November 29, 2010 by Walter Schneider.

Is this a sign of worse things to come?  The UK Met Office won’t tell.  They no longer issue long range forecasts, ever since their forecasts of snow being a thing of the past and of nothing but BBQ summers to come did not pan out.

Is it satisfactory to be able to spend tens of millions of taxpayers money and not having to be accountable for the quality of one’s work?

From the UK Met Office:

Big chill breaks November temperature records

28 November 2010

Last night saw November minimum temperature records fall across the country.  Most notably both Wales and Northern Ireland recorded the coldest November night since records began. In Wales, temperatures fell to -18.0 °C at Llysdinam, near Llandrindod Wells, Powys. Northern Ireland recorded -9.5 °C at Loch Fea.

Scotland recorded minimum temperature of -15.3 °C at Loch Glascarnoch, whilst England recorded -13.5 °C at Topcliffe in North Yorkshire.

The UK’s lowest ever recorded temperature in November was -23.3 °C recorded in Braemar, in the Scottish Highlands, on 14 November 1919….(Full Story)

Posted in Propaganda debunked, Health issues, Weather | Print | 1 Comment »

November 22, 2010 by Walter Schneider.

It was a few years ago, when I said that the media don’t always tell the truth, and that even the evening news on TV are often used to tell falsehoods, either by distorting the truth, putting the wrong spin on things or by not reporting some things at all, and someone commented: “Why should I believe you, when professionals tell me something that is quite different from what you tell me?”

Well, it seems that a good answer to that is not that easy to come by; but is that true?

I have not ever knowingly tried to pull  a fast one on people by deliberately telling a lie in anything I told on this blog or anything else I presented as the truth on the Internet.  Still, why should anyone believe me?

The answer to that is that no one needs to believe me or believe anything I state, but if they don’t believe me, why should they believe anyone else who is making an effort to tell them anything? The truth is out there, and, thanks to the Internet, the truth about anything is as accessible as are lies about it.  All that is necessary is to be able to tell the truth from lies that are intentional or unintentional.  The difference is often easy to tell.

Let’s take the truth with respect to what is being told in Richard Lindzen’s testimony to the US Congress about global warming hype and hysteria and compare it to what some parties like Shell, the Canadian federal government and the Alberta provincial government want us to do.  That is, buy in and pay for, at a billion dollars and more a shot,  to allegedly alleviate the consequences of global warming through Shell’s CCS project that is proposed to be constructed in Alberta’s Industrial Heartland, north-east of Fort Saskatchewan and north of Bruderheim.

Richard Lindzen, one of the foremost climatologists in the world, said in concluding his testimony to the US Congress, Nov. 17, 2010, that,

You now have some idea of why I think that there won’t be much warming due to CO2, and without significant global warming, it is impossible to tie catastrophes to such warming. Even with significant warming it would have been extremely difficult to make this connection.

Perhaps we should stop accepting the term, ‘skeptic.’ Skepticism implies doubts about a plausible proposition. Current global warming alarm hardly represents a plausible proposition. Twenty years of repetition and escalation of claims does not make it more plausible. Quite the contrary, the failure to improve the case over 20 years makes the case even less plausible as does the evidence from climategate and other instances of overt cheating.

In the meantime, while I avoid making forecasts for tenths of a degree change in globally averaged temperature anomaly, I am quite willing to state that unprecedented climate catastrophes are not on the horizon though in several thousand years we may return to an ice age.

Richard Lindzen provided the following information on slides 11, 12, and 13 of his presentation to the US Congress:

(Click on each image to see it in full resolution.)

Will anyone in their right mind truly believe that the range of temperature trends for global average temperatures (the area covered by the red line in the preceding image) compared to local measurement for Boston (or anywhere else for that matter) will be impacted in any measurable fashion by what is contemplated through Shell’s CCS Project?  After all, the width of the red line would at best be reduced by no more than an infinitesimally tiny fraction of 4 percent of the width of the red line.

