Carbon Taxes Are Good For You  

The Minister for blocking wind farm development, Ian Campbell, has announced that "carbon taxes are stupid". As he is a master of the dark art of stupidity, perhaps he could be considered an expert on stupid things, but I still think he's several beers short of a sixpack, as usual.

Personally I'd say a well implemented global carbon tax would solve (1) global warming (2) peak oil and (3) resource wars over oil and the terrorism that results from these - so perhaps they wouldn't be such a bad thing.

I've even come up with a plan that seems more workable than relying on international treaties like Kyoto that can be ignored by rogue states like Australia and the US - make them part of WTO rules...

Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell has ruled out introducing carbon taxes to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, describing the idea as stupid.

Senator Campbell today discussed the Government's climate change policy at a luncheon in Perth, which was hosted by the Australian Institute of Energy.

He says taxing companies in relation to their carbon dioxide emissions would only discourage investment in Australia and push the greenhouse problem to another country.

Senator Campbell says there are better ways to reduce the energy sector's impact on the environment.

"What we want to do is put in sensible incentives to develop low-emission technologies and zero-emission technologies," he said.

"We are massively incentivising not only coal, but also solar and wind and a range of others.

The UK equivalent of Australia's "Australian Business Roundtable on Climate Change" has called for stronger government action on global warming.

Heads of some of Britain's biggest companies are meeting Tony Blair today to demand tougher targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. They will say that stronger government action would encourage industry to develop the technology needed to tackle climate change, as well as giving a lead to countries in the developing world.

The Confederation of British Industry has previously expressed concern that UK businesses might be disadvantaged by being given tougher targets than competitors overseas.

But today's meeting involves the biggest companies, including Shell, Vodafone, Tesco and Standard Chartered Bank, which are in a better position than smaller firms to adapt to the demands of emissions targets.

Last year the group said there was a "catch 22" situation where governments were refraining from new policies to cut emissions because they feared business resistance. At the same time, companies were finding it difficult to invest in low-carbon technology because there were no long-term climate policies.

Today the group said there had been advances in climate change policy, but ambitious and long-term action was still needed.

It will tell the prime minister there was potential for business and government to work together in a number of areas, from supporting low-carbon technologies, strengthening building and product regulation and stimulating consumer action.

One member of today's delegation, James Smith, chairman of Shell UK, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think climate change is a challenge that we all have to step up to and that requires significant measures deploying the technologies that are going to make a difference.

"We believe that the technological solutions are within our grasp, although they are at various stages of their development. What we need to do is muster the common will to put these solutions in place."

Grist has a staggering tale of Chinese madness - building the train of the thoughtless - a railroad from Beijing to Tibet tries to outmaneuver climate change.

A railroad connecting Beijing, China, to Lhasa, Tibet, has been completed, despite considerable political and environmental obstacles. The project, conceived over 40 years ago by Mao Zedong, is a symbol of Chinese domination and has faced opposition from proponents of Tibetan independence. The railroad runs through seismically active areas, climbs over a mountain pass that reaches 16,900 feet, and crosses permafrost that could move as much as 15 feet over time as it thaws and refreezes. To adapt, Chinese scientists pushed the project budget up nearly 50 percent, to roughly $4.2 billion, by designing a refrigeration system (!) to keep ground underneath some portions of the railroad frozen as the globe warms. They predicted the rate of climate change at exactly 3.6 degrees over 100 years -- if global warming accelerates faster than expected, the railroad could be defunct within a decade. If all goes "well," plans are in the works for luxury resorts and other developments along the route, bringing tourists to Tibet whether nomadic herders want them or not.

