MUENCHHAUSEN, Nov. 28, 2015

MUENCHHAUSEN

AN ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ENVIRONMENT,

RENEWABLE RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY,

AND RELATED TOPICS

By BOOTSTRAP PRESS, INC.

BETHESDA, MD

JJGREENBARON(at)VERIZON.NET

===========================================================

November 28, 2015

===========================================================

WELCOME!

The Green Baron (TGB) welcomes one and all who take the time to read Muenchhausen. He aims to “tell it like it is” as much as possible, and avoid advocacy and ideological positions. There are enough of those to go around in other publications.

The Green Baron also welcomes comments from anyone who may read Muenchhausen. Please send comments to the e-mail address above.

PARIS MONDAY
Well, the big international climate conference opens in Paris this Monday--that's November 30, and it lasts until December 11, if all goes according to plan. The United States goes there riding on its moral high horse, being in the process of closing down the coal industry and leading the charge away from (or retreat from?) fossil fuel use. Please don't misunderstand TGB. He is truly all in favor of the use of renewable sources of energy to power the economies of the various nations of the world. May he presume to inquire how such energy is to be accumulated, stored, and distributed to drive our various economies? 

Additionally, with 100+ nations being represented at the Paris conference, including many heads of state of heads of government, will this grand conference be deemed a total success, a partial success, or, effectively, a failure? That remains to be seen and how those who report on it spin their stories. Meanwhile, TGB reads that there has been one of the worst air pollution episodes in Beijing, China, in a long time, and in a city that experiences air pollution incidents frequently (1). Numbers? The US Embassy in Beijing reported particulate matter levels at PM2.5 = 391 micrograms per cubic meter. The World Health Organization places the safe level at 25 micrograms per cubic meter. Reportedly, visibility was reduced to "a few hundred meters" (1). TGB believes that the Chinese delegates to the Paris conference will give strong lip service to reduction of air pollution levels and other environmental problems. Whether and when this lip service will evolve into actual results is what TGB hesitates to speculate.


Cough, cough! (3)

Here's another one from the Financial Times: "India has blocked G20 efforts to pave the way towards an ambitious global climate change accord, in a sign of the deep divisions confronting negotiators just weeks before delegates from nearly 200 nations meet in Paris" (2). This is worth a read if one can read the whole story, which TGB has on a flash drive. Who knows how many other parallel examples there may be, with some hemming and hawing, and "we wholeheartedly support combating climate change, but, ah, we do have certain, er, problems that we need to address first." Well, you get the picture.

And just to add some icing to the cake (and TGB likes icing on cake, take that, Sugar Police!), imagine the security measures that will be taken in Paris, given the events of Friday, Nov. 13! Stay tuned!

REFERENCES
1. Air pollution in Beijing hits hazardous levels". http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Air-pollution-in-Beijing-hits-hazardous-levels-6661328.php, Nov. 28, 2015.
2. Barker, A., Clark, P. "India stance slows progress towards climate change deal". Financial Times, Nov. 17, 2015, p. 6. 
3. http://chinatravelgo.com/travel-air-pollution-in-beijing-and-china/

MUENCHHAUSEN, Nov. 22, 2015

MUENCHHAUSEN

AN ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ENVIRONMENT,
RENEWABLE RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY,
AND RELATED TOPICS

By BOOTSTRAP PRESS, INC.
BETHESDA, MD
JJGREENBARON(at)VERIZON.NET

=============================================================== 
NOVEMBER  23, 2015
===============================================================

WELCOME!
The Green Baron (TGB) welcomes one and all who take the time to read Muenchhausen. He aims to “tell it like it is” as much as possible, and avoid advocacy and ideological positions. There are enough of those to go around in other publications. TGB also regrets the recent paucity of Muenchhausen postings, but he had some personal matters that had to be resolved.



CLIMATE SUMMIT IN PARIS?
Leaders of 100+ nations are to meet in Paris, France (not Virginia or Texas!) from November 30 to December 11, 2015 to discuss how to save Earth from the possible calamities, real or perceived, of climate change. That is one week from the date of this posting of Muenchhausen. The result is supposed to be some sort of a working agreement, rather than a formal treaty. One possible reason for such an arrangement is that in the United States, a treaty must be ratified by the Senate with a two-thirds majority of those Senators voting, and much of the so-called international community has been urging the current US administration to circumvent Congress.

One of the main, perhaps the main thrust of the Paris Climate Change Summit is to limit and reduce and emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases (GHG), such as methane. The US seeks to go to the Summit with an air of strong moral suasion; hence current measures to reduce and ultimately eliminate, for example, the use of coal to generate electric power and likely increase the cost of electricity. Bear in mind that in 2008, Candidate Barack Obama said plainly that "the cost of electricity must necessarily skyrocket." Meantime, coal is a relatively inexpensive fuel for generating electricity. Currently, so is natural gas, but TGB believes that its low price will not prevail for long.

Now many of the national leaders attending the Summit should be expected to give at least fervent lip service to plans to reduce carbon emissions to some level below a base level set at perhaps that of 2005 (more ideally, perhaps 1990, but that seems hardly feasible under current circumstances). Some leaders of nations such as Kiribati and Tuvalu in Polynesia may push hard for such reductions, fearing that sea levels will rise high enough to submerge these island countries. The same holds, for instance, for the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. However, TGB believes, perhaps a bit cynically, that some other nations, in the throes of industrialization will talk eloquently about GHG emission reductions, but not deliver on their promises.

One can readily imagine what the security in Paris will be like, given the events there of November 13, 2015. TGB will post more as information about this Summit develops.

 

BAN BATHS!
If TGB may indulge in a few comments with varying relevance to the forthcoming Paris Summit:

Prince Charles of the United Kingdom states that climate change; i.e., global warming, is a primary factor in the cause of the current wars in the Middle East and the wholesale flight of refugees from countries such as Syria and Iraq (1). Might TGB be so presumptuous as to inquire from what peer-reviewed documentation His Highness draws his conclusions? 

Here's another, and this one's from March 1941: Climate warming lad to the rise of the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler. It would appear, according to Clarence Mills, a professor of medicine at the University of Cincinnati at the time, that, that a warming climate makes people more amenable to living under a dictator (2).


And if you want more environmental protection, we must ban baths. No, this is not one of TGB's attempts at humor. This is an actual statement by His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden (3). TGB acknowledges being almost launched out of his chair by this one, but read it for yourself! TGB's own description could never do this one justice.

 
H.M. Carl XVI Gustaf.
Baths endanger the environment.


REFERENCES
1. Holden, M. "Climate change root cause of Syrian war". https://ca.news.yahoo.com/britains-prince-charles-climate-change-root-cause-syrian-092031663--business.html
2.  http://www.climatedepot.com/2015/11/22/flashback-1941-scientist-claims-global-warming-caused-hitler-warmer-temps-may-produce-a-trend-toward-dictatorial-govts-people-are-are-more-docile-easily-led-in-warm-weather/
3. Payne, T. Daily Mail, Nov. 22, 2015.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3329759/King-Sweden-calls-ban-BATHS-admits-ashamed-run-one.html