Global Warming in Iowa?
Interview with Mike Carberry
Interview with Mike Carberry, an environment advocate and advisor to iowaglobalwarming.org, the Sierra Club and irenew
What is global warming? The planet is getting warmer, warmth is energy. Hurricanes feed off of warm water and are getting stronger. The same is true with tornadoes and storms - they feed off of energy and heat. When the cold front meets the warm front - those warm fronts are stronger from more energy. Climate disruption is a better word than global warming.
What each Iowan can see for themselves: I grew up in Benton county Iowa. Newhall Iowa - my dad was the large animal vet there. My job was to catch the animals for him to work on! We used to have gentle rains - where ½ an inch was standard. Today we are having huge storms that drop a lot of water - 2 to 6 inches.
We had a lot of ice storms this past year as well. The freeze line (where rain and sleet turn to ice) has shifted. It used to be in the Missouri area. Our winters are getting a little warmer in Iowa and we now are seeing the freeze line in Iowa.
In the last 50 years the average temperature in Iowa has risen 2 degrees. In Alaska they've risen as much as 7 degrees.
Why do we allow this global warming to continue? Exxon mobile spends 20 million a year to fund a disinformation campaign about global warming. Out of Balance: Exxon Mobile's Impact on Climate Change is a great video and gives more info to this. Exxon made 44 million last year in profit and they don't want the status quo to change! Railroads move coal for a living and have vested interest in keeping coal companies around.
There are those (large corporations among them) that say global warming is cyclical, just a theory. That's just not true! IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control) gives us real empirical data that is irrefutable. Here is what they say about global warming: It's real, man made and deadly serious. We need to do something about it right now.
What can we do? Most important thing to do is contact your legislator and tell them how important you think our energy policy is and how you want them to decrease global warming through better laws. Our Senators are Chuck Grassley (202-224-3744) and Tom Harkin (202-224-3254). Our current representative is Tom Latham (202-225-5476).
There is no one thing - no silver bullet - to get rid of it. There are, however, some silver buckshot!
Energy efficiency - use less energy. Wrap hot water heater, change your lightbulbs, drive more efficient cars, put in better windows, turn off the lights and appliances you are not using.
Renewable energy - replace old carbon based fuels with renewable energy. Wind, solar, geo thermal, sustainable use of bio fuels - all options we need to be using.
Alternative forms of transportation - rail systems, bus systems, walking and biking more , car pooling, less trips to town.
No new coal plants. Waterloo and Marshalltown have coals plants proposed. Alliant is proposing the Marshalltown one. Ls Power - an out of state company who will build the plant here, sell the power generated from it out of state - and we will get the mercury and they get the profit. These companies say they do this for economic development. How is that when they bring in out of state workers to build it. When it's done, they'll have about 100 workers left. 75% of our energy now comes from coal plants. That number needs to be reduced. We have manufacturers that build the towers and blades for windmills in this state - and have created over 2000 jobs here.
Why can't we build more windmill farms? We need laws in Des Moines to make it easy for the small guys to have windmill farms. Take a clue from Minnesota - they have passed those laws and are now 3rd in the country for wind energy production.
Any final words? Global warming is not a red or blue issue - it is a green issue.
Published by Debra Brown
Traveler (not a tourist) who happens to live in Iowa. Run my own business out of my home setting up discount accounts for consumers who wish to create a safe non-toxic environment for their families. View profile
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6 Comments
Post a CommentOy, "since this article is deep into fantasy land" comment may be factual, but when someone starts a comment as mark did, they lose all credibility in my eyes. Maybe it should have been called Climate Change from the start. Mark guest is highly unlikely to know about melting polar icecaps, anyway...I wonder if there have been any converts to believing scientific evidence about global warming. Talk about goofy weather, summer 2010 was a sorcher and unseasonably cool here is sunny, So Cal, while the rest of the country was sweltering.
Hate to mention it since this article is deep into fantasy land, but rain and storms are larger in global cooling scenarios, not warming. As the global temperature has dropped markedly in the past year, we are seeing much higher rainfall.
5 billion for the warmers -- that's clear. And who would that be?
The point is Exxon is denying a given, and spending 20 million to do so. I believe the average American is quite aware we have global warming going on. To try to make us believe that it will all go away, it's cyclical, its all happened before - is to belittle us. We've currently got those kind of people in the administration and I'm tired of being treated like an idiot (by an idiot).
I'd like you to refute the melting polar ice caps, the rise in temperatures around the world, the increase is severity of natural disasters -- I don't believe you can.
in my rush to share this interview, I missed one glaring mistake -- the paragraph should read as follows:
Why do we allow this global warming to continue? Exxon Mobil spends $20 million a year to fund a disinformation campaign about global warming. Out of Balance: Exxon Mobile's Impact on Climate Change is a great video and gives more info to this. Exxon made $44 billion last year in profit and they don't want the status quo to change! Railroads move coal for a living and have vested interest in keeping coal burning power plants around.
I followed the stupidity... ended up here. Hmmm....
20 million per year from Exxon for deniers vs 5 billion per year for the warming crowd.
Follow the money?