This just in from our “news Al Gore won’t be talking about” bureau:

It’s a line the American public has been hearing for a while—switch to an electric car and save the environment. But in China, where there are more than 100 million electrically-powered scooters and cars, alternatively-powered vehicles may be worse for the environment than gasoline-powered vehicles, according to a report released Monday by a team from the University of Tennessee.

The problem in China comes from the way most electricity is generated — more than 75 percent of power in China is generated by coal. So, rather than look at vehicle-emissions alone, where electric cars easily beat gas- and diesel-powered cars, the researchers studied the environmental impact of the whole power chain.

“An implicit assumption has been that air quality and health impacts are lower for electric vehicles than for conventional vehicles,” Chris Cherry, one of the University of Tennessee researchers, explains. “Our findings challenge that by comparing what is emitted by vehicle use to what people are actually exposed to.”

In the United States, some 50% of our electricity comes from coal. Not as much as China but still a hefty amount that should be factored into the “green” equation but often isn’t.

I was about to say I’d rather cut out the battery middle-man and have my car directly powered by coal… that way I could grill while driving. However, on the Volt, because the car was so ahead of its time, that feature came standard. They thought of everything.

More here.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

The “global warming will cause a chocolate shortage” scare tactic isn’t entirely new, but apparently spreading the rumor that a Whitman’s Sampler will cost as much as a Chevy Volt within a decade if developed countries don’t give trillions of dollars to the United Nations wasn’t causing sufficient truffle panic among the general public. Now, a slightly altered tactic: Do it Al Gore’s way or Valentine’s Day as we know it might cease to exist:

A new mini-report from the environmental group Climate Nexus points out that climate change is poised to wreck Valentine’s Day, or at least change it significantly, by threatening chocolate production.

That’s right. Global warming is very bad for chocolate.

As reported by The Times, research from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture found last year that as temperatures rise, the principal growing regions for cocoa could shrink, especially in Ghana and Ivory Coast, the sources of half the world’s supply. Production could fall off dramatically by 2050, making cocoa less available and more expensive.

Cupid’s lament.

The story doesn’t say this, but if you notice your chocolates starting to melt, take them to the Himalayas — there’s still plenty of ice there.

Isn’t chocolate high in calories and fat? If anything, global warming should be endorsed by the “Let’s Move” campaign and everybody should be encouraged to fire up their SUVs and gas powered leaf blowers to help win the battle against obesity.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

In an ad set to air during Sunday’s Super Bowl, aliens from outer space want to make sure their tax money didn’t get dumped into the Chevy Volt pit — at least that’s my take on it:

Ahead of the big game, Chevrolet has released its upcoming Super Bowl advertisement for the plug-in hybrid on the internet, in which a man in a bathrobe goes out to his garage in the middle of the night and discovers a group of little cone-headed green and purple creatures inspecting a Volt.

Exasperated by what seems to be a recurring event, he tells them, “I’ll say it again, it’s electric, but when I need to go farther it uses gas. Please tell me you understand.”

Here’s the ad:

There were 603 Volts sold in January, so encouraging sales numbers like that certainly justify shelling out the big bucks for some out-of-this-world ad time to attempt a product re-launch during the Super Bowl.

It’s not as expensive an ad purchase as it might sound. If the average Super Bowl spot this year is going for $3.5 million, then, according to some estimates, the commercial time was purchased at the total cost of just 14 Volts.

The spot would be more effective on a “high tech” level if the ET’s would have ditched their spacecraft in the guy’s driveway and taken the car instead, but even fiction has its limits when it comes to suspension of disbelief.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

For a long time I wasn’t convinced that glacier shrinkage was part of a natural earth-sun cycle and not caused by anything man was doing, but I stand corrected:

Police in Chile have arrested a man on suspicion of stealing five tonnes of ice from the Jorge Montt glacier in the Patagonia region to sell as designer ice cubes in bars and restaurants.

Local media reported that last Friday police intercepted a refrigerated truck with an estimated £3,900 worth of illicit ice allegedly bound for whiskies, rums and cocktails in the capital Santiago.

