As Katie Fehlinger states,"An unbiased view regarding global
warming".It's so refreshing to see ONE media source, that
deals with a hot button issue HONESTLY.

Mike

Biofuels are a wonderful idea, if you support the idea of burning down the rain forests, raising food prices and starving hundreds of millions of people.

DEFRA'S chief scientific adviser has warned that it would be 'insane' to continue pushing for increased use of biofuels until more is known about their impact on climate change.
http://www.farmersguardian.com/story.asp?sectioncode=19&storycode=17293

I did my best last night to warm things up - turning all the lights on during earth hour. But to no avail - my soccer game this morning is canceled due to snow. I did enjoy Google's black web page last night. That probably saved a few polar bears.

Growing corn for fuel is about the dumbest idea yet. Not only does the production of corn require a huge energy input, it also over time, depletes the land of nutrients, unless a strict crop rotation program is followed. The runoff of nitrogen into our waterways will cause more environmental damage than what is gained by cleaner emissions. This is already happening in the Gulf of Mexico. Furthmore, the growth of this industry has caused the price of corn to skyrocket and has resulted in a shortage of other important food comodities, such as wheat. Soon corn flakes will be too expensive to eat for breakfast. Can you believe it -- we're burning our food to stop global warming!! -- what next?

I agree with PH. Dumb Knee jerk reaction to a non issue.
Biofuels are:
Worse for the environment.
Cause food prices to rise needlessly.
Cause the poor to starve needlessly.
Cause more land clearing.
CAUSE BEER PRICES TO RISE!!!

The only way to shift energy production to clean renewable to develop nuclear.
Fission now, fusion in the future.

Sadly, the greenies don't want a solution cause they depend on crisis� for funding so they will always oppose anything that offers a real answer.

Now this is one subject I am really angry about. You are right Jackson - what was anybody thinking????? Since I live in a farm community, I see corn all around me. The really sad fact is that in order to keep it going all summer because we rarely get enough rain to support corn, everybody that can afford it is watering the heck out of their crops and thus wasting precious water on top of all the the negative stuff related to growing corn. I own a restaurant and I am seeing the price of food skyrocket. Last month I bought a 50 lb bag of flour for 16.00. Last year it was 10.00. This month that same bag is 36.00. Every week when our suppliers come they look more depressed. 2 years ago we could get a case of eggs for 12.00. Today that same case is 26.00. It is all related to the increase in fuel and the increase in feed due to corn being diverted to biofuel. This is exactly why I remain a skeptic about many issues. I want positive proof before I buy into any major effort to address energy needs and any effort to play with mother nature. What really burns me up is the fact that none of the current presidential candidates speaks on this very subject. The US wants their cake and eat it too. We can't get any movement towards nuclear energy due to safety hysteria. We can't get anybody to consider drilling in Alaska due to environmental risks. Currently the huge project in MA using wind power is stalled and many residents/fisherman are strongly opposed to this development. Again, much like biofuels no apparent upside when all facts are considered. What is left is solar power which certainly has potential depending somewhat on where you live. How about the idea that the cars turned out get considerably better gas mileage and thus $4/gal wouldn't feel so bad if the car got 60 mpg. How about this country stop looking down its nose at mass transit and use the darn systems available. How about coordinating our lives better and stop making 20 trips a day into town? How about taking the cars away from the the high school kids and actually making them stay in school and eat there.

Off my soapbox.

Jackson Lore: nice point you made...

Additionally here is a list of a few others besides corn flakes:

Adhesives (glues, pastes, mucilages, gums, etc.)
Aluminum
Antibiotics (penicillin)
Aspirin
Automobiles (everything on wheels)
xxx- cylinder heads
xxx- ethanol - fuel & windshield washer fluid
xxx- spark plugs
xxx- synthetic rubber finishes
xxx- tires
Baby food
Batteries, dry cell
Beer
Breakfast cereals
Candies
Canned vegetables
Carbonated beverages
Cheese spreads
Chewing gum
Chocolate products
Coatings on wood, paper & metal
Colour carrier in paper & textile, printing
Corn chips
Corn meal
Cosmetics
C.M.A. (calcium magnesium acetate)
Crayon and chalk
Degradable plastics
Dessert powders
Dextrose (intravenous solutions, icing sugar)
Disposable diapers
Dyes
Edible oil
Ethyl and butyl alcohol
Explosives - firecrackers
Finished leather
Flour & grits

Frozen foods
Fructose
Fuel ethanol
Gypsum wallboard
Ink for stamping prices in stores
Insecticides
Instant coffee & tea
Insulation, fibreglass
James, jellies and preserves
Ketchup
Latex paint
Leather tanning
Licorice
Livestock feed
Malted products
Margarine
Mayonnaise
Mustard, prepared
Paper board, (corrugating, laminating, cardboard)
Paper manufacturing
Paper plates & Cups
Peanut butter
Pharmaceuticals - The Life Line of The Hospital
Potato chips
Rugs, carpets
Salad dressings
Shaving cream & lotions
Shoe polish
Soaps and cleaners
Soft drinks
Starch & glucose (over 40 types)
Syrup
Tacos, tortillas
Textiles
Toothpaste
Wallpaper
Wheat bread
Whiskey
Yogurts

