A Hard Rain's A-gonna Fall

In 1962 Bob Dylan performed A Hard Rain's A-gonna Fall for the first time one month prior to the Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1963 in response to a question about if the hard rain was a reference to nuclear fallout. He answered with this.

"No, it's not atomic rain, it's just a hard rain. It isn't the fallout rain. I mean some sort of end that's just gotta happen... In the last verse, when I say, 'the pellets of poison are flooding the waters', that means all the lies that people get told on their radios and in their newspapers."

The Copenhagen Climate Summit has come to an end with a weak non-binding agreement. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change the agreement attempts to cap the warming to two degrees Celsius, though a leaked document from the same organization states that it could lead to a three degree rise.

Here is what was done to get this accord. 1. Invited participants from environmental groups were blocked from entering the conference, and in many cases were arrested because there was a suspicion they might break the law. 2. Developing and third world countries reported that they received extreme pressure from the U.S. and other developed nations to accept higher limit to CO2. This included Hillary Clinton offering a $100 billion fund to help developing nations, but only if a particular accord was accepted (the funding source was undefined). 3. Poor nations were not included in the final negotiations.

So, what do we have? Amy Goodman of Democracy Now reported this.

"In an all-night session that followed Obama’s announcement, delegates from around the world denounced the US-led deal as an undemocratic sham that sacrificed the interests of poor countries. Ambassador Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping, who chairs the largest grouping of developing countries called the G-77, though it represents more than 130 countries, condemned the agreement as 'extraordinarily flawed.'”

This agreement sentences nations to extinction. Maldives will cease to exist if we do not do more. Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands: the same. The number of climate refugees will increase as large parts or all of nations drown. The glaciers around the world will melt, turning off the tap for millions. History has told us that this will lead to more regional conflicts.

Unless the United State accepts that our use of fossil fuel is a form a genocide, selectively killing millions of people based upon national origin; unless the United States invests in improving the world rather than attacking sovereign states; unless the citizens of this country force our government and industry to change, if humanity survives my grandchildren will witness the greatest extension of species since the Ice Age.

Literally with tears in my eyes I give you this.

A Hard Rain's A-gonna Fall, Bob Dylan

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains,
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways,
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests,
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans,
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it,
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin',
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin',
I saw a white ladder all covered with water,
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken,
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin',
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world,
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin',
Heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin',
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin',
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter,
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony,
I met a white man who walked a black dog,
I met a young woman whose body was burning,
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow,
I met one man who was wounded in love,
I met another man who was wounded with hatred,
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
And, what'll you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin',
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest dark forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten,
Where black is the color, where none is the number,
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it,
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin',
But I'll know my song well before I start singin',
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

The sources of CO2 Emissions

(The United States)

I had questions about the sources of Carbon Dioxide (CO2), and attempted to find an answer on the Internet. My first question was what are the sources of CO2 emissions by percentage. In addition I had heard that driving a car produces less CO2 than flying. I wanted to confirm that, and also get an idea of how much more CO2 flying produces.

While looking for answer I found very good in-depth studies, and I found single issue studies. What was hard to find was an easy to follow summary of CO2 emission sources. This is my attempt.

My second part will be a single issue look, comparing driving versus flying. It is not in-depth.

Sources of CO2(1)

The most common CO2 reduction targets I hear are 20% by 2020 and 40% by 2020. Because the goals are in percentages I wanted to know, in percent where our CO2 emissions come from. Also because the goals are for CO2 only I will only examine the sources of CO2. There are other emissions that contribute to the green house effect, with methane being the second greatest.

CO2 emissions are almost completely from human activity. 94.0% come from fossil fuel combustion. (Graph on left)

Breaking down the number further electrical generation and transportation are the major producers of CO2. (Graph below)

This graph is of the direct sources of CO2 emissions. For example, non-electric household heat is included in residential sources as it is burned on site, but electrical household heat is included in electrical generation.

Similarly the electrical generation does not include the secondary CO2 sources such as the mining, processing, and transportation of the fossil fuel.

Our emissions of CO2 are still increasing. Between 1990 and 2007 the emissions from electrical generation and transportation have increased. All other sources have remained almost stable. Stated another way, the only reason our CO2 emissions are increasing is our increases from transportation and electrical generation.

Electrical generation produces 38% of the total CO2 emissions. If we only look at fossil fuels, our electrical generation accounts for 36% of our fossil fuel consumption, yet it produces 42% of the (fossil fuel) CO2 emissions.

This next graph shows that the vast majority of the CO2 released in electrical generation is from coal powered plants. Coal is very dirty, and very high in CO2 emissions when burnt.
By rebuilding our electrical infrastructure from the generators to the end user we could meet the 20% CO2 reduction goal and almost meet the 40% reduction goal. (Please see my very important correction added as a comment.)

