Where the Candidates Stand on Global Warming

Okay, I'll do one more piece for now on the political angle...then I'll get back to science. 

According to Kate Shepard on Gristmill, Global warming is responsible for, among other things, "rampant kitty sex."

That's right.

"Climate change is expanding the kitty mating season and creating -- you guessed it -- more baby kitties.According to the group Pets Across America, there was a 30 percent increase [PDF] in the number of cats  and kittens coming into some of their shelters from 2005 to 2006, while the organization saw a 7 percent increase overall. Other shelters across the country have noted a similar increase. " 

The G8 Summit- Blog Reactions

Climate 411

Real Climate

Greenpeace  "In the end, the divisions got papered over with rhetoric."

In other news, something we should all take to heart:

Prometheus:

"the smart stuff is being drowned out by a fierce, bullying, often witless tone of intolerance that has overtaken the left-wing sector of the blogosphere. Anyone who doesn't move in lockstep with the most extreme voices is savaged and ridiculed—especially people like me who often agree with the liberal position but sometimes disagree and are therefore considered traitorously unreliable. Some of this is understandable: the left-liberals in the blogosphere are merely aping the odious, disdainful—and politically successful—tone that right-wing radio talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh pioneered" 

I love Stephen Colbert.

Here's a fun link:

The candidates' Positions on Global Warming,

hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations

 

But first, let's get this out of the way.  Cosponsors for the Sanders-Boxer Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act (S. 309):  Cosponsors

Sen. Bernard Sanders [I-VT]

Sen. Daniel Akaka [D-HI]

Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]

Sen. Barbara Boxer [D-CA]

Sen. Benjamin Cardin [D-MD]

Sen. Hillary Clinton [D-NY]

Sen. Christopher Dodd [D-CT]

Sen. Richard Durbin [D-IL]

Sen. Russell Feingold [D-WI]

Sen. Daniel Inouye [D-HI]

Sen. Edward Kennedy [D-MA]

Sen. Frank Lautenberg [D-NJ]

Sen. Patrick Leahy [D-VT]

Sen. Robert Menéndez [D-NJ]

Sen. Barbara Mikulski [D-MD]

Sen. Barack Obama [D-IL]

Sen. John Reed [D-RI]

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse [D-RI]

 

And the lineup of snake-oil salesmen, charlatans and possibly an honest person or two....

Democratic Contenders

• Joe Biden - wants to reduce GHG to 1990 levels by 2020.  Cosponsor of the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act.
  
• Hillary Clinton -cut carbon emissions by 30 percent from 2000 to 2050 with a system of tradable allowances.   Co-sponsoring the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act. 
  
• Chris Dodd - wants to reduce GHG to 1990 levels by 2020.  cosponsored the Clean Power Act of 2005, which would implement a cap-and-trade system.  Cosponsor of the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act. New coal plants must capture and store carbon emissions. 
  
• John Edwards - Cap to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050. The League of Conservation Voters has called Edwards' plan...."the most comprehensive global warming plan of any presidential candidate to date." (source:  http://www.cfr.org/publication/13392/)
  
• Mike Gravel: Has called for a carbon tax.  He is in favor of "A national public works program to rewire the country towards new energy technologies would create tens of thousands of new American jobs"
  
• Dennis J. Kucinich: A leading voice in calling for a halt to global warming. "In 2004, Kucinich was the ONLY member of Congress to attend the Conference of Parties (COP 10) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Argentina."¹  Kucinich cosponsored the Clean Smokestacks Act in 2005, which would reduce pollutant emissions, including carbon dioxide, from power plants. The act hasn't passed yet. 
  
• Barack Obama: Trying to get it done in an economically feasible way, calling for a "Climate Change Credit Corporation" to encourage the Greening of industry. Co-sponsoring the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act along with the above list..  Also co-sponsoring  SB. 280: "A bill to provide for a program to accelerate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions," sponsored by CT Senator Joe Lieberman.  You can see the text of that bill HERE
  
• Bill Richardson: Has entered into a 5 state agreement called  the Western Regional Climate Action Initiative²   that follows the Kyoto Treaty. Former secretary of Energy. 

 

Republican Contenders

• Sam Brownback - Not in favor of cap and trade because he feels it would harm the economy. Tried to get carbon sequestration programs started, and proposed an act which would reward farmers for conserving production of soil carbon. Unsuccessful on both counts. He's been dormant on the issue since 2001, apparently.
  
• John H. Cox.  Does not believe in anthropogenic causes of Global Warming. Says on his campaign website:  "We are too dependent on expensive fossil fuels. I support alternative fuels and domestic drilling. Free market incentives and sensible regulation can address the problem of pollution. I oppose the Kyoto Treaty, which would devastate the U.S. economy"  He does not use the phrase"Global Warming" anywhere on his site.
  
• Rudy Giuliani: says "The overwhelming number of scientists now believe that there is significant human cause,''  adding,  "we should be dealing with pollution anyway.'' Source HERE.  Rudy Supports liquid coal
  
• Mike Huckabee:  First of all, this dude wants to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.  This is NOT a step away from oil consumption.  So he contradicts himself (that means he's a LIAR) when he says "We ought to be moving rapidly towards energy sources that don’t have a greenhouse gas effect. Aggressively set the goal that within a ten year period, we should move a way from a fossil fuel culture to one that has alternative energy resources."  Very bad sign:  "When you talk about boosting domestic production of oil, are you talking about opening up ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge)?  I think we should, yes. I’ve been to ANWR, and seen it first hand. First of all, when you look at the vastness of the region, and the limited space where drilling would occur, it’s hard to understand why it’s become a hot issue with so many people." (Source:  The Denver Post online Friday, March 9, 2007)
  
• John McCain:  Read about McCain's Lonely War on Global Warming  McCain...held hearings in the Commerce Committee on global warming. Real hearings, with real scientists. And then, last fall, he managed to force the first real Senate vote on actually doing something about the largest environmental peril our species has yet faced. The bill he drafted with Senator Joe Lieberman was modest to a fault, and it lost 55-43, but at least, 15 years after the issue first surfaced in the public consciousness, there'd been a vote."
  
