The world tries to change

Obama is raising the fuel efficiency standards (called CAFE) and as usual the car industry and many others say that it will cost the consumer too much, much of the car industry is not fighting the plan though. A suprising fact is that economists don't talk with industry much. So we get big business making business claims that sound like economics, really they are just saying that they do not want to be forced to change, but constant change is what keeps an economy healthy. Business is not Economics.

This piece from Greenpeace explains the ideal path to dealing with climat change, according to them. They are deffinitely one end of the political spectrum, but their rhetoric is more favorable to our environment than many of our politicians in the US Congress.

Poverty in Africa increased greatly in the last several years, this press release from UNEP address the agricultural needs of Africa.

The United Nations just held a chemical conference that functions to get world governments to produce less toxic and harmful products.

Apparently Bush II held private talks with China about reducing green house gas emissions. Does this change your view of Bush II?

Moving Forward

China burns the most coal out of any country and is taking steps to reduce their CO2 emissions while continuing to be crutched on coal energy. Their performance is not ideal, but it will be impactful.

One of Obama's budget cuts will be the hydrogen energy project. Bush II supported a hydrogen economy without acknowledging the obstacles, Obama is now stepping away from it to focus on more likely alternative fuels.

Solar energy harvesting technology is advancing, making it cheaper; cheaper than oil. This the point at which alternative fuels can overtake fossil fuels, when the market signals via price people respond, and in this case they stop using oil.

The Pika (a cute little mammal) might be listed as endangered due to global warming.

2/15/09: The bailout bill is covered in green. Is it enough? No, but it is something, $60 billion of something.

The stimulus package being passed currently carries $60 billion for the development of a green economy. This large pulse of money was made possible by a financial crisis and an environmental crisis. Disturbance yields progression.

Bio-fuels have been a large controversy because they either divert farm land from food production to fuel production or they convert land from wilderness. Cellulosic ethanol is the new thing. It is amazing because it uses the inedible parts of plants to create fuel. This article discusses the rise of this fuel, but it views it as a process that does replace food crops instead of portraying cellulosic ethanol as a way to make fuel out of plant waste. This article however does discuss this aspect of cellulosic ethanol.

This article from The Guardian is a letter from Jim Hansen, a climatologist at NASA, explaining that coal fired power plants need to be shut down and no more should be built. He also defends the theory of Global Climate Change, but this article is important because it gets to one of the biggest roots of our problems: the existence of coal fired power plants.

Two satellites have been put into Earth's orbit to record green house gas concentrations in our atmosphere. To know the solution we need to know the problem. These two satellites will greatly aid us in intelligently deciding what to do about global warming.

As sarcastic as the Economist can be, this article shows what happens when an environmental movement is fractured and has activists that are unwise. Why are extremist environmentalists unwise? Because they demand perfect outcomes for the environment and by not negotiating they lose out on doing any good at all. Environmentalism should never forget the needs of humans, we are our environment.

Populist American support for prosecuting Bush II is on the rise.

Also, Halliburton is being prosecuted for their illegal actions. Read about it.

1/25/09: Obama the Environmentalist and some more realistic rhetoric on energy and the economic crisis

Obama, he might not fix all of our problems, but he is trying. He is finally doing something that i forgot could happen politically; Obama is raising the the fuel-efficiency standard of vehicles for the nation and not only allowing but encouraging states to follow the more strict standards that California is allowed to set but has been prevented from doing so by the former president Bush II.

So, yes, we all know that according to Global Warming things are heating up including Antarctica, but this article from the BBC discusses the heating of that giant ice cube. If Antactica really does break into pieces it will greatly speed up the rising of the oceans and will augment oceanic patterns. The changes will reverberate. When reading the article notice the language used by the BBC regarding global warming, they seem to still be in the stage of appeasing and addressing global climate change deniers.

Energy Independence is a mine in the battle field of environmentalism dressed up as an end to be sought after. As with the "buy local" movement, it is a good idea so long as you do not do it completely. MotherJones gives a good commentary on the myths of energy independence, be critical of MotherJones' criticalism, but this article is part of the corrections that need to be made to environmental theory and policy.

The CATO Institute is a great place to learn about what is really going on with the economy and what are the purely economic fixes. There has been a lot of political rhetoric and explanation for our current situation. Read this from CATO and make some adjustments to your beliefs and facts.

For political news, Obama is altering the executive order that allows former presidents to control the public releasing of sensitive documents. Obama is making it so that Bush II has to sue Obama just to attempt to keep documents unreleased.