Posted on 03/25/2008 12:37:21 AM PDT by kingattax
Gordon Brown is preparing for a battle with the European Union over biofuels after one of the government's leading scientists warned they could exacerbate climate change rather than combat it.
In an outspoken attack on a policy which comes into force next week, Professor Bob Watson, the chief scientific adviser at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said it would be wrong to introduce compulsory quotas for the use of biofuels in petrol and diesel before their effects had been properly assessed.
"If one started to use biofuels ... and in reality that policy led to an increase in greenhouse gases rather than a decrease, that would obviously be insane," Watson said. "It would certainly be a perverse outcome."
Under the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation, all petrol and diesel must contain 2.5% of biofuels from April 1. This is designed to ensure that Britain complies with a 2003 EU directive that 5.75% of petrol and diesel come from renewable sources by 2010.
But scientists have increasingly questioned the sustainability of biofuels, warning that by increasing deforestation the energy source may be contributing to global warming.
Watson's warning was echoed last night by Professor Sir David King, who recently retired as the government's chief scientific adviser. He said biofuel quotas should be put on hold until the results were known of a review which has been commissioned by ministers.
"What is absolutely desperately needed within government are people of integrity who will state what the science advice is under whatever political pressure or circumstances," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Lets face it: scientists are much better at building crazy contraptions to blow up the world than figuring out ways to save it. Just let them do what we already know they’re good at.
This is absolutely hysterical...
The world is being run by maroons.
Its not that funny. I was talking to a farmer friend of mine recently and he is convinced that if we continue to turn agricultural land over from food production to biofuel there are going to be a serious worldwide food shortage soon.
I’ve been warning the same to my libidiot friends.
Few of them are aware that corn, wheat, and soybean prices have doubled in the last two years, in large part due to this stoopid drive to burn food.
Billy Joel once had a song, called "We didn't start the fire"
According to them, we did.
Actually I’ve heard discussions about setting off nuclear weapons to trigger a mild greenhouse effect, which would preempt GW. I think that’s been replaced now with the idea of scattering millions of tons of sulpher particles into the upper atmosphere. Some people just don’t know when to leave well enough alone...
Good God. Isn’t converting coal to fuel an over 60 year old technology.
biofuel is better than buying oil from ragheads.
BTW, why does the
US have to feed everybody?
Absolutely. My son, a physicist, says he is more afraid of the damage we can do “tinkering” with everything, than he is of the situation as it stands!
Why do mammals have fur? Every bit of energy you use becomes WASTE HEAT. If you INSULATED your own house like mammals are naturally insulated, you wouldn’t NEED biofuels, just FOOD to eat. A rough calc : with a two foot thick layer of urethane foam insulation all around a 1500 sf house(R 168), a couch potato cranking out 1250 BTUH would keep the interior at 72 deg F with outside temp at 32 deg F. You are all looking thru the telescope at new energy sources, look instead at CONSERVATION; why ever do you need to heat the cold, dark night sky by pouring your own heat-money thru your own house windows/poorly insulated walls?
Eventually all these things have to stop at the ballot box. We didn't get lower taxes until we wanted them enough to elect enough people, and one in particular, who would lower them. Right now, at least half of the voters want more taxes and more regulation which is how there are two hard leftists and the RAT side of the equation. Sadly, a majority of the other half of the electorate also wants more taxes and more regulation except that they want 1/3-1/2 as much as the RAT side which is how there is a enthusiastic global warming regulator and reluctant tax cutter on the Stupid Party side of the equation.
The insanity seems like it has a while to go yet.
Why not let the market decide?
Oh, and it is not insane to foist the Kyoto Protocols on mankind before their effects had been properly assessed?
I guess the Vegans are hating life.
I'm wondering if that's what this is really about anyway. The biofuels thing that is. They have to know it's nutty but the USA has the most arable land of any country in the world. Could this be an effort to bring farming up to sell to a hungry world?
Didn’t you used to work for Mother Earth News?
LOL
Didn't stop the US from requiring it.
The problem with biofuel is that it doesn’t replace oil, it merely supplements it. You will still have to buy some oil from the Middle East. Even if you expanded your own oil production, you would probably still have to buy some, because not all crude oil is the same.
