Pirate's Cove

Funny stuff

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – A U.N. conference on climate change opened Monday with the EU's top environment official calling on the United States to join efforts to curb global warming.

I wonder if they mean the efforts that are plainly failing? Considering that the USA is actually beating several of the Kyoto members, it is simply a political decision.

President Bush rejected the Kyoto protocol, the 1997 pact that requires 35 industrial nations to cut their global-warming gases.

So did Clinton, and the US Senate by a vote of 95-0. What's your point, AP?

Even the most optimistic forecasts say the climate will continue to change and the planet will be irrevocably damaged. The question is, how much?

No, the question is, why is this different from the rest of the billions of years the Earth has been around? This has been going on for quite some time.

Moving on from one group who talks the talks but does not walk the walk, how about another?

Global warming, Mark Twain might say, is like the weather: Everybody talks about it but nobody ever does anything about it. 

About a dozen states and several hundred cities in the United States have pledged to cut their greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to follow the example of Europe and Japan. Many Americans in opinion polls say they are worried about a climate catastrophe, and Congress under Democratic control is vowing for the first time in years to do something to prevent it. 

But taking the drastic actions required to cut emissions to levels that many scientists say would be benign for the environment is another thing entirely.

California, for example, recently enacted a law requiring dramatic cuts in greenhouse gases — principally carbon dioxide from cars and power plants — but it does not require serious action for 15 years. Energy analysts there say most people are carrying on with business as usual with little thought of changing their driving or other energy-consuming habits. 

A recent study by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, an environmental and community activist group, found that "green" cities are making little headway toward meeting their pledges to cut emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels as targeted by the Kyoto global warming treaty, with most instead reporting their emissions have increased between 7 percent and 27 percent.

That goes quite well with my constant question to the global warming as caused by Mankind zealots: are you walking the walk?

Surveys show that while Americans may vote for politicians who say they are concerned about the environment and patronize businesses that they believe are environmentally friendly, they do little to curb their own carbon emissions from driving and power use. 

A survey by Deloitte & Touche in the summer found virtually no change in consumer energy use and driving habits despite grumbling about skyrocketing heating and electric bills and gasoline prices that twice reached more than $3 a gallon since 2005.

Guess they aren't. I have asked many, many folks, both in person and on many websites, who believe Man is the main, or only, cause, that question, and they rarely answer, at least on point. Why should I change my lifestyle if they won't? The Goracle won't. Nor Laurie David. Nor (insert name here.)

I do believe in global warming, but as mostly caused by natural forces, with Man a very distant second. Maybe 10-15% of the cause. All based on evidence and history. The zealots base their belief on feelings, political documents, and blowhards like the Goracle, who do not practice what they preach.

There is lots of great information in the article, definately worth the read.