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Climate Change Tag

Posted by Leslie Eastman on October 11, 2016 20 Comments
President Obama recently touted the “Paris Agreement” as a “turning point” in his misguided attempt to save the planet from climate change. However, the rules, regulations, and fiscal schemes associated with the implementation mean that airlines are being hijacked into making the "first international aviation climate deal." In a nutshell, airlines will pay a tax to fund projects that cut carbon pollution, such as wind farms or solar-power plants. Ultimately, this means the UN will redistribute as much as $24 billion by 2035 from air travelers to the politically-connected environmental activists.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on October 08, 2016 8 Comments
Is there anything that won't cause climate change? A new report indicates that a boom in legalized marijuana farming could come with a high carbon cost.
It turns out that every little joint and edible adds up. A new report finds that marijuana cultivation accounts for as much as 1 percent of energy use in states such as Colorado and Washington. The electricity needed to illuminate, dehumidify, and air-condition large growing operations may soon rival the expenditures from big data centers, which themselves emit an estimated 100 million metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year. The marijuana industry’s energy use “is immense,” said the report’s author, Kelly Crandall, an analyst for EQ Research, a clean energy policy research institute. Her report found that a large grow operation can have energy expenditures of 2,000 watts per square meter because of its constant need for lighting and ventilation.

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 07, 2016 19 Comments
You'll be relieved to learn that through his ultimate wisdom and expert diplomacy skills, President Obama may have saved the planet. You don't have to take my word for it, Obama said it himself. NBC News reports:
Obama: Paris Climate Accord Best Possible Shot to 'Save' Planet A sweeping global agreement to combat climate change by shifting the world economy away from fossil fuels will take force next month after passing a threshold for ratification on Wednesday with support from European nations.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on September 25, 2016 21 Comments
I recently noted that President Obama's recent order is forcing our military to focus on climate change in its strategic planning. This is a latest in a long-string of policies that are clearly full of holes, as shown by the fact that the U.S. Navy's much-heralded, futuristic stealth destroyer sprung a leak on its maiden voyage. Navy officials state that this situation is completely normal for new ships:
Crew members have detected a leak on the Zumwalt, the new destroyer built at Bath Iron Works, but the Navy and defense experts say such errors are typical for a first-in-class ship. The destroyer is docked at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, and local news organizations reported it was scheduled for training at sea. The Zumwalt instead will be delayed in Norfolk for repairs, which are expected to take 10 days to two weeks.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on September 23, 2016 11 Comments
As the hot news of the potential use by ISIS of a chemical warfare agent against our troops in Iraq continue to stream out, our military personnel will take cold comfort in latest order inked from their Commander-in-Chief's mighty pen. President Obama has just issued a new policy directive demanding that national major security agencies and the military consider climate change when developing policies, plans, strategies, and programs.
Today, President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum on Climate Change and National Security, establishing a policy that the impacts of climate change must be considered in the development of national security-related doctrine, policies, and plans," the White House said. "To achieve this, 20 federal agencies and offices with climate science, intelligence analysis, and national security policy development missions and responsibilities will collaborate to ensure the best information on climate impacts is available to strengthen our national security." White House special assistant to the president, Alice Hill, told reporters that the presidential memo will "prioritize climate threats" to identify the most significant risks to the nation's security and drive full consideration of climate change effects into national security plans and policies.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on September 10, 2016 26 Comments
California's inane battle against climate change has resulted in even more toxic legislation. Last week, our legislature approved a bill targeting cow flatulence and manure, which lawmakers blame for releasing greenhouse gases.
Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) authored the bill, which passed shortly before the end of the legislative session. Lara agreed to a compromise that will give dairy farms more time to comply with the new regulations. Critics have expressed concerns the new regulations will result in an increase in the price of milk from California cows. Proponents of the bill say methane emissions have a huge influence on the climate. The legislation also calls for efforts that would significantly increase composting in order to eliminate the amount of food waste in landfills. Food waste releases methane when it breaks down.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 27, 2016 7 Comments
My last report on California mentioned that Governor Jerry Brown was planning to introduce a ballot measure to extend AB-32, the state's Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. Despite the fact that the bottom has fallen out of the Cap & Trade permit market, the Assembly granted the rules an extension beyond the initial 2020 end date.
The Assembly approved sweeping climate-change legislation Tuesday that extends the state’s targets for reducing greenhouse gases from 2020 to 2030 in a controversial bill that saw White House officials and Gov. Jerry Brown privately urging lawmakers for support. Under SB32, the state would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. The bill would piggyback on AB32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which calls for California to reduce greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on August 27, 2016 19 Comments
In a move that is being hailed as cementing his conservation legacy, Obama has, with the stroke of his pen, expanded a national marine monument off the coast of Hawaii to over 582,578 square miles.  This move will, however, destroy commercial fishing and potential drilling and mineral collection in a vast expanse of our waters. The Hill reports:
President Obama on Friday morning created a massive national monument off the coast of his native Hawaii, the world’s largest protected area. The declaration expands more than threefold the size of the Papahānaumokuāke Marine National Monument, surrounding the outlying northwestern Hawaiian islands. The move in Obama’s final months further cements his legacy of using unilateral executive authority to protect far more land and water as national monuments than any other president.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on August 20, 2016 34 Comments
Here at LI, we've been covering the various attempts by the left to use global warming climate change as an excuse for everything from a falsely predicted "bee-pocalypse" to #Brexit to the rise of ISIS (or is that vice versa?). Bored with pointing out how climate change is responsible for everything bad in the world, some progressives have switched over to urging population control in the name of their "settled" science.  This time it's not an intellectual exercise, it's being "taught" by Johns Hopkins' Travis Rieder. NPR reports:
Standing before several dozen students in a college classroom, Travis Rieder tries to convince them not to have children. Or at least not too many. He's at James Madison University in southwest Virginia to talk about a "small-family ethic" — to question the assumptions of a society that sees having children as good, throws parties for expecting parents, and in which parents then pressure their kids to "give them grandchildren." Why question such assumptions? The prospect of climate catastrophe.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 10, 2016 10 Comments
#Brexit, the British vote to leave the European Union, continues to inspire citizen activism. In the US, there has been calls for #Calexit to remove the state of California. The Democrats are experiencing the travails of #Demexit after the disclosure that the DNC intentionally hurt the Bernie Sanders campaign to promote Hillary Clinton. Now, an international organization has formed with the goal of preventing the ratification of the costly and dangerous Paris global warming treaty that is being promoted by the elites within the EU and US.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 01, 2016 17 Comments
About a week ago, Aleister reported Secretary of State John Kerry's assertion that air conditioners and refrigerators pose as big a threat to “life on the planet” as terrorism. Americans, taking Kerry at his word, and are now petitioning the State Department to remove their air conditioning.
WHEREAS, Secretary of State John F. Kerry has suggested that air conditioners are as big a threat as ISIS, and

