From The Guys At Crainium

I just had to share this post form the guys over at within the crainium.

Way To Go John Coleman!!

For those who don't know who John Colman is, he was the founder of the Weather Channel. He is also the Chief Meteorologist at KUSI, an independently owned San Diego. He is coming forward and doing something that a lot of people wanted to do, I am sure of it, because I am one of them. Step out against Global Warming. I am getting sick and tired of Al Gore and is load of crap. Global Warming is the biggest money making, marketing ploy, scam in the worlds history and we're just sitting back and letting people like Mr. Gore walk all over us. Here is a video of John Colman in an interview discussing his view points on the subject.

And Now For The Response...

This is the response I wrote and submitted to Burnside Writers Collective (that they didn't post, or at least haven't yet). Anyway, I tried not to beat down anyone's viewpoint or anything (believe me, I have the information to), I just tried to be as informative as I could. So, here is the response, let me know what you think.

Let me start off by saying that I work for a large utility company here in the U.S. To add to that, I work at a coal fired power plant. After reading the letter from Mr. Berry and McKibben, I was a little concerned. The main reasons for my concern aren’t my job, the well being of Mr. Berry and McKibben, or the future of coal in the U.S.. My main concern is for the people reading the letter. This letter is nothing but a desperate attempt to round up followers and a scare tactic. Another thing I would like to mention before I get started is that I do believe we need to do a better job at energy conservation and controlling pollution. That said, here is my response.
There are interesting statements made in the letter. All of these statements however, have no credible sources (at least none posted with the letter). The first declaration made, “Coal-fired power is driving climate change. Our foremost climatologist, NASA’s James Hansen, has demonstrated that our only hope of getting our atmosphere back to a safe level—below 350 parts per million co2—lies in stopping the use of coal to generate electricity.” That’s really a bold statement considering it rules out everything else that “supposedly” contributes to “climate change.” In addition, CO2 isn’t the only gas that contributes to the issue. Mr. Hansen from NASA claims that we need to get below 350 parts per million in CO2. That’s fine, but instead of focusing on just one producer of CO2, why not all of them. Think about that for a moment; big list isn’t it. Bread production (rising yeast), cars, breathing, anything having to do with combustion, concrete production, and that’s just to name a few. To say coal fired power alone is driving climate change is just absurd.
I like their statement of, “Coal smoke makes children sick.” Coal smoke? Really, is that what you call it? Where exactly is this “coal smoke” they speak of? If they are talking about the emissions from the stack, the last time I checked that wasn’t smoke. While on the subject of “stack smoke”; just a little FYI for everyone in the world, the white plums the media show in video clips and pictures, that is not smoke, its steam. That’s right, the same thing that comes out of your tea pot when you boil a bit of water.
Let’s talk emissions for a moment. That is always on everyone’s mind when this sort of subject comes up. Now, at the facility I work at, we continually monitor our emissions. When I say continually I mean every minute, of every day 365 days a year. We omit nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), and sulfur dioxide (SO2). Your run of the mill car on the road omits the same thing, but how often do you monitor that. Once every two years, or longer, depending on what state you live in. How do you know if your car is releasing over the allowed limit in between tests? You don’t do you. A power plant build in the U.S. has a much more stringent limit than your car.
Here’s something else to think about. What would happen if one day, all of the facilities burning coal to produce energy stopped? What do they expect to take its place? I would like to know what Mr. Berry and McKibben position is on nuclear power. The reason being, nuclear power is the most logical form to use in making up the difference from fossil fuel energy.
One other thing before I close; I would like to make a comment about the coal field encroaching on the small town. There’s something I want to know about that statement. Who is complaining about the field, and how many of those people living in that town work at that field? The reason I ask is this. I was born in Craig Colorado. That town has two coal mines and a three unit coal fired power plant just outside of town. No one in that town complains, they know those places are the main reason the town is there. If those facilities were to go away, that town would no longer exist.
I intended this response not to be an argument about the letter. I do feel we need to conserve the resources we have and find ways to be good stewards of this planet. The main focus I would like to stress is to think for you. Don’t take someone’s word for something. If you read something, do some research for yourself. The internet is one of the most amazing tools we have. Please use it, come up with your own conclusions on the different world issues. Just because someone says something is bad and we need to change it, doesn’t mean it should be followed nor does it mean it is fact.

Thanks, Erik Adams

The Carbon Emission Of The World!!!!

