Unfortunately, the necessity of the combined media to fill the airways and pages with content 24/7 in order to attract an audience has given rise to a new phenomenon. Those who are famous for being notorious, those who are famous for being famous and those who purport to have a message of importance. All given media access without critical analysis and comment.
Celebutards such as Paris Hilton who contribute nothing to the sum total of world knowledge rein supreme as either distracting entertainment or as a platform for mass merchandising so-called "trendy" fashion.
But there is a danger in the blind acceptance of experts, credentialed or not, and the self-proclaimed advocates of this or that position.
Therefore, I took great offense when the normally left-leaning Los Angeles Times printed an article proclaiming that a global warming expert was calling on California to do more to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
From the Los Angeles Times...
"Global warming expert calls on California to do more to cut greenhouse gas emissions"
"On a tour of San Francisco and Sacramento, Rajendra K. Pachauri says the state's plan to slash global warming pollution to 1990 levels by 2020 doesn't go far enough."
Playing fast and loose with dates and greenhouse gas emissions levels, one might ask what is so special about the 1990 date other than it is mandates a reduction in all economic activity in the state and a corresponding investment in emissions control equipment.
A hidden agenda?
Could it been that these type of stringent regulations are being proposed for the sole purpose of instituting a "carbon cap and trading system" which is one of the only ways that gross polluters may be able to reach these limits?
And what's up with the 2020 deadline other than the fact that most politicians voting for such a measure will probably be out of office by that date and thus do not have to fear the consequences of voting for this suspicious legislation. Even the public can not be counted on to raise a fuss as they often have a hard time dealing with time frames larger than six months at a time. And once the first enabling legislative bills are passed, it is only a hop-skip and a jump to more restrictive legislation that can be used to modify and extend legislative mandates. Thus one can devour a very large salami ... one small piece at a time.
"Global warming celebrity Rajendra K. Pachauri, wearing a green feather in his lapel, toured Northern California on Friday, praising the state's blueprint for addressing climate change but reminding public officials that Europe is moving far more quickly to address the issue."
I don't care what they do in Europe. An insular, inbred continent of decaying infrastructure that has embraced the tenets of political correctness and whose citizens openly vilify an indulgent America with their self-righteous smug European manner. Jealousy writ large on a population that looks at the advantages available to the ordinary American citizen and would do or say anything to achieve parity even to the extent of promoting policies that would cripple America's economy.
Following the money ...
What is true is that Europe is already playing political games with the "cap and trade" system in which traders bought and sold $60 BILLION worth of emissions allowances. Want another reference to the year 2020 ... it is estimated, according to Fortune Magazine, that if such legislation comes to the United States, "this country's carbon trading market is projected to be worth $1 TRILLION annually by 2020."
And like the subprime mortgage market which produced those toxic derivatives, plans are afoot to collateralize pools of carbon credits for sale as investable securities. And by the same Wall Street Wizards who produced the current financial crisis by slicing and dicing mortgages, leveraging their purchase with borrowed funds and wreaked havoc on America when the underlying collateral marketplace collapsed from the effects of fraud and unsustainable greed. The wizards walked with their multi-million dollar bonuses and the average American got hosed.
Legislators, bureaucrats and bigwigs ...
"The chairman of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who recently accepted the Nobel Peace Prize alongside Al Gore, met with legislators, bureaucrats and bigwigs."
Amazingly enough, it is far easier to convince the so-called "ruling elite" of your position as they are already predisposed to go along by the need to continually raise campaign funds, keep their faction in power, and in general, enlarge the bureaucracy and governmental control; not to mention raising taxes to sustain this political class -- which produces very little worthwhile legislation as they pass position papers back and forth among each others.
Convincing Americans ...
"He also held news conferences in Sacramento and San Francisco."
And what good is a meeting with the rich and powerful, if you cannot use them to lend power and credibility to your position?
