Where is the Missing Plastic?

 Interesting video about the great ocean plastic garbage patch areas of the oceans, and the mystery of why only about 1% of the plastic that should be in them is there.

Not mentioned is the obvious: this plastic in the sediments will be oil again in 100 million years.

Where Subsidized Environmentalism Goes

5/31/20 Autoblog:

After roughly five years of existence, the BlueIndy electric car-sharing program in Indianapolis had accrued only about 3,000 members. For those keeping track of the balance sheet, that wasn't nearly enough to be a realistically successful business. The innovative program that launched in September 2015 did not go as planned, and it has shuttered operations as a result. 

In a Q&A section of its website, BlueIndy states, "This difficult decision to close the business on May 21, 2020, has been taken as the service did not reach the level of activity required to be economically viable here." According to the IndyStar, the project cost a total of $50 million to launch. Of that $50 million, the city paid $6 million, and Indianapolis Power & Light Company paid at least another $1 million to install the underground-wired charging stations. In total, the program was able to put out about 280 cars and 90 power stations throughout Indianapolis and took up hundreds of parking spaces.

Clearly the program did not have enough subsidies to make Indianapolis' incipient Greens wake up.

Recycling

Ever since we moved into our current starter castle, we have recycled plastics, glass, paper, and metal of all sorts.  Mostly we did this to reduce the amount of stuff we haul to the dump every week or so, but also, there is a soft spot for Mother Earth.  (We did grow up during the environmental movement.)  Rhonda has long noticed enormous stacks of cardboard at many recycling centers that never seem to shrink.  5/28/18 New York Times reports that China has stopped taking plastic and paper because of concerns about their own environment.  If you have seen video of PC recycling over there, just imagine the equally environmentally sound practices for plastic and paper.

So a lot of that curbside recycling is now going into landfills.  The time and money spent on separating recyclables is just wasted.

We are still recycling metals.  Aluminum is getting us about 38 cents per pound; the cans are apparently worth nothing.  Steel was a penny a pound, but on this last trip, it was worth nothing.  We still separate the glass, because the trash compactor might well tear holes in the bags when breaking bottles.

In the year 2819, I suspect that miners will be digging through our centuries of composted trash, looking for glass and plastic ton recycle in plasma torches powered by fusion reactors.

Green Is Not A Guaranteed Path to Victory

5/18/19 PowerlineBlog reports on the Australian elections as an overwhelming defeat for environmental panic:

Already I’m seeing the left blame their defeat on Rupert Murdoch. But maybe the “message to the world” should be that climate change is not a vote winner.

Let’s see whether this augurs any change in the left’s fanaticism for the “green nude eel” here at home, not to mention the upcoming European parliamentary elections, and a prospective general election in Britain. The Australian result continues a clear pattern: with only a few exceptions, left-leaning parties have been in retreat just about everywhere.

Houses in California Too Cheap

5/6/18 Yahoo News:

There's no question that solar power is entering the mainstream, but California is about to give it a giant boost. The state's Energy Commission is expected to approve new energy standards that would require solar panels on the roofs of nearly all new homes, condos and apartment buildings from 2020 onward. There will be exemptions for homes that either can't fit solar panels or would be blocked by taller buildings or trees, but you'll otherwise have to go green if your property is brand new.

The plan doesn't require that a home reach net-zero status (where the solar power completely offsets the energy consumed in a year). However, it does provide "compliance credits" for homebuilders who install storage batteries like Tesla's Powerwall, letting them build smaller panel arrays knowing that excess energy will be available to use off-hours.

The new standards are poised to hike construction costs by $25,000 to $30,000 (about half of which is directly due to solar), but the self-produced energy is estimated to save owners $50,000 to $60,000 in operating costs over the solar technology's expected 25-year lifespan.

Like all green predictions, I am guessing that these estimates will be off by an order of magnitude at least.  Tesla must be buying legislators right and left.

