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Climate Change Finally Impacts Important Industry

Socguy writes "According to a New Zealand scientist, Jim Salinger, the price of beer in and around Australia is going to be under increasing upward pressure as reductions in malting barley yields are experienced as a side effect of our ongoing climate shift. "It will mean either there will be pubs without beer or the cost of beer will go up," Mr. Salinger told the Institute of Brewing and Distilling convention."

405 comments

  1. home brewers by Missing_dc · · Score: 5, Informative

    Those of us who home brew have already seen the hit on both barley and hops.

    --
    How amazed would you be to suddenly find that you just forgot what I wrote and you needed to reread my post.... again.
    1. Re:home brewers by Missing_dc · · Score: 5, Funny

      and I believe Gordon Parsons summed it up with a song.....
        (though I'm not terribly sure it was origionally his)

      Pub with no Beer

      It's lonesome away from your kindred and all
      By the campfire at night where the wild dingos call
      But there's nothin' so lonesome, so dull or so drear
      Than to stand in the bar of a pub with no beer

      Now the publican's anxious for the quota to come
      There's a faraway look on the face of the bum
      The maid's gone all cranky and the cook's acting queer
      What a terrible place is a pub with no beer

      The stockman rides up with his dry, dusty throat
      He breasts up to the bar, pulls a wad from his coat
      But the smile on his face quickly turns to a sneer
      When the barman says suddenly: "The pub's got no beer!"

      There's a dog on the verandah, for his master he waits
      But the boss is inside drinking wine with his mates
      He hurries for cover and he cringes in fear
      It's no place for a dog round a pub with no beer

      Then in comes the swagman, all covered with flies
      He throws down his roll, wipes the sweat from his eyes
      But when he is told he says, "What's this I hear?
      I've trudged fifty flamin' miles to a pub with no beer!"

      Old Billy, the blacksmith, the first time in his life
      Has gone home cold sober to his darling wife
      He walks in the kitchen; she says: "You're early, me dear"
      Then he breaks down and he tells her that the pub's got no beer

      It's lonesome away from your kindred and all
      By the campfire at night where the wild dingos call
      But there's nothin' so lonesome, so dull or so drear
      Than to stand in the bar of a pub with no beer

      --
      How amazed would you be to suddenly find that you just forgot what I wrote and you needed to reread my post.... again.
    2. Re:home brewers by CRCulver · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Maybe this will give some further popularity to corn-based beers, which to many beer afficionados are not even beer at all. Meanwhile, here in Finland people still make a disgusting brewed drink from juniper berries.

    3. Re:home brewers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, I take it that you hate gin?

      Good... more for me.

    4. Re:home brewers by CRCulver · · Score: 3, Funny

      Sahti, the low-alcohol juniper-based drink in Finland, tastes quite different from gin. I do hate gin as well, though. It's got the aroma of lighter fluid and all the cachet of a sot passed out in an alley in Victorian-era London.

    5. Re:home brewers by Sigismundo · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Indeed, the hop shortage is really bad. The place where I get homebrew supplies won't sell the hops by themselves, only as part of a complete recipe, to prevent people from hoarding.

      If the barley problem gets worse, I can only imagine that it could get harder for homebrew shops to stay in business, which would be a shame.

    6. Re:home brewers by SnarfQuest · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The reason for these price increases are because the farmers have all switched to growing corn, one of the least efficient crops used to produce ethanol. For every gallon making it to the customer, you need to create and burn an additional five gallons to run all the manufacturing equipment. There are much more efficient crops that could be used, corn being one of the absolute worst, but the wackos have decided to put everything into that one.

      --
      Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
    7. Re:home brewers by Psx29 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Unfortunately the price of corn is skyrocketing already because of bio-diesel

    8. Re:home brewers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Well, you know what they say - beer today, gone tomorrow :-)

      All kidding aside, it is sad; I was much more willing to try (and fail, usually) to attempt new proportions and flavors back before these price hikes. A bad batch would be some wasted time, but not much more. Now, with more expensive gas eating more of my money, and making beer getting more expensive (drinking and driving, of course, being the only 2 things I spend money on), my beer is even more of a luxury item and I am sticking with the tried-and-true recipes of yore, rather than continuing to try new things.

    9. Re:home brewers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      You're silly. The dramatic hop shortage has nothing to do with climate change. It had to do with a global glut of hops that induced a whole pile of acreage to switch from hops to crops that weren't dirt cheap, followed by the major hop warehouse fire in Washington and some other smaller stock supply disasters.

    10. Re:home brewers by baldass_newbie · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Grow your own hops. It's not that tough and is easily grown in most places.

      Besides, prices don't seem that high. A little high, sure, but not overwhelming:
      http://www.northernbrewer.com/hop-pellets.html

      --
      The opposite of progress is congress
    11. Re:home brewers by electrictroy · · Score: 4, Informative

      According to the History Channel, this is not the first time climate change has destroyed an industry.

      The "Mini Ice Age" of 1400-1800 destroyed the Wine Industry in Britannia. For 1400 years Romans and their descendents had been growing vineyards and producing wine in the warm England climate. Then suddenly the earth grew cold, and the vines stopped growing.

      England seemed to survive this catastrope, and I'm sure Australia will too.

      --
      The government is not your daddy. Its purpose is not to raid middle-class neighbors' wallets and give it to you.
    12. Re:home brewers by wattrlz · · Score: 2, Informative

      Unfortunately the price of corn is skyrocketing already because of bio-ethanol There, fixed it for you. Bio-diesel is made from shortening.
    13. Re:home brewers by Kozz · · Score: 1

      If you decide to plant and grow your own, it's worth mentioning that hops can be considered rather invasive, depending on the type. You might at first thing this isn't a bad thing, but you'll want to keep them in check.

      --
      I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
    14. Re:home brewers by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

      Hmmph. I can see I need to give up my non agricultural job and anything invented in the last couple of hundred years but I was under the impression that humans have been making beer for several thousand years. So at least I'd have that. Seems not.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    15. Re:home brewers by wattrlz · · Score: 1

      Yeah, they switched to beer. Australia isn't so lucky as to have that option.

    16. Re:home brewers by Coryoth · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The "Mini Ice Age" of 1400-1800 destroyed the Wine Industry in Britannia. For 1400 years Romans and their descendents had been growing vineyards and producing wine in the warm England climate. Then suddenly the earth grew cold, and the vines stopped growing. That's a somewhat dubious claim. There were vineyards in southern England around 1000 (based on Domesday records), however the reason for their demise is rather speculative. Certainly a cooling climate may have played a role, but there is also the fact that the English had a significant culutural shift toward beer as the preferred drink, and that may have had at least as much to do with the decline. This can be seen in the recent rise of the English wine industry, which has been driven far more by English drinking taste shifting toward domestic wine as it has been driven by climate.
    17. Re:home brewers by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

      You know that they have to sell lighter fluid in the state alcohol monopoly in the Nordic countries, right?

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    18. Re:home brewers by OutOfMatrix · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Fear mongering again! Any excuse to blame on Global Warming! The planet is going through a cycle of Global Cooling! The increase in prices are due to inflation! The private company called the Federal Reserve has been creating money on of thin air to bail out their banking buddies, and diluting your money! That's stealing! Google Money Masters!

    19. Re:home brewers by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

      I wonder what would have happen if the Romans tried to fix the mini ice age? Probably not much since they didn't have the technology or the population to do much. But if they had have, wouldn't it have made global warming much worse now?

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    20. Re:home brewers by Cerberus7 · · Score: 3, Informative

      But this is beer. In Australia. The country will collapse.

      --
      I don't know about you, but my servers run on the power of cotton candy and happy thoughts. -Anonymous Coward
    21. Re:home brewers by mini+me · · Score: 2, Interesting

      There are much more efficient crops that could be used, corn being one of the absolute worst, but the wackos have decided to put everything into that one.

      You seem to be ignoring what happens down on the farm. Corn is ideal because we already had the infrastructure in place to integrate corn-based ethanol plants into the supply chain with virtually no cost (money or energy).

      Turning another crop, such as switchgrass, into a commodity is not an easy process and would waste a lot of energy in the process. Perhaps more energy than what would be gained from it having more energy potential.

      Also, the new ethanol plants already support the crops you speak of, so I'm not sure we've put everything into one. There just isn't a realistic alternative to corn in the plant-based fuel sector, and there won't be for a while.
    22. Re:home brewers by CraftyJack · · Score: 3, Informative

      I thought the hop shortage was more of an economic thing than an environmental thing. The way I read/heard it, stored pellets and hop extract from previous boom years have finally run out, so the industrial brewers are buying up everything in sight. The stored stuff had been keeping demand artificially low, so the growers can't cope now. At any rate, you can't get Cascade for love or money.

    23. Re:home brewers by Nebulious · · Score: 1

      To each their own. Personally, I don't include half-orcs and half-elves in my setting.

    24. Re:home brewers by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 1

      Grow your own hops. It's not that tough and is easily grown in most places.

      Besides, prices don't seem that high. A little high, sure, but not overwhelming:
      http://www.northernbrewer.com/hop-pellets.html You're kidding, right? By my calculations, that comes out to about $35 for a 5-gallon batch of homebrew *just for the hops*. Add grain and yeast and you're looking at about $65 for 2 cases of beer. Sure, it'll be good beer, but still...
      --
      "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
      --- Jerry Garcia
    25. Re:home brewers by p0tat03 · · Score: 1

      What about the other allegation the poster raised? I'm interested in knowing - not a chemical engineer myself. Is it true that ethanol is energy-negative (i.e. requires more fossil fuels to be burned than if I just put that gas in my car?). That's a pretty serious problem with the technology, and I'd much rather burn the gas in that case.

    26. Re:home brewers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      [Shrug]

      Hey, with that attitude, almost anything is "survivable", whether it's climate change up to and including greenhouse conditions or continental glaciation, nuclear war, plague, famine, or massive asteroid impacts. Sure, the people who survive might be living in a cave with only a semblance of civilization around them, but they'll survive. Humans are reasonably resilient even if civilization isn't.

      But it'll be a lot tougher to do it without a supply of cheap beer.

    27. Re:home brewers by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 1

      The reason for these price increases are because the farmers have all switched to growing corn, one of the least efficient crops used to produce ethanol. For every gallon making it to the customer, you need to create and burn an additional five gallons to run all the manufacturing equipment. There are much more efficient crops that could be used, corn being one of the absolute worst, but the wackos have decided to put everything into that one.

      This is the part of the danger of biofuels. By moving from food crops to fuel crops, you end up pushing up the price of food. The other alternative, which is just as bad is clearing forest to produce biofuels. While there are probably environmentally friendly sources for biofuels, there is no way the consumer is going to know where their biofuels are coming from. At this point in time petrol, how ever bad it is, seems to be the better fuel. Because of this I am unhappy that EU is encouraging the use of biofuels. Even more so since this is hurting beer, an important ingredient to the summer BBQs.

      --
      Jumpstart the tartan drive.
    28. Re:home brewers by ozmanjusri · · Score: 1
      and I believe Gordon Parsons summed it up with a song..... (though I'm not terribly sure it was origionally his)

      Gordon wrote it for Slim Dusty, who made it a hit.

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
    29. Re:home brewers by CaptainZapp · · Score: 1
      I always figured that Gin is stuff for people that ran out of Aqua Velva.

      (With apologies to Ross Thomas)

      --
      ich bin der musikant

      mit taschenrechner in der hand

      kraftwerk

    30. Re:home brewers by Gonzo+The+Gr8 · · Score: 1

      Fear mongering again! Any excuse to blame on Global Warming! The planet is going through a cycle of Global Cooling! There is no Global warming! We've always been at war with Eastasia! Their infidels are committing suicide by the hundreds on the gates of Baghdad!

      The private company called the Federal Reserve has been creating money on of thin air to bail out their banking buddies, and diluting your money! That's called an inflation tax. It's a perfectly legitimate (if not recommended) monetary policy.
    31. Re:home brewers by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      The effects of money being printed for the recent bailouts haven't had time to impact the economy with inflation or anything yet. Whoever put you under that assumption is leading you on.

      Besides, the way the reserve operates doesn't have all that great of an impact on the econemy when they print money. Wealth is created by individuals, the monetary flux needs to represent that which is why the reserve loans your own money back to you at varying interest rates that reflect the valuation or wealth. There is nothing evil about that system. If anything, it would be more evil without it because all the wealth would be concentrated into an unregulated precious metals industry subject to the whims of large land owners and mining operations.

      At least with a reserve system, you don't need to be either to create wealth. Personally, I would like to see all the loans being bailed out defaulted and massive bankruptcies filed which would be less then 1% of the market force. But the bail out isn't bothering anyone besides specific shareholders in the companies being purchased as part of the bail out. It would have effected them anyways and this seems to be the least damaging of the two situations.

      If you think you can blame the federal reserve on this, it will show how much about money that you simply don't understand.

    32. Re:home brewers by a_n_d_e_r_s · · Score: 1

      Its more like if you get 6 barrels of oil from the ground you get 5 barrels of gas. But if you grow equivalent of 6 barrels of oil as corn you get 1 barrel of gas. The rest in both cases is lost in the process of making the gas.

      Growing corn is a very bad way of getting petrol since the fertilizer is costly to produce in form of energy.

      There are better plants to use to get petrol - Brazil uses sugar canes. USA associate sugare canes with Cuba and has been preferring corn before the more energy efficient sugar canes.

      --
      Just saying it like it are.
    33. Re:home brewers by Loke+the+Dog · · Score: 1

      Why are high food prices a danger?

    34. Re:home brewers by raddan · · Score: 2, Informative

      There's also the recent Puccinia graminis "wheat blight" currently happening across Asia. Puccinia graminis affects both wheat and barley (and some other crops). Combine that with a weak U.S. dollar, which means we are exporting more, and the fact that U.S. growers have been switching to the more-profitable corn growing, and you can see why grain prices have gone up, at least in the U.S.

    35. Re:home brewers by p0tat03 · · Score: 1

      Hmm, thanks for the info. I would think the US avoids sugar canes since the vast majority of its land is not capable of growing it, and energy independence seems more important in the mid-term than making the air cleaner.

      Here's another question... Does ethanol burn any cleaner than gasoline? It seems a bit moronic for us to be jacking up food prices throughout the world, just so we can burn yet-another-fuel. Sure, we won't run out of *this* fuel, but our oil supplies are fun from out yet. Unless this fuel is really MUCH cleaner than gasoline...

    36. Re:home brewers by CowboyNealOption · · Score: 1

      Maybe they can start growing more corn once the beer riots end?

    37. Re:home brewers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      You realize the "wackos" you refer to are Congress and the corn lobby, right?

    38. Re:home brewers by Missing_dc · · Score: 5, Informative

      I can't check the link at work, and I am not an expert on the subject though I have been making beer and Meade for about 2 years now. I start a 5 gallon batch every 1-2 weeks. That having been said:

      I get my barley for about $2 a pound, regardless of the variety/malt.
      I get my hops for about $2.5/ounce, in pellet form. It's available as cones, but they are more expensive.
      it takes between 5-10 pounds of barley for a 5-gallon batch of beer and about 2 ounces of hops (more or less to taste, the hops have 3 functions, they add a spicy flavor, a bitter flavor, and they help preserve the beer. some beers I have seen take 4 OZ of hops, some only require .5 OZ)

      The yeast sachets are about $2 each for beer yeast and about $.60 each for wine yeast.

      These are local prices in Stafford, VA. northern brewers tends to be cheaper.

      So, we are looking at $17 minimum for a batch of beer, more if you add the malt extracts (barley sugar) as it tends to be about $4/pound or you can use more grain. It is technically possible to use corn sugar (about $1/pound) to increase the alcohol content, but that tends to give a thin-feeling beer.

      Pure beer (accourding to the germans) cannot contain anything but barley, hops, water and yeast.

      A 5-gallon batch of imperial stout uses about 10 pounds of grain and 3 ounces of hops.

      The cost of barley has gone up for me in the last 2 years, I used to get it for $1.30 /pound
      and the hops has drastically jumped from $1.30 to $2.50/ OZ.

      A minor note on hop growing, it takes 2-3 years for your hops to reach production levels. It's best to leave them alone while they attain that stage of growth. The hop farmers have noticed the high demand and planted more acres, that does not help now, but will in a few years.

      Just my 2 cents or so...

      --
      How amazed would you be to suddenly find that you just forgot what I wrote and you needed to reread my post.... again.
    39. Re:home brewers by robertjw · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Your example, if true, would be directly attributable to climate change.

      The beer issue being discussed has nothing to do with ACTUAL climate change. In reality it doesn't have anything to do with climate change. Corn is being used to create E85. E85's primary goal isn't reduction of greenhouse gasses and stemming climate change (although there may be some of this), it is designed to reduce the US dependence on foriegn oil for economic/political reasons. Subsidization of E85 has resulted in higher Corn prices. Farmers, most of whom barely eek out a living, obviously plant more of the crop that is bringing the highest price at market.

      Once the wholesale price of barley increases adequately, the farming industry will switch back to barley and beer production will resume.

    40. Re:home brewers by robertjw · · Score: 1

      Here's another question... Does ethanol burn any cleaner than gasoline? It seems a bit moronic for us to be jacking up food prices throughout the world, just so we can burn yet-another-fuel. Sure, we won't run out of *this* fuel, but our oil supplies are fun from out yet. Unless this fuel is really MUCH cleaner than gasoline...

      I'm not sure this is really clear. I haven't seen anything definitive about how clean E85 is. I do know that it is less efficient, so you have to burn more of it to get the same amount of power. Even if it is cleaner, it may not be clean enough to offset the addtional consumption.

      It's mostly about keeping the money in the US economy rather than sending it to the middle east and funding the terrorists.
    41. Re:home brewers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because the farmers might actually turn a profit for once, which means that there will be an economic shift from the rich to the poor. The danger is that the rich elite will no longer be able to hold on to their riches.

    42. Re:home brewers by MetalPhalanx · · Score: 1

      A brew-your-own brewery that I frequent regularly buys hops in rather large quantities. Over the course of the last year, the same size container went from $50 to $290. He was forced to raise his prices for the first time in 5 years! :(

      Maybe not all types of hops have gone up so much, but the prices are rising.

    43. Re:home brewers by robertjw · · Score: 1

      You seem to be ignoring what happens down on the farm. Corn is ideal because we already had the infrastructure in place to integrate corn-based ethanol plants into the supply chain with virtually no cost (money or energy).

      Not to mention that the farmer doesn't CARE what his product is being used for. He sells it wholesale, and it doesn't matter if it's used for ethanol, tortillas, whiskey, cattle feed, whatever.

      Switching to a new crop, like switchgrass, would be a difficult process. Probably the most difficult feat would be to convince the industry that a wholesale change to the new product is a good long term decision and will be viable in the future.

    44. Re:home brewers by Adambomb · · Score: 1

      That and a number of already starving nations will starve even harder.

      --
      Ice Cream has no bones.
    45. Re:home brewers by cplusplus · · Score: 1

      It's not high prices, but availability that has been killing my home brewing. I've had to make several substitutions in my recipes now (like use Cascade hops instead of Kent Golding). And yes, prices have gone way up, but aren't over the moon yet. I don't have the same buying power as a large brewery, so I can't get hops or other ingredients cheaply anymore. It's affected the cost of a 5 gallon batch enough that it's getting close to the break even point of buy the beer vs. brew the beer. But, I do it as a hobby and not for the cost savings, so that's more of an interesting way to look at the data rather than something that will affect whether or not I brew or buy.

      --
      "False hope is why we'll never run out of natural resources!" - Lewis Black
    46. Re:home brewers by jc42 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Corn is ideal because we already had the infrastructure in place to integrate corn-based ethanol plants into the supply chain with virtually no cost (money or energy).

      That depends on where you live. It may be true in the US's Midwest or other farming areas with well-established grain crops. In other parts of the world, there are already commercial crops of Jatropha curcas, a dryland shrub whose seeds contain oil that can be burned directly by diesel engines without refining. There's also a tropical tree, Copaifera langsdorffii, which is tapped much like sugar maples, and whose sap also qualifies as diesel fuel. Google finds lots of info on both of them.

      These two plants have only recently been domesticated, so there's a lot of research and breeding going on in the areas where they grow. J. curcas has potential to be a major crop the American southwest and southern Europe, as it's cold tolerant and needs only around 250 mm of rain per year to keep it happy. But the cultivation is rather different from corn, so you wouldn't expect corn farmers to immediately succeed with it, and it may not be a competitive crop for areas with more rainfall. C. langsdorffii isn't feasible outside the tropics, and is a medium-sized tree, so it has only been used for small-scale local fuel production so far, and will probably take some time to become a practical crop plant.

      Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) has gotten some attention in the US, where it's a native plant with a lot of potential. Even President Bush has heard of it. But its cultivation, harvesting, and processing into fuel would be something new for corn farmers. Sugar cane growers would probably be better prospects, as the process would be familiar to them -- except for the final fermentation stage, which you'd want to hand over to the rum producers ;-). A problem here is that sugar cane (and rum) is a (sub)tropical crop, while switchgrass is better suited to temperate zones, so we'll either need to educate some farmers (and brewers), or persuade the sugar-cage people to move to places where it gets cold.

      There are a number of other plants undergoing serious research for fuel production. Of course, each species will require educating farmers and development of infrastructure for its use. That's part of why so many people have been suggesting that we should be doing the R&D now, rather than wait until our fuel-supply problems grow even more serious.

      --
      Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
    47. Re:home brewers by Z34107 · · Score: 1

      Why are high food prices a danger?

      We all gotta eat, don't we? Ignoring the populist "woe, the farmers will turn a profit now!" crap (most of our food production is corporate), increasing food prices means the same dollar buys less.

      That's inflation. Hope you don't have any savings or retirement plans.

      --
      DATABASE WOW WOW
    48. Re:home brewers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      [Shrug]

      Hey, with that attitude, almost anything is "survivable", whether it's climate change up to and including greenhouse conditions or continental glaciation, nuclear war, plague, famine, or massive asteroid impacts. Sure, the people who survive might be living in a cave with only a semblance of civilization around them, but they'll survive. Humans are reasonably resilient even if civilization isn't.

      But it'll be a lot tougher to do it without a supply of cheap beer. Myself, I'm more worried about Triffids.
    49. Re:home brewers by dreamchaser · · Score: 1

      Agreed. I can only grow enough hops for a couple of batches, and the price of store bought has gone up quite a bit. I wish I had a couple of acres to grow barley on! I didn't brew for close to a year mainly because I was travelling. I went to buy my grains and hops and had some serious sticker shock.

    50. Re:home brewers by chthonicdaemon · · Score: 1

      Except if you happen to live near the equator like me. The winters aren't harsh enough and the summer days aren't long enough -- you need lights and ice on the rhizome and even then the yields aren't that great, so not enough to brew every second week...

      --
      Languages aren't inherently fast -- implementations are efficient
    51. Re:home brewers by More_Cowbell · · Score: 1

      Bio-diesel is made from almost anything you want.
      There, fixed that for you.
      --
      Experience teaches only the teachable. -AH
    52. Re:home brewers by Teufelsmuhle · · Score: 1

      And interestingly enough, now this trend seems to be reversing. French winemakers are looking to extend the production of champagne into England. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3629187.stm

    53. Re:home brewers by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 3, Informative

      I can't check the link at work, and I am not an expert on the subject though I have been making beer and Meade for about 2 years now. I start a 5 gallon batch every 1-2 weeks. That having been said:

      I get my barley for about $2 a pound, regardless of the variety/malt.
      I get my hops for about $2.5/ounce, in pellet form. It's available as cones, but they are more expensive.
      Yea, I generally pay about the same. The hops on the NB site, though, were running $7/once for high-alpha varieties (Magnum, Centennial).

      it takes between 5-10 pounds of barley for a 5-gallon batch of beer and about 2 ounces of hops (more or less to taste, the hops have 3 functions, they add a spicy flavor, a bitter flavor, and they help preserve the beer. some beers I have seen take 4 OZ of hops, some only require .5 OZ)
      One of my favorites is a clone of Stone's Ruination IPA. Very bitter beer with at about 100 IBUs. Takes 5-6 oz. of high-alpha hops.

      The yeast sachets are about $2 each for beer yeast and about $.60 each for wine yeast.
      What kind of yeast are you using? I guess I'm using the pricey stuff - White Labs liquid yeast, either WPL001 or WPL008 runs me about $8 per vial. But it produces a lot better beer than the dry stuff I was using before.

      These are local prices in Stafford, VA. northern brewers tends to be cheaper.
      Sounds like your costs are comparable to mine here in my part of VA.

      So, we are looking at $17 minimum for a batch of beer, more if you add the malt extracts (barley sugar) as it tends to be about $4/pound or you can use more grain. It is technically possible to use corn sugar (about $1/pound) to increase the alcohol content, but that tends to give a thin-feeling beer.

      Pure beer (accourding to the germans) cannot contain anything but barley, hops, water and yeast.

      A 5-gallon batch of imperial stout uses about 10 pounds of grain and 3 ounces of hops.

      The cost of barley has gone up for me in the last 2 years, I used to get it for $1.30 /pound
      and the hops has drastically jumped from $1.30 to $2.50/ OZ.

      A minor note on hop growing, it takes 2-3 years for your hops to reach production levels. It's best to leave them alone while they attain that stage of growth. The hop farmers have noticed the high demand and planted more acres, that does not help now, but will in a few years.

      Just my 2 cents or so...
      My hops are going to be in their 3rd year this year, and I'm definitely planning to harvest and cure them this year. I'm still skeptical I'll get enough to brew more than 2-3 batches, but maybe they'll do better than I think. Wish me luck!
      --
      "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
      --- Jerry Garcia
    54. Re:home brewers by jav1231 · · Score: 2, Funny

      According to the History Channel, this is not the first time climate change has destroyed an industry. The "Mini Ice Age" of 1400-1800 destroyed the Wine Industry in Britannia. For 1400 years Romans and their descendents had been growing vineyards and producing wine in the warm England climate. Then suddenly the earth grew cold, and the vines stopped growing. England seemed to survive this catastrope, and I'm sure Australia will too. Wonder what Bush equivalent caused THAT catastrophe?

