Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Cooling Chicago

Latest weather report from Chicago states that the city had the fewest 90 degree or above weather this year.  This approves that weather is unpredictable and that we cannot control it.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-tom-skilling-explainer-13aug13,0,918946.story

Decade has had fewest 90-degree days since 1930

August is the wettest and often the muggiest month of the year. Yet, summer heat continues in short supply, continuing a trend that has dominated much of the 21st Century's opening decade. There have been only 162 days 90 degrees or warmer atMidway Airport over the period from 2000 to 2008. That's by far the fewest 90-degree temperatures in the opening nine years of any decade on record here since 1930.

This summer's highest reading to date has been just 91 degrees. That's unusual. Since 1928, only one year—2000—has failed to record a higher warm-season temperature by Aug. 13.

FUNNEL HOVERS OVER NW INDIANA LATE TUESDAY; HURRICANE FORECASTERS MONITORING ATLANTIC SYSTEM 

A pocket of cool air aloft and the additional "lift" provided as air accelerates into a pocket of strong jet-stream winds aloft produced a funnel cloud over northwest Indiana on Tuesday evening. The funnel, which hovered over Cedar Lake and Lowell for nearly 10 minutes, never touched the ground and dissipated without incident. 

A disturbance in the Atlantic east of the Lesser Antilles threatens to strengthen and become the next tropical depression. It is being watched by hurricane forecasters.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Branson’s bogus eco-drive

Source:
http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=AGENDA-qqqs=agenda-qqqid=34805-qqqx=1.asp

03 August 2008 By Stephen Price
The Virgin boss’s much trumpeted pledge of €1.9bn to tackle global warming is nothing but smoke and mirrors.

In September 2006, Virgin boss Richard Branson pledged €1.9 billion towards tackling global warming. For the next ten years, he announced, the profits from his aviation and rail businesses would go towards combating the biggest, most complex problem that mankind has ever faced.

The promise earned Branson headlines around the world. Media outlets carried photos of him, Bill Clinton and Al Gore at a Clinton Global Initiative press conference in New York. Adults, Branson solemnly told the assembled media, had a duty to pass a ‘‘pristine’’ planet on to the next generation. Politicians and campaigners were effusive in their praise for his imagination and generosity.

However, a look at the not-very-small print revealed that this amazing gesture would not be a matter of taking the profits from Branson’s polluting industries and using them to protect vast tracts of the Amazon.

In fact, the money would go to a new division of the Virgin conglomerate, called Virgin Fuel. Branson was simply gearing himself up to make more money. But as always, the PR spin was that he’d be doing the rest of us a favour in the process.

Branson has built an empire on this perception. His first two business ventures - both failed - were growing Christmas trees and selling budgerigars, so he obviously understood from an early stage that nature is there to be exploited.

His reputation as a rebel underdog took off when he was arrested in 1971 for selling records in Virgin stores that had been declared export stock. Because he also sold ‘‘cut-outs’’ (remaindered LPs at discounted prices), the perception took root that he was being persecuted by the authorities for challenging a rip-off establishment. In fact, he was doing nothing of the sort - he paid the taxes and fines owing from the case.

Branson’s anti-establishment persona was cemented in 1977 when Virgin Records signed the Sex Pistols; the band had already been dropped by two labels, EMI and A&M. He was also on board the boat the band played on when they sailed down the Thames during Queen Elizabeth’s silver jubilee celebrations. In a blaze of publicity, it was pulled in by police and a few punters were arrested.

When British Airways engaged in a ‘‘dirty tricks’’ campaign against Virgin Atlantic in the early1990s,thiswas grist to Branson’s mill. Whether it’s flights, records, mobile phones, cola, radio, television, hotels, trains or holidays, sticking the word ‘‘Virgin’’ in front of something supposedly makes it cheaper yet cooler, with the bearded, grinning boss fronting many of his own ad campaigns. Because if a hippy says it’s all right, then it must be. Mustn’t it?

