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Prices drop as European Union sticks to 2020 emissions targetLONDON (MarketWatch) -- The price of European carbon emission permits dropped nearly 9% Monday after climate talks in Copenhagen resulted in an accord that fell short of initial expectations.Emission allowances for December 2010 delivery fell to 12.77 euros a ton Monday, from Friday's settlement price of 13.58 euros. The contract earlier dropped as much as 8.7% to 12.40 euros a ton. Emission allowances haven't traded that low in more than six months. The decline came after the United Nation's Copenhagen summit acknowledged a U.S.-led accord to combat climate change and prevent...

Al Gore’s campaign against global warming is shifting into high gear. Reporters and commentators follow his every move and bombard the public with notice of his activities and opinions. But while the mainstream media promote his ideas about the state of planet Earth, they are mostly silent about the dramatic impact his economic proposals would have on America. And journalists routinely ignore evidence that he may personally benefit from his programs. Would the romance fizzle if Gore’s followers realized how much their man stands to gain? Earlier this year Gore experienced a notable public relations debacle. The Tennessee Center for...

IMPLEMENTING RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF THE MINISTRY OF ROSTERED INDULGENCES SALESPERSONS “Indulgences must be preached with caution...” Martin Luther, 95 Theses, No. 41 WHEREAS, guided by the Holy Spirit, this church raises up, calls, supports, and maintains rosters of ordained ministers, associates in ministry, deaconesses, and diaconal ministers for public ministry in service of the mission of Christ and seeks faithful to discern in each situation what will best serve that mission; and WHEREAS,some members, congregations, candidacy committees, and synods of the ELCA have discerned gifts and skills for rostered ministry in some people who are or contemplate preaching the...

California, six other Western states and four Canadian provinces will launch a market-based carbon trading system in a major North American effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, according to a draft proposal released today. When it officially begins in four years, the program would first target heavy polluters such as electric utilities, oil refineries and large industrial and commercial facilities, which would be required to begin reporting emission levels beginning in 2011 to allow participating governments to agree on the maximum level of emissions for the region. The plan also includes an offsets system, part of...

Somewhere on the road to Kyoto, Canada turned into the land of the carbon zombies. Like the walking undead, blood-sucking politicians of all stripes are howling at each other over discredited ways to reduce carbon emissions that other countries, having tried to implement, are running away from in terror. In Europe, politicians who boasted they were leading the fight to save Gaia from global warming are now fleeing before enraged mobs of citizens, furious their governments' plans to "save the planet" have turned out to be nothing more than skyrocketing taxes and energy prices. That, plus a "cap-and-trade" carbon market...

'WE have turned out the lights in the studio," NBC's Bob Costas told viewers of Sunday's Dallas Cowboys-Philadelphia Eagles game, "to kick off a week that will include more than 150 hours of programming designed to raise awareness about environmental issues." Discerning viewers with eyes keen enough to pierce the sanctimonious glare of Costas' candlelit silhouette may have noticed that the stadium's klieg lights still shone brightly. On a typical game day, a large football stadium burns about 65,000 kilowatt hours of electricity and 35,000 cubic feet of natural gas. The cars driving to the game spew about 200 metric...

I am a Catholic who is trying to understand Protestant history and teachings, in order to better understand the history of Christianity. There is one issue that I do not understand. According to Protestant teachings, if a person becomes saved, are his future sins forgiven? Can a person lose his salvation? If not, can assurance of salvation become a license to sin? If Ted Haggard had gone to be with the Lord early last year, while in the process of getting a "massage" from his male "friend", would he have gone straight to heaven?

Carbon credits may reduce only guilt So far, offsets 'yield few if any environmental benefits' ......... How clean is your carbon credit? Carbon credits are advertised as a way for polluters to offset the greenhouse gases they produce. ....... Worse, reports of fraud and abuse are piling up. Most recently, an investigation by The Financial Times found that companies and individuals "rushing to go green have been spending millions on 'carbon credit' projects that yield few if any environmental benefits."

H aven't we heard enough from Al Gore, the U.S. windbag turned Hollywood celebrity who presumes to lecture Canadians on their environmental responsibilities? The failed U.S. presidential candidate spends a lot of time in Canada, perhaps because he finds it fertile ground for self-enrichment. The multi-millionaire with a carbon footprint the size of a Sasquatch was in Toronto at the weekend, preening himself among adoring fans. He was introducing a showing of his Oscar-winning movie An Inconvenient Truth, that apocalyptic vision of a world in meltdown that has earned him the soubriquet of "the world's most famous environmentalist." Gore, whose...

