“When we see what we did at the climate summit in Copenhagen, this is the response, this is what happens, you know what I’m sayin’? What happened in Haiti could happen to anywhere in the Caribbean because all these island nations are in peril because of global warming,” Glover said. “When we see what we did at the climate summit in Copenhagen, this is the response, this is what happens, you know what I’m sayin’?”

Yes, I made a joke of it.

In spite of the spin and the headlines, I don’t see where Danny Glover said the earthquake was caused by Global Warming in this quote.

I believe much of the information about global warming/climate change is based on incomplete data and therefore we can’t really be sure of ANY of the conclusions drawn by climate science (on EITHER SIDE of the discussion).

***NO, I will NOT be responding to any discussions about global warming because it inevitably leads to someone who believes in global warming with religious fervour getting completely bent out of shape because I say we don’t actually have the facts that some scientists would like us to believe we have – and that leads to the “ZOMG THE CHILDREN” and “Better safe than sorry” crap that just goes absolutely nowhere. I HAVE educated myself about this, I HAVE read RealClimate and looked at numerous other data sources, and I just plain simply do not find anything conclusive from my point of view. YOU don’t have to pay attention to me, and you certainly aren’t going to change my mind. I’ve been looking at this science for well over a decade.

The thing is – Danny Glover doesn’t say that the earthquakes were caused by global warming. What he says (albeit poorly, and with great hyperbole) is that because of climate change, Caribbean nations are in danger and more natural disasters may occur in these areas. He doesn’t mean EARTHQUAKES, he just means disasters in general, at some time in the future. He’s trying to connect THIS disaster to the NEXT disaster. It’s political propaganda as surely as some of the other crap we’ve seen this week, but it is just so poorly stated that it makes it easy for “spin” people on the right-wing side to make it look like he said something he didn’t.

So:

1. Shut up and stop trying to use this as a soapbox for a completely separate issue, Danny, you celebrity nitwit.
2. Sorry, FOX News. That isn’t what he said. Assholes.

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 »

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 »

Possibly the shortest conversation I will ever have with someone about the “fuel cost crisis” and global warming:

(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!

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 »