Green “Disparate Impact”
Thomas Sowell’s article here.
Skyrocketing housing prices are forcing out families with children, as well as blacks and other people with low or even moderate incomes.
What could be causing this? Is that just the way it is in California, expensive housing means few lower income families? Has it always been like this?
Prior to 1970, California housing prices were very similar to housing prices in the rest of the country. In more recent times, it has not been uncommon for California homes to cost three times what homes cost nationwide.
The main cause is open space laws.
In other words, they can keep out the less affluent people — or, as they put it, “preserve the character of the community” — while benefiting themselves economically in the name of green idealism.
If this was something George Bush did we would call it racism, but because it is done by those on the left they get a pass.
When a business sets standards or policies with adverse effects that fall disproportionately on minorities, courts call that a “disparate impact” and equate it with discrimination.
Carpooling, ain’t it great
The Today Show carpools to work and helps us all understand a little better how we can help the environment. But are they really committed?
“Too many of us in this country commute to work alone,” host Matt Lauer said. “And the planet is paying the price. Since the average car pumps twice its weight in carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, driving alone is a major factor in greenhouse gas buildup. So wait ‘til you hear how much fuel we could save in this country if each car carried just one more person.”[snip]
When Vieira proposed that “we could do this every day, guys,” Lauer sarcastically added, “We could also live in a tree for the rest of our lives.” Roker suggested, “Let’s eat some Grape Nuts.”[snip]
You mean this isn’t a practical answer to solving environmental issues real or imagined? It doesn’t sound like the folks at the Today Show really take this all to seriously. tsk tsk
Roker later explained that they can’t carpool every day because the hosts live different directions from the studio. But just because (chauffeured) carpooling doesn’t work for television superstars doesn’t mean it’s not good enough for you.
You are right Al, the rest of us live near those we work with.
Read about their trip here at businessandmedia.org
The FairTax
So why do I like the FairTax?
It is really simple to me, the biggest advantage is this: Taxes are a deterrent. No one questions this. It is why “we” put really high taxes on cigarettes. If you want to discourage an activity, tax it. The converse is also true. If you want to encourage an activity give a tax break. So why in the world would we want to discourage INCOME? Don’t we want people to be productive? If we tax consumption instead of income we are now discouraging consumption and encouraging conservation. This would not just be good for your pocketbook but good for the economy and yes even good for the environment. Why the environment you ask? The FairTax does not tax the sale of used items. Want to avoid paying taxes on a car, buy a used one, don’t want to pay taxes on a house purchase, buy a used one. I really believe we could take a lot of power out of the hands of selfish politicians and put it back in the hands of the selfish people and that is a very good thing.
Hiking in the Franklin Mountains
The view from the base.
I thought the white rock path on the left was the trail I would take to the top. You probably could take it a lot of the way up but I don’t think it is an actual trail. I think it is just the path the rain takes down the mountain so most of the dirt has eroded away.
I thought this peek (the one on the right) was where I would finish my hike to the top. It turns out I would go there but the hiking would continue.
Along the way I saw a couple of these New Mexican Whiptails, at least I think this one is a New Mexican Whiptail.
The Common Collared Lizard (the best I can tell).
Getting Closer
Nothing to say I just like this picture.
Looking back at where I’ve been, I started at the road.
Two more pictures I really like!
Oops!
Finally made it to where I thought the trail ended, but wait the trail doesn’t end here, it continues on.
The peak in the middle is where I thought I was going. But the trail continued to this spot. And what did I find at this spot?
Yep this is what I find antenneas, a side walk, and …
a view
of the city.
What is in the next 2 pictures? The third picture is a clue.
Ok next picture gives it away so keep looking.
Yes there is a bird in all three pictures.
I had a great time hiking the Franklin Mountains. It took me about 4 hours up and back down but that was with several good stops for picture taking and catching my breath. And if it wasn’t for my wonderful wife Lisa I wouldn’t even get to go to El Paso.
Green, not green?
A short pop quiz.
Which of the following energy sources are green?
1. Windmills
2. Oil
3. Solar Panels
4. Nuclear power
Answer key is below.
