Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club, wrote in January 2010 on the Huffington Post that President Barack Obama was “The Greenest President Ever“.
Weeellll….maybe not. You see, today we have these headlines:
The Daily Mail: Forty planes and six armoured cars: Obama visit to India the ‘biggest ever by a US President’
NDTV reports: US to spend $200 million a day on Obama’s Mumbai visit
(Note: snopes.com posted on November 4th that this $200 million figure was wrong, but at the same time the White House can’t provide the actual numbers for security reasons. However, the numbers are likely inflated and a result of an error that started with an Indian News Agency that got repeated. – read details here The Daily Mail has not retracted their story as of the evening of November 4th. If they do, we will certainly follow. -Anthony)
…About 3,000 people including Secret Service agents, US government officials and journalists would accompany the President. Several officials from the White House and US security agencies are already here for the past one week with helicopters, a ship and high-end security instruments…
Of course we know any US President doesn’t travel lightly, and needs security details and armored cars…but really, 3000 people and forty aircraft?
Let’s do the carbon math:
Estimate of the carbon footprint of President Obama’s trip to India
We are constantly told how bad air travel is for the planet. For example the UK has a whole organization dedicated to the issue, called “Plane Stupid”. Fortunately it is groups like these that enable us to calculate the carbon emissions of air travel using the handy dandy Terrapass web page.
1. If one assumes that all 3,000 people fly commercial from Washington, DC to New Delhi and back (and nowhere else), their cumulative carbon footprint can be calculated according to Terrapass at http://www.terrapass.com/carbon-footprint-calculator/#air.
Here’s the info on their calculation methodology.
So here’s what we get for the maximum number of people, ten, that we can select at one time on that website. Note that Bombay India is now called Mumbai, but the airport code is still BOM in Terrapass:
So multiply 62,238 lbs of CO2 for ten people times 300 (to make three thousand) and we get: 18, 671,400 lbs, or 9,336 short tons (2000 lbs) or 8,469 metric tons of CO2
To get the per capita figure in metric tons, divide that again by 3000 people which gives us 2.823 metric tons per person for this round trip.
2. The Brookings Institute did a survey in 2008 ranking major US cities by their per capita emissions. You can read the full report here. (PDF). If we were to compare his trip to the city table:
Obama’s trip comes in between Memphis and Raleigh on a per capita basis.
3. Caveat: Of course, this calculation excludes the carbon footprint for also traveling to Indonesia, S. Korea and Indonesia as part of this Grand Tour, as well as any other activity while in those places. Plus vehicles, and other forms of travel.
If we figured in all the travel, it would well be higher.
The message? Travel lightly but carry a big hockey stick.
4. If Obama wanted to offset the Carbon using the tool of choice of his buddy, Al Gore, the Chicago Climate Exchange, he could do so pretty cheaply since carbon offsets there are selling for 5 cents per metric ton.
So with 8,469 metric tons of CO2 emitted for the Washington to Bombay round trip, he could buy a carbon indulgence for a mere $423.45. That’s chump change when you are blowing a cool 200 million per day to keep everybody traveling in style.
Curiousgeorge says:
November 3, 2010 at 9:50 am
@ur momisugly tallbloke says:
November 3, 2010 at 7:00 am
…………………………… Not to mention the depleted uranium bootprint.
DU is used for a quite a lot of very mundane things besides big bullets, in case you weren’t aware of it. Used extensively in aircraft (including commercial airliners) for weight and balance of control surfaces among other things. It’s very useful stuff, where you need lots of weight in a small volume. I wouldn’t advise eating it or breathing DU dust from machining, etc. because it is a toxic metal, but the radiation component is insignificant.
—————————————————–
Try telling that to the doctors in Falluja dealing with an epidemic of birth defects since the US-led Operation Phantom Fury in November of 2004. When I say an epidemic I mean WAY more than two standard deviations by the way. Can send you links to pictures if you like, but they’re not pretty. Must have been something other than the DU then… maybe the “shake and bake”?
