(Name Removed to protect the Stupid) (Simcoe Composite School) wrote at 11:23pm yesterday

Here’s an idea to think about. If some sort of law was made saying that buy (sic), 2010, everybody in the world either has to get an electric car or GO GREEN and change their Gas engine to run on canola oil. This way nobody needs to worry about gas prices, am I right?? Now obviously I can see that that is thinking BIG. But just think about all the other things that have happened by regular everyday people. Like people on facebook for example. And with electric cars or running on Canola Oil we won’t have to worry about people idling their cars all the time. So that would possibly slow done (sic) our arch nemesis known as GLOBAL WARMING!!!! Its (sic) our future and we should do something about it if we wanna live to watch our grandchildren grow up. We need more people in this group to (sic). Everybody send out invites. (: We need to stop this gas bullshit because if someone doesn’t we would eventually be looking gas prices as high as 2 dollars. Maybe higher and that would really suck!!!

The Angry PolarBear wrote in response at 1:08am

Brilliant (unnamed moron)! Cause, Canola Oil only costs about $2 a litre which would solve the problem of $1.20/litre gasoline and $1.30/litre diesel! Oh, and of course, Canola Oil does not in fact BURN, it only emits magical gases like butterfly farts in defiance of all physical laws of the planet. You wouldn’t expect something BURNED in a COMBUSTION engine to make CO2 or anything.

And we won’t even worry about how using all the farmland to grow Canola beans for oil to run engines will disrupt the food supply, because we can spin the butterfly farts into manna noodles and honey and solve the hunger crisis at the same time! YAY!

Way to think BIG! Only you forgot the THINK part!

Seriously?

This is what our schools produce nowadays?

REALLY? WTF!?!

Thanks, Al Gore!

These same people continue to leave their thermostat at 24 in the winter and 20 in the summer, running their home HVAC systems ragged, producing “greenhouse gases” virtually every minute of every day. These same people will use said hybrid vehicle (very few of which actually make any significant reduction in auto emissions) to run to the store “for 2 minutes” to get a pack of smokes or to go out for lunch at work, rather than walking or brown-bagging it.

Then they’ll buy some “carbon offsets” from some dubious company with no enforced standards with regard to how they spend the money, and sleep the sleep of the just at night, as though they saved the world by throwing money at the problem and never once inconveniencing themselves. Isn’t THAT an inconvenient truth?

Well, here’s the thing. The way to make sure the world has a future is sustainability. It doesn’t involve “buying offsets”. Purchasing shares in companies that are doing research to improve green energy production like solar, wind and geothermal technology WOULD be a worthwhile way of spending that money. Then if you lose it, so what? It was your “offset”, and if you DON’T lose it you have a chance to make money while making a difference.

I am getting away from what I wanted to say, though. The scientists and Al Gore wanna-bes who are flogging the global-catastrophe scenario aspect of anthropogenic global warming will use the old confound with bullshit routine to tell you how we are causing global warming by showing you huge, complicated mathematical formulae, so that you just feel stupid and stop asking questions. They don’t bother to tell you that if ANY number in their formula happens to be wrong, the entire conclusion is wrong – and fail to inform you that a substantial portion of these conclusive, iron-clad proofs are actually based on guesses and completely unproven assumptions. If you visit the websites of these anthropogenic global warming proponents, you will even find sections where they tell YOU how to argue with someone who does not agree with their viewpoint – but rarely do they tell you the whole truth. They indoctrinate you to their point of view without giving you all the facts (or rather explaining their lack of factual data). I visit these pages regularly, open minded, waiting to be convinced. Those who know me know I am not stupid. I understand what they are saying quite well, maybe too well. And – that’s why I remain unconvinced.

You MUST remember is that in every field, including science, there are people who graduated at the bottom of their class. There are people who simply went through classes and memorized everything (as our educational system encourages) and scored average grades based on that, without truly understanding the material. And you should know that these people constitute MORE THAN HALF of the scientific community at large. For every Mozart, there are a dozen Salieri, and a hundred Milli Vanillis.

Sure, there are some really smart, truly brilliant scientists out there. But – they are the minority. The rest are little more than average to above average people with sufficient discipline (or money) to get through the material and score the 60-80% minimum required of their course work. True genius is rare. Less than 2% of the population is at a genius-level intellect, and even if MORE geniuses go into science than other fields (which, in my experience, is NOT necessarily the case in environmental or climate science), maybe 5% of scientists are geniuses. The rest? Not significantly smarter than any other college graduate. Not really smarter than you. And, not differently from you – if someone perceived as “smarter” says something, they tend to lean toward believing it – even to want to PROVE it for themselves. Just to fit in, and not look stupid. It’s like the herd-animal response… we just call it “consensus”. Just like the IPCC. Just like Al Gore. Al Gore, who was right smack in the middle of his graduating class, 25th out of 51. Al Gore’s IQ results? In the low 130s. That ain’t genius, folks – that’s just modestly above average. “Moderately gifted”, they call it. For brevity’s sake, we won’t examine too closely how IQ tests were administered to upper middle class, wealthy Caucasians in the 60s right now…right?

I am going to simplify it for everyone. From the genius to average to those fringing on that IQ score of 80, below which they are categorized in the Borderline Mental Retardation range.

