Category: Green Hell

So much for the Copenhagen Accord. The Obama administration apparently is backing off its promise made in Copenhagen to provide up to $100 billion in aid to developing countries.

According to a repot in today’s Climatewire:

America’s contribution to $100 billion in annual global climate change funding by 2020 may not be over and above existing foreign aid, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton indicated yesterday.

The promised money — which Clinton announced at the U.N. climate summit in Denmark last month and pledged the United States would take a lead role in mobilizing — was a key element in the final global warming accord that world leaders approved.

Yet while the Copenhagen Accord, as it is known, calls for “scaled up, new and additional” money to help poor nations cope with climate change-provoked disasters, Clinton sidestepped the commitment when asked directly if the U.S. portion would be additional.

“We don’t know yet, because we don’t know what the Congress is going to do,” Clinton told a crowd at the Center for Global Development.

President Obama called the Copenhagen Accord a “meaningful and unprecedented breakthrough.” While Obama’s breaking of a promise certainly is not “unprecedented” — whatever happened to healthcare discussions being broadcast on C-SPAN — it should be meaningful to Americans. Don’t believe President Obama.

Bike-friendly Holland is having a hard time adjusting to the new government policy promoting electric/fuel efficient cars — dozens of Smart cars have been tossed into Amsterdam canals this year.

Dutch cyclist Govert de With told Climatewire that,

It’s better if there are no cars.”

Duke Energy wants to charge its consumers more for smart meters, but doesn’t want to promise that consumers will receive any benefits from them.

Check out the release from the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel.

Duke Energy wants to charge its consumers more for smart meters, but doesn’t want to promise that consumers will receive any benefits from them.

Check out the release from the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel.

In contrast to Der Spiegel (below), the Financial Times editorializes today that the U.S. (read “Obama”) should not be blamed for the failure of Copenhagen. Instead, the FT opines:

… The US has a right to take its time. Admittedly, its political process has been frustrating: the simple fact that Americans must live less carbon-intensive lives and pay more for their gasoline has yet to be explained to voters, and the current bill has serious flaws. But, still, the country must be given time to agree a position…

Why must we live less carbon-intensive lives/ Why must we pay more for gasoline? Because that’s what Europeans want?

Our political process is “frustrating”? That’s rich from a continent whose political processes killed one hundred million people during the 20th century and required THREE major U.S. interventions to save it from carnage and oppression.

In contrast to Der Spiegel (below), the Financial Times editorializes today that the U.S. (read “Obama”) should not be blamed for the failure of Copenhagen. Instead, the FT opines:

… The US has a right to take its time. Admittedly, its political process has been frustrating: the simple fact that Americans must live less carbon-intensive lives and pay more for their gasoline has yet to be explained to voters, and the current bill has serious flaws. But, still, the country must be given time to agree a position…

Why must we live less carbon-intensive lives/ Why must we pay more for gasoline? Because that’s what Europeans want?

Our political process is “frustrating”? That’s rich from a continent whose political processes killed one hundred million people during the 20th century and required THREE major U.S. interventions to save it from carnage and oppression.

Europe is unhappy with President Empty-Suit on climate. But why would they have expected anything from someone who has no history of accomplishing anything except self-advancement and self-aggrandizement? Did they miss both of Obama’s auto-vapor-ographies?

Check out what Christian Schwägerl’s has to say in his Der Spiegel column, “Obama Has Failed the World on Climate Change“:

US President Barack Obama came to office promising hope and change. But on climate change, he has followed in the footsteps of his predecessor George W. Bush. Now, should the climate summit in Copenhagen fail, the blame will lie squarely with Obama…

Obama Lied to the Europeans

Barack Obama cast himself as a “citizen of the world” when he delivered his well-received campaign speech in Berlin in the summer of 2008. But the US president has now betrayed this claim. In his Berlin speech, he was dishonest with Europe. Since then, Obama has neglected the single most important issue for an American president who likes to imagine himself as a world citizen, namely his country’s addiction to fossil fuels and the risks of unchecked climate change. Health care reform and other domestic issues were more important to him than global environmental threats. He was either unwilling or unable to convince skeptics in his own ranks and potential defectors from the ranks of the Republicans to support him, for example by promising alternative investments as a compensation for states with large coal reserves…

Dreamt Up by Hollywood

For most Americans, the world beyond the US’s borders is nothing more than an irritating nuisance. Hence arguments based on appeals about drowning Bangladeshis, starving Africans and flooded islands in Indonesia have little effect. In Hollywood, the United States has an industry that continually pushes the materialistic ideal of Western prosperity to billions of people around the world, while at the same time bombarding them with apocalyptic visions in the form of disaster movies.

Many Americans clearly also believe that real climate change is just something dreamt up by the entertainment industry…

The Nobel Committee should postpone the award of the Nobel Peace Prize from Dec. 10 to Dec. 20. Only if Obama has achieved a convincing deal at the Copenhagen conference will there be a real reason to honor him.

Europe is unhappy with President Empty-Suit on climate. But why would they have expected anything from someone who has no history of accomplishing anything except self-advancement and self-aggrandizement? Did they miss both of Obama’s auto-vapor-ographies?

