truthful politics

Matthew Philips in Newsweek in February 2008 mentioned the following:

• If Texas were its own country, it would be the 48th most populous in the world
• With a landmass of 268,000 square miles, if Texas were its own country, it would be the 40th largest
• Furthermore, it would be the world’s eighth-largest emitter of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide with 630 million metric tons emitted in 2005
• In 2003, Texas emitted 670 million metric tons. Therefore, it’s emissions have reduced by 40 million metric tons
• Texas has greater CO2 emissions than the states of California and Pennsylvania, combined. California and Pennsylvania are the second and third highest CO2 emitting states in the U.S.A.
• Texas “residents use nearly 3,000 more kilowatt-hours of electricity every year than the average American”
• 25% of the 20 million registered vehicles in Texas is a pickup truck. “Of the 245 million vehicles registered in the United States, only 16 percent are pickups”
• By “some estimates more than half of all Texans live in areas where the air is unsafe to breathe, as defined by the EPA’s Clean Air Act”
• Texas “is one of only 15 states without a climate action plan in place or even under consideration”
• “In 2007, for the third year in a row, Texas was the nation’s leader in the amount of wind capacity added to the electric grid, as nearly $3 billion of wind-powered generators were installed in Texas”
• The city of Austin has unveiled a Climate Protection Plan by Democratic Mayor Will Wynn. “The plan calls for 100 percent of all city facilities to be powered completely by renewable energy by 2012, and to make all new single-family homes zero-net-energy-capable by 2015, which means they’ll have to be at least 65 percent more efficient and, with solar panels on the roof, able to generate as much energy as they consume over the course of a year.”

To read the entire article, click on The CO2 State.

Click on the chart below to see an enlarged, clearer chart.

“Top 20 greenhouse gas emitters.” UNEP/GRID-Arendal Maps and Graphics Library. 2008. UNEP/GRID-Arendal. 9 Feb 2009 Top 20 greenhouse gas emitters.

Click on the chart below to see an enlarged, clearer chart.

To read the entire report, click on Carbon Emissions.

Click on the chart below to see an enlarged, clearer chart.

To read the entire report, click on Human Development Report 2007/2008.

Stanford University researchers produced a report on wind power in May 2005 mentioning the following:

• “Wind captured at specific locations, if even partially harnessed, can generate more than enough power to satisfy the world’s energy demands”
• “North America had the greatest wind-power potential, however, with the most consistent winds found in the Great Lakes region and from ocean breezes along coasts.”
• Locations with sustainable, appropriate wind speed, called Class 3 winds, could produce approximately 72 terawatts. 1 terawatt equals 1 trillion watts.
• 1 terawatt is more power than what is generated by 500 nuclear reactors, or thousands of coal-power plants.
• The entire world’s electricity usage in 2000 was 1.6 – 1.8 terawatts.
• The study was supported by NASA and Stanford’s Global Climate and Energy Project.

To read the entire article, click on New global wind map may lead to cheaper power supply.

The Statistical Assessment Service at George Mason University in April 2008 reported the following:

• 84% percent of the 489 climate scientists surveyed personally believe human-induced warming is occurring
• 74% of climate scientists agree that “currently available scientific evidence” substantiates its occurrence
• 5% of climate scientists believe that human activity does not contribute to greenhouse warming

To read the entire report, click on Climate Scientists Agree on Warming, Disagree on Dangers, and Don’t Trust the Media’s Coverage of Climate Change.

Science Daily in January 2009 reported that 82% of the 3,146 scientists surveyed agreed that human activity has been a significant factor in changing mean global temperatures. To read the entire article, click on Scientists Agree Human-induced Global Warming Is Real, Survey Says.

Naomi Oreskes in Science in January 2005 reported that out of 928 scientific abstracts published between 1993 and 2003 on climate change, 75% explicitly endorsed the consensus that “Earth’s climate is being affected by human activities.” 0% of the abstracts disagreed with that consensus. To read the entire article, click on The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007 said in it’s Fourth Assessment Report that “There is very high confidence that the net effect of human activities since 1750 has been one of warming.” To read the entire report, click on IPCC Fourth Assessment Report.

For beliefs of scientists against global warming, click on Beliefs of Scientists (Against Global Warming).