      I know, I know, Troll.

    55. Re:home brewers by yakmans_dad · · Score: 1

      I wonder whom you mean by "wackos". Environmentalists, people concerned with diminishing energy supplies, people concerned with 3rd world hunger & 3rd world farmers, and people concerned with global warming have all expressed dismay over corn ethanol.

    56. Re:home brewers by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

      Meanwhile, here in Finland people still make a disgusting brewed drink from juniper berries.

      Actually, sahti is made of barley quite like beer. Juniper berries are used as a flavouring/preservative instead of hops.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    57. Re:home brewers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Farmers, most of whom barely eek out a living, obviously plant more of the crop that is bringing the highest price at market. Where are you getting this "eek" assumption from? Farm subsidies are very generous in the US. I don't think it's an "eek", it's no 7-figures, but it's certainly sustainable.
    58. Re:home brewers by robertjw · · Score: 2, Informative

      Where are you getting this "eek" assumption from? Farm subsidies are very generous in the US. I don't think it's an "eek", it's no 7-figures, but it's certainly sustainable.

      From personal experience. I've watched my Father quit farming and go to work at the USPS because he couldn't make a living. I've watched my sisters and I all enter different career fields because the lack of opportunity in agriculture. I've seen many of the local farms that I grew up with be sold off either because the operation wasn't profitable or because the children of the farmers didn't think it would be in the future.

      Take a look at historic corn prices. When adjusted for inflation the price of corn has dropped SIGNIFICANTLY in the last 35 years. Just as we've seen lately, the price of corn directly impacts the price of other crops and livestock. If the price of corn stays down, the farmer doesn't make much money.

      My great grandfather, in the years before and after the great depression, was a profitable enough farmer that he was able to purchase 3 separate farms and pay them all off. Most farming operations today are either living off government subsidies or going broke. I can't really comment on the subsidies, we never took any significant money from the government, but I know it's tough to make a living in agriculture without that government money.
    59. Re:home brewers by znerk · · Score: 1

      The reason for these price increases are because the farmers have all switched to growing corn, one of the least efficient crops used to produce ethanol. For every gallon making it to the customer, you need to create and burn an additional five gallons to run all the manufacturing equipment. There are much more efficient crops that could be used, corn being one of the absolute worst, but the wackos have decided to put everything into that one. ...and this year, a lot of them seem to be growing soybeans, instead... "to let the fields rest". I'm absolutely certain that they're not doing it to "cause the price of corn to skyrocket by creating an artificial corn shortage"...
      --
      This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
    60. Re:home brewers by The+One+and+Only · · Score: 1

      Subsidies are generous partially because without those subsidies, farmers would have to get another job. You might say "well nuts to them, get another job you surplus farmers", but the rationale is that we need to maintain all the farming we can in case of war.

      --
      In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199
    61. Re:home brewers by The+One+and+Only · · Score: 1

      The problem with sugar cane is that the US can't grow enough (global warming might fix that) and imports are highly tariffed to protect what little sugar production the US has. It also helps corn, since they can produce "high fructose corn syrup" as a sugar substitute.

      --
      In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199
    62. Re:home brewers by wattrlz · · Score: 1

      Bio-diesel can be made from almost anything you want.
      There, fixed that for you. There. Fixed it for you. Bio-diesel is commercially produced from trans-esterification of vegetable oil, mostly soybean.
    63. Re:home brewers by More_Cowbell · · Score: 1
      Sorry, you didn't fix anything. I never said anything about common methods of making commercial products.

      My brother makes his with a variety of methods. In my personal opinion, the most promising method will likely involve algae. Saw a cool website of a company selling kits that grow the stuff in large self contained transparent tubes.

      --
      Experience teaches only the teachable. -AH
    64. Re:home brewers by wattrlz · · Score: 1

      Saying ethanol is, "Less efficient" is oversimplifying things a little. Ethanol has a lower energy density than gasoline and thus is a less efficient energy storage medium than gasoline, but ethanol's also got about 120 octane so you can burn it at diesel-esque compression ratios and get a greater percentage of that energy turning your drive shaft than in an engine running on current petroleum formulations.

      If memory serves ethanol has greater propensity to produce partially combusted hydrocarbons, but those should be taken care of by the catalytic converter. SOx and NOx emissions are reduced and I think there's a slight reduction in CO2 per mile driven as well.

    65. Re:home brewers by DimmO · · Score: 1

      i was aboot to say slim dusty wrote it, but I checked with Mr. Google. It looks like you might be right: http://www.ozmusic-central.com.au/oztabs/def/Dusty_Slim/A%20Pub%20With%20No%20Beer.txt

    66. Re:home brewers by wattrlz · · Score: 1

      Actually, the danger is that poor people who aren't farmers won't be able to afford food.

    67. Re:home brewers by jwhitener · · Score: 1

      I do not know the specific situation in New Zealand, but we can expect the same here in the US very soon. For years we had an over abundance of hops, especially in the Yakima Valley and surrounding regions of central washington. The prices fell drastically, and many farmers either went out of business, or converted their fields to other crops.

      Combine that with an increase in the demand for high alpha hops (for stronger flavored micro brews, ipa's, etc..), and the plight of powdery mildew that decimated nearly a 1/3rd of the high alpha hop fields around Yakima before it was brought under control (at a high cost), and you now see the price of hops increasing drastically.

      You might ask the simple question: Well, why didn't more farmers start planting hops as the price inched up? The biggest reason is the startup cost. If you got out of the hop business, you tore down all the poles in the field, and likely sold or tore down your very expensive hop kilns and factories used to bale the hops. You are talking about million+ dollar startup costs for most moderate sized operations.

    68. Re:home brewers by robertjw · · Score: 1

      You are correct, E85 is much higher ocatne and can run at higher compression ratios. Diesel-esque is probably not accurate. Most diesel engines run a compression ratio over 20:1. Ethanol will run at a max of 15:1.

      Regardless, you point is well taken. The problem is compression ratio is a function of engine design. Without a physical modification there is no way to increase compression ratio. An engine with a 15:1 compression ratio will not run on gasoline, and there is no practical way to dynamically reduce combustion chamber size or increase piston volume. As long as cars are designed as flex fuel vehicles that will run both gasoline and ethonal we must compare the efficiency on a low compression engine. If E85 becomes a standard, and new cars are optimized for that fuel, that may change.

      If there are published studies comparing the emissions of a flex fuel vehicle on both E85 and gasoline that show a reduction of pollutants per mile driven, I would be interested to see them. The fact remains that the driving force behind E85 is primarily to reduce foriegn oil dependence, not efficiency, cost of operation or lower tailpipe emissions.

    69. Re:home brewers by fabs64 · · Score: 1

      Why assume that your craziness applies to a completely different country?

    70. Re:home brewers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      The "Mini Ice Age" of 1400-1800 destroyed the Wine Industry in Britannia.

      England seemed to survive this catastrope, and I'm sure Australia will too.


      Yes, but look what it did to the English. 500 years without wine, making do with beer. Now you know why the English empire extended so far and wide, 300 years of looking for a decent drop.

    71. Re:home brewers by ultracool · · Score: 1

      New Zealand is not part of Australia.

    72. Re:home brewers by Dun+Malg · · Score: 1

      Hops prices are anomalous right now. Between hail storms ruining crops here and in europe, the previous hop glut pushing growers into other crops or out of business, and (of all things) a warehouse fire in Washington burning up 2 years' worth of stored surplus hops, it's been a bit of "Murphy's Law" for hops lately. Making matters worse is the hoarding by large brewers at the first signs of price increase and the weak dollar making European hops even more expensive, the price is not surprising. Given the high prices, many growers will doubtless return, and we'll see more reasonable prices before long.

      --
      If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
    73. Re:home brewers by Mspangler · · Score: 1

      That is sensible. Around here, (Eastern Washington State) corn and barley are grown in different areas. There is very little competition between the two. So I don't think we will see much local difference in the ratio between the two.

    74. Re:home brewers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      If you'd actually bother to read the summary (let alone the article), you'd notice this was about AUSTRALIA.
      So regardless how many farmers switch over to corn in AMERICA, this will not have an effect on the price of hops and barley in AUSTRALIA.

      To put a quote from the article:

      Similar effects could be expected worldwide, but Mr. Salinger spoke only of the effects on Australia and New Zealand. He said climate change could cause a drop in beer production within 30 years, especially in parts of Australia, as dry areas become drier and water shortages worsen. So yes, as hard as it might be to imagine for SUV drivers everywhere, this climate change thingy might actually be real, and it might actually affect you besides having to wear short sleeve t-shirts.

      Well, I guess having to pay more for beer is a better incentive for most people to do something against climate change than the prospect of millions of people dying because of its effects in the coming decennia.
    75. Re:home brewers by Loke+the+Dog · · Score: 1

      Yes, the ones that DO starve might starve harder if the rich part of the world are too cheap to increase aid according to increasing food prices...

      But the ones that are close the starvation will be able to avoid it simply because their economies are based heavily on agriculture, and that in turn will make them richer as prices go up. Richer people can afford education, and education is an important part of democracy, and democracy is THE cure for starvation.

    76. Re:home brewers by Loke+the+Dog · · Score: 1

      But people who are not farmers are rarely the ones who starve. And when they are, they will live in socities that depend heavily on agriculture. If food prices go up, they will be in a better position as well.

    77. Re:home brewers by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

      Bush also wasn't the first foreigner to invade the Mideast catastrophically. It even broke the Mongolian horde, and converted them to Islam, when they tried it (shortly before the Little Ice Age, in fact).

      Dooming yourself to repeat history by ignoring it doesn't excuse you. In fact, it makes you even more to blame than the first to fall to it, because you had their example to learn from, to know better. As so many people did know better, and screamed loud warnings this time around, Bush hasn't ignored just history, but also defied the people he's elected to be protecting and representing right now.

      Uncountable gallons of blood on Bush's hands. Rubbing off on people making up weak excuses to protect him from blame.

      --

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      make install -not war

    78. Re:home brewers by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

      It's creepy how people are slamming farmers for switching to corn for ethanol now that it's profitable compared to oil prices. But not slamming the oil producers for raising oil prices something like 4-5x in the past decade, almost entirely going to higher profits, while carmakers have sold as many 12-15MPG cars as possible, instead of the 30-50MPG cars we can make now.

      Since the oil doesn't cost much more to extract and deliver now than before prices are rising, that means profits have gone up even more with the rising sale price. Instead of a $25 barrel costing $12 to sell, for $13 profit, now a $112 barrels cost about $15 to sell, for $98 profit. That's 7.5x the profit.

      Those SUVs get as little as about 1/4 the mileage of the most efficient cars. Therefore using 4x the fuel. Which therefore generates 30x the profits (and 4x the pollution).

      So I don't think the whining about corn farmers following the market is that high a priority, especially since the corn farmers are Americans spending their profits in the American economy and taxes. Get to the whining about the oil industry first, and I'll be more sympathetic.

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      make install -not war

    79. Re:home brewers by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

      Thanks for those stats on corn prices. Do you know (with citations perhaps) whether the notorious subsidies not to grow corn have also dropped since 2000 as prices have doubled to 1996 levels? Or is the price rise a combination of market demand as well as continuing price supports?

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      make install -not war

    80. Re:home brewers by oscariommi · · Score: 1

      Well, then maybe Australia should start a war on New Zealand - considering their practises for cooling beer and it's impact on actually having any beer...

    81. Re:home brewers by wattrlz · · Score: 1

      Maybe it's just because it's before noon here or maybe it's because where I live hasn't depended on agriculture in my lifetime, but I fail to see why people who are not farmers are any less likely to starve than people who are farmers and can just walk out into the field and pick a bushel of something if they're truly desperate for food. How are people earning minimum wage any better off if the price of food goes up? Eventually minimum wage will be raised to cover the inevitable inflation, but it's really a bit presumptuous to say that it will go up any more than that.

    82. Re:home brewers by robertjw · · Score: 1

      Good question. I as I said, we never participated - so I'm no expert, but probably the closest thing we are going to find on slashdot. That said, from what I understand, corn subsidies are based on land use. To participate a farmer has to agree not to plant a certain amount of acres to anything, and the government pays them based on that acreage. I don't have any stats, but based on this article, participation in some of the programs is decreasing.

      This is probably part of the reasoning for the subsidies to start with. By paying farmers not to produce the government has allowed more farming operations to remain solvent. Now that the price of corn has risen to a level where it is more economical to plant those acres than collect government funding, our capacity has been able to increase overnight. Without the subsidies agricultural would have been subject to more market swings, and overall capacity woiuld have reduced to meet demand, resulting in more failed farming operations. The question is, was it worth spending billions of dollars over the last 30 years waiting for E85 to increase demand on corn. Are we better off, or worse off?

    83. Re:home brewers by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

      Your questions are even better than mine :).

      I'd love to read some more research into exactly that question. With the change in regime coming next year (I'm betting Obama), but with the new president probably coming out of the Midwestern farm region, too, just Illinois instead of Texas (Texas is culturally West, but pretty much as Midwest overall as is Illinois as farm country), farm policies and budgets will get a lot of activity. The Upper Midwest has been more corn-oriented, not least under the stewardship of Tom Daschle (D-SD) while he was the Senate Majority Leader until Republicans took control.

      Maybe you could write something from your "insider" perspective and post it on some political blog. It wouldn't even have to be that in-depth to get people looking deeper for themselves. Just the first-person experience is enough to add legitimate momentum to a business that's mostly spin.

      --

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      make install -not war

    84. Re:home brewers by shplorb · · Score: 1

      The only problem with your thinking is that the USA doesn't account for much of global barley production and the top barley producers don't produce much corn either.

      But you are on the right track though because barley is mostly used as livestock feed. Corn has been too, but only because it's been abnormally cheap due to the huge subsidies farmers are paid in the USA. As the cheaper corn is diverted to other uses that are willing to pay more (because of market distortions in the form of more subsidies), livestock producers revert to barley, of which there's a much more limited supply. Thus the price goes up.

      Further exacerbating the grain price situation is the rapid development of China and India (China is urbanising more than 1 million people per month!) and major grain growing regions are suffering from prolonged droughts.

    85. Re:home brewers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know... about your signature... doing contract work for ~5hrs and then spending one hour to drive to the shops and back would probably net you 4 or 5 Dr. Who DVD's, provided that you live in the U.S., U.K., Canada, or any first-world European country. You could put your network connection to better use than DL'ing a free Ep. while you're at work. Just saying.

    86. Re:home brewers by Adambomb · · Score: 1

      The nations i am referring to are the ones most in need of agricultural reform and who are NOT self sufficient food economies. I'm not referring to the aid component as that is already above and beyond what they are able to deal with themselves, I'm referring to their own ability to purchase.

      Theres a lot of them.

      --
      Ice Cream has no bones.
    87. Re:home brewers by jav1231 · · Score: 1

      Oh please. Live a little, Dude. There's millions of people in this country not named Bush.

    88. Re:home brewers by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

      Yeah, and 60M+ of you people voted for that one guy twice, knowing that he was a murderer.

      You've got blood on your hands. If you call that living, you should live a lot less.

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      make install -not war

    89. Re:home brewers by jav1231 · · Score: 1

      How would you know who I voted for? Asshole.

    90. Re:home brewers by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

      It doesn't matter. You "Libertarians" are all the same, like spam.

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      make install -not war

    91. Re:home brewers by jav1231 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Idiot. Grow up.

    92. Re:home brewers by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

      If you hone that political reasoning any tighter, you'll be indistinguishable from a penis pump ad.

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      make install -not war

  2. Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by UbuntuDupe · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm sorry, it seems pretty ridiculous to me to attack climate change by trying to go after *each* and *every* little thing someone deems inefficient given the benefit and environmental cost. You'll never be able to enumerate everything that's inefficient, because a) there are so many activities, and b) it depends on quantity that exists solely in other people's minds.

    We're going after barley today, and tomorrow it will be celery or lack of solar panels on buildings or computer that go to sleep too slowly etc etc etc.

    A much more rational and simple approach would be: Tax all fossil fuels at the current cost of sinking the resulting carbon out of the air. (Actually, you just want to sink the fraction of existing output that needs to be removed in order to stabilize concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere but if I put that in the definition it would be too hard to untangle.)

    Apply the funds to sinking CO2.

    Then, all product use is carbon neutral. For all people, adjusting to climate change is simply a matter of buying whatever you want, so long as its cost is justified by its current price (which has been changed to account for the tax.) Given the new prices, all entrepreneurial activity redirects to account for higher fossil fuel costs and raises resources spent on minimizing this input.

    This method is necessarily the least painful approach because and change in activities necessarily comes from those activities that have least benefit, as people currently judge them, and work up from there.

    Furthermore, as the price of sinking goes down, the tax can go down.

    Furthermore, this is robust against non-compliant countries, as their goods can be tarriffed to pay for whatever sinking they won't pay for. Or, if necessary, other countries can sink CO2 using general tax revenues.

    Oops, I forgot, people would still be able to drive SUVs under this, so scratch it.

    1. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by MrNaz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      We're going after barley today, and tomorrow it will be celery or lack of solar panels on buildings or computer that go to sleep too slowly etc etc etc.

      They're not trying to regulate every little thing, they're trying to say "don't do anything that harms the environment". After all, it's illegal to take out your johnson and pee on a public park bench, polluting the environment is the same, only its effects aren't as immediately recognisable as the wet patch on the seat of some unsuspecting parkgoer's pants.

      Tax all fossil fuels at the current cost of sinking the resulting carbon out of the air.

      Aside from the enormous harm that taxations place upon the economy (taxation leads to what is known as a deadweight loss, which must be offset against the benefits of whatever is being taxed), carbon sinking is not even possible given the engineering capacity we as humans have. Furthermore, even if it *were* possible, there is no way to know what damage the CO2 does in the meantime while it is being sinked.

      Oops, I forgot, people would still be able to drive SUVs under this, so scratch it.

      You really have no understanding of the problem, do you? The complete commodification of the rights to pollute simply mean that companies will simply find a way to price in the dollar value of pollution credits to get away with whatever they are doing now. Pollution and environmental issues are *the* classic economic textbook example of market failure. It takes a real fundamentalist (or a complete idiot) to attempt to solve market failure by the application of more market instruments.

      --
      I hate printers.
    2. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by mtgarden · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Umm, well since this global warming theory is still just a theory, how about we get some hard evidence before eviscerating companies? Read this: http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=1b702e93-802a-23ad-406d-20a0e08818af and this: http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=22434

    3. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      well since this global warming theory is still just a theory

      Just like evolution!

    4. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      Well said, I would also like to add a factor that most people don't consider when they look at carbon caps, credits, and other schemes is that all GHG pollution savings to date have largely been offset by population growth or just shifted to other areas like China.

      This is important when you look at the situation as a whole because it shows just how much of a loss carbon caps and credits are. I could go on about how I think they are little more then a scam but that isn't as important as the practical limitations of the schemes. Ted Turner said it best when he said that nothing is going to work to stop global warming until you control the population growth. Of course he calls for voluntary limitations, it isn't like he is supporting limits on children and stuff imposed by a government.

    5. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Qzukk · · Score: 1

      The complete commodification of the rights to pollute simply mean that companies will simply find a way to price in the dollar value of pollution credits to get away with whatever they are doing now. ... It takes a real fundamentalist (or a complete idiot) to attempt to solve market failure by the application of more market instruments. When I go to the supermarket and look for plastic baggies to put lunches in, am I going to buy the ones that cost $150 because the company making them decided that retooling its factories wasn't necessary when they could just make us pay for their pollution, or the $2.50 baggies made by a factory that did?

      That's the theory, anyway. Supposedly this would work for anything from companies whining about the government banning them from poisoning more than X/1000000 people to companies burning tires in their front yard. In reality, everyone would charge $200 for baggies, whine publicly that big bad government is making them lose so much money and that the modifications they did to their factory were so expensive, while lying about actually having changed anything, bribing inspectors to say that their smokestacks output pure rainbow-scented bunny farts, and writing gradeschool textbooks that explain that rainbow-scented bunny farts just looks pitch black. The rest go to ale and whores for the CEOs, because it's not like they're going to share it with the stockholders by paying them a dividend.
      --
      If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
    6. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Aside from the enormous harm that taxations place upon the economy (taxation leads to what is known as a deadweight loss, which must be offset against the benefits of whatever is being taxed), carbon sinking is not even possible given the engineering capacity we as humans have. Furthermore, even if it *were* possible, there is no way to know what damage the CO2 does in the meantime while it is being sinked.


      First the tax issue. All this policy would require would be that the REAL cost of fossil fuels be paid. If this means that fossil fuels remain competitive, great. If this means that fossil fuels are no longer competitive, also great. As long as the real cost is paid (an not just spewed out by the few for the many to deal with) then any equilibrium that the market find is a good thing. If this means change, then yes, change is scary, but change is also opportunity, so the economy can do fine. Some particular individuals may find their position altered, but that is not important and should not be an issue for economic planning.

      The GP didn't suggest pricing pollution credits by fiat, but by actual cost to mitigate. If funny games are played with the dollar on the production side, those same games would affect the mitigation side and it would all even out. (tax based on actual cost + manipulated devalued dollar = higher cost to mitigate => automatic increase in tax (The only way to win is not to play))

      Now the carbon sinking.

      Grow grass. Bury it (deep (perhaps in an abandoned coal mine (or maybe we could liquefy it and pump it down into a depleted oil field))) Done.
    7. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by electrictroy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well I have a modest proposal:

      - Reduce the human population by 90% (preferably using a humane manner; like fewer babies). Instead of 6 billion, you'll have 600 million. There will be plenty of resources for everyone to go around, and pollution will be decreased by 90% of current levels.

      - or -

      - Wait for mother nature to do it for us (disease or starvation).

      The overpopulation of human animals, and their gradual destruction of the environment, will be fixed one way or the other. If we don't do it, some other mechanism will take care of the problem.

      --
      The government is not your daddy. Its purpose is not to raid middle-class neighbors' wallets and give it to you.
    8. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by UbuntuDupe · · Score: 0, Insightful

      They're not trying to regulate every little thing, they're trying to say "don't do anything that harms the environment"

      Not really. For one thing, they're going after one subset of that (CO2 emissions), and they're NOT going after everything that emits CO2(which would include breathing and campfires!) , even though all CO2 emissions are equal per unit. The real criterion is the imagined *inefficiency* that they're targeting. Which I consider fundamentally pointless since one factor in determining efficiency is utility to people, which exists only in their minds. That's why it makes much more sense to accept their judgment of how much utility these activities provide, and simply charge them the *cost* that is imposed on others.

      Aside from the enormous harm that taxations place upon the economy

      Compared to what exactly? Your other mythical option that doesn't impose enormous harms on the economy?

      The consensus among economists is that *given* a harm to the economy, carbon taxes get you the most CO2 reduction. Any other option will, for a given net CO2 reduction, do more unnecessary harm to the economy, since they're just crude approximations to what we really want.

      carbon sinking is not even possible given the engineering capacity we as humans have.

      So all the design plans certified by real engineers are ...

      Furthermore, even if it *were* possible, there is no way to know what damage the CO2 does in the meantime while it is being sinked.

      This just sounds like rationalization. Somehow, it's possible to find a human CO2 emission + CO2 atmospheric concentration + global warming + global weather pattern shift link ...

      but there's no way to approximate what damage if any is done in the intermediate time.

      I could debunk this, but the real barrier is that you don't WANT CO2 sinking, under any circumstance, to be a valid option, because protecting the planet is only one goal you're targeting, but you want to slip in policies targeting other goals on the way.

      You really have no understanding of the problem, do you?

      Er, for someone who doesn't understand the differences between carbon credits and carbon taxes, that's a pretty unreasonable thing to say.

      Under a carbon tax, no rights are bought or sold. You emit CO2 from fossil fuels, you pay a tax. That obligation cannot be bought or sold, nor would anyone be made better of by doing it.

      The complete commodification of the rights to pollute simply mean that companies will simply find a way to price in the dollar value of pollution credits to get away with whatever they are doing now.

      Great! (aside from the minor nitpick about how they're pricing in a tax rather than a credit)That's exactly what we want them to do: whatever's profitable, *after* paying to undo the negative externalities they're throwing off onto others.

      That ... was ... the problem we were trying to solve ... right?

      Pollution and environmental issues are *the* classic economic textbook example of market failure. It takes a real fundamentalist (or a complete idiot) to attempt to solve market failure by the application of more market instruments.

      I'm almost shaking at how ridiculous you're being now. You're making a blanket dismissal of all market solutions to market problems on the grounds that "type X approaches can never solve type X problems"??? So, problems of regulations can't be solved by regulations? So no loophole in regulations can ever be closed? That would be the implication of what you're saying.

      You're also not quite showing an understanding of what exactly the market problem *is* that we want to solve. The market problem is that (unjust) costs of an activity, which are im

    9. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Original+Replica · · Score: 4, Informative

      Sorry, but the Heartland Institute has the is an dedicated to unregulated, free markets. They are a policy organization masquerading as a research group, one which has been accused of being funded heavily by Exxon. Now I usually view GreenPeace's "facts" with quite a bit of skepticism, but I do the same with anything coming out of the Heartland Institute. Both organizations are so hell bent on political influence, that they can't maintain the objective view needed to supply useful facts. At some point science-with-a-political-slant becomes political-rhetoric-with-a-scientific-slant. Both of these organizations are well over that line.

      --
      We are all just people.
    10. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Sciros · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Your idea will totally work because humans don't actually have any desire to procreate!

      This might be a difficult concept to grasp, but there is no objective "good environment" as far as the planet is concerned. There is only the question of how good the environment is for whatever particular life to thrive. Even if your "modest proposal" wasn't HIT-MY-HEAD-AGAINST-THE-WALL-TO-RESTART-MY-BRAIN-CRAZY, to say that in order to achieve a "good environment" we would have to lose 90% of the human population, means it's NOT a good environment for humanity.

