PLANETARY OBSERVATIONS...
From MUDD & The Heath Monitor Files
3.2
cents' worth of "nonclimate" damages for every kilowatt-hour (kWh)
generated." That's "non-climate" damages. Stuff like the toxic effects
of air pollution on human lung tissue (especially kids and old folks).
It's nice to put a number on toxic spew; but do we need to know how
many cents' worth of damage foul air is worth? Isn't it insulting
enough to know that America's air is too toxic for human consumption?
When will America finally address fumes? Don't hold your breath,
posted by Mudd
OOPS
SCIENTISTS
at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much
of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global
warming are based. It means that other academics are not able to check
basic calculations said to show a long-term rise in temperature over
the past 150 years.
The
UEA's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) was forced to reveal the loss
following requests for the data under Freedom of Information
legislation.
If
this climate shit turns out to be tweaked data, nobody's ever gonna
believe one more word out of any eco-freaks mouth. Science will be the
last thing a enviro group will wanna cite in their fund raising
letters. Green will be a nasty word. It'll be back to PG Time
(pre-Gore).
Just goes to show - you never know what's gonna happen next!
The Tide is High...
London,
England (CNN) — A possible rise in sea levels by 0.5 meters by 2050
could put at risk more than $28 trillion worth of assets in the world's
largest coastal cities, according to a report compiled for the
insurance industry. What's a poor urban cowboy to do? There's always
the old ark routine, posted by Mudd
from Spiegel Online -
The
planet's temperature curve rose sharply for almost 30 years, as global
temperatures increased by an average of 0.7 degrees Celsius (1.25
degrees Fahrenheit) from the 1970s to the late 1990s. "At present,
however, the warming is taking a break," confirms meteorologist Mojib
Latif of the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in the northern
German city of Kiel. Latif, one of Germany's best-known climatologists,
says that the temperature curve has reached a plateau. "There can be no
argument about that," he says. "We have to face that fact."
Even
though the temperature standstill probably has no effect on the
long-term warming trend, it does raise doubts about the predictive
value of climate models, and it is also a political issue. For months,
climate change skeptics have been gloating over the findings on their
Internet forums. This has prompted many a climatologist to treat the
temperature data in public with a sense of shame, thereby damaging
their own credibility.
Latex memo no. 12
Sewer Shmewer
As
reported in the erudite New York Times - "In the last three years
alone, more than 9,400 of the nation's 25,000 sewage systems —
including those in major cities — have reported violating the law by
dumping untreated or partly treated human waste, chemicals and other
hazardous materials into rivers and lakes and elsewhere, according to
data from state environmental agencies and the Environmental
Protection Agency. But fewer than one in five sewage systems that broke
the law were ever fined or otherwise sanctioned by state or federal
regulators, the Times analysis
Hold
the phone! In a major exhibition of sanity, a UN panel has poked a
proverbial hole in the Great Taboo - "The battle against global warming
could be helped if the world slowed population growth by making free
condoms and family planning advice more widely available, the U.N.
Population Fund said Wednesday." (CNBC) The world's population is
predicted to rise to 9.2 billion in 2050, with most of the growth in
less developed regions, posted by Mudd
shows."
Further - "The E.P.A, in a statement, said that officials agreed that
overflows posed a 'significant environmental and human health problem,
and significantly reducing or eliminating such overflows has been a
priority for E.PA. enforcement since the mid-1990s.'" That's only 15
years! There's hope left, pass the lunger, posted by Mudd
Debts R us
MSNBC
reports that "With the national debt now topping $12 trillion, the
White House estimates that the government's tab for servicing the debt
will exceed $700 billion a year in 2019, up from $202 billion this
year, even if annual budget deficits shrink
drastically.......In concrete terms, an additional $500 billion a year in interest expense
would
total more than the combined federal budgets this year for education,
energy, homeland security and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan." Uncle
Sam is underwater, posted by Mudd
In
case you've been a keen follower of the nefarious <em>Dixieland
Water Wars</ em>, there's breaking news. As reported by the
Associated Press - "The new attorney handling Georgia's appeal in the
long-running legal battle with Alabama and Florida over water rights
will be paid $855 an hour." And that's after a 1096 discount! Where's
my law license? posted by Mudd
Coal Bucks
Thanks
to the Christian Science Monitor, we learn that "Coal-fired plants
produce about half the nation's electricity. The report found that
pollutants like sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter
cost the US $62 billion. That works out to about
Drink UP!
Good
news for men with a thing for the bottle - "Drinking alcohol every day
cuts the risk of heart disease in men by more than a third, a major
study suggests." As reported in the BBC, "For those drinking little -
less than a shot of vodka a day for instance - the risk was reduced by
3596. And for those who drank anything from three shots to more than 11
shots each day, the risk worked out an average of 50% less." As a side
note - various experts remain cautious about the study's findings, as
being drunk tends to lead to other assorted catastrophes, bottoms up!
posted by Mudd
Copenhagen or bust!
SHANGHAI (AP) — China has overtaken the U.S. as the world's biggest market for au-
tomobiles,
the first time any other country has bought more vehicles than the
nation that produced Henry Ford, the Cadillac and the minivan.
More news from the folks who brought us the buzzword — Sustainable economy....
WASHINGTON
(AP) — The economic recovery is likely to draw strength from exports
such as farm products, autos, aircraft and industrial machinery — all
of which helped lower the nation's trade deficit in October.