With post-Kyoto approaches to global warming concerns on the agenda lately at a major meeting in Montreal, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels - Rolling Stone's "pied piper" on the issue - says it's time for the United States to "join the community of nations" in commiting to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Seattle will do all it can, Nickels promises, and the Seattle P-I today notes that's got to include getting more regional drivers "out of their cars." Yeah, that'd be the "Seattle Way" alright: don't drive, you're destroying the planet. The interesting thing is that China and India won't commit to greenhouse goals, and anyone who really believes global warming is a problem - like Nickels - ought to get that their huge populations and growing industrial sectors will more than offset any gains we make in Puget Sound in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Seattle Greens care about feeling virtuous, not solving the problem they claim to believe exists. And the double-standards? A core value.
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at December 09, 2005 03:02 PM | Email This
P.S. Hey reporterward! You're an expert. Is it possible to be a former co-founder of something?
Now Andy, that's just not right.
Older cars cause more _pollution_. They emit more NOx, more SOx, more carbon _mon_oxide. Older car emissions are substantially more toxic than current car emissions. That's also a more smog-forming exhaust.
But the reduction of their emission of H2O and CO2 is caused solely by the increase in fuel efficiency. (A doubling of fuel efficiency would - at best - cause a halving of H2O and CO2 emissions) But both the H2O and CO2 production are actually higher _per_gallon_ now than in the past. More efficient combustion -> more H2O. More efficient catalytic converters + more efficient combustion means more of the CO ends up as CO2. (Which is actually an excellent thing - CO is a chemical that haemoglobin can't distinguish from oxygen - so it kills brain cells on nearly a 1-to-1 basis.)
...many times and this is what Beijing is like on a bad day. And there are many bad days.
So, the honorable mayor wants us to sign an agreement and then compete against at least one county that doesn't give a damn?
Yea, sure...
Posted by: BeenThere... on December 9, 2005 05:59 PMWell no wonder they want to force us out of our cars!
Posted by: huckleberry on December 9, 2005 06:37 PMGregoire raises taxes on all Smokes, then hands out raises based on these new taxes, then she outlaws smoking in all public areas.
So where are your new raises and taxes going to come from Gregoire?
Then Greg Nickels, who wants to build a Tunnel for what he claims is cars that are on the viaduct,wants to take all but the cars off the road. Who will pay all the new gas taxes to pay for his new tunnel? Was that tunnel really just a Sound Transit conversion planned for later?
These Liberals really are showing their new intelligance every single day.
It is amazing to watch!
Posted by: GS on December 9, 2005 06:57 PMKyoto may be flawed in its exclusions, but Nickels has no power over that; he only has power over his own city, and he's using that to an end you've conceded may be worthwhile. Why ridicule that?
Posted by: Travis Thomas on December 9, 2005 09:08 PMAnd you propose what solution?
The fact is we all need to do a little to make a difference, and we need to have policies that encourage those than can do a lot to do their part as well.
Nickels has taken a leadership role amongst mayors on this and should be commended for it.
Posted by: Daniel K on December 9, 2005 09:50 PMIf they cared about reduce carbon emmissions, they would want to build more roads. The best way to reduce carbon is to reduce average trip time to get from point A to point B.
But, alas, that is not what they care about.
As for Nickels - he is a bozo. Saying that the industrialization of China and India will "more than offset any gains in Seattle" is the understatement of the decade. The growth in polution in one day in one of those nations outstrips any gains Seattle could have in the next 500 years.
Nickels is doing it all for show. He likes to call himself a "leader" on these stupid causes.
He could do more to reduce global warming if he'd eat less, loose some weight, and stop emitting so much methane out of his butt.
I, for one, am driving a V8 and I might get a Hummer just to get even for having to put up with Nickels' nonsense.
Posted by: BananaLand (aka Iguana) on December 9, 2005 10:59 PMEveryone check out http://www.junkscience.com
Man's effect on the planet's temperature is mouse nuts compared to the Sun and other Geologic forces. And as Matt notes, anything we do here in the US in our relatively fixed growth cities as compared with that of India and China also pales in comparison.
Kyoto is a wealth redistribution scheme. Don't forget, Clinton couldn't get Kyoto passed in 1998. Back then the US Senate voted 95-0 against Kyoto. Americans, aside from the few dumb one's in Seattle, are not going to fall for a progressive plan to extort our wealth that punishes us the more prductive we become.