      Seriously, that line of reasoning will kill braincells of rational people trying to follow it. It's the same thing as saying that because the current global ecosystem is unable to sustain the current population of white rhinos, what we should do is "humanely" drop their population to 10% of today's so that they can each have plenty of resources.

      --
      I like basketball!!1!
    11. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by sumdumass · · Score: 0

      Well, we have a planned parenthood abortion center in almost every highly populated area that has a large amount of minorities. We are working on getting teens used to birth control in schools at earlier ages. They have attempted to negate religion and it's be fruitful and multiply along with the catholic tradition of not using birth control. We are attempting to give Africans condoms and birth control to keep their population at bay, some would claim it is to fight aids but I guess a dual purpose could be seen.

      I guess the question remains is how do you decide who is worthy of procreation and who isn't? How would you limit people's reproduction? Forced abortion? Or just tell them not to further the progress of their family genes and tax them into poverty if they did?

      there is no reason why we can't deal with mother nature and negate her influences. There is no reason why we can't adapt to the changing environment. There is no reason why we should look to China as a model to save the world.

    12. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by MrNaz · · Score: 1

      the REAL cost of fossil fuels

      Even if this could be measured and quantified, given that fossil fuels cause irreparable harm to the environment, the real cost could be said to be infinite. Any harm that cannot be undone with any amount of money, such as the release of greenhouse gasses, mercury and other bioaccumulating toxins, can be said to be infinitely costly. This is because there is no market equilibrium that factors in the full cost.


      Sounds silly doesn't it? It is. Just like anyone who attempts to monetise the value of breathable air.


      Can you tell me how exactly you mitigate mercury that has accumulated in polar bears, sharks and other apex predators? How about a way to undo skin cancer scars from people who developed melanoma due to reduced ozone presence in the stratosphere?


      Also, you completely sidestepped the taxation deadweight loss issue. I don't see how adding a deadweight loss to environmental harm is a good thing. It's not even good economically, it's only good for the private sector businesses. The community loses, and the government just ends up squandering the tax dollars on harebrained "environmental harm mitigation" schemes.


      As I said earlier, it takes a real fundamentalist or a complete idiot to try to argue market solutions to what is a classic case of market failure. Given that you're obviously not versed in economics enough to be the former...

      --
      I hate printers.
    13. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by UbuntuDupe · · Score: 0
      ~w00t! Karma back to bad!~

      Even if this could be measured and quantified, given that fossil fuels cause irreparable harm to the environment, the real cost could be said to be infinite. ...Sounds silly doesn't it? It is. Just like anyone who attempts to monetise the value of breathable air. I don't know how much of what you said was sarcasm, but you quite clearly cannot believe this and it cannot be true. If it were the case, we would ban all fossil fuel use, and spend all available resources on e.g. containing volcanoes on the off-chance that they might foul up the air too much. (infinity bad * tiny chance of something causing it = infinitely bad result = top priority for all resources)

      While the benefit of having breathable air may be effectively infinite, the cost of undoing the risk of any given threat to it, is not. Therefore, the cost we should impose on fossil fuels is finite, and there is a finite tax that captures the full cost.

      Also, you completely sidestepped the taxation deadweight loss issue. I don't see how adding a deadweight loss to environmental harm is a good thing. Your thinking on this is still muddled. ANY REGULATION YOU IMPOSE TO PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT HAS A DEADWEIGHT LOSS. The only issue is, which one has the least, and taxation of the bad is always that one.

      The community loses, and the government just ends up squandering the tax dollars on harebrained "environmental harm mitigation" schemes. Er, if you already accept the government will completely botch any proposed program, then the question of which regulation proposal is best, is moot.

      Get reading.
    14. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Rei · · Score: 3, Informative

      Pollution and environmental issues are *the* classic economic textbook example of market failure.

      I believe the word you're looking for is "externalities". Pollution and environmental issues are external to the market, so the market doesn't account for them. You need to internalize externalities with taxes based on them -- you need to assign them a realistic cost compared to what damage they do to society, and the market will readjust with that taken into account.

      I'm a Keynesian; I don't believe in the authoritarian-socialist view of telling businesses, "You will do this," or, on the economic-libertarian view, doing absolutely nothing. I believe in the government simply adjusting the prices of elements of the market with taxes when needed to make externalities that have serious costs but are normally ignored now have costs that are factored into the market, and letting the market make its own choices now that it's facing true costs. And with the taxes collected as such, you can reduce general taxation on corporations and inviduals and/or ameliorate the damage caused.

      In such a situation, I think that, for example, coal power would largely become uneconomical, while techs like wind, solar, and deep geothermal (EGS or whatnot) would become much more popular. But if coal power plant operators can still be profitable when compensating for the greenhouse gasses, heavy metals, and particulate matter they emit (prices based on the consequences of those actions, such as increased healthcare costs), and while paying more for coal that's compensating for the water pollution and so forth (also with prices based on the consequences of those actions), then by all means, continue.

      --
      But this Rottweiler not only is snarling and frothing at the mouth; it also went to Harvard.
    15. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Mr.+Beatdown · · Score: 1

      I concur. China is a beacon of shining light in this otherwise Godless, hopeless, and immoral world we all live in. Their advances in such areas as the arts, sciences, and humanities are light years ahead of anything the uneducated unwashed teeming masses of red-staters could ever come up with. /sarcasm

      --
      My fellow Americans, let's restore the death penalty for child rapists. Let's do it . . . for the children.
    16. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by MrNaz · · Score: 1

      That's why it makes much more sense to accept their judgment of how much utility these activities provide, and simply charge them the *cost* that is imposed on others.

      Sounds nice enough, but how does that hold up when neither the utility of the action, nor its harm can be quantified with anything resembling a scientific metric? Hint: It doesn't.

      Compared to what exactly? Your other mythical option that doesn't impose enormous harms on the economy? The consensus among economists is that *given* a harm to the economy, carbon taxes get you the most CO2 reduction. Any other option will, for a given net CO2 reduction, do more unnecessary harm to the economy, since they're just crude approximations to what we really want.

      Taxes impose losses compared to not taxing, the transferral of "value" from taxpayer to government beneficiary is not remotely efficient, hence taxes are (in a rational economy) supposed to be used sparingly, and not represent a significant portion of national income. Do you even know what a deadweight loss is? Go get an economics 101 book or something.

      So all the design plans certified by real engineers are ...

      ...just plans that may or may not work. Personally, I think they're just attempts to get large grants from the government, my technical brain refuses to accept you can get milk back out of tea for anything close to a reasonable cost. I'm not going to debate that with you, I'm not an engineer and you're farther away from being one than I was the day I was born.

      Great! (aside from the minor nitpick about how they're pricing in a tax rather than a credit)That's exactly what we want them to do: whatever's profitable, *after* paying to undo the negative externalities they're throwing off onto others.

      Great! So how much would you like me to give you after I inject 20ccs of lead salts into your jugular? My point is that money can't undo all harm. Extinct species are extinct. The ozone layer cannot be replaced. Heavy metal poisoning is forever. Stupidity is incurable.

      I'm almost shaking at how ridiculous you're being now. You're making a blanket dismissal of all market solutions to market problems on the grounds that "type X approaches can never solve type X problems"??? So, problems of regulations can't be solved by regulations? So no loophole in regulations can ever be closed? That would be the implication of what you're saying.

      OK fess up. You don't know what the term "market failure" means, do you? Oh, and if you think that every loophole can be closed in regulations, you've obviously never worked in a corporation before as anything higher than a phone jockey. No regulation is hole free, this truism lies somewhere between death and taxes.

      However, FWIW I would agree that economists -- who came up with and near-universally agree with taxation (which is different from cap-and-trade) as a solution to negative externalities

      Yea, economists working for the government. And no, economists do not almost universally agree taxes are the best way to deal with negative externalities. At least as many who think that think that subsidies to competing industries are a better way, and there are whole bodies of economic theory that believe in totally different frameworks such as social interventions, microeconomic reform or simply banning overly harmful activities.

      --
      I hate printers.
    17. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Dr_Barnowl · · Score: 1

      carbon sinking is not even possible given the engineering capacity we as humans have That's why you use the engineering capacity that photosynthetic lifeforms have.

      You can sink a heck of a lot of carbon by growing and cutting timber.

      Your requirement for all carbon-based fuel to be carbon neutral would be completely satisfied by requiring all biofuel projects to themselves be fuelled 100% by biofuels. At present, you can say "we replaced N gallons of fossil fuel with biofuels!", and it looks great as a statistic but hides the fact that a substantial fraction of N was spent as fossil fuels in the production process.
    18. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by dkleinsc · · Score: 1

      Well I have a modest proposal:

      - Reduce the human population by 90% (preferably using a humane manner; like fewer babies). Instead of 6 billion, you'll have 600 million. There will be plenty of resources for everyone to go around, and pollution will be decreased by 90% of current levels. Well, then, the solution is obvious. So obvious, in fact, that Jonathan Swift had it figured out quite a while ago.
      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    19. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by MrNaz · · Score: 0, Troll

      I don't know how much of what you said was sarcasm

      Reading comprehension FTW!

      Er, if you already accept the government will completely botch any proposed program, then the question of which regulation proposal is best, is moot.

      I think that you're missing a point I've said about five times now: Mitigation is a fantasy. It cannot be done. Do not try to mitigate the harm, that's impossible. Instead, try to realize the truth. You: "What truth?" Me: THERE IS NO MITIGATION YOU RETARDED KNUCKLE DRAGGING NEANDERTHAL!


      How do you mitigate the fact that south China tigers are now so few in number that there is insufficient genetic diversity to propagate the species, and once the living individuals die out, the species is gone? How about mitigating mercury in the brain of a 5 year old child living near a coal plant? How about undoing the lead poisoning that you have obviously been suffering with that has resulted in such monumental stupidity?


      Government regulation is fine, but spending resources on mitigation is a waste. THAT'S the point I was trying to make, for the umpteenth time. I don't care what some engineer says in some idiotic plan to hide carbon under the rug of the earth's crust, it'll be just another grant hunt as far as I'm concerned until they can show me a replenished population of south China tigers and a fully restored Amazon basin. Oh, and a healthy population of polar bears with mercury presence in their tissues back to natural levels.

      --
      I hate printers.
    20. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by SquirrelsUnite · · Score: 1

      Aside from the enormous harm that taxations place upon the economy (taxation leads to what is known as a deadweight loss, which must be offset against the benefits of whatever is being taxed), carbon sinking is not even possible given the engineering capacity we as humans have. Furthermore, even if it *were* possible, there is no way to know what damage the CO2 does in the meantime while it is being sinked. I'm sorry but you have no idea what you are talking about and probably neither do the mods who modded you insightful. Taxation leads to deadweight loss in competitve markets without externalities. Where there are externalities taxation can be the right tool to force the market to consume at the optimum level.
      Emission of greenhouse gases is the ultimate externality since every single person Earth pays for your consumption.

      Taxation is also the fairest way to deal with the issue. Regulation just favours the politically powerful. Environment-conscious thinking rewards freeloaders and actually encourages them to pollute more by driving the price of fossil fuels down (there's still some benefit to the environment but less then the sacrifice you make).

      If I have a quibble with GP it's that he's probably underestimating the real cost. The Green Party in Germany had a similar proposal maybe 10 years ago. They calculated that after the tax the cost of fuel would increase 5 fold. Even their own electorate found that hard to accept. I'm pretty sure the majority of SUV owners would not want to pay 3 times as much for gas as they do now.

      Of course the problem is not economic it's political. There's a minor issue of trying to find the acceptable level of greenhouse gas emissions (i.e: how much of the future are we willing to sacrifice for greater prosperity now). GPs answer is simple: there should no (net) emission at all. This is probably an overkill but it's one possible answer.
      The more serious issue is information. Those who prefer higher emission levels, either because they make money selling fossil fuels or because they care less about future generations have successfully convinced society that the cost of high emissions was lower than it really was. I believe many people were/are actually mislead into supporting policies they wouldn't have had they knew their real consequences. So GPs proposal wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell because most people simply don't think there's a need for drastic action. It could actually be counterproductive if it failed. But if it was somehow accepted it would be the most efficient way possible to reach zero emissions.
    21. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Hubbell · · Score: 2, Informative

      CO2 DOES NOT CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING. I'm appalled to see so many on slashdot giving in to this obvious bs. Every other body in the solar system has gone up in temperature by ~2degrees celsius in the last few decades, and all the ice core samples we've seen show that C02 only correlates to temperature increases after the fact, that is once the temperature increases, more CO2 is introduced into the atmosphere via ocean trapped CO2 being released.

    22. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It takes a real fundamentalist (or a complete idiot) to attempt to solve market failure by the application of more market instruments.

      Actually, the sort of person who wants to adjust prices to accurately reflect externalities is more commonly known as an "economist". Phrases like "complete idiot" are more accurately reserved for people who don't even understand concepts like externalities, market forces, or censorship. For instance, if some hypothetical person were to believe that making a practice's costs more accurate via taxes leads to greater economic harm than making the same practice infinitely expensive via prohibition, it would be fair to say that this person was a complete idiot.

    23. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by MrNaz · · Score: 1

      I believe the word you're looking for is "externalities". Pollution and environmental issues are external to the market, so the market doesn't account for them.

      No, I know precisely what word I was looking for, but thanks for trying. Market failure is when the market fails to account for the true price of a good or service. What is this thread? Economics 101?

      I'm a Keynesian

      No you're not. You're not even an economics student from what I can tell.

      I believe in the government simply adjusting the prices of elements of the market with taxes when needed to make externalities that have serious costs but are normally ignored now have costs that are factored into the market, and letting the market make its own choices now that it's facing true costs.

      What exactly would be the tax rate on releasing benzene compounds into the groundwater near a town causing half the population to get cancer?

      then by all means, continue.

      You, like the idiot before you, seem to be of the delusion that all harm can be translated into money to offset the harm. Can you please tell me how much it would cost me for the right to inject 20ccs of lead salts into your bloodstream? I have nothing better to spend my money on.

      --
      I hate printers.
    24. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by MrNaz · · Score: 1

      Really? I don't think so. Such a hypothetical person would probably understand that harm caused to the environment such as species extinction, bioaccumulation of heavy metals and groundwater poisoning are not really undoable no matter how much money was collected in taxes. They'd understand that at least, and probably also the standard economic and administrative downsides to taxation. I'd say such a hypothetical person would be quite insightful, actually. If only such a person actually existed...

      --
      I hate printers.
    25. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 0, Troll
      Interesting comments.

      Can you please describe your plan for repatriating all polluting corporations and banning all uses of fossil fuels and heavy metals? I'm also interested in your plan for a monetary system that provides for a lifestyle above the poverty level for all citizens. Or would it involve a sacrifice of some portion of the population?

      --
      "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
      --- Jerry Garcia
    26. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by MrNaz · · Score: 1

      Given your hostile tone, I'll only say that any plan I come up with would revolve around large sacrifices from profligate first world countries. Everything else is detail.

      --
      I hate printers.
    27. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

      Which is why most of europe has a negative population growth and will be islamic.

      Some groups in certain settings choose toys over babies.

      The desire to have babies is cultural. The desire to have sex is built in.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    28. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 1

      Ok, can you at least tell me how I get on your list of people that will be allowed access to food and water?

      --
      "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
      --- Jerry Garcia
    29. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by MrNaz · · Score: 1

      Easy. Don't do things that deprive other people of theirs. It is the wasteful actions of the first world that cause there to be such shortage in the rest of the world. Did you know that by the average human's need for caloric intake, the United States consumes enough food to feed the entire world, literally? Overpopulation, food shortage, resource scarcity my ass.

      --
      I hate printers.
    30. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by mtgarden · · Score: 1

      Sorry. I was not aware of anything that about the Heartland institute. It was a convenient link to the journal article.

    31. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      Wow.. Are you suggesting that if the US didn't eat junk food that somehow nutritious food in third world counties would grow and become available to the starving masses? Are you somehow under the impression that left over food produced in one country will somehow make it to another without any effort of the other country?

      You seem to remind me of those clueless people at restaurants who tell their children to finish eating the food on their plate because there are people starving in Africa or other places in the world. As if eating the food instead of throwing it away is somehow going to feed those starving people when it is already prepared to eat. And it isn't like they would send it to africa or other parts of the world if you didn't order it, they would just toss it out if i went bad before they could sell it to someone else. The only thing not ordering it might effect is the amount produced in future growing seasons.

      The problem isn't with over consumption or over population. It is with repressive regimes that don't allow their own people to not only develop their own food supply and market it to others, but fail to allow others to create wealth which will allow them to purchase the food. And without wealth to purchase locally developed foods, there won't be any wealth to exchange for excess in any other country which could simply increase their production to make up for the differences in needs regardless of over consumption in that country. This also leads to differences in quality of life and unequal moetary valuations which means external costs are going to be more.

      In short, over production on one country has nothing to do with shortages in others. Over consumption on one country has little to nothing to do in others. The only reserve on that statement might be something that can only be produced in one country, but then you just don't use it in the other country. This entire situation you just commented about is more political then selfish indulgences of people in a free society.

    32. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by MrNaz · · Score: 1

      Wow.. Are you suggesting that if the US didn't eat junk food that somehow nutritious food in third world counties would grow and become available to the starving masses? Are you somehow under the impression that left over food produced in one country will somehow make it to another without any effort of the other country?

      No, not at all. How on Earth can you possibly have missed my point so much? I wasn't literally talking about scraping your McDonalds trays into some bucket destined for Africa, I was talking about the grossly inefficient consumer market in the first world. When the energy required to produce the can used to in canned beans than is required to grow and deliver those beans themselves, then there's something wrong. It's even more wrong when the only benefit of the can is the convenience of some far guy who can't be bothered taking a bag to the supermarket and filling it with fresh produce and would rather fill a plastic bag for a single use with stuff that is by weight 50% packaging material.

      It is with repressive regimes that don't allow their own people to not only develop their own food supply and market it to others, but fail to allow others to create wealth which will allow them to purchase the food.

      You mean like those puppet regimes that are propped up by first world military support to secure resources in the name of national security? E.g., The Saudi regime, the Chilean Pinnochet regime, the El Salvador regime, the Haitian regime, the ... bah you're just going to miss my point again.

      --
      I hate printers.
    33. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by CompCons · · Score: 1

      This is the same false arguement that has been used for decades. We are NOT running out of natural resources. We are NOT overpopulating the earth and even if we are... so what? The earth is not a static environment it never has been and it never will be. If we push things out of balance natural selection and chaos thoery will create a new equilibrium rather quickly.

    34. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This might be a difficult concept to grasp,


      Ooh look - it's a smarmy prick!

      Now I don't have to waste my time reading the rest of his post. Thanks for establishing that you're an asshole right in the beginning of your post.
    35. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Sciros · · Score: 1

      Any time. It helps to ward off those who can't stand to be disrespected for posting bullcrap. Though, given that you've posted a reply, I see it's not 100% effective.

      --
      I like basketball!!1!
    36. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      No, not at all. How on Earth can you possibly have missed my point so much? I wasn't literally talking about scraping your McDonalds trays into some bucket destined for Africa, I was talking about the grossly inefficient consumer market in the first world. When the energy required to produce the can used to in canned beans than is required to grow and deliver those beans themselves, then there's something wrong. It's even more wrong when the only benefit of the can is the convenience of some far guy who can't be bothered taking a bag to the supermarket and filling it with fresh produce and would rather fill a plastic bag for a single use with stuff that is by weight 50% packaging material.
      You right I'm missing the point. You seem to have gone from arguing that the fat guy would save the world if he ate less to if you could just be less free and more dependent on large corporations by not using canned goods, you will save the world. Canned goods, whether beans or soups or whatever, extend the shelf life of the food which effectively makes them more efficient and provide a more efficient use of the land. If you think the world is starving now, think about it without the means to safely store last years crops for easy consumption in the off season.

      You mean like those puppet regimes that are propped up by first world military support to secure resources in the name of national security? E.g., The Saudi regime, the Chilean Pinnochet regime, the El Salvador regime, the Haitian regime, the ... bah you're just going to miss my point again.
      I'm not missing the point, you seem to be upset that some people have it better then others. I'm saying this is directly proportionate to their freedom within their own countries and countries that are lacking are also lacking freedoms that could lead to the generation of wealth and production of their own foods in sufficient quantities.

      And yes, I would include some of those countries you listed into the list of countries with problems. I would also note that the sock puppet regimes only exist in an oppressive state because of the repressive nature of the regimes they replaced. When your options are Evil Bert or Evil Ernie, you look to so which one favors you the most or attempt to get an Evil Big Bird in the mix that you can fly your way. SO I won't associate any negetive connotations to them based on out activities with them.
    37. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by DerekLyons · · Score: 1

      All this policy would require would be that the REAL cost of fossil fuels be paid.

      The problem is - there is no 'real' cost to be levied. The 'real' costs so beloved of the greens isn't determined by accounting - they are instead a collection of wishful thinking, assumptions, biases, and a general desire to punish anyone who uses fossil fuels.
       
       

      The GP didn't suggest pricing pollution credits by fiat, but by actual cost to mitigate.

      Which assumes we know the actual cost to mitigate. We don't.
    38. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Rei · · Score: 1

      No, I know precisely what word I was looking for, but thanks for trying. Market failure is when the market fails to account for the true price of a good or service. What is this thread? Economics 101?

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality

      "In economics, an externality is an impact (positive or negative) on any party not involved in a given economic transaction."

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_failure

      "Market failure is a term used by economists to describe the condition where the allocation of goods and services by a free market is not efficient."

      Apparently it is Economics 101, but you're the one who needs to take the course; my term was more accurate for the given situation.

      What exactly would be the tax rate on releasing benzene compounds into the groundwater near a town causing half the population to get cancer?

      Accidental or intentional? The economic cost of lost wages, the cost of medical care, significant costs for lost opportunity costs due to contaminated water and land, costs for the devaluation of public and private property, general environmental damage, and a (significant) cost for the human suffering involved. Depending on the situation, criminal law could also potentially be involved here. As for the fines, we *already* fine companies for polluting like this; they'd still be fined, and probably moreso than they are now. But so would the less obvious pollution, such as CO2.

      I know it can seem cruel to put a price on human lives. But we *already do that*, and really, we have to do that. Want to lower the rate of SIDS? We could hire a team of well-equipped doctors to sit next to every infant and monitor them at all times. You could probably nearly eliminate SIDS that way. But it's not going to happen. We can't afford the economic cost of having those doctors around at all times. We are valuing those lives at less than the cost of keeping doctors around. Want to eliminate pollution? We could take the flue gas of every factory and power plant in the world, freeze out all of the gasses, and then keep them buried in giant refrigerated facilities. But it's not going to happen. Keeping the environment that untouched is not worth the cost. You may not like this fact, but the economy, while growing, is at any point in time finite. Not everything can be afforded. Lives do have prices. If someone's smokestack leads indirectly and unintentionally to ten peoples' deaths from pollution-related diseases, but the benefit from running it will feed ten thousand people who otherwise would have starved, you'd condemn those ten thousand to death? Because, really, that's the sort of choices we're talking about here. If the oil and power industries disappeared off the face of the Earth tomorrow, what percent of people on the planet do you think would die? 90%?

      Can you please tell me how much it would cost me for the right to inject 20ccs of lead salts into your bloodstream?

      Oh, you mean murder? Yeah, let me just back up to where I advocated for repealing the laws on murder and assault.

      --
      But this Rottweiler not only is snarling and frothing at the mouth; it also went to Harvard.
    39. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by jhol13 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, let me just back up to where I advocated for repealing the laws on murder and assault. May I help?

      I know it can seem cruel to put a price on human lives. I am not sure if we can "afford the economic cost" of keeping libertarians alive.
    40. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by monxrtr · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Reduce the human population by 90% (preferably using a humane manner; like fewer babies). Instead of 6 billion, you'll have 600 million. There will be plenty of resources for everyone to go around, and pollution will be decreased by 90% of current levels. A higher human population increases wealth. Volcanoes don't erupt fully furnished houses. Oceans don't wash up technological innovation. And the stork doesn't deliver 1.2376 of a baby human being to newlywed couples. There's plenty of resources for 6 billion humans, in spite of all the vast economic damage and waste caused by socialist government policies. See the division of labor.

      TFG for the internet. Finally all these so-called "mainstream" liberals and leftists can have their religious doctrines not just exposed, but shattered, by real science. "Global warming" (now "global climate *change*") climatologists, socialist "economist" commentators are on the same intellectual level as creationists, even as they pad their resumes with churn and burn statistical fluff and self-congratulatory awards in academia. It's high time they were exposed. And these leftist wackos have no compunction whatsoever with instituting socialist government mandated behavior control on the reproduction choices of others, as evidenced by this little-Stalin I'm replying to talking about "fixing overpopulation".

      That's why leftists constantly have to lie and make stuff up to try to be taken seriously. Because at heart they are petty jealous tyrants who don't value the freedom of others.
      --
      "From DNA to P2P, we are all Copycats now. Go Go Copycat Power! Copycat Powers activate! Form of, a Copycat." --monxrtr
    41. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by spun · · Score: 1

      Sock puppet regimes exist because the US would rather deal with free market friendly dictators than popularly elected socialist governments. We have a long history of deposing democracies and installing dictatorships.

      How does eating food from cans produced by big corporations make you less dependent on big corporations? Canned foods are no longer a necessity or even a good idea in first world nations, they are a waste of resources.

      --
      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    42. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by spun · · Score: 1

      Just because economics makes certain absurd assumptions about real costs does not make these real costs any less real. Natural resources are assumed to be unlimited, and their loss, use, or destruction is not counted as a cost in accounting. Negative externalities are similarly never recorded in corporate books.

      Pollution is an example of a negative externality. Someone has to pay for it. Environmental destruction, loss of habitat and extinction are also negative externalities. They are a real cost not accounted for in our bookkeeping.

      Claiming these are all just made up, wishful thinking by 'greens' is itself wishful thinking.

      --
      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    43. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      Sock puppet regimes exist because the US would rather deal with free market friendly dictators than popularly elected socialist governments. We have a long history of deposing democracies and installing dictatorships.
      On average, we have only manipulated the same level of dictatorship or oppression. The only differences have been elected or not and friendly to the US of not. It's like telling the boy with cake on his plate, "let him eat cake".

