Subject to Change

I was inspired by a comment Mark Belling made this afternoon. He pointed out that not only are wind farms impractical for all the reasons involving noise, land space, and generation capacity. They also take energy to produce. He danced around the perfect question:

How many windmills does it take to produce a new windmill?

While I don’t know the exact answer to that question, I do know that it would take many windmills to generate the power needed for just one factory to manufacture a windmill. I’ve worked in factory environments and I have an appreciation for how much energy manufacturing equipment needs. If you want those windmills quickly or lots of them you’ll need even more power, too.

The weather’s been pretty wee-wee’d up this year hasn’t it?

We jumped from near freezing yesterday to near boiling today. At this rate I’d say we’ve got less than eight days to stop global warming or we’re all going to die.

Here’s a tip for the global warming crowd: you might want to write off 2009 as a “statistical anomaly.” It doesn’t fit your model. And, if I were you I’d lay low until at least next year, to avoid looking like a complete tool.

REP. ED MARKEY (D), ENERGY SUBCOMMITTEE CHMN.: This bill has the ambition of the moon landing. The moral imperative of the Civil Rights Act and the scope of the Clean Air Act all wrapped up in one.

You forgot to mention that it also includes the insanity of Prohibition.

I had a sad moment when I made breakfast this morning. I realized that some day my toaster will probably be illegal, when the enviro-nazis finally get around to banning wide slots because they waste energy.

Until that day I’m going to try to enjoy as many toasted bagels as I can.

What do an environmentalist and a hemorrhoid have in common?

Answer: They’re both a pain in the ass.

If they take away my toilet paper I’ll be happy to wipe my butt the old fashioned way: with my bare hand. Then, I’ll be first in line at the next environmental activism meet and greet.

H/T: Jay Weber

I now know that if my child turns out to be a jerk it’s totally not my fault. Global warming is to blame.

No longer can I rely on the assumption that my mother and grandmother did: that so long as I pour all my love and attention into giving my children a good foundation at home, that is the best I can do to prepare them for the future. In today’s world, I must recognize that attending to the environment is just as much a part of a parent’s job as tending to a child’s scraped knee.

With the impending apocalypse is it any wonder that I don’t have time to give my son the proper upbringing he deserves? Bottles need to be sorted green, brown, and clear, for crying out loud! I haven’t got the energy left over after that to prepare three square meals, with home grown organic veggies.

My son is just going to have to suck it up for the sake of the planet. Gosh, I hope he turns out ok.

I drove a Ford Focus last week for work. When I was returning it a sticker in the window caught my eye. It advertised that this was a “Partial Zero Emission Vehicle.” Is that like being a little bit pregnant? I couldn’t imagine what that’s supposed to mean, so I had to Wiki it:

PZEVs have their own administrative category within the state of California for low emission vehicles.

This vehicle category was created as part of a bargain with the California Air Resources Board (CARB), so that the automobile manufacturers could postpone producing mandated zero emission vehicles (ZEVs), which will require the production of electric vehicles or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

…

In order to qualify as a PZEV, a vehicle must meet the SULEV standard and, in addition, have zero evaporative emissions from its fuel system plus an extended (15-year/150,000-mile) warranty on its emission-control components, which incidentally covers the propulsion electrical components of a hybrid electric vehicle.

So, PZEV is California’s hat-tip to reality. Automakers couldn’t achieve the state’s insane emission standards and Californians didn’t feel like walking everywhere. It’s to bad, really. They might not babble on so much if they were all out of breath. Rather than admit defeat, California decided to change the rules. Technically, there’s compliance… Technically.

Some people want to put government in charge of health care and this demonstrates exactly why that’s a bad idea. Can you imagine getting a “Partial Organ Transplant” for your “Localized Cancerous Anomaly?” If you stop to think about it, this is already happening! Who, exactly, is the term “Partial Birth Abortion” supposed to fool anyway?

A week or two ago, when temperatures were “high” and the eight feet of snow had started to melt, a challenge was issued by Folkbum. He wanted to hear from the right side of the blogosphere on global warming.

At the time I was away from keyboard. Even before reading his blog I had wanted to mention how my liberal family members obnoxiously reminded us at Christmas that global warming could explain the extreme cold weather we were having then. They did it without laughing, too. Amazing!

I’m just going to bottle some of this winter air and save it for the first hundred degree day this summer. When I open that puppy up an Lake Michigan freezes solid it ought to shut the liberals up for a minute or two.

I’ve been hearing about new wattage light bulbs, but I haven’t seen them yet. The rumor is that the standard sizes like 40 Watt and 60 Watt are being replaced by 37 and 52 Watt sizes, or something similar.

At first this sounded like a horrible idea to me, because on the surface it seems like a lame attempt to do more social engineering. Then I realized that it could be something else entirely. What if this is some way for the light bulb manufacturers to skirt or delay the new regulations on incandescent light bulbs? If I remember correctly the phase out is staged by wattage, with higher watt bulbs being taken off the market first.

So, by law you may not be able to get your 100 watt bulb in the future. But you’ll still have the 92 watt (or whatever) to fall back on, at least for a few years. If that’s the motivation, I applaud the effort by manufacturers to keep us all well lit!

Challenge: make a light bulb more environmentally friendly without sacrificing performance.

Someone found a way to do it, and it’s so simple! Make the light bulb flat.

unlike ordinary bulbs its volume is 1/3 smaller, reducing the cost of packaging and transport. its slim shape allows bulbs to be easily stacked and prevents breakage as it does not roll.

No doubt the environmental movement will refuse to recognize this invention because it doesn’t fit their agenda. I think it makes a huge amount of sense: improved storage, less material waste, little or no effect on operation, and easier to use. All of those gains come without any sacrifices, except for the infrastructure cost to produce them. Production should require less energy because less gas is required and these bulbs could be packaged in bulk with less material waste. They also won’t roll off the table when you’re changing them and should be easier to grip when they get stuck in the socket.

Pure genius!