Fausta's Blog

Climate change castaways consider move to Australia

THE President of what could be the first country in the world lost to climate change has urged Australia to prepare for a mass wave of climate refugees seeking a new place to live.

The Maldivian President, Mohamed Nasheed, said his government was considering Australia as a possible new home if the tiny archipelago disappears beneath rising seas.

”It is increasingly becoming difficult to sustain the islands, in the natural manner that these islands have been,” he told the Herald in an interview in Male, the Maldives capital.

If you read on, the article seems to confuse beach erosion with rising sea levels. Beach erosion takes place whether the sea levels rise or not; it’s caused by the effect of tides and ocean currents on sands.

But back to the Maldives:

Tim Blair points out that Nasheed

Then … attended a ceremony to mark the construction of a new airport.

New airport?

When the country’s supposedly going to be swallowed by the waves at any moment?

Back to Tim Blair,

President Nasheed has more urgent problems than a few little waves:

An epidemic of cheap heroin has swept through the archipelago, but taken root in Male in particular. The UN has estimated 40 per cent of the country’s youth use hard drugs.

You mean, cheap heroin that arrives via airplanes?

Nasheed, a Muslim as the Maldives constitution obliges all Maldivians to be, also faces a rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism. Wahhabist Islamic scholars, most schooled in madrassas in Pakistan, are radicalising Islam in the Maldives.

Female circumcision is practised, and is reportedly on the increase, across the archipelago. There are calls for the return of amputation for crimes and for the banning of music and dancing. Women are flogged for having extra-marital sex.

Much more imminent problems than rising sea levels, indeed. The castaways have a long wait.

And, besides, weren’t the seas supposed to cease rising?

(links fixed)

UPDATE:
Linked by Hot Air. Thanks!

Nils-Axel Mörner, a sea-level expert from Sweden, sent President Nasheed a letter some time ago telling him that the sea levelsweren’t actually rising.

Turn on the lights!

Jim has the lunacy,

Here’s the problem,

The mercury in one bulb, for example, is enough to contaminate up to 6,000 gallons of water beyond safe drinking levels.

Consisting of glass tubes twisted into a spiral, they require more hand labor and so are made largely in China, where labor costs are lower and environmental regulations are not so strict. The Times of London recently reported that “large numbers of Chinese workers have been poisoned by mercury, which forms part of the compact fluorescent light bulbs.”

I hope Michelle Bachmann’s proposed legislation goes through.

How unserious can a UN Secretary General get?
Investor’s Business Daily has the answer,

Libya’s aflame, Mexico’s under siege, Iran’s building nuclear weapons and what’s the U.N. secretary-general doing? Pitching movie ideas to Hollywood bigwigs.

We kid you not. As the real world seemed to be coming apart at the seams, Ban Ki-moon swept into Tinseltown during Oscar week to urge the entertainment industry to produce more movies, TV shows and music about — drumroll, please — global warming.

Ah, global warming… where would we be without it, aside from having to wear shorts and flip-flops in New York City in winter?

Pitching propaganda films to Hollywood big-wigs: exactly what a Secretary General ought to be doing, while the US funds and hosts the UN.

Low-water toilets make sludge back up public sewer pipes, as the people of San Francisco are finding out,
Low-flow toilets cause a stink in SF

San Francisco’s big push for low-flow toilets has turned into a multimillion-dollar plumbing stink.

Skimping on toilet water has resulted in more sludge backing up inside the sewer pipes, said Tyrone Jue, spokesman for the city Public Utilities Commission. That has created a rotten-egg stench near AT&T Park and elsewhere, especially during the dry summer months.

The city has already spent $100 million over the past five years to upgrade its sewer system and sewage plants, in part to combat the odor problem.

What to do about the stinking mess? Bleach it!

Now officials are stocking up on a $14 million, three-year supply of highly concentrated sodium hypochlorite – better known as bleach – to act as an odor eater and to disinfect the city’s treated water before it’s dumped into the bay. It will also be used to sanitize drinking water.

That translates into 8.5 million pounds of bleach either being poured down city drains or into the drinking water supply every year.

