Carbon Sequestration, A Solution Not Discussed

Most people don't know what a tree is, at least, I can say I didn't know what a tree was until I heard the proper definition. Tell me if you knew this: a tree is a solar powered machine for turning air into wood.

The C02 that trees breathe in becomes O2 for us, and the C goes into the tree. Trees don't come from the soil, but the air.

Turns out we have a carbon problem, the International Panel on Climate Change has lots to say about it.

Well, can we use trees to get rid of the carbon? The idea is based on the ideas that we would grow trees and bury them, or, if not bury them, then, at least, prevent them from rotting. Rotting releases the carbon back into the atmosphere.

How much carbon gets released, total? I've been given to understand that the American total is 25% of the global total of emissions. Anyway, the US total per year is 1.44 petagrams so the global total is about 5 petagrams. (kilo, meta, giga, tera, peta). This site says global production is already over 6.32 petagrams.

And how much does a forest consume? One (probably healthy) forest consumes about 1.5 megagrams of carbon per year/per hectare.

And how many hectares of forest are there, total? About 4 billion, although it was probably closer to 5.5 billion a few hundred years ago.

So, if every acre of forest was harvested like this, we'd have 4,000,000,000 x 1,500,000 = 6,000,000,000,000,000 grams of carbon, compared to 5,000,000,000,000,000 grams of total carbon emissions. 6 petagrams versus 5 petagrams.

I love old growth forests. I'm just saying.

Think of all the algae!
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Hip, Hip, Hamas!

How come I never heard that Hamas had destroyed the wall between Egypt and the Gaza Strip?

I learned it on the interesting TheRealNews.com.

And, if you have some doubt about this, a) I've said before that the treatment of Gaza by Israel is 'collective punishment' (just like the US in Fallujah) and, b) imagine if someone built a wall around your county, wouldn't you cheer when it came down?
Please check out my new site I Want the Nobel Prize

Concerning What They Call God

I was just thinking thinking that if the deity isn't from Earth, then the deity is an alien. Half the world (or more) worships an alien.

Then I was thinking about Judaism, since I was raised Jewish. The Jews believe that they are the alien's "chosen people." And I realized they believe that, no matter what, that will always be the case. They could rip every baby on Earth apart, limb from limb, and they would still be the alien's "chosen people."

That is some insanely evil alien they worship.

Some other people believe one time the alien came down and boinked a person.


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Antarctic Melting News

A story I didn't heard on the TV News, but saw on the bottom of the new NASA home page
First of its kind study has consistent with Gore results for Antactica melting at here

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Retroactive Immunity in History

I was interested in checking the record for instances when Congress had passed laws granting retroactive immunity. This link is to a Glenn Greenwald story about Robert F. Kennedy and Katzenbach speaking against retroactive immunity for the banks.
The banks merged knowing they'd be sued for violating monopoly laws, but when they started losing the suits, they went to Congress. Congress granted the immunity in 1965.
Please check out my new site I Want the Nobel Prize

Citizens of Missouri

"First do no harm" says Kit Bond, the war booster, "first do no harm" says torture advocate Kit Bond, "first do no harm" Kit Bond says is the dictate of leadership. Of course, it is really the mandate of medicine, but even there it isn't followed. Nowadays many things, like chemotherapy, do harm to get the healthy result.
Citizens of Missouri, read these words and know that Kit Bond does you no honor.  If you can not find someone who can debate better than Kit Bond, don't send anyone to the Senate at all.
If you are out there, and still young enough to want a life in politics, do the United States Senate a favor and study some of the formal branch of logic called Fallacy Logic, the kind that prevents you from throwing up straw men like o many skeet targets.
Please check out my new site I Want the Nobel Prize

The Fallacy of Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell

The books main premise is that people can instantly recognize the solutions to problems, and don't need to think about them. I shall not argue from adverse consequences, however appealing it is to besmirch the name of people who suggest that people shouldn't think.

The fallacy, repeated over and over again in the book, is that in each of his examples, the people who aren't thinking are experts in their field. Surely a heart surgeon, plopped in front of an open, bleeding chest, might not need to think about which vessel to clamp down on first to prevent loss of life. You (for my non-thorassic surgeon readers) and I, however, would be lost (as the Marines say) in the sauce.

I can only guess that Malcolm Gladwell didn't think before he wrote this book (and he considered that a good thing).

I'm Back!

Well, sorta.

I left the job which I understood had a "no blogging allowed" policy. At least, no blogging without corporate pre-approval, and am now looking to get involved in political campaigning as a career.

However, in the meantime, I'll be working on my new website:

Josh Wants The Nobel Prize

If I get the Prize, and you helped, you can get some share of the million+ dollar prize. :)

For now, that should be occupying all my time that I'm not seeking to fight someone's struggle for elected office, so I probably won't be blogging much, but who knows. I will change the colors of the site before long, too.

Did anyone know that "SATP" stands for "Screaming AT Pigeons". I was a caller in to Brian Lamb's hosted C-SPAN Washington Journal on blogs, and I explained that "Well, it was sorta like a crazy guy in the park, screaming at pigeons, I know no one is going to listen, but it might be interesting to watch."

Sigh.