I had never heard back from the Burnside Writers Collective on my response to a letter they posted on the site a month or so ago. I had mentioned earlier that I would let you all know when they posted the letter I wrote. Well, seeing as though it never happened, here is the letter they originally post. Tomorrow I will post my response to this letter. I will say that this just goes to show how ignorant people truly are. To think that some people out there will jump at the chance to "join the cause" by just taking some ones word for it, and not doing their own research and coming up with their own conclusions. Enjoy...

Dear Friends,
There are moments in a nation’s—and a planet’s—history when it may be necessary for some to break the law in order to bear witness to an evil, bring it to wider attention, and push for its correction. We think such a time has arrived, and we are writing to say that we hope some of you will join us in Washington D.C. on Monday March 2 in order to take part in a civil act of civil disobedience outside a coal-fired power plant near Capitol Hill.
We will be there to make several points:
- Coal-fired power is driving climate change. Our foremost climatologist, NASA’s James Hansen, has demonstrated that our only hope of getting our atmosphere back to a safe level—below 350 parts per million co2—lies in stopping the use of coal to generate electricity.
- Even if climate change were not the urgent crisis that it is, we would still be burning our fossil fuels too fast, wasting too much energy and releasing too much poison into the air and water. We would still need to slow down, and to restore thrift to its old place as an economic virtue.
- Coal is filthy at its source. Much of the coal used in this country comes from West Virginia and Kentucky, where companies engage in “mountaintop removal” to get at the stuff; they leave behind a leveled wasteland, and impoverished human communities. No technology better exemplifies the out-of-control relationship between humans and the rest of creation.
- Coal smoke makes children sick. Asthma rates in urban areas near coal-fired power plants are high. Air pollution from burning coal is harmful to the health of grown-ups too, and to the health of everything that breathes, including forests.
The industry claim that there is something called “clean coal” is, put simply, a lie. But it’s a lie told with tens of millions of dollars, which we do not have. We have our bodies, and we are willing to use them to make our point. We don’t come to such a step lightly. We have written and testified and organized politically to make this point for many years, and while in recent months there has been real progress against new coal-fired power plants, the daily business of providing half our electricity from coal continues unabated. It’s time to make clear that we can’t safely run this planet on coal at all. So we feel the time has come to do more—we hear President Barack Obama’s call for a movement for change that continues past election day, and we hear Nobel Laureate Al Gore’s call for creative non-violence outside coal plants. As part of the international negotiations now underway on global warming, our nation will be asking China, India, and others to limit their use of coal in the future to help save the planet’s atmosphere. This is a hard thing to ask, because it’s their cheapest fuel. Part of our witness in March will be to say that we’re willing to make some sacrifices ourselves, even if it’s only a trip to the jail.
With any luck, this will be the largest such protest yet, large enough that it may provide a real spark. If you want to participate with us, you need to go through a short course of non-violence training. This will be, to the extent it depends on us, an entirely peaceful demonstration, carried out in a spirit of hope and not rancor. We will be there in our dress clothes, and ask the same of you. There will be young people, people from faith communities, people from the coal fields of Appalachia, and from the neighborhoods in Washington that get to breathe the smoke from the plant.
We will cross the legal boundary of the power plant, and we expect to be arrested. After that we have no certainty what will happen, but lawyers and such will be on hand. Our goal is not to shut the plant down for the day—it is but one of many, and anyway its operation for a day is not the point. The worldwide daily reliance on coal is the danger; this is one small step to raise awareness of that ruinous habit and hence help to break it.
Needless to say, we’re not handling the logistics of this day. All the credit goes to a variety of groups, especially EnergyAction (which is bringing thousands of young people to Washington that weekend), Greenpeace, the Ruckus Society, and Rainforest Action Network. A website at that latter organization is serving as a temporary organizing hub. If you go there, you will find a place to leave your name so that we’ll know you want to join us.
Thank you,
Wendell Berry, Bill McKibben

The Hot New Word... Bailout!

I've seen this picture on a few blogs that I enjoy. One is Crainium (yes it's spelled wrong, but that's how they have it). The other is Grey Matter. This is Susan Isaacs' site, she's a Christian author living in Southern Cali (and she's really funny).

There is a small paragraph at the end that may be a bit hard to read so here's what it says,

You probably thought it was smart to by a foreign import of superior quality, with better mileage and resale value. Maybe you even thought that years of market share loss might prod us into rethinking our process and redesigning our products with better quality in mind. But you forgot one thing: we spend a shitload of money on lobbyists. So now you're out $25 billion, plus the cost of your Subaru. Maybe next time you'll buy American like a real man. Either way, we're cool.