Authorities have accused the driver of theft and are considering adding violation of national monuments to the charge sheet.

Scientists say Jorge Montt, part of the Bernardo O’Higgins national park, is retreating by half a mile a year, making it one of the world’s fastest shrinking glaciers.

Add that to the list of causes.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

The ultimate goal is to clone Al Gore to serve as a weatherman at every local television station so he can offer the patented Hypocrite-Cast® nightly, but that can’t happen if there are still global warming deniers allowed on the air:

The Forecast the Facts campaign — led by 350.org, the League of Conservation Voters and the Citizen Engagement Lab — is pushing for more of a focus on global warming in weather forecasts, and is highlighting the many meteorologists who do not share their beliefs.

“Our goal is nothing short of changing how the entire profession of meteorology tackles the issue of climate change,” the group explains on their website. “We’ll empower everyday people to make sure meteorologists understand that their viewers are counting on them to get this story right, and that those who continue to shirk their professional responsibility will be held accountable.”

According to the Washington Post, the reason for the campaign can be found in a 2010 George Mason University surveys, which found that 63% of television weathermen think that global warming is a product of natural causes, while 31% believe it is from human activity.

So far, the campaign has identified 55 “deniers” in the meteorologist community and are looking for more. They define “deniers” as “anyone who expressly refutes the overwhelming scientific consensus about climate change: that it is real, largely caused by humans, and already having profound impacts on our world.”

This seems incredibly counter-productive, because the more successful they are in adding names to the ever-growing meteorologist denier list, the faster the notion of “scientific consensus” goes out the window.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

For the Goracle, watching a presidential campaign that isn’t focusing on his cash cow is too much for him to bear.

From the Daily Caller:

Though in recent years the climate change issue has disappeared from the forefront (and former Vice President Al Gore has found himself criticizing Democratic President Barack Obama for not being more aggressive on the issue), on Tuesday night’s coverage of the New Hampshire primary on Current TV, Gore insisted it should be part of the 2012 campaign.

“It should be in the presidential campaign,” Gore said. “And it is not at present. Not a single question was asked about climate in any of the numerous, multitudinous debates that these candidates have had. And yet in the year 2011, the United States of America had more than 12 climate-related disasters that cost over a billion dollars. The state of Texas has had the worst drought in its history. It is climate-related. Out of 254 counties, 252 are on fire. 2010 was the hottest year ever recorded. We have record melting of the volume of ice in the Arctic Ocean, dramatically powerful storms, in Pakistan, Australia, the Northeast. Record flooding in the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers, and the list goes on. And it’s consistent with what the scientific community has been warning us.”

Gore added that the future of civilization was “at risk” if the issue continues to be neglected.

I’ll bet those two counties in the state that aren’t on fire are loaded with climate change deniers.

Gore wants the world to let him lead the charge to change the planet’s climate and weather patterns but he can’t even control Keith Olbermann for cryin’ out loud…

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Gird your coins, video gamers — the Goracle is making a foray into another industry:

Now he’s collaborating with the creatives of PSFK on “Gaming For Good”, challenging companies to create new games that address the same issues facing his Climate Reality Project – and also being fun to play.

After receiving 60 game proposals from around the world, the entries have been narrowed down to the 10 top finalists, which was then whittled down to four by Gore himself. Among the finalists are Greensquare, “a gaming platform that gives you and your friends a new, greener way to explore local retail store, restaurants and businesses”. Gore was particularly taken with REALiTREE, “a digital representation of our local environment and the role we are playing in sustaining its wellbeing.”

“Games are fun,” Gore told an audience at a “Gaming For Good” event in New York. “I am not saying this as an expert. But looking at the enormous amount of time people are spending playing games, I can see that social games for good represent a fantastic opportunity for encouraging change in political and social spaces.”

Here’s an idea for a game: “Condition Hypocritical”: The goal is to get Al from his mansion to his limo to his private jet so he can fly halfway around the world to an emergency conference on how to eliminate greenhouse gases before everybody on the planet perishes from anthropogenic global warming.

