Gas Prices Inflated by Government Policy

An amusing mock sign shows that gas prices are artificially inflated by our refusal to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and offshore. Via E. Frank Stephenson, who suggests we also "carve out 50 cents or so for taxes and a dollar or so for Ben Bernanke's debasing the dollar." There's not much doubt that our public policy ...

Global Warming Consensus

Ronald Bailey points to an interesting survey by the Statistical Assesment Service (STATS) on global warming. It is a survey of the views of climate scientists. Here are some of the findings: Ninety-seven percent of the climate scientists surveyed believe “global average temperatures have increased” during the past century. Eighty-four percent say they personally believe human-induced warming is occurring, and ...

Why Ethanol Subsidies Are Bad

I've posted on this before, but via James Hamilton comes this interesting tidbit of information. To be sure, there are many factors influencing food prices. But to me it's natural to begin with the element that represents a deliberate policy choice on the part of the United States. I refer to America's decision to divert a significant part of our agricultural ...

Food Rationing in America

Some stores are now implementing limits on how much of a given product that people can buy at a single time. Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks. Of ...

PETA to Offer $1 Million for Lab-Grown Meat

For the first time that I can recall in my lifetime, I actually approve of something that PETA is doing. The animal rights organization has announced that they are offering a one million dollar prize for the first person or company to create lab grown meat that's good enough to fool meat eaters.People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals ...

Coral Reefs, Carbon Dioxide, and Climate Change

Indur Goklany has a staggeringly scientifcally illiterate post regarding coral reefs and climate change based on the re-emergence of coral reefs over fifty years after nuclear testing took place.How often have you heard that coral reefs are fragile and would be wiped out by global warming? [...] In 1954 the South Pacific atoll was rocked by a 15 megaton hydrogen bomb 1,000 ...

A Continent of Garbage

If you've ever wondered what happens to that plastic bottle you've thrown out of your car window, be aware that there's a chance it may have wound up as part of a new continent in the Pacific Ocean--a continent of garbage.If by chance you are missing a basketball, you may be glad to know that it has been found in ...

Michael Chertoff Interview - Border Fence, RealID, and Alert Levels

As mentioned earlier, I had the opportunity to interview Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff this afternoon on his ordering environmental waivers to expedite construction of a fence along the U.S. - Mexico border and other issues. The summary below is a description, not a transcription, of the conversation, unless quotation marks are used. Noting that these issues have been known ...

DHS Waives Environmental Rules for Border Fence

I'm scheduled to interview DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff later this afternoon about a new policy announcement and other issues related to his department. AP's Eileen Sullivan highlights the changes: The Bush administration plans to use its authority to bypass more than 30 laws and regulations in an effort to finish building 670 miles of fence along the southwest U.S. border by ...

BBC Discovers Flying Penguins

Whoever said that penguins can't fly?The BBC will today screen remarkable footage of penguins flying as part of its new natural history series, Miracles of Evolution. Camera crews discovered a colony of Adélie penguins while filming on King George Island, some 750 miles south of the Falkland Islands. The programme is being presented by ex-Monty Python star Terry Jones, who said: "We'd ...

We’re Doomed

At least that's what I take away from the article in this morning's Washington Post: The task of cutting greenhouse gas emissions enough to avert a dangerous rise in global temperatures may be far more difficult than previous research suggested, say scientists who have just published studies indicating that it would require the world to cease carbon emissions altogether within a ...

More on Biofuels

Yesterday's episode of NPR's Science Friday, timely considering the New York Times article from yesterday, was on the subject of the next generation of biofuels. Ethanol produced from corn or sugar cane or diesel fuel produced from soybeans is the first generation of biofuels. The next generation of biofuels are more efficient than the previous generation, producing significantly ...

Biofuels Cause Global Warming

While ethanol and other biofuels have long been touted as a means of reducing greenhouse gas levels, it turns out that they have precisely the opposite effect because of some unintended consequences. Almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these “green” fuels are taken into account, two ...

Global Warming Conferences Add to Global Warming

Headline of the Day honors go to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for "More than 10,000 jet into Bali for global warming conference," their take on an AP story by Robin McDowell. My expectations were that it was an amusing accident but it reflects the author's intent nicely. Never before have so many people converged to try to save the ...

NBC’s Green Political Football

As I've written numerous times at OTB Sports, NBC and ESPN have combined to ruin late night NFL telecasts. ESPN, which now has Monday Night Football, is the worst of the lot, treating every game as a preseason exhibition, constantly chattering about whatever random thought comes to mind, moving away from live game action so that their sideline gal ...