The US doesn’t HAVE to feed everybody. You get paid for your farm produce, same as anything else you make.
The problem with biofuel is that it doesn’t replace oil, it merely supplements it. You will still have to buy some oil from the Middle East. Even if you expanded your own oil production, you would probably still have to buy some, because not all crude oil is the same.
The US doesn’t HAVE to feed everybody. You get paid for your farm produce, same as anything else you make.
She says the good coming out of this MMGW hysteria is teaching folks how to conserve.(Lost Art) Our ancestors got us here by conserving and we need to do the same.
Remember: Conserve is part of Conservatism.
Its a possibility. The fact is that wheat is still ridiculously cheap. Ive heard of one farmer who burns the stuff in his boiler on the grounds thats its much cheaper than coal.
If a farmer can get twice as much money making biofuels as growing food crops, then according to market forces this will increase the amount of biofuel being produced. Folk go hungry, this will push food prices up, so farmers produce less biofuel and more food, and eventually an equilibrium is reached.
The problem with this is that it takes time to produce food and biofuel, and its also impossible to be exactly sure how much you are going to be able to produce (unless you can 100% accurately predict the weather for a year). Therefore in the process of these “market adjustments” there might be a “shortfall in supply” for a couple of years, which would have serious consequences, (like several million people starving to death).
Food production is too important to mess with.
WHY do you FEEL the NEED to use CAPITALS all the TIME????
That amount of thermal insulation is pointless overkill if you don't control air infiltration. Assuming you can seal a house as airtight as a Thermos bottle, then health issues arise from the lack of fresh air and the increased concentration of trapped toxins such as biological expirations, bacteria, virues, materials outgassing, etc. The complexity and cost of a sealed air-filtered bioenvironment is beyond the reach of most people.
it might come down to this choice : would you like to drive or eat ?
Biofuels could work, but using agricultural land to do it is stupid. We have deserts and oceans to grow bacteria, seaweed, or other fast-growing non-consumables that could be made into biofuel rather than corn.
Of course, the real reason for using corn is because of agricultural lobbying of congress. The real innovation here is that the agricultural industry found a way to latch on to the global warming hysteria. That is the only type of innovation that the government promotes today.
good post, thanks. your comment isn't surprising since the "government" is infested with liberal loons and doesn't look like or operate anything close to what the framers of the constitution intended
Did you know that the UBC only requires openable windows in assisted living homes? That means your mother/grandmother living in one, with dementia, probably in a wheelchair or using a walker, has to get up every hour or so and open/close their window so that they can get breathable outside air. In a nursing home or hospital you get 10 air changes/hr with mechanical ventilation, in assisted living you get NONE.
As to caulked-tight/no infiltration living units, a heat exchanger is as simple as a small fan and double pipe duct : outgoing exhaust air heats incoming fresh air. Yes, you lose about half the heat but it isn’t that big a deal energy-wise. The code requires 2 air changes/hr, look at the numbers, not that much vs OXYGEN to stay alive.
The Brit is right. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
We architects block print in CAPITAL letters as fast as most people write in longhand. Engineers often scribble in tiny longhand, which is why they are often mis-understood, or ignored. Communication is one of the world’s biggest problems, if you want to SAY something, say it BIG..in CAPITAL LETTERS, billboard high...
Heard today that in germany they have roll-down shutters over exterior windows. My son googled it for me but it was an e-bay thing : $1700 for one. Laughable. In 10,000 years you would save that much on lost heat thru that window.
No, these would have to be cheap, mass produced; possibly 90% financed by the state/fed as a matching funds deal(mechanics lien). Also in conjunction to the operable, insulated, automatic-on-photocell window shutters you could do “quilt” panels, like thick siding 4” to 12” thick, on the existing house walls; plus another layer laid over the roof.
Yes, it would COST a pretty penny but it would be local labor(music to politicians ears)both in manufacturing more insulation and installing it as well. The biggest plus would be drastically reducing electrical energy generation/useage, thus reducing Global Warming(and keeping more money in your pocket). It takes about 3 KW back at the coal fired plant/transmission lines to deliver 1 KW to your electrical panel, did you know that?