Other games Gore is said to have in the works include…

–Modern Gorefare: Carbon Credit of Duty
–Grand Theft Economy
–Taxpayer-Subsidized Electric Mario Kart
–Angry Deniers
–Guitar Hero: Gibson Terminator

(h/t Weasel Zippers)

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

About three weeks ago, the LA Times reported that Newt Gingrich was involved in a book project revolving around environmental/economic issues, including a chapter addressing man-made global warming:

At a time when the Republican presidential candidates are swiftly backing away from past moderate environmental positions, Newt Gingrich may be the only one with a book pending on the topic.

Gingrich and Terry L. Maple have something of a sequel in the works to their 2007 book, “A Contract with The Earth,” tentatively titled “Environmental Entrepreneurs.”

The duo’s first book called on policymakers and businesspeople on the right to show they had better ideas for protecting the environment and creating jobs than government did. The new book is a collection of essays by various businesspeople and scientists to be edited and stitched together by Gingrich and, mostly, Maple, a former chief executive of the Palm Beach Zoo.

The author of a chapter on climate change is Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist at Texas Tech whose work focuses on assessing the impact of climate change and communicating it to broader audiences, including those traditionally dubious of global warming, like Christian colleges.

In Iowa on Thursday, Gingrich was asked about it, and, sounding like a man pledging never to be caught on the couch with Nancy again, Newt said this about the climate change chapter: “That’s not going to be in the book. We didn’t know that they were doing that, and we told them to kill it.”

This came as a surprise to author of the apparently scrapped chapter:

Newt Gingrich says he has killed a chapter on climate change in a post-election book of essays about the environment. But the intended author of the chapter, who supports the scientific consensus that humans contribute to climate change, says that’s news to her.

Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist at Texas Tech, confirmed in an e-mail interview that she had been asked to write a chapter on climate change for the former House speaker’s book. She said she was approached by former Palm Beach Zoo CEO Terry Maple, Gingrich’s coeditor, at an annual meeting of Republicans for Environmental Protection. Asked to confirm her chapter was dropped, she replied, “I had not heard that.”

Hayhoe was less restrained in a couple of tweets she posted Friday night. “so much ‘spare’ time wasted I cd’ve spent w family, & 2. what an ungracious way to find out, eh?” she asked. She followed that with “Nice to hear that Gingrich is tossing my #climate chapter in the trash. 100+ unpaid hrs I cd’ve spent playing w my baby”

If things don’t work out for Gingrich in this primary season the chapter may stage a miraculous comeback and wind up in the book after all. Newt might not be on the global warming loveseat at the moment but there’s some change under the cushions he may someday go back for.

On a related but separate note, at 7 p.m. EST the Des Moines Register will publish the results of their final poll before Tuesday night’s caucuses.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

It’s been over a year since I first heard that the government was spending a half million dollars for a study of shrimp on a treadmill. It’s the first research project of its kind since the Surgeon General’s office during the Clinton administration commissioned a study of the effects of an elliptical machine on Robert Reich.

The “Let’s Move” program for crustaceans must be going well, because the total expenditure on the study is now almost $200k over the originally reported half-million. But that’s still fairly cheap for a study being done purportedly to help define the effects of global warming on marine life:

Reports of $500,000 of taxpayer funds to study a project that has shrimp running on a treadmill hit the headlines early in 2011. A recent report now shows that $682,570 in grants has been awarded to the research effort.

According to the National Science Foundation (NSF) website, the money has been granted to the “Taking the Pulse of Marine Life in Stressed Seas” research conducted by biology professors Louis and Karen Burnett at the College of Charleston. The research page describes the professor’s “big question” as “How are human-made marine stresses affecting the marine life that we need?”

The website describes the process of the Burnett’s experiments, “First, a crustacean is infected, by injection, with the same types of disease-causing bacteria that are commonly encountered in the wild. Next, the animal is placed on a specially built, mini underwater treadmill. Then, the organism’s vital signs, such as its heart rate and blood pressure, are measured (as a proxy for fitness) while it walks on the treadmill–similar to the way that a person’s vital signs are measured while he or she& walks on a treadmill during a stress test. Finally, the treadmill performances of infected crustaceans are compared to those of their uninfected counterparts.”

