which at the moment is virtually empty. Nevertheless, they are promising a peaceable campaign focused on the survival of a peaceable kingdom.

I very much want them to succeed and I hope you do too, so I invite you to join me in making it financially possible for the Greens to vanquish the vandals and thereby help re-establish a viable future for life on Earth.

Farley Mowat

To all those people who think Green is a good alternative place to put your vote: do you really still think so?

Crossposted from Let Freedom Reign

Celebrities, Elizabeth May, Global Warming, Going... Going... Gone Nuts For The Environment

Today’s Sun has an article by Tom Harris and Dr. Tim Ball called Prove it! that challenges an assumption that’s become near and dear to my heart: compact fluorescent light bulbs are better for the environment than incandescent:

Prove it! That’s how we must respond whenever governments ban established products to “save the planet.” If politicians can’t validate their schemes with comprehensive and unbiased scientific studies then they should stop telling us how to live our lives.

Take the recently announced ban on incandescent light bulbs. The federal government’s “Action on Climate Change and Air Pollution” boasts the ban “will give Canadian consumers real opportunity both to save money on energy and to help clean up our environment.” Prove it!

Show us the results of comprehensive life cycle analysis that demonstrate the energy savings accrued when operating a compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) more than compensates for the increased manufacturing and mercury disposal impacts associated with CFLs. Prove to us that the loss of convenience and light quality of the incandescent is off-set by a significant net environmental benefit. Or many Canadians will conclude the move was purely political, designed to look good in the press and trump the NDP who had a private members’ bill banning incandescents in the works.

And when studying this, don’t forget to take into account the impact of driving your burnt out bulbs to the landfill. The more I read up on CFB’s (compact fluorescent bulbs), the dumber the idea of banning them looks.

Instead of handing more regulatory power to the “pimply minions of bureaucracy,” any attempt to regulate Canadians lives, whether large scale or in the minutiae like CFBs, ought to require absolute proof of it’s necessity, and that the scheme will work as advertised.

More

freedom for the individual is the only truly progressive policy, Global Warming, Going... Going... Gone Nuts For The Environment, pimply minions of bureaucracy

It is nearly axiomatic that anything Cuban “President” Fidel Castro says will be false, incorrect, misleading, and downright pernicious… recently, el Presidente‘s grumblings have been worth hearing, not because they are precisely right, but because they are at least on the right track…

interference by politicians in the market for fuel (added to the massive existing interference) has real-world impact, and Fidel Castro, of all people, understands…

The article is called Ethanol Versus the Poor, and it’s worth reading.

Food for thought, from the Green Party of Canada website (emphasis mine: put them together to form one sentence):

We believe that to achieve sustainability, and in order to provide for the needs of present and future generations within the finite resources of the earth, continuing growth in global consumption, population and material inequity must be halted and reversed.

Economic Fundamentalism, Global Warming, Going... Going... Gone Nuts For The Environment, pimply minions of bureaucracy