NC Media Watch

Fact less horse droppings by the opposition

Russ Steele

Jonathan Hill wants to Reverse warming,  September 30, 2006

Just a few days ago, Reuters reported that, "Arctic perennial sea ice - the kind that stays frozen year-round - declined by 14 percent between 2004 and 2005."

That's 14 percent in one year!

Yes, but did Hill read the report?   It was not melting from warming, but the wind that reduced the ice pack. Here are the missing facts.

The researchers are examining what caused the rapid decrease in the perennial sea ice. Data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction, Boulder, Colo., suggest that winds pushed perennial ice from the East to the West Arctic Ocean (primarily located above North America) and significantly moved ice out of the Fram Strait, an area located between Greenland and Spitsbergen, Norway. This movement of ice out of the Arctic is a different mechanism for ice shrinkage than the melting of Arctic sea ice, but it produces the same results - a reduction in the amount of perennial Arctic sea ice.  Link is here.

Hill continues his rant:

It is time to do our part as residents of the country which leads the world in the spewing out of greenhouse gases, 23 percent of the worldwide total. To make matters worse, the USA, under the mis-leadership of Bush/Cheney, is the country doing the most to obstruct and frustrate the efforts of other countries to deal with this serious crisis.

As I recall, the Bush administration has invested 20 billion dollars in climate change research, $5.5 billion in 2006. Details here.

The Bush Administration will have spent over $20 billion by the end of 2005, more than any other nation. $5.5 billion is proposed for climate change activities in 2006. The President has also proposed $3.6 billion in tax incentives over 5 years to spur use of clean, renewable, and energy-efficient technologies. These Federal programs are only part of the effort, as they are also leveraging billions of dollars in private investments

The Bush Administration has entered in to agreements with Australia, India, China and other Asian Pacific Nations to develop technology to reduce green house gases.

Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate: The United States and India, together with Australia, China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea, will work on practical ways to improve energy security, improve air quality, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in ways that foster economic growth. Whitehouse link here.

The rant continues again:

On Nov. 7, Congressman John Doolittle is running for re-election. Doolittle has fought any action to reduce global warming with every bone in his body.

Maybe it is because there is very little, if any, global warming taking place in his District, and Congressman has not been taken in by junk science like Brown has.  I am doing some research on Sierra Nevada warming and have found declining annual average temperatures in the Sierra since the late 1990s. One chart is discussed here, but there is more to come on the SESF Blog next week.  Drop in and get some more facts on the lack of Sierra global warming.

Some times Joe is just wrong

Russ Steele

I am not a big government tax and spend guy, and have often been on Joe Vielbig’s side of an issue, but he needs to take a second look a the sales tax for transportation improvements.

Joe Vielbig’s Other Voices: City's proposed taxes are unnecessary, September 30, 2006

Last month Gerard Tassone wrote an Other Voices supporting the proposed percent special sales tax measure to raise $2.7 million the first year and potentially $70 million throughout 20 years. Are these areas of expenditures absolutely necessary? You judge them for yourselves:

1. Dorsey Drive Interchange. Some of the tax is to provide for the $16.75 million shortfall to complete the northbound onramp. Yet Tassone states, "Without funding from the sales tax, construction of the interchange will need to be completed in phases." So be it. Let's do it in stages and forget the special tax for this item. It will eventually get done.

One of the main issues with phasing is the raising costs of land, labor and  construction materials. Global demand has raised  the price of steel, cement, and asphalt over three times in the last three years. It is build it now, or it will never be finished. And, Caltans will only build on ramps, no off ramps for a phased solution. Thus, we will never solve the traffic problems Dorsey is designed to fix, congestion in Glenbrook and Hills Flat. The other issue, is the state has held back the highway funds generated by fuel taxes. Unless we become a self help County, like 19 other Counties, we cannot generate the needed matching funds.  Truckee, has a transportation sales tax and it is working for them.  Here is one view in the comments. 

I was under the impression that a portion of the DMV registration fees were returned to the county/cities for road maintenance. Has there been any auditing/analysis of income sources to the city and how those are disbursed?

There is no need to audit how the money was spend, if the County and Cities never got the funds. Again the State has held back the road repair funds to solve the states debt problems for the last five years.

3. Wolf Creek Parkway, Sidewalk And Bicycle Improvements ($13.5 million). I'm sure this would be a nice plus, however, is it really necessary?

Here I agree with Joe. But in a politically correct world where you buy votes, this is an attempt to gain more voters for the tax measure.