I've never quite worked out if these tales are true or not, but there is no shortage of sites claiming that Tibet is rich in uranium (some even claim it has the world's largest uranium deposit - which seems to clash with their hunger for Australian uranium exports). If some of these claims are correct, I guess they go quite a long way to explaining China's invasion and long occuptaion of the country. From the "Australia Tibet Council":

Tibet holds the world's most important known uranium reserves. These have been mined in the past without concern for nearby villages. Chinese authorities have offered Western companies facilities to dump waste in Tibet. As road and rail routes improve, nuclear waste could follow. Three nuclear missile sites have now been located on the Tibetan plateau and more are likely as China upgrades its nuclear weapons capability.

According to a report published by the Tibetan Government in Exile, the Chinese have discovered some 200 uranium deposits by 1990. (Tibetan Environment and Development Issues 1992, Dept. Of Information and International Relations, Central Tibetan Administration of His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama, Dharamsala, India.). The area around Lhasa contains possibly the world's largest deposits of uranium. (Richard Pascoe, "Uranium rich Tibet still awaits steam ;" South China Morning Post ; 24 Aug. 1982.)

The largest Chinese uranium mine appears to be the Gya Terseda mine in Tuwe (or Thebe) district, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous prefecture, Gansu Province. The Tibetan Government report says the processing of the uranium occurs near the town of Tuwe, which is 86 kilometres from the mine site. The report went on to say that 2000 Chinese are employed in the mine, but no Tibetans. Another report (Nuclear Tibet - Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Waste on the Tibetan plateau, International Campaign for Tibet - (ICT), Washington, 1993) claimed that most of the miners were ex-P.L.A. soldiers. The report also claimed that during the Cultural Revolution approximately 40 Tibetans worked at a dump site inside the mountain processing refuse. The refuse consisted of old electrical equipment, clothes and "thousands of boxes filled with dead white rats." Of the 40 Tibetans who worked in the dumping process, 5 were alive at the time the ICT report was produced.

Israel is planning to build a solar power station in the Negev desert that will supply 50% of their power consumption - if they can do it, why can't Australia, Senator Campbell (though we could probably do without handing over such a project to well connected ex-generals) ?

The Israeli government, in cooperation with private companies headed by former defense establishment officials, plans to build a solar power plant in the Negev, Ynet reported. Within two and half years, Israelis are set to enjoy energy produced at the station, which according to plans will provide 50 percent of the country's electricity consumption within 15 years.

The revolutionary project is being promoted by Vice Premier Shimon Peres, who already received PM Ehud Olmert's blessing to go ahead with the program. The station is set to be erected near the Jordanian border and supply energy to the neighboring Kingdom as well. King Abdullah himself has already expressed great interest in the initiative. Peres said that Israel must develop technologies for producing solar energy that can replace the country's total dependency on gas, coal and fuel. "Israel must become a global leader in this field. It's better for us to rely on the sunlight, which we have in abundance, than on the politically-flavored Saudi oil," he stated.

Grist has a look at modern compact flourescent lighting, which is now tolerant of dimming systems (much to my relief, as I've cursed my dimmer's ability to trash the earlier generation of CFLs repeatedly over the years).

I feel like my brain is squinting when I try to understand electrical current and wiring, but here we go: the short answer is yes, there are now compact fluorescent lamps designed for lights on dimmer switches, and they're even made by big guys like GE and Philips.

The second lesson I will share from the research I did on CFLs is: read the box, and do what it says. If your CFL box says do not use in enclosed fixtures, or use only in upward position, or don't use outside, follow the instructions. Because -- and of course I'm probably the only one who hadn't realized this -- the danger is not that the CFL won't work. The danger is fire. I just didn't think those nice, cool-to-the-touch lamps could get it together to make a fire. I'm not so smart sometimes.