Mind you, Richard Lindzen uses well-mannered language in his presentations.  Instead of using words like “anyone in their right mind”, he uses words such as these: “Given the above, the notion that alarming warming is ‘settled science’ should be offensive to any sentient individual, though to be sure, the above is hardly emphasized by the IPCC.” (Emphasis as in the original on page 4 of the full PDF file of Richard Lindzen’s testimony to the US Congress)

Whether one says “anyone in their right mind” or that the claims of global-warming alarmism are based on ’settled science’ is “offensive to any sentient individual,” makes little difference.  Someone who is right in his mind is a sentient individual, and the facts are the same.  Cries of climate alarmism and all attempts to use “Carbon Capture and Storage” as a thermostat for regulating global temperature trends are bunk.

______________
By the way, besides Richard Lindzen, there were other prominent authorities who set straight the facts at the US Congress Hearing on Global Warming:

Watch: The House Hearing on Global Warming today

Posted on November 17, 2010 by Anthony Watts

Posted in Propaganda debunked, Taxes, Censorship, Shell CCS Project, Alarmist Insanity, Corruption & Fraud, Community & Industry, Climate Change, Health issues, Emission Incidents & Issues | Print | No Comments »

November 18, 2010 by Walter Schneider.

Potential Impacts of Leakage from Deep CO₂ Geosequestration on Overlying Freshwater Aquifers

Mark G. Little*^† and Robert B. Jackson^†‡

Center on Global Change, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, United States, and Nicholas School of the Environment and Biology Department, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708-0338, United States

Environ. Sci. Technol., Article ASAP

DOI: 10.1021/es102235w
Publication Date (Web): October 26, 2010

Copyright © 2010 American Chemical Society

* Corresponding author phone: (919)681-7180; fax: (919)660-7425; e-mail: 6r4h@post.harvard.edu., † Center on Global Change., ‡ Nicholas School of the Environment and Biology Department.

Quoted from the abstract:

Carbon Capture and Storage may use deep saline aquifers for CO₂ sequestration, but small CO₂ leakage could pose a risk to overlying fresh groundwater….(Full Story and links to study report and supporting information)

(Thanks to Anthony Watts at wattsupwiththat.com)

The study report is behind a pay wall.  The cost of accessing the report is $30 for 48 hours — more than I can afford to pay.

The Shell CCS Project (CCS meaning Carbon Capture and Storage or, correctly, CO2 Capture and Storage or Sequestration) in the area NE from Fort Saskatchewan, with a CO2 pipeline proposed to run north of Bruderheim, crossing the North Saskatchewan River and then running to the vicinity of Thorhild, where the CO2 is to be injected at a depth of about 2,400 m underground, will inject the CO2 into deep layers of porous rock that may border on saline aquifers into which the injected CO2 may and quite possibly will expand.

The study by Mark G. Little and Robert B. Jackson from Duke University identified that when CO2 was bubbled for more than 300 days through core samples from injection sites, “CO₂ caused concentrations of the alkali and alkaline earths and manganese, cobalt, nickel, and iron to increase by more than 2 orders of magnitude.”  That means  increases in concentrations a hundred-fold and more.

The study furthermore showed, “Potentially dangerous uranium and barium increased throughout the entire experiment in some samples.”

However, although some of that is bad news, the study also identified that “Manganese, iron, calcium, and pH could be used as geochemical markers of a CO₂ leak, as their concentrations increase within 2 weeks of exposure to CO₂.”

From reading Shell’s information that has been provided to me as of now, I neither recall that Shell’s CCS Project (also known by the creative name “Quest”) will employ such markers nor what action will be taken by Shell if a CO2 leak occurs underground at their CO2 injection sites.  That does not mean that Shell does not have contingency plans for possible CO2 leaks into overlying fresh groundwater.

Shell could well have contingency plans for possible underground CO2 leaks, but from the information provided at their Bruderheim open house (Nov. 3, 2010) it appears that Shell relies on the assumption that the CO2 they propose to inject will not move to the surface for at least a thousand years.