Most Americans are a gullible lot. Tending to believe what they read in modern newspapers and hear over the airwaves. Presented by a biased left-leaning press corp who long ago surrendered their analytical pieces to the necessity of pleasing their corporate masters. A generation of "newsies" who infuse hard news with celebrity quotes and random factoids. Where the goal is to capture the audience with celebrity fun and news that is dumbed-down to the point of sound bites. Unfortunately, the news media has betrayed America. First, by slanting the news to the left and second by not critically examining what they are reporting. Replacing journalists with "news presenters" or opinionated commentators such as Keith Olbermann and Bill O'Reilly. Both of which pick and choose their pieces to fit their show's basic focus: ratings that result in outsized salaries.
Pseudo-science and "feel good" remedies ...
"And what would global warming be without slides and charts? Pachauri leavened his PowerPoint road show with humor, anecdotes and even a quote from Chief Seattle as he urged Californians to turn off unnecessary lights, take shorter showers and eat less meat -- personal behavior changes that would reduce their carbon footprint."
Eat less meat? Oh I forgot, the left supports their coalition members who are vegans, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). To which I say screw you! One of life's little pleasures is to take longer showers ... preferably in a super-luxe guest bathroom like the one designed and built by my best friend and his wife. As for the PETA group, I am a member: only my group is named for those that believe in People Eating Tasty Animals.
Want to see crazy ...
"Ms Simpson was singled out for ridicule after she was spotted wearing a T-shirt bearing the slogan 'Real Girls Eat Meat', believed to be a light-hearted dig at her boyfriend Tony Romo's vegetarian ex-girlfriend, Carrie Underwood.
"Alistair Currie, a spokesman for Peta, said: 'Jessica Simpson might have a right to wear what she wants, but she doesn't have a right to eat what she wants -- eating meat is about suffering and death. Some people feel like they are standing up against a tide of political correctness when they make a statement like this ... what she is really doing is standing up for the status quo.'" <source>
As for the PowerPoint slide show ... one only wonders if these are the same slides used by Al Gore to sell his story. Including the one of ice calving to show the destruction of the ice mass ... the one that was a fake computer-generated image lifted from the 2004 science fiction blockbuster "The Day After Tomorrow."
Energy economist?
"The visit of the world-famous Indian energy economist was 'particularly opportune,' noted Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, who introduced Pachauri to an audience of 200 in downtown Sacramento."
Wait a moment. I thought that this guy was a climate scientist. He has a background in Industrial Engineering and Economics and is more associated with political groups than he is with working climate scientists. A typical economist who can blow hot and cold at the same time rather than a pragmatic engineering type as his background would have you believe. One thing that struck me as incongruous were that his PhDs in Industrial Engineering and Economics were conferred by North Carolina State University(Raleigh, NC) ... and then he went on to the international scene as a political type.
Who paid his speaking fee and expenses?
"The air board Thursday released the first comprehensive carbon-reduction blueprint of any U.S. state, a detailed plan to slash California's global warming pollution down to 1990 levels in the next 12 years, a 30% cut from projected levels."
Did the citizens of California pay for the good doctor's appearance or was he funded by some Soros-like foundation who has made a point out of pushing global warming legislation as a means for furthering their anti-American agenda?
Sending a message?
"But at a breakfast in the Capitol, Pachauri told state senators and environmental activists that California's plan, though 'forward looking,' should go further. "It would be nice if California, one of the largest economies in the world, cut greenhouse gas emissions to 5% below 1990 levels,' he said. ' 'It would send a strong message to the rest of the U.S.'"
What message? That the left-leaning socialist nut-jobs in California plan to further decimate our remaining industrial and energy generating capabilities during a time of deep financial malaise -- based on the type of junk science that doomed millions to an excruciating death when DDT was banned by the same group of "planet saving" do-gooders? They were wrong on the science then and they are wrong on the science now.
"The European Union, he explained later, is moving rapidly to reduce its emissions to 20% below 1990 levels. The U.S., meanwhile, has declined to sign the Kyoto Protocol, an international climate treaty signed by most industrial countries. Three weeks ago, the U.S. Senate threw out legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions nationally."