Question: Of 10,000 items in a typical grocery store, how many would you guess would contain corn in one form or another?
Answer: At least 2,500 items use corn in some form during the production or processing.

http://www.ontariocorn.org/classroom/products.html

Development of ethanol was, like practically all the 'Green' AGW scams, a politically ordered development without any research into just how that development itself would impact upon the world. It is now 'set science' that manufacturing ethanol would never be undertaken in a capitalistic society and its impact upon the environment is basically negative.

Ethanol and water use

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.
-Richard Feynman (1918-1988)

Ethanol, as a transportation fuel, is the "stone soup" of energy independence. Everyone wants it to be made from next to nothing. But, unfortunately, some pretty big environmental ingredients are associated with it, and change looms on the horizon.

The ethanol produced from corn kernels has some very high inputs of water, energy, pesticides, fertilizers, sediments, and subsidies in its current manifestation - simply much more than stones in your soup. That's what I learned while chairing the recent National Research Council (NRC) Colloquium on Water Implications of Biofuels Production in the U.S. (www.nas.edu). The colloquium focused mostly on water. But how can you limit yourself to only one aspect when everything is connected? The real world requires integration of all the environmental costs and benefits into a decision, whether it's acceptable or not. Reality bites.

http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2007/oct/policy/100107comment.html

Forget biofuels they still emit C02. Have we not yet learned our C02 lessons.As I have told you many times the "TUNNELS" are our best option for clean electrical power generated by the KE of the Gulfstream and they will regulate our climate as they regulate SSTs in the gulfstream. How many times must I lead this horse to water before it learns where the water is?

hey, Patrick Henry,

Thats it! That black Google screen! Sheesh! I laid on to my wife last night about what the hay she had been doing messing with my computer display properties to get that black screen, me as usual being to dense to notice Google was back to normal today...statement made, end of story until the next Greenie orgy....

we're burning our food to stop global warming!!

The motivation for requiring ethanol has everything to do with enriching corporate agricultural interests and virtually nothing to do with global warming and, frankly, nothing do with Democrats and Republicans. It's about money and greed and little else.

Biofuels are a terrible idea.

Patrick Cyclonebuster,

Go convince an investor that is willing to front research money into your tunnel idea.

You will require some form of working patented model, drawings, calculations of ocean current speeds, tunnel sizes and material types, preferred locations and depths, cost analysis studies, manufacturing locations and transportation, installation requirements, environmental impact assessments, etc, etc....

This will be more of an undertaking than the palm islands of Dubai, the man made island airport of Japan, the bridge to P.E.I. and Canary Warf in London, all put together and then some.

Good luck!

Interesting timing...I just got this week's issue of Time and this very topic was on the cover. Research is showing that biofuels actually have a net NEGATIVE effect on the environment. There are many factors involved in the huge push for biofuels which actually cause the biofuel production chain to net more carbon into the atmosphere than traditional petroleum fuels.

It's surely worth a read:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1725975,00.html

I live part of the year on Long Island,where 10% ethanol was
shoved down our throats.When I go to other states and burn
"real gas" I gain two miles per gallon.E-85,costs the consumer
a mileage loss of 20-30%. I rest my case.
I'm absolutely amazed at the general public's ignorance
on this subject.
Mike

This e-mail should give everyone some insight into why global warming science has reached a tipping point.

NSIDC has set up an entire press department for the Wilkins Ice Shelf. Money, prestige and 15 minutes of fame. All because a relatively tiny chunk of cracked ice broke off into the ocean.

------------------------------

Thank you for your message.

I am currently out of the office. If you are a journalist calling to
schedule an interview concerning the Wilkins Ice Shelf, please contact
Walt Meier at 303.492.6508.

To download "clean" versions of Wilkins press release images, or for a
high-res version of the Wilkins animation on the press release page,
please visit our FTP site at ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/pub/requests/wilkins_03252008.

If you need other immediate assistance, please contact +1 303 492.6199
or nsidc@nsidc.org.

Please note that NSIDC is closed on Friday March 28.

Regards,
Stephanie

Stephanie Renfrow
Science Communications

National Snow and Ice Data Center
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
449 University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309

+1 303 492.1497 telephone
+1 303 492.2468 fax
srenfrow@nsidc.org
http://nsidc.org

I'm just having too much fun today. Another great article from MSNBC

a new calculation of government temperature data shows that over the past five years, average annual temperatures in the Colorado River basin - the heart of the West - have risen by 2.2 degrees, or about twice as fast as the global rate.