It is comforting to know that if nothing goes wrong with the premises of Shell’s CCS Project,  the residents who draw their drinking water out of the wells in the large area into which the injected CO2 will expand will be safe for at least for an estimated 1000 years.

Mind you, if something does go wrong, then all bets are off, and there is no telling as to what steps may  need to be taken to alleviate the impact of increases of mineral and metal concentrations in drinking water to objectionable and dangerous levels.

Have a look at what a CO2-driven water geyser looks like.  Here is more information on how the Chaffin Ranch Geyser came to be.

Posted in Health issues, Shell CCS Project, Climate Change, Community & Industry, Heavy-Metal Poisoning & Pollution, Pollution: Health Issues, Emission Incidents & Issues | Print | No Comments »

October 16, 2010 by Walter Schneider.

Thanks to Virginia Differenz:

Drop–in Clinics

LAMONT    Oct. 20, from 1 – 7 pm
Community Centre

FORT SASKATCHEWAN
Ft. Sask   Mall

Oct 14, 9 – 4 pm
Oct 19, 12:30 – 8 pm
Oct 20, 12:30 – 8 pm
Oct 21, 12:30 – 8 pm
Oct 26, 12:30 – 8 pm
Oct 27, 12:30 – 8 pm
Oct 28, 12:30 – 8 pm

Bring AHC card
Wear short sleeve shirt

Posted in Health issues | Print | No Comments »

September 27, 2010 by Walter Schneider.

Yes, you read that correctly, “global cooling”, and, as unbelievable as it may seem, the concerns with global cooling are being discussed by the Bilderbergers, but read on.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk

Global Cooling and the New World Order

By James Delingpole, September 26th, 2010

Bilderberg. Whether you believe it’s part of a sinister conspiracy which will lead inexorably to one world government or whether you think it’s just an innocent high-level talking shop, there’s one thing that can’t be denied: it knows which way the wind is blowing. (Hat tips: Will/NoIdea/Ozboy)

At its June meeting in Sitges, Spain (unreported and held in camera, as is Bilderberg’s way), some of the world’s most powerful CEOs rubbed shoulders with notable academics and leading politicians. They included: the chairman of Fiat, the Irish Attorney General Paul Gallagher, the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, Henry Kissinger, Bill Gates, Dick Perle, the Queen of the Netherlands, the editor of the Economist…. Definitely not Z-list, in other words.

Which is what makes one particular item on the group’s discussion agenda so tremendously significant. See if you can spot the one I mean:

The 58th Bilderberg Meeting will be held in Sitges, Spain 3 – 6 June 2010. The Conference will deal mainly with Financial Reform, Security, Cyber Technology, Energy, Pakistan, Afghanistan, World Food Problem, Global Cooling, Social Networking, Medical Science, EU-US relations.

Yep, that’s right. Global Cooling.

Which means one of two things.

Either it was a printing error.

Or the global elite is perfectly well aware that global cooling represents a far more serious and imminent threat to the world than global warming, but is so far unwilling to admit it except behind closed doors….(Full Story)

James Delingpole does not neglect in his article to castigate our efforts to devise and implement futile methods by which to stave off global warming, by which to wreck the economy, and he does not neglect to suggest that: “We need a “Global Warming” Nuremberg.”

That is of course wishful thinking.  Our leaders who inflict any and all sort of alarmist insanity on us to force us to atone for the sins of our fathers and their own can and will do so with absolute impunity.  That includes putting fiscal restraints on the Alberta health-care system, so as to enable the provincial government to set aside $2 billion for carbon capture and sequestration that, once implemented, will not have the slightest impact on global or even local climate trends, regardless of whether those trends will be towards a cooler or warmer climate.

Posted in Propaganda debunked, Health issues, Climate Change | Print | No Comments »

September 3, 2010 by Walter Schneider.

Sulphur fire sparks evacuation warning

Boxcar mishap raises fears of toxic smoke

By Benjamin Alldritt, North Shore News August 13, 2010

(Full Story)

Posted in Health issues, Community & Industry, Explosions & Fires, Emission Incidents & Issues | Print | No Comments »

April 28, 2010 by Walter Schneider.

