Obama Celebrates Earth Day By Burning Up 9,000 Gallons Of Jet Fuel

More Than 9,000 Gallons Of Fuel To Be Used On Air Force One For Obama’s Trip To Everglades On Earth Day

 

 

 

 

” With swampy wetlands and alligators as his backdrop, President Barack Obama will use a visit to Florida’s Everglades to warn of the damage that climate change is already inflicting on the nation’s environmental treasures — and to hammer political opponents he says are doing far too little about it.

  Obama’s trip to the Everglades on Wednesday, timed to coincide with Earth Day, marks an attempt to connect the dots between theoretical arguments about carbon emissions and real-life implications. With his climate change agenda under attack in Washington and courthouses across the U.S., Obama has sought this week to force Americans to envision a world in which cherished natural wonders fall victim to pollution.

  According to CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller, Obama’s Earth Day trip to the Everglades will cover 1,836 miles roundtrip and consume 9,180 gallons of fuel on Air Force One.

Pres Obama’s Earth Day trip will cover 1,836 miles roundtrip and consume 9,180 gallons of fuel on Air Force One.

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Mark Knoller (@markknoller) April 22, 2015 “

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About That “Global Warming”…

2899 Record Cold Temps vs 667 Record Warm Temps In U.S. — From July 24 To August 19

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The “Green” Car Myth

Bjorn Lomborg: Green Cars Have a Dirty Little Secret

 

 

 

 

 

Electric cars are promoted as the chic harbinger of an environmentally benign future. Ads assure us of “zero emissions,” and President Obama has promised a million on the road by 2015. With sales for 2012 coming in at about 50,000, that million-car figure is a pipe dream. Consumers remain wary of the cars’ limited range, higher price and the logistics of battery-charging. But for those who do own an electric car, at least there is the consolation that it’s truly green, right? Not really.

For proponents such as the actor and activist Leonardo DiCaprio, the main argument is that their electric cars—whether it’s a $100,000 Fisker Karma (Mr. DiCaprio’s ride) or a $28,000 Nissan Leaf—don’t contribute to global warming. And, sure, electric cars don’t emit carbon-dioxide on the road. But the energy used for their manufacture and continual battery charges certainly does—far more than most people realize.

A 2012 comprehensive life-cycle analysis in Journal of Industrial Ecology shows that almost half the lifetime carbon-dioxide emissions from an electric car come from the energy used to produce the car, especially the battery. The mining of lithium, for instance, is a less than green activity. By contrast, the manufacture of a gas-powered car accounts for 17% of its lifetime carbon-dioxide emissions. When an electric car rolls off the production line, it has already been responsible for 30,000 pounds of carbon-dioxide emission. The amount for making a conventional car: 14,000 pounds.

While electric-car owners may cruise around feeling virtuous, they still recharge using electricity overwhelmingly produced with fossil fuels. Thus, the life-cycle analysis shows that for every mile driven, the average electric car indirectly emits about six ounces of carbon-dioxide. This is still a lot better than a similar-size conventional car, which emits about 12 ounces per mile. But remember, the production of the electric car has already resulted in sizeable emissions—the equivalent of 80,000 miles of travel in the vehicle.

So unless the electric car is driven a lot, it will never get ahead environmentally. And that turns out to be a challenge. Consider the Nissan Leaf. It has only a 73-mile range per charge. Drivers attempting long road trips, as in one BBC test drive, have reported that recharging takes so long that the average speed is close to six miles per hour—a bit faster than your average jogger.”

Related articles

• Let’s Be Honest about Electric Cars, Can We? (libertynews.com)
• The dirty little secret of electric cars – they’re really not green (aei-ideas.org)
• When Green Isn’t Green (rightwinggranny.com)
• Re: Electric Car Manufacturing’s Massive Carbon Footprint (forum.prisonplanet.com)
• Green Cars Have a Dirty Little Secret (realclearpolitics.com)
• Electric vehicles not much better than gas on overall emissions (polizeros.com)
• The Zero Emissions Vehicle Remains a Myth (reason.com)

 

 

 

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AS SPACE TOURISM GROWS …

… CLIMATE IMPACTS WILL RIVAL ALL AIRPLANES

 ” When it comes to sources of climate change, a handful of activities have the most impact. For American consumers, the current leading causes are energy use in the home, driving and plane travel. Now, something new is set to join the group of worst offenders: space tourism. Virgin Galactic will launch its first rockets next year, and space tourism may soon affect the global climate as much as the world’s entire fleet of subsonic airplanes.

A New Polluting Industry Takes Flight

Space tourism officially began in 2001, when businessman Dennis Tito paid a reported $20 million to take a ride to the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. By 2004, SpaceShipOne, the world’s first privately funded and operated space vehicle, had been successfully tested. Space Adventures Inc. has been taking reservations for space flights since 1998. But it’s only now that space tourism — also known as “personal spaceflight,” or “citizen space exploration” — is taking off on a larger scale.”

Related articles

• Branson gives update on space plans – Confused.com (confused.com)
• Space Tourism: Out of this World (momentmatters.wordpress.com)
• Space tourism: the ultimate boarding pass (newscientist.com)
• Countdown Begins for Budget Space Tourism Lift off on Skyscanner Site (prweb.com)
• ‘Space hotel a reality within 10 years’ (rt.com)
• Space Tourism Could Generate $1.6 Billion In The Next Decade (businessinsider.com)
• Virgin space project keeps being delayed (bigpondnews.com)