AN ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ENVIRONMENT,
RENEWABLE RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY,
AND RELATED TOPICS
By BOOTSTRAP PRESS, INC.
BETHESDA, MD
JJGREENBARON(at)VERIZON.NET
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NOVEMBER 23, 2015
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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
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