WUWT readers may recall that back on October 7th, 2011, there was this story: Friday Funny – The newest member of the Union of Concerned Scientists where my dog Kenji, became an esteemed member of the Union of credit card carrying Concerned Scientists.
The photo then showed him with his welcome kit from that prestigious organization:
Only one problem then, one of the items that Kenji paid extra for was not included, and he’s been wondering ever since what has happened to that splendid Union of Concerned Scientists mousepad he paid an extra 10 bucks for. Months have gone by since October 7th, 2011. He was about to go barking mad waiting for it!
Today, just over 5 months later, it arrived, note the postmark.
Wow those UCS guys are fast in fulfillment.
It came with a high quality letter from the president:
And of course the fabulous mousepad itself:
It was a little “ruff” around the edges I noted, and smelled to high heaven. Why? because it is made of recycled tire rubber and it smells like a Goodyear Tire Store.
Eh. I figured Kenji would use it as a chew toy. No such luck, he hates the smell.
Maybe the David Suzuki Foundation will smell better. I wonder what it takes to be a member there?
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…perhaps they had to wait for the tyres to wear out on the green car before sending away for recycling.
Shame about the aroma – my dogs enjoy playing with a tyre though – as long as I push it and they chase – tell me again who’s the foolish one
Congratulations to Kenji all the same – watch out Suzuki
I like that your “free” mousepad cost you $10. Are these people honest about anything at all?
My springer spaniel, Rory, would know what to do with that mouse pad… she’s always looking for something new to chew…
Kenji is a very interesting dog! (and, likely, smarter than most of the UoCS). What breed is he?
REPLY: Japanese Chin
anthony –
just responded on the Suzuki thread to Scarface’s comment re WUWT comments showing as all capitalised and very faint , and said it was happening to me yesterday, but was not happening today, even tho i hadn’t updated browser etc.
well, just opened your new thread and the one comment so far is very faint and capitalised. wonder what is causing it?
My guess is the recycled tires smell better than the recycled alarmism UCS peddles.
Wait, Kenji paid $10 for the “free” mouse pad? That’s the kind of accounting that promises more jobs from the “green” economy!
UNFAIR! If Kenji has a pedigree, he MAY be more qualified than most of the other UCS members!
As a soon-to-be-former member of the UCS (I’m not renewing) I was annoyed that I was receiving email after email admonishing me to renew my membership. Odd, I thought, since I’d just joined in August….Why was I already being hounded in Jan & Feb for membership renewal???
Turns out that membership runs on a calendar year. I didn’t get any discount for joining mid year, nor was it pro-rated. Still, as close as Kevin (the UCS big-wig) and I have become with his endless correspondence urging me to help with the fight, we’re not good enough friends for me to sign back up in the hopes he’ll invite me over for dinner.
The more I look at the tomes of UCS junk mail I get, the more I realize UCS is just another advocacy group, and I’m not impressed with the “science” they present. In fact, the more I look at a lot of these groups, like WWF, Greenpeace, Sierra Club, UCS, and others, the more they appear to me as get rich quick (and for a long time) schemes.
If I get the chance, and when his membership expires, I’m going to ask Kenji if he’d like to form a Union of Formerly Concerned Scientists.
O/T but important (apologies to Kenji for ignoring his smelly plight):
9 March: Reuters: Barbara Lewis: Poland blocks EU efforts on carbon limits
(Additional reporting by Charlie Dunmore and Francesco Guarascio in Brussels and Gabriela Baczynska in Warsaw; Editing by David Gregorio)
Coal-reliant Poland on Friday vetoed European Union efforts to move further towards a low carbon economy, pitting itself against the rest of the 27-member bloc…
But Poland, which relies on carbon-intensive coal for more than 90 percent of its electricity, said it could not agree to any inclusion of milestones for future carbon reductions in an EU text debated at a meeting of environment ministers.
“Unfortunately, one delegation has blocked,” Denmark’s Climate and Energy Minister Martin Lidegaard told reporters. “It has been a tough day. It would have been better if 27 countries would have been on board, but 26 is very encouraging.”
The text of an environmental council meeting does not have firm policy status within the EU’s complex decision-making process, but it is a signal, which is weakened if consensus cannot be achieved.
Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said the backing of almost the entire bloc was enough to allow the Commission, the EU’s executive arm, to keep working on further progress.