Maybe shrimp, lobster and crabs would be a little less stressed if people weren’t grabbing them and throwing them on treadmills — just a thought. By the way, any shrimp that are unable to make the cut are donated to the White House.

What these reasearchers are not discussing is what is placed just outside the tank to make the shrimp run so fast, and it’s kind of cruel if you ask me. Somebody get PETA on the phone:

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

If the world doesn’t stop doubting Al Gore and quickly “green” itself at the bargain price of around $76 trillion, human beings could be extinct. That according to Senator Barbara “don’t call me ‘ma’am’” Boxer.

From The Hill:

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) blasted skeptics of climate science Wednesday, alleging they are “endangering humankind.”

“The message I have for climate deniers is this: you are endangering humankind,” Boxer said during a press conference in the Capitol. “It is time for climate deniers to face reality, because the body of evidence is overwhelming and the world’s leading scientists agree.”

Boxer criticized skeptics of climate science, alleging they are standing in the way of significant progress toward lowering greenhouse gas emissions both domestically and internationally.

Did the Senator who has an A+ rating from NARAL just accuse those who refuse to chug from Al Gore’s global warming Kool-Aid bong of being a threat the lives of human beings?

What most worries Boxer about global warming skeptics isn’t that they’re endangering humankind, but rather a grave threat to the circle of crony life in the age of “green” venture socialism.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu is now testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee about what a great idea it was conceptually to dump $535 million worth of taxpayer money into a loan guarantee for Solyndra, and how the decision-making process wasn’t political whatsoever, even though emails would seem to contradict that claim.

C-Span has live video here.

Reason.com has a live blog. Chu’s providing proof that even Nobel Prize winning physicists can have issues with selective memory loss:

So far Chu is pleading total memory loss of all the emails warning that Solyndra was going to run out of cash.

In Chu’s defense, maybe he didn’t assume Solyndra would run out of cash because another government loan was in the process of being locked and loaded.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Update (MM): Chu says the amount the government will be able to recover from Solyndra bankruptcy is “not very much.”

See my Twitter feed for full live-tweeting. Democrats are doing their best to carry water for Chu and Obama. Henry “Nostrils” Waxman has condemned GOP as “anti-science” for opposing bottomless bailouts for Dem-tied solar frauds.

For vid clips, go to GOP.com. Here’s a sample:

“NOT VERY MUCH:”

No apology for squandering taxpayer money:

File this story under “Al Gore’s portfolio hardest hit”:

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday urged governments in rich nations to work around troubled economic times and scale up donations to a global climate change fund that is at risk of becoming an “empty shell”.

The world’s poorest nations are particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels, more extremes of droughts and floods and say rich nations should help them with cash to try to adapt.

Nearly 200 nations agreed at major climate talks last year in Cancun, Mexico, to raise $100 billion annually from 2020 to help poor nations fight climate change. The money would be managed by a Green Climate Fund.
[...]
He said countries should act now to donate to the now empty Green Climate Fund. A U.N. climate conference in Durban, South Africa, from Nov 28 to Dec 9 aims to formally agree the design of the fund and how it will be managed.

“An empty shell is not sufficient and we must fill the shell,” he said. “This is a message I am taking to Durban.”

What part of “there isn’t any money left for your world-wide climate change shams because it was all spent it all on domestic climate change shams” doesn’t he get?

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

As we stampede toward the Iowa caucuses and beyond, Newt Gingrich is trying to shake some unnecessary baggage that has caused him some political problems as well as mockery from assorted conservative bloggers. Specifically, I’m referring to Gingrich’s appearance next to Nancy Pelosi on what became affectionately known as the “global warming loveseat” in a PSA for Al Gore’s organization WeCanMakeAlGoreRicher.org WeCanSolveIt.org.

Whether or not Gingrich regrets dabbling in Gore’s global warming magic remains to be seen, but he sure is sorry about being pictured sitting next to Nancy Pelosi:

GOP White House hopeful Newt Gingrich wants voters to know he really, really regrets making a 2008 ad with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) calling for action to address climate change.