@ur momisugly John from CA says:
November 3, 2010 at 11:24 am
The “bit” the world is missing is that “He” is simply an icon for us. The President in the US accounts for very little within a scheme that was designed from day one to inhibit crazy government.
I wouldn’t go quite that far. The “bit” that other countries have difficulty understanding (and indeed many in the USA don’t understand ) is the difference between the office and the occupant of that office. Our system was designed to eliminate the influence of “personality”. By that I mean we do not give our loyalty/allegiance to the “person”, but rather to the “institution/office”. That is the essence of the Oath of Office for military, as well as political office holders. This magnificent departure from historical “personality dependent” cultures/government is what makes the US system unique, and what will ensure that it is perpetuated. Those checks and balances are focused on maintaining that “personality independence”.
If we can keep it, as Franklin said. We can keep it so long as it is kept out of the hands of those who demand loyalty/fealty to them rather than the office. Obama rode into office on the strength of personal loyalty, and last night was a reminder to him that “we the people” will not tolerate that kind usurpation of the office.
Bryan A says:
November 3, 2010 at 10:19 am
$200mil a day works out to $1.4bil per week. How do I stop it from coming out of MY pocket?
The answer is quite simple. Just assume the role that BHO prefers for all his constituents. Join the ranks of the unemployed. You can then be the recipient of all those wonderful gifts that only He can provide, unemployment checks (according to Pelosi the best possible economic stimulus), food stamps, Medicaid, etc.. And if you can’t make your mortgage payments, not to worry, they’ll just declare a foreclosure moratorium and you can live in your house for free.
All that is required in return is a personal declaration of eternal fealty to to the Mighty Emperor Barack the First( May He Be The Last and May He Not Last)
Dave W
Agreed
Obama could see his party was going to lose, candidates were running away from his agenda and losing support due to their votes for it, he can see his policies will not go further and are likely to be turned back.
So he schedules a nice long trip, to immediately follow the election, bringing along his family, supporters, and sycophants, off to far away turbulent lands. The security people are very professional, the President will be very well protected on the ground and from the air. And this is the area of the world where a rogue nuclear weapon either made or acquired by terrorists would most likely be located, that can be set off several blocks away, and President, family, supporters, and sycophants can all be killed in a sudden glorious nuclear fireball. It will be memorable, providing a unique legacy, far more notable than that coming from a young political activist who quickly rose in prominence to the presidency and culminated his career with a failed and discredited one-term tenure who then descended into a historically ignored obscurity.
A very dark scenario, to be sure, one no sane person would ever want to see pass. Besides, how much of an uncaring absolute narcissist would one have to be to desire such a memorial?
I thought Bush 43 was the greenest with his geothermal house?
kadaka (KD Knoebel) says:
November 3, 2010 at 1:01 pm
“[…] So he schedules a nice long trip, to immediately follow the election, bringing along his family, supporters, and sycophants, off to far away turbulent lands. The security people are very professional, the President will be very well protected on the ground and from the air. And this is the area of the world where a rogue nuclear weapon either made or acquired by terrorists would most likely be located, that can be set off several blocks away, and President, family, supporters, and sycophants can all be killed in a sudden glorious nuclear fireball. […]”
So then we’d have President Biden? I’m assuming he’s not allowed to go on this jolly.
Don’t forget the carbon footprint of the teleprompter and the remodeling that had to be done to accommodate it.
From H.R. on November 3, 2010 at 1:31 pm:
And in the time frame, that’d also be Vice President Pelosi. She’s Speaker of the House until next year, she’s still in line. Given that she’s otherwise killed off her political career to push through The Agenda, she would appreciate a nice payoff. Vice President is much nicer than some ambassadorship to some minor country somewhere, likely has a better pension as well. Don’t you agree?
A one-term lame duck or a running gag for the remaining two years: neither could do much more damage at this point.
