Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Greenbats

Acuña Cacti – Endangered Species Or Hype?

Acuña CactiAccording to the Associated Press, the acuña cactus is endangered by – get this – “drought and climate change and could be harmed by illegal immigration and border enforcement efforts.” (Via AZCENTRAL.COM.)

Pima County fact sheet for Acuña Cactus (Echinomastus erectocentrus var. acunensis) lists this species status as:

The Acuña cactus is a candidate species for the Threatened and Endangered list. The plant is protected by the Arizona Native Plant Law, and is protected for international trade by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

The population may be threatened by illegal take and natural causes such as parasitism.

There is reference to neither border enforcement, drought nor climate change by the Pima County fact sheet. They do mention illegal taking of the cacti. I note that the “protection” by laws and international agreements do little to protect anything.

It seems to me that the greenbat and open-borders (so-called) journalists at AP insist on injecting their own guidelines as to what could be causing the population decline. Damsel suggested that illegal aliens cross the border, steal the cacti and put them in little pots for sale to tourists or for export to landscape and garden shops in the US.

The lone comment on the article in AZCENTRAL said “more bull …from the agenda 21 extremist crowd.” I cannot disagree with that.

19 Oct 2012 by Arizona Greenbats Law and Order Media

Biofuels May Actually Deplete Atmospheric Ozone

Biofuels May Actually Deplete Atmospheric OzoneI read a scientific study today from CO2 Science that indicates biofuels may be harmful to the atmosphere. It is a well-documented reality that biofuels do not emit less CO2 than fossil fuels as they are purported to do.

Now, there is a scientific paper that suggests biofuels deplete ozone in the atmosphere. The ozone layer protects the surface of the Earth from intense solar UV radiation.

Image: a humorous look at how to put biofuels into your gas tank

The paper notes that nitrogen-based fertilizer used in the production of crops to be used in biofuels, cause nitrous oxide (N2O) to be emitted when burning them. N2O is yet another greenhouse gas that has been known for over 40 years to deplete stratospheric ozone.

The conclusion from the CO2 Science report follows:

In light of their findings, as [the authors] state in the concluding sentence of their report, “increased biofuels production and consumption could therefore be damaging to the ozone layer,” which would be detrimental to the biosphere due to the fact that the stratospheric ozone layer filters out much of the harmful UV-B radiation coming from the sun, which otherwise could do much damage to earth’s terrestrial plants.

I emphasized that last statement to point out the potential vicious cycle of destroying or adversely affecting the crops from which the fuels are made. This whole biofuel debacle is just another example of the liberal “superstition trumps science” untruth.

09 Oct 2012 by Global Warming Greenbats Science

Global Climate Change – Except It’s Not Global

Olympic RainWe hear all the greenbats proclaim that the current heat wave and drought throughout the US is due to “global climate change.” News media blames all this heat and dry on greenhouse gasses ostensibly emitted by us humans.

Well, consider this contrary little factoid: in London, where the Olympic Games are starting today, there will be high temperatures in the 60’s and lows in the 50’s with rain. Funny how the hot and dry reports here fail to include details about cool and wet weather someplace else on the globe.

As we say in the title, “Global Climate Change – Except It’s Not Global.”

27 Jul 2012 by Environment Global Warming Greenbats International

Where Are The Hurricanes?

no-cyclones.jpgRemember when all the hurricanes were pounding Florida and the Gulf Coast a few years back? All the greenbats and global warmists were blaming greenhouse gas and other horrible man-made things for the weather; the warming apocalypse was nigh!

Well, it’s the middle of freaking huricane season and if you go to the National Weather Service’s National Hurricane Center website you get the “No tropical Cyclones at this time” message.

This must be An Inconvenient Truth for the Goracle and all the other warmist liars.

12 Jul 2012 by Environment Global Warming Greenbats

Asian Aerosols and US Climate Change

circle.jpgI learned through World Climate Report that a group at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, wrote a paper outlining “Potential Impacts of Asian carbon aerosols on future US warming.”

The paper postulates that Asian emissions have a greater effect on climate change in the US than US emissions do. It would seem that the EPA’s efforts to regulate carbon in the country would be rendered moot by the NCAR report.

Image: atmospheric circulation in the north Pacific Ocean

The climate along the Pacific coast of the US is affected by air and ocean current circulation way more than Asian carbon. That’s why temperatures along the coasts of western states remain relatively stable – cooler in summer and warmer in winter than most places in the contiguous US.

Now, after doing all the numbers in terms of atmospheric volume versus greenhouse gasses, the actual impact of Asian, as well as US emissions, do very little to affect the climate. Urban Heat Islands and solar activity have far more effect on the environment.

It seems to us that the efforts by the paper’s authors, even though it short-circuits the measures taken in the US by the EPA, is just another attempt at “proving” Anthropogenic Global Warming is reality. We’re still saying that AGW is bullsh*t.

08 Jun 2012 by Environment Global Warming Greenbats

Let Them Eat Bugs

insect.gifThis is from the “You’ve gotta be kidding me” file. A group of so-called scientists in India wrote a paper addressing the topic of “increasing pressure on land is making meat production from macro-livestock less sustainable than ever before.” Their solution to the so-called problem is for people to stop raising cattle, hogs, etc. and to commence harvesting and eating insects.

Sherwood Idso of the CO2 Science website thinks that global-warming and climate change activists themselves should be leading the charge for entomological cuisine:

Globe-trotting Al Gore, for example, could dine on wasps, bamboo caterpillars, crickets and locusts, which Premalatha et al. tell us “are sold as delicacies in the finest restaurants and food shops in Thailand.” Or he may choose the very special rice-field grasshopper, which they say “is a luxury food item in Japan,” as are canned hornets. And James Hansen: when in Mexico, he could feast on escamoles (the pupae of an ant species) and gusanos (butterfly larvae), which are sold there for half the price he would have to pay in Canada, where they go for almost two U.S. dollars per gram (that’s over $900 per pound!).

Well said, Mr. Idso. Read the entire article at CO2science.org.

30 May 2012 by Environment Global Warming Greenbats

How Do You Like Wind Farms Now?

eagle.jpgReaders here have long-known of our distaste for wind turbines. On our commute from Arizona to California and back, we traverse over forty miles along I-10 where the scenic desert landscape and snow-capped mountain peaks are obscured by the flailing fans.

Other than the asthetic downside, wind energy costs orders of magnitude more than coal or hydroelectric per kilowatt hour to produce. That means more cost to the consumer.

We have also known that these installations also endanger wildlife; now, it appears that The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a division of the Interior Department is going to make it OK for turbines to kill the previously endangered bald eagles:

From Planet Gore

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a division of the Interior Department, is considering loosening regulations on the killing of bald eagles, the national bird of the United States, to accommodate the development of wind energy sources.

A draft regulation first filed in April would allow businesses to apply for 30-year permits allowing them to kill bald eagles in the course of other legal activities. The length of those permits would be a six-fold increase over the five-year window allowed under current law.

[more]

10 May 2012 by Beltway Kabuki Critters Greenbats Whacko Politics

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