Tyranny, Like Hell, Is Not Easily Conquered

" THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated."

The American Crisis
Common Sense
December 23, 1776
Thomas Paine
http://www.constitution.org/tp/amercrisis01.htm

This will be the first time some have ever read this. The conflict was the American Revolution.

The debate is the one going on now. Remember this the next time CNN shows a car bomb's devastation or recounts the deaths of our soldiers. Remember this the next time you see a video of radical Muslims chanting "Death to America." Remember this if you have ever seen the videos of Iraqis celebrating the downfall of Saddam Hussein and cheering Americans. Remember this when you hear reports about Syrian and Iranian and Palestinian and Egyptian mercenaries being behind violence in Iraq. Remember when you hear Hollywood "stars" saying "It's not our problem."

Mixed Messages

Things that are catching my attention while traveling:

• Someone told the police to let protesters spray-paint the Capitol Building... was it the Republicans who didn't want to be called "neo-Nazis" or the Democrats who wanted to show how much Americans hate the war in Iraq? Or maybe it was just some bureaucratic idiot who should be fired.
• The U.S. may be facing the same future as Europe (especially Britain) by being excessively tolerant toward people whose goal is to kill those who don't believe as they do. The pendulum has a way of swinging too far the other way in an attempt to correct an imbalance.
• Traffic in all cities seems out of control... literally. At this (unidentified) location, signal progression is obviously not a consideration as minor two-lane streets will stop normal signal progression on 6 or 8-lane thoroughfares. I'll repeat: if you are really concerned about CO2 increases and pollution, contact your department of transportation and demand that they do their jobs... fix traffic signal progression. (see my recent post about reducing CO2 now).
• We seem to be raising a generation of illiterates. My sister-in-law teaches at a high school and said that about 10% of her students have both the aptitude and attitude to succeed academically. She mentioned about how excited one of her students was to receive a "D" on a recent major project... "was it a high D?" the student wanted to know.
• Back home, students at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, displayed their intellect and class by walking out of a large lecture hall where three people who claimed to be former terrorists were denouncing their former ways. It's good to see that our best and brightest have all of the answers they need... and can automatically reject anyone who might challenge their pre-determined positions... but, then, life hasn't happened to them, yet.
  

More later.

Cold Is An Anomaly

SEARCH BLOG: GLOBAL WARMING

I was going to write about this, but Lubos Motl already did, so read what he wrote. While you are there, check out his strangely poetic Battle of Antarctica... try to get past the "Stargate" references and remember that Lubos is a professor of physics at Harvard.

Before you go, I'll just add:

• Freezing temperatures in Los Angeles (bye-bye California oranges) ... a really rare event
  
• Freezing temperatures in Florida (bye-bye Florida oranges) ... an uncommon event
  
• Massive ice storms throughout the south central and midwest (dozens of people died in these)
  
• Colorado buried with snow... biggest avalanches some have ever seen
  
• Anchorage buried with snow... 74" and counting
  
• Europe suffering with winter storms

I haven't really checked into Russia, but everything's an anomaly there.

Maybe we can add no major hurricanes hit the U.S. in 2006... no that's not cold related.
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Jane's Way... Or The Right Way

SEARCH BLOG: IRAQ

While Jane Fonda reprised her role of hippie war protester, others have recognized that there is a difference between actions that give encouragement to Iraqi insurgents and, ultimately, harm our soldiers... and those who understand that you can protest with your votes and letters to your congressmen while still being responsible toward our soldiers... for example, this.

Whether or not the war was/is based on a direct or indirect threat to the U.S. is a matter for historians to debate. Our soldiers have no say in that. Those who use their "free speech" in a manner like Ms. Fonda are not traitors, they are simply victims of their own history. They believe that any U.S. involvement in any war is morally unjustified and must be publicly protested... even to the extent of providing encouragement to the enemy.

They are our version of the Islamic fundamentalists who have only one goal: conversion of the unbelievers... by any means. They will equate the standard operating procedures of the criminal elements of Iraq who routinely torture and execute civilians and soldiers to the "humiliation" of criminal elements who were photographed naked. They ignore the fact that they were not tortured and executed. They ignore the fact that they were well fed and housed. Yes, a few soldiers are pushed over the brink into murder... and they are removed and punished. But there is a difference between individuals acting against a code of conduct and an entire "army" based on fear, torture and execution.