I note a lot of people here complaining about President Obama and the Democrats. Not being a Yank, I couldn’t care much about internal US politics any way, but I suspect that Obama has not got much practical say in the matter of how much is spent on a trip to India. The UK TV series ‘Yes, Minister’ refers – all the civil servants and other hangers-on will be pushing for places, and making things very awkward unless they get their trip. They are the ones in charge, constantly extending their empires. The US President, the British Prime Minister – all these are just convenient figureheads to hide behind when any questions are asked…
So Barack is doing the same as our “holier than thou”climate scientists who fly around the world holding seminars/conferences in far flung exotic places,then preach
about the dangers of CO2..hypocrites
Kitefreak,
There is no evidence DU was used in Fallujah. The doctors’ comments and photos are anecdotal. No serious scientific or epidemiologocal studies have been undertaken and you have no idea at all what the rate of birth defects in Fallujah was before 2004.
kadaka (KD Knoebel) says: {November 3, 2010 at 1:56 pm}
From H.R. on November 3, 2010 at 1:31 pm: So then we’d have President Biden? I’m assuming he’s not allowed to go on this jolly.
And in the time frame, that’d also be Vice President Pelosi. She’s Speaker of the House until next year, she’s still in line.”
Pelosi would not become Vice President. She would remain Speaker of the House until her term ends. The Speaker of the House would only become President if both the President and Vice President were removed at the same time. The new President would nominate a new VP to be confirmed by both Houses of Congress as per the 25th Amendment:
“Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.”
Now if new President Biden foolishly nominated Hillary Clinton for VP, he just might “disappear” and Hillary would then finally get her shot at being President of the U.S.
I call BS on the $200 million per day. Even if we pad the number by 500 people that’s still $57 K per person per day. They could all have a brand new Porsche to drive and stay in 5 star hotels for that and still have change left over.
This sounds like a typical sound byte where they derive the costs from money that will be spent either way they are just attributing it to this event.
@ur momisugly Kitefreak says:
November 3, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Try telling that to the doctors in Falluja dealing with an epidemic of birth defects since the US-led Operation Phantom Fury in November of 2004. When I say an epidemic I mean WAY more than two standard deviations by the way. Can send you links to pictures if you like, but they’re not pretty. Must have been something other than the DU then… maybe the “shake and bake”?
I don’t like to point to Wiki as a source, but in this case I’ll refer you to the 114 references given at the bottom of this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depleted_uranium . I think you will find several differing opinions. As for the “birth defects”, etc. there may, MAY, be some validity to the claim, IF the ingested dosages were high enough. However, it is extremely unlikely due to the nature of U238, and is dependent on the proximity of potential victims to where the DU was deployed. Keep in mind that not many people survive an attack by those weapons in the first place.
If you decide to read the Wiki page, please verify this conclusion for yourself by following up on the referenced urls. I’m not a doctor, so I can’t claim any personal expertise or experience in this specific medical area. However, I have acquired some personal experience and education regarding nuclear materials (and warfare) in the last 50 years or so.
In the UK we pay a lot of tax on air travel (this tax is set to rise sharply) in order to placate the greens. Of course, the traveller should be given an option, namely that if they buy the appropriate carbon credits they don’t have to pay the (green) tax. Given that these credits can be bought at 5 cents a ton, a family of four could go on a long haul holiday without having to pay more than a dollar for the required carbon credits instead of being forced to pay approx £300 in green taxes! Madness all of this. Why we are allowing our governments to rip us of like this is beyond comprehension.
R. de Haan says:
November 3, 2010 at 5:14 am
1:07 mark of the video “Without emitting greenhouse gases or carbon” ?????
“The Greenest President Ever“…….18, 671,400 lbs, or 9,336 short tons (2000 lbs) or 8,469 metric tons of CO2
All CO2 is equal. Some CO2 is more equal than others.
The appalling hypocracy of the watermelons is a disgrace to man’s reason.
