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Victory for Piss on You Economics

Unbelievable Ignorance on the part of Repube Voters

Big Oil's Purchase Of Senate GOP Pays Off

Repost from Jobsanger

The above cartoon (from the website EcoWatch) is pretty descriptive of what went on in the U.S. Senate this last week. The Big Oil companies have to be celebrating, because the gusher of taxpayer money they have been enjoying for years will not be cut off. And the many millions of dollars they have put in Republican campaign coffers has paid off a thousandfold.

Senator Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey) had introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate to cut off $24 billion in tax subsidies to the biggest oil companies. These companies are enjoying record profits, and don't need the subsidies (which allow them to avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes on those record profits). It only makes sense, especially in this terrible economy, that those companies and individuals who are making the most money should at least pay their fair share of taxes.

But the oil companies don't see it that way -- and neither do the GOP senators they have purchased. Both the Big Oil companies and the Republican senators think taxes are something to be paid by the working and middle classes -- not corporations and the moguls who run them.

The bill by Menendez needed 60 votes in the Senate to be brought up for a vote -- a vote that almost surely would have eliminated the subsidies for Big Oil and forced them to pay their taxes. But 43 Republicans (and four Democrats) made sure that wouldn't happen. The Republican filibuster was not ended by a 51 to 47 vote in the Senate. To be fair, two Republicans did vote to end the GOP filibuster (Maine's two senators -- Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins). The four blue dog Dems who voted with the Republicans were Mary Landrieu (Louisiana), Ben Nelson (Nebraska), Mark Begich (Arkansas), and Jim Webb (Virginia).

Why would these senators vote to keep giving the Big Oil companies $24 billion in tax subsidies, when they so obviously don't need them due to their record (and still growing) profits? Well, a big clue can be found in what these senators have received from the oil companies. The 47 senators who voted against ending the subsidies have received a total of $24,057,254 ($22,899,852 for the GOP senators and $1,157,402 for the four Democrats). That's an average of $511,856 per senator.

That $24 million was money well spent by Big Oil. They get to keep 1000 times that amount in subsidies to fatten their already bulging bank accounts.

Scientists Warn Climate Change May Be Irreversible

by Julie Rodriguez
Scientists at the Planet Under Pressure conference have some bad news for the environmental movement. Anyone paying attention could tell you that global warming is out of control. Temperatures are already set to rise by at least 2 degrees Celsius in the next century – and there may be nothing we can do to change it at this point.

But if we continue to pollute the Earth without taking drastic measures to change our emissions, the global temperature could rise by as much as six degrees. It may not seem like a huge difference, but it’s significant enough to profoundly alter the Earth as we know it. Sea levels will rise. The polar ice sheets will disappear. Rainforests will die. There won’t be any coming back from these changes.

These shifts in the climate of the Earth represent tipping points – and some scientists say that the tipping point for the melting ice sheets has already passed. There may be no way to recover them. In low-lying countries like Tuvalu or Kiribati, citizens are already making plans to evacuate as rising sea levels gradually swallow up their island homes.

But if the Amazon rainforest reaches a tipping point caused by higher temperatures and a drier climate, it could be devastating. The dying trees would stop absorbing emissions and instead release even more carbon into the atmosphere.

And nobody knows what will happen if the permafrost begins to melt in Siberia. The frozen soil stores billions of tons of carbon – twice as much as the atmosphere now. Severe temperature changes could unlock all that carbon, intensifying climate change dramatically. In an interview with Reuters, Will Steffen, the executive director of the Australian National University’s climate change institute, explained:

“There is about 1,600 billion tonnes of carbon there – about twice the amount in the atmosphere today – and the northern high latitudes are experiencing the most severe temperature change of any part of the planet,” he said.

In a worst case scenario, 30 to 63 billion tonnes of carbon a year could be released by 2040, rising to 232 to 380 billion tonnes by 2100. This compares to around 10 billion tonnes of CO2 released by fossil fuel use each year.

These changes in the atmosphere also make the oceans more acidic, as the water absorbs more carbon. We’re already witnessing an increase in ocean acidity. This change in the ocean threatens coral reefs could quickly lead to the extinction of many marine species within the next few decades.

Bob Watson, the former head of the UN’s climate panel and current chief advisor to Britian’s environment ministry, is not optimistic. Given current worldwide commitments to combatting climate change, he believes it’s entirely likely that global temperatures will rise by 5 degrees Celsius (9 Fahrenheit) by the end of the century:

“If you look at the commitments today from governments around the world, we’ve only got a 50-50 shot at a 3 C (5.4 F) world, almost no chance of a 2 C (3.6 F) world, and to be quite honest I would say it’s not unlikely that we will hit a 5 C (9.0 F) world,” said Watson.

“That is clearly a world with significant adverse consequences for ecological systems, for socio-economic systems and for human health.”

He added: “We have to realise that we are looking at a loss of biodiversity that is unprecedented in the last 65 million years… We are clearly entering the (planet’s) sixth mass extinction.”

It’s important to note that despite these dire predictions, not all scientists are completely pessimistic. Steffan told an audience in London on Tuesday, “This is the critical decade.” While the implications are terrifying – if we don’t reduce global greenhouse gas emissions significantly in the next decade, the results could be catastrophic – there’s also the possibility that things can be turned around, or the damage at least limited. But we have to act quickly.

The good news is that we have at least the next ten years before the worst of global climate change becomes completely irreversible. If we plan for the worst, that’s a full decade to lobby our lawmakers and insist upon change. As more severe weather begins to occur as a result of climate change, maybe more US lawmakers will start being willing to concede it exists and take action to stop it. (Well, we can hope, can’t we?)

350.org is placing their efforts on that hope this year – for their global day of action on May 5, they’re urging protestors to “connect the dots” between carbon emissions, global warming, and extreme weather. You can find out more about the event and how you can participate on their website, ClimateDots.org.

