It’s About Making Babies!

Liz at Pocket Farm liked Al Gore’s movie, ‘An Inconvenient Truth‘.

I just have to say — not all of us believe that the science behind Gore’s Global Warming message is accurate.

Two major, significant ecological disasters, one nearly complete, the other mere years from peaking, are the deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon Rain Forest (for farm ground and development), and deforestation of Southeast Asia (for charcoal — home heating and cooking — and construction materials for China and other Asian countries).

Changing lightbulbs will never have the impact of the destruction of millions of trees. And the US and world ‘tree huggers’ aren’t active in these two arenas — there is no press or fund raising potential. Nor ability to ‘divide and conquer’ an electorate for votes. Of course, they aren’t active in replanting the forest destroyed in North America since ‘discovery’ by Europeans.

Gore made a name for himself when in office — by overstating things, by stretching the truth. It is my understanding that most of the US effort on global warming goes back to that major study released by Clinton’s White House. Experts that contributed to the Clinton era report on global warming noted the same thing various scientists said that reviewed the material — that the ‘Executive Summary’ prepared by the Clinton/Gore Whitehouse changed the results of the original research. The ‘200 scientists’ concluded (and signed the 2000 page report) that the fact or pace of global warming were inconclusive, and more study was required to determine if warming was taking place. The Clintons turned that report into an executive summary stating that global warming is real, is here, and is caused by man-made pollution.
That discrepancy was considered important in it’s day, and I have watched — there is no consensus today that global warming is indeed happening. There are many that believe it is, and I believe that Gore is one that truly believes, but there are many more that are unconvinced, and many that are convinced that global warming isn’t happening, whether due to pollutants or natural causes.

The topic of Global Warming fills a neat niche in basic political science. To gain the support of a citizenry, convince them that there is an enemy — polluters — that you have the answer, and that the ‘other guy’ doesn’t want you to have the answer. Is this coincidence, that Democrats are against Global Warming, but Republicans are divided about whether it is happening. That scientists cannot verify the truth and agree on the fact of global warming, it’s causes, and what to do about it. Perhaps the Democrats really are concerned about Global Warming, but perhaps too they are really focused on getting Hilary a shot at the White House.

I believe the topic of Global Warming is more about politics than about science.

Keep in mind that all of today’s recommendations are for ‘rich’ nations, including the US, to take draconian acctions, and for other ‘developing’ nations to continue as they wish (they can’t afford the luxury, and don’t care about warming or not, so they wouldn’t comply with any control measures anyway).

Ford Motor company has a reputation for making some very fuel-efficient cars. In Europe. They won’t sell the efficient cars in the US (Instead they assemble cars in Canada and Mexico to avoid EPA and congressional mandates on improving mileage efficiency). The US hasn’t rewarded companies that make efficient cars — the biggest sellers are still bigger than needed, oppulent as possible in the price range.

I see news articles today on whether you should turn on your A/C or roll the windows down. That one is easy — read your owners manual. Many cars will save engine effort by turning off the A/C — but rolling the windows down increases wind drag and turbulence and increases the effort the engine has to make. Whether your car is more efficient with windows up or not depends on the design or your car.

If you really want a way to save ‘carbon dioxide’, focus on those that want to run the car until the heater or air conditioner have established a ‘comfortable’ temperature before everyone enters the car. In reality, a few seconds of running after turning on the engine, then driving very easy with very low levels of acceleration for 2-5 minutes will let the engine warm up just fine — in mid-winter Minnesota and mid-summer Phoenix. Been there, done that. Roll the windows down until the car starts rolling, then if your a/c is more efficient, roll the windows up.

Oops! And what about chauffered cars? Climate adjusted, ‘comfy’ before the customer enters, driver always available, usually with a/c and motor running, usually larger car, heavy, maybe fuel efficiency isn’t top priority?

When you get really strict with each pound of CO2, you may get to considering about cutting down on the number of people each employer employs. Fewer bodies, less A/C needs, less light needs, less paperwork. Smaller facilities, less ‘extra’ space to heat/cool/clean. Are you going after the charcoal/grill/camping activities? Will you protest to prevent operation of coal-fired, oil-fired, and gas-fired power plants, and require construction of hydrogen-fired and nuclear plants? Require more electricity-generating dam construction? Expansion of wind farms?