Posted by: Jeff B. on December 9, 2005 11:08 PMNot sure what the reference to the former co-founder is...let me read more into this post so I can fully grok your querry.
Posted by: Reporterward on December 9, 2005 11:41 PMGrammatically you're right. Good proof-reading. If this were a real newspaper, I'd just blame the headline writing on the copy editors/page layout folks. However, since this is an online piece, I think...I have no freaking idea who's in charge of what. Online "journalism" ain't my thang.
Bit of an educational note for the future. Newspaper reporters don't write headlines. Generally we're told to "cover a story". Sometimes we're told to fill a news hole that's, say, 10, 15, 30 column inches. Then the editors get a hold of it and do their thing. Then the copy editors get a hold of it and do theirs. Then the page designers get a hold of it and lop off the last five inches to make it fit into the space.
So if a headline and sub-head is needed for a space five columns wide, you might have something like...
"Giant outer space meteor heading to planet earth- Women and minorities likely to be hardest hit"
Or if you need 4 columns...
"Meteor will strike earth soon- Stock Market closes early"
Or if you need 2 columns...
"Big rock in sky- Bush, FEMA do nothing"
Posted by: Reporterward on December 9, 2005 11:59 PMYou don't have to wait up all night watching for my reply. Plus you knew what I was going to say while writing it...very skerry:-)
Posted by: Reporterward on December 10, 2005 12:02 AMThe best way to get rid of greenhouse gasses is to KILL ALL COWS! That's right, Bovine emissions do a lot more damage than the car does. So, what do we do? We kill more cows, eat more meat...problem solved.
No one, and I mean no one, is getting my out of my 1980 Toyota Corolla that gets 27+ miles to the gallon and can climb Snoqualmie Pass, while only 1/2 full of oil, without damaging my engine.
Besides, if Rainier blows like I think it will...Seattle won't have to worry about transportation. It'll be under mud, ash, and more crap. You won't be going anywhere.
Posted by: Sailor Republica on December 10, 2005 12:28 AMThe Seattle Greens couldn't care less about virtue but they do lust after naked power. Their lives would be meaningless unless they can force millions to do their will.
Posted by: Bill K. on December 10, 2005 12:38 AMThat's Stefan: the Long Island Sound Blogger!!! You guys are such weak idiots...
Posted by: Harry Poon on December 10, 2005 07:19 AMSaying "Nickels has no control over China or India" does not mean "Nickels can control Seattle." It means "Nickels has control over Seattle," which necessarily implies imperfection in that control, which is an accurate description of Nickels' power relation to Seattle: highly imperfect control.
Conservatives have never been particularly good with language, but I do have to give you points for trying.
Posted by: Travis Thomas on December 10, 2005 09:42 AMhttp://www.washingtongop.net/images/DemocratChristianHaters.jpg
The story:
http://deltamikecharlie.blogspot.com/2005/12/if-democrats-arent-anti-christian-then.html
Posted by: starboardhelm on December 10, 2005 10:05 AMI am using the word "control" loosely; perhaps I should be more careful there, but "highly imperfect control" can only by a fantastic stretch be called despotism. Where I said "control" in previous posts, I meant "control of the executive power systems." The word "Seattle" is meaningless outside of a political context, so that implication is not unreasonable.
Posted by: Travis Thomas on December 10, 2005 07:04 PMIt all comes down to who you choose to believe on the highly contentious subject of "global warming". Personally, I disagree with the irresponsible doomsday propaganda put forth by folks like Al Gore.
"Seattle will do all it can, Nickels promises."
From that, a couple of you trolls claimed that was an appropriate thing for him to promise, and that he could somehow deliver on that promise through his 'control' over the population of Seattle. And that's just plain hogwash.
I say it's all about appearances. He knows it's a superficial position, but so what? It costs him nothing and ingratiates him with the people who are most likely to vote for him. He doesn't even have to deliver on the promise in the unlikely event he's called to -- Seattle does.
And it's not a concrete promise with a measurable outcome. There's no danger of failure, because there's no definition of success. How can we know if Seattle does "all it can" to reduce global-warming in response to his promise?
Spin it all you want, but I can see that all he's doing is brown-nosing his constituents. He's a weasley politian doing a weasley political thing. And if he 'controls' your opinion of him by doing it, then that's all the control he needs.