Posted by Mike LaChance on July 24, 2016 56 Comments
This is one of the reasons Trump is getting so much support. Under this Democratic administration, the American people are lied to at every turn, as issues are constantly couched in progressive talking points. Every threat we face at home and abroad is explained away by climate change, income inequality, gender inequity and a constant reassurance that Islamic terror has nothing to do with Islam. In the latest instance, our Secretary of State tells us about a threat that rivals ISIS. The Washington Examiner reports:
Kerry: Refrigerator chemicals are just as bad as ISIS Air conditioners and refrigerators pose as big a threat to "life on the planet" as the threat of terrorism, Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on July 20, 2016 23 Comments
One of the new pieces of good news coming from Europe last week was from Great Britain. In the wake of the #Brexit vote, U.K.'s new Prime Minister felt empowered to shut an entire government department.
British Prime Minister Theresa May has been facing criticism during her first few days in office over her decision to close the U.K. Department of Energy and Climate Change. The closure was reported on Thursday, May's first full day in office after the departure of David Cameron.
The unit will actually be folded into an expanded Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy under Greg Clark.
It comes at a time when campaigners are urging the government to ratify the Paris climate change deal.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on July 04, 2016 14 Comments
I have been following the antics of "AG's United for Clean Power," a group of Democratic states attorneys general spearheaded by former Vice President Al Gore, who are threatening Big Oil and climate change skeptics with racketeering statutes. Despite scholarly reminders of this tactics' obvious constitutional abuses and outcries from proponents of First Amendment rights and sound science, the Democratic Party Platform Drafting Committee is keen to adopt the approach.
The committee unanimously adopted a “joint proposal calling on the Department of Justice to investigate alleged corporate fraud on the part of fossil fuel companies who have reportedly misled shareholders and the public on the scientific reality of climate change.” I.e., it wants to criminalize courageous people who still believe it’s okay to think independently, at least about allegedly dangerous manmade global warming.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 25, 2016 79 Comments
I must admit, few arguments related to the "settled science" of climate change astonish me anymore. But until today I failed to fully appreciate the extent of eco-activist creativity! Panicked progressives are now asserting the Britain's vote to leave the European Union will cause adverse effects on the environment. Yes....#Brexit will cause Climate Change.
Despite being an issue that knows no borders, affects all and is of vital interest to future generations, the environment was low on the agenda ahead of the UK’s historic vote to leave the European Union. The short answer to what happens next with pollution, wildlife, farming, green energy, climate change and more is we don’t know – we are in uncharted territory. But all the indications – from the “red-tape” slashing desires of the Brexiters to the judgment of environmental professionals – are that the protections for our environment will get weaker.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 22, 2016 6 Comments
Recently, I noted that climate change skeptics who also acted as their states' attorneys general warned their environmental activist counterparts that plans were being made to "fight fire with fire." Afterall, if the government's environmental activists begin targeting businesses and private organizations under racketeering statutes for denying progressive environmental science theories, then skeptics surely can go after eco-activists for their climate exaggerations and alarmist tactics. Goose, meet gander! In a way, the pushback has already begun. About one month ago, thirteen Republican members of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee Republicans sent letters to 17 state attorneys general and eight environmental groups requesting documents related to the groups’ coordinated efforts to deprive companies, nonprofit organizations, scientists and scholars of their First Amendment rights and their ability to fund and conduct scientific research free from intimidation and threats of prosecution. This congressional committee has turned up the heat even more. It is now delving into eco-activism at the federal level by requesting records of the communications between employees for the state attorneys general and the Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, or the White House.
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