• Ron Paul - we don't know.  checking.
  
• Mitt Romney - Introduced Climate Protection Act 2004 (but what has he been doing the past 3 years?).  Refused to enter into the Regional Greehouse Gas Initiative pact with other Northeastern States. The present Governor of Massachusetts has kept his campaign pledge and signed on.  Romney says it didn't provide for price controls. Won't say if he thinks humans caused Global Warming.  Mitt Supports liquid coal
  
• Tommy Thompson - Says it is critical to act but hasn't been specific as to how.  Vague, on his campaign page:  His campaign website says "Thompson wants more meaningful investments in ethanol and other alternative energy sources, providing greater incentives for industry ....America also must aggressively take on global warming – a goal that can be accomplished in a manner that doesn’t provide false choices between environmental stewardship and economic progress."

Now, if you want to see the whole thing set out in front of you in a sort of spreadsheet/column-type layout, you can click HERE.  You can download a .pdf page by clicking HERE

¹http://www.cfr.org/publication/13392

² http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

White House a Day Late and...

Bush Climate Goals Greeted With Skepticism

By Eli Kintisch
ScienceNOW Daily News
1 June 2007

"Climate scientists are criticizing the greenhouse gas emissions goals announced yesterday by President George W. Bush. The Administration wants to establish country-by-country emissions goals by late 2008 but did not call for mandatory cuts."

The press release can be found HERE

He's getting ready for a summit in Heiligendamm next week.  I suppose he needs to look good.  He's taken too much time.  At least one scientist say he has also been playing with statistics.

"Peter Gleick, an environmental scientist and president of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California, says the White House is "cherry-picking" the data to paint a more rosy picture. "It leaves the impression that the U.S.'s choice of climate policy does more to solve the problem than Europe's--but that's wrong," he says. Looking at all six greenhouse gases, and not just carbon dioxide, shows that the growth in European Union emissions between 2000 and 2004 exceeded U.S. growth in emissions by roughly 1%, he says. But any other period since 1990, he says, shows the United States with greater emissions. According a Pacific Institute analysis from 1990 to 2004, "U.S. greenhouse gas emissions grew more than 15% while emissions from the 15 countries of the European Union (the EU-15) declined by around 1%.""

The summary of the analysis by the Pacific Institute says:

Summary

"Throughout the first half of 2007, the White House has falsely claimed that the United States is doing better than Europe in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This claim was officially made by the White House on February 7 and has been repeated in various forms by White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, Council on Environmental Quality Chairman James Connaughton, and Science Advisor to the President John Marburger, most recently on May 31, 2007.¹ The White House is misusing science and data to make this claim, as the Pacific Institute first pointed out on March 8.2 The White House can only back up this claim by looking at a single greenhouse gas over a narrow timeline. Looking at the full range of gases over a longer period, the conclusion reverses completely: the European Union is curbing greenhouse gas emissions more aggressively and successfully than the United States. Interestingly, the origin of this claim is not the White House at all, but appears to be the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which published a version of this claim in the Washington Times, five days before the White House began using it."

Remember in my posting on Sunday May 20th, that

The CEI "is an ideologically-driven, well-funded front for corporations opposed to safety and environmental regulations that affect the way they do business. (Sourcewatch.org)" and that

"In response to an inquiry from the Guardian, Exxon announced that the company “stopped funding the Competitive Enterprise Institute this year.” (source, Media Transparency)

The Pacific Institute study goes on to say that " carefully selecting the measure to be reported to prove a point – in this case, choosing to look at carbon dioxide emissions rather than all greenhouse gas emissions. The second flaw is the result of reference period hunting, or cherry picking the time period used."²

From the period 1990 (Article 3 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change specifies that all greenhouse gas emissions analyses are to use 1990 as the base year )until today, Europe's emissions are not rising "twice as fast" as those of the US.  Rather, taking just CO2 gas emissions into account, and " over the proper period from 1990 to 2004. U.S. carbon dioxide emissions grew almost 18% over that period, while EU-15 CO2 emissions grew 8.6%³"

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1
White House press briefing with Snow and Connaughton. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070531-17.html

²  The Political and Selective Use of Data: Cherry-Picking Climate Information in the White House - Dr. Peter H. Gleick Pacific Institute Initial Version: March 8, 2007 Updated and Expanded: June 1, 2007  http://www.pacinst.org/topics/integrity_of_science/case_studies/selective_use_climate_update.pdf  FONT color=#ffffff>page 3

³  Energy Information Administration International Energy Annual 2004 Table Posted: July 19, 2006   co2  World Carbon Dioxide Emissions from the Consumption and Flaring of Fossil Fuels, 1980-2004 http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/international/iealf/tableh1co2.xls

More on Global Warming, from an International Perspective

The unwritten, unspoken rule you know. 

I"m gonna say it.

