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Bridging climate science, citizens, and policy


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Weekend News Roundup: 2/20-21/09

I was disappointed to read that President Obama has taken NAFTA renegotiation of the table.  American workers are suffering because of failed “free-trade” policies.  If he wants high employment and a strong economy, protecting our workers is a primary way to get there.  This is a result of the people Obama has put into power.

Congratulations go to formor President Bush for allowing Iran to become another nuclear state.  It joins North Korea as a country that can threaten our allies for years to come, just as the War industry wanted.

Hexcel Corporation broke ground on a 100,000-sq-ft facility in north-eastern Colorado that will manufacture epoxy-resin components for wind blades.  They moved here because Vestas manufactures those wind blades at an adjacent location.  While the gas and oil industry cuts jobs in Colorado due to lack of demand for their products, the wind and solar industry enjoys new businesses and new jobs.

Another 627,000 jobs were lost in the Economy Bush Built.  Net job losses could total 700,000 for February.  Good thing corporate profits were setting records as late as last year.  I’d hate to think the economy was bad or something.

About one in four people with a mortgage owe more than their homes are worth.  One of Obama’s solutions is to force lenders to re-negotiate mortgage terms.  The lending industry, who got us into this mess in the first place, is objecting to the plan.  As usual, they’re also not proposing any kind of solution.  Doing nothing will all but destroy our economy.

David Harsanyi continues his crusade against America with his op-ed this week.  He claims taxes, extreme government spending and wealth redistribution are patriotic in an attempt to slam President Obama’s recovery plans.  In Con Fantasy Land, it seems tax reductions are now called tax increases.  Similarly, the past 8 years of keeping occupations off the budget and creating the largest government program in 30 years (that doesn’t work with its peers) went by uncommented since it was a Con “president” who proposed the “extreme government spending”.  Last but not least, Harsanyi’s characterization of wealth redistribution comes across as pathetic after we’ve seen the effects of Bush’s “tax cuts”.  Americans were sure glad to get one two grand back (the first year only) they were passed weren’t they?  Oh, except for the richest 1%.  They’re keeping hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars per year thanks to Bush’s tax cuts.  Wealth redistribution indeed.  And what’s up with this:

Yes, the same Freddie and Fannie — once implicitly guaranteed by government and now explicitly run by government — that helped, through social engineering, to push us into recession.

I wish the rest of us had figured out what the great sage Harsanyi did – Fannie and Freddie (with Cons leading them right up through the beginning of this horrible recession) were so unbelievably powerful.  Cons love their conspiracy theories.  I learned an important lesson during the Bush years.  When a Con says something, the reality is exactly opposite.

Breckenridge ski resort may not be allowed to expand onto Peak 6.  At issue is a lynx recovery plan.  It’s nice to see more honest consideration of all factors with something like this.

A Colorado constitutional rewrite is being seriously considered by more and more people.  State spending is affected by numerous, conflicting amendments.  Colorado can either lose out on education, health care and prisons or a group of adults (hopefully) can come together and implement realistic solutions.  If a Constitutional Convention is called, one potential flaw is they can rewrite any part of the Constitution they want.  It would be nice if people who were convinced government can’t operate weren’t put in charge of that government.  It simply makes no sense.

The Colorado House Agriculture Committee killed a proposal to limit the involvement of the Division of Wildlife in issuing oil and gas drilling permits.  The CDoW became involved in the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission only after a Democratic Governor was elected.  Not surprisingly, this pro-business article ony quoted a proponent of the bill.  Unlike climate change articles, where the denyers’ point-of-view in nearly sacrosant, opponents of HB-1255 didn’t get their comments published.

On a positive note for science, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory is scheduled to launch Tuesday.  The polar-orbiting satellite will measure oxygen-to-carbon ratios to indicate where carbon sources and sinks are at.  My fear is that carbon sources will be found to be larger and more prevalent than carbon sinks.  There are already indications that the warming oceans are soaking up less carbon every year, allowing the atmosphere and oceans to warm up even further.


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Weekend Random Stories

  • NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory is running into technical problems and cost over-runs. Currently, it’s scheduled for a 2009 launch. I don’t think either issues is something to be worried about. Technical problems always crop up during a developmental phase. They’ll continue to appear during an operational phase. That’s why scientists and engineers are employed: to take care of things like a heat shield that needs to be redesigned. Added costs? They’re around $20 million, which isn’t much when the project was budgeted for $1.8 billion. Now, maybe those numbers are a little too high. But I think we’ll get considerably more out of that $1.8B than we do from spending a similar amount to occupy Iraq.
  • A good story showed up in today’s Denver Post. Counter to the pro-fossil fuel stance, it turns out that once renewable energy companies are established, they have a tendency to attract similar busineses to an area. Vestas, the Danish turbine-maker, is going to open a plant near Windsor this week. Vestas is the world’s largest wind-energy manufacturer. As such, a number of firms that will serve as vendors to the Windsor plant are looking to establish locations near the Windsor plant. That means more good paying jobs in the region.

The article goes on to mention that the plant was supposed to employ 400 workers on four production lines. It turns out that that projection is wrong. Instead, 650 workers on six production lines will be needed due to growth in demand in the wind turbine market. Wait, wait, wait. Conservatives wail that renewable energy will hurt the economy and cause job losses. An extra 250 workers will earn an average of $37,000 per year than originally planned in an area of the state that could use some more good paying jobs. And that’s just the beginning. Research continues on turbine efficiency, requiring highly educated personnel who also command good salaries. If only the companies had CEOs pulling in hundreds of millions of dollars per year, the story would likely rank as a success in conservative circles.

The culprit behind all of this do-gooder news? Voters in 2004 who passed an alternative-energy mandate and then in 2006 elected Gov. Bill Ritter. Ritter actually has a plan for renewable energy development as part of a New Energy Economy. Pat each other on the backs if you were forward-looking enough to recognize the opportunities that are beginning to manifest themselves. If you didn’t like Amendment 37 or Ritter, please continue to howl about renewables into your obscurity.

  • Disappearing ice in the Arctic has been attributed to global warming.  Now, Inupiat Eskimos are suing nine oil companies, 14 electric-power companies and one coal company to pay to move their village, which is under siege by waves of the frigid ocean, once blocked by Arctic ice.

If nothing else, the case should build a factual record.  Fossil fuel corporations have engaged in the largest disinformation campaign since the tobacco industry in the mid-1900′s.  Unfortunately, this won’t be the last suit.  Will the record be established in time to do something to save not only the Inupiat, but millions of others now at risk to rising sea levels?

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