Check out what Christian Schwägerl’s has to say in his Der Spiegel column, “Obama Has Failed the World on Climate Change“:

US President Barack Obama came to office promising hope and change. But on climate change, he has followed in the footsteps of his predecessor George W. Bush. Now, should the climate summit in Copenhagen fail, the blame will lie squarely with Obama…

Obama Lied to the Europeans

Barack Obama cast himself as a “citizen of the world” when he delivered his well-received campaign speech in Berlin in the summer of 2008. But the US president has now betrayed this claim. In his Berlin speech, he was dishonest with Europe. Since then, Obama has neglected the single most important issue for an American president who likes to imagine himself as a world citizen, namely his country’s addiction to fossil fuels and the risks of unchecked climate change. Health care reform and other domestic issues were more important to him than global environmental threats. He was either unwilling or unable to convince skeptics in his own ranks and potential defectors from the ranks of the Republicans to support him, for example by promising alternative investments as a compensation for states with large coal reserves…

Dreamt Up by Hollywood

For most Americans, the world beyond the US’s borders is nothing more than an irritating nuisance. Hence arguments based on appeals about drowning Bangladeshis, starving Africans and flooded islands in Indonesia have little effect. In Hollywood, the United States has an industry that continually pushes the materialistic ideal of Western prosperity to billions of people around the world, while at the same time bombarding them with apocalyptic visions in the form of disaster movies.

Many Americans clearly also believe that real climate change is just something dreamt up by the entertainment industry…

The Nobel Committee should postpone the award of the Nobel Peace Prize from Dec. 10 to Dec. 20. Only if Obama has achieved a convincing deal at the Copenhagen conference will there be a real reason to honor him.

We received the following invitation from the World Wildlife Fund to “Celebrate the Bounty of the Bering Sea… Before It’s Too Late” — with the latter part of the invite referring to the much-dreaded climate change.

And just how did the WWF “celebrate the bounty of the Bering Sea”? By eating it, of course. As the invitation states, “Taste wild Alaskan salmon, the bounty of the sea.” So for the salmon on the menu, it was already too late. But we digress…

The glaring hypocrisy here is the WWF’s dual focus on eating wild Alaskan salmon while fretting about global warming. How does the WWF think the wild Alaskan salmon got to Manhattan? Did they swim? Walk? Drive a SmartCar? Bicycle? Were they beamed to Manhattan by Scotty?

None of the above — they were, of course, flown by airplane.

According to Alaska Airlines, it flies about 750,000 pounds of Alaskan salmon annually to diners from San Francisco to Manhattan.

How green is this?

As reported by Seattle Weekly,

“For seafood…, ‘fresh’ often means ‘air-flown,’ which is 10 times more emission-intensive than transporting products by ship… Pablo Päster, an authority on carbon emissions with the Toronto-based environmental consulting group ClimateCheck, recently… compared the carbon impact of transporting a Copper River king salmon (headed and gutted on shore to a weight of 25 pounds) the 1,738 miles from Cordova to Anchorage and on to Seattle, versus shipping it the same route. His conclusion: Delivery by air produces 57 times more CO2. In this sense, first is worst.

We sent folks to take pictures at the WWF event. Look at that wild Alaskan salmon/Bounty of the Bering Sea… you can almost feel the planet heating up!

And to think that it was only about a year ago that we broke the “Five Star Green Hypocrisy” story involving the WWF’s $65,000-per-person, 25-day private luxury jet tour of the world’s most exotic locales.

The WWF and its elitist supporters may think — or may want you to think — that the world is coming to an end because of carbon dioxide, but they plan on savoring every emission they can while denying yours.

The New York Times and reporter John Broder get partial credit for spotlighting Al Gore’s climate profiteering on the front-page of today’s paper.

Unfortunately the article offers really lame justifications for Gore’s self-serving alarmism.

Gore only responded to the Times in an e-mail:

Mr. Gore says that he is simply putting his money where his mouth is.

“Do you think there is something wrong with being active in business in this country?” Mr. Gore said. “I am proud of it. I am proud of it.”

In an e-mail message this week, he said his investment activities were consistent with his public advocacy over decades.

Or is it that he’s putting his mouth where his money is?

Don’t forget that Al Gore testified before the House last spring that he has no profit motive. As reported by Broder:

But at the hearing in April, he was challenged by Ms. Blackburn, who echoed some of the criticism of Mr. Gore that has swirled in conservative blogs and radio talk shows. She noted that Mr. Gore is a partner at Kleiner Perkins, which has hundreds of millions of dollars invested in firms that could benefit from any legislation that limits carbon dioxide emissions.

“I believe that the transition to a green economy is good for our economy and good for all of us, and I have invested in it,” Mr. Gore said, adding that he had put “every penny” he has made from his investments into the Alliance for Climate Protection.

“And, Congresswoman,” he added, “if you believe that the reason I have been working on this issue for 30 years is because of greed, you don’t know me.”

It was apparently “a bridge too far” for Broder to notice that Gore’s House testimony is entirely inconsistent with Gore’s e-mail to the Times.

Readers of this blog will recall that it was this Steve Milloy column in Human Events that prompted Rep. Marsha Blackburn to ask Gore about his profiteering. But rather than saying he was “putting his money where his mouth was,” Gore chose to dissemble, if not outright lie, to Congress.

And let’s not forget about Gore’s feigned ignorance before Congress of his relationship with Goldman Sachs.