Sunday, March 02, 2008

Barack Obama's Honesty Parade (#309): Energy & Climate

 
BARACK OBAMA HONESTY PARADEBarack Obama on "global warming" (or is it "climate change" now? I forget).

[We must] deal with an energy situation where we are sending $800 million [a] day to some of the most hostile nations on earth and melting the polar ice caps in the process.

Why are we sending $800 million a day to pay overseas?

Because Democrats have blocked all oil exploration around the continental United States.


The accompanying map depicts "The No Zone." This is the region surrounding the United States in which Democrats have blocked oil exploration. From the tiny spit of land within the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to the Continental Shelf, Democrats have uniformly opposed every form of exploration that would allow us to stop sending our funds overseas and give us the time to transition to clean energy technologies.


In the mean time, Cuba has leased drilling rights to foreign countries, which will permit them to drain the Gulf of Mexico of its oil. For example, Cuba recently granted China drilling rights in the Gulf. And, in fact, China will be drilling within 50 miles of Florida.

While countries such as China suck oil out of the Gulf, Democrats continue to stonewall against sensible energy policies.

And are we really "melting the polar ice-caps"?

Actually, the verdict is in: the last twelve months have seen a long drop in world temperatures that literally wipes out a century of warming.


In fact, solar data suggests our concerns should be about global cooling. The sun's 'disturbingly quiet' cycle suggests the possibility of a "Maunder Minimum," which presages a massive cooling event.

Solar activity fluctuates in an 11-year cycle. But so far in this cycle, the sun has been disturbingly quiet. The lack of increased activity could signal the beginning of what is known as a Maunder Minimum, an event which occurs every couple of centuries and can last as long as a century.

Such an event occurred in the 17th century. The observation of sunspots showed extraordinarily low levels of magnetism on the sun, with little or no 11-year cycle.

This solar hibernation corresponded with a period of bitter cold that began around 1650 and lasted, with intermittent spikes of warming, until 1715. Frigid winters and cold summers during that period led to massive crop failures, famine and death in Northern Europe...

As for the polar ice caps?

The Antarctic (South Pole) is seeing "record levels of... sea ice":

The Southern Hemisphere sea ice area narrowly surpassed the previous historic maximum of 16.03 million sq. km to 16.17 million sq. km...

And how about the Arctic? On February 15, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that Arctic sea ice has seen a "significant increase" in size following an extremely cold winter.

There's an upside to the extreme cold temperatures northern Canadians have endured in the last few weeks: scientists say it's been helping winter sea ice grow across the Arctic, where the ice shrank to record-low levels last year. Temperatures have stayed well in the -30s C and -40s C range since late January throughout the North, with the mercury dipping past -50 C in some areas. Satellite images are showing that the cold spell is helping the sea ice expand in coverage by about 2 million square kilometres, compared to the average winter coverage in the previous three years... If temperatures remain cold this winter, Langis said winter sea ice coverage will continue to expand.

Energy & Climate

With respect to both energy independence and "climate change", Barack Obama's truthiness leaves a lot to be desired.

I'm Doug Ross and I approved this message.

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