No one else says it.  I don't know why; there's probably a reason.  But I haven't even heard a comedian say it.  Maybe it's not funny.

Americans caused global warming, and now,

they want the rest of the world to stop it. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

If I were in, say, Indonesia,

I might say to the Americans,

"You polluted the planet; 

YOU clean it up!!!"

 

From The New Nation of Bangladesh Jun 3 2007

"The G8 countries – world’s industrialised nations – have owed around 80 per cent of the $ 50 billion or more the developing countries need every year to cope with the effect of climate change. The human-induced climate change is already causing harm to the poor of the world who are the least responsible for emissions and least able to adapt to climatic shocks. The G8 countries face, in fact, two obligations as they prepare for their 3-day summit from Wednesday in Germany – to stop harming the environment by reducing their emissions to halt global warming and start helping poor countries to cope with its adverse effects. "

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today's News:

From Ecototality Blog

Is being GREEN just for the rich? 

 No, according to Green Options author  Jennifer Lance. published  May 30 2007....

"The real question is not how expensive sustainable products are, but how our purchasing habits affect the global population and environment."

somehow I don't quite buy that  I mean, those lightbulbs are EXPENSIVE. 

And I broke one.  That means I prolly inhaled some mercury.  And I don't have a clue where to get rid of it.  I'll get back to you..

The Gristmill:

"An article in the May 4 issue of Science shows that observed warming in the 16 years since 1990 is greater than predicted by models."

The Science Brevia: oh hell.  I just subscribed.  Let's see:

oh yes.  The brevia: "  The data available for the period since 1990 raise concerns that the climate system, in particular sea level, may be responding more quickly to climate change than our current generation of models indicates. ^"

^Eek!!

^{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~}

^{Ohhhh Deltoid's been busy}

"Martin Durkin's "Great Global Warming Swindle" used fake graphs to try to make a case that global warming is a hoax. Compare their version of temperature change which they claimed came from NASA with what you actually get from NASA."

Category: Global Warming
Posted on: May 27, 2007 10:44 AM, by Tim Lambert (and he has graphs!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Paul Fritchers in Club Troppo  says, cutely:

 

"Like anything else in life, if you want to get people with different interests to abide by a common set of restraints, you’re going to have to create communal measurement and enforcement mechanisms. This is why each community has a local police station in stead of merely a joint statement by its citizens promising they’ll be nice to each other. The same goes for global problems and goes as much for emissions as it does for ocean fishing or cross-border water management."

 

(May 25, The Role of Collateral in Global Environmental Action)

Prometheus

"Here comes the rain, kids. NASA administrator says global warming ain't no stinking problem."

Posted to Author: Vranes, K. | Climate Change

 

"I have no doubt that global -- that a trend of global warming exists. I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with. To assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of earth’s climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn’t change. "....Michael Griffin, NASA Administrator  (appointee?)

 

"The next question could have been: 'were you picked for this job because of this opinion? Before offering you the post did Bush Administration officials give you a litmus test that included your views on climate change?'"

(Steve Innskeep, NPR)

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Real Climate

 

 

 

Figure 6.10 (panel b) from the paleoclimate chapter of the current IPCC report (see there for details).

 

"Without exception, the reconstructions show that Northern Hemisphere temperatures are now higher than at any time during the past 1,000 years (Figure 1), confirming and strengthening the conclusions drawn in the previous IPCC report of 2001."

 

Source: www.realclimate.org 29 May 2007 The weirdest millennium 

Filed under: Climate Science Paleoclimate— stefan @ 4:28 am

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Climate 411

Climate News: Hurricanes, Rainfall and Rainbow Trout

June 1, 2007 | Posted by Lisa Moore in News

Guest blogger Lisa Moore, Ph.D., is a scientist in the Climate and Air Program.

"There is a lively scientific discussion going on about the effects of global warming on hurricanes (see Wednesday’s post). A new study published in Nature added a new twist: global warming and hurricanes might interact to make global warming worse."

"our analyses show that the magnitude of this mixing [of waters by tropical cyclones]is strongly related to sea surface temperature, indicating that future changes in tropical sea surface temperatures may have significant effects on ocean circulation and ocean heat transport that are not currently accounted for in climate models."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Nature Conservancy

Climate Change and Extinction

Check out their Interactive Map!!!

Example:

"North Carolina
Threat: Rising sea levels threaten the diverse landscape of North Carolina’s Albemarle Peninsula, an area with intense biodiversity, and home to a range of plant and animal life, including the red wolf (photo left), which was once extinct in the wild. "

Photo Credit: Hart Matthews (North Carolina red wolf)

 

The Sierra Club

"All over America, cities, counties and states are launching an exciting grassroots movement to help solve one of our country's most pressing problems: global warming. Frustrated by stalling on the federal level, local leaders are moving forward with innovative energy solutions that cut our dependence on oil, benefit public health and save taxpayer dollars. These mayors, county commissioners and governors are leading the way toward a safer and more secure future. "

