February 27, 2011 by Walter Schneider.

After learning of my involvement with the utilities industry that lasted for more than 30 years, someone wrote to me and commented, “If you have some connections with some technical people in the utility business, that could be helpful.”

Yes, that is true. but only up to an extent, and most likely never to the extent where such connections would really matter.  Aside from that, it matters with which aspect of the utility business those technical people are involved.

I just read an ad by ENMAX (a Calgary-City-owned utility company).  The ad is one of those intrusive, targeted ones imposed by Google that pop up when searching the Internet.  It popped up in this case when I looked up the weather forecast for Edmonton.  The ad is intended to indoctrinate me into accepting that “With renewable energy playing a larger role than ever, the environmental future of Alberta has never been brighter” and is part of a currently massive advertising campaign in the mainstream media for which TV shows many commercials and for which even small-town newspapers feature whole-page ads that cater to the same theme.

Should one believe anything that comes from those quarters?

The mayor of Calgary concurs with ENMAX and with the theme of the massive propaganda campaign, but although his speech on energy issues was well received when he spoke at a recent ENMAX function (ENMAX is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the City of Calgary), he is not the best person to ask for an opinion on these issues.  He thinks that the pursuit of schemes for energy production from renewable sources is “the right thing to do”.

The Alberta government, which most definitely employs some technical people to be able to exercise its regulatory functions, is not likely to tell the truth about anything related to utilities.  They told me in 2001, when they deregulated the utility industry, that they were “committed to putting more money back into the pockets of Albertans.” I caught them out lying about many other issues. “The Alberta Advantage,” a slogan that Alberta politicians loved to mention on a daily basis and on every possible occasion, is not being mentioned much anymore these days, not since a number of businesses left the province or shut down on account of sky-rocketing energy prices.

How about someone in AltaLink?

As Canada’s only fully independent transmission company, we are responsible for the maintenance and operation of approximately 11,800 kilometres of transmission lines and 270 substations in Alberta. We own more than half of Alberta’s transmission grid and serve 85 per cent of its population. Additionally, we own the Alberta portion of the interconnection to British Columbia used to import and export electricity, connecting Alberta to the power grid in the Pacific Northwest. –AltaLink

Sounds great, but what about this?

AltaLink Enhances Reliability and Access to Green Power in 2010

February 25, 2011

During 2010, AltaLink improved system reliability by building and energizing new projects, and responding to increased demand from Albertans for wind generated electricity.

Sorry, they are neither an objective nor even an honest source of such information.  Then how about the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO)?  AESO is without a doubt very important, because, in their own words from their home page,

AESO leads the planning and operation of the power system, facilitates competitive electricity markets and ensures open access to the grid.

Well, if that would be a correct statement, then why the government- and industry-sponsored promotion of wind “farms” in Alberta that AESO facilitates?  Surely, with AESO “ensuring competitive electricity markets”, wind power would long ago have been laughed out of the market.  Of course, AESO is not an entirely independent organization.  It owes its very existence to the government and therefore a considerable psychological debt, if nothing else.

However, at the very least it is possible to obtain from AESO data on trends in electricity generation and consumption.

As to wind power, one of AESO’s operators wrote to me some time ago and complained that he is not happy about wind power and the serious threat it poses to the security, stability and quality of the electricity grid.  However, I do not recall that AESO ever spoke up officially against the promotion of escalating construction of wind power generating capacity.

The AESO seem to be the right party to get in touch with.  As to the sort of technical person one may want to contact at AESO, these search results for articles and papers on “wind power” at their website may provide ideas, but don’t get your hopes up too high.

The AESO is committed to integrating as much wind power as possible to the Alberta electric system without compromising reliability or the fair, efficient and openly competitive operation of the market. –AESO, Dec. 17, 2007 (Guide to wind power in Alberta, bottom of page 2)

There is a fundamental principle involved in all of this head-long rush for the promotion of wind power and energy generation from renewable sources.  It is a principle whose primary aim appears to be to rationalize the abrogation of common sense.  It seems that a fitting name for it would be Affirmative Action for Energy from Renewable Sources (AAERS).

