Posted on 12/04/2006 4:21:39 AM PST by yoe
Washington has no shortage of bullies, but even we can't quite believe an October 27 letter that Senators Jay Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe sent to ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson. Its message: Start toeing the Senators' line on climate change, or else.
We reprint the full text of the letter here, so readers can see for themselves. But its essential point is that the two Senators believe global warming is a fact, and therefore all debate about the issue must stop and ExxonMobil should "end its dangerous support of the [global warming] 'deniers.' " Not only that, the company "should repudiate its climate change denial campaign and make public its funding history." And in extra penance for being "one of the world's largest carbon emitters," Exxon should spend that money on "global remediation efforts."
The Senators aren't dumb enough to risk an ethics inquiry by threatening specific consequences if Mr. Tillerson declines this offer he can't refuse. But in case the CEO doesn't understand his company's jeopardy, they add that "ExxonMobil and its partners in denial have manufactured controversy, sown doubt, and impeded progress with strategies all-too reminiscent of those used by the tobacco industry for so many years." (Our emphasis.) The Senators also graciously copied the Exxon board on their missive.
This is amazing stuff. On the one hand, the Senators say that everyone agrees on the facts and consequences of climate change. But at the same time they are so afraid of debate that they want Exxon to stop financing a doughty band of dissenters who can barely get their name in the paper. We respect the folks at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, but we didn't know until reading the Rockefeller-Snowe letter that they ran U.S. climate policy and led the mainstream media around by the nose....
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
ST. LOUIS - Frigid temperatures contributed to four deaths Sunday, pushing the toll from a devastating ice and snow storm to 19 as hundreds of thousands waited another day for their electricity to be restored.
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Temperatures across much of the region were predicted to hover in the teens and 20s on Monday while wind chills should make it feel even colder, slowing down cleanup efforts, according to the
National Weather Service.
The storm disrupted Amtrak train service between Chicago and St. Louis, but most of those lines were expected to be up and running on Monday, the company said in a release.
As temperatures rose into the 20s, Tawana Jean Cooper and her family sat at a Red Cross warming center in St. Louis, which they reached a day earlier from her suburban home after roads were cleared of ice, downed power lines and broken tree limbs.
Her three young grandchildren joined her at the shelter.
"They know this is not home. They know this is a disaster," Cooper said as she cradled her sleeping 5-month-old granddaughter in her arms.
"The
American Red Cross has been a God's blessing," she said. About six dozen others also spent the night at the shelter.
Missouri National Guardsmen had been sent into the area to knock on doors and make sure people were safe. By early afternoon Sunday, the St. Louis temperature had reached only about 22 degrees, the National Weather Service said.
Two men, ages 37 and 35, died after they tried to burn coal in a cooking wok to stay warm. Fire officials found deadly levels of carbon monoxide in their home. A 56-year-old man may have suffered hypothermia, and an 81-year-old man was found dead at the bottom of his home's stairs.
"This is not over. As long as the power is still out, there are still people at risk," St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said.
Thursday's storm spread ice and deep snow from Texas to Michigan and then blew through the Northeast late Friday and early Saturday. Thousands of travelers were stranded by canceled flights, highways clogged by abandoned vehicles and stalled trains.
By Sunday afternoon, about 350,000 customers of St. Louis-based Ameren Corp. had no electricity in a roughly 300-mile swath from Jackson, Mo., northeast to Pontiac, Ill., paralleling the track of the storm. Spokeswoman Susan Gallagher said about 200,000 were in Missouri and about 150,000 in central and southern Illinois.
The utility said Sunday it would not estimate when power will be totally restored.
Trees throughout the region were glazed with a thick coat of ice that reflected the sunlight and also snapped tree limbs, bringing power lines down with them.
"It's slow," said Ameren repairman Bernie Kutz, after completing a job in south St. Louis. "The tools are freezing somewhat, and nothing wants to work right."
At the peak of the outages Friday, 510,000 customers were without power, Gallagher said. Hundreds of thousands also lost power in the other states hit by the storm.
In Peoria, Ill., fire officials urged homeowners to check their roofs after a nursing home ceiling collapsed, injuring four residents.
In Belleville, Ill., 20 miles east of St. Louis, most of the 100 cots at Westhaven Elementary School had been in use as a Red Cross shelter since noon Friday.
For much of the region, it was a reminder of the widespread outages caused by severe thunderstorms in July, when 948,000 in Missouri and Illinois were blacked out.
___
http://www.clearlight.com/~mhieb/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html
Mr170IQ,
95%, excuse me. Please see the link attached and tell me how I am mistaken. This website has been my old faithful for explaining the global myth of man made global warming. Are they wrong?
I'll be less vocal in the future with my ignorance.
Water Vapor Rules
the Greenhouse System
Just how much of the "Greenhouse Effect" is caused by human activity?
It is about 0.28%, if water vapor is taken into account-- about 5.53%, if not.