Read more about our Cool Cities Campaign

Cooler Heads = Warmer Climate

Sunday, May 20, 2007
Cooler Heads = Warmer Globe
Update/Edit: See http://www.xanga.com/bartoncii/592088342/item.html for more info on funding of the groups mentioned below, Bartoncii's blog. He also has a wonderful story to tell about the different types of nuclear energy and their history. It can never hurt to have more information.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I went surfing today, as I often do, to see what I could see.
http://www.globalwarming.org/ was an interesting site. I became concerned when I read yesterday's entry:
"May 18, 2007
Scientifically Incorrect Statements in IPCC WGI
Prof. Roger Pileke Sr, Climate Science weblog, May 18 2007
Prof Roger Pielke Sr, a climatologist at the University of Colorado, identifies two scientifically incorrect statements in the report of Working Group I (The Scientific Basis) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In particular, he says of the claim that predicting climate is easier than predicting weather is "such an absurd, scientifically unsupported claim, that the media and any scientists who swallow this conclusion are either blind to the scientific understanding of the climate system, or have other motives to promote the IPCC viewpoint."
So I did a little digging.
This gentleman, Andrew Dessler, is an associate professor in the Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M University. His research focuses on the physics of climate change. He has a blog which has directly engaged Mr. Pileke and others
http://sciencepoliticsclimatechange.blogspot.com/2006/08/ipcc.html
regarding the science - and politics - of global warming. I expect to be spending some time there in the near future.
Globalwarming.org is is a project of the Cooler Heads Coalition, a sub-group of the National Consumer Coalition.

Now, I had extreme difficulty finding a website for the National Consumer Coalition. I'm still looking. According to the CHC:

"The NCC is coordinated by Fran Smith, Consumer Alert's executive director, and the NCC's issue work is done by its sub-groups of which three have already formed. Each sub-group focuses on a specific issue, such as internet privacy, global climate change, and health care"
I found that Myron Ebell, director of global warming and international environmental policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, is the Cooler Heads group leader.

Well Whaddya know!

This feeds neatly into a previous entry of mine, The Cooler Heads Coalition Members are as below, and And if you go here: http://www.exxonmobil.com/Corporate/Files/Corporate/gcr_contributions_public06.pdf you will see which of them received money from Exxon and other Conflict-of-Interest groups

• Alexis de Tocqueville Institution
• Americans for Tax Reform - Receives funding from
  Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
  Carthage Foundation; see Scaife Foundations
  JM Foundation
  John M. Olin Foundation
  Sarah Scaife Foundation; (see Scaife Foundations : Fortune founded on Gulf Oil but now under the auspices of Jennie Scaife has gone somewhat more moderate in its giving)
  R.J. Reynolds (tobacco)
  Philip Morris (tobacco)
  Tobacco Institute (speaks for itself)
  Jack Abramoff's clients, the Chiefs of the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas and the Coushattas tribe of Louisiana both gave $25,000 in 2001 and according to SOURCEWATCH, AATF received a cut of funds for laundering the money
• American Legislative Exchange Council = $56,000.00 in 2006 from ExxonMobil
• American PolicyCenter - think tank run by Tom DeWeese.
• Association of Concerned Taxpayers
• Center for Security Policy - (Boeing, Lockheed-Martin contributors in 2002)
• Citizens for a Sound Economy - Founded by Koch Industries: According to Media Transparency, between 1985 and 2002, CSEF received $16,928,712 in 108 separate grants from only twelve foundations:

Castle Rock Foundation

Earhart Foundation

JM Foundation

Koch Family Foundations (David H. Koch Foundation, Charles G. Koch Foundation, Claude
R. Lambe Foundation)

John M. Olin Foundation, Inc.

Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation

Philip M. McKenna Foundation,
Inc.

Scaife Foundations (Scaife Family, Sarah Mellon Scaife, Carthage) [17]
In 2002, CSEF gained $920,000 in grants from three of
these foundations, accounting for a little under one-quarter of the
organisation's revenue. The Claude R. Lambe Foundation was the most generous
contributing $700,000 for general operating costs while the Scaife Foundation
donated $175,000 and the John M. Olin Foundation $45,000.
Other CSE funders
(not included in above funding total) have included:

Archer Daniels Midland

Daimler Chrysler ($25,000)

Enron (oil pipeline? Afghanistan?)

General Electric

Koch Industries

F.M. Kirby Foundation

Philip Morris (>$1 million)

U.S. West ($1 million)

ExxonMobil ($75,000)

Exxon ($175,000)

Hertz ($25,000)

Microsoft ($380,000)

U.S. Sugar Corp. ($280,000)

• Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow = $70,000.00 in 2006 from ExxonMobil
• Competitive Enterprise Institute - In response to an inquiry from the Guardian, Exxon announced that the company “stopped funding the Competitive Enterprise Institute this year.” (source, Media Transparency)
• Consumer Alert - Consumer Alert received about $10,000 from the food industry in 2000. (Frances Smith of Consumer Alert spoke at FDA Consumer Roundtable, December 13, 2000)
  Funded by such companies as Chevron, Eli Lilly and Philip Morris. [The Observer, by Cockburn & Silverstein, 5/26/96]
  Funding from Philip Morris, American Cyanamid, Exxon, Eli Lilly, Elanco, Pfizer, Anheuser, Busch, Coors, and Chevron. Corporations provide more than 60% of the group's funding. [Health News & Review, 6/22/93]
  ExxonMobil issued grants of $25,000 in 2003 and 2004
• Fraser Institute, Canada
• Frontiers of Freedom = $140,000.00 in 2005 and $180,000 in 2006 from ExxonMobil (source for 2005 info: http://www.environmentaldefense.org/)
• George C. Marshall Institute = $115,000.00 in 2005 & $85,000 in 2006 from ExxonMobil (source for 2005 info: http://www.environmentaldefense.org/)
• Heartland Institute (when are they going to learn that name sends a chill down one's spine?) = 119,000.00 in 2005 & $115,000.00 in 2006 from ExxonMobil (source for 2005 info: http://www.environmentaldefense.org/)
• Independent Institute [Independent Institute has received $70,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998. 1998$10,000 ExxonMobil Corporate GivingSource: ExxonMobil 1998 grants list...2000$5,000 ExxonMobil Foundationgeneral supportSource: ExxonMobil Foundation 2000 IRS 990. ...2001$5,000 ExxonMobil FoundationSource: ExxonMobil 2001 Annual Report....2002$10,000 ExxonMobil FoundationSource: ExxonMobil 2002 Annual Report....2003$10,000 ExxonMobil FoundationSource: ExxonMobil 2003 Corporate Giving Report....2005$30,000 ExxonMobil FoundationSource: ExxonMobil 2005 DIMENSIONS Report (Corporate Giving)
• Instituto Bruno Leoni, Italy
• Junkscience.com*
• National Center for Policy Analysis = $75,000.00 in 2006 from ExxonMobil
• National Center for Public Policy Research = $55,000.00 in 2006 from ExxonMobil
• Pacific Research Institute = $75,000.00 in 2006 from ExxonMobil
• Seniors Coalition (financial information page HERE)
• 60 Plus Association According to their website: "The 60 Plus Association is a non-partisan seniors advocacy group with a free enterprise, less government, less taxes approach to seniors issues. 60 Plus has set ending the federal estate tax and saving Social Security for the young as its top priorities. 60 Plus is often viewed as the conservative alternative to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). "
• Small Business Survival Committee - Received $40,000.00 in from Philip Morris. According to Sourcewatch "On the SBSC's "Issues Analysis" webpage, http://www.sbsc.org/SbscIssues.asp , in the "Energy and the Environment" menu, one can find an assortment af articles attacking environmental laws, regulations and proposals. Subjects covered include global warming, mercury, air pollution, the Endangered Species Act, MTBE, and CAFE standards. These articles promote free market solutions, criticize the "bad science" in environmentalists' claims about mercury and global warming, promote SUVs, and support the House Republican energy plan."
  
  

*JunkScience.com, a supposedly defunct organization run by Steve Milloy which gets its own little blurb, below which received a LOT of money from ExxonMobil over the years. Mr. Milloy begs for donations on his site. It's not clear exactly what he does with the money. I'll get back to you on that.

According to Sourcewatch, "In October 2006, two US Senators, Olympia Snowe, (R-Maine), and Jay Rockefeller, (D-W.Va.) wrote to ExxonMobil's chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson, asking that it "end any further financial assistance" to groups "whose public advocacy has contributed to the small but unfortunately effective climate change denial myth." The Senators singled out the Competitive Enterprise Institute and TechCentralStation as such groups.

They wrote that "we are convinced that ExxonMobil's long-standing support of a small cadre of global climate change skeptics, and those skeptics' access to and influence on government policymakers, have made it increasingly difficult for the United States to demonstrate the moral clarity it needs across all facets of its diplomacy."

You can read the ABC News Report HERE or cut and paste the following link:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=2612021&page=1

So, folks, if you see a site that seems biased one way or the other, check out the funding. To be fair, I am going to check out the funding of the groups that say that Global Warming is real, is now, and can be catastrophic if action is not taken on a global scale starting NOW. Talk to y'all later!

ok I'm tired of futzing with the layers and layers of html this thing uses. Whatever.

Eeek, Alone!

I took G to the limo this morning for his trip to Ecuador.

I couldn't wait for him to go and now I am panicking.  He's my mommy figure!!!  I feel like a lost duckling.

One thing I have learned is to move a muscle, change a thought.  So I read some of my AA online group.  Amazing how a half hour of that calmed me down a LOT.  And I will hit a meeting tonight.

I also wrote to Bernie Siegel, author of Love, Medicine and Miracles, and asked if I could rejoin his ECaP group (Exceptional Cancer Patients).  I had not been able to due to my work schedule.  I don't have one of those any more so I am free to persue that.

I will also investigate volunteering as a "goodwill ambassador" at one of the hospitals locally, or perhaps at the hospice in Branford.  That's kind of a haul though. 

I did get outside and get some sun.  I divided the peonies, the liatris are coming back up and the hydrangea and ornamental grasses are showing signs of life, finally.  A pussywillow plant cutting I put in a pot is growing, so I will transplant that too.  One way or the other I will have a garden!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Think on This ...

Keep it [your soul] then in patience, in love, in gentleness, in kindness . . . For these are indeed the fruits of the spirit . . . And remember, a kindness sometimes consists in denying as well as granting those activities in associations with thy fellow man.

Edgar Cayce Reading 5322-1

Become part of the legacy.

Earth Day 2007

Yahoo has a feature called Launchcast music which basically allows you to program your own radio station by rating music. Every so often they throw something in there that I absolutely would never play, but after a couple of years of rating artists and songs, I get to sit here to what I consider to be a succession of beautiful, transcendent and serene pieces. I wish I could take it with me. No ads.

Here I sit listening to Tears Alone, by Douglas Spotted Eagle...a thoughtful, pensive tune with lots of silence in between the flute notes. Then Windsurfer by Teia Bell. And so on. It's dark. It's finally warm out. My cat is on the chair next to me. As it is Sunday night, there are few passing cars. Big sigh.