AAERS does away with the requirement to be rational, logical, objective and fair when promoting government schemes for escalating tax revenues through tailored energy policies.  Instead, the promotion of AAERS needs no rationalization other than the assertion that “it is the right thing to do.”  That could well make it the ideal tool for politicians, because all checks and balances based on objective science no longer matter in decision-making relating to the utility business.  Moreover, no one will ever be able to hold anyone to account on any of this.  After all, even the most atrocious and most expensive utility boondoggles can be justified, simply because “they were the right thing to do.”

How can anyone argue against such a powerful tool, a tool that permits politicians and anyone else who can reap a profit from the utility business to get away with robbing the public in full public view?

______________
For related information on this, see Environmentalist Energy Concerns, February 25, 2011

Posted in Propaganda debunked, Corruption & Fraud, Energy Issues, Alternative Energy Sources | Print | No Comments »

February 25, 2011 by Walter Schneider.

This posting contains pointers to sources of information that set straight common misrepresentations and misconceptions in regard to commonly-perceived pieces of “wisdom” such as wind power, nuclear energy, carbon capture and sequestration, bio-fuels, and the current craze of replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps.

Here are the links, grouped in alphabetical order of the main subject areas:

Alternative Energy Production

• Evaluation of comparative alternative energy production

Bio-Fuel

• To conjure gasoline out of corn and tax credits?
• The Ethanol debate — Ethanol through agricultural production: A scam?

Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS)

• Topple the “carbon” fraud
• Weyburn, Saskatchewan: Land fizzing like soda pop
• No price too high for appeasing climate alarmists (Shell’s Quest CCS project in Alberta’s Industrial Heartland)

Incandescent Light Bulbs vs. Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs)

• The future of the light-bulb ban

Nuclear Energy

• Nuclear power generation alarmism overblown
• Nuclear Power — Comparisons and Perspective
• Energy from Thorium

Wind Energy

• Wind Energy — The Case of Denmark
• WindPowerFacts.Info, by John Droz

From that:

Master Resource is a good site for energy information. An example of the articles appearing there is one by Dr. Michael Trebilcock (a Law Professor at the University of Toronto, etc.) and his excellent testimony about a proposed Ontario RPS [Renewable Portfolio Standard] type legislation. He does a fine job of stating a case against industrial wind energy.

There are several reports that have been published about the Dutch experience with wind power, and why it is not what it seems. This September 2009 study is a good summary. Another informative one is authored by Dr. Vic Mason, an energy expert: Wind Power in Denmark (version 12/08). Still another worthwhile one was written by J. A. Halkema (M.S.E.E.), also a Dutch energy expert, and is titled Wind Energy Facts and Fiction: A Half Truth is a Whole Lie.

There is much more.  For example, have a look at this exhaustive and very informative discussion in the form of a slide presentation:

EnergyPresentation.Info (12/1/2010), by John Droz (more than 200 very interesting slides). E. g.:

Source: Slide 99 of 213 at EnergyPresentation.Info by John Droz (click on icon for “full screen”, in the lower, right-hand corner of image, in the menu bar below the image to be able to see full-sized image)

Posted in Propaganda debunked, Corruption & Fraud, Energy Issues, Alternative Energy Sources | Print | No Comments »

February 21, 2011 by Walter Schneider.

Thanks to icecap.us:

Environmentalist fraud and manslaughter

In the name of banning DDT, GEF bureaucrats are consigning millions to death from malaria

Paul Driessen, 2011 o2 21

Many chemotherapy drugs for treating cancer have highly unpleasant side effects – hair loss, vomiting, intense joint pain, liver damage and fetal defects, to name just a few. But anyone trying to ban the drugs would be tarred, feathered and run out of town. And rightly so.

The drugs’ benefits vastly outweigh their risks. They save lives. We need to use chemo drugs carefully, but we need to use them.

The same commonsense reasoning should apply to the Third World equivalent of chemotherapy drugs: DDT and other insecticides to combat malaria. Up to half a billion people are infected annually by this vicious disease, nearly a million die, countless survivors are left with permanent brain damage, and 90% of this carnage is in sub-Saharan Africa, the most impoverished region on Earth.

These chemicals don’t cure malaria – they prevent it. Used properly, they are effective, and safe. DDT is particularly important. Sprayed once or twice a year on the inside walls of homes, DDT keeps 80% of mosquitoes from entering, irritates those that do enter, so they leave without biting, and kills any that land. No other chemical, at any price, can do this.

Full Story (27kB PDF file)

It has been estimated that more than 500 construction workers (not counting their wives and children) died of malaria during the construction of the Rideau Canal in Canada, in the early 1800s, long before the end of the Little Ice Age.

During the construction of the Rideau Canal, a temperate form of malaria, P. Vivax, was present. This was the form indigenous to southern Ontario at the time. It has two cycles, the normal short (weeks) malaria cycle and a much longer cycle where it would spend nine months or longer incubating in the liver of a human. This longer cycle allowed it to survive the harsh Canadian winter by staying inside a human until the mosquitoes were out and biting again. P. Vivax has a very low mortality rate (essentially 0%) since it infects far fewer red blood cells than other forms of malaria. One explanation for the 2 to 4% mortality rate on the Rideau is that those who died were either suffering from other illnesses of the day, or had health issues such as dysentery, and that getting infected with P.Vivax was the last straw. An alternate, but perhaps less likely explanation, is that P. falciparum, a more virulent tropical malaria, was also present. P. falciparum, introduced into the U.S. with the African slave trade, doesn’t have the ability to over-winter in Canada, so, if it was present, it must have been re-introduced each year. (From Shakespeare to Defoe: Malaria in England in the Little Ice Age, Paul Reiter, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, San Juan, Puerto Rico, http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol6no1/pdf/reiter.pdf (2000 01 20, 792 kB))

The extent to which environment- and DDT fanatics lack good and valid information and perspectives on such issues is illustrated by the current media debate on the “pesticide” ban in many Canadian cities that is now being considered for Edmonton.  Let’s be clear on that what is being discussed under the “pesticide” designation is weed-control in lawns and parks.

Well, for all who discuss banning the use of pesticides for weed control, you should get your facts straight.

A pesticide is used to control or kill pesky insects, so that is what you would use to keep mosquitoes at bay or kill head lice.  There is also a definition of pesticide for English-learners, in case there is confusion about what constitutes a pest.  That definition states that a pesticide is “a chemical that is used to kill animals or insects that damage plants or crops.”  It is odd that a formidable source of information such as Merriam Webster does not identify that pesticides are used to kill insects that pester or kill humans.

Nevertheless, if you want to make sure that you chemically kill the dandelions or thistles in a lawn, you must use a herbicide, but be careful that you pick the right one for the job.  Some herbicides kill grass, too.

People who don’t know the difference between pesticide and herbicide lack the necessary qualifications for discussing the merits of either.

Posted in Gardening, Propaganda debunked, Alarmist Insanity, Health issues | Print | 3 Comments »

February 19, 2011 by Walter Schneider.

You may be interested in this.

Doctor Warns: Eat This and You’ll Look 5 Years Older

Posted By Dr. Mercola | February 19 2011 | 177,620 views

We raised sheep for quite a few years.

Like all sheep growers, we had problems with orphan lambs.  I won’t go into the reasons why and what the causes of that were.  Problems with orphan lambs are common to all sheep operations.

We had dealings with a Hutterite colony, who came to us for culled ewes to introduce a bit of variety into the diet of the people on their colony.  The head-man of the colony told me that they had once raised sheep, too.  He asked me what we did about orphan lambs and the milk-replacer we needed to raise them.

I told him that we used a commercial soy-bean preparation (at a cost of about $45 a lamb that we brought to market).  He asked how that worked out for us.  I told him, and he advised that we use goats to produce the milk we needed for for our orphan lambs.

We never had had good luck with using that commercial milk replacer, even though the brand we bought seemed to be the one with the fewest problems of all that we had used.  The lambs did not do well on that milk replacer, and the mortality rate was unacceptably high.  The lambs on milk replacer that survived did not thrive and were always the last of any lamb crop we sold.

We bought a few goats, started milking them, used fresh goats milk and, when necessary, froze excess milk, thawed frozen goats milk to feed our orphan lambs and made cheese from the rest.  Our problems were over.  All lambs whom we fed that milk did very well, with no adverse health effects.

So much for that, but ever since then I kept my eyes open for any news on nutrition involving soy-beans.  There is quite a bit on unhealthy side effects caused by soy-beans.  An example of that is what Dr. Mercola presents at the web page identified in the beginning of this message (don’t neglect to watch the video).