Answer Key:
1. not green
2. green
3. not green
4. green
“But wait teacher you made a mistake. I got all of my answers wrong and I know I have the correct answers.”
“No, I am sorry you are quite wrong. Let me explain.”
Wind and Solar energy are very diffuse sources of energy. So to collect sufficient amounts of energy we would have to use millions of acres of land on windmills and solar panels. Using up land for these purposes is wasteful and NOT green. Let me give you an example. To power New York City we would have to put solar panels over the entire states of Kansas and Nebraska. On the other hand, oil and atomic energy are very dense energy sources and found in places we don’t find life. We can dig deep in the ground where there is virtually no life and use a relatively small amount of land for nuclear reactors to power New York City. Oil is less green than Atomic energy but still more green than the others (Oil is less green than atomic energy because it is a less dense source of energy) . Once again we dig deep in the ground and use a relatively small amount of land on pipelines and refineries to extract the energy we need. Land is conserved and that IS green.
“Aha I’ve got you now. The refineries release so much carbon and polution in the air and that can’t be green!” you reply.
“I am sorry you don’t understand. Let me continue.”
You see we are in the process of reforesting the United States. Thanks to pesticides and fertilizers (once again VERY green) we get greater and greater crop yields from less and less land. We also use a lot less land feeding horses which used to be our main source of transportation. All of that land is returning to its natural state and consuming more and more carbon dioxide from the air. More than we even produce. You see wilderness is the key. That is why airplanes are more green than trains. Doubt it as you may it is true.
Oil from the Middle East
So how much oil do we actually use from the Middle East? Is it 50% of our oil? No, Okay it must be at least 40%? No, 30%? No, 20%? No, a little less than 13%.
“Of the 7 billion barrels of oil (BBO) we currently use each year, only 0.9 come from the Persian Gulf. We produce about 3 billion barrels domestically; our largest foreign suppliers are Canada (0.6 BBO) and Mexico (0.6 BBO); Venezuela and more than a dozen smaller suppliers take care of the rest. Getting to the point where the U.S. need not import any oil from the Middle East would not be very hard.”
from Getting over Oil
Peter Huber and Mark Mills (Author’s of The Bottomless Well)
Commentary, September 2005
Order
Electricity is expensive as far as energy is concerned. But electricity is highly ordered.
“The order in energy is the ONLY part that has any value. The sun provides us with 100 watts of light for free, through a couple of square feet of skylight, at noon on a moderately sunny day. Yet we pay good money for a 100 watt bulb and the elecrons to light it. A photon is a photon, but better-ordered photons packed into less space, delivered on demand, are worth far more than the diffuse, disordered, episodically available alternative, however “renewable” the sunlight may be.”
Chapter 1 of The Bottomless Well
Where do all the Quads go?
1 quad = 1015 Btu = 2.931 x 1011 kilowatthours
Quads=thermal units of raw heat.
The U.S. uses 100 quads of energy a year. Approximately 40% goes to electricity, 30% transportation, 30% heat. Here is a great graph from The Bottomless Well.
Click here Energy Usage.
I am an Environmentalist!
…As late as 1910, some 27 percent of all U.S. farmland was still devoted to feeding horses used for transportation. Feeding that organic transportation system required twice as much land as we use today for all our roads and highways, oil pipelines, refineries, and wells.
….A Quad’s worth of wood is a huge forest– beautiful to behold, but bulky and heavy. Pound for pound, coal stores about twice as much heat. Oil beats coal by about twice as much again. And a gram of U-235 is worth about four tons of coal. The proponents of solar, wind, biomass are pushing against a powerful hisorical trend. Left to its own devices, the market has not pursued thin, low-energy-density fuels, however cheap– it has paid steep premiums for fuels that pack more energy into less weight and space.
All of this is just on 1 page of The Bottomless Well.
We must protect our earth and make energy more available to more people at cheaper prices! If not oil, then what? NUCLEAR! unless of course it is Iran because they just want to kill people because we don’t believe in Allah. We must DEFEAT the Islamo-fascist! But I digress…
More to come.