In a couple of hundred years historians will be comparing the frenzies over our supposed human contribution to global warming to the tumults at the latter end of the tenth century as the Christian millennium approached. Then as now, the doomsters identified human sinfulness as the propulsive factor in the planet's rapid downward slide. Then as now, a buoyant market throve on fear. The Roman Catholic Church sold indulgences like checks. The sinners established a line of credit against bad behavior and could go on sinning. Today a world market in "carbon credits" is in formation. Those whose "carbon footprint"...

In the early part of the Sixteenth Century, some Catholic priests, mainly in Germany, were accused of selling Indulgences to rich patrons who donated towards the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Indulgences, as practiced by these particular priests, forgave the sinner of his or her sins for a fee. This was a corruption of Catholic doctrine so let's not get into that aspect of this subject; however, it does bring up an interesting point (or analogy) about today's politics. Today, we have the "Pope" of all Eco-lytes Al "The Benificent" Gore and his minions, handing out carbon offset...

Hey Liberals! Do you have a guilty conscience over blabbering about conservation but your home leaves 20 times the carbon footprint of the average home? No problem. Just by Carbon Credit Indulgences to assuage your eco guilt as Al Gore has done. And who can you buy those Carbon Credit Indulgences from? You can make your payments to Generation Investment Management which, by the strangest of coincidences, is the same company founded by Al Gore who also places his enormous carbon footprint there as Chairman. Therefore Al Gore is buying indulgences from himself and he urges all of you...

With a winter that brought snow to Tucson, Ariz., and 70-degree weather to New York City -- along with an Academy Award for the global-warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" -- climate change has become more ingrained in the public consciousness. Not everyone may be willing to overhaul their lives to accommodate the environment, but more people are opting for the rising number of options offered by companies to neutralize their "carbon footprints," meaning the amount of energy they consume. Most carbon-offset programs require consumers to make small payments that in turn go to programs that create renewable energy or absorb...

Purchasing carbon offsets brokered by AlGore reminds me of the sales gimmickry surrounding the “Naming Stars” routine; except with star naming, everyone understands from the onset, it’s a novelty item.

You can neutralize the rest of your pollution—through offsets. When you buy offsets, you essentially pay someone to reduce or remove global warming pollution in your name. For example, when you buy 10 tons of carbon offsets, the seller guarantees that 10 fewer tons of global warming pollution go into the atmosphere. While the pollution you produce yourself is the same, you get the credit for that 10-ton reduction.

One of the historical scandals of the Catholic Church has been the practice of granting indulgences: in layman's terms, the selling of pardon for sins in consideration of political or monetary favors granted to the hierarchy. Not only was this practice morally repellent at the time, as this practice helped fuel the Protestant Reformation, but it has helped undermine the credibility of the Catholic Church as an institution for centuries afterwards. One is tempted to ask, weren't these people thinking at all? Or was the practice just one more example of the adage that power corrupts? But we should not...

Merit Abridged by Annalex FOREWORD This is an abridgement of long and detailed Catholic Encyclopedia article on Merit where I condense the necessary definitions and distinctions in a more concise manner, omitting discussion that seemed to me too arcane. I follow the same subtitle structure as the original and invite the reader to study the original sections for deeper understanding. Much of this abridgement is directly copied from the original, but for the ease of reading I do not use quotation marks. None in this is my own thoughts; my only input was in shortening and paraphrasing. MERIT Merit (meritum)...

An indulgence is an action of the Church which spreads her treasure of merits to the suffering members of the family of God. Indulgences: Spreading the wealth By Dermott J. Mullan I. Introduction Indulgences have to do with how God handles evil and good. To God, sin is always horrible, but humans do not always think so. The Church’s teaching on indulgences is meant to impress on us some of God’s horror of sin. The Church says sin is never an isolated event: rather, each sin has after-effects, not only in the person who sins but also in other parts...

Nine Papal Jokes for the newly elected resident of the Chair of St. Peter. (Answers at the end) 1. What did the new Pope have for breakfast his first day on the job? 2. What can the Pope do that no one else on earth can do? 3. As Cardinal Ratzinger, the newest Pope was on record of giving full support for controversial Catholic dogmas such as the selling of indulgences, purgatory, and the Immaculat Conception of Mary. What might Martin Luther say in response to these official teachings of the Magisterium? 4. What did Senator Edward Kennedy say about...

The only begotten Son of God . . . "made unto us from God, wisdom, justice, sanctification and redemption" [I Cor. 3], "neither by the blood of goats or of calves, but by His own blood entered once into the holies having obtained eternal redemption" [Heb. 9:12]. "For not with corruptible things as gold or silver, but with the precious blood of His very (Son) as of a lamb unspotted and unstained He has redeemed us" [cf. I Pet. 1:18-19], who innocent, immolated on the altar of the Cross is known to have poured out not a little drop of...