Another election over, and big surprise, another Conservative minority with the Liberals the only party worse off than they were.

I have said it before – economy trumps environment every time. The global warming hype and hysteria is beginning to fade somewhat, but it isn’t gone yet. All I can hope is that the emphasis on carbon and warming will actually bring about a different kind of green shift: the overall awareness that we are polluting our environment with toxic substances daily, harming our water supplies, consuming irreplaceable resources and piling up wastes of all forms at an alarming rate.

If you are going to introduce “Green” taxes, they need to be based on something other than Carbon Dioxide. If you try and tax CO2, you tax EVERYTHING. That’s right, EVERYTHING. Food grown on farms? Fuel-burning equipment is needed to harvest and transport (and even package in some cases) all of it. Those prices rise. Home heating fuel? Headed up, up, up. Clothes? Goods? Appliances? Everything goes up, due to higher all-around manufacturing and transportation costs. This ridiculous idea that you can tax those things, make prices rise, and then give everything back as income tax credit is just wrong, no matter what economist you can get to speak on behalf of the “green shift”. Read the rest of this entry »

State of Mind: Aggravated & Disgusted

Elizabeth May has a devout Christian belief system and would someday like to be an Anglican minister. While I can respect some of the values espoused, the whole zombie-ghost-invisible friend thing is more than I can take. I find deism and fideism to be ludicrous and silly. I don’t know what is “out there” – no one does. But I am pretty sure that if something is out there, it is not some kind of single supreme consciousness that grants wishes and ends lives based on his 1-800-PRAY-2-ME request line.

Elizabeth  May is against abortion. She personally has made statements to the effect that she does not believe women should have the right to choose abortion (and therefore have control over their own reproduction). Frankly, I find this attitude disgusting and unethical.

Elizabeth May over-exaggerates global warming issues and the human role in them. In one interview I watched her spout the discredited belief that global warming causes more hurricanes.While I believe we may play a part, it is not the part suggested by the IPCC and our effect is not nearly as significant as the extremists in the environmental movement would have us believe.

Elizabeth May is a politician. Some time ago, when she became leader of the Green Party of Canada, I wondered how long it would take for her to start skewing views to suit the party agenda instead of simply stating facts. It really didn’t take very long… Read the rest of this entry »

State of Mind: Confused

I have been seeing a lot of these “Carbon Footprint” tests and the like online. Quite frankly, a lot of the stuff in them is total bullshit that is not proven to mean anything one way or another, they are just there to make you a) feel guilty or b) think you are doing something when you are not.

Fact: most of what you could do – even if EVERYONE did it – would not make any difference in the realm of “Global Warming” because ultimately Mother Earth and her relationship to the solar system has more to say about it than you do. Earth regulates herself, and trying to screw with that usually does more harm than good.

That is not to say that I don’t think people should treat the planet better. But, honestly, does ruining the economy of any nation to “stop global warming” – be it our advanced industrialized countries or Third-world ones – qualify as anything OTHER than plain stupid? (You do need to keep in mind that there are environmental extremists out there who would happily make the human race extinct in order to “preserve the environment” – and this agenda is beginning to creep closer and closer to the mainstream…)

I usually score “OK” on those quizzes, but never get a spectacular score because they never take into account the MOST important factor in these things: TIME. Just because you suddenly had an environmental epiphany when you watched that Al Gore movie doesn’t mean you did not do more harm to the environment before you clued in than you can solve by changing now. Sorry, folks, you ALREADY screwed it up. It’s like expanding foam, you can’t put it back in the can. So now I am going to get all Holier-than-thou because I am sick of having people act that way toward me. Read the rest of this entry »

State of Mind: Alarmed & Surprised

We live in an age where it is TRENDY to be environmentally aware. To be completely honest, a lot of it makes me sick, but the reasons for that would make up a whole ‘nother blog entry.

The main problem for me these days is how utterly gullible people are about what is “environmentally friendly”. They don’t really do any checking up on the claims of greedy companies – they simply buy into whatever the hype of the day is, and begin participating in whatever practice is the flavour du jour even if it is complete slacktivism.

One place I could rant about is Hybrid cars, but I am not going to bother when the show Bullshit! has done a far more complete job than I can do here. Suffice to say, hybrids are actually mind-bogglingly wasteful in most ways, gaining only slightly in the area of mileage while requiring many toxic substances in order to manufacture their batteries and systems. It is TRENDY to drive a hybrid, so it is the car of choice for slacktivists – but someone who truly cares about the environment is going to find the most efficient conventional car they can buy, plan their trips to avoid waste, drive sensibly without mashing the gas or the brake, and sometimes forgo the car when they can ride their bike or walk. A Mercedes smart achieves far better mileage than most hybrids and has a very efficient conventional engine. And don’t feed me a line about how it is too small – by the time you put the damn batteries in a hybrid, you’ve sucked up the better part of the space you gained by driving that bigger piece of shit. The RIDICULOUS Chevy Malibu Hybrid gives well under a 10% gain in mileage over its conventional counterpart, while requiring numerous additional hazardous elements in its manufacture – and still gets the same or worse mileage than similar non-hybrid models from Honda, Hyundai and Toyota, and scores a 6 out of 10 from the EPA for the amount of air pollution it creates! This is not a cleaner, more efficient vehicle, but it represents the “latest technology” GM offers. Oh – and don’t even get me STARTED on the scarcity of lithium for the best battery technology we’ve come up with to day…

So, to sum up so far: in my view, if you drive a hybrid, you’re nothing more (and nothing less) than a pretentious, pack-following idiotic douchebag. Yes, Ed Begley, I’m looking at you, too – the solar panels don’t save you from the ridicule.

But that wasn’t what I was REALLY annoyed at. Oh, no, not by a long shot. What was it, you ask, gentle reader (assuming you don’t drive a hybrid and are already so hacked off at me you want to burn down my house)?
Read the rest of this entry »