Another example that I came across a few years ago is this:

Soy Can Lead to Kidney Stones, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, September 2001

Full Story

Keep in mind that no information is being presented by Dr. Mercola that proves that it is genetically modified soy-beans or corn that cause problems.  All he produced are assertions.  Although those may be correct, he produced very little evidence that could be used to lay the blame on genetically modified foods.  Most definitely, he produced no evidence that shows how control-groups did on feed derived from foods that came from sources not genetically modified.

However, the information in the article in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry and what we found with the milk replacer shows that soy-bean-derived foods can be bad.  Moreover, I distinctly recall that, when reading about animal nutrition in the early 1970s (when no genetically modified foods were yet available), feed corn was bad as an animal feed, especially for hogs, when it was not mixed with other plant proteins.  The reason for that is that corn protein lacks an important amino acid, lysine.  Every animal nutritionist should know about that.  Any livestock producer in the business of making money knows about it and formulates the feed rations he feeds to his animals accordingly.

The problems that Dr. Mercola’s video reports on and that those hog producers experienced are in my opinion caused not necessarily by genetically modified feed-corn but could have been caused by the lack of lysine in the hog rations that had been used.

Thought you needed to know, but the most important aspect of the issue with tofu is this:

If you wish to eat well without exposing yourself to the risks posed by soy-based food products, it may be wise to make use of the advice offered in the following.

Cartoon from townhall.com

Enjoy, Walter

Posted in Health issues | Print | No Comments »

February 19, 2011 by Walter Schneider.

Is it worth spending billions of dollars to try and stave off impending gloom and doom allegedly caused by catastrophic trends in climate change?  Consider the following.

Climate Realists

FRED SINGER
What do Climate Data Really Show? The Berkeley Climate Data Project
Saturday, February 19th 2011, 9:25 AM EST

The e-mails leaked from the University of East Anglia in November 2009 produced what is popularly called “Climategate.” They exposed the thoroughly unethical behavior of a group of climate scientists, mainly in the UK and US, involved in producing the global surface temperature record used and relied on by governments….(Full Story)

________________
Fred Singer mentions in his article:

I applaud and support what is being done by the Project — a very difficult but important undertaking. I personally have little faith in the quality of the surface data, having been exposed to the revealing work by Anthony Watts and others. However, I have an open mind on the issue and look forward to seeing the results of the Project in their forthcoming publications.

Here is a link to the “revealing work by Anthony Watts”, the Surfacestations Project.  I won’t presume whom Fred Singer means by “and others”, but he also mentioned “Climategate”.

If the term “Climategate” is new to you, you may wish to look up a good historical overview of Climategate’s emergence into public view and of its resulting consequences.

When reading all of that about climate data and Climategate, keep in mind that we are engaging in a program of massive expenditures to address “fixes that the global climate needs” on the basis of alarmist and propagandistic findings of climate science that is at best not settled.

It is not a trivial problem for anyone in the world who pays the rising prices for the ability to use modern conveniences in everyday life. The costs of utilities and consumer goods experience enormous increases to help pay to implement climate fixes that are at best useless and at worst harmful and to help provide enormous profits from the resulting “solutions”.

Right now, the Alberta Government, under the leadership of Ed Stelmach, has committed $2 billion to the construction of a variety of oil-industry projects for carbon capture and sequestration that will ostensibly be beneficial in addressing allegedly adverse global climate trends.  Yet, we will find few people in this part of the world or elsewhere that cope with or suffer from record cold periods during winter who will clamour if the winters that make them shiver and even die in large numbers were to be a little less cold. It is obvious that cold weather kills and is at least costly.

One such project, Shell’s Quest CCS Project, will blow 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 annually down Mother Earth’s derriere, of which $780 million in initial construction costs will be funded through Alberta tax revenues.  The sequestering of an annual 1.2 million tonnes of CO2  may sound like a lot to some, and a $780 million price tag to achieve that may seem worth paying for.  However, it will do no more than to reduce man-made, global, annual CO2 emissions by a total of 21 minutes-worth of those emissions at a rate of 957 tonnes per second of global man-made CO2 emissions, while that reduction will not affect the annual emissions of the 97 percent of CO2 produced by natural sources.

Moreover, no one has so far produced any incontrovertible evidence that such an effort will have any effects on global temperature trends.  You may or may not be inclined to accept that, given that Ed Stelmach has already committed $2 billion dollars to such efforts.  However, there is ample, real-world evidence that shows that atmospheric CO2 increases and reductions over time have followed temperature trends.  Not once during the geological record of the world was there ever a time when CO2 drove temperature variations.  Here are two of many links to sources that explain that.

