America's Job Market

Electric cars may not be so green after all...

by Ben Webster

ELECTRIC cars could produce higher emissions over their lifetimes than petrol equivalents because of the energy consumed in making their batteries, a study has found.

An electric car owner would have to drive at least 129,000km before producing a net saving in CO2. Many electric cars will not travel that far in their lifetime because they typically have a range of less than 145km on a single charge and are unsuitable for long trips. Even those driven 160,000km would save only about a tonne of CO2 over their lifetimes.

The British study, which is the first analysis of the full lifetime emissions of electric cars covering manufacturing, driving and disposal, undermines the case for tackling climate change by the rapid introduction of electric cars.

The Committee on Climate Change, the UK government watchdog, has called for the number of electric cars on Britain's roads to increase from a few hundred now to 1.7 million by 2020.

Britain's Department for Transport is spending $66 million over the next year giving up to 8,600 buyers of electric cars a grant of $7700 towards the purchase price. Ministers are considering extending the scheme.

The study was commissioned by the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership, which is jointly funded by the British government and the car industry. It found that a mid-size electric car would produce 23.1 tonnes of CO2 over its lifetime, compared with 24 tonnes for a similar petrol car. Emissions from manufacturing electric cars are at least 50 per cent higher because batteries are made from materials such as lithium, copper and refined silicon, which require much energy to be processed.

Many electric cars are expected to need a replacement battery after a few years. Once the emissions from producing the second battery are added in, the total CO2 from producing an electric car rises to 12.6 tonnes, compared with 5.6 tonnes for a petrol car. Disposal also produces double the emissions because of the energy consumed in recovering and recycling metals in the battery. The study also took into account carbon emitted to generate the grid electricity consumed.

Greg Archer, director of Low CVP, said the industry should state the full lifecycle emissions of cars rather than just tailpipe emissions, to avoid misleading consumers. He said that drivers wanting to minimise emissions could be better off buying a small, efficient petrol or diesel car. “People have to match the technology to their particular needs,” he said.

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Rising forest density offsets climate change

by Alister Doyle

(Reuters) - Rising forest density in many countries is helping to offset climate change caused by deforestation from the Amazon basin to Indonesia, a study showed on Sunday.

The report indicated that the size of trees in a forest -- rather than just the area covered -- needed to be taken into account more in U.N.-led efforts to put a price on forests as part of a nascent market to slow global warming.

"Higher density means world forests are capturing more carbon," experts in Finland and the United States said...

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Andrew Klavan: Obama's Beach Blanket Recovery

AFL-CIO Pres Urges Dems To Get In Line Or Lose Support

Environmental civil war: Wind farmers vs. bird lovers

by Caroline May

Irony of ironies, wind energy — a preferred form of renewable energy among environmentalists — has animal rights advocates concerned about the hundreds of thousands of birds killed by wind turbines.

On Tuesday an international bird watchdog group based in Spain, Save the Eagles International (STEI), warned that the expected construction of 3.5 million wind turbines worldwide will result in the extinction of a variety of bird species.

STEI is calling for a moratorium on all wind farm construction and an investigation into whether the threat to wildlife is worth the amount of energy produced — when, they say, there are so many other, more efficient sources of energy.

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President Barack Obama's First Ad of 2012

Eco-Friendly Toilets Cause a Stink

by Daily Mail Reporter

San Francisco is paying a high - and smelly -price for promoting eco-friendly low-flow toilets.

Twenty million gallons a year are being saved, but because the small amount of water isn't pushing the waste away fast enough there's a stinky whiff in parts of the city.

Now authorities are set to undermine the toilets' green credentials by flushing $14 million worth of bleach to solve the problem.

Public Utilities Commission spokesman Tyrone Jue admitted that skimping on toilet water had caused more sludge to back up inside the sewer pipes.

It has created a rotten-egg stench near AT&T Park - home to the San Francisco Giants - and other parts of the Bay Area, especially during the summer months.

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Secretary of Treasury admits his budget is “unsustainable”

Tiny LED holiday bulbs contain lead, arsenic

by Wendy Koch

Small holiday LED bulbs, marketed as eco-friendly alternatives to traditional light bulbs, contain lead, arsenic and a dozen other potentially hazardous substances, reports a study released Thursday.

The low-intensity red LEDs (light emitting diodes) in Christmas lighting strands had up to eight times the amount of lead allowed under California law, and while the white bulbs had less lead than the colored ones, they had high levels of nickel, according to a team of researchers at the University of California, Irvine, and the University of California, Davis.

"I didn't expect this full range of chemicals to leach out," said study co-author Oladele Ogunseitan, chairman, of UC Irvine's Department of Population Health & Disease Prevention. He said the research, published in the January 2011 issue of Environmental Science & Technology, is the first to examine LEDs for toxic chemicals.

Ogunseitan told Green House that consumers are not at risk unless the bulbs break. In that event, he advises users to sweep up the pieces with a special broom while wearing gloves and a mask. He says the tiny red LEDs are "hazardous waste" and shouldn't be tossed in the trash.

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London to Edinburgh: stagecoach quicker than electric car

by Christopher Booker

In its obsessive desire to promote the virtues of electric cars, the BBC proudly showed us last week how its reporter Brian Milligan was able to drive an electric Mini from London to Edinburgh in a mere four days – with nine stops of up to 10 hours to recharge the batteries (with electricity from fossil fuels).

What the BBC omitted to tell us was that in the 1830s, a stagecoach was able to make the same journey in half the time, with two days and nights of continuous driving. This did require 50 stops to change horses, but each of these took only two minutes, giving a total stopping time of just over an hour and a half.

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2008: Obama Opposed Government Mandated Healthcare

Obama in 2008: If government can mandate

healthcare, it could mandate buying a house

Global Warming 2000, What did they say?