And Saying It in the Vatican Just Completes the Picture

From Watts Up With That:

[Gov. Brown] was still talking about the need for a fundamental shift in lifestyle when he said at the Vatican that confronting climate change will require “a transformation of the relationship of human beings to all the mysterious network of things.”

“It’s not just a light rinse,” Brown said. “We need a total, I might say, brainwashing. We need to wash our brains out and see a very different kind of world.”

The quote is from 11/11/17 Politico. 

Traditionally, Lightning Storms Start Most Forest Fires

Now we have a new culprit:

Crews currently battling a 700 acre wildfire northeast of Evanston. The Cowboy Fire started early this afternoon after a windmill caught fire and then spread into the sagebrush and cedar trees with gusty winds. More updates to follow.

World Leaders in Air Pollution

See this World Health Organization map.  U.S. #15 in cleanest air.

Never Realized Humans Were on the Sea Lion Menu

Next time some tree hugger screeches about protecting Gaea: 5/21/17 New York Post shows a sea lion dragging a little girl off a pier.  When rescued (I suspect by her dad), there is blood on her dress.

Taxpayer Funded Bird Condos in SF

What happens when birdbrains run a state.

Don't Sue Us For Defamation: It Wasn't Supposed to Be True

3/2/17 Financial Post:

Greenpeace, after repeated attacks against Canada’s biggest forest products company for “destroying,” Canada’s boreal forests, now says that it was merely stating an opinion about the logging activity, not a fact....

But now Greenpeace says it never intended people to take its words about Resolute’s logging practices as literal truth.

That explains much of the rest of Greenpeace's statements.

Keystone XL

Trump is going forward.

Light Bulbs: To Rep. Labrador

hen the Democrats controlled Congress, they prohibited sale of incandescent bulbs.  I don't have much use for incandescent bulbs; I have replaced most incandescent bulbs in my house with LED bulbs.  Still, the government should repeal the ban.  If incandescent bulbs waste energy, let the free market decide this issue.  The ban was just nanny-state government at its silliest.

"Booted and Saddled"

Thomas Jefferson is remembered for this quote: "the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of god...."

And there is no greater proof than this 1/3/17 Daily Telegraph article:
Prince Harry has said that saving endangered animals is "God's test" for humanity.

The royal said that if we cannot save elephants from extinction then humanity may be in danger too.

He called for an international body to regulate anyone who owns or manages wildlife in his strongest comments on conservation so far.

There are strong arguments for protecting endangered species, but this is one of those "I don't believe he believes that" statements designed to curry favor with ecocrazies.

Why Isn't He Investing?

12/17/16 Yahoo:

NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Tackling climate change is the "biggest economic opportunity" in the history of the United States, no matter who holds political office, said Hollywood star and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio.

If so, he can put his money (which is millions) where his mouth is and invest in these opportunities.  What he really means is that they make so little sense, he wants you and me to invest in them through taxes.

The Latest Progressive Myth

One of my fiercely progressive friends claimed that: Endocrine disruptors are why Americans have shorter life expectancies than Europeans.

Of course: the whole endocrine disruptor theory has some problems.  From Wikipedia:

There has been controversy over endocrine disruptors, with some groups calling for swift action by regulators to remove them from the market, and regulators and other scientists calling for further study. Some endocrine disruptors have been identified and removed from the market (for example, a drug called diethylstilbestrol), but it is uncertain whether some endocrine disruptors on the market actually harm humans and wildlife at the doses to which wildlife and humans are exposed. Additionally, a key scientific paper, published in the journal Science, which helped launch the movement of those opposed to endocrine disruptors, was retracted and its author found to have committed scientific misconduct.^[3]

Worse, whatever progressive publication he received this ex cathedra pronouncement from is wrong:

U.S. life expectancy (white males): 76.71 (white females): 81.48.

European life expectancy (males): 75.  females: 81.  https://www.statista.com/statistics/274514/life-expectancy-in-europe/

If endocrine disruptors in the environment is an issue, why are Asian-American life expectancies high than Europe? male: 84.13; female: 91.60.  Endocrine disruptors don't affect Asian-Americans?