You may have noticed my new jargon -- lamps -- and felt confused. Out (up?) there in the fluorescent-lighting world, what you and I would call "bulbs" have two components. The lamp is the bulby part. It is a pressure-, filament-, and gas-filled tube encased by phosphor-coated glass. When electricity hits the filament, it heats the gas atoms, they whir around and emit UV light, and the phosphor picks up the UV light and starts to glow. That's why CFLs basically look like intestine-y reformations of fluorescent tubes: the phosphored surface area is key to light production. The chunky base of CFLs contains an integral "ballast," which regulates the flow of electricity into the lamp (in commercial fluorescents, the ballast can be separated and replaced). The ballast gives the lamp electricity in little spurts, a sort of on-off cycle that prevents lamp blowout. So sometimes -- for tiny bits of seconds -- the lamp is off and the atoms are not receiving electricity, but the phosphor retains its glow, so we don't usually notice.

The warnings about using regular CFLs in dimmers (and enclosed fixtures) are related to the efficacy of the ballast.

Grist notes that long line fishing has caused a steep decline in albatross numbers (not to mention the fish population).

It's no surprise that long-line fishing is depleting our fish populations in staggering numbers. But many don't realize that the effects are felt above the ocean's surface as well. As the BBC reports, up to 100,000 albatrosses a year get caught on the baited hooks of long-lines and are pulled down to drown. Populations of three species breeding on South Georgia (country, not state!) and outlying islands have declined by about a third in the past 30 years. Dr. Sullivan of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said simple measures such as "flying streamers behind the fishing boat or adding weights to the line so they sink more quickly would help to stop albatrosses being killed."

That's easier said than done. If fishermen were willing to take "simple measures," we wouldn't have the massive dirty fishing problem we have today.

It seems the dreaded terrorist mastermind behind the Al Qaeda in Iraq franchise, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed (again), bringing delight and falling oil prices to a fearful world (though some analysts doubt his demise will make any difference to Iraqi oil exports).

I've never quite decided if ol' Abu Musab was an entirely fictional character or if his importance was just wildly exaggerated as part of the propaganda effort.

No doubt some new phantom menace will quickly be created to replace him - in some ways the propaganda industry follows the same cycles as TV soap operas - every now and then fresh blood (f you'll excuse the pun) is required to at least keep the punters interested (if not afraid) - and the Zarqawi story jumped the shark a while ago.

Sat Apr 08, 2006 at 02:12:40 PM PDT

The headline could also have been: Zarqawi retires, intends to spend more time with family.

Folks, it looks like the infamous Zarqawi has decided to retire. I know this story is a bit old, but I have to talk about it since I've been tracking this story.

It seems Bush's intelligence experts that were creating - er discovering - the Zarqawi audio tapes and creating - I mean intercepting Zarqawi's mail have decided it's time for the curtain call for Zarqawi.

Apparently, they noticed how played out and abused this Zarqawi propaganda had become. So, without claiming to have captured or to have killed him (since he was long-dead), they had to give a reason why there wouldn't be any more Zarqawi tapes. So they thought of a way to kill him off in the narrative, like writing an actor who has cancer out of the sitcom.

BBC:

Jordanian al-Qaeda militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been forced to step down as leader of a coalition of Iraqi militants, a leading Islamist claims.

Washington Times:

Jordanian-born al Qaeda militant Abu Musab Zarqawi has been replaced as head of the terrorist organization in Iraq in a bid to put an Iraqi figure at the head of the group's struggle, said a leading Islamist.

I won't bother with the poll question again. Last time, 82% of Kossacks that read my diary thought Zarqawi was a hoax.

Hopefully its not some ex-Dallas scriptwriter working on this stuff - imagine "Zarqawi Returns" in October, with the Washington Times breathlessly reporting it was all a dream...

The military's propaganda program largely has been aimed at Iraqis, but seems to have spilled over into the U.S. media. One briefing slide about U.S. "strategic communications" in Iraq, prepared for Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top U.S. commander in Iraq, describes the "home audience" as one of six major targets of the American side of the war.

Washington Post
Military Plays Up Role of Zarqawi
April 10, 2006

Somewhere or other he was still alive and hatching his conspiracies: perhaps somewhere beyond the sea, under the protection of his foreign paymasters, perhaps even — so it was occasionally rumoured — in some hiding-place in Oceania itself.