• Climate Change Reexamined, OEL M. KAUFFMAN, Emeritus, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, PA
  Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 21, No. 4, pp. 723–749, 2007
• The Myth of Dangerous Human-Caused Climate Change, M Carter, Professor, Marine Geophysical Laboratory (Node C), Sporing Road South, James Cook University, Townsville Qld 4811.
  The AusIMM New Leaders’ Conference Brisbane, QLD, 2 - 3 May 2007

Professor Carter states in that,

The currently favoured hypothesis of dangerous global warming includes the presumption that late 20th century warming was substantially caused by human emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. As will be elaborated later, this theory has failed the three main tests to which it has been subjected. First, no close relationship exists between the 20th century patterns of increasing carbon dioxide and changing temperature; second, 20th century rates and magnitude of temperature change fall well within previous natural limits of change despite accompanying increases in human-sourced carbon dioxide; and, third, the deterministic computer models that are used to engender public alarm have proved unable to predict the course of temperature change over the period 1990 - 2006, let alone out to 2100.

It is folly to spend money to avert catastrophic warming that — based on the evidence — will not happen, given that catastrophic warming has never happened before, while ignoring the need to adapt to the next period of glaciation that will surely happen soon.

The money spent on such useless pursuits would be better spent in ventures that truly need to be undertaken, such as fixing Alberta’s seriously ailing health-care system and curbing our run-away, government-induced debt.

Posted in Shell CCS Project, Propaganda debunked, Corruption & Fraud, Climate Change | Print | No Comments »

February 16, 2011 by Walter Schneider.

This is from a source that is not necessarily impartial:

Using a gasifier instead of a coker will allow the upgrader [the North West upgrader, across the highway, west from Agrium, south of Redwater, Alberta, that will commence production in 2014] to capture 1.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, shipping the liquefied gas through a pipeline to central Alberta, where it will be used to recover more oil from depleted conventional oilfields.

And when that much CO2 is taken out of the upgrading process, Alberta diesel from North West will be the greenest in the world, even better than Saudi medium crude, North West chairman Ian MacGregor told the Heartland Association last month.

(Read more at Deal gives go-ahead to upgrader, Edmonton Journal, 2011 02 15, pp. D1 and D6)

Outgoing premier Ed Stelmach, a source whom many consider reliable but who is not necessarily impartial either, concurs:

Alberta takes ‘bold step’ into oilsands upgrading

Evoking the spirit of pioneers, outgoing Premier Ed Stelmach said Albertans know success comes from having the courage to take risks, and the $5-billion North West upgrader/refinery announced Wednesday is just the latest “bold step” in that direction….

“I have always said, shipping bitumen out of the province is comparable to selling the topsoil on a farm. This is fulfilling a commitment I made in 2006 to the province during the leadership (race),” he said at the ceremony.

Stelmach added he is keen on ensuring Alberta is a world leader in carbon dioxide reduction, which is why the government announced a $2-billion program two years ago, and has agreed to fund four innovative projects.

“So today we take another bold step in the area of value added with this historic agreement with North West and Canadian Natural for a project that will use carbon-capture technology from Day 1.”….(Full Story)

That enthusiasm at the taxpayers expense will not colour Alberta’s diesel green, unless “green diesel” is tinted by the colour of money.

Alberta diesel will not be the greenest in the world.  Given that Ed Stelmach has thrown $2 billion dollars at “four innovative projects” for oil production (of which Shell’s Quest CCS Project, is one of the “innovative projects”, with a contribution of $780 million, due to Ed Stelmach’s generosity funded by Alberta’s taxpayers obligations) that will do exactly zilch for addressing local or the world’s climate trends. Alberta diesel will not be the greenest but will without a doubt be the most expensive to produce in the world.

Mind you, one must consider the veracity of the source.  Amongst many other illogical panaceas, Ed Stelmach tried to initiate a program for switching the driving- and passing-lanes on Alberta’s highways to postpone the need for road maintenance work (a move that was fortunately stalled and eventually defeated through massive public opposition) and he also asserted that, with respect to the hurtful impact of rapidly rising utility costs in the wake of Ralph Klein’s program for the deregulation of the utilities,

We will continue to monitor energy supplies and pricing and take appropriate action when necessary in the best interest of all Albertans.
The Alberta Government is committed to putting more money back into the pockets of Albertans.