      How does eating food from cans produced by big corporations make you less dependent on big corporations? Canned foods are no longer a necessity or even a good idea in first world nations, they are a waste of resources.
      That's sort of my point. All it does is switch who has a grip on the food you eat except for when you don't have long term storage (like Canning allows), you are subject to the whims of the market owner or growers or worse yet, catastrophic and weather related issues. Not having them would mean that I would personally have waisted a lot of food last year alone. I have cans of soup, corn and other things that I haven't used yet because I need to stock up on food in case the road floods out or a snow storm cuts me off from town. The electric goes off in the winter quite often which makes cooking fresh food a bitch. I usually keep 2-3 weeks of food and potable water around for emergencies and I live in a first world nation. This is not to mention that I don't always have time to prepare meals from scratch which makes canned good often the difference between eating diner or getting something done.
    44. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by bazorg · · Score: 1

      Can we have something done to human genes so that people can be 90% smaller instead?

    45. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by spun · · Score: 1

      Eh, where do you get the idea that we have only replaced dictatorships with dictatorships? Look up the history of Chile under Allende for one counter example. From what I've read, we have more commonly replaced democratically elected socialist governments with dictatorships.

      Do you have any examples to prove your point?

      --
      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    46. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Socguy · · Score: 1

      Sciros, Perhaps the satire was lost on you. The parent was referencing a famous piece of literature by Johnathan Swift entitled: A Modest Proposal: For Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick. Check it out on Wikipedia if you wish.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal

    47. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by The+One+and+Only · · Score: 1

      Setting aside the specific issues of your specific implementation (note that cap-and-trade works largely the same way your system does), your policy is best because it doesn't actually solve the problem.

      Let me elaborate. The actual problem of CO2 is going to be solved by going to alternative sources of fuel, preventing coal fires (a great example of low-hanging fruit), refactoring our cities to require less individual automobile transport, and so forth. The problem is, no bureaucracy is clever enough to prioritize and implement all of these at once without leaving something out. The market, however, is. If you put a financial burden on people who let coal fires get out of control, they have an incentive to invest in better fire suppression systems. What if the suppression systems waste CO2 too? Well, that'll be factored into the cost, and we'll come out to the right balance.

      I think government does have more of a role to play in some cases. For instance, I'd love to have a law that said when you bought a new car, fuel costs was advertised instead of just the MSRP, so if you saw a 20 MPG gas guzzler and a constant estimate of 200,000 miles before replacement, that $35,000 would be prominently displayed, while an efficient 50 MPG vehicle would have a comparatively easy $14,000 posted on it. If the price of gasoline factored in your tax or the costs of carbon permits, the effect would be greater. Fixes like this help the market by making decision-making closer to the model of rationality economists use.

      --
      In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199
    48. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      Oh no. I don't think we have "only" done that. We have primarily done that. And don't confuse socialist with the quasi-communist that we where railing about in the 80's. I know that they weren't true "communist", but they weren't true "socialist" either. I still don't place negetive conontations to those actions though. It is/was an entirely different time. Enough time probably hasn't passed yet but it should be looked at in a similar light as slavery in the US is. We just did things differently back then and it isn't like we are doing them in the same ways today.

    49. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Socguy · · Score: 1

      Must be lonely out there, all alone, pissing into the wind. Especially considering that something like 98% of the worlds scientist who've looked into this accept the science behind CO2 and it's impact on climate, and the simple fact that there has been zero peer-reviewed research that disproves the impact that CO2 can have on climate. All this despite the fact that scientists have been studying CO2 and it's role in the atmosphere for decades. So here's the usual challenge: If you have some kind of evidence that disproves the role CO2 plays in the earth's climate, or have some kind of theory as to how altering the composition of the atmosphere will not result in a change of climate, nows the time to bring it out. If not... off you go!

    50. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by DerekLyons · · Score: 0

      Just because economics makes certain absurd assumptions about real costs does not make these real costs any less real.

      Equally, just because the greens treat them as real doesn't make them any more real.
       
       

      Natural resources are assumed to be unlimited, and their loss, use, or destruction is not counted as a cost in accounting.

      Because there isn't a rational way to do so - the belief that there is so is one example of the wishful thinking and bias I referred to in my original post.
       
       

      Claiming these are all just made up, wishful thinking by 'greens' is itself wishful thinking.

      I never claimed they were made up. I merely point out that there isn't a rational and equitable way of accounting for them, and that the belief that such a method exists is wishful thinking. There is a difference.
    51. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Hubbell · · Score: 1

      You failed to contest either of my points. You lost before you even left the starting gate.

    52. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by spun · · Score: 1

      Then you admit that your earlier statement, "I would also note that the sock puppet regimes only exist in an oppressive state because of the repressive nature of the regimes they replaced," was completely WRONG?

      You have gone from claiming that we only replaced dictatorships with dictatorships to admitting that we primarily replaced freely elected governments with dictatorships. Your cat-like ability to pivot 180 degrees in almost no time is simply astounding.

      --
      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    53. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by spun · · Score: 2, Insightful

      First, you are being completely disingenuous and backtracking by claiming you never said these costs were made up. Let me quote the post I was responding too:

      "The problem is - there is no 'real' cost to be levied. The 'real' costs so beloved of the greens isn't determined by accounting - they are instead a collection of wishful thinking, assumptions, biases, and a general desire to punish anyone who uses fossil fuels."

      Now let me quote the above post, so everyone can clearly see what you are attempting to do:

      "I never claimed they were made up. I merely point out that there isn't a rational and equitable way of accounting for them, and that the belief that such a method exists is wishful thinking. There is a difference."

      Please by all means, reconcile those two statements in a logical and coherent fashion.

      Now, you also claim there is no rational and equitable way to account for negative externalities and resource depletion. This is patently absurd. Of course we can, some people just don't want to. They want us to pay for these things.

      How about we keep a balance sheet of natural resources and those extracting the resources in a non sustainable way must pay for the privilege? We can easily measure pollution and habitat destruction and assign a cost to that, then impose that costs on the ones creating it.

      You insult and slander those of us concerned by the fact that we are paying costs incurred by other people as "wishful thinking, assumptions, biases, and a general desire to punish anyone who uses fossil fuels." You are siding with the powerful against those who would seek redress for wrongs committed against us, and belittling our rightful complaints. When called on your behavior, you attempt to backtrack and rewrite your own statements so they seem less supercilious. The honorable thing to do would be to admit you were wrong and apologize, but I hold little hope of that ever happening.

      Suffice it to say, I see you for what you really are. You haven't fooled anyone.

      --
      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    54. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Go on! Be an activist!

    55. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Sinical · · Score: 2, Interesting

      They're not trying to regulate every little thing, they're trying to say "don't do anything that harms the environment".

      And how do they do that? REGULATION.

      Aside from the enormous harm that taxations place upon the economy (taxation leads to what is known as a deadweight loss, which must be offset against the benefits of whatever is being taxed), carbon sinking is not even possible given the engineering capacity we as humans have. Furthermore, even if it *were* possible, there is no way to know what damage the CO2 does in the meantime while it is being sinked.

      So banning it is better than taxing it? What kind of bizarro-world do you live in where banning a previously legal activity because it is environmentally harmful is better than taxing that activity to compensate for the damage caused, i.e. rendering it less competitive than activities that do not damage the environment?

      And people are definitely investigating carbon sequestration techniques, so the whole "not even possible given the engineering capacity we humans have" is not correct. I think they'd work harder if, e.g. coal suddenly cost 10x as much due to environmental damage costs. Of course the carbon-emitting activities might themselves be reduced, i.e. the need to sequestrate would be reduced, if carbon was taxed.

      You really have no understanding of the problem, do you? The complete commodification of the rights to pollute simply mean that companies will simply find a way to price in the dollar value of pollution credits to get away with whatever they are doing now. Pollution and environmental issues are *the* classic economic textbook example of market failure. It takes a real fundamentalist (or a complete idiot) to attempt to solve market failure by the application of more market instruments.

      To me it is *you* who don't seem to understand the problem. You handwave the ability of companies to somehow keep doing whatever they're doing that is environmentally damaging once it is more expensive (potentially much more expensive) once taxes are levied. You additionally handwave pollution and environmental issues as a classic textbook example of market failures without explaining why that is the case (perhaps I have the wrong economics textbooks). I see it as an issue that has been sidelined only because the costs weren't obvious (carbon dioxide bad?) or due to regulatory capture. Neither is a failure of markets, but a failure to even apply them. This is changing as the true costs become apparent: Europe has started its cap-and-trade market and I think California and/or some other states are interested in doing the same here. In fact, I read recently that some big companies are petitioning for a federal system (in the United States) so that there is at least a uniform system rather than several state-level systems.

      One thing that could short-circuit these efforts is governmental cowardice to push something that would be unpopular: I assume that adding environmental costs to gas/oil consumption would substantially raise its price. Just as cowardice has led to refusal to tackle other hard problems like the future of social welfare systems.

      Thus I state that you have failed to make your case that the grandparent poster is a "real fundamentalist" or a "complete idiot". The Market system is not magical. You simply assign costs to scarce or undesirable behaviors/objects and let the efficiency drive of the average person (read, greed) regulate what happens. The failures so far have been to assign costs to adverse consequences that were dilute or fuzzy. Like there should probably be a cost assigned based on the undesirability of propping up shitheads in the Middle East, but I don't know how you'd do that (divide the cost of the Iraq War by the oil output we receive from there?).

      I think taxing carbon outright is the correct solution. I used to really like the cap-and-trade scheme

    56. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Socguy · · Score: 2, Informative

      Why should I re-invent the wheel? I'm representing the conventional viewpoint. If you wish to dispute current scientific thought then you must provide evidence. However, in the interests of expediance, here you go.
      On the warming of planets:
      http://www.skepticalscience.com/global-warming-other-planets-solar-system.htm
      http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/dn11642

      So, your contention fails. Not all the planets are warming. Further, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that you finger the Sun as the main culprit here, although you didn't explicitly state that. However, solar output hasn't increased since we've begun specifically measuring it in '78.
      http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/dn11650

      Now to the Ice cores:
      http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/dn11640
      If anyone takes the time to read through the above links they will discover that there are many factors that can and have influenced global temperatures in the past. (As the skeptics continually refer) Some of these factors include, Solar luminosity, Cloud formation, particulate in the air, Carbon Dioxide and so on. If there is a big change in any of the factors that control climate (which there has been in the past)then you would expect to see an effect on climate. CO2 records from ice cores DO match up well with the CO2 record but there are cases where they don't. HOWEVER: these deviances are satisfactorily explained by the presence of other factors over-riding the effect of CO2 during a specific geologic era. What's happening today is that we are altering the climate mainly by heavily altering the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

    57. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Saanvik · · Score: 1

      You said the poster failed to respond to either of your points, so let's try to tease out which points you want answered. Point 1 - other planets temperatures have gone up so something other than CO2 is causing global climate change on earth, and 2, ice core samples don't show that CO2 increases cause global climate change. Did I get them right?

      The poster said, "98% of the worlds scientist who've looked into this accept the science behind CO2 and it's impact on climate, and the simple fact that there has been zero peer-reviewed research that disproves the impact that CO2 can have on climate." Sounds to me like a response to both points. Climate scientists don't believe either of the points you raise having anything to do with whether CO2 increases cause global climate change.

      I'll respond specifically to your points, though. You appear to be claiming the sun is responsible for global climate change on Earth. It's not. A lot of research has been done on this topic. At most 10% of the observed climate change on Earth can be attributed to solar variation - most studies show a much smaller impact. The fact that at least one other planet in our solar system (Mars) is seeing planet-wide temperature changes doesn't change that since the global climate change on Earth and the planet wide temperature change on Mars have nothing to do with each other. As an aside, the increase in temperature on Mars has nothing to do with solar variations. I'm not sure what other planets you think are going through global climate change, so I can't speak to them.

      You are wrong about the ice cores, not just about what has been found, but what it means. Ice core show very close correlations between CO2 and temperature. See Climate Myth: Ice cores show CO2 rising as temperatures fell among other articles on this topic. The nice thing about the New Scientist article is that it actually links to peer reviewed

    58. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by MrNaz · · Score: 1

      And how do they do that? REGULATION.

      Yes, my point was in response to someone saying that regulating it was *over* regulation. I was saying that environmental impact controls are not.

      You handwave the ability of companies to somehow keep doing whatever they're doing that is environmentally damaging once it is more expensive (potentially much more expensive) once taxes are levied.

      Because cases of heavily taxed goods that have external harm have shown that very often companies will secure their ongoing operation in the face of taxes by nefarious means. Look at the tobacco industry's behaviour in promoting its products in movies once advertising was banned, and look at their sales despite heavy taxes both on production and sale. Look at oil companies smothering nascent new technologies that will provide cheaper alternatives to heavily taxed petroleum fuels. Look at Monsanto's handing of FDA fines. Companies that get fined, taxed or otherwise sanctioned for bad behavior will try everything to just continue doing what they are doing. Taxing them won't change much in the short term, if ever. It just raises prices to the end user.

      You additionally handwave pollution and environmental issues as a classic textbook example of market failures without explaining why that is the case (perhaps I have the wrong economics textbooks).

      Must be. I have about 20 economics textbooks in my personal library, and I live near a university. Can you please give me the ISBN of a textbook that deals with externalities properly (as in has more than just 3 or 4 pages on them) that does not mention pollution? I'm sure I'll be able to find a copy of any text book you find.

      Neither is a failure of markets, but a failure to even apply them.

      You think that markets have not been applied to the petroleum industry? May I just ask, is there nice weather on your planet? The unfettered action of market supply and demand is the reason the first world is so hopelessly dependent on foreign sourced oil economically and the reason petroleum has been used as an easy fix to energy supply to date.

      The Market system is not magical. You simply assign costs to scarce or undesirable behaviors/objects and let the efficiency drive of the average person (read, greed) regulate what happens.

      You say that the market is not magical, and then you say that a simple assignment of costs to scarce resources solves everything. Which is it? Believing that by just guiding price and factoring in an extra cost fixes the market, but that assertion is based upon the idea that the market can solve the problem at all so long as you just factor in the external cost. You see, that's not always the case. Some goods have a cost that is just too high, no matter what the taxes gained are. Furthermore, not all harm canbe undone by government spending. Finally, heavy taxes create welfare losses to the economy, that could be avoided altogether by the introduction of alternative solutions to whatever problem the good in question is solving. In this case, a serious, well-funded bonna fide effort by government and industry to move to alternative energy sources would be the right way, not just by taxing petroleum into the ground until half the private sector that depends on it is bankrupt.

      Look at tobacco. There was a realisation in the 60s and 70s that its consumption was placing a huge strain on the health care system as well as resulting in massive social costs to families hurt by cancer and other effects. So the government decided to tax the good to reduce its consumption. All that has happened is that consumers now pay a higher price for cigarettes leaving them with less money to spend on other things. I don't think you'll find any stats that indicate that consumption has gone down. The tax revenue just goes into the government's slush fund (it sure as he

      --
      I hate printers.
    59. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by theheadlessrabbit · · Score: 1

      Furthermore, as the price of sinking goes down, the tax can go down. up untill that line, i thought you were being +5 insightful.

      now i realize you are +5 funny

      with the exception of the super rich, when has tax ever gone down?

      --
      -I only code in BASIC.-
    60. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      Then you admit that your earlier statement, "I would also note that the sock puppet regimes only exist in an oppressive state because of the repressive nature of the regimes they replaced," was completely WRONG?
      Yea, if you take it literally, it is wrong. However, I also said "On average, we have only manipulated the same level of dictatorship or oppression. The only differences have been elected or not and friendly to the US of not. It's like telling the boy with cake on his plate, "let him eat cake".". There should be no confusion to what I was attempting to say there.

      I have also said that we viewed communism/socialism differently back then so a lot of the situations where still "evil" because of it. Personally, I would still view socialism/communism as non-free even though so many countries are attempting quasi implementations.

      You have gone from claiming that we only replaced dictatorships with dictatorships to admitting that we primarily replaced freely elected governments with dictatorships. Your cat-like ability to pivot 180 degrees in almost no time is simply astounding.
      No, that's not how it went at all. The GP, said

      You mean like those puppet regimes that are propped up by first world military support to secure resources in the name of national security? E.g., The Saudi regime, the Chilean Pinnochet regime, the El Salvador regime, the Haitian regime, the ... bah you're just going to miss my point again.
      I replied with,

      And yes, I would include some of those countries you listed into the list of countries with problems. I would also note that the sock puppet regimes only exist in an oppressive state because of the repressive nature of the regimes they replaced. When your options are Evil Bert or Evil Ernie, you look to so which one favors you the most or attempt to get an Evil Big Bird in the mix that you can fly your way. SO I won't associate any negetive connotations to them based on out activities with them.
      Which was leading to the comment you responded to above. Note how I said Some of those countries and compared Evil Bert with Evil Ernie. You see, this isn't an all inclusive statement just like your attempt to say the US replaced democratic elected regimes with dictators isn't an all inclusive statement. Japan, Germany, and Iraq are examples that prove that wrong. So lets maintain a level of honesty here if we could and keep the statements within reason and the context they were made. It will avoid a bunch of petty bickering that doesn't need to take place.
    61. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by dr80085 · · Score: 1

      Seriously, that line of reasoning will kill braincells of rational people trying to follow it. It's the same thing as saying that because the current global ecosystem is unable to sustain the current population of white rhinos, what we should do is "humanely" drop their population to 10% of today's so that they can each have plenty of resources. That is rather different. White rhinos are not using their environment unsustainably, but humans clearly are. I'm sure if rhinos could burn fuel to make their lives more pleasant in the short term they would, but they don't seem to have cottoned on to that one yet.
    62. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by ratbert6 · · Score: 1

      you said "Furthermore, as the price of sinking goes down, the tax can go down."

      You must not be in/from the US...

      --
      There is no innocence in the eyes of an evil man with power. Referring to Judge Roy A. Scoggins 378th District Court
    63. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Sciros · · Score: 1

      Ah. Well if the reference is done in satire as well, then ok. But from the language of the original post, it really doesn't seem that way, even now. The "modest proposal" phrase certainly makes the reference obvious now, but the whole "if we don't do it, nature will" takes away the benefit of the doubt as far as I'm concerned.

      --
      I like basketball!!1!
    64. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Sciros · · Score: 1

      It's equally unreasonable and irrational. Even if rhinos burned fuel, all drove Ford Excursions, and worked full time at Exxon-Mobil, and this was somehow predicted to lead to a population decline from current numbers, it would be insane to then suggest that we skip a few steps and take the population down an order of magnitude just to make sure it happens. TO WHAT END?

      This is all part of the "humanity vs the planet" line of reasoning that fuels eco-terrorism at worst, ignorance at least, and a whole lot in-between.

      --
      I like basketball!!1!
    65. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Mr.+Jaggers · · Score: 1

      You really have no understanding of the problem, do you? The complete commodification of the rights to pollute simply mean that companies will simply find a way to price in the dollar value of pollution credits to get away with whatever they are doing now.

      Most of your points well taken. However, this last is a strawman argument, as carbon offsets != carbon credits. Carbon credits would be somewhat equivalent to what the OP's tax revenue would have bought (note that his tax on the fossil fuels themselves translates into a consumption-proportional quantity... a clever adaptation that I don't think he put a great deal of thought into). In the U.S., our current system of government regulated credits has resulted in exactly what you say, above. However, if credits were not purchased, but instead offsets are purchased, then ton for ton, the actual CO2 released during fossil fuel consumption would be absorbed or simply not generated somewhere else in the world. For example, in the Pacific northwest of the United States, a large power co-op has run a program called BlueSky that allows one to purchase the right to commit the utility to buy (100kWh) blocks of energy from wind sources. They would have produced that energy via oil/gas/coal/whatever. So, the cost paid to commit them to a wind source, offsets other carbon production in your life.

      Of course, as I said right off, points about sinking carbon are well taken. I have zero faith in carbon sinking, at this point, to provide a viable, quantifiable, offset. I think that at this point, alternative power generation is the only path forward that can be metered with any confidence.

      Also, this would provide the market incentive for industry to improve the efficiency of power generation. If an (at least) national market for independant alternative power generation was funded under the auspices of carbon offsets, then market entities would compete for a slice of carbon pie. Whomever can generate the highest cost per carbon-free megawatt would contract up to their capacity. It would be easy to administer and regulate for honesty too, all you'd have to do is verify; 1) did they secretly use fossil fuels? 2) did they generate N megawatts?

      Of course, Congress would be in charge of setting & updating the fossil fuel tax rate, which should be fairly fixed, as there is (correct me if I'm wrong here) a fixed amount of releasable CO2 in each fuel molecule, no? So, the the rate would have to be proportional (somehow) to the market rate of energy offsets. If the market is big enough, it could trade as a commodity.
      --

      When I grow up, I want to have Christopher Walken hair.
    66. Re:Trying to regulate every little thing is stupid by Hubbell · · Score: 1

      Last I saw it was Pluto, Saturn, Titan, Jupiter, and Mars all having 2-3degrees celsius temperature rises.

  3. Somebody please! by WiglyWorm · · Score: 2, Funny

    Think of the children!

    1. Re:Somebody please! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Hm, without beer there will be no more ugly children. And then no more ugly people.

      I'll go extinct but hey... it's a small price to pay for the greater good.

    2. Re:Somebody please! by Detritus · · Score: 1

      They go nicely with cold pitcher of lager. I want my baby back ribs!

      --
      Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
    3. Re:Somebody please! by thegrassyknowl · · Score: 1

      Ban the children drinking the been and there should still be enough (beer) to go around.

      --
      I drink to make other people interesting!
    4. Re:Somebody please! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now this is truly a global disaster!?!!!

      Mess with a man's beer, and you are really going to get in trouble...

      I call on all beer-lovers worldwide to harass your local politicians to do something about global warming and protect our beer! :-)

      Email, phone and snail mail them today, before it's too late and our beer disappears!

      (Perish the thought...)

  4. Going on two years by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The barley yields have been underperforming since 2006, so this is cumulatively a big problem for the beer industry and its customers.

    However, there are many other crops from which alcohol can be derived. A sudden price increase in beer will send drinkers to the arms of other libations. This should, in principle, keep the price of beer from fluctuating too wildly. In another couple years when barley yields are back at their maximums, this will all have been a bad memory.

    1. Re:Going on two years by NorbrookC · · Score: 4, Informative

      However, there are many other crops from which alcohol can be derived.

      Which have also jumped markedly in price. Corn, wheat, and rice are all running at record or near-record highs in their prices. So your other libations will also jump in price.

    2. Re:Going on two years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12449705

      Spanish winemakers have already started moving their vineyards into the mountains because of climate change.

      Maybe that's what the barley and hops growers need to do

    3. Re:Going on two years by PoliTech · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Considering that 20 percent of the U.S. corn crop was converted into 5 billion gallons of ethanol in 2006, (and that amount replaced only 1 percent of U.S. oil consumption). The prices of food products containing barley and wheat are also on the rise because farmers are switching to growing subsidized corn crops instead of other less profitable grain crops. Dwindling barley feedstock supplies also currently coincide with a pretty large reduction in other crops used as livestock feed, prices of which are also climbing. Thus another unintended consequence is the increase in the price of meat and dairy products consumers are currently experiencing as well. We haven't even started to talk about how diesel fuel prices are simultaneously causing food, feedstock, and crop prices to skyrocket.

    4. Re:Going on two years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Right. So the price of beer is not going up because of global warming, it's going up because of ill-considered and ineffective responses to it. Brilliant.

    5. Re:Going on two years by Thundersnatch · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Considering that 20 percent of the U.S. corn crop was converted into 5 billion gallons of ethanol in 2006, (and that amount replaced only 1 percent of U.S. oil consumption).

      Source? Almost all gasoline is actaully 10% ethanol these days. Since gasoline accounts for 60% of oil consumption, wouldn't it stand to reason that ethanol replaces about 6% of our oil consumption at this point?

      Finally, after processing corn for Ethanol, a great deal of high-protien livestock feed remains. The sugars from the corn get converted to ethanol, and the "everything else" is still used as livestock feed.

      It's really a lot more complicated than you make it sound. Corn-based Ethanol will not solve our transportation energy needs, but it isn't all bad.

    6. Re:Going on two years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What about prices on sugarcane (Rum) and potatoes (mmmmm...potato vodka)? I also think Jagermeister and Sambuca use other distilling agents. What about costs of wine (from those grapes)? What about the cost of blue agave for tequila?

      Seriously, they use more then corn, wheat and rice to make alcohol.

    7. Re:Going on two years by toxic666 · · Score: 1, Informative

      Not to mention that corn and ethanol production has expanded to areas where it requires irrigation and ground water for industrial use.

      We have been mining Ogalala Aquifer ground water for decades. Now, with increased subsidies, we have expanded the area and rate at which we are depleting the resource.

    8. Re:Going on two years by DrLang21 · · Score: 1

      All of this fear over a crop under performing for only 2 summers? Perhaps all of the mass famine throughout history was also caused by global warming then. Over reaction like this is why there are still large groups who believe global warming is a myth and a conspiracy.

      --
      I see the glass as full with a FoS of 2.
    9. Re:Going on two years by Sciros · · Score: 1

      Indeed, but diesel prices don't have to be as high as they are. Diesel is a good bit more expensive than gasoline at the pumps, even though it's a lot less expensive to produce. Obviously so the companies selling both can make a lot more money. That diesel import vehicles get purchased less is probably an ok bonus, too (for US car manuf.).

      --
      I like basketball!!1!
    10. Re:Going on two years by farmerj · · Score: 4, Interesting
      I don't think it's quite as simple as that. At the moment there are two major markets for barley:
      • Animal Feed
      • Malting
      A minority of the barley grown goes for malting, with the remaining majority going for animal feed.
      Malting barley has stricter requirements that that used for feed, there are max protein levels and germination percentage used along with the normal grain quality indexes (hectolitre weight, screening % etc.)

