“Beginning with the Memorial Day weekend and throughout the summer, Americans will spend their hard-earned dollars traveling to visit family, friends, and the great outdoors. Meanwhile, Big Oil will be making huge profits off of these travel expenditures on fuel, while at the same time fighting for decreased public health and climate-change protections.”
– Center for American Progress (and Climate Progress), five years ago.
The American Automobile Association predicts that 41.5 million Americans will hit the open road this Memorial Day weekend, a two-million increase from last year.
“A strong economy and growing consumer confidence are giving Americans all the motivation they need to kick off what we expect to be a busy summer travel season with a Memorial Day getaway,” stated Bill Sutherland, senior vice president for AAA Travel and Publishing.
“Unfortunately, both the news media and many colleges continue to proclaim the myth that acid rain is a dangerous problem. In any case, if you do come in contact with either lemon juice or acid rain, be sure to wash it off as soon as possible.”
For almost a month, the ongoing saga of the eruption of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano has captured the attention of world media. Fountains of red-orange fire, lava flows, and ash-plume explosions destroyed dozens of homes and forced thousands of residents to flee the area. But media warnings about dangerous acid rain resurrected a long-believed myth of the environmental movement.
CBS and CNN ran with headlines listing acid rain as a danger from the Kilauea eruption. US News said, “Acid rain could be the next threat Hawaii residents face in the coming days…” CNN stated “if you do come in contact with acid rain, wash it off as soon as possible.”…
Continue Reading“The term ‘buyer beware’ might provide an appropriate warning; but that term implies the buyer has a choice. Therefore, we will just leave it ‘beware’.”
The purpose of this document is to provide a rough estimate for some of the economic costs of moving American consumers away from the direct use of fossil fuels per the objective of “deep decarbonization” and show the math involved. First, we need to define what “deep decarbonization” and “electrification” are. “Deep Decarbonization” is the term-of-art for climate stabilization through the decarbonization of the World’s energy systems. Replacing consumers direct consumption of natural gas and gasoline, along with other forms of fossil fuels, and on to renewable-dominated electricity, is the means of achieving this global objective.
The concept officially started with a June 2015 G-7 goal “to end their dependence on fossil fuels.”…
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