Plane vs. Car (2)

The chart to the right provides the total CO2 generated by different classes of transportation. The largest classes are, in descending order of the CO2 emitted, passenger cars, light-duty trucks, other trucks, and commercial aircraft. I will examine two classes in more detail; passenger car and commercial aircraft.

Passenger cars produce 33% of the CO2, and commercial aircraft produces only 8%. That does not account for the number of people carried. Taking that into account plane travel emits 0.000260 Teragrams (Tg) of CO2 per passenger mile while a passenger car emits 0.000249 Tg of CO2 per passenger mile. So, on average it is better to drive.

Planes produce more CO2 on takeoff than for cruising. A more accurate measure would be to compare a particular trip. http:\\www.Grist.org compared 100 people chartering a plane to fly from Philadelphia to Boston with all 100 people driving alone in a medium-sized car. The cars each produced 104 kilograms (kg) of CO2 for a total of 10,400 kg. The plane emitted 18,400 kg of CO2. It was better for each 100 people to drive alone.

Journalist Pablo Päster calculated if it would be better to drive a family of 4 in a medium size car from San Francisco to Boston, or take a non-stop flight. He included all greenhouse gases, and included the extra detrimental effect of releasing the gases at altitude. Driving turned out to be better. Flying produced over 8 tons of emissions and driving (including stops in national parks) produced less than 2 tons. Comparing a single driver, flying would produce more than 2 tons of emission, and driving would be less than 2 tons. So, even driving alone would have been better than flying.

There are many more studies, and every one I found confirmed that it is better to drive a medium sized car than to fly.

To put this in personal terms, the 1955 Chrysler gets about 16 mpg on the highway. Other owners of cars like the Mercedes 300SEL 6.3 have found that mileage can be in the high teens, but the mid teens would be a better highway mileage figure. A mid sized car gets about 30 mpg highway. So, for these comparisons driving these classic cars with 2 people is about the same as driving a mid sized car alone. (The time to get there is not included in the calculations, nor the fun factor of driving.)

Foot notes:
(1) The data used for the first section came from the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory - 2009 which covers 1990 to 2007. All graphs are my own except for the Emissions Allocated to Economic Sectors which came from the inventory. On Dec. 3, 2009 a report was released covering 2008, but I did not see the extra value in rewriting what I had already done.
(2) CO2 data comes from the Greenhouse Gas Inventory. Passenger mileage date comes from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics .

I sent the following message to the White House. I am probably only a check mark on a count, but without contacting them I would not even be that. The easiest way to contact the Executive Branch is at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/. They only require your name and email address. (Geographical coordinates of your house are not asked for.)

Congratulations on winning the Nobel Peace Prize. I hope winning this prize encourages you to work in action towards the goal you speak about. I hope winning this prize spurs you on to complete your promises to the nation when they elected you. I hope winning this prize wakes you up as to the danger we face if the crimes of the past and the present are not investigated.

We are still in an illegal war in Iraq. Both our nation and theirs want us out, yet we are still there and there continues to be talk of permanent bases. Peace is the end of war.

We are at risk of being in an endless war in Afghanistan. This is not a war that can be won without creating a permanent occupation and a U.S. run police state. We can not create a democracy by supporting a fraudulent election.

We attacked Iraq without cause. The previous administration was looking for a reason to invade Iraq within 24 hours of the 9/11 attack. That makes this a war of aggression; a war crime.

The United States has been guilty of torturing or hiring to torture for many years, possibly going back to prior to the Carter administration. We need an open investigation, and a clear message to the world that this is un-American and we hold those people responsible for their actions. This is the only legal action we can take, and inaction is possibly a war crime.

President Eisenhower warned us of the danger of the military industrial complex. We are seeing that danger play out today. We give criminal corporations hundreds of billions of dollars, much of which is used for lobbying, yet ACORN, not found guilty of anything has all funding cut.

Your efforts to be bipartisan, your efforts to be conciliatory have not resulted in a less divided nation. Rather it has given time to those who want to make us a Christian state time to galvanize resistance to you and the Democratic party. Another "man in the middle" election fraud, like the one used to elect Bush a second time could be used to unseat you, or to unseat Democratic congress men and women.

I write this in true congratulations, but also with hope. Hope that you will be the man we elected to office. Hope that you will change the direction this nation is going while we still have some freedoms remaining. Hope that you will be more than the spokesperson for the people of the world; that you will be a person of action.

An interesting link

I encourage you to look at the video linked below.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Bill Moyers interview a successful Cigna executive who realized that “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of moral crisis, maintain a neutrality” (Dante) and quit. (link below) This is an insider’s view into the insurance industry. It explains why our costs are so high. It covers the tactics the insurance industry is and will use to derail reform, and why the blue dog Democrats are obstructing real reform.

