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Politics : The Environmentalist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (24781)	8/1/2009 2:18:47 PM
From: average joe	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 36917

Al Gore - A lot of hot air Besides being a columnist, I am an ardent reader of two local newspapers; a daily and a weekly. The weekly reported for almost a year now on proposed wind turbines to grace the Mount St. Patrick escarpment between Dacre and Barry's Bay. Through the varying views on this topic expressed in these publications, I became rather interested in wind turbines and "in-stream" electric generators, all of which are the birthchild of the current Ontario government's fanatic obsession with so-called "green energy" and desperation to stimulate the economy, regardless of the other cost to the environment. On occasion I wrote about these topics, but without having good answers, I raised questions. The time when I did express a strong opinion, it was castigating the Ontario "Green Energy and Green Economy Act" and the gag-order imposed on municipal governments, literally forcing them to change existing zoning bylaws and issue construction permits without delay, instead of having them exercise their constitutional mandate, ie. acting in accordance with the wishes and in the best interest of their constituents. Medias have space and/or time restrictions. Writing or reporting about technical and scientific material often leaves no room to list scientist's credentials and lengthy titles. This brings me to Dr. Paul Morris' letter to the editor published in the July 18 Observer. He is highly critical of and castigates Lou Eyamie for omitting the titles and context of scientific studies he referred to in his earlier letter to the editor, but only made reference to highlights. From what I can decipher in Dr. Morris' letter, he appears to be a follower of the Al Gore/David Suzuki doctrine that climate change and alleged global warming are man-made for the most part. Getting back to Dr. Morris' criticism of Lou Eyamie, for omitting certain matters in his letter, please allow me justifiable criticism of the Al Gore/David Suzuki apostles whose trademark it is to lament about wonderland Germany and its accomplishments to "save planet Earth" against climate change and global warming. * They deliberately omit the destructive consequences of wind turbine construction sites, needed service roads and power corridors, especially in wooded environments. * They deliberately omit the permanent destruction of aquatic habitats and fish migration routes, besides obstructing navigation, at sites where "in-stream" electric generators are installed. * They neglect to report that wonderland Germany's +13,400 wind turbines (2007 data) have not resulted in the shut-down of one single coal-fired power station. (Isn't that the goal of Ontario's government policy?) * They deliberately hide and are silent of the fact, that Germany contemplates building about 40 more coal-fired power plants;mind you, with state-of-the- art pollution controls. * They remain silent on the fact, that every new wind turbine site in Germany attracts hundreds of protesters who take time off work and travel great distances to these sites, nor do they feature interviews with those protesters hearing their reasons for opposing wind turbines. Why? * They do not mention the amounts of money governments are subsidizing wind turbine and "in-stream" generator construction, besides offering their owners long-term guaranteed prices for kilowatt hours fed into the power grid. * And lastly, neither they nor our governments publish calculations of how much it will cost society, were a carbon tax or a cap-and- trade scheme implemented and once thousands of electric or hybrid cars plugged into the power grid and smart-metered. Who gets rich and who gets poorer once "green energy" production is in full swing? I fear Ontario is on the same hypocritical path as Germany, which shuts down its nuclear power plants, but imports electricity from France's nuclear power generators. Because Ontario's steadily increasing electricity demands will not be met by wind turbines and "in-stream" generators, apparently the "green soldiers" see nothing wrong with importing coal-fired electricity from the U. S. once our power plants are shut down. With so many omissions by the Al Gore/David Suzuki apostolate, allow me to suggest that Lou Eyamie is owed an apology! thedailyobserver.ca

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (24781)	8/1/2009 10:23:09 PM
From: average joe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 36917

Ice pockets choking Northern Passage: officials By Randy Boswell, Canwest News ServiceAugust 1, 2009 Despite predictions from a top U.S. polar institute that the Arctic Ocean’s overall ice cover is headed for another “extreme” meltdown by mid-September, the Environment Canada agency monitoring our northern waters says an unusual combination of factors is making navigation more difficult in the Northwest Passage this year after two straight summers of virtually clear sailing. In both the wider, deep-water northern corridor and the narrower, shallower southern branches of the passage, the Canadian Ice Service says pockets of more extensive winter freezing and concentrations of thicker, older ice at several key “choke points” are complicating ship travel. The fabled trans-Arctic sea route, zealously sought by European explorers in centuries past as a shortcut to Asia, is increasingly seen in today’s era of rapidly retreating sea ice as a potential highway to resource riches and Arctic tourist destinations. A record number of vessels passed through Canada’s Arctic islands last year, and experts have been predicting a steady rise in ship traffic in both the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea Route, which connects Europe to eastern Asia along Russia’s Arctic coast. The northern route of the Northwest Passage is called the Parry Channel, a deep, wide and relatively direct path between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that runs through Canada’s Arctic archipelago between northern Baffin Island in the east and northern Banks Island in the west. That route connects Lancaster Sound, Barrow Strait, Viscount Melville Sound and, finally, McClure Strait at the western outlet to the northern Beaufort Sea. The southern branches of the Northwest Passage follow the northern route through Lancaster Sound and Barrow Strait before turning south on either side of Prince of Wales Island, through Peel Sound or McClintock Channel toward mainland Northwest Territories and a coastal route exiting at Amundsen Gulf and the southern Beaufort. While the northern route offers a potentially faster, shorter path through deeper waters, its ice cover is typically thicker and last longer into the summer. The southern routes are typically clearer of heavy ice, but shallower waters and the circuitous path present other challenges for ships making trans-Arctic voyages. “In the southern route,” Canadian Ice Service officials told Canwest News Service, the agency “has observed more ice coverage than normal. This is partly due to the fact that the ice in the Amundsen Gulf consolidated this past winter, which is something it didn’t do in 2007 and 2008.” In the central part of the passage where the northern and southern routes merge amid narrowings around Prince of Wales Island, the CIS has observed “greater than normal concentrations of thicker, multi-year ice. This is the result of an increased flow of older ice from the Beaufort Sea into the Canadian Arctic archipelago last year.” The result, the agency said, is that ice conditions “are delaying any potential navigability of the Northwest Passage this year. This is opposite to what Environment Canada observed in the last week of July in 2007 and 2008.” While Canada’s trans-Arctic sea route remains clogged with ice, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center is predicting another near-record meltdown by the end of this year’s summer thaw. The unprecedented 2007 shrinkage of polar ice cover to just 4.13 million square kilometres — nearly matched last year when only a 4.52-million-sq.-km. expanse of ice was left by mid-September — has led many forecasters to envision a virtually ice-free Arctic The Colorado-based NSIDC’s daily tracking of Arctic ice extent shows this year’s melt trending only slightly behind the record-setting 2007 rate. “During the first half of July, Arctic sea ice extent declined more quickly than in 2008, but not as fast as in 2007,” the Colorado-based NSIDC states in its latest report. “International sea ice researchers expect another low September minimum ice extent, but they do not yet know if it will fall below the 2007 record.” Scientists believe the ongoing retreat is being driven by several factors, including rising global temperatures associated with human-induced climate change, and the associated breakup and loss of thicker, multi-year year ice that is being replaced only seasonally by a thin layer of winter ice that disappears quickly each summer. Earlier this summer, scientists with NASA and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned that the unprecedented thinning of Arctic sea ice — a phenomenon not always evident in satellite images showing the shrinking area of the polar cap — could soon lead to largely ice-free summers throughout the region. montrealgazette.com