Jane and her followers just don't get the difference.

She Doth Protest Too Much

SEARCH BLOG: IRAQ

A brief slice of the American pie was shown to me during my travels the other day.

The Orlando Magic professional basketball team had a "Seats for Soldiers" day where season ticket holders offered up their seats for a game dedicated to soldiers from the area. My nephew is a marine sergeant and his parents, my sister-in-law and her husband, are active in the local support group which is how I became aware of this effort.

Here is a city that celebrates the soldiers from their area and offers up a special night to show them their feelings.

And then there is Jane Fonda, the professional war protester who is stuck in the 1960s, trying to garner as much publicity as possible for her favorite cause... making life more difficult for our soldiers. She was personally responsible for showing the North Vietnamese that Americans "approved" of the criminal treatment afforded to Americans who were prisoners of war. While she didn't give away secrets or betray individual soldiers, her presence did give the North Vietnamese a sense that Americans would not do anything about the torture the American soldiers suffered. Now she wants to encourage the Iraqi criminal elements by saying that their actions have been successful in taking support from American soldiers in Iraq. What do you suppose that will lead to?

In related news, four American soldiers were executed after they were captured, handcuffed, and driven away to a location miles from the attack. Meanwhile, an army Lt. Colonel is being court-martialed on charges of cruelty for having prisoners stripped and photographed in "humiliating" poses. I wonder how "humiliating" the poses of those executed American soldiers were?. The criminals in Iraq must really be laughing at the U.S. now. What kind of fight can they expect out of a country that glorifies Jane Fonda and court-martials its men for "humiliating" those who would execute our soldiers?

It is Vietnam all over again. Too many Americans... including some prominent politicians... really don't deserve the sacrifice of the soldiers who protect them. Maybe they would be more comfortable in Cuba or Venezuela. They can say it is about the war and not the soldiers... but they are wrong. It is about the soldiers.

Blogger Lite

I have temporarily fled the massive Arctic system enveloping Canada and the northern U.S., so posts may be a little lighter.

Meanwhile, you might find some of the links on the right side of the page interesting and informative... especially those regarding climate change... which is what I was seeking with this trip.

More On Michigan Service Tax Proposal

SEARCH BLOG: TAXES

Also see:

Michigan Service Tax Concerns

Michigan Service Tax

The day after newspapers' headlines announced the consideration by the State of Michigan for a new tax on services, Pfizer, a huge pharmaceutical firm, announced that it was closing its Michigan research facility in Ann Arbor. 2,400 employees would be either laid off or moved to other Pfizer locations outside of Michigan.

This was stunningly bad news on the heels of massive job losses in the automotive industry. The tax base was taking yet another hit.

I had written to the Citizens Research Council of Michigan that had been involved in the budget crisis analysis and had been part of the process that came up with the notion of the service tax.

A simpler and more manageable approach would be a one-time, two-year increase in the sales and income taxes by one percentage point each. The sales tax increase could be effective by July 1 and the income tax increase effective January 1, 2008. While these might not be popular, they could be implemented with no additional staffing or changes in business burdens.

This two-year period would give the State sufficient time to develop and implement a restructuring plan similar to the efforts by General Motors and Ford Motor Company. The State cannot afford to be a generous "sugar daddy" under current conditions; especially when it does nothing except redistribute incomes while incomes in total are declining.

I'm not a fan of increased taxes, but the economic downward spiral has left the state budget in disarray... primarily because the state government has not been willing to take the measures to "resize" in the way that businesses have had to.

I received a reasonable and measured response:

There is no question that, if a sales tax on services were adopted, certain firms would experience an increase in administrative costs associated with reporting and collecting such a tax. Many businesses that primarily sell services, however, also sell goods, so their increased costs would be negligible because they are already set up to collect a sales tax. The state would also experience marginal increases in administration, but it would be a tiny fraction of the revenue involved.

