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Politics : The Exxon Free Environmental Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Land Shark who wrote (4441)	10/18/2009 10:52:51 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 49019

I'm inclined to say no, but I don't think they plan that far ahead. Part ideology ; AlGore. Part scientific illiteracy, combined with the belief that the Bible is a science book. Partly fear that this quarter's bottom line will be adversely impacted. Maybe because most live in urban settings, and don't personally notice things like this comment in Oil Drum. airdale on October 16, 2009 - 10:23am A few comments above about AG. So I just wanted to say in passing this: Right now agriculture in looking at a very bad scenario. The weather is taking a huge toll on crops just about everywhere. Illinois,Iowa, and all the rest. Here in Ky farmers are scrambling to find enough equipment to allow them to harvest the mostly unfinished and very very late crops in their fields. The windows of opportunity are closing rapidly. Right here my buddy has been traveling the country for the last week trying to find a used combine. With the number of possible field days left he knows he will not be able to harvest all the acres planted. The same situation exists in other states. Too little time, November may be good or could be very bad. The saying is "you can't count on November"... We have had rain almost continually for much of Sept and all of Oct. Corn is starting to fall over.Frost is blackening the beans elsewhere. Diseases are breaking out. The moisture is extremely high still, 25-30 percent and higher. Leave a auger wagon of beans overnite and it starts to rot due to moisture. As the crops yields diminish the prices will rise. If a farmer has forward contracted his crops at a usual price and the prices skyrocket then he MUST fill his contracts by buying on the open market if his crops are insufficient to fill his contracts. This could spell diaster financially. Then if he has need of large infusions of cash via loans, it may be hard to obtain said loans. Much of the used combines have been shipped to China. Leaving little to pick over at the dealers. What is there is in pretty bad shape. A guy just cannot harvest 4 thousand acres of crops with all the above conditions and you can't count on neighbors for they are all in the same boat and running scared shitless. Of course Mother Nature could oblige. Could but could not. This once again is "Climate Change in Action"...Snows up north. Standing water in many fields. Illinois which I have been thru quite a bit recently has almost NO crops harvested as yet. Four combines hit the river bottoms last Sunday when we had one brief day of sunshine. They are still sitting there. When your header is dealing with mud you just can't cut beans. What the river didn't take last week is still standing , for now. Folks you cannot eat OIL, nor Plastic nor windmills nor PV panels. You must eat what comes out of the ground. Thats the way it is. Its fine to discuss those topics ad infitium but life revolves around food after all. I know there are very few here who understand about Big Ag. There are a few who went to some Ag colleges years and years ago. Times have changed. That knowledge is basically useless in todays farm world. Welding the crank on a 40's era Red Belly Ford is not going to do a damn thing about feeding millions of people. Discussions here on the topic of agriculture leave me shaking my head and muttering to myself. I am just reporting what I am seeing. Thought it worth posting though I mostly eschew such these days. A few might take heed..but again.... Airdale-take it for what its worth, go visit some ag websites, I will not be replying...gone to check some farm equipment and back to silent running.....

To: Land Shark who wrote (4441)	10/20/2009 10:12:18 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 49019

Climate Cover-Up: A (Brief) Review mike @ 20 October 2009 We often allude to the industry-funded attacks against climate change science, and the dubious cast of characters involved, here at RealClimate. In recent years, for example, we’ve commented on disinformation efforts by industry front groups such as the “Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Cato Institute, the Fraser Institute, and a personal favorite, The Heartland Institute, and by industry-friendly institutions such as the Wall Street Journal editorial board, and other media outlets that assist in the manufacture and distribution of climate change disinformation. When it comes to the climate change disinformation campaign, we have choosen to focus on the intellectually bankrupt nature of the scientific arguments, rather than the political motivations and the sometimes intriguing money trail. We leave it to others, including organizations such as SourceWatch.org, the sleuths at DeSmogBlog, authors such as Ross Gelbspan (author of The Heat is On, and The Boiling Point), and edited works such as Rescuing Science from Politics to deal with such issues. One problem with books on this topic is that they quickly grow out of date. Just over the past few years, there have been many significant events in the ‘climate wars’ as we have reported on this site. Fortunately, there is a book out now by our friends at DeSmogBlog (co-founder James Hoggan, and regular contributor Richard Littlemore) entitled Climate Cover Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming that discusses the details of the contrarian attacks on climate science up through the present, and in painstaking detail. They have done their research, and have fully documented their findings, summarized by the publisher thusly: Talk of global warming is nearly inescapable these days — but there are some who believe the concept of climate change is an elaborate hoax. Despite the input of the world’s leading climate scientists, the urgings of politicians, and the outcry of many grassroots activists, many Americans continue to ignore the warning signs of severe climate shifts. How did this happen? Climate Cover-up seeks to answer this question, describing the pollsters and public faces who have crafted careful language to refute the findings of environmental scientists. Exploring the PR techniques, phony “think tanks,” and funding used to pervert scientific fact, this book serves as a wake-up call to those who still wish to deny the inconvenient truth. There are interesting new details about the Revelle/Singer/Lancaster affair (next post) and other tidbits that were new to me, and will likely to be new to others who been following the history of climate change contrarianism. Ross Gelbspan who has set the standard for investigative reporting when it comes to the climate change denial campaign, had this to say about the book: absolutely superb-one of the best dissections of the climate information war I have ever seen. This is one terrific piece of work! There is an important story behind the climate change denial effort that goes well beyond the scientific issues at hand. Its not our mission at RealClimate to tell that story, but there are others who are doing it, and doing it well. Hoggan and Littlemore are clearly among them. Read this book, and equally important, make sure that others who need to do as well. realclimate.org