And too, insulation is a permanent PLUS to the house. Let’s say it takes 2 years to pay for itself, after that it’s the gift that keeps on giving, year after year.
I dont like wasting things either. I have improved my loft insulation, changed half the lights to lo-energy, and double-glazed all the windows. Frankly though, I find anything else is just too expensive to do.
Where I come, that is known as “unintended consequences”.
“Heard today that in germany they have roll-down shutters over exterior windows.”
We have those here in Texas also. (remote control and automatic)
Here in South Central Texas, there’s a fine line on how much or how little insulation we use. Due to extreme temp variations and the nearly ever present humidity, houses need to breath in order to adjust to the conditions and prevent mold growth.
Unfortunantly, Tyvek and Stucco covered foam present problems.
Are you saying global warming is caused by the heat radiated from houses or the BS about CO2
If this solar cycle prediction holds all the GW BS will go down the tubes. And I mean the tubes that are attached to the bottom of the porcelain throne of BS.
What I want to see is a farmer making money producing biofuels when he is only using biofuels for the whole process.
I feel you will be “wanting to see” for a very long time!
Copper, lead and gold prices have also doubled. The fact is that the value of corn has remained stable vis-a-vis the value of other commodities. that the value of the Dollar has gone down the drain is not the fault of American farmers.
What I’m saying is that increased insulation is your best energy buy. It’s an old saw but still true : if you want to change the world in a positive way, start doing it at home.
As to GW, it is going on, it’s measureable, but by overly sensitive chicken-little-the-sky-is-falling types who have a control freak mentality; it isn’t all that bad YET. The ancient reducing/anaerobic bacteria O2-excreted themselves out of business, from 3.6 B to .6 B, and into septic tanks. We could just as easily put ourselves out of business as O2 breathers with WASTE HEAT, paving the way for still another kind of organism on the earth-stage.
spacedaily.com
‘Chaos’ as snowstorm sweeps Finland
Transport links by air, land and sea were seriously disrupted Wednesday as a snowstorm battered the country, leaving one person dead in a road accident.
The fatality occurred when a car collided with a bus near Turku, in the south west, officials said.
Flight delays and cancellations were reported at Helsinki’s Vantaa airport, while ferries between Helsinki and the Estonian capital Tallin stopped running due to high winds at sea.
“It’s chaos in the capital,” said Helsinki police spokesman Jussi Pohjonen.
Finland’s meteorological service advised motorists to be careful as it forecast up to 30 centimetres (12 inches) of snow to fall across the southern third of the country overnight into Thursday.
Finland had been enjoying one of its mildest winters on record, with temperatures between four and six degrees Celsius (39 to 42 degrees degrees Fahrenheit) above average.
Yes, the devil is in the details, differing climates mean differing responses. Here in MT we have 15 hour long winter nights, still longer up north, it makes economic sense to have insulated, automatic window shutters. The problem is the cost/benefit ratio, that’s where the gov’t could help with a 90% matching funds program, as a mechanics lien to be paid back over many years.
Good for you, you’re not a waster wih a 1950s $3/bbl oil mentality. The operable, insulated, automatic-on-photocell window shutters available now are just too expensive, the cost/benefit ratio doesn’t work for the average homeowner on his own dime. And yet here is an opportunity for some major insulation manufacturer to develop mass produced units backed by public financial support, to cover vast numbers of energy-robbing window-holes in homes. Plus you can add insulation panels to walls, like thick, new siding; and “quilts” over roofs. Hey, it’s your own money you’re heating the cold night air with, why?
No, just drunken, power hungry lawyer who fool people into placing them into legislatures. ............... uh ............. hold on a moment ...................... On second thought your right.
I think, if you check on it, many cities, states and the Fed Gov. offer low interest loans or rebates for home improvment and *Green* solutions.
We got back $1500 on our heatpump.
Every little bit($1500 rebate)helps. What should happen though is a vast national effort to insulate homes/buildings. Cats, dogs, mammals are born with insulating fur, as are birds with insulating feathers; why are so-called genius humans so far behind nature’s way of handling heat loss?
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