That must explain why we are freezing our tails off out here in record cold and snow.

At first, he said, "I didn't know whether to trust these numbers or not." They came from a network of about 2,000 thermometers across the West - from airports to weather hobbyists' backyards - recording lows and highs since the late 1800s. But other recent patterns - earlier snowmelt in spring, earlier lilac and honeysuckle blooms - convinced Redmond the recordings were accurate.

Lilacs, honeysuckles? We can't even squeeze up a daffodil bloom any more, much less a lilac.

The West also is in the grip of a decade-long drought

Yes, drought and record snowfall always go together. Snow is so deep that we probably won't get up into the high country till mid-July this year.

Phoenix had 47 days of 109 degrees or hotter, according to the National Weather Service.

Hot weather in Phoenix? Who ever would have imagined? Of course there was that spell in 1990 when it was so hot (122F) that large planes couldn't take off because the tarmac was melting and air density was too low.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23852127/

Its seems that there is now overwhelming doubt as to global warming and recent surveys as judging by blog comments etc (see ABC 60 minutes on Al Gore). The first mainstream media that realizes this will be onto a winning streak

OK, I have a problem here. I was under the impression that our all-knowing bureaucracy had mandated that all gasoline blends had to contain ethanol. My gas mileage is terrible, and nothing seems to help. Of course, I'm a gas-guzzling, SUV-driving philistine so I deserve it. What I want to know is where I go to get real gas?

Hi Steve Rowland,

Take it easy on the wife! We don't want the institution of marriage to be the next victim of global warming!

The Guardian said yesterday that India is being submerged by global warming.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/30/india.flooding

As always, they are 100% correct. India has been going under for the last 9,000 years.

Marine scientists say archaeological remains discovered 36 metres (120 feet) underwater in the Gulf of Cambay off the western coast of India could be over 9,000 years old.

The vast city - which is five miles long and two miles wide - is believed to predate the oldest known remains in the subcontinent by more than 5,000 years.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1768109.stm

I am inclined to agree with Brookline Tom, (which is rare,) "It's about money and greed and little else."

We need to remember there was a lot of pressure put on people in power to do this dumb stunt. Now the people who pressured are looking innocent, and pointing the finger of blame at the very people they pressured.

You can hardly blame small farmers for being happy to make more on their corn crops, but the big-wigs of agribuisiness should look deeper and farther, and consider long-term ramifications, but it appears they didn't, and instead focused on short-term gain.

Turning food into fuel is nuts, but I still think there might be a future for ideas like growing switchgrass for pellet stoves, especially when such ideas use land which is not used to grow food, for example stoney pastures which are currently becoming overgrown with brush.

Patrick Henry,

Same thing has happened in Okinawa.

The first ruins were discovered off the extreme southern island of Yonaguni at a depth of 80 feet. They are apparently dated at around 8,000 years BP.

The Ryukyu chain was connected to Taiwan and the Asian mainland approximately 10,000 years ago. Since then, the place has gradually become submerged due to global warming.

What Gary (agreeing with PH) said.

This winter, we were given an option of whether to try 'biofuel' for our furnaces or continue with the dreaded oil product for the same price. Well, I tried it and nearly went broke. It takes 18 percent more biofuel to produce the same BTUs as standard oil-based furnace fuel, with a resultant increase in costs. Now, our wonderful 'carbon tax' will be applied to 'standard' fuel to encourage us to use the soy-based crap which is causing food riots in Indonesia...

Never was the law of unintended consequences demonstrated more clearly.

Biofuel from corn is a bad idea. Biofuel from switchgrass probably isn't.

By the way, I just love how the far Right blames the rise of food prices strictly on ethanol. The fact is...food prices were rising way before the ethanol mandate. Global demand for higher-quality food has skyrocketed in places like India and China, increasing prices. The falling dollar has increased the price of imported food. And, of course, high gas prices -- thanks to the wondrous "free market" -- have further increased price.

Ethanol has led to some increase in price, especially with eggs & meat, but the factors I just mentioned have much more significance than ethanol does.

Besides, there might be a blessing in disguise here. Considering the girth of the American waistline, high prices might be even more incentive for people to, you know, lose weight. God forbid.

And maybe corn prices will get so high that large food corporations will have to use natural sugar to sweeten food instead of high fructose corn syrup. But then we'd lose our national symbol. After all, there's nothing more American than high fructose corn syrup.

I beg to disagree that ethanol is not politically motivated. I did some looking into who exactly was in strong favor of getting the ball rolling with this really, really stupid idea. Yup you guessed it. The very person that is sure we are going to be gobbled up by the warming planet. Our food suppliers for our restaurant are wringing their hands. The hatred towards this biofuel idea is gaining ground quickly. Even the kids in college realize the price of everything is going up. The breaking point is going to be the price of pizza skyrocketing. I was also told today from a supplier that wheat shortage in Egypt is causing the population to start to fight for food.