Originally published by The Independent on March 20th, 2000:

Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past

by Charles Onians

Britain's winter ends tomorrow with further indications of a striking environmental change: snow is starting to disappear from our lives.

Sledges, snowmen, snowballs and the excitement of waking to find that the stuff has settled outside are all a rapidly diminishing part of Britain's culture, as warmer winters - which scientists are attributing to global climate change - produce not only fewer white Christmases, but fewer white Januaries and Februaries.

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Below is a screen-shot from the Daily Star, December 16th, 2010:

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Teacher Caught In Sexual Encounter With 16-Year Old Boy

Teacher who advises colleagues on how to avoid
affairs with students caught having sex with
16-year-old boy from her school

by Paul Thompson

A teacher who advises colleagues on how to avoid affairs with students was caught having sex with a teenager in the back of her car.

A partly consumed bottle of vodka was also found in the car with the couple.

Her student lover initially said he was 20 years old - but later admitted he was 16.

Bowles, 31, was employed at his school as a teacher's instructional coach. It was her job to train teachers on how to maintain a professional distance from students.

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Unexpected Text Message Blows Up Terrorist

by Andrew Osborn

A "Black Widow" suicide bomber planned a terrorist attack in central Moscow on New Year's Eve but was killed when an unexpected text message set off her bomb too early, according to Russian security sources.

The unnamed woman, who is thought to be part of the same group that struck Moscow's Domodedovo airport on Monday, intended to detonate a suicide belt near Red Square on New Year's Eve in an attack that could have killed hundreds.

Security sources believe a message from her mobile phone operator wishing her a happy new year received just hours before the planned attack triggered her suicide belt, killing her at a safe house.

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School Succeeds by Firing Teachers

School Hailed by Obama Succeeded by

Firing Teachers and Bucking the Union

by Michael Warren

President Obama spoke last night about the need to “win the race to educate our kids” and asked if we as Americans are “willing to do what’s necessary to give every child a chance to succeed.” He highlighted one school in particular—Bruce Randolph School in Denver. “Three years ago, it was rated one of the worst schools in Colorado; located on turf between two rival gangs,” Obama said. “But last May, 97 percent of the seniors received their diploma. Most will be the first in their family to go to college.”

What Obama failed to mention is how Bruce Randolph turned its situation around: firing teachers at will after being granted an exemption from union rules.

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Green technology fails when needed most

Eco Fail: Solar-powered volcano monitoring

devices fail when covered with volcanic ash

by Oyos Saroso H.N.

Indonesia: “Observation from the naked eye shows volcanic ash and smoke, spewing from Mount Anak Krakatau at around 600 meters high, still moving toward the east, or Banten,” said Hargopancuran observation station head Andi Suhardi.

He said volcanic ash emitted by Anak Krakatau was dangerous and carried materials such as hot rocks and pebbles, reaching temperatures up to 600 degrees Celsius.

“We cannot monitor seismic activities because the seismometers are not working after their solar panels were covered with volcanic ash. We urge fishermen not to carry out activities around the volcano and advise vacationers not to approach the mountain up to 2 kilometers in radius,” he said.

Suhardi said his office had learned about the faulty monitoring devices installed on the slopes of Mt. Anak Krakatau on Dec. 27, thus failing to monitor volcanic activities from 6:30 p.m. until noon on Dec. 28, despite the fact that the volcano, located in the middle of the sea, was actively emitting volcanic materials.

“The devices could not be fixed despite the current alert status. We recommend the devices be installed in new places,” he said.

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Conservation group sues to stop California solar plant

by Nichola Groom

A U.S. conversation group has sued the federal government over its approval of a major solar power plant in the California desert, the latest in a string of challenges to the nation's renewable energy goals from the environmental community.

The complaint said the project's approval process failed to analyze and mitigate the Ivanpah plant's impact on migratory birds, the desert tortoise, which is a threatened species under federal law, desert bighorn sheep, groundwater resources and rare plants.

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The cost of sustainable energy is unsustainable

Britain discovers that the cost of

sustainable energy is, in a word, unsustainable

by Tom Mcghie

The failure of Britain’s wind farms to produce electricity in the extreme cold will cost billions of pounds, create an economic crisis and lead to blackouts, leading industrialists have warned.

To cover up the ineffectiveness of wind farms the Government will be forced to build emergency back-up power plants, the cost of which will be paid by industry and consumers.

Jeremy Nicholson, director of the Energy Intensive Users Group, which represents major companies employing hundreds of thousands of workers in the steel, glass, pottery, paper and chemical industries, said the failure of wind power had profound implications.

He was speaking after new figures showed that during the latest cold snap wind turbines produced less than two per cent of the nation’s electricity.

Now Mr Nicholson predicts that the Government will encourage power companies to build billions of pounds worth of standby power stations in case of further prolonged wind failures.

And the cost of the standby generation will be paid for by industry and households through higher bills – which could double by 2020.

Buffalo man accused of beheading wife goes to trial

A trial begins on Monday in the case of a Muslim cable television producer accused of beheading his estranged wife inside a television studio the couple founded to promote cultural understanding

by Neale Gulley

In the two years since Muzzammil Hassan surrendered to police, hours after killing his wife in February 2009, he has claimed spousal abuse justified the slaying.

Jury selection begins on Monday in Erie County Court in Buffalo, where Hassan, 46, is charged with second-degree murder for beheading Aasiya Hassan, who was 37.

The mother of two, who had filed for divorce days earlier, was found stabbed and decapitated at the Bridges TV offices in Orchard Park, a suburb of Buffalo. The couple launched Bridges TV in 2004 with a mission to show Muslims in a positive light.

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