NC Media Watch

An interesting weather fact (edited)

Russ Steele

The Sacramento Valley had the coolest October in 15 years, according to the KCRA Weather Man.  Right, while the world is going crazy over global warming, the region experienced the coolest October in 15 years. Oh, by the way August and September were cooler than average too.  Yes, and the Pacific off  the coast of California has been cooling since 2003.  Same in the Atlantic?  Tasmania, in the Southern Hemisphere, just experience record cold temperatures, setting records in some cities. Have you ever wondered why many of the global warming studies cut off at 2003?   Me to.

UPDATE:  I have been collecting data on local temperatures to see how much global warming we have experienced locally.  Linda S. Quinn, City of Grass Valley, Water/Wastewater Department was kind enough to share  her  digital records for 2005 and  2006, with monthly updates in the future.  I have not had time to go through all the Excel files yet, but thought I would check October since  it was  an exceptionally cool month in the valley, about 4 degrees cooler according to the KCRA Weatherman.   I also checked  the  Western Region Climate Center for  Grass Valley.   The  WRCC's records for Grass Valley are incomplete,  but they do have a complete data set from 1961 to 1990 in one location, and from 1966 to 2005 in a different location.

Avg. October Temperature 1961 to 1990  61.00 F (1966 to 2005  57.65 F)
Avg. October Temperature 2005              56.90 F
Avg. October Temperature 2006              55.24 F

A single month does not make an annual trend, but October is not helping a local global warming trend.

 

John Kerry with boot in mouth

Russ Steele

Once again John Kerry is belittling U.S. Troops, telling students that if they do not stay in school they will end up stuck in Iraq. Inferring that our troops are losers. Here is the YouTube video.

Ellen and I are active members of the Friends of Nevada County Military and have met some of Nevada County’s finest young men and women.  We also adopted a solder through FNCM who was stationed in Iraq.  Eric enlisted in the Army and is a special forces trooper. He has a master degree in economics and was a teacher before enlisting. He does not seem to fit Kerry’s loser profile.  On the other hand the real loser was guy Kerry was campaigning for in the video.

Public air on air quality

Russ Steele

I went to the Northern Sierra Air Quality Management District public hearing today at the Library. Details here and  here.

This was a Federal mandated public meeting, asking for suggestions on how to reduce ozone precursors, NOx and  reactive organic gases (ROG) in Nevada County. I love these public meetings, as they attract such and assortment local characters. Many with the seeds of an unproved theory rolling around in their brains, or a deep seated belief that challenges credibility. 

Sam Longmire, the Air Pollution Control Specialist tried to give us an overview of the problem, but the audience was more interested in presenting their theories, ask a burning question, or just get recognized for being present. Finally after 90 minutes of interruptions we finally got to the reason for the meeting, to offer our suggestions for reducing ozone. Here were some of the suggestions offered by the audience:

1)  Turn down the light at car dealer lots to reduce the need for so much electricity with NOx producing gas fired generators. Weavers new lot was given as an example of excess light.

2)  Remove all jet skis from our lakes.

3)  Choose landscapes that do not produce material which needs to be burned or dumped.

4)  Require parents to use the school busses, no taking kids to school in their SUVs.

I may have missed some of the suggestions as George Rebane asked the California Air Resources Board representative, Carol McLaughlin, to step out of the meeting so we could ask some detailed questions about the CARB model, without interrupting the meeting. George had another meeting to attend, and had to leave.  Both George and I have some serious concerns about the assumptions used in the CARB models. The SESF will be following up on this issue in the coming weeks.