Arizona Company Plans Coast-to-Coast Fast Charging Network

Mesa, Arizona – March 23, 2012 -There are more reasons to celebrate electric vehicles this Earth Day, thanks in part to GoE3 , an Arizona-based company which is launching plans for the nation's first coast-to-coast charging network. These Level 2 and Level 3 stations for electric vehicles will make interstate travel finally a reality for electric vehicles and plug-in EVs. The launch event, which includes the unveiling of the first Level 2/Level 3 combination charger station, is a milestone event for the long range electric car market.

While metropolitan charging stations for electric vehicles already exist, many are Level Two 30 Amp. Those being planned by GoE3 will be Level Two, 70 Amp or higher, will be the most fully functional on the market, support all modern electric vehicles and will be the first to be installed on interstates, supporting long range travel. GoE3 will introduce the first installment of the total 500 charging stations planned in conjunction with a road rally and reality TV show being produced this summer.

GoE3 is working with multiple partners to install charging stations and benefit local communities along interstate highways I-40, I-10, I-20 and I-70 with a station located every 50-75 miles. For Level 3 chargers, the costs will be $12.50 for a full charge and take 10 to 45 minutes, depending on how depleted the battery is. The company will roll out the route of its first 50 planned locations by April 21 with the remaining 450 in the next 18-36 months. A complete route from Flagstaff to Tucson has been secured.

While the only plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles currently capable of long-range highway travel in America are the Chevy Volt and Tesla Motors, GoE3 founder and CEO Bruce Brimacombe hopes that creating the nation's first electric vehicle charging network across interstates will encourage more drivers to purchase electric vehicles and travel further.

"If the national goal is having one million electric vehicles on American roads by 2015, we must all work harder to shift perceptions on how useful, practical and affordable electrical vehicle travel can be,” Brimacombe says. Electric vehicles require little maintenance and cost of ownership is low aside from the battery replacement and this will come down in time, he says.

GoE3 has strategically selected the Tucson Arizona-based Biosphere 2 complex for its launch event.

“Biosphere 2 is a Mecca for research, which is why we chose it as the location for the GoE3 launch,” said Brimacombe. “Because of their association with the University of Arizona, Biosphere 2 has the will and the talent to not only provide us with a platform to test how our chargers function when powered by solar and other forms of renewable energy; but also gives our partners, students, and researchers a medium for collaboration to discover and share answers on real world applications. It’s a valuable experience for all involved.”

Biosphere 2 will be holding an Earth Day event of its own on Saturday, April 21, in conjunction with the GoE3 launch, all of which is open to the public. The event will feature demos of new charging stations, offer test drives of the latest electric vehicles and two other ribbon cutting ceremonies to celebrate the greater Earth Day theme.

Company Information:

Jezlin Media, LLC (GoE3.com) is a economic change engine that endeavors to change popular perceptions about renewable energy through actions that lead to a sustainable future. The core objective of Jezlin Media, LLC is to launch GoE3: Campaign for Energy Independence, which will serve as a conduit to achieve its mission. This will be by way of a unique business concept that combines multi-media targeting B to B, B to C, and C to C audiences and the installation of the country's first coast-to-coast Electric Vehicle charging network. This awareness objective will be kicked off with a National EV Road Rally which will be filmed and made ready for a new reality TV show. For more information visit www.GoE3.com

History of climate change re-written with release of Russian data

The history of a changing climate has been officially re-written following the release of new data from Russia and bases within the Arctic Circle.

Scientists have now calculated that 2010 has overtaken 1998 to now be the warmest year on record, followed in second place by 2005 as 1998 is pushed into third place.

The recalculation of the annual global mean temperature records follows the release of weather data from more than 600 locations around the Arctic Circle.

The dataset is compiled by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, who today announced the update.

Compiled from temperature observations obtained over land and sea, HadCRUT is used as a basis for a global temperature record going back to 1850.

The latest version of the dataset, called HadCRUT4, includes the newly available data, which now contains information from the All Russian Research Institute adding more records from the sparsely observed northern higher latitude region.

Differences in the way sea surface temperature observations have been collected have been taken account of and the new version also provides much more detail on uncertainty.

Colin Morice, Climate Monitoring Research Scientist at the Met Office said: "The new study brings together our latest and most comprehensive databases of land and marine temperature observations, along with recent advances in our understanding of how measurements were made at sea. These have been combined to give us a clearer picture of what the historical data can tell us about global climate change over the past 161 years.

"Updates have resulted in some changes to individual years in the nominal global mean temperature record, but have not changed the overall warming signal of about 0.75 °C since 1900."

One of the key reasons for slight changes to mean temperature for later years in HadCRUT4 is the inclusion of much more data from the Arctic, an area which is warming faster than other parts of the world.

Phil Jones, Director of the Climatic Research Unit, said: "HadCRUT is underpinned by observations and we've previously been clear it may not be fully capturing changes in the Arctic because we have had so little data from the area.

"For the latest version we have included observations from more than 400 stations across the Arctic, Russia and Canada. This has led to better representation of what's going on in the large geographical region."

Another change relates to dealing with the different ways sea-surface temperatures have been measured. This has had an effect on some years further back in the record, particularly in the mid 20th century.

Peter Stott, Head of Climate Monitoring and Attribution at the Met Office, said: "An example of this is the rapid changes in the kinds of measurements we see in the digital archives around the Second World War. Some sea surface temperature observations were taken from buckets hauled on board ships and others were made in the engine rooms.

"Research has shown readings from buckets were generally cooler so when the database changes from one source to another you see artificial jumps in the raw data. We've quantified these effects and corrected for them providing a clearer view of the evolution of global temperatures."