Electric Economy?

Today I saw an article on wired about transferring our oil based infrastructure to an electric based one using a business model similar to that of cell phones. The idea being to sell the cars cheaply and then charge for the batteries/electricity monthly or based on usage. Lengthy but a good read.

One day..

I hope to have a similar video soon..

New seating arrangement

Finally something positive from the airlines...

Ethanol, an example of political meddling in markets

The crisis caused by incentivizing of Ethanol is plain to see. Not only is ethanol inherently less efficient than gasoline it also has almost just as many harmful environmental effects. But because of the efforts of the corn farmers and environmentalists politicians have gottn behind ethanol whole heartedly. This has resulted in tax breaks and subsidies for corn based ethanol production in the US while perversely also raising tariffs on Brazillian sugar cane based production. This has resulted in a food crisis on a global level. As farmers switch crops to enjoy the benefit of the subsidies and tax breaks, not only does corn become more scarce but also other staple crops because it is more profitable to produce corn. If we must switch to Ethanol based fuel shouldn't we do it based on solid economics? Brazillian sugar cane ethanol produces a higher yield than corn and has less effect on the food markets yet it is kept out (I feel I also should note that even Brazillian sugar cane has a pretty harmful effect on the environment due to the fact that rainforests are cleared to produce it). This new Green movement seems more about show than results.

Why Calories Don't Matter

Aka Everything you think you know is wrong. In this video Gary Taubes author of "Good Calories, bad Calories" goes through some of the data debunking the common misconception that fat and weight gain is a result of improper caloric balancing. Its simply not true, what is amusing is that this is not new information. This hypothesis was disproved as early as the 60's. It just goes to show how people can be locked into a certain paradigm which clouds their acceptance of any new ideas even when those ideas could be life changing.

Interesting..

Cash Advance Loans

Truth-ish

There is a bit of a scrap between members of the UK government concerning some attempts to show Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth to UK students. Thankfully there are those in the British Government willing to at least point out the political nature of the film and its inaccuracies and exaggerations. Listed below are said inaccuracies:

The decision by the government to distribute Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth has been the subject of a legal action by New Party member Stewart Dimmock. The Court found that the film was misleading in nine respects and that the Guidance Notes drafted by the Education Secretary’s advisors served only to exacerbate the political propaganda in the film.

In order for the film to be shown, the Government must first amend their Guidance Notes to Teachers to make clear that 1.) The Film is a political work and promotes only one side of the argument. 2.) If teachers present the Film without making this plain they may be in breach of section 406 of the Education Act 1996 and guilty of political indoctrination. 3.) Nine inaccuracies have to be specifically drawn to the attention of school children.

The inaccuracies are:

The film claims that melting snows on Mount Kilimanjaro evidence global warming. The Government’s expert was forced to concede that this is not correct.

The film suggests that evidence from ice cores proves that rising CO2 causes temperature increases over 650,000 years. The Court found that the film was misleading: over that period the rises in CO2 lagged behind the temperature rises by 800-2000 years.

The film uses emotive images of Hurricane Katrina and suggests that this has been caused by global warming. The Government’s expert had to accept that it was “not possible” to attribute one-off events to global warming.

The film shows the drying up of Lake Chad and claims that this was caused by global warming. The Government’s expert had to accept that this was not the case.

The film claims that a study showed that polar bears had drowned due to disappearing arctic ice. It turned out that Mr Gore had misread the study: in fact four polar bears drowned and this was because of a particularly violent storm.

The film threatens that global warming could stop the Gulf Stream throwing Europe into an ice age: the Claimant’s evidence was that this was a scientific impossibility.

The film blames global warming for species losses including coral reef bleaching. The Government could not find any evidence to support this claim.

The film suggests that sea levels could rise by 7m causing the displacement of millions of people. In fact the evidence is that sea levels are expected to rise by about 40cm over the next hundred years and that there is no such threat of massive migration.

The film claims that rising sea levels has caused the evacuation of certain Pacific islands to New Zealand. The Government are unable to substantiate this and the Court observed that this appears to be a false claim.

This comes at the same time that Gore wins the Nobel Peace Prize illustrating how the prize is more a political platform than an actual award for progress towards peace. The fact of the matter is that there are plenty of reasons to re assess our energy policy the least being Global Warming. That some constantly exaggerate and distort the truth about global warming only confuses the true issues and what can be done to fix them.