There is no such thing as a perfect tax system and any tax will create economic problems. The best a state can do is to attempt to maintain a tax system that treats all sectors of the economy equitably, so that each sector pulls its weight in supporting public services.

With respect to your specific proposal regarding temporary increases in the sales tax and the income tax, I have a couple of comments. First, the Michigan Constitution would have to be amended for the current sales tax on tangible personal property to be increased. It is capped at a 6 percent rate and it could not be increased until the voters approved such an increase and voter approval of tax increases has been rare. Even Proposal A in 1994, which produced the current 6 percent rate, brought about a large decrease in the property tax in exchange.

I'm not so sure that adding a new tax system would have "negligible" impact on business, but given that the state has certain limits with regard to raising taxes on sales and property, I can only say this:

It's time for the state to do the same with less or simply do less. Increasing taxes will only exacerbate a bad economic situation for residents and businesses. Options will vary depending on the expenditures. They include:

1. reducing operating and staffing budgets
2. eliminating operating and staffing budgets
3. eliminating new projects
4. extending timelines for existing projects (such as road construction)
5. privatizing some functions where feasible

The usual response is "we can't" and the appropriate response is "you must."

The state cannot continue to pretend that there is this vast reservoir of potential tax revenue in a state where businesses are retrenching or relocating elsewhere, where unemployment levels are high while employment opportunities are dwindling, and where housing values are falling rapidly and many owners are facing the loss of their homes.

My oldest son commented that if you put Michigan's conditions into one of those "Sim" games, you get a collapse. Hopefully, the reality won't end up being that dire.

It is time for the state to recognize that "business as usual" in no longer feasible.

Climate Rubbish

SEARCH BLOG: GLOBAL WARMING CORRECT

In a discussion about Climate Modelling at Real Climate (titled "The Physics of Climate Modelling"), here is my post regarding the Chinese paper (by Chinese physicists) of the strong possibility of global cooling and the reply by Real Climate's Gavin Schmidt.

Those darn Chinese are trying to use crude modeling to say that the next 20 years brings cooling instead of warming and that CO2 increases will not be that relevant.

Multi-scale analysis of global temperature changes
and trend of a drop in temperature in the next 20 years

http://www.springerlink.com/content/g28u12g2617j5021/fulltext.pdf

Obviously a Communist plot.

[Response: No, just rubbish. -gavin]

Comment by Bruce Hall — 22 Jan 2007 @ 7:25 pm

You have to hand it to Real Climate. They won't take rubbish from anyone... even the Chinese. Of course, they won't take a different point of view from anyone. Especially if it might endanger the anthropogenic-based-CO2-global-warming gravy train that seems to be arriving at government stations near you.

(Thanks to Dr. John Ray, Brisbane, Australia for source)

ALSO CHECK THIS OUT ... NEWS FROM THE RUSSIAN FRONT

Addendum

A further offline email exchange has convinced me that Gavin Schmidt, while an extremely intelligent and knowledgeable scientist, is not inclined to consider the perspective of those who don't align themselves with him, to wit:

I would actually expect the contrary. Dr. ABC is using well worn
talking points that have been dismissed in the mainstream for years.
This is not a genuine disagreement about anything substantial in
science. It is 'cuckoo' science - designed only to push real analysis
out of the nest and fool the onlookers (which it appears to have done).

If you are genuinely interested in what paleo-climate can and cannot say
about the present day situation, follow up on the links and let me know.
But Dr. ABC's arguments are just crap.

Obviously, I changed the name.
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Departments of Transportation

SEARCH BLOG: TRAFFIC SIGNALS

Tired of traffic signals that work against you?

Contact your state's Department of Transportation and put some pressure on the system to get this problem fixed! If you live in an urban area, contact your county's DOT as well. And call your City Hall.

Do the "Search Blog" I recommended above. You'll see how much your government "cares" about you after you've paid your taxes. They really don't mind wasting your money or time... and damaging the environment to boot. After all, it's not "high visibility."

The Cost of "Fighting" Global Warming

SEARCH BLOG: GLOBAL WARMING

From Lubos Motl, physicist from Cambridge... this.

