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with drips in charge .....

From American Progress ….. 

Yesterday, George Will used prime
space in the Washington
Post and other major papers to suggest — not only is global warming
not the result of human activity -global warming may not exist at all. In a
one-two punch, this morning columnist Robert Novak used his regular space in
the Washington Post to suggest that global warming - if it even exists - would
only impact us so far in the future that our technological advances should be
able to handle it. Neither of these columns is based in scientific fact - their
only purpose seems to be to bolster the position of the administration. 

George Will’s suggestion that global warming may not exist is not backed
up by fact. George Will
says that global temperatures have risen about one degree over the last 100
years and that “might
be the margin of error when measuring the planet’s temperature.” The only
support Will provides for this statement is a crude analogy -there is not a
shred of scientific evidence to support Will’s position that the earth might
not be warming. The American Meteorological Society, the American Geophysical
Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have also “issued
statements in recent years concluding that the evidence for human modification
of climate is compelling.” 

Will’s argument, while full of holes, is a winning one for the White
House. The Bush
administration can’t deny the facts - the United States contributes to global
pollution. And as the world moves forward to address climate change, the U.S. “which
is home to less than 5% of Earth’s population but produces 25% of CO2
emissions, remains intransigent.” Bush abandoned the Kyoto protocols and
didn’t keep his campaign pledge to control carbon output. And there is no time
to wait. In 2005, the National Academy of Sciences signed a joint statement
with 10 other national academies which said, “The
scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify
nations taking prompt action.” (PDF) 

George Will goes as far as to say that global warming might not be a bad
thing. In his column,
Will asks: “Are
we sure the consequences of climate change — remember, a thick sheet of ice
once covered the Midwest — must be bad?” It’s hard to believe that a
credible journalist would make such an argument - and Will doesn’t list any of
the supposed benefits of global warming. Scientists think differently - they
believe that global warming can cause severe
hurricanes, flooding
of coastal population centers and the spread
of serious disease. That doesn’t sound too appealing.

Milk for SUVs

From the NY Times

Editorial
Flunking the Oil Addiction Test
Published: April 4, 2006

The muscle cars of yesteryear don't seem quite so impressive any more. In fact, as Matthew L. Wald pointed out in The Times the other day, the most powerful 2005 Toyota Camry, the ultimate plain-vanilla family sedan, accelerates more quickly than some 1975 Pontiac Firebird models. A 2005 Nissan sports wagon can outrun a '65 Mustang.

These examples confirm a disturbing truth: most of the fancy technology developed over the years by automakers here and abroad has been used to make cars bigger and faster. Greater fuel efficiency — the very thing that would reduce America's oil dependency, as well as its contribution to global warming — has taken a back seat. Indeed, fuel economy has actually declined in the past 20 years, largely because of the popularity of minivans and S.U.V.'s, and other vehicles collectively known as light trucks.

On Wednesday, the Bush administration published new standards for S.U.V.'s and other light trucks, except for the very biggest. Officials called the standards "the most ambitious fuel economy goals for light trucks ever developed." Measured against the need, as well as against what manufacturers are capable of doing with off-the-shelf technology, they are also extremely disappointing.

The standards call for an 8.1 percent increase in miles per gallon over the four model years from 2008 to 2011. That change will save 10.7 billion gallons of gasoline over the lifetime of the new vehicles, the administration says, equal to about 227 million barrels of oil. That's useful, of course, but it really amounts to only about 25 days' worth of gasoline at today's consumption rates, and less than three weeks' worth of current oil imports — a baby step toward President Bush's goal of reducing America's dependency on foreign oil.

Buried deep in the rules is one other disappointment: a reassertion of the administration's view that only the federal government has the authority to set fuel efficiency standards and that any state program that has the effect of changing these standards is illegal.
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read more flunk at the NY Times

Can they deny the protocol?

From Al Jazeera

US reeling under heatwave, power cuts

Wednesday 26 July 2006, 3:14 Makka Time, 0:14 GMT

Power shortages have been reported in California, Missouri and New York, with the mercury hitting an unprecedented 48 Celsius (119 Fahrenheit) over the weekend in Woodland Hills, part of the sprawling Los Angeles metropolitan region.

Authorities were investigating at least 53 deaths possibly caused by the heat, most in the steamy Central Valley.

Officials said most of the victims were elderly.

Thousands of farm animals also were dying in the heat, officials said.

The heat knocked out the Los Angeles-based servers for the hugely popular personal web page host MySpace for several hours on Monday.

"Due to the record-breaking heat in Los Angeles over the weekend, the area where MySpace's servers are stored had massive power outages and the backup generators failed," the company said in a statement. Power was restored and the network was up and running again, it said.
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Gus: I believe the White House adminstration, basking in air conditionned offices at a constant 22 degress C, still denies the global warming problem...

"it's not happening, some democrat greenie have tempered with the thermometers out there..."

collapsing S.U.V. market...

December 24, 2008

It’s the End of the Line for S.U.V.’s

By NICK BUNKLEY and BILL VLASIC

JANESVILLE, Wis. — Even a federal bailout could not save three of the last remaining plants in the United States still making sport utility vehicles.

Reeling from its financial problems and a collapsing S.U.V. market, General Motors on Tuesday closed its factories in this city and in Moraine, Ohio, marking the passing of an era when big S.U.V.’s ruled the road. The moves followed the shutdown last Friday of Chrysler’s factory in Newark, Del., which produced full-size S.U.V.’s.

The last Chevrolet Tahoe rolled off the line here in Janesville shortly after 7 a.m. in the 90-year-old plant, which had built more than 3.7 million big S.U.V.’s since the early 1990s.

Most of the plant’s 1,100 remaining workers were not scheduled to work the final day, but many showed up for an emotional closing ceremony. Dan Doubleday, who had 22 years on the job, broke down in the plant’s snowy parking lot afterward.

“I was a fork lift driver,” he said, glancing at his watch through welling tears. “Until about seven minutes ago.”

At the Mocha Moment coffee shop around the corner, two co-workers, Michael Berberich and Lisa Gonzalez, exchanged Christmas presents just as they had most years since they were both hired in 1986.

“For a while we had it made,” Ms. Gonzalez said. “I just wish it would have lasted.”