We always laugh at the dudes we see in the so-called “Smart Car.” Imagine a head-on with a Hummer or something else substantial.
Greenbats
Coldest January?
From WUWT:
Looking at Dr. Roy Spencer’s daily UAH plotter, comparing to last year at this time, globally we are nearly a full degree Fahrenheit cooler.
Why I Won’t Buy Another GM Product
First, there is the matter of General Motors taking the government bailout. And now, there is a candid admission by GM’s North American President, Mark Reuss that they really don’t care what their customers think.
From Henry Payne via Planet Gore:
The Government Auto Show
With four inches of snow blanketing Detroit outside Cobo Convention Center and flakes falling on 49 of 50 U.S. states (Florida excepted), GM announced at the Detroit Auto Show this week that it is developing an all-electric vehicle fleet to combat . . . global warming.
Americans are flocking to snow-covered dealer lots to trade in their compact sedans for four-wheel drive SUVs, but The General also rolled out a new Chevy subcompact and the first Buick compact.
GM’s North American president, Mark Reuss, made it clear what’s driving product development. “Forget about gas prices. The regulatory environment through 2016 is going to dictate what we do,” he said. “You got to plan your portfolio to be there from a CO2 greenhouse gas standpoint.”
In a rare candid moment, a major auto executive admitted that what motivates today’s auto production is not the consumer — it’s the government.
For complete auto show coverage, go to The Michigan View.com.
Emphasis added.
Holbrooke’s Amazing Global Warming Claim
This is reprinted from the Senate EPW Blog. Senator James Inhofe presents yet another dingy Democrat dupe . . .
For some, global warming is the sinister cause of every problem plaguing the world-even the conflict between India and Pakistan.
[Image – Half-wit Holbrooke]
This misapprehension has apparently taken hold of Richard Holbrooke, President Obama’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to Bob Woodward’s new book, Obama’s Wars, Holbrooke believes there is a “global warming dimension” of the India-Pakistan conflict.”In one discussion about the tensions between Pakistan and India,” Woodward wrote, “Holbrooke introduced a new angle. ‘There’s a global-warming dimension of this struggle, Mr. President,’ he said.” Woodward wrote that Holbrooke’s “words baffled many in the room.” It’s not hard to see why.
“‘There are tens of thousands of Indian and Pakistani troops encamped on the glaciers in the Himalayas that feed the rivers into Pakistan and India,’ [Holbrooke] said. ‘Their encampments are melting the glaciers very quickly. There’s a chance that river valleys in Pakistan and perhaps even India could be flooded.'”
Woodward reported that attendees were incredulous. “After the meeting,” Woodward wrote, “there were several versions of one question: Was Holbrooke kidding? He was not. Holbrooke subsequently detailed his concerns in a written report.” I among many others would surely like to read Holbrooke’s report. I wonder if it notes the massive gaffe committed by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the scientific body responsible for, among other treasures, the Kyoto Protocol.
Back in January, the IPCC was forced to retract a claim, buried in its dense 2007 climate change report, that the Himalayan glaciers would very likely melt away by 2035 (“very likely” in the IPCC’s rendering means more than a 90% chance of occurring). It turns out the IPCC was off by 300 years. The mistake sparked an international outcry. Rajendra Pachauri, the controversial head of the IPCC, admitted that “the clear and well-established standards of evidence required by the IPCC procedures were not applied properly.” One wonders what those procedures looked like.
In fact, the 2035 claim was based on a 2005 paper by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), an activist environmental group. WWF in turn got it from an Indian glaciologist who, according to the Guardian newspaper in London, conceded that his work was “speculative.” Glaciologists interviewed by that paper said that “Himalayan glaciers contain so much ice it will be 300 years before it vanishes.” It turned out that the glacier gaffe was one of many undermining the credibility of the IPCC’s 2007 report, and of the IPCC itself. I have followed the inner workings of the IPCC for years, so these revelations came as no surprise. Yet I would have hoped that a senior government official responsible for such a sensitive matter as relations between India and Pakistan would know better.
Even more troubling is Holbrooke’s apparent acceptance of the notion that global warming poses national security threats, requiring the imposition of energy rationing schemes such as cap-and-trade, at home and abroad, to alleviate international conflict.
But those schemes, as even the Environmental Protection Agency has confirmed, would do little to affect climate or Earth’s temperature, and therefore would be of no consequence in international relations. What they would do is harm America’s economy through, among other things, higher costs for energy, food, and other consumer goods, more dependence on foreign oil, and further decline of our manufacturing base.
That, not global warming, is the real national security threat.
Emphasis added. With a little luck on Tuesday, (Senator Ma’am) Boxer will be out as chairperson of the EPW committee and Senator Inhofe will be back in.
The Stupidity of Biofuels
The Idso Clan at CO2 Science report on a study that reveals that biofuel production will be harmful to the environment and will cause food shortages.
Excerpt from The Large-Scale Production of Biofuels in a Food-Insecure World:
In a review article published in the Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, Rattan Lal of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center of Ohio State University (USA) introduces the subject of his concern by writing that “the world is faced with the trilemma of climate change, food insecurity, and energy demand,” because (1) “there still are more than one billion food-insecure people in the world (FAO, 2009a,b),” (2) “the world food supply will have to be doubled between 2005 and 2050 (Borlaug, 2009) because of the increase in population and change in dietary preferences,” and (3) “the world energy demand is also increasing rapidly and is projected to increase by 84% by 2050 compared with 2005.” And what makes the problem even worse is the fact that in an attempt to meet the anticipated increase in the global demand for energy, “the emphasis on biofuels is strongly impacting the availability of grains for food and soil resources for grain production.”
Government Motors Buys Volt World Series Ad
They might as well buy time on a NASCAR event. What a waste of taxpayer funds . . .
From Planet Gore:
Peanuts, Cracker Jacks . . . and Elitist Green Transportation?
By Henry Payne
Detroit – Underscoring the perils of government ownership, GM will launch the new electric plug-in Chevy Volt with an ad buy during this month’s World Series.
That is, in the middle of the American pasttime’s premier event, Government Motors will use taxpayer money to buy premium ad time to pitch a money-losing, taxpayer-subsidized, Washington-approved, green automobile to America’s upper-class green snobs.
Rather than applause for good ol’ American know-how that GM anticipates, the public might well see the Volt as a symbol of government excess, more a federal-spending flop rather than the rebirth of a “high-tech” GM.
The ad buy may also endanger the Chevy brand. While the spots will trumpet Chevrolet’s 100-year heritage and a place in American culture next to baseball, that place is occupied by middle-American Chevy buyers. The Volt is priced for the BMW class and its elite tastes.
Will such consumers want a Chevy?
I hereby resolve to go out and buy the biggest Ford Truck or SUV with a 5.8 liter V8.