Candidates ignore climate change debate - San Francisco Chronicle [fornadablog.blogspot.com]
For the last five years, Community School science teacher Donna Furlong has taken her 5th grade students onto the Contoocook River in rafts to study the Contoocook, measuring the depth and width of the river, and testing the water for acidity and for ... River water testing puts students on top of it all
"On the Water" by the Walkmen, directed by Nir Ben Jacob, from 2008's beautiful and brilliant "You & Me" Couldn't find it on YouTube, so we uploaded this nice video by one of the best bands out there www.myspace.com www.marcata.net www.facebook.com Lyrics: All the windows are glowing The branches bending low The skyline is swinging Rocking back and forth Walking down this dirt road Watching at the sky It's all I can do It's all I can do All the years keep rolling The decades flying by But ahh, the days are long So here's one to the pigeons The tugboats on the river Here's one to you For walking in my shoes, ah Oh, you know I'd never leave you No matter how hard I try You know I'd never leave you And that's just how it is Oh, everybody sees right through Oh, the static That is, dear, everyone but you Oh, it's funny to think it through Everybody... that is, dear, everyone but you The Walkmen - On The Water
[fornadablog.blogspot.com], Candidates ignore climate change debate - San Francisco Chronicle
When President Obama and Mitt Romney square off Wednesday in their first debate, global warming may be the biggest topic that neither wants to touch.
Obama devoted all of four sentences to climate change in his speech at the Democratic National Convention last month. Romney rarely mentions it at all.
It's a stark change from the 2008 presidential race, when both Obama and his Republican opponent, John McCain, preached the need to reduce greenhouse gases. And environmentalists are furious.
"The silence of Gov. Romney and President Obama on climate change is deafening," said Erich Pica, president of the environmental group Friends of the Earth Action.
His organization has launched a campaign called Climate Silence to inject global warming into the presidential race, working with another group called Forecast the Facts. The campaign's website features photos of Obama and Romney with duct tape over their mouths.
"Voters deserve to know where they stand on the most serious threat to our nation," Pica said in a news release. "Anyone who is elected to lead the country - or aspires to do so - should realize that true leadership means a willingness to engage difficult issues, not sweep them under the rug."
Nine environmental groups circulated petitions asking journalist Jim Lehrer, the moderator of Wednesday's debate, to press the candidates on global warming. About 160,000 people signed.
"It's often true that political speech lags behind public understanding," said Steve Cochran, vice president of climate policy at the Environmental Defense Fund, which participated in the letter-writing campaign. "The population is ahead of the politicians on this."
Reasons for avoidance
But the last-minute efforts may not succeed. Each candidate, analysts say, has reasons to avoid discussion of the issue.
Among Republicans, skepticism about climate change has hardened into outright rejection. They tend to view efforts to cap the greenhouse gas emissions that come from burning fossil fuels as heavy-handed government interference in the free market, if not a threat to personal liberty. After Solyndra's bankruptcy, they deride government support for clean-energy companies.
A poll conducted last month by Bloomberg found that only 26 percent of Republicans believe human activity is warming the planet. Contrast that with 78 percent of Democrats and 56 percent of independents.
"The GOP is as stony a ground for that issue as you can find today," said Jerry Taylor, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute libertarian think tank and a frequent critic of federal environmental policy.
As governor of Massachusetts, Romney explored ways to fight global warming. But he eventually backed out of a multistate plan to limit greenhouse gas levels through the use of a cap-and-trade system, in which power plants buy and sell permits to emit those gases.
Now Romney says he is uncertain about the extent of warming and people's role in it, and he supports more research into the issue. He does not back climate change policies that could boost energy prices.
"What I'm not willing to do is spend trillions of dollars on something I don't know the answer to," Romney said last year at a campaign appearance in New Hampshire.
For Obama, the political calculus of global warming is far more complex than it is for his challenger.
Obama placed climate change at the heart of his 2008 campaign. His economic stimulus package in 2009 steered billions of dollars to companies building solar power plants or wind farms that generate electricity without greenhouse gases. And he set new car mileage standards that will double fuel economy to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, slashing oil use.
But he let die in Congress a bill to create a federal cap-and-trade system in 2010, bitterly disappointing many environmentalists. Now he may be worried about alienating independent voters, whose concern about climate change isn't as strong as it is among Democrats.
His official campaign website still calls for fighting climate change and touts the rapid growth of renewable power on his watch. But it doesn't mention cap and trade or setting hard limits on the country's production of greenhouse gases.
"Obama probably feels that with bringing up the issue, there are potential losses and not too many gains," said Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute. "A real response (to global warming) would include a lot of substantial changes - in the forms of energy we use and the way we use it - and that makes people uncomfortable."
Different approach
Some analysts argue that Obama is being too cautious.
A recent poll by researchers at George Mason University and Yale University found that 65 percent of undecided voters believe humans are causing global warming, the same percentage as among likely Obama voters. And 61 percent of undecided voters in the poll said climate change would be one of the issues they would consider when casting their vote.
"Obama's political handlers are telling him that people in the middle of the spectrum - independents - are likely to be alienated when he says 'global warming' and 'climate change,' " said Edward Maibach, director of the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason. "And we found it's just the opposite. On this issue, independents look a lot more like Democrats than Republicans."
Taylor, however, cautions that the same may not be true in key battleground states that rely heavily on the fossil fuel industry, places such as Ohio or Pennsylvania. There, Romney has accused Obama of waging a "war on coal" with proposed regulations that would limit greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants, regulations that would be difficult for coal-burning plants to meet.
"Amongst those voters, swing voters in swing states, there's very little appetite for doing anything on climate change," Taylor said.
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Question by Sanju: What is the one word for "boiling point of water"? Can any one tell me the one word for the term "boiling point of water" ( ie if there exist one ). Also what is the english word that denotes one word. Best answer for What is the one word for "boiling point of water"?:
Answer by TrueMetal Answer by KayBee
The boiling point of water is 100deg Celsius. It would be vaporization.
(a) 100C (b) Monoliteral or monoverbal
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How can you light a fire for survival if you having nothing but a water bottle and a bright sunny day? Check this out!! Normally, we'd think of using water to put OUT A FIRE, but in this video I show you how I use water to START THEM. If you like survival and fire-making techniques, this video is a MUST SEE! The creation of fire is so elemental to our way of life that our entire society would be devastated without it. The hunter-gatherer instinct in me is perpetually curious to discover new ways to make it. In 2010 I discovered I could light a fire with a water bottle. It's hard to explain the climatic gratification that comes from seeing this project burst into flames. www.thekingofrandom.com Project inspired by: The need to update my previous video youtu.be WARNING: This project should not be attempted without adult supervision and adequate training. Misuse, or careless use, of tools or projects may result in serious injury, property damage, and/or death. Use of t his video content is at your own risk. Music by Kevin Macleod (Stomp Dance, Movement Proposition, Chipper Doodle) incompetech.com If you're ever lost in a survival situation, here's a little trick you're going to be so glad to know. For this project I'll use 3 sheets of paper, and a water bottle. I'll get started making this top sheet into a platform by folding it in half 3 different ways. The black ink is showing, and that's a good thing, so now I can prepare these other 2 sheets by cutting or ripping them in ... Use your WATER BOTTLE to STAR A FIRE!!
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