Take a large glass of tap water. A tall one. About 2 cups of water, 500ml or so. Now, find the BIGGEST single grain of salt you can find. It must be one grain. A REALLY big single crystal. Ideally, it would weight around .14 milligrams. Drop it in.

Is it salt water? How significantly have the chemical properties of that water changed? Can you taste salt? If someone handed it to you, would you know salt had been put in the glass in any way? What do you think? Will it still make ice cubes?

Assuming that every single piece of data collected about atmospheric carbon dioxide since the late 19th century is accurate – we won’t even debate the accuracy of anything from that time frame, we will simply conclude it is 100% correct, that is how much carbon dioxide was in the atmosphere of planet Earth at that time. That’s how Al Gore’s “hockey stick” graph shows it.

Now, find another grain of salt. This time, a normal, average-sized grain. And, here’s the tricky part – cut it in half. Now put it in that same glass of water.

How much has changed? How much have you altered the properties of that water? Will it conduct electricity better? Will it now freeze at a lower temperature?

That’s how much CO2 that we’ve added to the atmosphere since the late 19th century. And this is assuming that all of the records are 100%, ironclad correct based on the data of the “OMG, The World Is Ending” folks. I am conceding the point that their collected data is accurate for the purposes of this point, even though it most likely is not.

They love to throw around BIG numbers, BILLIONS of tonnes of “greenhouse gas”, 150% more CO2 in the atmosphere, and so on. But they never bother to tell you that in the HUGE volume of the atmosphere of planet Earth, that on a planetary scale, these volumes are not even equivalent to a fraction of a grain of salt in a glass of water.

So, please, save the Earth. Stop polluting. Stop WASTING. Live efficiently, and live sustainably!

But when it comes to Al Gore’s “end of the world”, you can take that with a grain of salt.

*UPDATE June 29th 2008*

I just deleted a comment that someone made, because they did not provide a working email address when they posted, however I will address their “reasonable” response:

Carbon is NOT a toxic heavy metal. It is not an atmospheric contaminant. Mercury is, and is harmful in small amounts.

When adding mercury to water or the atmosphere you are adding something that does not naturally occur in that state, has toxic properties, and PROVEN harful effects. Carbon is part of the atmosphere, CO2 levels in the atmosphere have been historically higher and the planet amazingly survived, and the percentage of carbon altered by parts per billion does not alter the heat-holding capacity of the atmosphere.

But, of course, as usual with the brainwashed “global warming” crowd, you fall back on hyperbole and hysteria when your beliefs are challenged. Hey – who else does that? Oh yeah – people who believe in RELIGION over science.

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)?

Timers.

Timers are great for some things when it comes to improving efficiency. A timer that turns down your thermostat at night or when you are not home is a fantastic idea, and saves a vast sum of energy. Timers which shut off your oven when the food is done cooking or turn out the lights when they are not needed – great idea! They actually serve a purpose.

What has me pissed off as hell is advertising I have been watching lately telling people to put timers on things like their stereo system or their microwave oven, because they “draw a little bit of power all the time” and it is not efficient. Those timers I will refer to, from now on, as FUCKING TIMERS.

Well, lets start with the obvious: WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK POWERS THE FUCKING TIMER? TICKY-TOCKY FAIRIES? LITTLE GNOMES THAT SNEAK IN THE HOUSE AND WIND IT ALL NIGHT LONG? Cheese and fucking CRACKERS!!! The amount of power needed to keep the clock set on your microwave or the stations preset in the stereo, or the television stations programmed to your cable company is not that significantly different from the amount of power needed to run the FUCKING TIMER.

On top of that – where do you think these fucking timers come from? Do you think they plant little seeds on the shelves in the Wal-Mart or Canadian Tire store, and by morning they are grown and available for sale, springing forth fully-formed like Venus arises from the sea in Botticelli’s masterpiece?

No… those little pieces of plastic and metal have to be assembled in a factory. A factory which has to have the raw materials mined from the ground and shipped to it, and which then has to use energy to power their lights and machines to make the fucking timer, and then to package and ship them to the warehouse of the retailer, which then has to ship them to the store. How much damn energy do you think this takes, let’s say, on a PER FUCKING TIMER basis? I suppose you also eat organic produce they have to SHIP IN from Chile because organic is more “environmentally friendly”, don’t you, dumbass?

Sorry, but unless you are turning off your hot water heater overnight when you are not using it, you aren’t saving enough energy to justify those fucking timers. You just aren’t. If you are that worried about the trickle of power that maintains your electronic stuff – UNPLUG THE GOD-DAMN THINGS. Put it on a power bar and turn it off when you are not using it. Pull the fuse, open the circuit breaker, whatever floats your boat – but don’t put it on some FUCKING TIMER and then sneer superciliously at your “environmentally unfriendly” acquaintances that don’t.

There are sensible ways to save power. Efficient lighting turned on only when needed, high-efficiency appliances, and just (yes, here it comes again) NOT WASTING SHIT are only a few.

Padding the pockets of some greedy company which has hornswoggled some amoeba-minded government bureaucrat into making commercials to promote this idiotic practice is NOT on the short list.