As always, regardless of if you agree or disagree with my opinions, support democracy by participating. Contact your Senators, Representatives, and President and let them know your opinions. That is the only way to counter the influence of high dollar lobbyist.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/watch2.html

“The Medicare program that we have here is a government-run program that has administrative expenses that are like three percent or so.”

“(The insurance industry) spend 20 cents of every premium dollar on overhead, which is administrative expense or profit.”

“The satisfaction ratings are higher in our Medicare program, a government-run program, than in private insurance.”

“And that same thing happened, in the Nataline Sarkisyan case. You had a corporate bureaucrat making a decision on coverage. So, they are trying to make you worry. And fear a government bureaucrat being between you and your doctor. What you have now is a corporate bureaucrat between you and your doctor.”

Here are some interesting posts.

The owner of Blackwater may have committed murder.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/8/5/in_explosive_allegations_ex_employees_link

Germany's experience with cash for clunkers.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,640572,00.html

This one is interesting. Did Obama intentionally upstage Hillary?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,636565,00.html

ACLURLZ

There is no way I could paraphrase an article from the ACLU of Colorado newsletter. For that reason I will quote it word for word. My apologies to this great organization for ripping off their writing.

From the June 2009 issue of All Rights Reserved:
ACLURLZ?

Between fighting to repeal the death penalty, representing the wrongfully arrested and suing on behalf of prisoners subjected to inexcusable abuse, we deal with pretty serious topics. Every once in a while, however, we come across a civil liberties issue that makes us smile.

It all started when a dedicated vegan Kelly Lee-Coffman wanted to express her joy of soy by displaying ILVTOFU on her license plate. Despite her willingness to pay an extra $50, plus an additional annual fee, the Colorado DMV rejected her application. Officials denied the plate on the grounds that some less-than-vegetable-minded observers might read "I LV TO F-U" which would violate the department's propriety standard, which bans anything deemed to be "offensive to good taste and decency."

Upon learning that anonymous DMV censors wielded ultimate power in determining the definition of "good taste," we started to wonder, "What else had they banned?" Our first open records request produced a complete list of rejected plates. Most were obvious variations on George Carlin's seven words you can't say on television, though Colorado DMV censors had expanded that list to at least a couple dozen. Some, like "2MFENAD" were simply inscrutable (if that's naughty, we're not clever enough to if figure out).

The censorship made even less sense once we compared the banned plates to the list of nearly 50,000 approved plates. We may not be the most qualified experts on decency, but we still can't figure out why "GEEK" was censored and "NERD" was allowed. Or why "NOCRAP" was in, but "CRAP" was out. "TOOSEXY" was banned, but "2SEXY" was just fine. "TOPLE55" - out, "TOPLESS" - in.

When word of our interest in vanity plates reached State Senator Greg Brophy, who represents the eastern plains, he did not share our concern over censorship. However, he suggested two plates that we're quite sure the Colorado DMV would not permit: "ACLUSUX" and "FUACLU". Executive Director Cathy Hazouri kindly replied that if Sen. Brophy would like to challenge the censorship of his preferred plates in court, we'd be glad to take his case! We're still waiting for an answer. In the meantime, the exchange has been covered nationwide, including the Rachel Maddow Show and the LA Times.

Beyond the quips and editorials, at issue here is the government's role in subjectively deciding what is and what is not allowed. In addition to the silly and arbitrary, there are some clear examples of political speech being banned, such as "BADUSA". Vanity plates may only have a marginal role in our daily lives, but they are nonetheless a facet of public speech bound by the Constitution.

Find out more about this issue by going to our website and clicking on the license plate. You'll find a list of banned plates, an explanation of the background, and our very own web game which will let you match your censorship skills against the DMV.

Back to me.

The site mentioned is http://www.aclu-co.org/vanityplate/vanityplate.html

In the same newsletter they also wrote about their defense of a student at Dakota Ridge High School who wore a "NObama" t-shirt when Michelle Obama made a campaign stop at the school. When he refused to leave he was handcuffed, issued an order to appear, and held against his will. He was also suspended. After the ACLU discussed the case with the Jefferson County Sheriff's office all charges were dropped, and the school rescinded the suspension.

I support the ACLU because of it's willingness to defend all our rights, and every one's rights. If you limit what organizations you support, as I do, I hope that the ACLU is one that you support. Be it a mass murderer, Dick Cheney, the KKK, or a law abiding citizen caught in a web of circumstances, if the ACLU feels that that person's constitutional rights were denied they will defend them. (Oh, I forgot. Dick Cheney is a mass murderer.)