Tuesday, July 14, 2009

I am not a big fan of 'Cap and Trade.' It allows too much CO2 emissions while tacking the cost to the consumer.

It is for that reason, I believe the Cap & Trade will be marginally effective to a warming Earth. It isn't a bad idea, but, it is a measure that allows permission for continued CO2 emissions. What will occur, is that industries that emit CO2, like coal fired plants, will purchase CO2 credits for their pollution, but, they will pass that cost directly to the consumer. It won't matter if it is 'domestic' coal, the cost will be ridiculous anyway.

Industries, like coal plants will not stop emitting because of "Cap & Trade." It will be up to the state public utility authorities to regulate costs tighting to consumers. That will end up in lawsuits, eventually to the level of the Supreme Court and the businesses will win. Under Cap and Trade the consumer loses and so does Earth.

We need CO2 regulation under The Clean Air Act. It has worked wtih NOX and SOX and it will work with CO2 as well.

The only 'entity' that benefits with Cap and Trade is Wall Street, possibly the American Farmer, IF the droughts stop ! Which they won't. Then the irrigation will require farmers to purchase carbon credits for the diesel fuel used to irrigate crops. Wall Street is the ONLY winner here as far as I am concerned.



...There is no denying that as the world becomes more industrialized, we need to reform our energy policy and become less dependent on foreign energy sources. But the answer doesn't lie in making energy scarcer and more expensive! Those who understand the issue know we can meet our energy needs and environmental challenges without destroying America's economy.... (click title to entry - thank you)

The 'Recharge' to the Arctic Ocean is not due to precipitation. The troposphere is simply to warm to preserve 'aged' ice.

It isn't even a matter of 'recharge' anymore. It is a matter of 'sustained' ability of Earth to freeze ice in the Arctic Ocean. There are 'chronic' heat transfer systems all year round. The Arctic Ocean has no 'relief' from the heat.

One has to realize, there is 'higher amounts of 'COLD' reserve in the 'aged' ice. As the aged ice melts it is ONLY replaced with annual ice less able to 'sustain' against increased tropospheric temperatures.

If continued 'heat transfer systems' degrade ice that has no 'residual' eventually there will not be enough ice in the Arctic Ocean from year to year to 'fend off' higher tropospheric warming. As that occurs, as it most assuredly will at this rate, the troposphere will heat rapidly. A tipping point will be reached and Earth will find a very small margin to sustain life.

The decline in multiyear (including second-year ice) sea ice coverage has also been measured by NASA’s QuikScat satellite from 1999 to 2009. Each field shows the coverage on January 1 of that year. There is a 40 percent drop in coverage between 2005 and 2007. Credit: Ron Kwok, NASA/JPL (click here)

The summer minimum and the winter maximum are the two pivotal milestones in the annual cycle of Arctic sea ice. The thickness of sea ice and the extent at each of these times are key indicators of Arctic climate. Over the past two and a half decades, the extent of sea ice at the end of summer (mid-September) has declined significantly. The corollary to that trend is that at the winter maximum (end of February or mid-March), the ice covering the Arctic is much younger and thinner than it was in the past.
This pair of maps shows the median age of February sea ice from 1981-2009 (left) compared to February 2009 (right). (click here) Ice more than two years old is dark blue, ice that is one to two years old is medium blue, and ice that is less than one year old is light blue. Compared to the median conditions at the end of winter (the median is the number halfway between the lowest and highest numbers in a range), the ice pack of February 2009 contains much less old ice (dark blue).

The long-term trend in September sea-ice extent is in steady decline, with roughly 500,000 square kilometers of sea ice disappearing per decade. (Graph by Robert Simmon, based on data from Robert Gersten, SSAI and Josefino Comiso, NASA GSFC) (click here)


Local Time: July 13, 2009 - 10:20 AM AKDT (GMT -08)

Lat/Lon: 58.8° N 137.0° W

Temperature :: 54 F

Conditions :: Overcast

Humidity :: 94%

Dew Point :: 52 F

Wind :: 5 MPH from the NW

Pressure :: 30.14 in (Steady)

Visibility :: 5.0 miles

UV :: 2 out of 16

Clouds :: Overcast 500 ft (Above Ground Level)

Elevation :: 0 feet