Ed Stelmach (PC), Alberta Minister of Transportation,
MLA Vegreville-Viking, 2002 04 19,
in his response to an open letter on utility pricing policies.

That is a little confusing, isn’t it?  That tug in your pockets, is that from the increased weight of the money that the Alberta Government is committed to putting back into the pockets of Albertans, or is that from Ed Stelmach’s hands pulling out more money “required” to increase the price of motor fuel in order to make it the “greenest” or rather the most expensive in the world?

If increased levels of atmospheric CO2 cause global warming, should we not by now see some increasing warming in the Edmonton temperature trends?

The Edmonton weather or temperature trends are not representative of  global temperature trends, you say.  Yes, that is correct, but what about the global trends?

Take a look at global CO2 and its dispersion over time.  Can you by any chance detect Alberta’s role in that?  Not very likely, but it is quite obvious that if CO2 could accumulate in the atmosphere due to mankind, there would not be such very large seasonal fluctuations.

Other than that, given that the North West upgrader will capture and sequester 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 a year and that man-made global CO2 emissions are being generated at the rate of 957 tonnes of CO2 a second, the carbon capture and storage scheme associated with the North West upgrader will compensate for 21 minutes of man-made global CO2 emissions a year.  Do you think that is worth spending about $500 million on?  That is just what Ed Stelmach wants to devote of our tax revenues to the cause, for no other good effect than to be favorably mentioned in the history books.  Annual operating costs, and initial contributions by North West and from federal sources are not included in that. What will history have to say about that 30 years from now?

However, in order to determine whether it is truly necessary to increase the price of Alberta diesel or of any fuel anywhere, we really need to know whether rising CO2, globally, causes rising global temperatures.

First take a look at temperature trends over time:

Hockey Stick over Time - Narrated

Here is another view of global atmospheric CO2 versus temperature.

CO2, Temperatures, and Ice Ages
Posted on January 30, 2009 by Anthony Watts

Guest post by Frank Lansner, civil engineer, biotechnology.

It is generally accepted that CO2 is lagging temperature in Antarctic graphs. To dig further into this subject therefore might seem a waste of time. But the reality is, that these graphs are still widely used as an argument for the global warming hypothesis. But can the CO2-hypothesis be supported in any way using the data of Antarctic ice cores?

At first glance, the CO2 lagging temperature would mean that it’s the temperature that controls CO2 and not vice versa.

(See Graph, Full Story)

Carbon capture and storage, what a scam!  Just think of what could be done with $2 billion dollars to fix, say, the Alberta Health-Care system; but Ed Stelmach had to cut back on that, to save enough for carbon capture and sequestration.

The nine most-feared words in the English language: “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” (Ronald Reagan)

Posted in Climate Craziness, Shell CCS Project, Propaganda debunked, Emission Incidents & Issues | Print | 1 Comment »

February 15, 2011 by Walter Schneider.

Opinion polls not only have much impact, but they also have a great potential to do harm.
The Winnipeg Free Press carried two important stories.

The Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION
Feb. 13, 2011
Pollster warns politicians: Think for yourself; don’t be slaves to public opinion

By: Joan Bryden, The Canadian Press

[The] blind faith in the authority of polling numbers is increasingly ill-founded as the industry struggles with a methodological crisis that is putting the accuracy of survey results into serious question.

“Anyone who’s done this long enough will tell you that public opinion need not be consistent, need not be permanent to be important or real,” [pollster Allan Gregg, chairman of Harris-Decima which provides political surveys to The Canadian Press]  says.

Full Story

There are more warnings and cautions about the accuracy — or rather lack of it — in Canadian polls in this story:

The Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION
Feb. 12, 2011
Pollsters advise voters to be wary of polls ahead of possible spring vote

By: Joan Bryden, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA - Canada’s notoriously competitive pollsters have some surprisingly uniform advice about the parade of confusing and conflicting numbers they’re about to toss at voters ahead of a possible spring election: Take political horse race polls with a small boulder of salt….[Andre Turcotte, a pollster and communications professsor at Carleton University.]