4.Downtown Parking Plaza And Transit Improvements ($12 million). Why not have this funded through parking fees? This would then be supported with user fees rather than tax everyone.

Right lets make shopping in Grass Valley more expensive and more difficult by delaying the parking structure, so that more people will go to Roseville and Auburn to shop, reducing tax revenue, delaying the parking structure even more. More congestion, less parking, more reasons to shop elsewhere.

Joe needs to do some more research and second level thinking on this tax issue. 

Your comments are welcome.

Early up for soccer

Russ Steele

We are up early and off to Roseville for our grandson's 4th soccer game of the season.  Vortex is three for zip.  The coach, my son-in-law John, got his head shaved last week. He promised the team they could shave his head if they won three in a row. Given the team's dismal record last year, 2-8, it was an easy promise to make. We are looking for another exciting win this morning.

UPDATE: The Vortex won another hard fought game today, they are now 4-0.

Here is the coach with his shaved head, telling the team what a great job they did today. Click for a larger image.

Generator Watch II

Russ Steele

This afternoon the Governor signed SB 1368, restricting California utility companies from buying electrical energy from states with coal fired power plants.  If you have not bought your generator, now if the time to do so, before the price goes up and the the Legislature passes laws restricting generator ownership, because thousands are polluting the air with privatly owned generators. 

Take action, now before the summer brown outs season starts, when the current electrical contracts run out.  OK, wait if you must, but you were warned!

Tour of Nevada County

Russ Steele

Yesterday I spent the day touring selected businesses in Western Nevada County with 140 other members of our community.  Companies visited included: nVision, Nevada County Tech Center, Autometrics, Zap, Loma Rica Organic Farm, Lectramedia and Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply.   Tour details and pictures can be found here.

It was an impressive display of engineering, entrepreneurship and dedication.  Equally impressive was the insightful and detailed questions asked by fellow tour members on Bus #4. They were truly interested in what made the business we visited successful, and who their customers were around the world.

The pictues and text on the ERC blog was an experiment in realtime reporting, using a digital camera and laptop computer. As always, this was a learning experience.  Several times I was so interested in the information and listening to the presentations I forgot to take pictures. Lugging the laptop to every venue was a real struggle.  In the coming year, I will be experimenting with some lighter weight solutions, such as sending the pictures to the ERC blog with a cellphone, or a WiFi equipped PDA.  Details to follow.

UPDATE:  I have added more pictues and text to the Tour of Nevada Conty pages on the ERC Blog

Let the Governor know what you think

Russ Steele

Want to let the Governor know what you think about his use of junkscience to legislate greenhouse gases, and put a damper on our economy. Here is a link.

Another attempt at social engineering

Russ Steele

This from the Mercury News on the Governor’s strategy for reducing greenhouse gas.

Urban planning
Another big chunk of California's greenhouse gas cuts is expected to come from planning rules and incentives. By tweaking the state's sprawling transportation network and encouraging higher-density housing development near stores and transit corridors, planners say they can reduce auto travel. That, according to the March report, could cut emissions by 27 million tons.

But even supporters view this target as ambitious. Meeting it will require the state to ``integrate all these plans -- infrastructure, land use, environmental -- in a way that is politically palatable in a state where local control of land use policy is cherished,'' said Elisa Barbour, an analyst at the Public Policy Institute of California.

Even more important, it requires people to change their habits and desires for this strategy to work.  The Public Policy Institute of California found that 82 percent of Californian’s did not want to live in more dense housing, they wanted their own house, in the suburbs.

England is often upheld as an example of how people could use public transit in California.  This is just some wishful thinking by the social engineers.  Here is what is  happening in England, transit riders are abandoning transit  for their cars.

THOUSANDS of daily bus services will be scrapped and fares will rise by 20 per cent during the next decade in a continuing exodus from public transport to the car, a report has found. The Government is falling well short of its official target of increasing bus use in every region. More here.

Only in London, where “Red Ken” the mayor, has not allowed transit costs to be reflected in the fare price, has bus use increased.  In rural areas, more like our local region, bus use has declined by 31- 41 percent since 1995.  As the UK economy prospers, and citizens can afford cars, they are abandoning transit. Studies in the US has shown that once a family income reaches $25,000 a year they buy a car, and transit use drops to almost zero.  Here is what the latest travel to work survey found about transit use in the US.

