Not a Good Week to Fight Warming

San Jose Mercury News ^ | 1/14/07 | Anon

[ProtectOurFreedom]

We've all heard the complaint that politicians can be fair weather and change their minds depending on which way the political wind is blowing.

But this week, weather and politics came together in a most peculiar way in Sacramento.

First, the governor, by executive order, decreed that the state will have new standards for low-carbon motor vehicle fuel to help combat global warming.

Then he announced as part of his State of the State that he wants to build two new dams because Sierra snowpack runoff is happening earlier in the year. Why? Global warming.

This, of course, all happened on the same week that the governor ended up declaring a state of emergency -- because of extremely cold weather.

Guess we can't blame global warming on that one.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

This happens all the time, yet the politicos don't see the irony. Unfortunately, we can't stop the pseudo-science / political GW juggernaut that is going to destroy our economy with a $1 trillion "fix" to a non-problem.

And what in the world is "low-carbon motor vehicle fuel"? The only one that comes to mind is hydrogen which has zero carbon and that's decades away. Does this announcement mean they plan to somehow further hydrogenate gasoline?

[betsyross1776]

Yo lets all get together and say the words El Nino . Yes folks the same system that caused 1978 to be a warm winter in the northeast came back again tis year. After El nino left , we got El Nina which caused the northeast to have more snow then santa had in the north pole that year.It is called weather systems and they do happen . Oh one more thing Titanic was hit by an iceberg, long before global warming. The earth readjusts to problems that occur. If you believe as I do that creation is the answer , God will work this one out and sooner or later I will be buying a new winter coat again, or is it still.

[Ken522]

Does hydrogenated gasoline have the same effect on humans that hydrogenated vegtable oil does? Will the government then have to start banning trans-fat motor fuel???;-)

[Sherman Logan]

As I understand it, natural gas has less carbon than gasoline.

[AntiKev]

The problem with the lighter hydrocarbons is that they are gaseous at room temperature. The heavier ones we use for fuel, the reference fuel being iso-octane (8 carbons) and all of the lighter ones (and I'm not talking oxygenated fuels like methanol or ethanol) are saturated hydrocarbons. That means that there are no carbon-carbon double bonds, all C-C bonds are single and every empty bond space is taken up by a hydrogen atom. You cannot "hydrogenate" a saturated hydrocarbon. End of story. If you "hydrogenate" an alcohol like ethanol or methanol you get ethane or methane respectively. We're back to square one. What we should REALLY be doing is developing Sabatier reactors to produce natural gas or methanol OR ethanol. This has a desired side-effect (and my true agenda shows through here) that we will then have the knowledge and the technology to produce one of these hydrocarbons on MARS to facilitate manned exploration.

[Sherman Logan]

Pardon my ignorance. Aren't hydrocarbon fuels for rockets or landers rather a poor choice? Elsewhere than Earth don't you have to produce and contain/control the oxydizer as well as the fuel?

Wouldn't some form of propulsion other than "burning" be more efficient under such circumstances?

[ClaireSolt]

Here is an article o a hydrogen prototype delivered to the miitary.

http://autos.msn.com/advice/article.aspx?contentid=4023502&src=LP%20pickups

I have read that chevy will market it this year in CA.

[Coldwater Creek]

After they dig themselves out of this weekends ice storm.

I lived in So. Calif. for 29 years and never did I see ice covered trees like I did this morning on the TV in the L.A. area.

[bannie]

We're setting record lows in Bakersfield.

I guess "it depends on what your meaning of the word [warming] is."

[raftguide]

Global warming is determined by the number of places setting record highs, not those setting record lows. That's because we all know that global warming is occurring so those places with record lows can be ignored. They're just nondescript artifacts of no meaning.

[Billthedrill]

It's mostly a matter of perspective, and the media are heavily loaded with an East Coast-centric point of view. In the West our snow-pack is just shy of 160%, it's just popped above zero Fahrenheit where I'm typing and it's snowing. In the East they're having a warm weather, ergo the entire world is melting. Go figure.

[VOA]

On a thread (on Friday?), a poster said that Joe Bastardi (who appears
on FNC, IIRC) predicted that Jan 15-Feb 15 of 2007 will be be in the
top 5 of "coldest American winters" for the past century.

It will be interesting to see if Mr. Bastardi hits the target.

[bannie]

Balance just wouldn't suit the agenda, would it.

[socal_parrot]

Hey. Here's what it looked like in your old Lake Arrowhead stomping grounds yesterday...

[AntiKev]

Even on Earth you have to produce/contain/control the oxidizer because you use liquid oxygen.

Hydrocarbons work VERY well (especially light ones) for first stage rockets. You can achieve high performance (not as high as hydrogen) with a smaller system. Hydrogen propellant tanks get very large due to the low density of liquid hydrogen.

[Coldwater Creek]

You are mean, mean, mean. But, isn't it the most georgous place in the country?

Maria

[ErnBatavia]

I lived in So. Calif. for 29 years and never did I see ice covered trees like I did this morning on the TV in the L.A. area.

It was 27 degrees from 4:45 until about 8:15 this morning in my low desert yard. Last winter no overnight low was below 40. (I watch this carefully, because our system is a Heat Pump, and they can get goosey if the temp drops into the thirties).

[Cvengr]

The good news never ends...we anticipate another El Nino this summer...

[Excellence]

It was 16° this morning inside the motor home. The cat's water was frozen solid. Can't wait to start whining about the heat this summer.

[Jaysun]

We're all gonna die!