“Twenty-six member states want us to move ahead with the low carbon road-map,” she told Reuters.
To help fill the policy vacuum after a firm goal of a 20 percent carbon cut by 2020 expires, the roadmap lays out a route towards a long-term aim to reduce the bloc’s carbon emissions by 80 percent by the middle of the century…
Whereas Poland opposed increased ambition, other EU nations have objected to what they see as a step in the wrong direction, with the dropping of the 25 percent marker for 2020.
Britain is among those wanting an early increase in ambition.
“The outcome shows how we must redouble our efforts in explaining to Poland that shifting to a low-carbon economy is part of long term growth in Europe,” Britain’s Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey said in a statement.
“There’ll be no pause in the UK’s efforts to push for a 30 percent emissions target for 2020, providing the much needed certainty that business needs to invest in the green technologies of the future.”…
Even at the international climate talks in Durban, Poland was isolated from other EU nations in its refusal to agree a plan to reduce a surplus of Kyoto carbon permits, known as Assigned Amount Units (AAUs), which it wants to hold on to because it can sell them on international markets…
Environmental groups and the European Parliament, which has been pushing for environmental ambition, said Poland was missing a huge opportunity in its resistance to a low carbon future.
“Poland is not only slowing down their own country, but also the aspirations and opportunities for sustainable growth in the other 26 Member States,” Jo Leinen, a German Social Democrat said in a statement.
“Poland is adding to its image of an outdated economy and is holding back progress for the entire continent,” Greenpeace EU climate policy director Joris den Blanken said in a statement.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/09/us-eu-environment-idUSBRE8281DV20120309
Anthony, thanks for the funny reminder of this, I’d forgotten all about it.
REPLY: My pleasure, welcome to the light – Anthony
I can’t make out the postmark.
And what is happening to dogdom?!!?? When I delivered news papers the dogs in that neighborhood tried to rip the tires off my bicycle–and later, my car.
I asked one dog owner what the dog did with the tires she captured, No answer.
We have dog toys here that reek of Butadiene and it seems like they get their turn in the rotation.
But back to the point–that schedule is consistent with their delivery of everything they promise, isn’t it?
8 March: Seattle Times: Angela Charlton: Airbus says China blocking orders over EU scheme
China is blocking orders for at least $12 billion worth of Airbus jets to protest the European Union’s emissions trading fees, in a new challenge to the program aimed at fighting global warming, the planemaker said Thursday…
With some analysts warning of a brewing trade war, Airbus spokesman Stefan Schaffrath said his company is seeing “retaliation threats” from 26 countries, “in particular from China.”…
EU officials defended the emissions system. Asked about the Airbus complaint at the daily midday briefing, EU spokesman Isaac Valero Ladron said, “I’m not in a position to make any comments about possible trade decisions. I think it’s in everybody’s interest to reduce greenhouse gases, which affects climate change, and airplanes affect that, as well.”…
The United States, China, Russia, India and many other countries are opposed and say the bloc cannot impose taxes on flights outside its own airspace…
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2017698262_apeufranceairbuschina.html
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I am truly puzzled Anthony. A quick check on the web shows that the Union of Concerned Scientists adheres to the AGW religion and accept the phony hypothesis that CO2 is the preponderant cause of the Earth’s recent warming. No wonder Kenji does not like the smell of the mousepad.
Now that he’s a member of UCS, maybe it will increase his chances of becoming an IPCC contributor.
I suppose it is my fault, but, very few, if any, websites I visit have made me laugh harder than I just did now 🙂
Anthony, do you keep that gorgeous dog in your hand bag>?
Are you sure they did not advertise that you could/might/maybe be receiving a mousepad, sometime in the future?
Perhaps their distribution system is run on the same computer that the models are run on, with a bias to send the pad to your children/grandchildren so that they have a better life than you do.
For Kenji to trade bucks for a mouse pad would give the SPCA paws.
pat says: @March 9, 2012 at 5:03 pm
O/T but important (apologies to Kenji for ignoring his smelly plight):
9 March: Reuters: Barbara Lewis: Poland blocks EU efforts on carbon limits
(Additional reporting by Charlie Dunmore and Francesco Guarascio in Brussels and Gabriela Baczynska in Warsaw; Editing by David Gregorio)
Coal-reliant Poland on Friday vetoed European Union efforts to move further towards a low carbon economy, pitting itself against the rest of the 27-member bloc……
Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said the backing of almost the entire bloc was enough to allow the Commission, the EU’s executive arm, to keep working on further progress.