Click to enlarge

It is highly unlikely that the Governor’s greenhouse gas reduction legislation, which he signed today, is going to work if it requires people to act against their self interest and life long goals of escaping cramped living in urban multifamily buildings on transit corridors. People want to escape high density urban blight to the suburbs. The Governor’s plan will produce even more urban blight, and do nothing to reduce greenhouse gas, because it does not address the needs of regular people, only the political elites who think they know what is best for the rest of us. 

 

Tour of Nevada County

Russ Steele

Tomorrow, the 28th, we are going to try something a little different. The ERC is sponsoring an all day tour of Nevada County businesses with a lunch at Loma Rica's Organic Farm. We have made arrangements for broadband connections at the Fair Grounds and Loma Rica. We will be sending pictures and comments to the ERC Blog in the morning, at lunch, and at the end of the day.  Please join us for this experiment in real-time reporting.

Blind endorsment or superior insight?

Russ Steele

Looks like Jeff Ackerman is endorsing a candidate he never met, based on information the candidate has on his web site.  He knows Brown is the right guy for the job, the same way that Brown knew there were no WMDs in Iraq, by grabbing his butt in the dark and discovering it is still there -- superior insight.

Jeff Ackerman, Perhaps it's time for a fresh face in D.C., September 26, 2006

A friend e-mailed me the other day wanting to know if we would endorse Charlie Brown for Congress. He said the Sacramento Bee had just given its endorsement to the Democrat who seeks to unseat John Doolittle and said it would be swell if we could do the same.

I told my friend that The Union generally has not endorsed candidates (although the newspaper was founded 142 years ago to help get Lincoln re-elected) and that it didn't surprise me that the Bee supports Brown, given the fact that the Bee only supports Republican candidates every 150 years or so. I also told my pal that a newspaper endorsement is usually the kiss of death for candidates, since most voters don't really care who the paper supports.

That said, I personally believe it's time for a change. I say "personally" because there is only one photo and name attached to this column and they both belong to me ...

ooo

As for Charlie Brown ... well ... I've never met him, but those who have say he's a good man. He served 26 years as an officer in the Air Force and retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1998. He was a rescue helicopter pilot in Vietnam and helped evacuate Saigon. He also coordinated surveillance flights over Iraq in the 1990s and opposed the invasion because, as he states on his Web site, "he knew there were no WMDs present."

He thinks we ought to get out of Iraq and focus instead on our borders. He supports additional funding for veteran services, supports universal health care, a woman's right to choose, stem cell research and good government. "Who doesn't feel discouraged and angry at the constant news of corruption and influence peddling in Washington?" he asks.

Maybe that last one sums it up for me. Brown's really got no political experience and will have difficulty getting anything done in that cesspool we call D.C., but perhaps he is exactly what we need today - something new and innocent.

Yep, that's what we need all right, a newbee, with no seniority, no chairmanships, no power, and in the minority party to represent us in Congress. It will take Brown years to become an effective congressman, to become corrupt like all the others, according to Jeff. However, given his superior insight to know there were no WMDs in Iraq maybe he will do OK.  Since he is all knowing, he can use his special skills to read the minds of the opposition and out maneuver them in the halls of Congress, even though he is a powerless newbee. If as Jeff suggests, all politicians is DC are corrupt, I would rather have an experienced one, rather then a newbee just learning the ropes on how to be corrupt.  Even if Brown has the superior insight to find his butt in the dark, experiences counts!  Lets vote for experience.

Why is global warning only in the Northern Hemisphere?

Russ Steele

My apology, I am trying to limit my global warming posts to once a week.  But, sometimes data comes available that needs our attention and understanding, as this is going to be a big week for California business owners and tax payers, when the Governor signs greenhouse gas reduction legislation.  Will his decision be based on facts or fiction?  Consider this!

Here is the latest satellite temperature data, from both the Northern Hemisphere (NH) and Southern Hemisphere (SH).  Note that warming in the NH is essential flat since 2003, and falling in the SH. How can that be if we are experiencing global warming?  It is not global? The NH is dominated by land and the SH by the ocean.  The Argos systems has recorded declining ocean temperatures from 2003 to 2005, which shows up in the SH below.

Click for a larger image

This seems to be confirmation that we are not experiencing global warming, just some warming in the NH.  Why?  Could it be the Urban Island Effect, where growth in the square miles of concrete and tarmac are retaining the heat ? We have shown that rural communities in the Sierra are seeing a declining average temperature starting in 2003, while Grass Valley with its urban setting is seeing no change in average temperature. The Sierra and Grass Valley temperature history chart is here.

We will be posting a more detailed analysis of local temperature trends on the SESF blog when our research is complete.