The United States of America Shamefully Contributes 25% of all CO2 emissions

The Biggest Carbon Dioxide Polluter on Earth

It took Russia's President Vladimir Putin to approve of Kyoto and have the Russian Dumas pass the final legislation in November 2004. Kyoto takes effect Spring of 2005. In recent meetings in Buenos Aires the United States seeks to undermine Kyoto by stalling success of these countries until Kyoto expires 2012. It is getting very late on Earth to save it's Ice Caps and Ice Fields. Their lifespan has been reduced by one half since the vortexes showed up in the troposphere October 4, 2004.

The decision by Russia to participate in Kyoto was not an easy one. They participate in a very effective space program. It contributes to the overall CO2 load for Russia. An example of what Russia faces not only as a government but as a nation of people.

On April 25, 2003 there was a space flight carrying inside not only a Russian cosmonaut but a USA astronaut. The lift-off occured at 10:50 pm, EST, while the world watched at this record setting event in cooperation of the two nations.

The CO2 recorders at Mauna Loa Observatories were at work when the lift-off occurred.

In Barrow, Alaska

At 9:30 pm the CO2 recorder registered .0335 volts.
At 11:59 pm the CO2 recorder registered a record high voltage reading of .0415.

That is a dramatic example of the increase of CO2 in the troposphere resulting from Human Activity as the Russian Spacecraft flew over Barrow, Alaska on it's way to the stratosphere. Russia is wonderfully engaged in the daily events of Human Drama that calls for prudent and benevolent policy to protect lives and reverse the trend in Global Warming and the deadly weather patterns and warming of Climate Change.

California's Hydrogen Highway

Vehicle of the Week

Dan Lienert

In what the company has called a "bold experiment," Hummer has prepared a hydrogen-powered version of its H2 SUT (sport utility truck), the H2H. The vehicle is not intended for production, and a Hummer spokesperson said yesterday in a phone interview that the company will not divulge the prototype's development cost.

Hummer's parent, General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ), owns the H2H and shares it with the office of the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. In a recent statement, Schwarzenegger said that the purpose of the prototype is to "demonstrate the economic and technical viability of hydrogen." He had said during his gubernatorial campaign that he was interested in alternative fuels and one day would go so far as to own a hydrogen-powered Hummer.

California is making a pioneering effort with its Hydrogen Highway Network, an initiative that combines the efforts of industry and government to develop the state's infrastructure, research and market for hydrogen cars. Hummer, a maker of the some of the most fuel-inefficient and wasteful automobiles in the world, presumably wanted a part in this venture because Schwarzenegger already likes the brand's cars, and because the company is trying to change its image.

The H2H puts lipstick on the pig by turning a vehicle whose urban fuel economy is about 10 miles per gallon (filling the tank routinely costs over $50) into a futuristic, alternatively-fueled car whose main tailpipe emission is water vapor. Hummer has engineered the H2H to use a supercharged version of the regular truck's 6.0-liter V-8 engine.

According to Hummer, the H2H was created by a team of GM engineers from the U.S., Canada and Germany, in collaboration with Quantum Technologies (nasdaq: QTWW - news - people ), a California-based supplier of hydrogen fuel systems. The car is a one-of-a-kind deal, although the partners might build one or two more H2Hs.

The H2H uses a conventional internal combustion engine powered by compressed hydrogen, even though GM's plans for its future model range involve hydrogen cars powered by energy sources called "fuel-cell stacks." Supposing for the sake of argument that Schwarzenegger wanted to drive the H2H around California ("I don't think that's a common occurrence," said the Hummer spokesperson), he could refuel the car at several stations.

The majority of California's 12 to 15 hydrogen refueling stations are in the southern part of the state, although Schwarzenegger could--for example--refuel the H2H at the University of California, Davis' station if he didn't to stray too far from Sacramento. Hydrogen currently costs $4 to $10 per kilogram, the unit in which it is measured, and the H2H's fuel tank holds five to six kg of hydrogen. GM believes that if hydrogen is to be commercially viable it must cost $2 to $2.25 per kg--that is, it must be competitive with gasoline prices.

GM does not allow Schwarzenegger to use the "Self-Serve" lane at the hydrogen station. The company fills the tank itself, keeps the vehicle in Lake Forest, Calif. (near its engineering facilities and Quantum's offices) and requires that a GM engineer ride in the car at all times.

Forbes Fact

Is Hummer's tentative embrace of green technology sparked by conscience or sales? Noting that Hummer's North American sales in the first 11 months of 2004 declined 19% compared to the same period in 2003, the refashioning of Hummer starts to make sense--even if selling Hummers on their fuel economy still sounds like a desperate move. This spring, Hummer will introduce the H3 sport utility vehicle, the company's smallest and most fuel-efficient car yet.

Arnie's California Hydrogen Highway

The Bottoms' Up Approach - Sounds Like a Bush Hang Over

Experts confer on climatePanel puts heat on U.S. to conformThe Associated PressBUENOS

AIRES, ARGENTINA -- International experts, searching for ways to break a deadlock with the United States over climate change, consulted on many ideas Monday to lure that No. 1 polluter into a joint effort to control "greenhouse gases," along with such second-rank emitters as China and India.

A Chinese negotiator said he thought Washington might accept a concept he favored -- "the bottom-up approach," whereby individual nations decide what steps they can take to rein in carbon dioxide and other emissions.

That would reverse the "top-down" approach of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which the Bush administration rejects and which sets mandatory targets for dozens of nations to cut back by 2012 on the gases blamed for global warming. Environmentalists said, however, that the "bottom-up" approach may accomplish little.