“Twenty-six member states want us to move ahead with the low carbon road-map,” she told Reuters.
To help fill the policy vacuum after a firm goal of a 20 percent carbon cut by 2020 expires, the roadmap lays out a route towards a long-term aim to reduce the bloc’s carbon emissions by 80 percent by the middle of the century…”
__________________________________________
I agree that this is very important.
I did an analysis of what the “aim to reduce the bloc’s carbon emissions by 80 percent by the middle of the century” actually means to the rest of us using the United states as an example since we are “The Big Emitters” I did it in response to a comment that:
“The cost to reduce CO2 output by 80% has been calculated, and that’s the low end of numbers estimated to “remove” mankind’s footprint of warming…..” http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/45086#comment-380264
_______________
We get all types of “Soothing” crap from the propaganda machines and economic model projections about how it really is going to be “painless” So Let us look at what real facts tell us.
The average for the USA is 335.9 million BTUs per person. http://www.nuicc.info/?page_id=1467
(Total population: 246,081,000)
In 1949, U.S. energy use per person stood at 215 million Btu.
epb.lbl.gov
The U.S. in 1800 had a per-capita energy consumption of about 90 million Btu. http://www.bu.edu/pardee/files/2010/11/12-PP-Nov2010.pdf
(Total population: 5,308,483)
If the USA reduces its energy consumption by 80% it equals 45.18 million Btu. per person IF THE POPULATION WAS THE SAME. Given the increase in technology and hydro power lets use the 1800 consumption level of about 90 million Btu. per person.
What does that mean?
The site http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blfarm4.htm helps us figure that out.
Farmers made up about 90% of labor force in 1790 and 69% of labor force in 1800. (2.6% in 1990)
About 250-300 labor-hours required to produce 100 bushels (5 acres) of wheat with walking plow, brush harrow, hand broadcast of seed, sickle, and flail in 1830. (1987 – 2-3/4 labor-hours required to produce 100 bushels but that takes lots of oil.)
1810-30 saw the transfer of “manufacturing” from the farm and home to the shop and factory. It wasn’t until the 1840′s that we saw factory made farm machinery, labor saving devices and chemical fertilizers became at all common. It was in the 1860′s that kerosene lamps became popular. Also up until the 1850′s dung and wood were the major source of energy. http://dieoff.org/page199_files/image002.gif
In other words for the USA to use HALF the energy per person that was used in 1800 we must abandon ALL factories and 90% of the population must return to subsistence farming using animals. Remember in 1800 there was only 2% of the current population in the USA. Solar and Wind just are not going to produce enough power to keep us in anything but a few lights and if we are lucky a refrigerator. FACTORIES use a huge amount of power and that is why cotton mills and other primitive factories were built on rivers.
Anyone who tries to tell you differently is talking baffle gab because at present less than 9% of the US labor force is in manufacturing. The USA got rid of most of its really energy intense industry like smelting the ores to make machines. The USA shipped its factories to China.
They probably sent the mouse pad via Green Couriers which uses a fleet of Chevy Volts. They can only go about 37 miles a leg before they have to stop and recharge; MA to CA can take a while.
On the subject of dogs and tire……
http://bitsandpieces.us/2012/03/09/dont-bark-at-me/
re pat says: March 9, 2012 at 5:03 pm reporting on Poland acting rationally. What is ironic is the amount of electricity that Germany has been importing this winter from Poland’s coal-fired power plants. Truly delicious and perhaps worthy of its own thread.
Larry Sheldon says:
March 9, 2012 at 5:09 pm
> I can’t make out the postmark.
Click on the image, it brings up a larger version.
94710 – that’s Berkeley! A sister-state to the People’s Republic of Cambridge?
And what’s that “Cat” journal they sent Kenji? A catalog? “Can it” quick!
…… and what’s the bet that the UCS’s expression of moral superiority, the “recycled rubber pad “,uses twice as much energy to be produced than a non-elite ordinary one ….
LOL. I’m sure the tire recycling mouse pad effort was not a net carbon neutral exercise. Hence the shipping delay while planting invasive bushes somewhere in Africa for the offset.
btw- I’m naming my next dog Pauchuri.