Today I heard about a problem with scabies in at least one camp in Fort McMurray.

From what I heard, the workers being housed in the affected camp are asking that the spread of scabies could be halted or controlled if they would not be assigned new quarters after returning to work after an absence.

The operators of the camp claim that scabies is being spread due to workers in Fort McMurray not keeping clean, while the workers claim that scabies is highly contagious, and that the spread of scabies could be halted by having their living quarters not reassigned to others during their absence from work for whatever reasons.

Wikipedia has a good description of the circumstances and treatment of scabies.

Going by that description, it is obvious that it is quite possible that the spread of scabies can take place anywhere and not necessarily only through improperly cleaned living quarters.

Scabies infestations can easily be cured and controlled in livestock and pets.  They can just as easily be cured and controlled if they involve people, even though an effective cure requires perseverance and diligence.

Update 2010 04 29:

Any of the workers in Fort McMurray who find themselves to be afflicted by a scabies infestation could find themselves facing isolation, discrimination, somewhat lengthy medical treatment, and loss of wages. It would be well worth their while to consider the acquisition of a scabies infestation to be a work-related injury.

The media, all in a tiff over the deaths of 1,500 ducks on a tailings pond in Fort McMurray, inexplicably does not seem to deem the outbreak of scabies in Fort McMurray to be worthy of much coverage.  Probably that is for no other reason than that the media successfully dethroned mankind as the crown of creation.  It would not do to draw too much attention to the fact that mankind experiences any suffering.

A search for “scabies Fort McMurray” through Google.com contained 4 entries on the search return list, dating from 24 04 2010 to 27 04 2010.  The search-return list for a comparable search through bing.com contained five entries, also dating from 24 04 2010 to 27 04 2010.

Although the news articles that an Internet search will find assert that the spread of scabies infestations is a result of sharing “contaminated clothes, gloves or bed linens,” according to Dr. Brent Friesen of Alberta Health Services, Dr. Friesen also advises that “This is something people can easily protect themselves against by making sure they’re not sharing clothing, coveralls or gloves. Sometimes, when the weather gets hot, people under their coveralls are not really wearing a lot of other layers of clothing and, in that case, it’s really an opportune time for someone who has got the infection to spread it to someone else.”

Unfortunately, prevention of the spread of infestations is not so simple in the real world. It would seem obvious that Dr. Friesen never worked under the conditions that any of the workers threatened by scabies infestations must endure.  Workers are people, too, people just like Dr. Friesen, but, unlike Dr. Friesen’s speculation, it is extremely unlikely that any workers would share coveralls, no more so than that Dr. Friesen would share his underwear with someone else.

However, contrary to Dr. Friesen’s unwarranted and unproven speculation, other things easily aid the spread of scabies infestations, things that can be prevented through a number of common-sense practices:

Public health and prevention strategies

There is no vaccine available for scabies, nor are there any proven causative risk factors. Therefore, most strategies focus on preventing re-infection. All family and close contacts should be treated at the same time, even if asymptomatic. Cleaning of environment should occur simultaneously, as there is a risk of reinfection. Therefore it is recommended to wash and hot iron all material (such as clothes, bedding, and towels) that has been in contact with scabies infestation.

Cleaning the environment should include:

• Treatment of furniture and bedding.
• Vacuuming floors, carpets, and rugs.
• Disinfecting floor and bathroom surfaces by mopping.
• Cleaning the shower/bath tub after each use.
• Daily washing of recently worn clothes, towels and bedding in hot water, drying in a hot dryer and steam ironing. (Source: Wikipedia)

It is apparent that the much-praised health practices in use in the affected camps most definitely do not measure up to most of the ones contained in the preceding list of required measures.  In the mean time, Dr. Friesen would be well advised to accept that scabies can be spread not only through skin contact and the extremely unlikely “sharing of coveralls” but also through transfer of mites and their eggs from any contaminated item on a list that includes far more than merely the alleged sharing of coveralls.

Posted in Health issues, Community & Industry | Print | No Comments »