How many pounds of carbon dioxide does your daily and weekly ironing / microwave / vacuum cleaner / lawn mower / lawn edger / weed eater / security lights contribute? What about power spent to provide your phones, city water, sewage treatment, stop lights and street lights and garish busness signs? Radio and TV production, travel to sell ads, make appearances (to encourage people to travel to a sponsor), dozens to hundreds of reporters at various ‘news’ locations, and paparazzi hounding people? What about prisons, schools, military units? Perhaps if we can’t get the Iraqi to stop bombing because people get hurt, they will stop because making and exploding bombs contributes to global warming.

Anyone drive by an oil refinery? Notice the ‘flare tower’? Where is the research to make the tons per hour of various carbon fuels into commercial product, rather than simply burning (note the additional energy required by the steam used to ensure good burning at a high rate, as well as pumping various stuff that high to get to the top of the tower). Instead the EPA issues a ‘fine’ of $10,000 a day, essentially a license to abuse the environment and considered normal operating costs when caught.

Have you considered the amount of CO2 produced by the wild fires we experience as a nation, each year? Or the amount produced in a volcanic release of gasses, or secondary burn of nearby trees, brush, and grass?

By all means, change your light bulbs, drive less, and so on. Both because global warming might be happening (I don’t know), and because saving electricity benefits the nation and your budget. And remember that sun spots and solar wind this year will affect the Earth’s atmosphere much more this year than your light bulb or car ever will.

20 and 30 years ago we had some severe winters (in one case the state of Iowa went more that 60 consecutive days with temperatures below zero degrees fahrenheit. Science reports then noted changes of the weather patterns. They noted that the 1950’s were ‘the mildest decade in centuries’. It stands to reason that we won’t see that ‘mild’ a decade for several centuries. Whether the global is catastrophically warming or just shifting around until the next ‘mild’ decade. In another several hundred years.

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It appears that ancient church tyranny is still alive today.

NML at BaggageReclaim writes about ‘Dating Etiquette & Gender Roles‘. 

One point often overlooked here is that the ancient faith of Abraham and David contended, as in wars and armies, with the dominant religions of the regions, mostly matriarchal (headed by women).  So their is a very strong bias, as an expression of faith, to ‘keep a woman in her place’.

Today we see women often relegated to lesser roles, to being quietly shoved aside to let a man ‘rule’.  For the same reason.  There is power in leadership positions.  Every Christian church I have been in harps on ‘The husband is the head of woman’.

What to do?  When a woman isn’t interested in the confines (or freedom) of a well-defined role as wife and mother, where are her guidelines, her heroes?  Unfortunately, the Judeo/Christian ethic is very strong on ‘If You Aren’t With Us You Are Against Us’, and defines any behavior that doesn’t meet church law as ’sin’ — driving by ‘the devil’.  Does this mean wearing trousers, asking a guy for a date, taking a job not procured by your husband, is sinful, driven by the devil, or even <gasp> pagan?  In most churches the basic dogma says yes.  Religious organizations today are more populist than in previous centuries — social pressures and popularity concerns are allowed to weaken and deflect adherence to church laws and they bend interpretations of the Word Of God.

Does that mean every independent woman has to either ‘become’ a man in the eyes of their God, or change their religion to a pagan belief?  Or just shun religion completely, at least until they marry the ‘right’ man, and become a ‘good’ wife,. and can rejoin the church?  Or restrict their social life to Choir practice and Bible Study?  Some do.

So when she wants to ask a guy for a date, or pay for the date, the guy gets uneasy.  Neither consider that the commandment ‘Thou Shall Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Wife’ (note that the wife is a possesion, not a neighbor) defines acceptable ‘godly’ behavior.  When a woman acts to control her life she violates millenia of custom and religious practice.  The guy is only aware that such bizarre role-reversal stuff feels .. weird.  US society is pretty much a Judeo Christian culture, so the perceptions on ‘man on top’ are pretty universal even among other beliefs.

If you want to look, I think I can make a case for ‘if I buy you dinner you have to sleep with me’ being  a simple variation on ‘I bought you and now you are my wife’, as practiced in various times and cultures.  And the price of a meal would certainly cover the ‘bride price’ for many women.  It isn’t so bad, though.  Today most women hold out for a ‘two months salary’ engagement diamond for a bride price, before they sell themselves as wives.  It gets messy picking and choosing which beliefs and customs are inconvenient.

Back in the 1960’s I recall a published comment, ‘no revelutionary can be happy’.  Win or lose, acting against society may give or achieve a satisfaction, but the happiest are those that conform.

Want to ask a guy out?  Be prepared, you might win the battle (get the date), but the war (finding a real relationship) will be both tough, and require many subtle skills to win through.

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