“That is probably the dumbest single thing I’ve done in recent years,” Gingrich, the former House Speaker, said Tuesday on Fox News, calling the ad “inexplicable.”

Okay, Newt’s kinda-sorta repented for the Pelosi ad — will Mitt see Newt’s repentance and raise him one Romneycare regret at tonight’s debate? Highly unlikely.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

I’m going to reserve judgment concerning the opinion of Starbucks’ director of sustainability until I hear back from the climatologists at Dunkin’ Donuts and Tim Hortons, but it would appear that the global warming panic-inducer du jour is “climate change will mean no more coffee.”

Now will you willingly hand over control of America’s wealth to Al Gore & company? Me neither.

From CBS News:

Millions of people enjoy a cup of coffee first thing in the morning, but a group of scientists says that daily ritual could be on its way to extinction.

The driving force behind the new information is coffee giant Starbucks, reports “Early Show” contributor Taryn Winter Brill. One of its lead scientists says global warming is threatening the world’s coffee supply — and that news isn’t being well-received by coffee drinkers around the world.

On Friday, the director of sustainability for Starbucks, Jim Hanna, said climate change is threatening the world’s coffee supply, telling the Guardian newspaper, “What we are really seeing as a company as we look 10, 20, 30 years down the road — if conditions continue as they are — is a potentially significant risk to our supply chain, which is the Arabica coffee bean.”

Considering what Starbucks charges, I thought there already was a coffee shortage.

Global warming alarmists are hoping public reaction to the above story will be similar to the one below, but it might backfire and have some people firing up the gas-powered leaf blowers.

At least global warming won’t affect beer. Whew! What? Oh jeez, where can I buy some carbon credits?

(h/t Newsbusters)

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Last spring while visiting Nevada Geothermal Power, Sen. Harry Reid said “this project is exactly the type of initiative we need to ensure Nevada creates good-paying jobs.” Notice Reid didn’t say the geothermal power company was exactly they type of initiative Nevada needed to create power.

From the New York Times:

In a remote desert spot in northern Nevada, there is a geothermal plant run by a politically connected clean energy start-up that has relied heavily on an Obama administration loan guarantee and is now facing financial turmoil.

The company is Nevada Geothermal Power, which like Solyndra, the now-famous California solar company, is struggling with debt after encountering problems at its only operating plant.

After a series of technical missteps that are draining Nevada Geothermal’s cash reserves, its own auditor concluded in a filing released last week that there was “significant doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”

Don’t worry though — worst case scenario: It won’t cost as much as Solyndra:

The amount of money the federal government has at stake with Nevada Geothermal — a loan guarantee of $79 million plus at least $66 million in grants — is much smaller than the $528 million investment in Solyndra. There have been no allegations of wrongdoing by Nevada Geothermal or its Blue Mountain, Nev., plant.

Pocket change.

When asked about the company’s viability, NGP’s CEO didn’t exactly ooze a Churchillian level of confidence and resolve:

Executives of the company express confidence that they can recover and say that the government investment is not at risk, despite the challenges they face because of a high debt load and lower-than-expected energy output at their plant.

“We are here,” said Brian D. Fairbank, the chief executive, who like other company executives works out of Vancouver, British Columbia, where Nevada Geothermal Power has corporate offices. “We’re doing O.K.”

The market doesn’t seem to agree.

But at least none of those troubles will surprise the administration:

Obama administration officials knew about most of these difficulties before the Energy Department agreed in September 2010 to partly guarantee a second major loan to Nevada Geothermal, worth $98.5 million.

Nevada Geothermal executives, meanwhile, are working to renegotiate their $91 million, high-interest loan to avoid a default, which could come as soon as December.

Harry Reid’s pitch for the loan was of course all about Joe Biden’s favorite three-letter word: “jobs.” According the Dept. of Energy’s website, the project has “saved or created” 14 permanent jobs, and even those now sound as if they’re at risk.

The government’s “green jobs” initiative will likely go down in history as the world’s most expensive temp agency.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe