Newsletter 51

Most of the 141 participants thought that global warming is a huge problem, and would be willing to spend at least 10% more for energy to combat warming by decreasing the amount of greenhouse gas. It will take time for the scientific facts to catch up with the effective warming propaganda. See s-a-f-e.org blog for more.

Our annual meeting will be held 11:30 a.m., Friday, November 14^th at the first floor dining room of the DuPont Country Club, Rockland Road, Wilmington, DE.

We will elect officers and discuss our tactics for 2009. All members are welcome. WE welcome your input. This is your chance to meet the Directors and influence the direction of SAFE.

CO₂H₂O O₂

It’s All Good

Did you take our advice?

Avoid a clogged drain. Once a month, fill your sink with hot water, and let it rush through to clean out the drain.

Sand, broadcast thinly by hand, improves traction on an icy spot. Before winter, put a container of dry sand in your car’s trunk.

Add to November on your calendar: Take vitamin D during the winter to make up for less sun exposure. This should decrease your chance of getting the flu.

Increase the chance of saving your frozen food during a power outage. Add 5% salt and 95% water to a plastic juice jar. Put it in your freezer to absorb heat when melting below 32F.

As this is written the federal government is having a hard time deciding how to try to bail out the financial system. Financial institutions have made risky loans. The bailout will soften the consequences for both. This creates a “moral hazard” which means a situation that rewards risky behavior. Close up, the situation appears quite serious. However, it has everybody’s attention and, after some serious losses it could be over in maybe two years.

Let’s compare this financial crisis to the baby boomer problem. This financial crisis was foreseen for many months. The baby boomer problem was foreseen by SAFE members and others for many years.

The financial crisis affects the ability of some financial institutions to function. The baby boomer problem threatens the financial stability of the U.S. Government.

The cost of government intervention in the attempt to moderate the damage of the financial crisis is less than $700 billion. The long term exposure of the U.S. Government due to the failure to address the baby boomer problem is estimated to be $53 trillion, by the Peterson Foundation. The magnitude is $53 trillion versus only $0.7 trillion for the present problem. The baby boomer problem threatens the U.S. with an outcome that could dwarf the Great Depression. Yet, no serious action is under way to soften the blow.

Let’s imagine that we decide to get serious. What would we do? Individual Americans would live more simply and save some money. The federal government would follow the spirit of the 10^th Amendment to the Constitution which states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” If this were done, the federal debt could be paid off, then federal taxes could be reduced greatly.

In this dream, Social Security and Medicare would be transferred to the States, and the meltdown of the federal government would be averted. The States are not allowed to indulge in deficit spending, so they would have to pare down the entitlements, perhaps by means testing. The federal prescription drug program would be abolished, leaving it to the States to decide whether to take it over.

It would be great if members of Congress started thinking along these lines. The Congress has been called irresponsible, some say immoral, for ignoring the baby boomer problem. How about a small start in the right direction? Why not eliminate the federal Department of Education? Without federal guidelines, State government schools could do a better job, maybe gaining on the superior outcomes from private schools and home schooling.

More low hanging fruit: Abolish the Department of Energy which was responsible for the long lines at service stations during the oil embargo. Let the energy companies do their jobs without subsides and with minimum regulations.

SAFE members should infect others with this kind of thinking. Americans have put up with Congress irresponsibility for much too long. The longer congress postpones dealing with the baby boomer problem, the worse the outcome will be.

We have an example to follow. New Zealand had a serious big government problem in the 1980s. We’ll send you an account of how they coped, if you wish. Just let us know.

The evidence is mounting that carbon dioxide is not the major cause of global warming. The carbon dioxide concentration is increasing but the Earth’s temperature has been decreasing for over a year, as shown below.

The Earth’s temperature has had distinct ups and downs, with a longer term trend slowly increasing by only 0.2 degrees C from 1979 to 2006. The chart on the previous page shows measurements from satellites of the temperature of the lowest level of the atmosphere.

Ocean temperatures are in agreement with the satellite data. Temperatures from 3000 Argo project ocean temperature probes have shown that a slight cooling is under way (Washington Times 3/21/08 p. 37). As Carbon dioxide concentration continues to increase the Earth is not warming. This is only part of the strong evidence that carbon dioxide is not a major factor causing global warming.

The above information is based on careful measurements, not on computer predictions. It is increasingly clear that expensive efforts to limit global warming by limiting carbon dioxide would be futile.

Superimposed on ice ages and intervening periods is a warming and cooling cycle lasting in the order of 1500 years. The latest cycles are the “Medieval Warm Period,” the “Little Ice Age” and the present warm period. These changes could not have been caused by mankind burning fossil fuels. The main cause appears to be output of the sun, as indicated by the links between warm periods and increased number of sun spots. Details are in two books, “Unstoppable Global Warming” by Singer & Ayers, and “The Chilling Stars” by Svenswark & Calder.

Futile efforts to limit warming by limiting carbon dioxide are harmful in two ways. First, the large cost of such efforts and second, distraction from attention to the current financial crisis, and the much more serious problem of future entitlements for baby boomers.

{SAFE members should feel free to use the above information in any way you choose, including verbatim use. However, if you plan near verbatim use, please let us know so we can guard against duplication of such use in the same geographical area.]

The above cartoon was drawn for us before the current financial crisis erupted. The cartoon was meant to refer to the baby boomer problem and the distraction from concern about global warming. It can also be taken as distraction from the current crisis.

Either way, we consider it a good illustration of the distraction caused by global warming concern.

Feel free to use it any way you wish. The more circulation it gets, the better. Click cartoon and download to your computer:

FINANCIAL CRISIS	OUR OWN CARTOON
HODGE PODGE	LATEST ON WARMING