      The interesting thing as regards to beer (larger, ale and stout) is that the price of the malting barley has very little impact on the price paid for a pint.
      I don't have a quick reference but in Ireland the cost of malting barley works out at around 1-2 cent per pint, out of an average price of around €4.00 or so (pub price).

      The problem is that barley as animal feed is easily subsisted for by other feeds such as wheat, soya, maize etc. This means that the price of barley moves in relation to the prices of these other grains. It is also important to note these these grains along with rice are the base constituents of most alcohol produced.

      As regard to New Zealand, one of its biggest exports are milk products. As NZ sells on the world market the recent increase in milk and milk product prices is pushing up demand for animal feeds such as barley. This is because one of the ways of getting higher output from dairy cows in increasing the levels of concentrates (such as barley wheat etc.) feed.

      So even with higher yields the price of barley may or may not decrease the price of barley depending on the market prices of the other grains.

      --
      Independence? That's middle-class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth. G.B Shaw
    11. Re:Going on two years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you want to compare this to famines throughout history the main difference is those were caused by poor farming methods (lack of crop rotation etc, lack of pesticides). Although I agree that worrying about this after merely 2 summers is a little alarmist I don't believe you can compare modern farming to ancient farming methods. In Medieval England they used Oxen to plow the fields for God's sake because they couldn't figure out how to put a harness on a horse right!

    12. Re:Going on two years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Almost all gasoline is actaully 10% ethanol these days.
      Source?
    13. Re:Going on two years by Fozzyuw · · Score: 1

      The sugars from the corn get converted to ethanol, and the "everything else" is still used as livestock feed.

      It looks like the by-product of ethanol is only good for some livestock but not others. If you're not dairy or cattle, you're left in the cold, kind of like Maple Leaf Duck Farms. I found this article to be quite interesting and worth a read.

      --
      "The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth." ~1984 George Orwell
    14. Re:Going on two years by Missing_dc · · Score: 1

      Considering that they would ferment the corn, (that uses yeast) and then feed the leftovers (including the yeast) to cows, and knowing what a yeasty beer does to my methane production, I can't see how the increased methane production from the cows would be helping global warmiong AT ALL!!

      not to mention the smell.

      --
      How amazed would you be to suddenly find that you just forgot what I wrote and you needed to reread my post.... again.
    15. Re:Going on two years by Thundersnatch · · Score: 1

      The yellow sticker on every gas pump I've seen in the last 10 years. It reads "contains 10% Ethanol by volume".

    16. Re:Going on two years by Hatta · · Score: 1

      The point of drinking beer isn't just that it has alcohol. It's also delicious, quite a bit more delicious IMO than other drinks. If you're just drinking to get drunk, sure wine or liquor will do just as well.. even better. But when you want a crisp, refreshing, fizzy, sweet and hoppy brew there's no substitute.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    17. Re:Going on two years by labnet · · Score: 1

      Thanks BadAnalogyGuy for pointing out the more substantial reason for barley price change.

      Am I the only one sick of hearing about climate change causing everything. I've lost count of the stories where 'climate change is causing x devestation', when in fact in the content of the story it has nothing to do with it.
      Climate change due to man made influence is NOT YET FACT. It is still a theory with not enough data, but with quasi religious zealots who wish to have you think otherwise.

      --
      46137
    18. Re:Going on two years by The+One+and+Only · · Score: 1

      Well, there's wine and there's wine. With most wine, the price pressures on the demand side, because rich folk do love them some overpriced wine. But if you're not a snob it might be a nice alternative.

      --
      In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199
    19. Re:Going on two years by Jaime2 · · Score: 1

      Actually it reads: "This Product May Contain up to 10% Ethanol by volume". The sticker is not useful in determining the actual content.

    20. Re:Going on two years by DrLang21 · · Score: 1

      Point well taken. But famine has also been caused by drought. And drought is nothing new either. But reguardless you still caught my point, which is that 2 years of underperforming crops is nothing new. To immediately point the finger at global warming without first rulling out all other highly common causes does nothing but make global warming advocates nod their head and those who are still uncertain think that maybe there really is something to these conspiracy theories. Nothing but unreasoned intellectual masturbation.

      --
      I see the glass as full with a FoS of 2.
  5. Re:Somebody please!....AHEM by Mr+Pippin · · Score: 2, Funny

    More like:

    Think of the underage drinking teenagers!

    Or will this force us to re-consider legalizing "weed"? Since with no beer, they'll just move up the chain, anyway.

  6. Confines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I feel the world slowly imploding...

  7. Unlike fuel by WormholeFiend · · Score: 4, Interesting

    People will not pay whatever the beer industry charges.

    I remember reading a Newfoundland drug enforcement police officer's comment once to the effect that beer and spirits stores profits were up whenever the police managed to put a big dent in the illegal drug market.

    1. Re:Unlike fuel by mweather · · Score: 2, Informative

      The police have never made a dent in the illegal drug market.

    2. Re:Unlike fuel by maxume · · Score: 3, Informative

      They make local market dents all the time. The cumulative effect is pretty much nil, but I'm sure that they impact prices and availability in a given city or region fairly often.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
  8. Now THATS a problem by alexborges · · Score: 5, Funny

    I told you the world wasnt going to end, i told you it would be MUCH worse.

    Here we face a HOT future with NO BEER!

    I vote for the government to start giving away suicide packs (but not legalize mariguana).

    --
    NO SIG
    1. Re:Now THATS a problem by Mr.+Beatdown · · Score: 1

      They should open a Mercy Center in almost every highly populated area that has a large amount of minorities. This would be a much more humane and logical way of dealing with the problem than other posters have come up with.

      --
      My fellow Americans, let's restore the death penalty for child rapists. Let's do it . . . for the children.
    2. Re:Now THATS a problem by Dues · · Score: 1

      This is far worse than you are describing.

      We face a HOT future, but there will still be beer...

      HOT beer.

    3. Re:Now THATS a problem by jc42 · · Score: 1

      I told you the world wasnt going to end, i told you it would be MUCH worse.
      Here we face a HOT future with NO BEER!


      But we do have good historical evidence that, when the beer supply is at stake, people are often willing to go to great lengths to ensure its continued availability.

      One example: Back when the genocidal war was going on in Rwanda, NPR had a couple of interesting articles about a group of people who were driving around the country wherever they wished, and were never attacked. They were beer truck drivers. The article went on to explain that in Rwandan society, even in the very upper crust, beer was the overwhelming drink of choice. Beer is always served with every meal. So when a truck with a beer logo showed up, nobody cared about the ethnicity of the driver; all they cared about was that the beer be delivered with minimal interference. People knew not to attack or rob beer trucks, because the beer distributors might halt deliveries to their neighborhood.

      So, even when many people were willing to kill a member of group X on sight, they were willing to forgo their desire to kill when beer delivery was at stake.

      Once this news gets spread by the MSM (MainStream Media), we can expect that the politicians will be falling all over themselves to DSAI (Do Something About It). Some of them might even do something relevant.

      (Hmmm ... I wonder how they can work "Think of the children" into it? ;-)

      --
      Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
    4. Re:Now THATS a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "suicide packs (but not legalize marijuana)"

      modded up for the reference to "Children of Men" (now where can I get some that "strawberry-cough" strain. ;-D )

  9. Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't working by Shivetya · · Score: 4, Insightful

    so lets latch on to something generic... even though it occurs all the time we seem to think its only bad now.

    Its always worse for those of the current generation, we conveniently forget the previous ones. I have some grandparents who can tell you about the real hell they faced in Kansas during those drought days way back when, makes the pansy crap we complain about today just that.

    I guess with all the stories about the earth having not warmed recently, taken a year or two dive, that the lead off words must change to fuel this engine of profit for certain groups and businesses. How much barley production is lost to other more cash ready crops? With the current increases in the value of corn and wheat because of the misguided ethanol production in the US would it not make sense that other areas shift to fill the gap?

    Putting climate change in the same story as beer either points out the hypocrisy of it all or just shows how silly we are willing to become

    --
    * Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
  10. Now it will get fixed! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Finally, an important industry is impacted and we'll be forced to solve the problem

  11. What is the big problem again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    if this was something like manufacturing, specifically building materials, then it would be a real problem.

  12. Still a skeptic. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeah it has nothing to do with.. oh.. climate change HYPE causing a shift of crops from barley to corn to make Ethanol..

    There's nothing in the article about reduced yields... just shortages of barley and aluminum and sugar and sugar (sic).

    Ms. Read said that in addition to climate change, barley growers are grappling with competition from other forms or land use, such as the dairy industry.

    And don't forget these fine proofs of global warming... (ooh sorry, Climate Change)
    "The price of beer is likely to rise in coming decades because climate change will hamper the production"

    "He said climate change could cause a drop in beer production within 30 years"

    1. Re:Still a skeptic. by blueg3 · · Score: 1

      I'm sure you don't want to be educated, but it's called "climate change" because otherwise warming of tenths of degrees doesn't seem particularly problematic to anyone but a scientist. The problem, of course, isn't directly higher temperatures, but the climatological effects caused by them.

    2. Re:Still a skeptic. by CmdrGravy · · Score: 1

      I think the article was about Australian producers so when you say it mentions nothing about reduced yields perhaps you should instead try and find out what the current state of Australian agriculture is.

      I suspect, because obviously I haven't bothered checking myself, that crop yields might be close to catastrophically low at the moment due to a never ending drought/severe flooding.

    3. Re:Still a skeptic. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, I think they're calling it "climate change" now because otherwise you get people (no doubt like our other anonymous friend) who will hear the phrase "global warming", find one cool day in summer or one exceptionally frigid day in winter, and suddenly think them college edge-ee-cated braniac science types don't know nothin' 'bout nothin' 'cuz I ain't never done seen a day as cold as that in this whole year, yup yup, so global warming must be a complete fraud.

    4. Re:Still a skeptic. by Curmudgeonlyoldbloke · · Score: 1

      90% of the Australian "beer" industry (Coopers being the largest exception here) manages to produce stuff that would embarrass even some of the larger US producers. Frankly if they removed ALL the barley I'm not convinced anyone would notice.

      Toohey's New? Life's too short.

  13. Hmmm... by AndGodSed · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now there's an inconvenient truth for you...

  14. More GW BS by BigDumbAnimal · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The Warmlist has already been updated with this new information.

    The article is very light on details, but it is just today's 'Everybody panic' story about global warming (climate change, or whatever). He is full of it. He says it 'may' cause a drop in barley production in au in the next 30 years. Oh crap. As if droughts and floods never happened before the ICE.

    1. Re:More GW BS by tomdcc · · Score: 3, Informative
      It is light on details. this one is better:

      But over the last five years, Australia has experienced three droughts. In 2006, in what was dubbed the 100-year drought, barley production fell 70 per cent. Last year, drought caused a 40 per cent fall. So drought leads to decreased barley yields. We've had more drought in Australia in recent years than in any previously recorded time. And it just happens to correlate with the highest global temperatures ever recorded. But you're right, it's probably just BS. Why don't you come down under and enjoy our water restrictions?
  15. Uh, not due to climate change though... by JRHelgeson · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The reductions in Malted Barley yields are a direct result of more farmers growing corn in place of barley in order to produce ethanol. The price of corn has gone up because demand has gone up, so therefore more farmers are producing/planting/harvesting corn.

    Just once, why can't one of our poorly considered quick fixes work?

    --
    Good security is based upon reality and common sense. Common sense is a function of having common knowledge.
    1. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by tcopeland · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yup, and for some more numbers and some good commentary on this, check out this post from EU Referendum: 'A world gone mad'.

    2. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by garcia · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yup and it's really hurting everyone from large pizza chains right down to the local Asian restaurant my wife and I frequent at least three times a month.

      Flour prices have skyrocketed due to the corn (as you have mentioned) and the fact that farmers are then locked into subsidy land because farmers who grow other crops on corn acreage lose their subsidy for the current year and are fined the market value of the crop they chose to grow instead but are also threatened that they may be permanently ineligible to receive future subsidies (link).

      So while we are getting more "inexpensive" gas and we are lessening our dependencies on foreign oil, we are creating an uncomfortable situation in our food stores and prices. I'd rather we deal with more mass transit and alternative fuel sources that don't fuck with our domestic food supplies.

    3. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by Reverend528 · · Score: 1
      It's because of climate change that we need more corn to make ethanol. Now we're faced with rising beer prices.

      How can people continue to deny that climate change is real?

    4. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by xaxa · · Score: 1

      Greenpeace's current campaign to email subscribers in the UK is to write to the government telling them not to back ethanol production from corn. The price of bread has already about doubled in the last couple of years, partly because of rising energy costs, but also because of rising wheat costs.

    5. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Except that using corn for making ethanol actually ends up putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over the next century than simply continuing to burn fossil fuels. Last week's Time magazine had a long, well-written article about this topic.

    6. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by Duradin · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      Climate change is real.

      What is fiction is the extent of man's impact on climate change.

      Were there SUVs cruising around back when the glaciers that covered most of the northern U.S. retreated?

      Was it coal burning power plants that lead to Greenland being, well, green and the actions of valiant environmentalist that replaced the glaciers there?

      What about the climate shifts of the cretacious, cambrion and jurassic ages? Dinosaurs in Cadillacs to blame?

      Corn is a poor choice for ethanol. If it was really about the ethanol and not massive subsidies and general price gouging, they wouldn't be using corn for fuel ethanol.

      It's nice and all that you're concerned about ecology and conservation (well, not really, you seem concerned about THE ENVIRONMENT!), but I'd rather you were concerned for the right reasons and not the knee jerk reaction hype the media spews.

    7. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by Niten · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Climate change is real. What is fiction is the extent of man's impact on climate change.

      Calling it "fiction" is being rather hopeful and is quite an assumption unto itself. If we can punch a hole in the ozone layer with a couple decades' output of CFCs, what makes you so certain that we cannot also affect greenhouse gas levels enough to bring out an average temperature change of a few degrees? Especially in light of the actual science, which currently supports the anthropogenic hypothesis?

      That said, things like this story -- falsely attributing the result of market forces (namely, ethanol production and the higher price of corn) to global warming -- are fiction. It detracts from the scientific debate, and it only serves to give the dogmatic global warming deniers fodder ("See, this one scientist was being alarmist; ergo, the entire scientific community is incorrect about anthropogenic climate change.").

    8. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by blueg3 · · Score: 0

      That's a well-reasoned argument backed by fact.

      Wait, no it's not. You brought up a lot of items that have nothing to do with anthropogenic climate change. Nobody has ever claimed all climate change is anthropogenic. Faced with the difficulty of separating anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic influences, they reverted to the time-honored method of taking data. Some loud, belligerent skeptics remain unconvinced. (Biologists snicker knowingly.)

    9. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by Abcd1234 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yup [startribune.com] and it's really hurting everyone from large pizza chains [news-press.com] right down to the local Asian restaurant my wife and I frequent at least three times a month.

      Just thank god you don't live in, say, Haiti or Egypt, where there've been food riots due to skyrocketing prices (like, 40% increases since January type skyrocketing).

      The use of food as a fuel source is, without a doubt, the most idiotic, selfish, short-sighted thing the developed world has ever dreamed up...

    10. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 2, Funny

      Not to mention the amount of nitrogen (15 times as potent a greenhouse gas than CO2) the gets emitted just from growing the stuff in the first place.

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

    11. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by sumdumass · · Score: 1, Insightful

      You seem to have some misconceptions about things. First, we didn't punch a hole in the Ozone. The hole has always been there and is largely effected by the sun. While it is true that CFCs have an effect on ozone, most of the CFC particles where negated by ground level Ozone that is now a problem in large cities today. It didn't have a chance to reach the upper atmosphere. At the time when we banned the CFCs because of the Ozone hole, we didn't even know what caused it, we just knew it was getting bigger and that CFCs bonded to Ozone removing it from the picture.

      Now we know that sunlight is responsible for the Ozone, it is created when the very same radiation particles that it protects us from gets atached to oxygen in the upper atmosphere. It also explains why the hole grows and shrinks in correlation to the angular position to the sun (different seasons). The Ozone hole is effected more by increased levels of oxygen in the upper atmosphere then by CFC particles in the air. Almost all of the countries in the world have banned the use of CFCs except under specific controlled situations and the hole hasn't disappeared.

      Calling human contributions to global warming as anything significant or even close to a primary factor of it is more or less speculation at this point. Yes, I understand that decades of research inflated by political agendas and redistribution of wealth schemes support man made global warming, but we had centuries of evidence and studies showing the white race as superior to other races which we know is bullshit. I'm not trying to say that global warming isn't happening or that we don't influence it. But there is defiantly reasons to question the idea of being behind it. The last thing you want to do in science is to stop questioning things and just start believing with blind faith in those telling you the X means Y but doesn't equal Y in practice. Almost every single prediction that doesn't mirror historical trends have been off and they have had to modify something in order to explain it.

      And no, it isn't just one scientist being an alarmist. It is several scientist along with entire political groups backing scientist being alarmist. Even if we are behind global warming, the solutions have been hijacked by self serving politics and political agendas. That in and of itself should be reason to question it.

    12. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by bunratty · · Score: 2, Informative
      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    13. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

      Sorry my bad That should have been nitrous Oxide I think :)

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

    14. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by Methlin · · Score: 1

      So while we are getting more "inexpensive" gas and we are lessening our dependencies on foreign oil, ... Even that is an illusion. The cost of e85 at the pump is artificially reduced by a subsidy, its cost (production+distribution) is actually higher than gasoline currently. It also doesn't achieve a reduction in foreign oil dependency due to the oil usage in production. In addition, the impact on food/crop prices has been known ever since the introduction of gasoline/alcohol blends in the 1920's (70's for the US).

      /I seem to have misplaced my hat...
    15. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by garcia · · Score: 1

      Please note that I used quotation marks around inexpensive as I am fully aware of the subsidies that occur to bring E85 to the people that are screwing themselves over by using it. Nevermind the fact that we are forced to use it in Minnesota as part of our regular gasoline and the fuel economy drops as well as the increased possibility that wear and tear on the engine will occur.

    16. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by tomdcc · · Score: 1

      The reductions in Malted Barley yields are a direct result of more farmers growing corn in place of barley in order to produce ethanol. Not in Australia they're not. No-one down under produces corn for ethanol - that's stupid. We use sugar cane for ethanol, and that's grown in a different part of the country. Believe it or not, reductions in Aussie barley yields are a direct result of the extended and increasingly severe droughts we've been having over the last 15 years or so. I wonder what else has happened in that time...
    17. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by NeutronCowboy · · Score: 1

      You're entire argument about the Ozone hole runs contrary to every scientific study done about it. Pretty much everything you said about it is wrong. For actual information, see for example http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/csd/assessments/2002/

      You're similarly wrong in pretty much everything you said about Global Warming. I'd point you to the IPCC reports, but I'm sure they're just a bunch of hacks with political agendas and redistribution of wealth schemes in their head.

      Hey, since Global Warming isn't a problem, I've got some choice sand bars I want to sell you. I'm sure in a few years they'll be beautiful islands off the coast of Florida.

      And you might want to know the difference between effect and affect. You know, so you don't come across like a complete dumass.

      --
      Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
    18. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by sumdumass · · Score: 1
      No, My assertions are in line with that book and what the majority of scientists believe today. Your making the mistake of referencing articles pertaining to the principal steps in stratospheric ozone depletion caused by human activities in which that book primarily addressed.

      If you look, well you don't even have to read it, just look at the 20 questions PDF the author of the article put out with the book, you will see the Ozone is naturally depleted by air currents and storm activities. This produces a hole around the poles which isn't replenished sufficiently (fast enough) because the sun's ultraviolet radiation has to travel through the atmosphere at an angle at the reach the poles. This angle is different during different seasons which causes the hole to shrink and expand. Now man made chemicals, the CFCs are thought to make this worse but doesn't cause it to happen. Something else is that we didn't have problems with ground level Ozones until we banned CFCs. I'm not saying that we should bring back CFCs but they didn't cause the whole.

      You're similarly wrong in pretty much everything you said about Global Warming. I'd point you to the IPCC reports, but I'm sure they're just a bunch of hacks with political agendas and redistribution of wealth schemes in their head.
      I don't see anything I said that was out of the ordinary except that the solutions to global warming have been hijacked by political agendas that aren't about saving the environment. That has nothing to do with the science nor the IPCC reports except that the IPCC was developed as part of the Kyoto protocal and the leaders of the IPCC lead the way to championing the Kyoto scam.

      If you want to get into an understanding of the science, Then explain to me how removing an extremely small amount of GHG from annual production, it is actually smaller then the amount caused by humans that is considered to be the problem, going to fix anything? First, remember that Kyoto takes us to 1990 levels, not preproblem levels. Also remember that it isn't a reduction in atmospheric content, it is production levels that will continue to pile up in the atmosphere. SO explain the science behind that.

      Then when your done, take a look at this comprehensive examination of the facts presented by the IPCC and so on. Tell me how much of that is wrong too.

      And yes, it makes references to the science where I only made references to the hidden agendas. Perhaps if you would stop treating this as a religion, you won't end up commiting mass suicide with some cult. You seem to step in making claims without even understanding what was said and call me stupid.

      Hey, since Global Warming isn't a problem, I've got some choice sand bars I want to sell you. I'm sure in a few years they'll be beautiful islands off the coast of Florida.
      I never said that did I? What did I say again? Oh yea, question it because that is the scientific way. Don't blindly follow people because that is religion. Perhaps you should revisit the post your replying to and see if you where smart enough to click in the right buttons. I know the UI change here has a lot of people fucked up.

      And you might want to know the difference between effect and affect. You know, so you don't come across like a complete dumass.
      Oh yea, letting the auto corect on the spell checker select the wrong word makes me a dumbass. You do know it is spelled dumbass and not dumass right? Oh no, what does that make you know? Someone to imagines more then what was written just so they can look brilient when commenting about it and not spell dumbass corectly when telling someone that their selling error makes them look like a dumbass. Wow.. I got some real competition here I guess.

      BTW, why do you think my moniker is sumdumass? Is it so you can act like a dumbass when replying to me?
    19. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by MadMidnightBomber · · Score: 1
      This is utter bollocks even by the standards of slashdot. Do you bother to even look at a subject before forming an opinion?

      Ozone is a pollutant at ground level, but CFCs in the upper atmosphere do most definitely break down ozone. "The scientists, Paul Crutzen, Mario Molina and F. Sherwood Rowland, won the 1995 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their work showing how chlorofluorocarbons destroy ozone." -- http://www.atmosphere.mpg.de/enid/208.html

      When sunlight is breaking down ozone, it's doing its job if you like - it's protecting us from the relatively harmful UVB rays from the sun But wait, it's not the simplistic idead of the sun destroying ozone, because it is the same radiation that causes O2 (oxygen) molecules to form O3 (ozone). ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_depletion )

      If you ever put your theory to a real chemist they will probably beat you about the head with a copy of "Introduction to Inorganic Chemistry" - or whatever similar volume is to hand.

      --
      "It doesn't cost enough, and it makes too much sense."
    20. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by cammoblammo · · Score: 1

      If you look, well you don't even have to read it, just look at the 20 questions PDF the author of the article put out with the book, you will see the Ozone is naturally depleted by air currents and storm activities. This produces a hole around the poles which isn't replenished sufficiently (fast enough) because the sun's ultraviolet radiation has to travel through the atmosphere at an angle at the reach the poles. This angle is different during different seasons which causes the hole to shrink and expand. Now man made chemicals, the CFCs are thought to make this worse but doesn't cause it to happen. Something else is that we didn't have problems with ground level Ozones until we banned CFCs. I'm not saying that we should bring back CFCs but they didn't cause the whole.

      True, we didn't cause the hole, but I think we did a fair bit to make it what it became. A bit like the goatse guy really. He didn't make the hole, but, well, you get the picture.

      --

      Cogito, ergo sig.

    21. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by monxrtr · · Score: 0, Troll

      Climatologists are nothing more than creationists who pretend call themselves "scientists". That's why nobody has seen a real weighted variable formula showing the output = average earth temperature, and all the various input variables properly weighted, such as Sun, such as man-made CO^2, etc.

      They have nothing but the worst sort of skewed data trash plugged into socialist alarmist formulas. It's been *years*, and not a single dumb ass fool who pretends to believe man-made global warming is real has been able to produce the simple climate model upon which temperature change is based.

      Anybody with 2% of a brain realizes in 1 minute these socialist climatologists are smoking crack, and exhaling their "studies" as quickly as possible to bamboozle people.

      I ask anyone, let's see the formula which says man-made activity changes the average temperature by 25%! This is precisely why nobody will dare release an actual climate model temperature formula in any media reports or UN official documentation. Man = 25% of the cause of the Earth Temperature, Sun = 70%, and Karl Marx legacy = the other 5%. These are the biggest buffoons of a "scientific" profession in all of history, and climatology will be lampooned for decades if not centuries to come.

      Just because you personally are a sucker for phony bullshit, doesn't mean others are. And we are quite sick and tired of your bullshit, sick and tired of your hidden socialist agenda. New rule, if you yourself don't have a climate model temperature formula with weighted variables STFU, dumbass.

      --
      "From DNA to P2P, we are all Copycats now. Go Go Copycat Power! Copycat Powers activate! Form of, a Copycat." --monxrtr
    22. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      This is utter bollocks even by the standards of slashdot. Do you bother to even look at a subject before forming an opinion? Ozone is a pollutant at ground level, but CFCs in the upper atmosphere do most definitely break down ozone. "The scientists, Paul Crutzen, Mario Molina and F. Sherwood Rowland, won the 1995 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their work showing how chlorofluorocarbons destroy ozone." -- http://www.atmosphere.mpg.de/enid/208.html
      Why don't you read what I have wrote. I have never said that CFC don't break down Ozone in the upper atmosphere. Perhaps you should take your own advice.

      Let me ask you some questions, has ground level Ozone been a problem after we banned CFCs? Since the ban took effect and the phase out period expired in 1996, has the Ozone repaired itself? Is there natural causes that deplete the Ozone? How is it replenished? Why isn't that same process as useful or as effective around the poles where the holes are? how long has there been holes in the Ozone? Answer those questions and tell me I have said anything wrong. If you can answer them, you will know I was correct in my statements. Perhaps you have taken some preconceived notion of the situation and are the one confused.