Ouch!

Australian Climate Views

SEARCH BLOG: ENVIRONMENT

Dr. John Ray posted this tomorrow... I'm just having a little fun with the date conventions.

There are several interesting items collected under this one link. (You may have to scroll to the top of the linked articles) Be sure to read the Chinese study on the coming GLOBAL COOLING... yup.

Over-Population

SEARCH BLOG: ENVIRONMENT

At what point is enough too much?

China decided some time ago that one child per family was enough... because they already had enough people. India has not yet come to that conclusion although its population is almost the same as China's.

Are we emptying the larder as some think? This question has come up many times in the past and each time the answer by concerned scientists was that the world's ecosystem was about to collapse because of human pressure. The reality has always been that humans have either figured out how to obtain more food in a smarter way... for example fish farming... or have regulated local populations with famine and/or war.

India and China have shown that geographic constraints have not necessarily meant that the land could not support larger populations. And in the U.S., the population has grown to 300 million fairly obese citizens (and some thinner illegals) despite concerns of fewer individuals working in farming. We continue to hear reports of starvation in East Africa, but that's religious and political in origin.

So do we have a problem with over-population or not? Globally... no. Some areas... maybe. Some climatologists would like to see human population growth curtailed because they believe humans are going to cause the world to get warmer and some prime oceanfront property to disappear. But that is a debatable excuse for controlling human population. Besides, if that did happen, there would be more productive land for farming as the northern hemisphere experienced longer growing seasons. Moreover, in some nations, there is a trend toward declining population as greater life expectancy and greater wealth has refocused the population away from large families to pursue life's other pleasures. This is especially true in western Europe.

Still, there may actually come a time when enough is too much. We're just not there yet.

Al-Sadr Must Go

SEARCH BLOG: AL SADR

A week ago, I stated the obvious: it was time to eliminate Muqtada al-Sadr BAMN - by any means necessary.

It looks as if Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has decided to face hard reality and withdraw his dubious support of al Sadr. Al Sadr is widely known to be the primary force behind sectarian violence in Iraq. It appears that the Bush administration has finally quit the pretense of simply providing "support" role to the Iraqi government. The can be no doubt that the administration's diplomatic, PR, image-conscious nonsense has been set aside and al-Maliki has been given an ultimatum: play ball or you're out. He is now playing ball.

Too little too late? We'll have to wait to see. Meanwhile, al-Sadr is probably twitching wildly trying to figure out how to save his butt and his power base. I've got a suspicion he may be able to do the former, but not the latter.
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Michigan Service Tax

SEARCH BLOG: TAXES

Also see:

Michigan Service Tax Concerns

More On Michigan Service Tax Proposal

Michigan Taxpayers To Receive More... Taxes [10/1/07 update]

Michigan is one of the few states that has not shared in the good economy of the past 3 or 4 years. The failing domestic automobile manufacturers have created failing automobile suppliers which have created failing ancillary support businesses which have created failing governmental budgets.

So how have governments responded? Well, the State of Michigan is looking to increase taxes. Gee, what a surprise!

The idea is to now tax services in addition to sales. Get a haircut and pay a service tax. Get a leak repaired and pay a service tax. Will we have to pay a tax to have our taxes prepared? That would be a real kick in the head.

Just a couple of questions:

1. Is the administrative cost of collecting, reporting and submitting these new taxes going to be absorbed by businesses?
2. Is the additional tax paid by consumers going to be absorbed by their budgets?

My guess is that the answer to both of these questions is "no." The results will be higher prices and lower volumes... and more companies that are struggling to survive shutting down.

The State believes it will not have to adjust its spending habits simply by putting more economic pressure on an already depressed economy. But that is pretty much the way government doesn't work all of the time.

Hey, I have an idea. How about a 6% sales tax on home sales. Oh, wait. Home sales are pretty much non-existent in Michigan, too. But in case a home is sold, how about a 6% sales tax and a 6% service tax (for agent services). That will fix the budget problems! After all, who could be a loser in that situation?