Global warming update of the week

Russ Steele

I am trying to come up with an index we can track to see if California’s economy is growing, or declining, as our Governor foolishly attempts to solve junkscience global warming. In the mean time, consider this from Reason magazine's science Reporter, Ron Bailey   

Climate Change Lemmings Jump Off The Cliff
California signs onto Kyoto Protocol just as it falls apart

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is making his own global warming treaties nowadays. He and Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair have agreed to set up a scheme modeled on the United Nations' Kyoto Protocol to reduce climate warming carbon dioxide emissions. In September, the Gubernator signed legislation that promised to reduce the Golden State's emissions back to their level in 1990 by 2020—a 25 percent cut of projected emissions. To do this, the state is supposed to set up a carbon trading scheme modeled on Europe's Emissions Trading Scheme in which CO2 emitters are issued emission permits and then allowed to trade them. Over time, the Bear Republic's Air Resources Board would screw down the number of permits to eventually reach the level of carbon dioxide emitted in 1990. The idea is trading a declining number of emissions permits will enable industries to figure out among themselves which ones can most efficiently reduce their emissions at the lowest cost. The theory is sound, but as the European Union is proving, practice is something else again.

Hacking for votes

Russ Steele

Details at SESF blog.

Election polling can be misleading

Russ Steele

George Rebane has some thoughts on election polling on the SESF blog. 

Here is another reason for voting No on Prop 87

Russ Steele

Every time Ex-President Bill Clinton comes on the local channels shilling for Prop 87, it turns my stomach when he looks into the screen and says “If Brazil can do it ....” I want rush to the bathroom an throw up. He is lying through his teeth.  Yet, he has no idea how much land it would take in California to grow enough sugar cane for ethanol. Common sense tell you it is a lie.

Here is how Investors Business Daily saw it.

Clinton Shills For Bad Energy Policy

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 10/27/2006

Energy: Bill Clinton's back, now touting tax hikes for ethanol to California voters. "If Brazil can do it, so can we," he said, claiming an ethanol switch ended Brazil's need for foreign oil. Once again, he's telling whoppers.

Brazil did achieve independence from foreign oil all right. It happened this past April. But Clinton, true to form, doesn't quite recall the critical point showing how it was done.

Here's a clue for the semi-retired former president and policy wonk: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva didn't celebrate the oil independence milestone out in an Amazon sugar field.

No, he smashed a champagne bottle on the spaceship-like deck of Brazil's vast P-50 oil rig in the Albacora Leste field in the deep blue Atlantic. Why? Brazil's oil independence had virtually nothing to do with its ethanol development. It came from drilling oil.

Which is the very thing Clinton, in his Proposition 87 television ads, seeks to pile taxes on.

Excuse me,  I have to run.

Breath of fresh ideas

Russ Steele

Jeff Pelline writes Bring it on, but don't call us imbeciles, October 28, 2006

Is our newspaper a business, or is it a public trust?

It's not that black and white, but last I checked, it definitely was a business.

This week I had lunch with Jeff. It was an opportunity to discuss many of changes we will see in the Union in the coming months, and to get to know Jeff the person, not just the writer.  He was not a big mystery as a writer with over 20,000 references in Google. But, I really enjoyed this opportunity to discuss the future of the newspaper business with Jeff, and to find out we share many of the same goals for the role of a newspaper in our community.  More conversation and leadership on local issues,  and less broadcasting of old recycled AP stories.

This column has been one of the Union critics, and will continue to make note of things that we find troubling.  However, I see a real change in attitude. A more open acceptance of technology and the opportunities to improve communications from both sides, rather than hunkering down and hiding behind newspaper tradition, that we have experienced with past editors.

I recommend you take up Jeff’s suggestion,  and get to know him and the new changes coming at the Union:

We also will hold "town hall" meetings to hear your opinions for improving our newspaper in informal settings, including our paper's offices. Would you like to tour our paper or pull up a chair and join one of our editorial meetings?

Now that the budget season is completed, I want to meet more of you. One stop next week is Java John's in Nevada City, a favorite vocal local hangout. Another is the weekly Rotary Club lunch meeting at the Holbrooke Hotel in Grass Valley.

One notable change in today's column is the links to more information. Though not much help in the dead tree version, they expand the horizons of online readers.

Reasonable local measures and common sense?

Russ Steele

We are all concerned about our air quality and want to do some thing about it, including those charged with the responsibility of keeping our air clean. But, it is vital we identify those truly responsible and not look for emotional scapegoats.