George Orwell
1984
1948

I think we just have to accept . . . that the terrorists, Zarqawi and bin Laden and Zawahiri, those people have media committees. They are actively out there trying to manipulate the press in the United States. They are very good at it.

Donald Rumsfeld
Interview with Rush Limbaugh
April 17, 2006

Though you could not actually hear what the man was saying, you could not be in any doubt about its general nature. He might be denouncing Goldstein and demanding sterner measures against thought criminals and saboteurs, he might be fulminating against the atrocities of the Eurasian army, he might be praising Big Brother or the heroes on the Malabar front — it made no difference. Whatever it was, you could be certain that every word of it was pure orthodoxy, pure Ingsoc . . . The stuff that was coming out of him consisted of words, but it was not speech in the true sense: it was a noise uttered in unconsciousness, like the quacking of a duck.

George Orwell
1984
1948

Its a shame Billmon is still on holidays, as he would no doubt have had some interesting observations to make about the Zarqawi Phenomenon.

Zarqawi has indeed been a strange phenomenon of the ongoing war. Sometimes he seems to be everywhere at once in that country, blamed for (or, through jihadist websites, taking credit for) everything from the latest IED attacks on U.S. troops to mortar barrages against U.S. bases, suicide car-bomb assaults on Shiite civilian targets, kidnappings, beheadings, even a string of bombings stretching from Morocco to Turkey in 2003, not to speak of the resistance of whole Iraqi cities to the American occupation, If it happens and it's horrific, he seems to be the one responsible. His name has more or less replaced Saddam's and Osama Bin Laden's as the enemy of choice for the United States. He is a literal whirling dervish of an enemy. His lieutenants or aides fall constantly into American hands; he is reportedly at every hotspot all over Iraq – or not in Iraq at all. His organization seems to take credit for just about every attack, every suicide bomb, every explosion in the country. The search for Zarqawi has become an – if not the – organizing theme of the American war in Iraq. At one point recently, the blogger Billmon posted the following set of typical Zarqawi headlines:

June 16, 2005: U.S. Says It Has Captured Al Qaeda Leader for Mosul Area

June 5, 2005: Militant linked to Zarqawi arrested

May 25, 2005: Top aide to al-Zarqawi arrested north of Baghdad

May 25, 2005: US: al-Zarqawi aides arrested

May 9, 2005: Gains seen after new arrest of al-Zarqawi aide

April 19, 2005: Iraqi Security Forces Capture Two Zarqawi Associates

March 9, 2005: A Zarqawi cell "prince", six others captured in Baquba

And he suggested the following template for the basic we-almost-got-Zarqawi story in our press, a kind of Iraqi variant on America's Most Wanted:

[Iraqi/US/US and Iraqi] forces have [nabbed/captured/ arrested] [a/one/two] [senior/middle/] [figure(s)/operations chief(s)/terrorist operative(s)] of [Jordanian/al-Qaeda-linked/Iraq's most wanted] terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi.

And yet, as far as anyone can tell, Zarqawi's actual organization or network is, at best, modest in nature and no one writing about it or him even really knows whether the man is alive or dead, in or out of Iraq. A look at basic press accounts of Zarqawi finds them filled to the brim with words like "purportedly," "allegedly," "claims," and "the CIA believes with a high degree of confidence." And the unnamed sources who tell us what is supposedly known about Zarqawi are invariably anonymous "American officials" or "intelligence officials," the same people who once assured us that he had a leg amputated in one of Saddam's Baghdad hospitals. (He is now believed to be two-legged.)

How to put together this conveniently satanic figure – capable of personalizing all the horrors of Iraq in a single monstrous body and bringing them home to the American public in a way that the Bush administration has found convenient – with what little is known about a possibly not-too-bright small-town thug is a curious challenge.