Here lately, the governments of many cities, counties, states and even countries. have taken a lot of steps to do “their part” to combat Global Warming.

The problem is that they are attacking the problem from a feel good emotional nature, and like so many other responses, they often have unexpected consequences.

Take a minor example:

A glitch in the compost ditch

Hold the foam for that latte: Newer packaging may not end up recycled

There’s a potential glitch in Seattle politicians’ plan to ban foam in favor of eco-friendly, compostable or recyclable food packaging:

As it stands now, Seattleites cannot put the boxes and cups that would carry their to-go orders home in city yard and food-waste bins.

Such alternative packages — such as corn- and sugar cane-based products — are not currently allowed along with other compostables in Seattle yard-waste bins, according to the city’s contractor, Cedar Grove Composting Inc.

Whoops.

But the consequences have much more serious effects.  Take for example the demand to cease the use of petroleum fuel in favor of corn based bio diesel:

 Global warming rage lets global hunger grow

We drive, they starve. The mass diversion of the North American grain harvest into ethanol plants for fuel is reaching its political and moral limits.

…

The UN says it takes 232kg of corn to fill a 50-litre car tank with ethanol. That is enough to feed a child for a year. Last week, the UN predicted “massacres” unless the biofuel policy is halted.

And:

Fuel Choices, Food Crises and Finger-Pointing

The idea of turning farms into fuel plants seemed, for a time, like one of the answers to high global oil prices and supply worries. That strategy seemed to reach a high point last year when Congress mandated a fivefold increase in the use of biofuels.

But now a reaction is building against policies in the United States and Europe to promote ethanol and similar fuels, with political leaders from poor countries contending that these fuels are driving up food prices and starving poor people. Biofuels are fast becoming a new flash point in global diplomacy, putting pressure on Western politicians to reconsider their policies, even as they argue that biofuels are only one factor in the seemingly inexorable rise in food prices.

In some countries, the higher prices are leading to riots, political instability and growing worries about feeding the poorest people. Food riots contributed to the dismissal of Haiti’s prime minister last week, and leaders in some other countries are nervously trying to calm anxious consumers.

At a weekend conference in Washington, finance ministers and central bankers of seven leading industrial nations called for urgent action to deal with the price spikes, and several of them demanded a reconsideration of biofuel policies adopted recently in the West.

Many specialists in food policy consider government mandates for biofuels to be ill advised, agreeing that the diversion of crops like corn into fuel production has contributed to the higher prices. But other factors have played big roles, including droughts that have limited output and rapid global economic growth that has created higher demand for food.

So the “perfect solution” for a renewable energy source has a deadly consequence.  This all stems from not paying attention to the facts of bio diesel, which is essentially, that it takes so much corn to make the stuff it actually consumes more energy in manufacturing then you get in product, not to mention having a very meager savings in CO2.

And it makes people starve.

And, speaking of solutions that eat more resources than they save (via Taft)…

Rail Transit Contributes to Global Warming

Most light-rail lines use as much or more energy per passenger mile as an average SUV, and many emit more pounds of CO2 per passenger mile than the average automobile. Moreover, the energy efficiency and CO2 emissions of automobiles are steadily improving, while the energy efficiency of both bus and rail transit are declining. Thus, cities that want to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions would do better to encourage auto drivers to buy more fuel-efficient cars than to build rail transit lines.

Those are the main conclusions of the Antiplanner’s new Cato paper, “Does Rail Transit Save Energy or Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions?” While some rail transit operations are energy and CO2 efficient, the energy and CO2 costs of construction overwhelm any savings. Thus, from an environmental viewpoint, rail transit is almost always a bad investment.

Even the White House has their ‘proposal’, but actually, as this first paragraph points out, one of the reasons they are engaging in this is to prevent the flood of bad laws:

White House floats new climate proposal

The White House has told a group of House GOP conservatives it may be forced to support a limited cap on greenhouse gases and avoid a “train wreck” of regulations involving climate change, sources familiar with the meeting said Monday.

And that is just what I have been saying.  In our rush to do something, to be seen as doing anything, we will legislate disaster, smiling, feeling great and patting each other on the back the whole way.

Meanwhile, the cold winter is making the concept of warming appear downright attractive

Finally, the UN has made much of their worship of Saint Al, but this group of Nobel Winners has a different idea for them:  Apologize for being wrong.

Nobel Prize-Winning Peacekeeper Asks UN to Admit Climate Change Errors

When Global Warmingest-in-Chief Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, the media’s prideful gushing was so obvious it was almost sick-making.

Now, six months later, a fellow Nobel Peace Prize recipient is part of a group asking the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “admit that there is no observational evidence in measured data going back 22,000 years or even millions of years that CO2 levels (whether from man or nature) have driven or are driving world temperatures.”

Since it is a metaphysical certitude media will ignore this Prize winner, the following is a complete reprint of a letter sent to the IPCC on Monday (with permission)

[click the link above for the document ~ LSU]

 There you have it.  Well, I don’t know about you, but all this Global Warming talk has made me bitter, so I am gonna grab my gun and head to church…

Trackposted to Is It Just Me?, The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Adam’s Blog, Right Truth, Shadowscope, Conservative Cat, D equals S, Chuck’s Place, third world county, Allie is Wired, DragonLady’s World, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, , Celebrity Smack, The Pink Flamingo, Wolf Pangloss, Dumb Ox Daily News, , Right Voices, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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