Even (and surprisingly to me) native American expectancies are better than Europeans: 78.71 and 83.52.

Ditto for Hispanics: 80.16 and 85.44.
Blacks are the one group worse off than Europeans: 72.29 and 78.46.

Relying on progressive media is an easy way to be misinformed.

Remember the Bicycle Generators in Soylent Green?

A green lighting system:

What could be better for providing light in a poor country with no electricity [for lighting other] than a cheap kerosene lamp? A group of renewable entrepreneurs think they have found the answer – meet Gravity Light, a third world LED lighting system powered by lifting a bag containing 12Kg (27lb) of rocks every 20 minutes.

So every 20 minutes, some poor person has to lift 27 lbs of rock to have light.  So much better (if you live in a First World penthouse) than allowing their country to join at least the Second World.  What is the efficiency of the corn to human energy conversion?

A Green Liberal Icon Outs Himself as a Fascist

11/1/16 Breitbart:

Sir David Attenborough, the veteran broadcaster and climate change alarmist, has attacked the involvement of voters in politics beyond elections, suggesting the only way to stop Donald Trump is to “shoot him” and that complex political questions like Brexit should be blocked by “wiser” politicians.Condemning Mr. Trump’s climate-scepticism, Sir David asked: “Do we [foreigners] have any control or influence over the American election? Of course we don’t. We could shoot him… it’s not a bad idea.”

And the British courts apparently agree with his distrust of the voters.  11/3/16 Washington Post:

LONDON — A senior British court on Thursday dealt a severe blow to Prime Minister Theresa May’s plans to begin the process of exiting the European Union early next year, ruling she must get Parliament’s approval before she acts.

The decision greatly complicates May’s stated plan to trigger Article 50 — the never-before-used mechanism for a country to leave the European Union — by the end of March at the latest.

Most members of Parliament opposed Brexit in the lead-up to Britain’s June referendum, when voters opted for an exit by a 52-to-48 margin. On the streets, however, the court decision risked setting off an angry backlash from voters who favored leaving the European Union and believed the issue was settled. 

I've never been thrilled with the excesses of democracy, but compared to the excesses of arrogant, often ignorant elites--at least the people often figure out reality after enough pain. 

Delusional

7/23/16 FoxNews:

Secretary of State John Kerry said in Vienna on Friday that air conditioners and refrigerators are as big of a threat to life as the threat of terrorism posed by groups like the Islamic State.

The Washington Examiner reported that Kerry was in Vienna to amend the 1987 Montreal Protocol that would phase out hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, from basic household and commercial appliances like air conditioners, refrigerators, and inhalers.

“As we were working together on the challenge of [ISIS] and terrorism,” Kerry said. “It’s hard for some people to grasp it, but what we–you–are doing here right now is of equal importance because it has the ability to literally save life on the planet itself.”

Another Reminder Who the Democratic Party Is

5/27/16 KTLA:

California billionaire Tom Steyer stars in a new Spanish-language television commerical attacking presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

From PowerLine:

Billionaire hedge fund operator and “green” energy magnate Tom Steyer has pledged $100 million in the 2014 election cycle to help Democratic candidates who oppose the Keystone pipeline and who favor “green” energy over fossil fuels. Steyer claims to be a man of principle who has no financial interest in the causes he supports, but acts only for the public good. That is a ridiculous claim: Steyer is the ultimate rent-seeker who depends on government connections to produce subsidies and mandates that make his “green” energy investments profitable. He also is, or was until recently, a major investor in Kinder Morgan, which is building a competitor to the Keystone pipeline.

Go here, here, here, here, here andhere for more information about how Steyer uses his political donations and consequent connections to enhance his already vast fortune.But Steyer’s hypocrisy goes still deeper. Today, he is a bitter opponent of fossil fuels, especially coal. That fits with his current economic interests: banning coal-fired power plants will boost the value of his solar projects. But it was not always thus. In fact, Steyer owes his fortune in large part to the fact that he has been one of the world’s largest financers of coal projects. Tom Steyer was for coal before he was against it.