“Forty planes…”
WTF
Smokey says:
November 3, 2010 at 8:12 am
Compare our current President with the last great President:
=============================
Bingo, Smokey. That was a profound speech. Thanks for the link.
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
Dave Wendt says:
November 3, 2010 at 12:28 pm
Bryan A says:
November 3, 2010 at 10:19 am
$200mil a day works out to $1.4bil per week. How do I stop it from coming out of MY pocket?
The answer is quite simple. Just assume the role that BHO prefers for all his constituents. Join the ranks of the unemployed. You can then be the recipient of all those wonderful gifts that only He can provide, unemployment checks (according to Pelosi the best possible economic stimulus), food stamps, Medicaid, etc.. And if you can’t make your mortgage payments, not to worry, they’ll just declare a foreclosure moratorium and you can live in your house for free.
All that is required in return is a personal declaration of eternal fealty to to the Mighty Emperor Barack the First( May He Be The Last and May He Not Last)
===============================
Repeated for effect. Thanks, Dave. WELL said.
But instead of “B H O”….that takes too long to say.
I prefer “B O”, for short! 😎
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
Part of Barry’s ‘core retinue’.. or courtiers are the 215 CEOs from the likes of Pepsico, etal. So in addition to carbon credits, expect American jobs to also be burned:
http://mindtaker.blogspot.com/2010/11/shtfplan-taxpayers-to-pay-nearly-1.html
Slavery 2.0 is here… and the slave is… YOU.
-Drunken Economist
http://twitter.com/drunk_economist
Tom in Florida;
Now if new President Biden foolishly nominated Hillary Clinton for VP, he just might “disappear” and Hillary would then finally get her shot at being President of the U.S.>>
That seems like counting on an awful string of events. I modeled the future on my laptop. It isn’t working well yet, but I do get a snippet of conversation now and then, here’s one from just a bit over three years from now you might be interested in:
Treasury Dept; M. President, we regret to inform you that the country has gone bankrupt.
President; Dang. Was hoping that wouldn’t happen. Only needed a few more trillion to spend my way out of this recession. OK, so we’re bankrupt. Who owns the paper?
Treasury Dept; Uhm… mostly China.
President; Well what do they want? Can we mortgage something? How about California? They have to take Schwartzenneger with it though.
Treasury Dept; We already mortgaged California. All the other states too. They said they want to take title to a state or two….
President; Fine. They can have California.
Treasury Dept; Uhm… they don’t want California. They asked for Alaska. They said something about Guam, but then they changed their mind, something about it being too tippy.
President; Alaska? ALASKA!? Why would they want Alaska?
Treasury Dept; Oil… all that oil you wouldn’t let us drill for is still there….and they want half of Texas too…
President; Oil? They want oil? Would they take Canada instead?
Treasury Dept; Uhm… we don’t own Canada.
President; Does China know that?
Treasury Dept; I think so…
President; Well offer them Canada and see what they say. Tell them we’ll throw in Guam, and the tippy thing is just a myth. If they won’t take Canada I guess we might have to cut a deal for Alaska. Are the values of the states marked on the backs of the map pieces here? What do I do, just turn them over and look at the numbers?
Treasury Dept; This isn’t monopoly…
President; Canada. Final offer. Canada or nothing. We still got nukes you know.
Treasury Dept; Actually, we took a loan out on those too. They’re being held as collatoral in Iran. Part of them agreeing not to enrich Uranium anymore, remember that deal?
President; $^&W#R*U!! I should never have taken this job. I must have “inhaled” the day I decided to run for this office. Should have known I couldn’t clean up Obama’s mess in four years. Should never have run against him in the primaries. Shouldn’t have picked my stupid husband for treasury either.
Treasury Dept; I tried to tell you…
President; Shut up Bill.
Treasury Dept; Yes Hillary.
$200 million a day doesn’t pass the sniff test. I see that Senator Bachmann is being ridiculed on CNN for accepting what is clearly an inflated figure.