In other green news, Consumer Reports doesn’t like the Volt,
Consumer Reports: GM’s Volt ‘doesn’t really make a lot of sense’

Champion believes a hybrid, such as the Toyota Prius, may make more sense for some trips.
“If you drive about 70 miles, a Prius will actually get you more miles per gallon than the Volt does,” Champion said.
But GM has noted that most Americans can avoid using gasoline for most regular commuting with the Volt, while its gasoline engine can allow the freedom to travel farther, if needed.
The magazine has put about 2,500 miles on its Volt. It paid $48,700, including a $5,000 markup by a Chevy dealer.
Champion noted the Volt is about twice as expensive as a Prius.

And that’s only for the sticker price. Don’t forget about the government bailout.

Moving right along the green path, CFL bulbs don’t compare to incandescent ones when it comes to brightness and quality of light, but you probably noticed that already.

Now I can’t wait for the reports a few years from now talking about what measures will be necessary to abate the high levels of mercury from discarded compact fluorescent bulbs.

More on the Volt at Uncoverage,

Let’s review: We’ve had the report in which it has been determined the Chevrolet Volt will not be economically feasible in enviro-MENTAL-liberal-infested California due to electric rates and other factors, that most of the “Government Motors” Volts are being bought by government agencies not private persons, the Volt can electrocute passengers or rescue personnel in accidents, trying to recharge just a few of the Volts can overload a local power grid, and President Obama’s own task force questioned its viability.

Brought to you by Government Motors!

Wind turbines are supposed to be a clean, efficient, green, environment-friendly way to generate the megawatts needed by industrial societies, or so the Quixotic idealists tell us.

Unfortunately they freeze (h/t Matt):

vA $200-million wind farm in northern New Brunswick is frozen solid, cutting off a supply of renewable energy for NB Power.

The 25-kilometre stretch of wind turbines, 70 kilometres northwest of Bathurst, has been shut down for several weeks due to heavy ice covering the blades. GDF Suez Energy, the company that owns and operates the site, is working to return the windmills to working order, a spokeswoman says.

That’s when they don’t fall apart,

In other energy news, Obama’s assault on our domestic energy now a 4-alarm fire. Go read about it.

I’ve never understood why electric cars are supposedly more energy efficient, since you have to recharge the battery by plugging into the power grid. However, one shouldn’t underestimate the value of a placebo in soothing the green conscience.

So go ahead and get an electric car; just don’t be in a hurry to get anywhere:
London to Edinburgh by electric car: it was quicker by stagecoach
The BBC’s stunt of taking an electric Mini to Edinburgh reveals just how impractical rechargeable cars are, writes Christopher Booker

In its obsessive desire to promote the virtues of electric cars, the BBC proudly showed us last week how its reporter Brian Milligan was able to drive an electric Mini from London to Edinburgh in a mere four days – with nine stops of up to 10 hours to recharge the batteries (with electricity from fossil fuels).

What the BBC omitted to tell us was that in the 1830s, a stagecoach was able to make the same journey in half the time, with two days and nights of continuous driving. This did require 50 stops to change horses, but each of these took only two minutes, giving a total stopping time of just over an hour and a half.

In case you don’t know, the distance from London to Edinbugh is 332 miles. In US terms that means can get from Princeton today and be in Akron, Ohio (364 miles) by Friday, but only if you leave right now.

Just make sure you don’t turn on the heat, and wear longjohns.

We’re going from the space age to the spaced-out age in 4…3…2…

The Wall Street Journal sheds a jaundiced light at the compact fluorescent bulb:
The New Light Bulbs Lose a Little Shine
Compact Fluorescent Lamps Burn Out Faster Than Expected, Limiting Energy Savings in California’s Efficiency Program (emphasis added)

California’s utilities are spending $548 million over seven years to subsidize consumer purchases of compact fluorescent lamps. But the benefits are turning out to be less than expected.

One reason is that bulbs have gotten so cheap that Californians buy more than they need and sock them away for future use. Another reason is that the bulbs are burning out faster than expected.

Here’s what the compact fluorescents are supposed to do in theory,

Here’s what happened at casa de Fausta: I went to Lowe’s, purchased a box of three CFs, replaced a burned-out incandescent that had been working well for four years with one of the CFs, and turned on the light.

The CF turned on, flickered, and died.

Until some good LEDs are readily available, I’ll keep using incandescents, thank you.

Cross-posted at The Green Room

John Hinderaker calls it this year’s coyest news story, but the year is young, so expect more like it,
Climate a factor in Rome’s rise and fall -study, h/t Jeff, who says,

OK Class what did we learn? Wet weather may have contributed to the spread of the bubonic plague, and disingenuous scientists may have contributed to the spread of the global warming hoax plague.