      BTW, I'm serious, answer those questions. I repost them in ever reply you make to this because if you knew and understood the answers to those questions, you couldn't have just made the statement you did.

      When sunlight is breaking down ozone, it's doing its job if you like - it's protecting us from the relatively harmful UVB rays from the sun But wait, it's not the simplistic idead of the sun destroying ozone, because it is the same radiation that causes O2 (oxygen) molecules to form O3 (ozone).Wow.. You have some severe reading comprehension problems. I never said the sun destroys the Ozone. It is the same process that creates it. The UV radiation creates the Ozone in the upper atmosphere and in the process filters it out. The Ozone isn't a process that protects the earth as much as it is the product of a process that protects the earth. There are other natural ways Ozone is created that don't directly involve the sun. They are typically the ground level polution you mentioned earlier.

      And BTW, if your referencing Wikipedia, you might as well admit that your short on answers. Wikki is not the place to go for accurate information. It's history has shown that.

      If you ever put your theory to a real chemist they will probably beat you about the head with a copy of "Introduction to Inorganic Chemistry" - or whatever similar volume is to hand.
      Yawn.. This come from the guy who didn't read what he was replying to enough to understand what was said. Good one there skippy. Go back and reread it, it your having problems still, ask me or ask one of your friends to help you. There is no shame in asking for help when you obviously need it.
    23. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by NeutronCowboy · · Score: 1

      I see. You mistake opinion pieces for peer review. I'm also highly amused by the fact that you refer to scientific consensus supporting your pet theory in one breath, then deride it with another.

      Nice going, dumass.

      --
      Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
    24. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by sumdumass · · Score: 1
      Well, true, we helped it along quite a bit. But I don't think it is like the Goaste guy at all. It wasn't like the hole was tight or closed naturally to begin with. It expands and contracts without our interference.

      But my responce was really to someone who said we made the hole and used that as his premise for accepting global warming without question. Here is the quote I had in mind when replying.

      If we can punch a hole in the ozone layer with a couple decades' output of CFCs, what makes you so certain that we cannot also affect greenhouse gas levels enough to bring out an average temperature change of a few degrees?
      It was this "punch a hole in" I mainly objected to. It appears as if he thought that the hole never existed until we started messing with CFCs.

      Perhaps I should have block quoted him in my response to avoid some confusions that this has evidently caused. I have two other posts in reply claiming I don't know what I'm talking about then going off an criticizing something I never stated. The problem with them is that they are constantly referencing Human caused depletion which makes it look like humans are the only problem mainly because the references are designed to deal with human causes. When you take that out of the focus and look at it as a whole, we easily see a larger picture that there are other factors besides humans involved. Even if you want to continue to compare it to the Goatse guy, remember that the external anal sphincter can expand from a closed state to almost 3 inches and more in diameter naturally.
    25. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by sumdumass · · Score: 1
      I just requested you peer review it. What are you saying? That you can't peer review something or address the issues you brought up? It has to be someone else in a robe with a book full of god's words telling what it all means is it?

      Of course it was an opinion piece. It was an examination of the facts being presented for the public to digest. What happened is that the public digests it and people write things about it. Are you afraid of addressing it? Hell, you failed to address the simple questions I put to you. Whats the matter, do you not understand what your pushing enough to preach it too? I mean thats how a dialog starts, not with you looking at your own reflection on the monitor glass and continually thinking your justifies in writing dumbass.

      Perhaps you should just go troll somewhere else. You obviously aren't ready to troll me. Here's a hint: You need to provide something besides name calling to do it properly. SO here is your chance again, I will repost the simple questions I asked you before. If you don't reply, I guess we can asume that you don't understand it either.

      If you want to get into an understanding of the science, Then explain to me how removing an extremely small amount of GHG from annual production, it is actually smaller then the amount caused by humans that is considered to be the problem, going to fix anything? First, remember that Kyoto takes us to 1990 levels, not preproblem levels. Also remember that it isn't a reduction in atmospheric content, it is production levels that will continue to pile up in the atmosphere. SO explain the science behind that.


      Oh yea, if you get time, point to me what was wrong and what is the correct version of what I initial posted. I more then appropriately proved my position and you seem to fail the test with an unrelated link. It's amazing that your willing to call someone else a dumbass. Does it make you feel better? I mean in doing so does it justify the pathetic position in life that you are forced to occupy? Or is it just a way to justify the relevance of your insistence on using global warming as a religion?
    26. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by MadMidnightBomber · · Score: 1

      Because CFCs help the breakdown of O3 into O2, but do not themselves get broken down in the reaction. They can persist in the upper atmosphere for fifty or more years. That's why the ozone hole has not suddenly repaired itself - because there are still plenty of CFCs around where they shouldn't be.

      Seriously, I've been reading about this issue since the British Antarctic Survey said "hey guys, we've got a problem".

      "The discovery by the British Antarctic Survey of the Antarctic ozone hole provided an early warning of the dangerous thinning of the ozone layer worldwide, and spurred international efforts to curb the production of CFCs. The provisions of the Montreal Protocol of 1987 on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer have been revised and strengthened and are being followed by virtually all UN Member states. There is a reasonable prospect that the Antarctic ozone hole will permanently repair itself, but not until around 2070." http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/about_antarctica/geography/ozone.php

      If you don't like wikipedia, here's NASA: "The ozone layer protects us from the Sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation and is vital to life on Earth. Depletion of this protective layer can be harmful to the health of humans, plants and animals. Human-produced pollutants called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) emitted into the atmosphere are the main cause of ozone loss. Scientists first discovered dramatic depletions in the ozone layer in 1985. Although recent initiatives by governments around the world have stopped the production of CFCs, damaging chemicals still persist in the upper atmosphere." http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/arctic_air.html

      --
      "It doesn't cost enough, and it makes too much sense."
    27. Re:Uh, not due to climate change though... by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      The differences between what your saying and what I am saying is that your only concentrating on the anthropogenic aspects of the Ozone where I am looking at it as a whole, (natural and man made). You and I are not saying the same thing about the same subject. I am talking about it as a whole and you are incorrectly attempting to think I am limiting myself to anthropogenic causes. If man had never created CFCs, the hole (that isn't really a hole) would still be there because of natural Chlorines and HCLs in the atmosphere along with climatic anomalies specific to the polar regions.

      I noticed you didn't answer all of my questions so I have to ask, do you not know the answers or do you think it will strengthen my position if you actually answered them. If all you know about the Ozone is the We have a problem stuff, then you probably aren't going to be as educated as you think. So here are those questions again and lets see if you can answer them blockquote> has ground level Ozone been a problem after we banned CFCs? Since the ban took effect and the phase out period expired in 1996, has the Ozone repaired itself? Is there natural causes that deplete the Ozone? How is it replenished? Why isn't that same process as useful or as effective around the poles where the holes are? how long has there been holes in the Ozone? Answer those questions and tell me I have said anything wrong. If you can answer them, you will know I was correct in my statements. Perhaps you have taken some preconceived notion of the situation and are the one confused.

      Your explanation on CFCs staying in the atmosphere is a little simplified too. The CFCs don't react with Ozone themselves, it is their decayed elements that do. They get broke down relatively fast when exposed to UV radiation (about 21 days) but in the process a portion of the elements are left free which can in turn bond and react with O3 effectively creating o2 and picking up the charged O that would create o3. Now it isn't all of the Cl and Br that is left open for a constant interaction, a good portion of that is turned into HCL and ClONO2 which is further broken down if it remains in the upper atmosphere which turn into Cl and ClO which cause the damage. We are talking on average of 3 parts per billion for mixing ratios of natural and non natural Cl (some in CFC form still) where ozone is measured in part per million. the Broine concentrations are about 100 times smaller and end their reaction relatively fast in comparison.

      You should take a look at Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2002 which another poster pointed me too. Granted it is dated but it has all the pertinent information. Should you wish to forgo reading it all, you should be able to find everything I have said in the 20 questions sections. You will also find all the answers to the questions I asked you in there too.

  16. Maybe... by walnutmon · · Score: 1

    If there were no more beer, people would pay attention to climate change, and then we wouldn't have this problem... and there would be more beer.

    --
    You take it, I don't want it...
  17. Meanwhile, by bagboy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Greenland's barley production jumps %500 and sees new global markets.

    1. Re:Meanwhile, by canuck57 · · Score: 1

      Canadian barley is well under $1.00 CDN bushel. And a bushel makes a lot of beer.

      Are you sure it isn't taxes? In Canada at 75% of the cost of a beer is pure taxes. Sort of a situation where starve the farmer but line the pockets of government.

    2. Re:Meanwhile, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you're missing the point. the climate is perfect RIGHT NOW and any change to that is evil. the only way to stop it is to tax the heck out of large corporations.

    3. Re:Meanwhile, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only 75% taxes? I figured it would be a lot more. Back during dot com I lost my job and moved in with a farmer cousin of mine in PA to make a little money and live cheap. Once every two weeks are so we would tend to the beer. He had a crazy system where in true farmer style so much was reused. Between using some of his own grain, recycling bottles, and a couple other things we were making beer for probably under a nickle a bottle.

    4. Re:Meanwhile, by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      You aren't accounting you time and transportation or storage in that analysis. I'm willing to bet your costs was more like $1.00 a bottle or better. It of course would be more too if you have to conform to food safety standards year around which means a lot of labor just cleaning things.

    5. Re:Meanwhile, by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 1

      But what will happen when Greenland gets so warm so it won't be able to produce barley anymore? If global warming doesn't stop, that WILL certainly happen - and when it does, beer price will be the least of our problems.

    6. Re:Meanwhile, by mini+me · · Score: 1

      Less than $1.00? These guys are offering $3.91CAD/bu for 2008 crop.

  18. No peer-review necessary as long as you agree... by stankulp · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "According to a New Zealand scientist, Jim Salinger, the price of beer in and around Australia is going to be under increasing upward pressure as reductions in malting barley yields are experienced as a side effect of our ongoing climate shift."

    When it comes to belief in global warming, the scientific method is completely unnecessary, as long as you agree with the mythical "consensus" dogma.

    Where is the peer-reviewed article documenting the cause of the diminished barley harvest as being "climate change?"

    I get it. No peer-reviewed article is required to PROVE AGW, only to disprove it.

    --
    We must be alert to the danger that public policy could become captive to a scientific-technological elite. - Eisenhower
  19. Oh my, this pub's nearly dry! by PMuse · · Score: 1

    I think the Tinker said it best:

    O'Brien is cryin' and Murphy's upset.
    Mulronan is groanin' and hasn't stopped yet.
    And the tears from O'Leary make ev'rything wet
    while MacMahon like a banshee is keenin'.
    While their women chat lightly, the men sit and sob
    with their eyelids shut tightly and fists in their gob.
    Not a one's lost his health or his home or his job,
    but their lives are now empty of meanin',
    for the worst of all curses is here.
    And it's...

    Oh, no, the beer's runnin' low! The stout is tapped out
    and there's none in the cellar, boys.'
    Oh my, this pub's nearly dry,
    and it's just ten o'clock on a Saturday night!

    --
    "We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)
  20. Al Gore Has it Right by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 2, Funny

    Manbeerpig will kill us all!

  21. Meanwhile... by Rod+Beauvex · · Score: 1

    The number of instances of drunk driving, domestic abuse, and occupational accidents is on the decline. Oh what a sad state of affairs. *eyeroll*

    1. Re:Meanwhile... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think I'll join you in the Billy-no-mates curmudgeon thread and say "bloody good thing" It will be a fine day when alcohol is a luxury item.

      Even though I like a beer from time to time it seems most of my countrymen can't handle it. It's the poverty you see. The poverty of aspiration, and direction. The illusion of disposable income plus cheap drugs and alcohol is a wonderful way to keep down the grubby masses. Keeping the hospitals full with injuries from petty saturday night violence and making sure the war veterans and hopelessly depressed have a comfortable way to quietly drink themselves to death has been a priority in England as long as I can remember.

      When the streets and parks are full of CCTV cameras, there's plenty of American shit on the TV, and you have no prospect to ever hold a meaningful job or enjoy economic prosperity for your family, what else is there to do but drink it all away?

      I raise a glass to the English, the hopeless drunken cowards of the world. Selling their country, rolling over and vomiting in a doorway near you since 1066.

  22. On a TV near you... by penguin_dance · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And on the next Guinness commercial....

    First Inventor: How do we make more money at this?

    Second Inventor: I know--we'll tell them that barley is more expensive due to climate change!"

    First Inventor (tapping bottles with the second): Brilliant!

    --
    If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
  23. Its already happening? by Azaril · · Score: 0

    Doesn't the title imply that this has alread, an is currently happening? (Past continuous quite possibly....) I RTFA but it doesnt give any indication that my precious beer drinking activities have been impacted.. In the Uk beer prices have only gone down recently, despite higher taxes.

  24. Uh ? by Arthur+B. · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Climate change has impacted agriculture since it was invented. Nothing new here. The only "news" is that the article speculates this particular crop was affected by man made climate change. Quite a stretch.

    --
    \u262D = \u5350
    1. Re:Uh ? by Loke+the+Dog · · Score: 1

      Yes, but climate change as fast as what we've seen recently is very rare, and it happens just as the civilization is becomming truly global, meaning we can't just migrate. Not to mention that starvation is something most people have never experienced, unlike previous centuries.

      So yes, I'd say this is pretty new.

    2. Re:Uh ? by Arthur+B. · · Score: 1

      Higher beer price = starvation ?

      --
      \u262D = \u5350
  25. To quote Slim Dusty by deniable · · Score: 1

    It's lonesome away from your kindred and all
    By the campfire at night where the wild dingos call
    But there's nothin' so lonesome, so dull or so drear
    Than to stand in the bar of a pub with no beer

    Now the publican's anxious for the quota to come
    There's a faraway look on the face of the bum
    The maid's gone all cranky and the cook's acting queer
    What a terrible place is a pub with no beer

    The stockman rides up with his dry, dusty throat
    He breasts up to the bar, pulls a wad from his coat
    But the smile on his face quickly turns to a sneer
    When the barman says suddenly: "The pub's got no beer!"

    There's a dog on the verandah, for his master he waits
    But the boss is inside drinking wine with his mates
    He hurries for cover and he cringes in fear
    It's no place for a dog round a pub with no beer

    Then in comes the swagman, all covered with flies
    He throws down his roll, wipes the sweat from his eyes
    But when he is told he says, "What's this I hear?
    I've trudged fifty flamin' miles to a pub with no beer!"

    Old Billy, the blacksmith, the first time in his life
    Has gone home cold sober to his darling wife
    He walks in the kitchen; she says: "You're early, me dear"
    Then he breaks down and he tells her that the pub's got no beer

    It's lonesome away from your kindred and all
    By the campfire at night where the wild dingos call
    But there's nothin' so lonesome, so dull or so drear
    Than to stand in the bar of a pub with no beer

  26. Not just New Zealand by ShawnCplus · · Score: 1

    It's happening in America too. The government is giving farmers $90/acre to plow under their crops and grow corn for ethanol. Evidentially in the last 8 years the price of production more than doubled for brewers.

    --
    Excuse me while I gather the virgin sacrifice and assemble the pentagram required to solve your problem
  27. free as in beer? by polle404 · · Score: 1

    who knew that the 'free as in beer' licence was the way to get rich in the future?

    --

    ~men are from earth. women are from earth. deal with it.~
  28. At last by tsotha · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    At last we have a falsifiable AGW prediction. So if the barley yealds don't go down, that's a strike against AGW, right?

    Or are we still discarding data that doesn't fit the theory?

    1. Re:At last by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      You would need to define yields more accurately. They can go down for a number of reasons not associated with global warming as well as simply letting farmers plant other crops. Then you have the problem of attributing pestilence, drought, and other natural anomalies to global warming or not. This isn't exactly an exact science at this point.

  29. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by ArcherB · · Score: 1, Insightful

    How much barley production is lost to other more cash ready crops? DING-DING-DING! We have a winner!

    It's not climate change that is causing the problem. It is what we are doing to combat climate change that is the problem. When corn prices go up for ethanol, more farmers switch from whatever they were growing to corn, because it makes more money. This means less of everything else and causes the price of everything else to go up as well!

    It's simple supply and demand. Economics 101!
    --
    There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
  30. Climate change by the+computer+guy+nex · · Score: 1

    How much is required? "In the US, where weather records have been more reliable than elsewhere, 20th-century temperature went up by only 0.3C."

    So lets say it takes 6 degrees to start making a difference. So we will have less beer in 2,000 years?

    1. Re:Climate change by NeutronCowboy · · Score: 1

      Not this guy again... Though I'm glad to see that only tired and debunked arguments are brought up by people who believe there is no Global Warming. If there'd actually be solid science behind Monckton's arguments, I'd have to do my research into Global Warming all over again.

      --
      Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
  31. Hemp is the solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Haven't you learned anything from stoners?

    Hemp is the solution to the problems in this world!

    Hemp for food, medicine, fuel, etc.!

    It's not just ramblings of a stoner, it's fact!

    Do your research, we are being denied access to something which could save our planet!

    Fuck the oil companies, stop using gas+oil if you really care, hybrid is not a solution as it still depends on fossil fuels no matter how small.

    see jackherer.com for more

  32. Wait a second.. by argStyopa · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Doesn't climate change (warming) mean that an INCREASING amount of landmass will experience 'optimal' growing seasons?

    I mean, if you push the temperate zones toward the poles, the amount of land under them actually increases. Plus, since the left has been claiming since the 1970s that we're exhausting our arable land by overfarming, won't this open up NEW arable land not so pressured?

    Granted the article is SPECIFICALLY talking about NZ/Australia, which don't really have many options if the best temperatures move poleward.

    Finally, from the article: "New Zealand and Australian brewer Lion Nathan's corporate affairs director Liz Read said climate change already was forcing up the price of malted barley, sugar, aluminum and sugar."
    Aluminum? ALUMINUM is becoming more expensive due to climate change? Pray tell, please tell me how much harder it is to grow THAT?

    This whole global warming^H^H^Hclimate change thing is so confusing. What am I supposed to be thinking this week?

    --
    -Styopa
    1. Re:Wait a second.. by UnknowingFool · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Global warming is causing changes in ecosystems ,and changing ecosystems can major disruptions in flora and fauna. And just because it gets warmer doesn't mean that the new ecosystem is going to be more optimal for agriculture. Raising the temperature a few degrees changed the Sahara from lush vegetation to desert.

      Stable ecosystems are about balance: Enough vegetation for herbivores. Enough carnivores to keep the herbivores from stripping away all vegetation: Enough scavengers to clean up after everything, etc. So when change happens too quickly (decades and centuries instead of millenia) ecosystems cannot adapt, and the land might not be good for any agriculture.

      You already see this in man-made disturbances like Easter Island. Easter Island once was a tropical rain forest. Over a few hundred years, the natives stripped the forests to make it the grassy plains that it is today. But due to these changes, the island's soil is very poor and cannot sustain much flora other than the grasses that exist there today.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    2. Re:Wait a second.. by Kaydet81 · · Score: 1, Informative

      Raising the temperature a few degrees changed the Sahara from lush vegetation to desert.

      Begging your pardon sir, but it appears that is incorrect. If I understand http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahara_Pump_Theory correctly, the Sahara was caused by simple lack of rain. It was actually larger during the ice age.

    3. Re:Wait a second.. by Missing_dc · · Score: 1

      I have your solution!!!!!

      reseed Easter Island with barley!!!!!

      --
      How amazed would you be to suddenly find that you just forgot what I wrote and you needed to reread my post.... again.
    4. Re:Wait a second.. by NeutronCowboy · · Score: 1

      2 things to keep in mind: As new land is opened up for farming, other land is lost. It's up for debate exactly how that's going to pan out, but the transition period, where people still farm less productive land while no one has moved to the more productive land, will be brutal. Also, Aluminum production is very energy intensive - a lot of Aluminum plants sit right next to hydrological power stations to take advantage of cheap power. As water dries up, hydropower is either less available or becomes more expensive, both of which drives up the price of Aluminum.

      I don't like making predictions about the impact on specific industries in specific locations (butterfly effect and all that), but there's a causal effect there. It's just not certain whether this is actually what's happening there right now.

      --
      Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
    5. Re:Wait a second.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think (geological) history has shown "stable ecosystem" to be an oxymoron.

    6. Re:Wait a second.. by argStyopa · · Score: 1

      "Global warming is causing changes in ecosystems ,and changing ecosystems can major disruptions in flora and fauna. "

      One quick question - please let me know when in human or terrestrial history ecosystems have NOT changed?

      Just because humans happened to develop during a certain temperature/climate phase, doesn't ipso facto mean climate will stay that way.

      --
      -Styopa
    7. Re:Wait a second.. by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      You are right that change happens all the time but if you read further, I clearly said:

      So when change happens too quickly (decades and centuries instead of millenia) ecosystems cannot adapt, and the land might not be good for any agriculture

      That is the bulk of the global warming argument is such: The earth is warming up at a faster rate than ever before because of the actions of man. In the history of the earth, there have been shifts in average temperature with several ice ages and warming periods. Even when they occur over tens and hundreds of thousands of years, there were major changes to ecosystems. What we see today is that this new warming trend is that is now taking centuries and decades. Many of those who deny global warming conveniently leave out that part of the argument about the rate of change.

      So what is different about this new warming period? Coincidentally humans and their modern industries are here that were not present before. But in science, nothing is left to coincidence. Many scientists have devoted their careers to prove different aspects of human behavior contribute to global warming from increased CO2 levels, pollution, oceanic current changes, etc. It's not one study but a large body of evidence. Even in disciplines like quantum physics that are governed more by discrete mathematics, it takes the work of many scientists over decades to develop the knowledge we have today.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    8. Re:Wait a second.. by argStyopa · · Score: 1

      "Many scientists have devoted their careers to prove different aspects of human behavior contribute to global warming from increased CO2 levels, pollution, oceanic current changes, etc."

      Precisely one of my main problems with the data.
      They are working TO prove something. I thought science was a process of hypothesize, test, update hypothesis, test again?

      If one devoted one's entire career to proving something, it would be awfully hard to say "well, I guess that data doesn't test out, so I'll go home now".

      --
      -Styopa
    9. Re:Wait a second.. by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      They are working TO prove something. I thought science was a process of hypothesize, test, update hypothesis, test again?

      *Sigh* The large body of evidence from many scientist's work have proven that global warming does exist and man is the culprit. Many of them did not set out to prove anything in particular but only to answer questions where knowledge was lacking.

      For example initial ocean current studies shows that the deep oceanic currents are changing. The scientists that did those studies had no stake in how it happened. Other scientists tested and validated their work. Other scientists then tried to explain why this is happening. Their work could have had all sorts of hypothesis like fairies and pixie dust are causing the shifts. For the most part, they proved that oceanic currents change due to temperature fluxes between the deepest part of the oceans and the surface temperature. Again, they had no stake in why there were temperature fluxes. Another group of scientists linked surface temperature fluxes to global warming.

      Are careers and stake involved? Yes. For the most part, scientists are just trying to answer questions. If they are wrong, they're wrong. However, the large number of scientists from many different disciplines like biology, chemistry, and physics shows that global warming is real. Some people can believe that they are all in some sort of large conspiracy, but I would believe that politicians and industries like energy have vested interest to ensure global warming is not accepted are trying to derail the acceptance.

      In the same vein, global warming is a lot like evolution. Despite a large body of evidence, most deniers use any small flaw to discredit a large body of work because of their personal beliefs. They point to junk science or irrelevant data to support their claims.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  33. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeah yeah global warming is all a scam to profit American ethanol companies. The decades of global scientific reasearch is all a means to their ends. Oh wait, the rest of the World aren't lackeys of corporate America and is in fact costing the countries who are actually doing something about it hundreds of millions, making the whole corporate/government conspiracy angle truly ridiculous. As far as stories about "the earth having not warmed recently", what the fuck are you talking about? Do you think a cold week in March disproves global warming or something?

  34. wann gib'ts kein bier by plopez · · Score: 1

    wir trink't wein.

    --
    putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
  35. Re:Somebody please!....AHEM by xaxa · · Score: 2, Informative

    They drink beer? My friends didn't drink beer that often, not until we were about 17. Before then it was cider (cheap and strong) or spirits (usually vodka, or premixed vodka cocktails).

    I never did weed, probably half my friends did.

  36. Re:No peer-review necessary as long as you agree.. by unixcorn · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Exactly! The brewer at the local micro brewery told me that the decreasing harvests were simply due to farmers getting out of the business. It seems the larger breweries had stockpiled so much hopps they drove prices into the dirt..so to speak. He said it was a normal supply and demand thing and that as soon as it once again became profitable to grow hopps the farmers would replant.

  37. Re:No peer-review necessary as long as you agree.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why was this flagged flame bait? It seems a valid point to question the source of the article.

  38. Re:No peer-review necessary as long as you agree.. by db32 · · Score: 1

    Yup, it is in the same boat with the Al Queda - Iraq link. Good thing we have the media to tell us what is true, we don't need no stupid scientists or analyists anymore. (Hint: The link between Iraq and Al Queda is they both have a Q)

    --
    The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
  39. Beer by Frankie70 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Or maybe Al Gore has drunk all the beer & just using Global Warming to cover his tracks.

  40. Beer lovers get the shaft either way by georgep77 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    As I understand it some solar scientists (outside of NASA) are predicting a period of reduced solar activity and lower (by 2.0C) temperatures for the next 3 or 4 decades. Of course the AGW proponents are saying hogwash to that. I guess we will all know who is correct soon enough, the next solar cycle is already late (cycle 24) and we will know within 2-3 years if a) it is weaker than the last one b) if it does or doesn't affect temperatures. Both sides however are predicting lower crop output (higher prices) and tragically we are already converting more food (grain crops) into fuel than we probably should be. The affluent will notice an increase in beer/food cost, the poor an increase in hunger/dying.