An annual U.N. conference on climate change was midway through its two week meeting as representatives of almost 200 nations refined details of Kyoto in formal sessions, while informally debating how to control emissions beyond 2012.

Official talks on that future framework are expected next year. But since July the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, a private Washington research group, has brought together policy-makers and experts from the United States and 14 other nations for closed discussions on the next steps to slow global warming.

At a briefing Monday, the Pew Center's Eliot Diringer said the participants thus far have agreed that "a future climate approach should aim, No. 1, to engage major emitters."

The United States is the biggest, emitting 21 percent of the world's greenhouse gases in 2000, according to a report issued Monday by the Pew Center and the World Resources Institute of Washington. The No. 2 emitter is China, accounting for 15 percent of the gases, more than the entire 25-nation European Union's 14 percent.

The Kyoto pact seeks to control six gases that trap heat that otherwise would escape the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide, the most common, is a product of coal- and oil-burning power plants, automobile exhaust and other fossil fuel-burning sources.

Mornin Papers - download PDF

Rooster "Cock-A-Doodle-Do"

Today in History

In 1642 Sir Isaac Newton was born, English physicist, mathematician, and natural philosopher, considered one of the most important scientists of all time. Newton formulated laws of universal gravitation and motion—laws that explain how objects move on Earth as well as through the heavens (see Mechanics). He established the modern study of optics—or the behavior of light—and built the first reflecting telescope. His mathematical insights led him to invent the area of mathematics called calculus (which German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz also developed independently). Newton stated his ideas in several published works, two of which, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, 1687) and Opticks (1704), are considered among the greatest scientific works ever produced. Newton’s revolutionary contributions explained the workings of a large part of the physical world in mathematical terms, and they suggested that science may provide explanations for other phenomena as well.

In 1809 Louis Braille, Louis is born, French teacher of the blind, born in Coupvray. He himself was blind from the age of three and in 1818 went as a foundling to the National Institute for the Young Blind in Paris. Soon showing marked ability in both science and music, he became famous in Paris as an organist and violoncellist. In 1826 Braille began teaching the blind in the institute. Braille is known for his idea of modifying the Barbier "point writing" system, used for coded army messages, to enable the blind to read. Point writing consists of embossed dots and dashes on cardboard; the Braille system derived from it is used successfully today, in slightly modified form, in many countries.

http://www.cnib.ca/

In 1869, Karamchand Mohandas Gandhi was born, Indian nationalist leader, who established his country's freedom through a nonviolent revolution.

In 1904, the Supreme Court ruled that Puerto Ricans were not aliens and could enter the United States freely; however, the court stopped short of declaring them U.S. citizens.

In 1929 Amitai W Etzioni US sociologist (Active Society) is born.

In 1929 Bobby Tulloch ornithologist was born.

In 1932, the Indian government declares the Indian National Congress illegal and arrests nationalist leader Mohandas Gandhi.

In 1948, the British colony of Burma (Myanmar) becomes an independent sovereign nation, ending more than six decades of British rule.

In 1974, President Nixon refused to hand over tape recordings and documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.

Jailed Journalists

'Atom School' Stars in First Israeli Reactor Video

By Dan Williams
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has released the first video footage of its Dimona nuclear plant, a television station said on Monday, in an apparent attempt to promote a positive image of what experts believe to be an atomic bomb factory.

… Vanunu was jailed for treason after he gave the pictures and a tell-all interview to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper in 1986. When he was released last year, Channel 10 drew fire from the defense establishment by broadcasting a computer-generated simulation of the Dimona reactor based on Vanunu's revelations.

Ukraine: 'Orange Revolution' Is Over -- Time To Form A Cabinet

The winner of the Ukrainian presidential election, Viktor Yushchenko, must now form a new cabinet to push forward his promised agenda of economic and political reforms. But he faces some difficult decisions, and he has promised his Our Ukraine bloc's two main allies a quarter of the cabinet posts.

… "When we come to power, opposition members will not be jailed or exiled as they were under Kuchma. And their heads will not be cut off as it happened to [slain journalist Heorhiy] Gongadze, and journalists will not be beaten in their own homes -- because we are coming to power with a completely different heart and a different mind," Tymoshenko said. "And I think you will be able to see and understand that."

RSF HONOURS PRESS FREEDOM DEFENDERS

An Algerian journalist jailed for exposing government corruption, a philosophy teacher who campaigns to free jailed journalists in China and a crusading Mexican newspaper known for "publishing what other papers don't" have been named the winners of the 2004 RSF-Fondation de France Prize in honour of their dedication to the cause
of press freedom.

The Cheney Observer

2004 not best of times for Halliburton, EDS, El Paso

UNDATED (AP) - Three of the largest Texas-based companies lost money through the first nine months of 2004.
Yet investors took wildly different views of Halliburton Company, Electronic Data Systems Corporation and El Paso Corporation.
Analysts say the biggest difference among the three is that Halliburton seems closest to fixing its most serious problems.

NIH whistleblower says government bungled AIDS study in Uganda

By Jennifer C. Kerr, Associated Press, 1/4/2005 16:52


WASHINGTON (AP) Federal officials involved in a U.S.-funded study in Uganda endangered the lives of hundreds of patients testing an AIDS drug because of careless and negligent research practices, a government whistleblower said Tuesday.

Dr. Jonathan Fishbein said officials at the National Institutes of Health overlooked problems with the way the study was being conducted on the AIDS drug, nevirapine, which was being used to protect babies in Africa from HIV infection during birth.

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