Pay close attention, we are not Europe and nor do we wish to be.
Dishonest hyperbole ...
"'It's ironic that the Earth is on fire all around us, and we're sitting here talking about climate change,' remarked Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), as a haze from nearby forest fires blurred the view from the Capitol's windows."
A great sound bite. But nothing else. It makes you wonder, how much industrial capacity must be curtailed to compensate for the greenhouse gas emissions produced by a naturally occurring event. (The fires were started by lightning). And, heaven forbid, what happens if the a new volcano sprouts in the High Sierras? Compared to the majestic and grand scale of nature, I find it insultingly arrogant that man believes that he can change the course of nature by reducing the length of his showers, using compact florescent light bulbs and turning down his thermostat. Sheer lunacy.
A lie?
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of the world's top 2,500 climate scientists, has determined that a rapid rise in the temperature of the Earth's atmosphere results from human activity.
First, the IPCC is not made up of the world's top 2,500 climate scientists and there has been substantial disagreement among those who are actually named members. Some having to file suit to have their names removed from politically-motivated and heavily-edited reports. Many of these scientists doubt that the temperature rise in the Earth's atmosphere is man-made and the scientific results from the temperatures in the troposphere (where such global heating should be readily apparent) do not show dramatic evidence of global warming. There is no concensus other than of the climate's variability.
"It estimates that emissions must stabilize before 2015 to avoid a rise in sea level, flooding, forest fires, drought and heat-related disease."
Based on computer models with manipulated data which purports to represent global temperature activity, but are, in reality, cdata obbled together observations from disparate sources. There has been no validation of the climate models that were used and they have little or no predictive value that can be correlated with today's weather patterns. It is an estimate, at best, at what might happen under improbable circumstances. Unfortunately, people like Al Gore have taken the wildest "outlier" data which does not fit the central climate trends and used them to demonstrate an "emergency which doesn't exist."
Spreading the alarm or spreading manure?
"It was a high-carbon trip for Pachauri. He had flown from New York, where he spoke at a luncheon held by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Then it was on to San Francisco, where he addressed a Commonwealth Club panel and attended a reception with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He was slated to return to New York, then travel to Europe and Abu Dhabi on his mission to spread alarm."
Why is he not presenting his findings in front of scientific panels before he asks the world to believe that Alice in Wonderland caused global warming? The answer is simple: because such confrontations would mark him as a simpleton and a political tool.
Believing the UN on population growth ...
"Asked about the effect of population growth on climate, Pachauri noted that the per-capita energy consumption in the U.S. is 40 times that of Bangladesh, making the U.S.'s annual population growth of 3 million people equivalent to adding 120 million people in a developing country."
It is well known that the United Nations has fudged their population growth statistics just as they have fudged their African HIV/AIDS statistics. According to those who offered up a half-hearted apology, it was done to dramatize the real problem before the world's nations. Not only was population growth found to be non-linear; which made a mockery of their projections, but the assumption that everyone on the earth would use energy in the same way that Americans did led to some crazy predictions. And now they are back with the same nonsense couched in "global warming" terms.
So why should we believe the United Nations, an openly anti-American institution comprised of a number of unfriendly states headed by dictators who would love to see the United States humbled before the world?
Contraception?
"He called for 'a worldwide effort' to make contraception available to those who need it.
"Pachauri concluded his presentations with an 1854 quote from Chief Seattle: 'Man did not weave the web of life. He is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."
And now we get to the truth. Here is a group of people who, for political reasons, want to see a crippled United States. Many of these people are "earth firsters" who believe that man is a stain on the planet and that animals should be accorded civil rights. Anything which man does in the march to a better future cripples the delicate balance of the earth's ecosystem. It is these mushy-headed environmentalists who were infiltrated by the Marxists, socialists, communists and others who had lost their political and financial support at the conclusion of the cold war. Now safe in their new home, they continue their socialist dreams of a utopian society in which the masses are ruled, temporarily as the story goes, for their own good by a cadre of "political elites" who are acting in the best interests of the people. That is, until they become corrupted by the prestige, power and profits which accrue to those who are able to grant political favors to the special interests.
