Happy Earth Day

Our local paper has a program they call “Newspaper in Education”. The idea is that they supply copies of the paper to classrooms in the area so students can study current events. Lately they’ve changed their billing and automatically added $1 to my invoice. In the fine print is tells me to deduct the $1 from my payment if I choose not to participate.

It used to be that I could check a box on my invoice and add a dollar. I suppose this new way will net them more donations since you have to figure out what they are doing to you and opt out of the program.

No wonder they have to trick you into donating. Take a look at the global warming article they published last Sunday specifically for “Newspaper in Education” use. You will note that they are doing quite a snow job on our children. You will also note that the author leaves no room for debate or doubt about her “facts”.

NASA studies the effects of carbon footprints
By Diane K. Fisher Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Published: 4/19/2008 11:41 PM Daily Herald
How big is your footprint? We don't mean your shoe size. More important is your "carbon footprint." Nearly everyone has one.
Do you ride in a car? Use electricity? Heat your house? Eat fresh strawberries flown in from far-away in winter? Use throw-away products such as paper towels?
Of course you do. It's hard not to!
Every one of these habits adds to your carbon footprint­on the sky. The carbon in your "footprint" is in the form of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Too much greenhouse gas is bad. These gases cause the atmosphere to act like the glass roof of a greenhouse, letting the sun's energy in during the day, then trapping some of it at night.
The atmosphere cannot cool off enough before the sun comes up again the next day. Over years, the oceans and the land grow warmer and warmer.
Your carbon footprint adds to those of billions of other people's, using millions of cars and trucks and airplanes and factories and refineries and power plants and even recycling plants. These technologies all burn fuels. They all burp carbon gases into the atmosphere.
We all use the products and services these carbon-belching technologies provide. We all have a carbon footprint.
We are all responsible!
To help us learn to fix the problem, NASA studies the atmosphere and its greenhouse pollutants. One mission that is helping is the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer, or TES. TES flies with three other instruments on a satellite named Aura.
TES looks down from space through the atmosphere and measures some greenhouse gases all over the world. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder on Aqua also measures greenhouse gases. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory will launch in late 2008 to measure carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas.
This information is important. We must understand the problem and tell everyone! That way, we can all work together to shrink our carbon footprints!
Make "Gummy Greenhouse Gases" at spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/tes/gumdrops.
(end of article)

I wonder if the libs ever wonder if they made a mistake in killing the atomic power program in this country.

Now, I’m no fan of sending money to the electric company. That’s why we harp on the kids about closing doors and turning off lights. And we do consolidate our errands. But I am irked by the way junk science is jammed down the throats of our kids in school. And this is a prime example of it.