[Vwdiesel] How cold is it?

[James Hansen]

>Al Gore is right.

LOL!
Yeah right Bill.
Gore is more concerned with what fills his pockets.  In a society that not
too long ago held the ideal of a fallout shelter in every backyard as the
perfect and only way, it's pretty obvious that we haven't come very far from
the herd mentality way of thinking. It's remarkable how while eschewing
religious belief, the public by and large seek other structured and managed
belief systems, such as the new religion of climate change led by pope Gore.
I find it quite interesting from the human behavior standpoint, while the
scientist in me just writhes in agony everytime someone starts to spew
climate change dogma at me. Haven't we figured out yet that the weather
trends change over time? I wonder when we as a society of supposedly
intelligent beings are going to stop picking navel lint and start thinking
about creating useful things like efficient energy use just for the sake of
efficient energy use. 
Okay, rant off....


 Regardless, we shouldn't
> be squandering the worlds resources including fossil fuels since they
> are finite in supply & our posterity may well condemn us for
> squandering them when they run out. However, I think most of us are
> attracted to diesels because they are more economical & 50 MPG is more
> thrilling to us than 0 to 60 in 5 seconds,

But that's why I like diesels. You get 50mpg *AND* 0 to 60 in 5 seconds when
you want it, without sacrificing the mileage when you drive conservatively
the other 99.5% of the time. Trouble is, population density has made
nitrogen emissions the target, to prevent smog. Killing nitrogen oxide
emissions ruins efficiency. Problem is not the cars, or the motors, really,
it's the way we live and work. If anything beneficial may come out of this
whole climate change madness, it may be improving mass transit, and
eventually limit car use in high density population areas, which is the real
fix for the air quality problem. Making James' new tractor or combine tier 4
compliant way out here in the sticks only accomplished 35% more fuel usage
for the same work as a non-compliant engine, and really didn't fix anything
other than improve oil company revenue... which, I'm afraid, is really all
that is going to be accomplished in the long run.
-james