Improving air quality will be topic of meeting, October 27, 2006

To address the worsening air quality in western Nevada County, the Northern Sierra Air Quality Management District must prepare a plan to lower ozone concentrations and meet national air quality standards.

First we must recognize that the NSAQMD is only responsible for stationary sources, they have no control over the mobile sources.  Mobile sources (car, trucks and trains) are the responsibility of the California Air Resources Board (CARB). 

Nevada County’s air has gotten dirtier in the past five years, with ozone and other vehicle exhaust pushed into the foothills from the Sacramento and Bay areas. According to the American Lung Association, the county’s air is the 12th worst in the nation for ozone air pollution; in 2000, it ranked 35th in the nation.

The real culprit in increasing ozone and the precursor NOX in Nevada County are the mobile sources in the Valley and Bay Area. As the population in these areas increase, so does the number of vehicles on the road, thus creating more ozone and precursors that blow into the foothills, especially Nevada County.   So, where is California's major population growth coming from?

From 10:30 a.m. to noon on Monday, the air district will hold a public meeting at the Madelyn Helling Library, 980 Helling Way, in Nevada City.

The district will discuss the nature of ozone, summarize federal requirements, and gather suggestions on reasonably available local measures and strategies to reduce ozone concentrations.

At this meeting the most important qualifier is “reasonably available local measures and strategies”  Remember 90 percent of the ozone is coming from the Valley and Bay Area mobile sources. Curtailing these resources is the responsibility of the California Air Resources Board. According to the CARB emissions model Western Nevada County NOx will continue to decline through 2027.  Here are CARB's  NOx numbers in tons-per-day for Western Nevada County:

2002   9.72
2008   5.30
2018   2.10
2027   1.09

It looks to me like we are making significant progress, that is if we can believe the CARB Model.  Unfortunately, I do not have much faith in CARB's air quality, or climate change models. They are based on the assumptions. Garbage in, Garbage out, unless those assumptions have been validated.

I have asked Mike Woodman at the Transportation Commission to ask CARB for more details on their modeling assumptions. What assumptions have they made? How were they validated? Are they assuming the all Californians are will be driving smaller lighter vehicles, starting in 2009 under the new greenhouse gas reduction regulations? What assumptions have they made about the exchange rate of older vehicles for less polluting vehicles manufactured after 2009?  These are only a few of the assumptions that need to be examined and validated.

If you attend, the important thing to remember at Monday's meeting is that NSAQMD can only influence the stationary sources, the auto paint shops, the cloths cleaners, and other business that use solvents.  The amount of precursors these local business  produce is swamped by the NOx and ozone that blows in from outside the County. We must NOT force local business to spend million of dollars to make insignificant reductions, when we know who the real culprits are. Let’s apply some common sense and not let your emotions run away with your brain.

If you are interested in some Western Nevada County ozone trends,  check out the SESF Data Bank

UPDATE: The Union link does not seem to be working. Here is the meeting details from AQMD:

On October 30, 2006, from 10:30 A.M. until 12:00 Noon, the NSAQMD will hold a Public Meeting at the Madeline Helling Library, 980 Helling Way, Nevada City, CA to present and discuss federal requirements under the Clean Air Act and to accept public comments relating to reasonably available control measures for ozone precursors.  Public presentation times may be limited to ensure that all who wish to speak may be heard.  Written comments may be submitted at the Workshop or sent to the NSAQMD’s District Headquarters in Grass Valley via mail or email at the address above, to be received no later than October 27, 2006.  For additional information, please call NSAQMD headquarters at (530) 274-9360

Grandparents Day

Russ Steele

It is grandparents day for the second grade students at Nolan's school in Roseville this morning. Ellen and I have been asked to talk about our family history and our hobbies.  Ellen is taking quilt from 1830 and will talk about sewing. I am taking a miners lunch pail and my first lap top, a Radio Shack Model 100.  After our talk we get to take Nolan to lunch. It is going to be a great day!