Is this the face of the devil?
Considering the old saying that "the devil is in the details." is this the face of today's modern devil. A man openly challenging the world to change their industrial development and economic underpinnings to cure an alleged event whose existence is totally based on computer models and a program whose influence cannot be measured for centuries?
What can YOU do?
It is now time to demand a trial by jury. A non-political scientific panel immune to the whims of their respective governments to discuss the issue of global climate trends and man's ability to influence the outcome of nature. It is the least we can do before ceding additional power to politicians and bureacrats, decimating our economy and raising our energy prices and taxes to their European counterparts.
It is now time for the United Nations to disclose the massive conflict of interest when it allows the very scientists who are researching the role of man in man-made global climate change to sit on the assessment board that must judge the scientific merit of the scientist's work. In no other instance do you find those who are being judged sitting in judgement of their own work. This is not only a major conflict of interest but intellectually dishonest. Should you want more information that the alleged independence of the United Nation's IPCC has been compromised and that so-called "scientifically reviewed" materials were not as thoroughly vetted as commonly portrayed by the media, I will be pleased to supply the requiste report.
It is time for the media to present the global climate issue with critical analysis and commentary by someone other than paid talking heads spouting corporate nonsense.
It is time that we disavow the toxic effects of a corrupted environmental movement which has prevented us from attaining energy independence from those who are bent on destroying the non-believer infidels (US). Not only could we achieve energy independence, but we can free ourselves from enemies such as Saudi Arabia which has funded most of the dangerous Islamo-fascism in the world in an effort to prevent the overthrow of their Kingdom. Is it any wonder why these people continue to fund far-left groups who want to keep America "under control" and subservient to its continually increasing energy demands.
It is time to avoid those who believe that all species should be perpetuated, artificially if need be, when the true course of nature is built on birth, death and continual evolution. To cripple the water supplies to Southern California to protect a small fish of questionable value is stupidity of the highest order. To believe that this fish acts as a "canary in a coal mine," a early warning indicator of something that the scientists are unable to articulate is ludicrous.
It is one thing to have faith in a religion. However, taking the results of computer models on faith is sheer idiocy.
Do not vote for any candidate or current politician who is willing to subvert the safety, security, sovereignty and economic strength of the United States or limit an individual's right of self-defense for their personal philosophy, power, prestige or profits.
-- steve
Quote of the day: "Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." -- Rick Cook
A reminder from OneCitizenSpeaking.com: a large improvement can result from a small change...
The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. -- Marcus Aurelius
Reference Links:
Global warming: A scientific background -- WHY THE GORACLE IS FULL OF EFFLUENT!|OneCitizenSpeaking
IS GORE'S PROFIT MACHINE BASED ON THE BIG LIE: GLOBAL WARMING IS MAN MADE?|OneCitizenSpeaking
Sighhh....what does one do? It is so...dismal.
We homeschool, because we prefer critical thinking and substance to compliance training and mediocrity. Between banning mylar balloons, making CA hostile to our small business, creating a 16 billion dollar deficit and wanting to take away our right to homeschool (because we apparently need credentialed teachers - from our schools that are ranked 47th in the nation) we are ready to toss up our hands and move.
BTW - Great Blog
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Thank you for your comment and reading my blog. There is good news on the horizon, the balloon bill offered up by a termed-out hack politician apparently is dead. Of course, it comes with bad news: the hack politician, Jack Scott, is going to assume the helm of the California Community College System as their 14th Chancellor where he can do more damage.
To illustrate his far-left liberal democrat thinking, he disarmed all campus police officers when he headed Pasadena's City College because his son was inadvertently killed when there was alleged horseplay using a gun at a party. His son dies so he immediately denies protection to thousands of students who are now at risk by being in a known gun-free zone where only evildoers will be carrying weapons.
Anyway, thanks again for commenting. -- steve
Posted by: Michelle | July 01, 2008 at 04:36 PM