Whatever the outcome of the Copenhagen conference, whatever the amount of fraud uncovered at the CRU in Britain, Chatham County is plowing ahead with it's own idea of Climate Change. One wonders if there is ever a dissenting voice heard amongst all of the back-slapping?
The following are members of our environmental review board:
Current board members (terms expiring in Feb. 2011) are:
Tara Allden
Raj Butalia
Elaine Chiosso (Chairperson)
Michael Dunn
Hal House
Sonny Keisler
Dr. Steve Wing
Catherine Bollinger
Martha Girolami
Jim Willis (ex-officio, non-voting)
Allison Weakley
Lin Andrew
and you can find minutes of their meetings here:
http://www.chathamnc.org/Index.aspx?page=776From the November 19th meeting:
7. Climate Change SC:
Martha referred to early flooding predicted in NC from the Greenland ice field.
Sonny handed out several articles, some of which predict up to a six degree
centigrade temperature rise by 2100 if the world continues business
as usual.These people have an agenda, they are completely dissociated from reality and from the real science. This board should be disbanded.
"Early flooding?" Even if the waters were to rise the predicted
48cm (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_sea_level_rise)... that is, assuming that the world re-starts its warming trend instead of this 'annoying' cooling of the last 11 years..., we have little to worry about here in Chatham, given that we are
19,000 cm above sea level...
(see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siler_City,_NC)
And those "several articles" predicted a warming of up to 6 degrees? Were these scholarly articles? Were these applicable to here (after all, Global Warming supposedly causes cooling in some areas)? Was any research presented that refuted the main theme? Or did this just look like a bobblehead convention?
Still don't think we have a loony bin hoping to control the rest of us?
From the September meeting:
Report from Climate Change Subcommittee (Sonny)
including discussion of “350” (carbon target and Chatham local participation
in global Oct. 24 event.
Sonny gave us several new articles on climate change and a recommended
reading list including Lester Brown’s “Plan B 4.0” and other resources.
He emphasize the gravity of global warming to all life on earth. The earth’s
atmosphere is today nearly 390 ppm CO2 well past a “safe” level of 350
ppm.The "safe" level....? Especially considering that we are actually at a relatively low concentration of CO
2 considering global history:
I find it hard to believe that we are approaching a catastrophe, let alone something that Chatham County ought to be worrying about.
So who is leading the anti-climate change charge (i.e., the anti-natural cycle)
from the July Minutes:
A Climate Change subcommittee was formed to be chaired by Sonny. Members
signing up are Hal, Elaine, and Martha in addition to Sonny. Meetings must be
advertised 48 hours in advance.from June:
Climate Change
The board discussed more effects of global warming/climate change and suggested that
the discussion at the next ERB meeting should take action toward a more structured
process, with goals articulated. Elaine presented some basic principals that can be used
in decision making to take into account consequences of climate change.From April:
Notes from the ERB teleconference with Dr. William Schlesinger, 4/16/09
(Submitted by Elaine Chiosso)
Some remarks he made during the Power Point presentation:
· Model showed 2 degree C rise in temp in NC by 2030
· 1’ rise in sea level would mean the loss of most of the Outer Banks (showed slide
of NC coastline with varying projected sea level rise)
· Piedmont weather by end of this century similar to Orlando, Florida
· Dominant forest in Eastern US based on 2-4 degree C temperature change would
move towards more hardwood,, less pine (but that does not include effects of
change in moisture, rainfall)A model? None of them can recreate the past, let alone predict the future.
A 1' rise in sea level would inundate the current outer banks... but that is a false fear. The outer banks
grow and
shift and
move. Considering that sea levels have risen many times that 1' in the past millenia... yet the outer banks are still there... one would assume that the natural process that builds dunes and the banks will continue...]
And everyone is dead in Orlando? Nothing grows, refugess have fled from there to parts unknown?
Locally, he said that in a warming climate, all issues concerning water should be a key
focus: drier soils , more drought, less groundwater recharge as dry years will be drier.
Conserving, protecting water.Because it's so much drier in Orlando than it is here?...
Carbon taxes should not be used for revenue enhancement but to find solutions, including
ways to help low income people– shift tax burden off productivity and onto consumption.
Cap and tradeHere they are advocating cap and trade... a method that most people admit would do nothing to reduce carbon emissions.
And we see their real agenda: income redistribution... we're back to "helping low income people" instead of "saving the environment"
He began by stating that Dr. Hansen's credentials are “impeccable".This is the James Hansen of NASA, which can't publish accurate data and can't get his story straight.
“Every molecule we add from fossil sources will keep adding to warming”Hyperbolic and untrue, considering that we don't know all of the feedback loops in the carbon cycle nor their constants or where their equilibrium points are...
Martha Girolami stated that the general public has no real consensus on the really radical
things we might have to do if things go as badly as it could. Do we want to work where
we can probably get more incremental change or do we want to introduce more drastic
change and how the County could survive."How the county could survive"
?? This committee is an echo chamber of bad science, bad ideas, and hyperbole.
its wealthy people that are the primary people responsible but it is low income people who are more susceptible to the effects.Back to the communist manifesto...
Catherine Bollinger said that she agreed. She worries the average Chatham person, especially land owners, believe that it is their manifest destiny right to do whatever they want to their land because it is their land.Do these people, and by proxy the county comissioners, really represent the people, or are the "know betters" who, instead of representing us, are fixated on telling us what we "should" be doing? That's not democracy anymore folks, that's something else.