It sure feels like that doesn't it? It seems everyone is crying for the government to "bail" them out. What ever happened to using your head and figuring out creative ways to solve problems?

Susan also mentions a quote from Alexis DeToqueville, "America is great because it is good. Once she ceases to be good, she will cease to be great." After that Susan asked a question that got me thinking, here is what she asked, "when did you first have that rude awakening that America was no longer good?"

Sort of a slap in the face kind of question isn't it. I think it is a good one to ask. The only way this country is going to be great again is if the people who live in it start acknowledging the fact that this country isn't great anymore. I though about it for some time and my conclusion is this. For me, this country hasn't been great since September 12, 2001. I feel this country has never recovered for the attack. I know there are people out there that don't what to hear that, but that is the problem, you can't fix something by not acknowledging it first. We can't go around putting band aids on things and covering up the problems just because we don't want to deal with them. FRANKLY I THINK IT'S A LOAD OF CRAP!

Here is the biggest problem with this country (in my opinion). This country doesn't have a budget problem. The budgets are there, and have been for a long time. This country can put together a budget faster than a humming bird flaps its wings. The problem is, this country has a spending addiction. The country wants to spend more money so they make a budget to accommodate. The root of this problem is that there is no money to back that budget because it was spent on something else, which is why the country has to create and spend this new budget to begin with. But their fix to the problem is to go print more money. Which is why the money in my wallet isn't worth the pile of crap the government is feeding us.

This is why I think this country will never be like it was before 9/11. I'm not saying it was fantastic before, I'm just saying it went into the crapper after the attacks and will never be any better (unless they fix the spending problems and that will probably never happen).

Sorry for the depressing post but I thought it needed to be said. I don't care if it makes anybody made it's just the truth. So, to quote The Guy From Boston, "I got the ball to say what your thinking!"

Enjoy the holidays every body Marry Christmas and Happy New Year... oops, sorry, best wishes for the Winter Solstice Holiday and a new calender year.

Just A Few Thoughts

I have never written anything on my blog that had to do with politics. I'm not much for politics to be honest. I never have been, and frankly, I can't say that I wish I had a more informed political head on my shoulders. There are some out there, even people I know, that would argue and say that it's my duty as a US citizen to be more involved in politics. Well, to that statement I would have to say, "Eat my shorts"!

I don't like to pick sides much. Don't take that the wrong way, because there are a few issues that I firmly believe in and stick with. I feel that to be very important. However, I feel by keeping my view points open, I give myself the ability to see both sides of the story.

Now I'm not going to sit here and type out my list of things I voted for this year. I will say that I was against Obama more than I was for Him. But, that's not why I decided to post this blog. I did however, want to talk about a few things I have been getting in emails and hearing through the grapevine.

To start off, I spent some time and watched the 60 Minutes special with Obama. Frankly, all but 10 minutes of it was a waste of time in my opinion. I wanted to hear more about his plans for fixing this place I call home, and less on the home life, that rundown apartment he lived in, and that stupid dog. That's the problem with this country, too many people are worried about what kind of dog the president-elect is going to get and less time on the important matters; like the American Greenback I have in my wallet that's worth squat, or the 401ks in this country that are now worth the Kleenex Americans blow their noses in!!!!

Something else he mentioned in the show that I'm a bit confused about. Someone explain to me how we are supposed to hunt down and rid ourselves of the people we need to in the middle east, yet evacuate our solders from the same country that individual is in? If anyone can explain that to me, please do, because it makes no sense to me.

Also, I am tired of hearing that Obama is the sign of the end of the world, that he is the anti-Christ, and all the black man references. They are getting old to say the least. I believe, in this time of great need, on many different levels, in order to be true Americans, and upstanding Christians, we need to take a step back and evaluate what needs to be done, what has been done, and what still needs to be done in order to make this country great again; and stop throwing around all of the childish propaganda. Its a waste of time and precious energy.

There is not a person in this country that knows what is going to happen. The guy hasn't even made it into office yet. No one is perfect, and no one claims to have all the answers. There may be many things that Obama does that people disagree on. I didn't agree with a lot of things Obama said during his campaign. Heck, there were a lot things I didn't agree with that McCain said too. And I'll bet that goes for a lot of other people in this country as well. Now I'm not saying to give up, bend over and take what he gives us. All I'm saying is try to go into this with an open mind. Who knows what's going to happen.

Now, I understand that this post may offend some people and there may be some people that agree with me. For the people that disagree with me, I am sorry, this is just how I feel. For those of you that agree, sweet, at least I'm not the only one.

Abraham Lincoln said it best, "Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."