    _GP_

    1. Re:Beer lovers get the shaft either way by bunratty · · Score: 3, Informative

      You are correct that scientists are split in their opinion about the next solar cycle. Some say it will be more intense than the last one, and others say it will be less intense. But it doesn't have anything to do with any global warming debate.

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    2. Re:Beer lovers get the shaft either way by georgep77 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't think you caught the "reduced solar activity and lower (by 2.0C)" part of my post. The scientists on the NASA noaa panel appear to be firmly behind the belief that the sun's output doesn't vary enough to affect global temperatures. I find this puzzling as how else would one explain the maunder minimum (and ice ages for that matter)?

      Cheers,
          _GP_

    3. Re:Beer lovers get the shaft either way by bunratty · · Score: 1

      Uh, what? Where is the part about the sun's output not affecting global temperatures? Could you post some links to these predictions you mention?

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    4. Re:Beer lovers get the shaft either way by maxume · · Score: 1

      Have you looked carefully at the actual variation in solar output that accompanies the solar cycle?

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    5. Re:Beer lovers get the shaft either way by georgep77 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well to start
      http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/2008/02/13/where-have-all-the-sunspots-gone/
        sun cycle length predicts coming cool period

      http://www.universetoday.com/2008/04/03/there-is-no-sun-link-with-global-warming/
      sun cycle has no effect on temperature

      http://reason.com/news/show/125300.html the David Archibald presentation mentioned here interested me.

      AFAIK empirical data will be the final arbiter of the various climate beliefs (climate religion).

      I don't discuss religion publicly so this is my final post on this subject. Too many people are too emotional on this subject.

      Regards,
          _GP_

    6. Re:Beer lovers get the shaft either way by bunratty · · Score: 1

      You're confusing science with religion, as the creationists do. You're also confusing solar activity (the number of sunspots on the sun) with solar output (the amount of energy given out by the sun). I would agree that we should leave emotions out of the discussion. Read what the majority of unemotional scientists have to say, and not the sensationalist media, or the extremist scientists.

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    7. Re:Beer lovers get the shaft either way by bri2000 · · Score: 1

      The Milankovitch cycles?

    8. Re:Beer lovers get the shaft either way by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      Solar output effects anomalies like cloud formations and even the oceanic oscillations (El Mino, La Nina, Norther Atlantic decadal oscillation and so on) which all greatly effect weather and climate.

      Solar activity greatly increased or decreased what the AGW crowd counts as anomalies that seem to throw their predictions off. The Climate models have been adjusted in an attempt to account for this no less then 3 times that I am aware of in the last 20 years with one being relatively recent. When they say the solar activity, they aren't talking about turning the power up on a heat lamp. They are talking about the induction effects of apposing magnetic fields along with all the quirks that the solar activity is associated with. Induction might have been the wrong term, but you should be able to get the idea.

      And to the GP, I was under the impression that the cycle switched late last December which accounts for the stronger La Nina cycles instead of the El Mino we have been experiencing. Are there people contesting this cycle switch? From my understanding, there have been some lulls in the history of the cycles that temporarily act like a new cycles but weren't. There is a team of Russian scientist who bet some people something like $10,000 back in 2005 or so based off this principle that the new solar cycles would cause the earth to be cooler in 20 years.

    9. Re:Beer lovers get the shaft either way by ilyanov · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The problem is the green house gases the dominant species of this planet has been releasing into the atmosphere. A good place to see its effects is Venus. Does a 2 degree drop in solar activity make that place any milder? The forecasts climatologists are making are stretched out decades into the future. Personally, I feel they have underestimated. The future is going to be far toastier than they predict.

      --

      life is all about searching and sorting

    10. Re:Beer lovers get the shaft either way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      AFAIK empirical data will be the final arbiter of the various climate beliefs (climate religion).

      You are out walking in the woods, and you feel a sharp pain in your leg. You reflexively kick, and then realize that you have been snake bit. Your kick knocked the snake away, and it has now vanished, so do don't know what bit you. The snake might be poisonous, or it might be non-poisonous.

      Do you

      1. Seek medical aid, because you might be in mortal danger?

      2. Wait to see if empirical data will be the final arbiter if you live or die?

      Global warming can have profound consequences for human (and other) life on earth. If we wait until we know the real impact of global warming it will be too late to do anything about it. A prudent person would conclude that taking steps to limit greenhouse gas emission is a worthwhile course of action.

      You are clearly not a prudent person. You've already made up your mind, and you are pretending to be "reasonable". In this case inaction is the same as saying global warming is not now and will never be a problem. Making snide references to religion is not a meaningful argument, although I'm sure that it gave you a smug sense of unfounded superiority.

      I did, however, learn one thing from your post: a magazine called "Reason" has as much connection with rational though as a newspaper called Pravda has with the truth.

  41. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by penguin_dance · · Score: 1

    Yes, but see the *reason* that it's due to climate change we started requiring ethanol in our gasoline and so the price of corn went up which forced the farmers to change crops.

    Just like the game where you make almost any food sound nutritional, you can make anything caused by global climate change!

    It's that sort of circular logic that makes the world go round! :D

    --
    If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
  42. Global what? by tumutbound · · Score: 1

    Finally! a reason to care about global warming.

  43. Ethanol by imstanny · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Corn production increases due to growing ethanol demand (think bio-fuels), has caused more farm land to be allocated for corn, than wheat, and thus increase in wheat prices. Though, now that wheat prices have increased, expect more farm land to be devoted to wheat. Even if the increase in price is due to weather, which in part it appears to be, the economic incentive to increase wheat production automatically exists as a result of a price influx, ie... future prices will likely go down and/or stabalize.

    1. Re:Ethanol by mini+me · · Score: 1

      Though, now that wheat prices have increased, expect more farm land to be devoted to wheat.

      Considering that wheat was planted six months ago, it's a little late for that. And now that wheat prices have dropped, there won't be much incentive for an increase in spring wheat production.
  44. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by Missing_dc · · Score: 2, Informative

    Regardless, it is still affecting my beer making.

    Two years ago, it cost about $12 to make a 5-gallon batch of beer, now it costs between $20 and $30.

      (I know, I'm bitching about paying 4-6 dollars for the equivelant of a 12-pack of beer.)

    --
    How amazed would you be to suddenly find that you just forgot what I wrote and you needed to reread my post.... again.
  45. Bad Title by The+Aethereal · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "Climate Change Finally Impacts Important Industry" is not correct. The article makes no mention of any impact on an industry. It should probably read "Scientists Say Climate Change Will Finally Impact and Important Industry". The current title suggests that it has happened.

  46. Global warming, or global cooling? by MSTCrow5429 · · Score: 0
    What kind of climate change is he concerned with? Global warming? Global cooling? Winter after fall?

    As for global warming, even the BBC has been forced to admit reality, and admitted that global warming ceased in 1998. Although they've since modified the article, wiping that portion out. Not at all ethical journalism. So if anyone knows how to retrieve the original version of http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7329799.stm...

    --
    Slashdot: Playing Favorites Since 1997
    1. Re:Global warming, or global cooling? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      What kind of climate change is he concerned with? Global warming? Global cooling? Winter after fall?


      As for global warming, even the BBC has been forced to admit reality, and admitted that global warming ceased in 1998. Although they've since modified the article, wiping that portion out. Not at all ethical journalism. So if anyone knows how to retrieve the original version of http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7329799.stm...

      Global cooling is no longer regarded as an accepted science theory, in there was at once a cooling trend, but that was later discovered to be caused by CFC use and volcanic eruptions.
    2. Re:Global warming, or global cooling? by MSTCrow5429 · · Score: 1

      Here is a story verifying that the BCC admitted that global warming ceased in 1998: http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=436616

      --
      Slashdot: Playing Favorites Since 1997
  47. that's been going on a lot longer than that by khallow · · Score: 2, Interesting

    We have a number of examples of desertification which is in large part a local climate change. Supposedly there are examples going back to ancient times though I can't think of examples older than some tropical empires (Mayan and Khmer empires). There is the "heat island effect", namely that urban areas are warmer than surrounding areas, which is due to the lower albedo of these regions. These are man-made changes in climate. The global temperate has changed over the past few thousand years (according to ice and tree-ring data) resulting in a number of climate changes that have probably affected human industry. And the current global warming trend has supposedly resulted in shifts in the seasons and the start of the growing season for temperate regions.

  48. Re:Price jump by maxume · · Score: 1

    Some anyway. There are lots of other inputs, and much of the price of liquor is simply product placement, not something that actually reflects cost. For reference, nominal energy prices have increased quite a bit in the last few years and it has hardly shown up in retail prices.

    --
    Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
  49. In related news....... by edwardpickman · · Score: 1

    Women get uglier in direct proportion to increase in beer prices and shortages.

  50. Alcohol and climate, it's always been that way. by whoda · · Score: 1

    Hot climates grow fruits and make wines and sugary alcohols.
    Medium climates grow grains and make beers and dark/heavy liquors.
    Cold climates grow whatever they can and make clear/light liquors.

    Wine in Italy
    Beer in Germany
    Vodka in Finland

  51. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's an interesting statement, and something I would be willing to believe - however, do you have even one shred of evidence that this is actually a major factor in this particular shortage?

  52. Re:Somebody please!....AHEM by bhiestand · · Score: 1

    More weed planted = more carbon sinking. Add the savings from canceling the multibillion dollar "drug war" budget, and I think we have a clear winner.

    --
    SWM seeks new sig for a brief fling
  53. Re:Somebody please!... I'm with stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And I did your mom. Probably half your 'friends' did.

  54. Re:Somebody please!....AHEM by Oktober+Sunset · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Up the chain? Weed is down the chain. Alcohol is more harmful than weed.

  55. Self-contradicting by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 2, Insightful

    People will not pay whatever the beer industry charges.

    I remember reading a Newfoundland drug enforcement police officer's comment once to the effect that beer and spirits stores profits were up whenever the police managed to put a big dent in the illegal drug market.


    If people are using beer (i.e. ethanol) to get a drug high, they're going to pay whatever the price is. You don't see too many addicts quitting due to cost.

    That's not to say they're going to buy Sam Adams over Beast, but they'll still buy.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    1. Re:Self-contradicting by bri2000 · · Score: 1

      I think it might have more to do with the fact that, compared to illegal drugs, booze is incredibly cheap. For the price of an oz of weed (about GBP165 in London, or so I'm, er, told) I could get 5 and a half bottles of my favourite Whiskey (Laphroig Quarter Cask - GBP30 per bottle).

    2. Re:Self-contradicting by Snowmit · · Score: 1

      If people are using beer (i.e. ethanol) to get a drug high, they're going to pay whatever the price is. You don't see too many addicts quitting due to cost.

      Actually it turns out you do.

      Economists have found some evidence to support these ideas: Pamela Mobilia finds that betting at racetracks falls in anticipation of increases in bookies' takings; Nilss Olekalns and Peter Bardsley find that coffee addicts show similar foresight; Philip Cook and George Tauchen found that when some U.S. counties raised taxes on alcohol, liver cirrhosis fell more sharply than overall consumption, suggesting that it was the alcoholics who cut back most.

      --
      I have a lot of opinions about Cyborgs and Architects
    3. Re:Self-contradicting by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      For the price of an oz of weed (about GBP165 in London, or so I'm, er, told) I could get 5 and a half bottles of my favourite Whiskey (Laphroig Quarter Cask - GBP30 per bottle).

      Good. As a matter of public policy we're much better off having drunks (drunk Englishmen at that) on the streets and in the healthcare system than stoners.

      Oh, wait, no we're not.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    4. Re:Self-contradicting by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1
      Actually it turns out you do

      Hmm, so they cite one correlation and talk about people who quit habits to which they're not actually addicted? That's fine, but I was specifically talking about addicts - the kind who beg, cheat, steal, and kill to support their habit.

      "They don't know what they're talking about," opined Thomas Schelling when I met him shortly after he, too, was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    5. Re:Self-contradicting by funkatron · · Score: 1

      (drunk Englishmen at that)

      You haven't been to England recently, have you?

      --
      "Welcome to our world. We are the wasted youth. And we are the future too." Yes, I know these are stupid lyrics.
    6. Re:Self-contradicting by Dr_Barnowl · · Score: 1

      I think it's more likely that the effect is that people who spend a substantial fraction of their budget on a substance are more likely to buy less of that substance, simply because their purchase habits are constrained by their budget.

      I like beer, but I rarely drink more than one or two, and that infrequently. The price of beer bothers me very little because my income is greater than my outgoings. I tend to buy "premium" brands because the flavour is just as important as the pharmaceutical effect of the alcohol to me.

      An alcoholic is likely to be buying alcohol up to the limits of his budget. This is borne out by the stereotypical brands that alcoholics buy ; brands with high alcohol content for their price and other considerations are secondary. If you then make alcohol more expensive, the alcoholic is either forced to raise his income, reduce his drinking, or drink something more economical (if he is not already at the bottom of the scale).

      The budget of addicts is likely to be relatively steady, even petty criminal activities are unlikely to give richer pickings when prices increase. The opposite trend is more likely ; people have less in their wallets because of their increased grocery bills, and the ever-decreasing purchase price of white goods is reflected in a reduced price for stolen white goods.

      Therefore price increases in the chosen substances of addicts are highly likely to reduce consumption, although they will have little short term effect on the desire for the substance itself.

    7. Re:Self-contradicting by Darby · · Score: 1

      You haven't been to England recently, have you?

      I was there last Christmas. We were walking through Soho and had to dodge 5 different puddles of puke on the sidewalk at 2:00 in the afternoon ;-)

  56. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by Ctrl-Z · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Climate change is not the reason for ethanol in gasoline. The reason is political: to reduce dependence on energy from foreign sources, as well as to buy votes from corn farmers via subsidies.

    --
    www.timcoleman.com is a total waste of your time. Never go there.
  57. First Human Sacrifices by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And now there's rioting in Haiti over food shortages (i.e. prices). So, the first human sacrifices at the altar of the Global Warming religion are occurring right now.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    1. Re:First Human Sacrifices by couchslug · · Score: 1

      "And now there's rioting in Haiti over food shortages (i.e. prices). So, the first human sacrifices at the altar of the Global Warming religion are occurring right now."

      No, some sacrifices of people who refused to focus on creating an agriculturally productive society are occurring right now. Adults who decides not to make their countries self-sufficient in food are responsible, not anyone else.
      This is how economics weeds out the stupid, and IMO its nice to see the US make a buck on the high grain prices.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
  58. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by edmicman · · Score: 1

    Obviously "decades of global scientific research" can be extrapolated to predict not only millions of years of history, but millions of years in the future, too. How is a cold week in March any different than 100 years of weeks in the timeline of the Earth's history?

  59. Same old nonsense. by MaWeiTao · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why does the headline claim that climate change is having an impact on the growing of barley when the very brief linked article makes no such claim. This climate scientist uses, "likely will", "might" and "will" quite liberally.

    I find it impressive how the media has so effectively shifted the terminology from "global warming" to "climate change". So now any time weather deviates from some arbitrary norm we're feeling the effects of climate change. And don't forget to add that it's man-made!

    In fact, on NPR recently a NASA scientist stated that the Argo satellite has shown slight cooling over the past five years. Another thing is that scientists are starting to find that CO2 doesn't quite provide the positive feedback that causes a rise in temperature, instead it acts as a sort of damper. If I could find where I read that I'd link it here but inevitably any search on global warming and climate change results in a flood of propaganda.

    Inevitably, the climate change supporters will claim that these findings aren't statistically significant or that local temperature findings aren't relevant. Basically, if it doesn't reinforce the climate change agenda it's dismissed. Any anyone with disputing data is biased.

    And nevermind the fact that we've had climate change since the Earth has first existed. And furthermore, history has shown that increased global temperatures have lead to human prosperity. Idiots like Ted Turner seem to believe that rising temperatures will somehow lead to drought and widespread famine but as far as I know no scientist has made that claim yet.

  60. Pub with no beer by speedphreak · · Score: 1

    Quoting an old irish bar song...

    "It's lonesome away from your kindred and all
    By the campfire at night where the wild dingos call
    But there's nothin' so lonesome, so dull or so drear
    Than to stand in the bar of a pub with no beer..."

    1. Re:Pub with no beer by cammoblammo · · Score: 1

      Ah, so dingoes were imported by the Irish. They could have kept the snakes.

      --

      Cogito, ergo sig.

  61. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by Methlin · · Score: 1

    Yes, but see the *reason* that it's due to climate change we started requiring ethanol in our gasoline and so the price of corn went up which forced the farmers to change crops.

    Just like the game where you make almost any food sound nutritional, you can make anything caused by global climate change!

    It's that sort of circular logic that makes the world go round! :D Money makes the world go round, and that's the real reason for ethanol/e85. It's a scheme to hide a farm subsidy as an alternative "green" fuel that is nothing of the sort.
  62. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by maxume · · Score: 1

    The requirement for ethanol in fuel is actually related to the concerns about the toxicity of MTBE, the oxidizer that ethanol replaced. The use of corn ethanol as a gasoline replacement, rather than as an additive, is almost purely a result of lobbying and poor government policy, it is not a well reasoned response to concerns about CO2 emissions.

    --
    Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
  63. It only takes one datapoint... by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Faced with the difficulty of separating anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic influences, they reverted to the time-honored method of taking data.

    The trouble is that some of the data doesn't support some of the theories. It used to be that scientists would be happy to falsify their theories or modify them when presented with new data. Lately it seems people are starting with theories and trying to find data to support them, which is fine to that extent, but then discounting data which is found that contradicts their theories.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    1. Re:It only takes one datapoint... by blueg3 · · Score: 1

      That's actually a fairly inaccurate view of current science. Global warming certainly did not start as a theory, with data being taken to confirm it. The research began quite a while ago, though, out of most people's view of the situation.

      In my experience, these claims that "X data doesn't fit the theories, they should falsify them" tend to be driven out of a desire to falsify the theories. Rarely does the person take into account actual scientific reasoning. If a scientific model makes predictions that are backed by data in dozens of instances, with measurements made of reasonable independent phenomena, then it's quite robust. If it then makes a prediction that conflicts with the data, there is clearly something amiss. Determining what is amiss is certainly of interest to scientists. (I've seen dozens of presentations and papers based on research aimed at determining why data and a particular climatological model disagree, and a lot of interesting findings have come out of those.) However, it doesn't necessarily simply invalidate the theory or its other findings. It's a common tactic of climate-change-deniers to point to a single study, lump all of climate-change-related climatological data and models under a single umbrella of "global warming", and make the claim "global warming theory doesn't account for this data, so the theory is wrong".

      It's remarkably similar to tactics employed by evolution-deniers. It is no more valid when applied to climate change.

  64. Re:No peer-review necessary as long as you agree.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It is because he questioned the religion of global warming. We are really particular to our religions around here. We have scientifically proven that our blind faith in a number of areas are more creditable then other religion's blind faith. And you know, putting science in front of anything makes it established and creditable.

  65. Hang On by daliman · · Score: 1

    Why did I move to Australia again? I'd better head back to New Zealand, the price of beer here in Aus is already far higher than it is back home...

  66. "Free as in beer?" by AnomaliesAndrew · · Score: 1

    "Free as in beer" will not be understood by future generations.

    --
    Move all sig!
  67. How Dare You!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    To quote Al Gore "THE DEBATE IS OVER". This is not up for discussion anymore. The science has been settled. It has been proven and outlined in "An Inconvenient Truth". You are not allowed to question this. I don't care about "cool winters or years". If the oceans completely freeze over it just proves that global warming is real and more severe than previously thought. Climate change is real. The climate changes. We need the government to buy massive amounts of carbon credits for the poor who can not afford them. Did you not hear Al Gore? Climate change is real. The climate changes and we have already proved it. This matter is now closed.

  68. Re:Somebody please!....AHEM by Rynth · · Score: 1

    Ooh, what you have there is an interesting point.. 1: Plant more cannabis 2: reduce C02 stuffs, as plant like to use it to produce energy. 3:Everyone gets high, as its now legalised to, less wars are fought. 4: ????? 5: Profit! I like the idea, but since we would be burning it after anyways, then it might not turn out to be so beneficial. Still has to be better than the current situation.

  69. This is a non-story because by Bryansix · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Reporting of this kind is lame because you hear about every time something costs more because of a bad crop etc. but you never hear about all the times prices fall because of a bumper crop. It's just news focused on the negatives designed to get us all to pay attention. Well they've cried wolf one to many times and I just don't care anymore.

  70. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by asilentthing · · Score: 2, Informative
    He was most likely referring to this or maybe this.

    Do you think a cultural push toward hysteria proves global warming or something?

    --
    --- these days, what with business and stuff, you gotta get your emails...
  71. PSP users that are beer drinkers unaffected? by imyy4u1 · · Score: 0

    Due to homebrew?

    /too vague?

    --
    "Know but never fear the consequences of your actions."
  72. No Change In US Policy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bush still won't do anything. At least, not until the coca harvest is threatened.

  73. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, they stopped using "Global Warming" because people like you didn't understand it at any deeper level than the word "warming". "Well it's cold today!" you said.

    So they changed it to "Global Climate Change" to get rid of the implication that it means nothing -but- homogeneous monotonically increasing warming, and still you don't understand it at any deeper level than the word "Change". "Well change happens all the time!" you say.

    I'm sure your anecdote about your grandparents counteracts all the actual science being done. After all, you weren't around for the events of their stories, and you know nothing about the science of climatology, so as far as you're concerned they're both hearsay of equal weight, or maybe science has less weight than anecdotes, who knows. In any case, the conclusion you reach is that climate change is "silly", because you're too ignorant to know what it actually means.

  74. Re:Climate change - Keep Drinking the Cool-Aid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's right dude, drink up that Cool-Aid. There's a guv'ment job in them thar caps and credits for you somewhere.

  75. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by tomdcc · · Score: 3, Interesting
    How does this stuff get Insightful on Slashdot?

    so lets latch on to something generic... even though it occurs all the time we seem to think its only bad now. So by that logic because we used to have hot spells, we shouldn't consider an increased number of hot spells as different in any way. What nonsense.

    I guess with all the stories about the earth having not warmed recently... The stories that do the circles of the right-wing blogs? Because they're credible evidence. Take a look at the current graph of global average temperatures and look at the five year avererage and tell me that the planet is cooling. 1998 was a peak year due to El-Nino, and this year is predicted by those same gosh-darn climate scientists as being cooler due to La-Nina, but the trend is pretty hard to argue. If you're actually interested in what the actual, you know, science says.

    With the current increases in the value of corn and wheat because of the misguided ethanol production in the US would it not make sense that other areas shift to fill the gap? Because a discussion of US politics totally negates a story about actual crop yields down under.

    Putting climate change in the same story as beer either points out the hypocrisy of it all or just shows how silly we are willing to become Except when the story is about reduced crop yields due to increased temperature. As it was.
  76. Oh good.. by cloakable · · Score: 1

    No more Fosters!
    Oh wait, TFA said beer, not mildly alcoholic urine.

    --
    No tyrant thrives when every subject says no.
  77. Mod parent's posts on this issue down by UbuntuDupe · · Score: 0
    As much as I would like to explain the errors in reasoning in your posts, you have revealed yourself to have very fundamental problems in your ability to rationally discuss this issue. Look at this exchange:

    [Taxes impose costs] Compared to what exactly? Your other mythical option that doesn't impose enormous harms on the economy? The consensus among economists is that *given* a harm to the economy, carbon taxes get you the most CO2 reduction. Any other option will, for a given net CO2 reduction, do more unnecessary harm to the economy, since they're just crude approximations to what we really want. Taxes impose losses compared to not taxing, [bold added] For those reading, please think about what just happened there: MrNaz doesn't realize that the appropriate basis for comparison is

    -Government policy A to solve CO2 emissions problem, vs. Policy B to solve CO2 emissions problem

    NOT

    -Government policy A vs. nothing

    He doesn't see that you have to compare the economic (deadweight) losses of one counterplan, to the economic losses of his favored plan, NOT the losses of the counterplan, to nothing.

    Even without going further into his other basic errors (like trivializing the ability of government to accomplish anything, but ONLY with respect to ideas he disagrees with), it should be pretty clear at this point that there is no reason to continue further.

    Observers, please understand why.

    And I'm asking you to mod back down his comments because they have reasoning errors like the above, NOT because he favors different policies than I do. (My own down modding is for rudeness about Ubuntu which I have since apologized for -- see sig.)
    1. Re:Mod parent's posts on this issue down by MrNaz · · Score: 1

      Look at this exchange:

      That bolded point by me was in response to you asking me what a deadweight loss was in comparison to, don't get all huffy because I answered your specific question.


      Oh, and nice work completely ignoring everything else I said and crying to the readers. I have news for you: This long after an article gets posted, there are no more readers. It's just you and me pal, and perhaps the late guy catching up after a late shift.

      --
      I hate printers.
    2. Re:Mod parent's posts on this issue down by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't waste any more bandwidth here, if I were you. I think the two of you are trying to solve 2 very different problems. While you may be interested in solutions to global warming, I'm pretty convinced that MrNaz is trying to solve the problem that humans on the planet are living at a technological level above hunter-gatherer.

      --
      "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
      --- Jerry Garcia
    3. Re:Mod parent's posts on this issue down by BJZQ8 · · Score: 1

      I'm following this thread, you insensitive clod!

      Personally, I'm all for ridding the world of all fossil fuel consumption within the next month. Once we have an economic, social, governmental, and population collapse (in that order), perhaps the world will re-form itself into something better...or descend into The Road Warrior, which would be cool too.

  78. Adapt by Freeside1 · · Score: 1

    Maybe I don't understand everything about the issue at hand, but if climate change is such a threat to crops in their current locations, won't it just force the industry to move the farms to areas that used to be too cold to grow at?
    Adapt, or stagnate and complain.

    1. Re:Adapt by What+me+a+Coward · · Score: 1

      Why yes you're quite correct.

          During the mid evil warm period the temperatures were warmer than they are today we had just emerged from the dark ages and farm land was more plentiful crops that didn't use to grow further north were and even england was growing grapes which it hadn't before and greenland was first colenized at that time it was actually green and for 3 hundered years supported farm animals until the start of the little ice age which put an end to all that.

