The Sun. Our own personal star. The energy output of this giant is not constant. It is variable. The Sun is in a constant state of flux. The Sun goes around in cycles, the smallest of which is about 11 years, and some larger ones are as long as 8000 years. Energy output during these cycles can severely change. Not only that, but our planet is constantly moving towards and away from it, in various angles and speeds. Just the angle and distance of us to the Sun creates the temperature differences between summer and winter. The way we face the sun influences the temperature difference between day and night.

It has been shown that the temperature changes in Earth’s history closely follow read more

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Why environmentalists insist dumping ton after ton of potentially toxic materials into a big hole in the ground is somehow better for the environment than using plasma gasification to produce heat and electricity is beyond me. You would think, since it reduces CO2 output due to less reliance on coal-burning plants, the environmentalists would welcome such a plan. The City of Ottawa, in partnership with the Plasco Energy Group (http://www.plascoenergygroup.com) are about two weeks away from starting up their new Plasma Gasification plant to convert MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) into Plasma gas to drive turbines to generate electricity. Their unique process has NO EMISSIONS.

For every tonne of solid waste they generate 150 kg of slag which can be read more

I am in a conundrum: I loathe hypocrisy, yet I may have to do something that is so hypocritical it makes me sick. I am ecstatic that my favourite band, Genesis, is going to tour again, not for the money, but for the fun (yeah, right). Got my ticket for Ottawa, dished out my 200 dollars (where’s the fun?), everything is honky-dory. However, now I learn Genesis is going to open, with a 20 minute set, the London Live Earth concert in July. If you know me at all, you’ll know that puts me in a very difficult position: I would like to watch it on TV, record it, and play it over and over again, but since it is read more

Okay, okay, I admit it. I love Knut. He’s cute, he’s cuddly, he’s adorable. When he first became popular, animal activists wanted him destroyed, because being raised by humans isn’t a polar bear thing to do. I suppose being euthanized is. Anyway, he survived that attempt on his life, and led a happy few little weeks, being his sweet and adorable self. But unfortunately, Knut has gotten himself in some hot waters recently. First he was suspected of killing his next door neighbour Yan Yan, the lethargic panda. Seems like Knut generated some long line-ups, and bored people at the end of the line decided to visit Yan Yan instead, who promptly died from all the attention. It appears that Pandas can’t take read more

March 6th, Ottawa, ON. 11 am. The mercury is stuck at -26 C, overnight it was -27. This is the coldest recorded temperature on March 6th EVER. We have just finished the coldest February in the last 10 years. Where are the reports of ‘Global Cooling’? One abnormally hot day in June will get the Global Warming nuts have their say. Where are they now? I know where they are. They are hiding, hiding in their caves, until the first hot day of spring comes around, and then they’ll emerge. Sweatting and triumphant, shouting ‘Global Warming is here again!’

Is recycling paper environmentally sound? I think not: 29 per cent of all recycled paper in North America is currenty sold to–you guessed it–China. Coal burning container ships carry over nine million tonnes of recovered paper fibres across the ocean to China. Chinese plants use mostly coal to provide the energy to make paper, as opposed to cleaner hydro here in Canada. After China has produced the paper, it is increasingly selling the newsprint back to North American companies, again shipping it across the ocean using coal burning container ships.

I was reading, with interest, the Citizen’s Art Quiz ‘Life is wonderful for Forsyth’ (Ottawa Citizen, Thursday, February 8, and subsequent dog related follow up). I was impressed with Ms. Forsyth’s answers until I laughed out loud reading the sentence: “Lately, I’ve been worried about the polar bears”. I laughed because everything else she mentions in the quiz screams ‘I don’t give a hoot about polar bears’: from eating black cod in New York and loving her blackberry, to having a new gown for every performance in cities across the globe, and vacationing on Anguilla.
Ms. Forsyth, if you were one of those people who believe humans are 90% certain to be responsible for global warming, and the related decline read more

So, Al Gore is on the campaign trail. Now, how does one get elected in general? First you need a crisis. Invent a crisis. Anything. Make sure it scares people. It has to scare enough people to assure a majority of votes. Make the people believe there is a crisis, then portray to be the one to TRY to save them from this imminent crisis. Election is almost assured. So, what better crisis than one the majority already believes? Global Warming, yeah, that’s a good crisis! Over 70% of the world today believes global warming is a huge crisis. OK, we have our crisis. The problem is, Americans do not care too much for countries far away flooding.  Shanghai, China? No…  Calcutta, India? No… read more

The fact that most people in the world today believe that air pollution causes Global Warming drives me absolutely crazy. The fact that these people embrace the Kyoto accord to deal with these problems makes even less sense: Kyoto deals almost exclusively with the reduction of CO2 gas in the atmosphere.  CO2 is neither a pollutant, nor the cause of Global Warming. CO2 is a colourless, ordourless gas that is the ‘oxygen’ to all the plants and trees in the world. Remember your grade 9 biology class? Photosynthesis? It is the lifeblood of the tropical rainforests we all tried so hard to save during the late seventies and early eighties.