Today (or, rather yesterday ) was Earth Day. I didn't know it until G came outside to tell me. I was already playing in the garden. I took all those damned seedlings outside and planted them. They'll make it or they won't. Lupine, dill, parsley, tomatoes, moonflowers, morning glories (they are really mad at me), lillies of the valley, coneflowers, zinnias and I think that was it. I had to unearth a couple of watermelon-sized rocks and move them. My nails are a mess.




History Of Earth Day
On April 22, 1970, Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin started an environmental revolution. Nelson held the first Earth Day celebration in which 20 million people participated in awareness raising activities that would become the country's first organized activity for the environment. The events of that day have had a permanent impact on public opinion regarding the importance of the environment. Every April 22nd has officially been deemed Earth Day and each year rallies and demonstrations are held to educate and inform the public about our precious natural resources. To learn more, read "How the First Earth Day Came About" by Senator Gaylord Nelson.

Earth Day Home Page

My butt muscles have apparently not been getting an appropriate workout. This may be one reason I have not been losing weight. They are the largest muscle in the human body, which means they consume more calories if they are being used. I plan to use them some more. Right now they don't want to be used at all, and they are complaining. In addition, the back of my thighs are also in exquisite pain. The good kind of pain. The kind that says, "Quit whining and do ten more squats, you wuss!"

Edgar Cayce Reading

Know that it is not all just to live--not all just to be good, but good for something; that ye may fulfill that purpose for which ye have entered this experience.

Edgar Cayce Reading 2030-1

Become part of the legacy.


Greenpeace Rammed by Japanese Whaling Vessel Nisshin Maru

Read The Blog Forum about Global Warming
In Other News, Jon Steward pretty firmly nails down that Alberto Gonzalez is either an idiot or a liar

Nature Photography

The Call
Social Security called me at five of 11 this morning. We got off the phone just shy of 1 pm. I had all the names and addresses of my doctors going back nearly 20 years, and employers too. I had lots of medical records. Now the wait.
Strangely, I feel so much calmer now that that is behind me. It's one more step I've taken away from that soul-sucking machine I worked at.
It's hard to walk away from the Great Corporate Teat that dispenses not only a good salary but excellent health benefits, 401k and profit sharing, chunky bonuses and tremendous potential for advancement. The price would have been my life, and it was sapping life from me all day every day. It was already taking most of my sanity. I can't call it worker's comp because all they have to do is point to the thousands of "happily employed" call center workers. Precious few of whom like their job.
I don't mind working but I just don't work well with others. And I am sorry if you feel it unreasonable; this is a personal defect but its a rich vein that runs through my being: Don't tell me what to do. Don't nitpick and criticize me. It's a cardinal trait. I had no respect for my parents and at a certain point realized they were horrible role models. If you can't trust the people whose genes you carry, from whose bodies you came, whom can you trust? Three guesses, and the first two don't count. NO ONE.
I went for a 3.5 mile walk along the naugatuck river near where it joins the housatonic. It flooded up pretty well recently. See all the leaves and garbage still clinging to the fence? I started to get skeeved out. Global Warming may be a moot point. We might poison ourselves first.



Mmmmm wonder if it churned up all those pcbs lurking on the bottom. The naugatuck has been a dumping ground for decades, if not centuries. Everything from Thomaston down to the shore pumped all their wasted into it for a long, long time. I'll be willing to bet most folks were on well and septic for a lot of those years. It would explain some things.

I did have some phun wif de camera, and the photo editing software....so...




Last Year's Seeds




Where the walkway snakes around under routes 34/8


This is my favorite photo of the day. The original is quite large.




I thought this track was abandoned. Climbed up to get some pics. A few moments later a train ambled past.




I love abandoned brick buildings and their hollow, mysterious windows.



That's all for today!!!!

Cancer Patients Using Veterinary Medicines

Because they work and because Big Pharma can't make a lot of money on it, the following has appeared in Oncology News

Patients Using Unapproved Cancer Agent



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OTTAWA, Canada—University of Alberta researchers, led by Evangelos Michelakis, MD, have shown that dichloroacetate (DCA), added to the drinking water of nude athymic rats implanted with human lung cancer cells (A549), significantly reduced tumor size, compared with controls, and was associated with increased apoptosis and decreased proliferation. Further, there were no toxic effects, as measured by several blood tests (Cancer Cell 11:37-51, 2007).


DCA, a small molecule that targets mitochondria, has long been used to treat lactic acidosis and inherited mitochondrial diseases, but is not FDA approved. It appears to work in cancer by reactivating the mitochondria of cancer cells, thus inducing apoptosis. Because its structure cannot be patented, DCA has not attracted commercial development. But it has attracted the attention of cancer patients. According to Nature (March 29, 2007, p. 474), Jim Tassano and a chemist friend synthesized the compound and are selling it via the web (labeled for veterinary use). Another website (thedcasite.com) provides patients with information on DCA and a place to report their results. "Any way you look at this, it's a negative development," said Dr. Michelakis. His group is planning a clinical trial despite lack of industry support.

April 2007 • Volume 16 Number 4

Spiritual Law

Think on This ...

For, the error that man makes is the more oft against himself than making for the breaking of law as related to divine influence in the experience. For, love is law--law is love, in its essence. And with the breaking of the law is the making of the necessity for atonement and forgiveness, in that which may take away error to or what has been brought in the experience of the individual.

Edgar Cayce Reading 262-45

Nothin goin on but...

I do my little routine in the morning: feed the cats, get the coffee, drink the coffee, read the email, check out my blogspot, my xanga and myspace (xanga gets most of my attention lately).