Since Virgin Fuel was set up in 2006, the tide has very much turned against bio-fuels with the realisation that far too much agricultural land could be eaten up by fuel crops. Palm oil, one of the major biofuels, is contributing to global warming as virgin (no pun intended) rainforests in countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia are decimated to make way for palm plantations.

Still, in February of this year Branson was on the tarmac toying with a coconut for the inevitable photocall when one of his 747s flew - empty- from London to Amsterdam on a 20 per cent bio-fuel mixture. Two years on from his ‘‘profits’’ gesture, slightly wiser green campaigners dismissed the flight as a stunt.

But onwards and upwards. While Branson has done little to save the planet and a hell of a lot to pollute it, he can arrange for you to look down upon it. This week he unveiled an aircraft for flying tourists into space. Virgin Galactic (yes, space can be branded too) has built a four-engine, twin-fuselage jet that will carrya spaceship with six passengers up to 50,000 feet to release it for sub-orbital flight.

The actual space ship is not yet complete, but apparently2 50 punters have already paid $200,000 up front for the experience, among them Ireland’s own leading car salesman, Bill Cullen. The plane is called White Knight II, lest we forget what a favour Branson is doing for us.

Hippies are often credited with being the first to bring green issues to the fore, but the 1960s also legitimised the ascent of personal selfishness over social responsibility. Of course, Branson is no more of a hippy than I am, just a good businessman.

Spraying huge amounts of jet fuel into the atmosphere, purely to allow rich people to look down on an overheating planet, is about as stupid and hypocritical as it gets. Still, I’m sure that the earth from space is a beautiful sight – enjoy it while it lasts.

Earthly Remains
Radioactivity is back in the news this week with revelations of leaks at nuclear power plants in France, and the entirely unconnected problem of radon in Irish houses. Thirty cubic metres of liquid containing non-enriched uranium was accidentally poured into the ground at the Tricastin station, just north of Avignon.

A ban on using local water for any purpose was put in place. In an article entitled ‘‘It feels like a sci-fi film – accidents tarnish nuclear dream’’, the Guardian newspaper revealed that local plants and swimming pools tested negative for radioactivity.

In a separate incident this week, 97 staff were evacuated from the plant during maintenance work, some of whom showed low traces of radioactivity – one fortieth of the permitted limit. As someone who regularly extols the virtues of the French nuclear industry, I feel duty-bound to acknowledge the blips, too.

* Meanwhile, the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII) this week stated that people here are subject to higher doses of radiation than previously thought, but neither France, Chernobyl nor even Sellafield are to blame.

Radon is a naturally-occuring gas which can become trapped under buildings, and is the second-biggest cause of lung cancer in Ireland after smoking, causing an estimated 200 cases a year.

Soils containing granite and shale – which Ireland has aplenty – can be sources of radon. The west and south-east are particularly vulnerable and the RPII recommends that radon testing be a compulsory part of the sales process of any home or business premises.

* The oil industry proceeds on its perfectly safe way; a report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) into the extraction of oil from shale and tar sands in Canada and the US concludes that it easily has the potential to release 980 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, push the earth’s temperature past its two degrees tipping point, and cause mass extinction of many species, including us.

This method of extraction is eight times dirtier than drilling, before you count the oil that’s then burned. Shell and BP intend to invest CAD$125 billion into such practices by 2015. Worth every cent, eh lads?

* Well done to teenagers from schools in the Liberties in Dublin, who this week received environmental awards at the Digital Hub, for creating an imaginary ‘eco-civilisation’ in the middle of the Irish Sea. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, though.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

President George W Bush order an executive order to do off shore drilling.

The price per barrel was $140. Today, it's approaching $126.
Obama and demogoues said that drilling oil will not cut 1 cent, yet so far it has cut $14 per barrell.