This point is so crucial to the debate over global warming that how water vapor is or isn't factored into an analysis of Earth's greenhouse gases makes the difference between describing a significant human contribution to the greenhouse effect, or a negligible one.
Water vapor constitutes Earth's most significant greenhouse gas, accounting for about 95% of Earth's greenhouse effect (4). Interestingly, many "facts and figures' regarding global warming completely ignore the powerful effects of water vapor in the greenhouse system, carelessly (perhaps, deliberately) overstating human impacts as much as 20-fold.
Water vapor is 99.999% of natural origin. Other atmospheric greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and miscellaneous other gases (CFC's, etc.), are also mostly of natural origin (except for the latter, which is mostly anthropogenic).
Human activites contribute slightly to greenhouse gas concentrations through farming, manufacturing, power generation, and transportation. However, these emissions are so dwarfed in comparison to emissions from natural sources we can do nothing about, that even the most costly efforts to limit human emissions would have a very small-- perhaps undetectable-- effect on global climate.
For those interested in more details a series of data sets and charts have been assembled below in a 5-step statistical synopsis.
Note that the first two steps ignore water vapor.
Here is the link to the entire site. I would love to hear your thoughts on it.
http://www.clearlight.com/~mhieb/WVFossils/ice_ages.html
"they after the money, they...... they.... them...." Who are "they"?
Not necessarilly a hoax since it has been obsreved that the Martian ice caps are receding, but certainly NOT caused by Man. There is so much bad science there that one scarcely knows where to start.
Just like the ozone hole (pure BS)
Just like the "population bomb" (completely wrong)
Just like the oceans will be "dead in 10 years" (19 years ago now, thanks Ted "I look good but I'm dumber than a box of rocks" Danson)
Global warming is the crisis du jour, that's all.
ping
That's right. The three choices are that the Earth is going to warm, cool, or stay the same. It never stays the same, so that leaves us two choices. Which one would you prefer?
Me, I figure you can't grow crops in the snow. Worldwide glaciation would be far more harmful to life on this planet and have a much greater economic impact that warming. So we lose a few cities, maybe. I guess the dems can't stand the thought of having their favorite states go red.
Instead they're worried about the right-wing Christian take-over here in the USA (just ask Rosie O'Donuts!) and global warming. Idiots!
> Here is the link to the entire site. I would love to hear your thoughts on it
> http://www.clearlight.com/~mhieb/WVFossils/ice_ages.html
Personally, I think the JunkScience site is much more concise.
http://www.junkscience.com/Greenhouse/
--
Let me put my analysis of the topic in very simple terms:
The anthropogenic Global Warming myth is an attempt to promote global Socialism by mandating a MASSIVE "carbon tax" that would enslave the economy of the USA.
Even IF (and that's a big IF) the icecaps were to melt and raise the ocean level, it would happen gradually and people would have time to move. It's not like some big tsunami would come crashing down on all the world's cities at once.
Plus, I'd like to see a longer growing season. Think of how much more food could be produced to feed the starving people of the world. And we'd be using fewer fossil fuels to heat with and conserving natural resources. Not to mention that it's easier to get around in nice weather than this snow and slop we deal with every winter.
Global warming? I say, *Bring it on*.
Global warming is driven by the United Nations; McCain and Clinton use it for votes and now Snowe and Rockefeller seem to have been pressured by special interest also. With the threat of a world Caliph imminent, these silly politicians have their heads in the sand....
Go EXXON!.....one wonders why dont they take on CITGO and Hugo
instead of EXXON...........
I wouldn't repeat that in an argument. Humans can control and impact nature.....to a much greater degree than you seem to think.
Instead they're worried about the right-wing Christian take-over here in the USA Ha Ha!
You just can find no evidence of that! I always think its funny how they drag out old shows about skinheads and the Klan on A&E like they are running rampant all over the country. The only people they do not like talking about are the ones that are out to get all of us!
Money: Exxon has money. Snow/Rockefeller work with 529s and K St. lobby groups. Currently XON is writing checks as they wish. These extortionists are pressuring XON to direct $ into interest groups affiliated with the GW crowd. Read WSJ on line for the exact extortion request foudn in the Snow/Rockyfeller letter to Exxon's Chairman.
That has to be the most mind-boggling ignorant statement I've ever seen on Free Republic.
My lungs consume O2 and produce CO2. Do you have some other kind of lungs that consume H2O?
Also, water is H2O. That two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen. O2 is not in water vapor. H2O2 is hydrogen peroxide. I would not advise drinking that.
Finally, water vapor is H2O, which is a molecule. I've never heard the term "compilation of molecules." Is that like a greatest hits package of the most popular molecules that is not available in stores, but only by phone?
I can't support your campaign to eliminate O2 from the atmosphere. It would be too inconvenient for me to walk around with an oxygen tank.
We could use some of that global warming stuff up here in Ioway.
I suspect the latter.
I agree.
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