Today I had a place to go; a dr's appointment. I need them to shove a tube down my nose to see if my esophagus is, as I have told them, unhappy or possibly precancerous.

Upon returning home I am overwhelmed with anxiety about nothing in particular. It's as if I am afraid of not-being. I have an appointment with my shrinker today and I am fighting the urge to take an I-don't-care pill because I want to show him how I get.

I am applying for ssdi and there is no way I can work during that time. I am so worried about money. I suppose I could do a tag sale. I could sell crap on ebay. I couldn't give this body away so selling that's out of the question >snerk<

Gonna have an Endoscopy on the 27th. On the 30th I go for implant swaps. Can't decide if I want to proceed with that or just have the plastic surgeon fix the flaps of skin under my arms and just let the rest go. Man, I have almost 2 hours to go before Dr. A. German's home. I'll go pester him.

Update

Monday, April 16, 2007
Okay folks, I am sorry.
I'm very weirded out. I don't trust my own judgment. I don't want to die. I just want to feel free and comfortable. I've made a mess of things where I worked which is probably just as well as I hate it there. I get so angry when I feel helpless.
German will support me as I attempt to secure ssdi. I am so worried about income.
I think of things like medical benefits and all that and get very frightened. I have at least 2 more surgeries coming up. I suppose I could make it one.
The alternative is to continue working here and there, and doing my best. Problem is I get truly depressed after a short while. I feel awful about that. I want to be tougher and not let things get to me. I go along and think I am okay and then something happens and I dissolve into a nervous, depressed mess again.
I don't want to give up my dream of owning a home of my own. I don't want to have to give up my car.
My doctor doesn't seem to be helping me much. Living with German may actually be hurting me, inner-strength-wise. I was at my happiest living alone in WH and paying my own way. Then I moved to another cute little place farther north in CT and i was happy there. Problem is I was heavily in debt. Hmmm. Dad bailed me out and I promptly piled a bunch more on my head...
My troubles started, of course, with a man. I flew without a net. I let him move me in with him and left my job. When he got bowled over by unresolved and ungrieved grief, I became invisible and so began my journey into hell. I had to disentangle myself from that, and like the song, it only hurt when I breathed. Then I got hit with the cancer dx and my friend tossed me out on my ear -- again I had found my own place and I should have taken it. I wound up here. A safe little place. I declared bankruptcy before the laws changed and am now solvent. I have some money.
I want to say, if German didn't care one way or the other I'd move out. I am staying primarily to not hurt his feelings. They say the truth shall set you free. I'm still scared of examining this.
Now I have put myself in a position where I can't move in exchange for possibly not having to work.
(as I write this Aida is on top of my open file drawer literally rifling through my file folders, silly thing).
The big question I have is, can I work? Can I go out there and hold onto a job for more than a year without bolting in tears and resentment? I don't know. I'm a poor judge.

Please disregard the following.

preferred suicide methods to date. i would have to spend all my money first, and that would take at least a couple weeks during which time i might end up on a locked ward. one can hope.
the ever popular "line up all the pills and take them trying not to puke." This has a tendency to fail. the hangover must really suck, big time.
plastic bag around my head, duct tape sealing it around my neck. just go unconscious, never wake up. note to self: wear a diaper.
self-electrocution. not sure how i'd do this. would need to research. probably painful but wow.
cutting the veins in the wrists. sliced longwise, but it hurts like a sonofabitch. accidentally cut myself there once washing some dishes in a porcelain sink. ouch.
the tedious routine of getting a cannister of carbon monoxide, a mask, warning signs and a safe place (for other people and animals) to carry it out.
I'm not into guns, having heard of the guy who tried to blow himself to death by eating a gun, but succeeded only in removing a large portion of his skull and some of his brain, and living. Oh and his lower jaw ws gone too.
The biggest hurdle is the kitties. They love me dearly. I'm their mommy and they live for "mommy's home."
they denied my disability claim becasue my fuckup doctor took his sweetass time getting them any paperwork. he may be fired. i may be fired. i fucking hate those people.
i might not have to suicide. one of the test for cancer recurrence came back elevated. might be due to smoking a little but we will see.


I just started a new blogring for HSPs over the age of 40 (or close, if you're close to 40 that's ok too). It's over at Xanga. I spend a lot of time on that blog. Think of it as a cozy living room with a warm fire, hot cocoa, flavored coffees, special tea. Big ol comfy couches. Blueberry scones with butter, fruit, and if you need a special diet, we can do the gluten free thing too.
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In all seriousness: I am afraid of not-being. I think that is my greatest fear. I think there is a possibility I could cease to exist, or that I never did really exist. These past 2 or 3 weeks I have been paralyzed and doing next to nothing. Then I'll have a couple days of frantic activity, then I'll spend some days in bed again. I am always frightened. Always sure something bad is going to happen. I think it just got so drilled into me that I was no good and I was going to get in trouble, or I'd be blamed for what others had done wrong that I just can't go into any situation where I am subject to ANY kind of judgement, no matter how mild. I spit on your judgment, pah! Fuck you and your summation of my 4 million years of evolution! Yep, totally out to lunch.