Source: Bloomberg.com/energy as of 1.31PM CST 07/23/2008

Nymex Crude Future126.41-2.01-1.5713:53
Dated Brent Spot126.12-2.97-2.3014:23
WTI Cushing Spot124.54-3.41-2.6714:10

Friday, June 13, 2008

Global Warming and the Price of a Gallon of Gas

John Coleman's Comments Before the San Diego Chamber of Commerce.

The Founder of Weather Channel.

You may want to give credit where credit is due to Al Gore and his global warming campaign the next time you fill your car with gasoline, because there is a direct connection between Global Warming and four dollar a gallon gas. It is shocking, but true, to learn that the entire Global Warming frenzy is based on the environmentalist’s attack on fossil fuels, particularly gasoline. All this big time science, international meetings, thick research papers, dire threats for the future; all of it, comes down to their claim that the carbon dioxide in the exhaust from your car and in the smoke stacks from our power plants is destroying the climate of planet Earth. What an amazing fraud; what a scam.

The future of our civilization lies in the balance.

That’s the battle cry of the High Priest of Global Warming Al Gore and his fellow, agenda driven disciples as they predict a calamitous outcome from anthropogenic global warming. According to Mr. Gore the polar ice caps will collapse and melt and sea levels will rise 20 feet inundating the coastal cities making 100 million of us refugees. Vice President Gore tells us numerous Pacific islands will be totally submerged and uninhabitable. He tells us global warming will disrupt the circulation of the ocean waters, dramatically changing climates, throwing the world food supply into chaos. He tells us global warming will turn hurricanes into super storms, produce droughts, wipe out the polar bears and result in bleaching of coral reefs. He tells us tropical diseases will spread to mid latitudes and heat waves will kill tens of thousands. He preaches to us that we must change our lives and eliminate fossil fuels or face the dire consequences. The future of our civilization is in the balance.

With a preacher’s zeal, Mr. Gore sets out to strike terror into us and our children and make us feel we are all complicit in the potential demise of the planet.

Here is my rebuttal.

There is no significant man made global warming. There has not been any in the past, there is none now and there is no reason to fear any in the future. The climate of Earth is changing. It has always changed. But mankind’s activities have not overwhelmed or significantly modified the natural forces.

Through all history, Earth has shifted between two basic climate regimes: ice ages and what paleoclimatologists call “Interglacial periods”. For the past 10 thousand years the Earth has been in an interglacial period. That might well be called nature’s global warming because what happens during an interglacial period is the Earth warms up, the glaciers melt and life flourishes. Clearly from our point of view, an interglacial period is greatly preferred to the deadly rigors of an ice age. Mr. Gore and his crowd would have us believe that the activities of man have overwhelmed nature during this interglacial period and are producing an unprecedented, out of control warming.

Well, it is simply not happening. Worldwide there was a significant natural warming trend in the 1980’s and 1990’s as a Solar cycle peaked with lots of sunspots and solar flares. That ended in 1998 and now the Sun has gone quiet with fewer and fewer Sun spots, and the global temperatures have gone into decline. Earth has cooled for almost ten straight years. So, I ask Al Gore, where’s the global warming?

The cooling trend is so strong that recently the head of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had to acknowledge it. He speculated that nature has temporarily overwhelmed mankind’s warming and it may be ten years or so before the warming returns. Oh, really. We are supposed to be in a panic about man-made global warming and the whole thing takes a ten year break because of the lack of Sun spots. If this weren’t so serious, it would be laughable.

Now allow me to talk a little about the science behind the global warming frenzy. I have dug through thousands of pages of research papers, including the voluminous documents published by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. I have worked my way through complicated math and complex theories. Here’s the bottom line: the entire global warming scientific case is based on the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from the use of fossil fuels. They don’t have any other issue. Carbon Dioxide, that’s it.

Hello Al Gore; Hello UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Your science is flawed; your hypothesis is wrong; your data is manipulated. And, may I add, your scare tactics are deplorable. The Earth does not have a fever. Carbon dioxide does not cause significant global warming.