          I look at all this global warming flap as just pure FUD put out by alarmists who want to scare the rest of us into doing more to protect the enviroment in their eyes then we have been doing.

          Theirs a book out call Unstopable Global Warming Every 1500 years that was put out by Siegfried Frederick Singer (born September 27, 1924 in Vienna) is an American electrical engineer and physicist. He is best known as president and founder (in 1990) of the Science & Environmental Policy Project.

      --
      Coward? Coward! Thems fighten words!!
    2. Re:Adapt by styrotech · · Score: 1

      The article was about hops and barley growing conditions in Australia and NZ. The problem they face is that if production needs to move any further south the land isn't high enough above sea level and is far too wet all year round.

  79. So climate change is living proof... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...that God hates us and wants us to be miserable.
    (Pace Ben)

    1. Re:So climate change is living proof... by Enrique1218 · · Score: 1

      So climate change is living proof...that God hates us and wants us to be miserable

      Speak for yourself. I rather like tropical climates and rum is just as good. Now, I don't have to travel south to enjoy it. I could just stay in Maryland. Pina colada anyone?

      --
      You don't have to be smart to use a Mac, you just have to be smart enough to buy one
  80. Good News for Al Gore! by feepness · · Score: 1

    Given the temperature hasn't actually risen in ten years.

    1. Re:Good News for Al Gore! by bunratty · · Score: 1

      As the article says, there will be cooler years and warmer years, part of the normal variability of Earth's climate. You should look at the trends over a long period, and ten years is not long. As the quote at end of that article says, "There has always been and there will always be cooler and warmer years, but what is important for climate change is that the trend is up; the climate on average is warming even if there is a temporary cooling because of La Nina."

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
  81. Re:No peer-review necessary as long as you agree.. by tomdcc · · Score: 1

    When it comes to belief in global warming, the scientific method is completely unnecessary, as long as you agree with the mythical "consensus" dogma. Well, you're welcome to read the IPCC 4th Assessment Report. You know, the one produced by actual climate scientists? Why don't you explain where it goes wrong.

    Where is the peer-reviewed article documenting the cause of the diminished barley harvest as being "climate change?" Well, technically it's extended drought, but we seem to be having an awful lot of those lately. I wonder why...

    I get it. No peer-reviewed article is required to PROVE AGW, only to disprove it. This is complete nonsense. There's plenty of peer reviewed stuff out there. Where's the peer reviewed stuff going against the overwhelming consensus?
  82. So you're conceding the CO2 argument, then? by roystgnr · · Score: 1

    I mean, if this hypothetical complete idiot was literate then he would have noticed that the discussion topic was climate change, right? But I suppose the idea of a literate complete idiot is a contradiction in terms. But hey, CO2 might indeed lead to species extinction, so clearly attempting to economically limit it via taxation is a stupid idea compared to banning CO2 emissions entirely. You hold your breath first. Let us all know how that goes.

    Oh, but please don't let us know via the internet. Since you brought up the topic, you should know that computer and monitor you're using contains toxic heavy metals, and even if you're good about having them reclaimed you don't have a hope of influencing what happens to your ISP's hardware. Since even the smallest amount of groundwater poisoning is 100% intolerable, you wouldn't want to look like a hypocrite by helping to promote it.

    1. Re:So you're conceding the CO2 argument, then? by MrNaz · · Score: 1

      Oh, you're right, this LCD panel's production gave off heavy metals!

      In that case, I think I'll stop being such a hypocrite and stop being a proponent of sustainable production methods. Tomorrow I buy an SUV and start eating only the most overpackaged and processed food I can find!

      --
      I hate printers.
  83. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by Mr.+Beatdown · · Score: 1

    Climate change in the house that Jack built, after giving a mouse a cookie.

    --
    My fellow Americans, let's restore the death penalty for child rapists. Let's do it . . . for the children.
  84. I, for one... by GrifterCC · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...welcome our new barley-free overlords. While there is nothing appealing paying more for Duchesse de Bourgogne or Longhammer, the prospect of Natty Light, Keystone, Budweiser, Miller, Coors, etc., disappearing forever gives me comfort in these dark, warm, melty times. We're talking about a product (yes, only one product--there are no meaningful distinctions among the brands) so bad that the tasting contests have to create a category called "American-Style Lager" (read: macrobrew) to accomodate them. And something tells me the big breweries pay the competitions to have that category there in the first place. You know the organizers have to be huge beer snobs, and even Level 1 Beer Snobs automatically get the Hating on Macrobrews feat. Check out the Bud/Miller/Coors Web sites and notice how they each win the category every four years. It's almost like they're just taking turns.

  85. IMO, if you use corn or rice... by filthpickle · · Score: 1

    you aren't making beer.

    I am looking at you Budweiser.

    1. Re:IMO, if you use corn or rice... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google "Classic American Pilsner" sometime. The problem isn't the corn or the rice--the problem is that the recipes for Bud, Miller et al have been severely dumbed down. Before Prohibition, though, American brewers could and did make a good beer with corn. The Classic American Pilsner was revived by homebrewers a few years ago. Unfortunately I'm not currently aware of any good commercial examples. If you're in Wisconsin, try Spotted Cow (from New Glarus), which is somewhat close (more of a Classic American Cream Ale, though).

  86. Oil/Gasoline, Natural Gas, Coal, Pot, Gin by snowful · · Score: 1
    Oil/Gasoline, NG, and Coal are the only fossil fuels in existence. For reasons unbeknownst to me, the powers that be have largely focused on the use of Oil/Gasoline as fuel to be the primary cause of climate change. Not so. It is coal.

    For those of you with a little time, and attention span, watch this.

    Ahhh, there is nothing finer than a bong loaded with the favorite bud, and a (Winston)Churchill Martini as I watch the destruction of a planet. Maybe some popcorn as well.

    Hey, it is what it is.

  87. Re:Here's another inconvenient truth for you... by AndGodSed · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Err... I am not even from the US... don't label me a liberal tjom... I don't want to be affiliated with the US political system in any way - it gave us George Bush, among other dodgy presidents...

  88. No beer?!?! by element-o.p. · · Score: 1

    They have no beer? Then let them drink mead. (With apologies to Marie Antoinette, and FWIW, I'd rather drink beer than mead myself).

    --
    MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
  89. Desertification? by Quila · · Score: 1

    So the Sahara is our fault? Damn Romans and their SUVs.

    1. Re:Desertification? by khallow · · Score: 1

      Why? Do you want the blame for it? I can arrange.

  90. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by mini+me · · Score: 1

    So I guess we should still have some beer supplies coming out of America, the farmers are actually backing off corn production this year

    Corn jumped over $1/bu. after the report was released. There's still time for those numbers to change, and I expect they will. It was only a week or so ago where corn wasn't worth enough to even consider growing it. Funny how much can change in a week.
  91. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by kir · · Score: 1

    Nice one edmicman!

    --
    3cx.org - A truly bad website.
  92. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by CompCons · · Score: 1

    I have a very simple question that perhaps you can answer. How is Global Average Temperature calculated? Where is the data collected from and how is it "averaged"? Is the number of collection sites growing? If so, how do the scientists average in this new data without affecting the average? Ok so it turned into several simple questions, but I'd still like to know the answers.

  93. A pub with no beer? by BattleBlow · · Score: 1

    But there's nothing so lonesome, morbid or drear!

  94. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Obviously "decades of global scientific research" can be extrapolated to predict not only millions of years of history, but millions of years in the future, too. How is a cold week in March any different than 100 years of weeks in the timeline of the Earth's history? You're not familiar with science are you?
  95. Re:No peer-review necessary as long as you agree.. by stankulp · · Score: 1

    "Well, you're welcome to read the IPCC 4th Assessment Report [www.ipcc.ch]. You know, the one produced by actual climate scientists? Why don't you explain where it goes wrong." I'm glad you asked that question.

    IPCC Peer Review Process an Illusion, Finds SPPI Analysis

    http://icecap.us/index.php/go/political-climate/peer_review_what_peer_review/

    In Chapter 9, the key science chapter, the IPCC concludes that 'it is very highly likely that greenhouse gas forcing has been the dominant cause of the observed global warming over the last 50 years.' The IPCC leads us to believe that this statement is very much supported by the majority of reviewers. The reality is that there is surprisingly little explicit support for this key notion. Among the 23 independent reviewers just 4 explicitly endorsed the chapter with its hypothesis, and one other endorsed only a specific section. Moreover, only 62 of the IPCCâ(TM)s 308 reviewers commented on this chapter at all. As with other chapters, simple corrections, requests for clarifications or refinements to the text which did not challenge the IPCCâ(TM)s conclusions are generally treated favourably, but comments which dispute the IPCC's claims or their certainty are treated with far less indulgence. Some "scientific consensus" you got there, Bub.
    --
    We must be alert to the danger that public policy could become captive to a scientific-technological elite. - Eisenhower
  96. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by tomdcc · · Score: 1

    There are a bunch of measuring stations both on the surface, and satellites do some measuring as well. These are collected into various datasets that have their own estimate of "average" temperature, whatever that means. Wikipedia is pretty good on this, actually. The main three datasets and where to get them is mentioned in the first paragraph. Now IANACS (I Am Not A Client Scientist), and I get fuzzy when it comes to how they actually measure the "average". There are... models. :) Digging deeper into the website of one of the dataset like e.g. the Met Office will probably get you more details.

  97. Re:No peer-review necessary as long as you agree.. by BlackPignouf · · Score: 1

    Wow... so much crap and bad faith in this small paragraph, I must say I'm impressed!

    I don't exactly care about diminished barley harvest... but if you want peer-reviewed articles about global warming, you'll find hundreds of them there:
    http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/

    Read some and come back later if you still want to talk about "mythical consensus" and no "peer-reviewed articles about global warming".

  98. Sarcasm is supposed to parody *someone else* by roystgnr · · Score: 1

    The idea that the only allowable options for controlling ecological harm are a dichotomy of "regulatory bans" vs "unlimited extravagance" is an idea which only you believe in here; if you're making fun of it then you're only making fun of yourself.

    Don't you remember, just a few posts ago, when someone suggested a decentralized way of discouraging unnecessarily excessive environmental harm which nevertheless allows individuals the freedom to make the tradeoffs between the environmental impacts and the benefits of things like LCDs and SUVs? You haven't actually addressed that suggestion, you just started throwing around insults and offering contrary ideas that are so ridiculous that even you yourself can't help but satirize the false dichotomy.

    When your criticisms are so stupid that even you can't help but laugh at them, perhaps it's time to stop trying to dominate the discussion and start trying to learn from it.

  99. Global warming caused my hang-nail by Orig_Club_Soda · · Score: 0

    Where's the proof that global warming is the cause?

    On a tangent, I am no climatologist, but it seems that if global warming is really effecting the crops then a a region that previously could not grow these crops is emerging.

  100. Re:No peer-review necessary as long as you agree.. by tomdcc · · Score: 1

    IPCC Peer Review Process an Illusion, Finds SPPI Analysis http://icecap.us/index.php/go/political-climate/peer_review_what_peer_review/ [icecap.us]

    Hmm, SSPI, who are they? Ah, they used to be the Center for Science and Public Policy at Frontiers of Freedom. To quote Sourcewatch quoting the NYT: "Frontiers of Freedom, which has about a $700,000 annual budget, received $230,000 from Exxon in 2002, up from $40,000 in 2001, according to Exxon documentsâ. They also get tobacco money for their little public policy "research". Amazing how not-hard it was to find that.

    But why stop there? Who is this McLean guy that wrote it? Let's consult his own description of himself: "John McLean has an amateur interest in global warming following 25 years in what he describes as the analysis and logic of IT." Apparently he has a Bachelor of Architecture.

    So your no-consensus argument comes down to a piece written by a guy who isn't a climate scientist for an oil-industry funded think tank. Convincing. There's some criticism of the actual paper here, and more linked to from there.

    Apart from accusing every climate scientist of some mass conspiracy, do you have an actual argument to make, or some actual climate scientists to quote?

  101. Re:No peer-review necessary as long as you agree.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    It's pretty well known that the IPCC Peer Review Process was a sham.

  102. No More Free Beer! by Enrique1218 · · Score: 1

    However will we describe open source technology? I guess "free as in whiskey" will have to do. Doesn't quite roll off the tongue. Maybe we could say "free as in Jack"

    --
    You don't have to be smart to use a Mac, you just have to be smart enough to buy one
    1. Re:No More Free Beer! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whiskey prices are probably going to go up, too. Whiskey is also made from grain (barley, rye, and corn, I think). Corn and barley prices have been obviously been going up, and I wouldn't be surprised to see that rye prices have been going up for more or less the same reasons.

  103. You could buy a station wagon instead of an SUV by roystgnr · · Score: 1

    Of course, if you try to do so, it's going to cost you. Even though a station wagon might be a less polluting and equally useful alternative to an SUV for many people, it turns out that some hamfisted regulator thought it would be a good idea to control pollution by applying stricter (albeit fleet averaged) emissions and fuel economy standards to "cars" without crippling the economy by applying the same standards to "trucks". Unfortunately (and not coincidentally), the people who are dumb enough to think they can successfully micromanage the world in this fashion are rarely smart enough to anticipate the unintended consequences of their edicts, such as the many families who wanted more cargo or towing capacity than the non-penalized "cars" would provide and who would therefore choose the loophole of buying an SUV "truck" instead.

    Oops.

    And stunningly enough, people don't seem to learn from these failures. You'd think that, at the very least, experiences like East vs West Germany or North vs South Korea might cause would-be regulators to be extra-careful about starting their own labyrinths of central planning, but I suppose some people never learn. Ideas like emissions taxation should make lovers of both freedom and the environment happy, but there may be other psychology at work here. Why would anyone with a fetish for controlling others be content to merely penalize people proportionately to the costs of the externalities they create? That just *influences* their decisions, which must not be nearly as satisfying as the hope of *eliminating* their decisions. Imagine being in a position to divvy up the world into categories while deciding "this category may pollute this much with no consequences, but not a kilogram more; that category may pollute that much; and if your think your category's allotment is unfair then you'd better find a good loophole or a good lobbyist to help you with that". It must be like playing SimCity but with real human lives.

  104. Re:Climate change - Keep Drinking the Cool-Aid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Right. Except I'm in Britain, where as I mentioned the government is ploughing millions into reducing carbon emissions. As opposed to the US government which is doing very little and has spent the better part of the last two decades trying to claim that global warming is a myth. But I expect that was all misdirection, right? I'm sure the whole thing must be a rouse to cover up the moon landing hoax, or maybe so McDonalds can steal your thoughts?

  105. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by Original+Replica · · Score: 1

    Wow, I hadn't realized that crop production could be that agile to respond to announcements so quickly.
    On the upside, with a market that active and profitable maybe we can end farm subsidies. I just wish they would make the biofuel out of switchgrass instead of corn.

    --
    We are all just people.
  106. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by CompCons · · Score: 1

    I was trying to make a point in asking the question and you made my point perfectly. "There are... models." Every estimate of Global temperature is an estimate made on a model. None of them are scientifically accurate in the sense that NONE of them have sucessfully predicted future behavior. And yet, we want to tax hydrocarbons and turn food into fuel becuase models that have yet to be proven at all accurate say we might be changing the climate.

  107. Re:No peer-review necessary as long as you agree.. by stankulp · · Score: 1

    "I don't exactly care about diminished barley harvest..." Well, too bad for you, that's what this thread is about... that global warming caused the barley shortage.

    Wrong.

    http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/215476

    ...a surplus of hops for the past few years pulled the price down and helped drive growers to plant more profitable crops... Tell me again that global warming caused the hops shortage.

    Prove that "climate change" zealots don't care about facts, just getting their way.
    --
    We must be alert to the danger that public policy could become captive to a scientific-technological elite. - Eisenhower
  108. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by penguin_dance · · Score: 1

    If they really wanted to reduce dependence, they could go bio-diesel which can be run in diesel vehicles right now! You can take the grease waste from restaurants and turn it into fuel instead of having to have it processed into other waste or illegally dumped. But THAT would make common sense.

    It doesn't matter how *green* something really is in practice (although ethanol has been touted as a green alternative for some time). It's ALL political--including global warming. My actual (sarcastically put) point was that the media wants to attribute EVERYTHING to be caused by global warming (or the now more politically correct "global climate change") even when it's just due to good old market forces.

    --
    If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
  109. Re:No peer-review necessary as long as you agree.. by stankulp · · Score: 1

    As usual, an ad hominem attack instead of addressing the issue.

    Prove him wrong. Prove that more than four of the IPCC reviewers specifically endorsed the central theme of the IPCC report, that greenhouse gas forcing is causing climate change.

    But you won't do that. You'll just continue with your ad hominem attacks.

    --
    We must be alert to the danger that public policy could become captive to a scientific-technological elite. - Eisenhower
  110. Mead by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    It's made from Honey.

    Now if we could just get the bees to stop dying off, New Zealand wouldn't need beer ...

    Or maybe they could ask the hobbits - I hear they like New Zealand and are fond of beer.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  111. Re:Somebody please!....AHEM by The+One+and+Only · · Score: 1

    I think burning weed produces CO2. But at least it's carbon neutral, since it doesn't produce more than it consumed when growing, and if some of the weed is actually industrial hemp, you still win.

    --
    In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199
  112. OT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Posting to remove an erroneous mod.

  113. Not always true by snowwrestler · · Score: 1

    Very few modern scientific theories are invalidated totally by any one data point. For instance general relativity has known contradicting data points, but is still considered a viable and good theory because it describes, in a neat and internally consistent way, the vast majority of observed phenomena within its domain. Small inconsistencies often either reflect a needed refinement, or a limit on the level of precision achievable in the measurement or the prediction. Their occurrence tends to increase with the complexity of the system being studied.

    Occassionally they point the way to "paradigm shifts," but that is pretty rare. I'd be very surprised if slight differences in sea level rise result in the wholesale abandonment of a very robust and deeply studied area of science.

    --
    Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
  114. Ignoramus Headline by Brandybuck · · Score: 1

    Climate change isn't impacting brewing, stupid environmentalists lobbying biofuels to stupid politicians are impacting brewing. Subsidizing these high yield crops not only siphons your taxes to big agribusiness, it also incentivizes the third world poor into plowing under the rainforests. Dr. Evil couldn't have come up with a more dastardly plan.

    p.s. Yeah, I know, not all environmentalists lobbied for the enviro-unfriendly biofuels. But they sure kept their mouths shut when this was going down. Hindsight is 20/20, and mine tells me that environmentalist are much more interested in getting into a politician's pants than in protecting the environment.

    --
    Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
    1. Re:Ignoramus Headline by trouser · · Score: 1

      So you're saying that the price I pay for beer in Australia is not so much related to the price and availability of locally grown barley as to Americans growing corn to make a shitful substitute for petrol? Uh huh.

      --
      Now wash your hands.
    2. Re:Ignoramus Headline by Brandybuck · · Score: 1

      Yes, it is related to the price and availability of barley. But since barley is mostly fungible [look it up], a decrease in barley acreage worldwide (in preference to corn, soybeans, etc) will affect your local prices.

      --
      Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
  115. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by Saanvik · · Score: 1

    Seasonally lower temperatures due to La Nina have nothing to do with global climate change. Of course, since you couldn't even be bothered to put that detail into your post, so that people could debate the issue, I doubt you really care about the truth of the situation. Instead, you believe that global climate change is not happening, and you just look for any convenient web link to back up your belief.

    Awareness of global climate change by society is a good thing. It does not have anything to do with the proof that our climate is changing. If only one person on Earth knew that the climate was changing, it would still be changing. Our ecosystem doesn't really care too much about what we believe we know.

    On the other hand, disputing the current global climate change is really good for certain media people that are less interested in facts than in making a lot of money by duping people into believing said media person is smarter than everyone else and knows what's really going on.

  116. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by Saanvik · · Score: 1

    Whoa, hoss. You go from saying that global temperatures are based on models to say that none of them are scientifically accurate because they haven't been used to predict future behavior. That's a big jump. You see, these datasets are that - actually collected data. Models are used to come up with an average global temperature based on the data. You can't use those models to predict anything. You can, though, use the results from those models to compare the calculated global temperature year to year. Make sense?

  117. Slim Dusty by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The original of Pub with No Beer was written by Gordon Parsons, but the hit was made by his pal Slim Dusty.

  118. Re:No peer-review necessary as long as you agree.. by tomdcc · · Score: 1

    As usual, an ad hominem attack instead of addressing the issue. I don't think pointing out that the guy is a shill is irrelevant, and I did link to some actual criticism of the paper, but you obviously don't want to know...

    Prove him wrong. Prove that more than four of the IPCC reviewers specifically endorsed the central theme of the IPCC report, that greenhouse gas forcing is causing climate change. Did you actually read what you just wrote? Only 4 IPCC reviewers? Just from the page that I linked to, which you ignored:

    In total, only 62 scientists reviewed the chapter in which this statement appears, the critical chapter 9, "Understanding and Attributing Climate Change". Of the comments received from the 62 reviewers of this critical chapter, almost 60% of them were rejected by IPCC editors. And of the 62 expert reviewers of this chapter, 55 had serious vested interest, leaving only seven expert reviewers who appear impartial. First, there were much more than 62 reviewers for chapter 9. McLean and Harris have only counted the reviewers of the second order draft and ignored the more numerous comments on the first order draft. He's being criticized for suggesting that a particular chapter only has 62 reviewers. 62. And he was wrong, he undercounted. So how do we get from 62 for one chapter to a figure like 4?

    Scientists were declared to have a vested interest if they were an IPCC author, or an IPCC author of a previous assessment, or if any of their work was cited by the report, or if they worked for a government, or if they work for an organization that gets government funding, or if they have a "possible commercial vested interest in the claim of man-made warming". So he's conveniently ignored basically any mainstream climate scientist on the planet, on the basis that working for a public university or climate office represents a 'vested interest'. This coming from the guy working for the oil-industry think tank. So pointing that little nugget out wasn't irrelevant at all, it just showed his hypocrisy.

    But you won't do that. You'll just continue with your ad hominem attacks. Yawn. I note, btw, that despite my invitation you haven't come forward with an actual argument. What's your position? What's your evidence? Is the world warming on average or not? If it is warming, is CO2 a contributor? If so, what's the source other than us? If not, what's causing it? And if you don't think the world is getting warmer, what's wrong with all the temperature measurements that say it is? Stop playing the shrieking victim and put an argument on the table.
  119. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by CompCons · · Score: 1

    You are correct. I overstepped the analysis.

  120. Sure, why not by Quila · · Score: 1

    I'm white, male and American. I get blamed for everything else on this planet, so why not that too?

    The reparations movement has already shown you don't need to have even been born at the time to be guilty, so there's precedent.

    1. Re:Sure, why not by khallow · · Score: 1

      Ok. It's your fault, we have desertification of the Sahara. Bad! Bad!

  121. Climate change? No, government! by The+AtomicPunk · · Score: 1

    I'm a heavily active home brewer and have been following beer ingredient prices closely. The problem in the US, at least, is the idiotic government subsidies for corn to produce ethanol has caused too many farms to switch away from other crops - for example, hops. There's now a world-wide hop shortage for many varieties of hops - all so we can waste more energy to produce ethanol so that Arches-Daniels-Midland can rake in billions after bribing congressmen.

    It's okay though, because driving up food prices isn't going to hurt anyone, and it's very important to get a false sense of accomplishment on environmental issues.

  122. Re:Climate change, guess old buzzword wasn't worki by monxrtr · · Score: 0
    You sound like a complete moron every time you spew the phrase "global climate change". Climate is in a constant state of flux, idiot. Exhibit A: Changing Weather. Gonna pretend you are smart by talking about "Global Time Change" for your next trick? "We have to be aware that the clock is ticking, time is changing, time is moving, we are no longer statically frozen in time. By the time you finish reading this sentence the present will have become the past. /Alarm!!!111"

    disputing the current global climate change This is precisely why your loss of credibility is globally accelerating.

    But feel free to make yourself useful and post the climate model average earth temperature formula with it's various input weighted variables. Not a single religious creationist man-made global warming zealot believer has been able to produce any formula with any variables whilst they talk completely out of their asses about changing average temperatures without reference to the vast majority of heaviest weighted variables determining global average temperature. That people like you pretend they are scientifically informed is laughable. Clue # 1: sticking a thermometer in your anus does not measure global average temperature, or give you anything put data trash to plug into whatever secret socialist alarmist formula which isn't dared presented to the public.

    It's nothing but a pure hoax. And it will be extremely evident once the formula of global average temperature variables weightings is exposed. Which is precisely why no idiots like you have been able to provide a link to the global average temperature model formula climalarmitologists pretend to be referencing when they talk about predicted and even "observed" changes in the output variable global average temperature.
    --
    "From DNA to P2P, we are all Copycats now. Go Go Copycat Power! Copycat Powers activate! Form of, a Copycat." --monxrtr
  123. Re:Climate change? No, government! by gothzilla · · Score: 1

    /signed

    The ethanol scam and subsidies for other failed "alternative energy" ideas is far more damaging to us than supposed global warming. Here's another 1,600 jobs that could be lost because of the cost increase of corn and this isn't the only company that's looking at shutting down plants. Count on food prices going even higher as supply drops.
    http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=Pq1Mqi49

    If it works, people will want it, and the business won't need welfare to survive. If it doesn't then just like any other business it should be allowed to fail until someone figures out how to make it succeed.

    Subsidies on "alternative energy" kill innovation by rewarding failure.

  124. Re:No peer-review necessary as long as you agree.. by BlackPignouf · · Score: 1

    What exactly is "their way"?
    Why do you think global warming is a scam?

    Do you really think scientists from all over the world, with no social/political/religion connection whatsoever, that are mostly interested in knowing more, enjoy telling us that we're all doomed if we keep burning fossil fuels?

    IPCC scientists are mostly American. How could that be interesting for them to tell us that oil and coal are the worst things we could use to get energy?

    If global warming is a crime, what is the motive?

    From what you wrote, I suppose you could also be interested in :

    http://www.alaska.net/~clund/e_djublonskopf/Flatearthsociety.htm