Sunday, April 15, 2007

Currently ReadingGirl, InterruptedBy Susanna Kaysensee related

Sun Apr 15
Dream:
Firstly, I could fly. This happens rarely in my dreams. It used to happen every single night I drank, and has only happened in the last 12 years when I have been exposed to the possibility of death.
I did go to sleep thinking I'd have to make a serious stab at suicide hahaha in order to get ssdi. hey that alone qualifies me i think.
anyway, in the dream (very broken up, scene-wise) i was charged with blessing and protecting an area where i lived. i had a little black kitten and i had to make sure he stayed inside the blessed area. i was flying way up, then down, around buildings....it was all very serious.
then in another scene my mother and sister and i were travelling in a very beautiful and rural area of connecticut where i had once lived. i was weeping that it was being all built up; it looked like a city now.
and finally i was told i must come along with some other witches/protectors, just drop everything, and get into a great big RV like vehicle. i went in and sat in what i thought was the room where all of us were supposed to go. there was a man on a cot who'd had both legs blown off and he looked like a stick. there was another, somewhat elderly man, sitting in a recliner. i asked them a question and neither one responded to me. they just looked at me. I left the room and found the other people.
the man in charge of the operation was very grim, and said i must have gone to the source of the evil somehow. he brought me back to the first room and asked if i had been in here and i said yes. it was empty. he asked me what i had seen. i told him about the man with his legs blown off and the other man. apparently they were ghosts. i blessed the room with sage, apparently not touched by the evil the others were worried about.
it stayed with me so i know i was supposed to remember it.
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Sat Apr 14
the morning glories are blooming. inside. in their little temporary peat pots i looked away for a second and they all intertwined with one another, which will make planting them oh so much more fun. we're due for some good heavy rain and winds tonight. after that the weather forecast has little snowflake icons. after that though, hopefully I can put some of them outside to harden off. If they end up in the ground I will cover them with plastic dixie cups or even glasses to protect them from the cold. i think they will make it though.
TonightRainLikelyLo 36°F
SundayHeavyRainHi 40°F
SundayNightRainLo 37°F
MondayRainLikelyHi 44°F
MondayNightRainLikelyLo 35°F
TuesdayChanceRainHi 45°F
TuesdayNightChanceRainLo 37°F
WednesdayChanceRainHi 49°F
WednesdayNightPartly

Looks pretty wet.
I sprinkled gypsum under the leyland cypress and worked it into the acid soil with one of those claw-on-a-stick gadgets, put bone meal around the bulbs, poor things, and put down some flower food in preparation for planting and subsequent mulching. The rains tonight and tomorrow should soak it all in. Got me groceries (I swear I will do something with the asparagus, pesto and sun dried tomatoes within 24 hours!!! I promise!!! ), and have been more or less hiding in bed since. The phone is off. I have no cellphone. whohoo. unreachable.
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oh yeah, almost forgot. I got 2 pair of glasses ordered today. they should take about a week. i'm so 'cited. they're way fun. my sister the fashionista police-ta is going to have a canary. One pair is purple titanium on the outside, tangerine on the inside. The other is tortie but with little gadgety things on the sides. she was too lazy to get there with me so hey, she gets to complain about them for the next year or two until I do it again. mucho dinero but i am going to live in them so....i get the ones i like.
these are plastic. the ones i got ar metal

Your Deadly Sins

Wrath: 80% Envy: 60% Sloth: 60% Lust: 40% Pride: 40% Greed: 20% Gluttony: 0% Chance You'll Go to Hell: 43% You will die, after conquering the world as an evil dictator.

How Sinful Are You?

 

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Friday, April 13, 2007
Went to the oncologist today. I've been building up a dreadful fear of recurrence, or metastasis. So many I know have put cancer behind them only to see it appear as a blip on an mri of their sternum or hip, or lung or liver. Had blood taken, made my next 3 month appt and then off to the Butt End of CT to take mom to her new shrink.
She's crazy as a bedbug. But only on certain things. Nothin' wrong with her memory, no sir. Except the parts that got made up. She's so much calmer though. She's been having the equivalent of a one-year-long temper tantrum. I really do think its supressed rage in part at...
breast cancer and treatment (lumpectomy + cmf + tamoxifen) followed by 2 heart attacks with the implant of a defibrillator followed by a diabetes diagnosis followed uterine cancer and treatment (hysterectomy and radiation) causing bleeding from the bowels and bladder followed by a staph-infected defibrillator lead, removal of which caused major bleeding and resulted in open heart surgery (we almost lost her) followed by triple bypass surgery, the addition of a new tricuspid valve and the repair of a congenital heart defect (small hole). She is in congestive heart failure. She has stents in her kidneys that must be replaced every three months. She is on oxygen. She has continual UTIs. She has restless legs that keep her up all night. her doctors put her on elavil at one point which caused a full blown pseudo-manic episode replete with 3 dimensional hallucinations having conversations with her. She had to fight with them constantly to get the cinamet (sp?) and neurontin to calm her legs down. all of this happened between 1998 and 2002. She can no longer drive or walk well. Her balance is shot.
I'd be pissed too.
NE healthcare sent over a nurse to do an Eval. Needless to say it took a long time. I walked her out and said "fixed delusions, cherry-picks her meds even when they are all sorted out for her and completely noncompliant with her diet. She roars through every carbohydrate in sight." Nuff said.
But, she is the sweetie she used to be, even if she thinks Gays and Jews caused all her problems and that her doctors were too wrapped up in being Jewish to be doctors, you know what they do to you, wink wink nudge nudge. Sigh.
I stopped at my favorite buffet and had chinese sushi (grins) anyway I like the wasabi. Now I am going to get in bed and never, ever get out.
We are to have a nor 'easter this sunday which will "rearrange the coastline" according to one of my favorite radio stations out on Long Island. I hope he's given to hyperbole.
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