MUENCHHAUSEN
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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February 7, 2016
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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.
The Green Baron also welcomes comments from anyone who may read Muenchhausen. Please send comments to the e-mail address above.
"SNOWZILLA"
Well, "Snowzilla" is now in the history books. Mrs. TGB and I were snowbound from January 23 to January 28, when our street, driveway, and house access were finally plowed and dug out. Fortunately, we saw it coming well in advance and had ample supplies to ride this thing out. However, a "Snowzilla" or "Snowmageddon" is not an infrequent occurrence. In the Washington, DC area, we get these every several years. TGB can list several recent ones, and he is sure he is forgetting some: 1987, 1993, 1996, 2003, 2010, and now 2016. During this latest one, TGB is grateful that electric power was not lost. He recalls the loss of power for 39 hours during a large fall of heavy, wet snow in February 1987. We were on a well and septic tank system at the time; went on water from the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) in November 1988, well worth the investment and trouble.
"Snowzilla" in TGB's backyard. Photo by TGB.
Dendrobium orchids and "Snowzilla". Photo by TGB
Global warming, anyone? Given "Snowzilla", arguments pro or con? For both sides of the discussion, may TGB remind all that there are, essentially three kinds of lies? One is lies. The second is g-dd---n
lies. And the third is statistics. Or, as another hackneyed old cliché has it, "Figures don't lie, but liars can figure."
PARIS: A BRIEF THOUGHT
Yes, we will get nations to fight climate change and clean their air spaces via shaming and moral suasion, given that COP21 is an agreement and not a treaty. Had it been a treaty, to bind the United States, a favorable ratification vote to two-thirds of Senators present and voting would have been a Constitutional requirement. Currently, such ratification would likely not have been in the cards, given the membership of the Senate. However, TGB believes that COP 21 will essentially be regarded as a treaty, regardless of what the Senate might or might not have done, or what the Constitution provides. In any event, folks in Beijing (and some other Chinese cities) and lately New Delhi will be coughing and wearing face masks from time to time.
