Atmospheric CO2 level may have been around 700-900 ppm (possibly more) during the warmest part of the Eocene epoch, about twice what it is today, and that is where we’re headed because the carbon we are releasing now is carbon that was sequestered by the end of this epoch. During the peak of warmth (about 49 million years ago) there was little, if any, ice on earth. CO2 has increased over 100 ppm from about 270 ppm since the beginning of the industrial revolution, and the rate of increase is accelerating. While it will be awhile before we reach Eocene levels, we are already feeling the effects. It will get worse.
Gold in them thar ponds
The millions of gas-burning automobiles around the world aren’t going away soon, no matter how critical global warming becomes. Even if we forced people to give up their cars at gunpoint, what would we replace them with? For that reason alone, if we are to address climate change effectively, biofuels have to be part of the mix.
The beauty of biofuels is that they are renewable and carbon neutral — renewable because they can be quickly and easily replenished, and carbon neutral because they reabsorb the CO2 that results when they are burned.
Biofuels can be obtained from many sources. The most familiar is ethanol from corn. But making ethanol is an inefficient process — and, as we are now seeing, we can’t always be sure of the supply. If it came down to it, which would be the priority — reserving corn for food, or for fuel?
One of the most promising sources of biofuels is algae — good-old yucky pond scum — which, if you skim it off, will be back in about another warm, sunny day. No botanical I know of will renew itself that quickly, which is one reason algae has become a favored source. Algae may also yield up to 100 times more energy per “acre” any other biofuel crop. Meanwhile, a number of small companies in the US are pioneering a variety of technologies to produce and harvest algae without depending on outdoor ponds.
The Department of Energy estimates that if algae fuel replaced all the oil-based fuel in the country, it would require about 15,000 square miles to produce, less than one-half of one percent of the area of the US, and if algae fuels received the same kinds of tax credits given to traditional oil companies, biofuel would probably be price competitive by 2020. In fact, biofuels are so promising that the Department of Defense has contracted with several companies to provide fuel for naval trials (which the GOP has ridiculed), and a few airlines have tested algae-based jet fuel in their airliners.
And to think Republicans made fun of pond scum!
PS: Wikipedia is invaluable. Algae Fuel
America’s wastebasket?
The forecast in this story that drought in the North American Midwest may be the new norm is frightening. While we’re already seeing effects of climate change as more severe weather events, we’re generally accustomed to hearing scientists talking about the most profound effects being around 100 years or so in the future. But long before the oceans rise to wash away the world’s coastal zones, hunger could be the chief and most imminent ramification of climate change as North America’s breadbasket turns into a wastebasket. Will the US suddenly become a major food importer? And if so, from where?
What we celebrate
The Boston Tea Party in December of 1773 was the ultimate protest against years of taxation on colonial trade by the Crown — “taxation without representation,” as Boston colonials put it in a phrase borrowed from the Irish. The war that began a year and a half later and ended with Cornwallis’s surrender at Yorktown in late 1781 (but only officially with the Treaty of Paris in 1783) fulfilled the goals of the Declaration of Independence and set the stage for the US Constitution. It was this founding document that finally gave Americans the representation they demanded — a duly elected, representative Congress being the only branch of government with the power to levy taxes.
The United States was founded over a period of several decades as unrest gave way to war and eventual independence and the establishment of a durable government. The argument of “No taxation without representation” has been put to rest. We have representation, and we have the elected Congress with the power to levy taxes. Today’s “tea party” needs a bit of remedial education on the history of our founding. We celebrate our independence on the day the Declaration of Independence happened to be signed, but it took awhile before we were up and running as a country. There are those who think we should tear it down and start over. As far as I’m concerned, that’s treason.
Over the edge on the right
In the past, elections settled things, at least for the time being. Even the disputed election in 2000 resulted in no disruption as Bush took the reins from Clinton. But something happened to Republicans in that year. Perhaps emboldened by a stolen election, they felt they could always have things their way, no matter what the people wanted. So when Obama won with a huge mandate in 2008, what did they do? Everything they could to deny the majority the fruits of their victory. To the GOP, it was as if winning an election was meaningless for the other side. And yesterday, losing a Supreme Court decision they were sure they’d win sent them into a collective tantrum. The accumulated effect does nothing but reinforce the feeling that the GOP is modeling itself after 1930s’ fascism.