The focus on atmospheric carbon dioxide grew out a study by Roger Revelle who was an esteemed scientist at the Scripps Oceanographic Institute. He took his research with him when he moved to Harvard and allowed his students to help him process the data for his paper. One of those students was Al Gore. That is where Gore got caught up in this global warming frenzy. Revelle’s paper linked the increases in carbon dioxide, CO2, in the atmosphere with warming. It labeled CO2 as a greenhouse gas.

Charles Keeling, another researcher at the Scripps Oceanographic Institute, set up a system to make continuous CO2 measurements. His graph of these increases has now become known as the Keeling Curve. When Charles Keeling died in 2005, his son David, also at Scripps, took over the measurements. Here is what the Keeling curve shows: an increase in CO2 from 315 parts per million in 1958 to 385 parts per million today, an increase of 70 parts per million or about 20 percent.

All the computer models, all of the other findings, all of the other angles of study, all come back to and are based on CO2 as a significant greenhouse gas. It is not.

Here is the deal about CO2, carbon dioxide. It is a natural component of our atmosphere. It has been there since time began. It is absorbed and emitted by the oceans. It is used by every living plant to trigger photosynthesis. Nothing would be green without it. And we humans; we create it. Every time we breathe out, we emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It is not a pollutant. It is not smog. It is a naturally occurring invisible gas.

Let me illustrate. I estimate that this square in front of my face contains 100,000 molecules of atmosphere. Of those 100,000 only 38 are CO2; 38 out of a hundred thousand. That makes it a trace component. Let me ask a key question: how can this tiny trace upset the entire balance of the climate of Earth? It can’t. That’s all there is to it; it can’t.

The UN IPCC has attracted billions of dollars for the research to try to make the case that CO2 is the culprit of run-away, man-made global warming. The scientists have come up with very complex creative theories and done elaborate calculations and run computer models they say prove those theories. They present us with a concept they call radiative forcing. The research organizations and scientists who are making a career out of this theory, keep cranking out the research papers. Then the IPCC puts on big conferences at exotic places, such as the recent conference in Bali. The scientists endorse each other’s papers, they are summarized and voted on, and viola, we are told global warming is going to kill us all unless we stop burning fossil fuels.

May I stop here for a few historical notes? First, the internal combustion engine and gasoline were awful polluters when they were first invented. And, both gasoline and automobile engines continued to leave a layer of smog behind right up through the 1960’s. Then science and engineering came to the environmental rescue. Better exhaust and ignition systems, catalytic converters, fuel injectors, better engineering throughout the engine and reformulated gasoline have all contributed to a huge reduction in the exhaust emissions from today’s cars. Their goal then was to only exhaust carbon dioxide and water vapor, two gases widely accepted as natural and totally harmless. Anyone old enough to remember the pall of smog that used to hang over all our cities knows how much improvement there has been. So the environmentalists, in their battle against fossil fuels and automobiles had a very good point forty years ago, but now they have to focus almost entirely on the once harmless carbon dioxide. And, that is the rub. Carbon dioxide is not an environmental problem; they just want you now to think it is.

Numerous independent research projects have been done about the greenhouse impact from increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide. These studies have proven to my total satisfaction that CO2 is not creating a major greenhouse effect and is not causing an increase in temperatures. By the way, before his death, Roger Revelle coauthored a paper cautioning that CO2 and its greenhouse effect did not warrant extreme countermeasures.

So now it has come down to an intense campaign, orchestrated by environmentalists claiming that the burning of fossil fuels dooms the planet to run-away global warming. Ladies and Gentlemen, that is a myth.

So how has the entire global warming frenzy with all its predictions of dire consequences, become so widely believed, accepted and regarded as a real threat to planet Earth? That is the most amazing part of the story.