“The way it’s working now is a real dog’s breakfast. It’s not working,” says Ekos Research president Frank Graves, who provides bi-weekly surveys to the CBC.

There’s broad consensus among pollsters that proliferating political polls suffer from a combination of methodological problems, commercial pressures and an unhealthy relationship with the media.

Start with the methodological morass.

“The dirty little secret of the polling business . . . is that our ability to yield results accurately from samples that reflect the total population has probably never been worse in the 30 to 35 years that the discipline has been active in Canada,” says veteran pollster Allan Gregg, chairman of Harris-Decima which provides political polling for The Canadian Press….

Full Story

The article explains the meaning of “margin of error”, that it is important, that statements relating to margin of error often have no basis in fact, and that the media regard the numbers provided in polls to be more important than the truth — or the lack of it — that those numbers should represent but no longer can or do.

The media are addicted to the ‘horse race numbers” provided by opinion polls.  As the first story identified above indicates, the politicians are guided by the often false numbers provided by the polls, and if you are addicted to the media, to politicians and to opinion poll results, then all is well.  At least all of the players, including you, have got their story straight.

The trouble with that is that the story line that every player in the game adheres to is a plot out of a bizarre reality and bears little relation to the real world, other than making the real world more bizarre.

The trouble with that is that the story line that every player in the game adheres to is a plot out of a bizarre reality and bears little relation to the real world, other than making the real world more bizarre.
All of that means that Canadian politics are being as firmly controlled and steered by a bizarre story line as, for instance, the USSR was controlled and steered by the aims of the Central Party Committee.

Whether a controlling ideology is used by a Central Party Committee and published through the media, thereby controlling and influencing the people, or whether it is being promoted by the media to influence politicians and the public who vote for them, there is little difference.  The results are the same: central control through an overpowering ideology.

Posted in The New World Order, Propaganda debunked | Print | No Comments »

February 14, 2011 by Walter Schneider.

Here are three articles of interest.

• CO2 is a benefactor not a pollutant (2011 02 12)
  By Joseph D’Aleo, CCM, AMS Fellow

Summary

So real data - not models tuned for the desired result - suggests CO2 is not correlated with temperature changes, is not harmful to health, is instead beneficial to plants and thus mankind.

There are plenty of real environmental issues that need addressing and there needs to be major attention given to meeting energy needs for a colder world likely in coming decades. The misplaced focus on CO2 is preventing focus on both real environmental issues and a sane energy policy.

Note, although I agree with everything the article identifies, it does contain one error that requires correction.  The caption for the third illustration in the states: “Crops increased threefold in the last 50 years from only 10% more land, while the world population  has doubled”  A 30-percent increase in agricultural yield is undeniable, but it is only a 30-percent increase, not a threefold increase.  I wrote to ICECAP and asked them to correct that caption.

• Why Wind Won’t Work
  Submission to Australian Senate Enquiry by Viv Forbes, Carbon Sense Coalition

From the Executive Summary of the submission:

The operating characteristics of turbine and generator mean that only a small part of wind energy can be captured.

Wind power is also intermittent, unreliable and hard to predict. Therefore large backup or storage systems are required. This adds to the capital and operating costs and increases the instability of the network.

Wind farms are uniformly hated by neighbours and will not be willingly accepted without heavy compensation payments. Their noise, flicker, fire risk and disturbing effect on domestic and wild animals are well documented.

The wind is free but wind power is far from it. Its cost is far above all conventional methods of generating electricity. Either taxpayers or consumers will pay this bill.

Wind farms are promoted as a way to decarbonise energy generation. This is supposed to reduce global warming. There is no evidence that there is any need or benefit in chasing this rainbow.

Yes, we are entitled to be given that proof, and that proof has as of now not been provided by anyone.  Yet, that does not stop our politicians from handing over billions of dollars of tax revenues for the pursuit of useless and futile efforts such as Shell’s Quest CCS Project or the construction of wind “farms”.

Don’t blame Shell for spending the taxpayers’ money on the Quest CCS Project.  Blame provincial and federal politicians who force Shell into wasting our money at a billion dollars a shot.

Nevertheless, I must make an addition.  To round out the picture, here is the last of the three articles.