Children are running the show
In 2000 George Bush won the election with the help of the Supreme Court, and Democrats, behaving like adults, grumbled but accepted this fate. History has shown that there would have been good reason to exact revenge in the form of deep probes into the Bush administration’s failure to prepare for predicted terrorist attacks in the US, the handling of the Afghanistan war, and the subsequent unwarranted and costly invasion of Iraq.
Yesterday, as the Supreme Court shocked the GOP with a 5-4 ruling that upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act — what’s come to be called Obamacare — Republicans flew into a rage, and through their childish tantrums emerged their campaign strategy for the next four-plus months: destroy the ACA and strip people of newly won access to health care and protections.
Assuming it survives, the ACA will not come into full effect until 2014, which was a cunning condition for passage of the bill because those who opposed it knew if the public got to enjoy its benefits before the 2012 election, they would have liked it and would have been inclined to support Obama and the Democrats in larger numbers. The Massachusetts plan that provided the model for Obamacare, which Mitt Romney claimed credit for, went into effect within the first year, and coverage is now at 98 percent as people embrace the program.
The ACA is flawed, but at least it eliminates some of the flaws in the system we’re accustomed to. The true compromise — the Public Option — was never considered, even though its logic was unassailable. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, approved by the UN General Assembly in 1948 in the aftermath of WWII, states in Article 25 (1) that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.” The US, along with every other democracy, signed the Declaration. Virtually every other country has some form of universal health insurance that covers everyone. The US does not, instead sticking to the dysfunctional employer-based system.
Meanwhile, Democratic candidates are already staking out cowardly positions. The fact is, for reform to be meaningful, everyone has to participate in the system. Group insurance saves money, and the bigger the group, the more it saves. Obama’s job now is to educate the public and to persuade those who don’t think they need to participate that they do. He has to get the people behind ACA and defuse the GOP strategy. House Speaker John Boehner has vowed to begin dismantling ACA on July 11th. The president has that long to turn the polls around, to get people behind the Act, because opposition is the wind in the speaker’s sails.
US: Lax on human rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the UN General Assembly on Dec. 10, 1948, as a result of experiences during WWII. Article 25 (1) reads as follows:
“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”
The United States is a signatory of the UDHR, although I’d wager today’s conservatives wish we weren’t, and probably wish the UDHR didn’t exist. Most other industrialized nations have acted aggressively to comply with the principles of the entire Declaration. The US has not.
Why conservatives fear Obama
According to demographic forecasts, non-whites will be in the majority in the US by the early 2040s for the first time since the arrival of Europeans five centuries ago. The specter of a non-white majority strikes fear in the hearts of conservatives. This may be partly why the attacks on President Obama and now Attorney General Holder have been so relentless. Conservatives may feel compelled to prove that black men cannot lead, even if it means sabotaging the economy and the American justice system.
In the case of Darrell Issa’s investigation of Eric Holder, it may also be the case that Issa is trying to head off investigations of his personal gains at the public trough.
Exposing the GOP
Republicans continue to champion failed policies, and guess what? A lot of people don’t notice. I heard the term “trickle-down” again on a news show this morning, and I thought Oh no — still? The GOP still tries to advance the belief that trickle-down economics works, when most of us know it’s a sham. See, what really happens is, as money starts trickling down, it gets sucked up by every layer of wealth it has to pass through, until it reaches the middle class, when there’s none left. The thing is, Republicans know trickle-down economics is a sham — they just don’t care.
Meanwhile, Republicans still insist the conservative economic model that gave us the Great Depression and our current recession is the only approach to the economy that works, despite the fact that such cataclysmic events prove otherwise. The GOP still preaches austerity at a time when recovery depends heavily on government spending — even if it means increasing the deficit.
A new poll revealed that 49 percent of the people think Republicans are deliberately stalling the recovery, and that’s a good start — especially because only 40 percent think otherwise. As Americans wise up, they will hopefully come to understand that Republicans are no longer fit to govern.
Fun with Donald on a rainy evening
Mitt Romney has hooked up with Trump
In hopes that he’ll get a nice bump
But the man with strange hair
Is full of hot air
And a smart Mitt will soon Donald dump.
Liberal Buzz 