To start with global warming has the backing of the United Nations, a major world force. Second, it has the backing of a former Vice President and very popular political figure. Third it has the endorsement of Hollywood, and that’s enough for millions. And, fourth, the environmentalists love global warming. It is their tool to combat fossil fuels. So with the environmentalists, the UN, Gore and Hollywood touting Global Warming and predictions of doom and gloom, the media has scrambled with excitement to climb aboard. After all the media loves a crisis. From YK2 to killer bees the media just loves to tell us our lives are threatened. And the media is biased toward liberal, so it’s pre-programmed to support Al Gore and UN. CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, The LA Times, The Washington Post, the Associated Press and here in San Diego The Union Tribune are all constantly promoting the global warming crisis.

So who is going to go against all of that power? Not the politicians. So now the President of the United States, just about every Governor, most Senators and most Congress people, both of the major current candidates for President, most other elected officials on all levels of government are all riding the Al Gore Global Warming express. That is one crowded bus.

I suspect you haven’t heard it because the mass media did not report it, but I am not alone on the no man-made warming side of this issue. On May 20th, a list of the names of over thirty-one thousand scientists who refute global warming was released. Thirty-one thousand of which 9,000 are Ph.ds. Think about that. Thirty-one thousand. That dwarfs the supposed 2,500 scientists on the UN panel. In the past year, five hundred of scientists have issued public statements challenging global warming. A few more join the chorus every week. There are about 100 defectors from the UN IPCC. There was an International Conference of Climate Change Skeptics in New York in March of this year. One hundred of us gave presentations. Attendance was limited to six hundred people. Every seat was taken. There are a half dozen excellent internet sites that debunk global warming. And, thank goodness for KUSI and Michael McKinnon, its owner. He allows me to post my comments on global warming on the website KUSI.com. Following the publicity of my position form Fox News, Glen Beck on CNN, Rush Limbaugh and a host of other interviews, thousands of people come to the website and read my comments. I get hundreds of supportive emails from them. No I am not alone and the debate is not over.

In my remarks in New York I speculated that perhaps we should sue Al Gore for fraud because of his carbon credits trading scheme. That remark has caused a stir in the fringe media and on the internet. The concept is that if the media won’t give us a hearing and the other side will not debate us, perhaps we could use a Court of law to present our papers and our research and if the Judge is unbiased and understands science, we win. The media couldn’t ignore that. That idea has become the basis for legal research by notable attorneys and discussion among global warming debunkers, but it’s a long way from the Court room.

I am very serious about this issue. I think stamping out the global warming scam is vital to saving our wonderful way of life.

The battle against fossil fuels has controlled policy in this country for decades. It was the environmentalist’s prime force in blocking any drilling for oil in this country and the blocking the building of any new refineries, as well. So now the shortage they created has sent gasoline prices soaring. And, it has lead to the folly of ethanol, which is also partly behind the fuel price increases; that and our restricted oil policy. The ethanol folly is also creating a food crisis throughput the world – it is behind the food price rises for all the grains, for cereals, bread, everything that relies on corn or soy or wheat, including animals that are fed corn, most processed foods that use corn oil or soybean oil or corn syrup. Food shortages or high costs have led to food riots in some third world countries and made the cost of eating out or at home budget busting for many.

So now the global warming myth actually has lead to the chaos we are now enduring with energy and food prices. We pay for it every time we fill our gas tanks. Not only is it running up gasoline prices, it has changed government policy impacting our taxes, our utility bills and the entire focus of government funding. And, now the Congress is considering a cap and trade carbon credits policy. We the citizens will pay for that, too. It all ends up in our taxes and the price of goods and services.

So the Global warming frenzy is, indeed, threatening our civilization. Not because global warming is real; it is not. But because of the all the horrible side effects of the global warming scam.

I love this civilization. I want to do my part to protect it.

If Al Gore and his global warming scare dictates the future policy of our governments, the current economic downturn could indeed become a recession, drift into a depression and our modern civilization could fall into an abyss. And it would largely be a direct result of the global warming frenzy.


My mission, in what is left of a long and exciting lifetime, is to stamp out this Global Warming silliness and let all of us get on with enjoying our lives and loving our planet, Earth.