• Carbon Dioxide Feeds the World
  By John Robertson, Mount Tamborine, Queensland 4272, Australia

From the cover page:

Cuddly Carbon Keeps Koalas & all animals, including us, Alive

CO2 is essential for life. More CO2 will do much good and no harm. If it is allowed to increase at the current rate it will feed the world’s coming peak population with NO more land, seed, cultivation or water.

I know, some who reads all of this will think that the authors of those reports work for Big Oil.  Well, I don’t, except that a good portion of my income goes to higher costs of food, energy, heating our home and for fuel for the car we drive.  Another good portion of my income pays for the increased taxes that the government reaps on all of those increased costs.

Going by that, I work for big government, and I suspect that is true for the authors of the indicated reports, as well as for you; and I am getting very little in value for the government’s take.

So, don’t tell me that anyone is wrong because of who he works for.  Tell me whether he is telling the truth.  There is one thing about which I am sure.  I have found nothing that those three authors identified in this posting are not telling the truth about.  However, I cannot say the same thing about the politicians that keep spending our money on things they know little about and on other things that they know a lot about but that don’t do many of us any good.

One of those politicians (he promised just a little while ago that he will retire in September of this year) told me a few years ago, when I complained to him about the rising costs of utilities due to deregulation, that the Alberta Government has only the best in mind for all of us, and that it is committed to putting money back into the pockets of Albertans.  Did you get any of that money?  I did not.  That must be because, amongst other things, there is not have enough left over for such trivial things because the Alberta Government is giving more than $700 million of the taxpayers money to Shell’s Quest CCS Project.  That is one thing they should not spend our money on.

Posted in Shell CCS Project, Propaganda debunked | Print | No Comments »

February 14, 2011 by Walter Schneider.

By the Freedom Action Network:

1. The Future of the Light Bulb Ban
2. An Inconvenient Truth Keeps People Warm

Both videos are spoofs, you say.  Well, these news items on incandescent light bulbs are not spoofs:

• California may ban conventional lightbulbs by 2012 - Yahoo! News
• Alert to hoarders: old light bulbs soon to vanish ( Canada ), January 8, 2011
• Bootleg Lightbulbs Coming to California  (Starting Jan. 1, Incandescents cannot be bought .. legally) December 27, 2010
• German “heatball” wheeze outwits EU light bulb ban (Lightbulb=Heater) October 16, 2010
  (Alas, that thit not pan out. The importers were subsequently arrested and their contraband seized.)
• Thomas Edison, You’re Under Arrest ,September 10, 2010
  (In principle correct, except that, to set the record straight on that one, the real inventor of the light bulb was truly Sir Joseph Wilson Swan)

These stories about burning books to keep warm are not spoofs, either.

• Pensioners burn books for warmth | Metro.co.uk2.
• Why are they burning books in south Wales? | Money | The Guardian
• Shortcuts + Energy efficiency | From the Guardian | guardian.co.uk
• Fahrenheit 451 for Cash-Strapped UK Seniors - CNBC

By the way, it is not a good idea to use compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) in a bathroom.  Firstly they don’t last long where they are frequently switched on-and-off and, secondly, they are likely to experience early catastrophic failure in a moist environment.
______________
Related Story: Compact fluorescent lamps pose fire hazard?

All of which shows that trying not to become a criminal these days can put any law-abiding citizen into quite a quandary.

Posted in The New World Order, Propaganda debunked, Energy Issues | Print | 1 Comment »

February 12, 2011 by Walter Schneider.

IceCap.us
Feb. 12, 2011

[U.S.] Cold December And January – Especially East And South
By Joseph D’Aleo, CCM, AMS Fellow

Read the full story.

Digital Journal
Feb. 11, 2011

Mexico loses 80-100% of crops to freeze, US prices to skyrocket

By Lynn Herrmann.

Houston - The cold weather experienced across much of the US in early February made its way deep into Mexico and early reports estimate 80-100 percent crop losses which are having an immediate impact on prices at US grocery stores with more volatility to come….

At this time of year, Mexico is a major supplier to the US and Canada for green beans, cucumbers, squash, eggplant, asparagus, peppers and round and Roma tomatoes. Compounding the problem is the freezing cold that hit Florida in December and January.

Sysco continued with its dire report:

    “Florida normally is a major supplier for these items as well but they have already been struck with severe freeze damage in December and January and up until now have had to purchase product out of Mexico to fill their commitments, that is no longer an option.”….

(Full Story)

Posted in Weather | Print | No Comments »