Friday, May 30, 2008

ExxonMobile Marketshare in world Gas & Oil Market

Source: [ ]
Summary: Exxon Mobile has less than 1% of world gas & oil market

Rank by Company Worldwide Worldwide Total Reserves
2006 Oil Liquids Reserves, Natural Gas Reserves, in Oil Equivalent Barrels,
Equivalent Million Billion Million Barrels
Reserves Barrels Cubic Feet
1 National Iranian Oil Company (Iran) 3 136,000 974,000 302,496
2 Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Arabia) 3 259,400 248,500 302,279
3 Iraq National Oil Company (Iraq) 2,3 115,000 112,000 134,145
4 Qatar General Petroleum Corporation (Qatar)3 15,207 910,500 170,848
5 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (UAE) 3 92,200 198,500 126,132
6 Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (Kuwait) 3 99,000 54,500 108,316
7 Petroleos de Venezuela.S.A. (Venezuela) 3 80,120 152,380 106,060
8 Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (Nigeria) 3 36,220 181,900 67,314
9 National Oil Company (Libya) 2,3 41,464 52,650 50,464
10 Sonatrach (Algeria) 2,3 12,270 161,740 39,918
11 Gazprom (Russia) 0 171,176 29,261
12 PetroChina Co. Ltd. (China) 11,618 53,469 20,758
13 OAO Rosneft (Russia) 15,963 24,758 20,195
14 Petronas (Malaysia) 5,300 82,096 19,334
15 OAO Lukoil (Russia) 15,927 26 15,931
16 Petroleos Mexicanos (Mexico) 12,849 13,856 15,218
17 ExxonMobil Corporation (United States) 8,194 32,480 13,746 0.807786%
18 BP Corporation (United Kingdom) 5,893 45,931 13,744
19 Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. (Egypt) 2 3,700 58,500 13,700
20 Chevron Corporation (United States) 7,806 22,894 11,720
21 ConocoPhillips (United States) 6,696 26,835 11,283
22 Total (France) 6,592 25,539 10,958
23 Petroleum Development Oman LLC (Oman) 5,500 30,000 10,628
24 Petroleo Brasilerio S.A. (Brazil) 9,418 1,166 9,618
25 Royal Dutch/Shell (Netherlands) 3,270 30,058 8,408
26 Sonangol (Angola) 8,000 2,000 8,342
27 ENI (Italy) 3,481 16,965 6,381
28 Dubai Petroleum Company (United Arab Emirates) 2,3 4,000 4,000 4,684
29 Petroleos de Ecuador (Ecuador) 4,517 NR 4,517
30 Pertamina (Indonesia) 3 903 20,538 4,414
31 Statoil (Norway) 1,675 14,255 4,112
32 EnCana Corp. (Canada) 1,133 12,418 3,256
33 Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (United States) 1,264 10,486 3,056
34 Occidental Petroleum Corporation (United States) 2,264 3,810 2,915
35 China National Offshore Oil Corp. (China) 1,490 6,232 2,555
36 Repsol YPF (Spain) 1,057 8,718 2,548
37 Devon Energy Corporation (United States) 983 8,356 2,411
38 Apache Corp. (United States) 1,061 7,513 2,345
39 Ecopetrol (Columbia) 1,453 3,996 2,136
40 Canadian Natural Resources (Canada) 1,316 3,798 1,965
41 Norsk Hydro ASA (Norway) 748 6,611 1,878
42 Talisman Energy Ltd. (Canada) 767 5,400 1,690
43 Romanian National Oil Co. (Romania) 2 940 3,550 1,547
44 BG Group PLC (United Kingdom) 432 5,928 1,445
45 BHP Billiton Ltd (Australia) 551 4,867 1,383
46 Petro-Canada (Canada) 950 1,945 1,282
47 Hess Corp. (United States) 832 2,466 1,254
48 Nexen Inc. (Canada) 946 618 1,052
49 Shell Canada Ltd. (Canada) 8 1,400 1,047
50 Canadian Oil Sands Trust (Canada) 1,000 0 1,000
1,701,689