Rather than creating a whole new tax structure with whole new administrative burdens for both businesses and the state (don't you think there will be a whole new department just to administer this new tax?), perhaps a simple way is this:

Implement a two-year special, non-renewable, 1% increase in both the sales tax and income taxes. The government would have two years to work out a new budget and structure based on significant reductions in revenue (if the economy doesn't recover).

Otherwise, last one out, turn off the lights.

Golf Etiquette Plays Well In Life

Being semi-retired, I have the option to take some time off during the day for a little exercise or recreation. Yesterday, I decided to go to the local golf dome and practice... a nice diversion from outside temperatures in the 20s (F).

The thing about golf is that it is at once an individual pastime and a social construct. Besides the rules of the game, there are rules of etiquette and courtesy. That's almost a lost part of our culture. Paramount is not talking or creating a distraction when your playing partner is preparing to swing at the ball. You do not talk, swing your club in his range of vision, walk around, wave your arms... you allow your playing partner the courtesy of focusing on the action of making the best swing he can.

Apparently, some people who play at golf haven't taken the aspect of courtesy to heart... especially at the practice range. I was at the assigned practice tee (they are assigned at the dome) when three men took position at the adjacent one... two older and one younger man. The younger man started hitting his practice shots and then began a non-stop, one-way explanation of how to swing the club. He was loud enough to completely disrupt my practice... one tries to think through the elements of a proper swing or analyze a mis-hit during practice... loud enough so that I couldn't focus on my practice.

After five minutes or so, I stopped, turned and just looked at him for a couple of minutes. He didn't seem to grasp that his loud prattling was a disturbance. So, I pointed out to him rather tersely that he could move away from the tee area to give his instructions to not disturb others. His response was a sarcastic "Is there some rule that says that?"

That's the thing about etiquette and manners: those that understand the etiquette and have the manners would never have to ask that question. Asking that question only shows that you are boorish, ill-mannered, selfish, discourteous, and uneducated.

I asked the golf dome operator to allow me to switch tees.


It occurs to me that this is the same phenomenon when people tailgate or cut in front of you when they drive. It's the same phenomenon when people block your view at an event in order to enhance their view. It's the same phenomenon when people talk loudly on their cell phone in a restaurant. It is a symptom of an uncultured, ill-mannered, poorly-taught society.

Perhaps something is lacking in our educational system... or in our homes.

Perhaps it reflects a society so focused on individual "rights" that it forgets about individual responsibility... to others.

Sad Day For Bloggers

SEARCH BLOG: MARTIN KELLY

Martin Kelly has decided to stop blogging from his home is Glasgow, Scotland.

He has written extensively in blogs for several years and is well known and respected around the world.

One can only hope that his circumstances will allow him to return to this arena in the future.

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Goodbye Hoover Dam?

SEARCH BLOG: GLOBAL WARMING

No, Hoover Dam has not sprung a major leak. Neither have the Tennessee Valley Authority dams. And China's Three Gorges Dam which is due to start generating hydroelectric power in 2008 has not run out of water. These hydroelectric dams are damning us all... according to an article in Scitizen.

What had sparked the reaction was my calculation that Brazil’s Balbina Dam was worse than fossil fuels in terms of greenhouse-gas emissions (Fearnside, 1995). A Canadian group had also shown that northern reservoirs can release greenhouse gases (Rudd et al., 1993). This was only the beginning of the long debate that continues to this day. Large emissions from water passing through the turbines of tropical dams have been have confirmed by direct measurements of methane release immediately below the Petit-Saut Dam in French Guiana (April et al., 2005) and the Balbina Dam in Brazil (Kemenes et al., 2006). Dr Philip M. Fearnside

Are you beginning to get the sense that no option for human civilization is either politically-correct or global warming-correct? Well, actually, this tells me that the U.S. should earn CO2 credits by shutting down hydroelectric plants and building old-technology coal-powered plants.

Are you beginning to get the sense that none of this is making a whole lot of practical sense?

The other day, I pointed out that a rather mundane elimination of traffic signal inefficiency would have real benefits for both the environment (not just CO2 reduction, but a host of toxic gases) and all of us individually by reducing our driving cost and time.

What I don't see from those who are demanding reductions in CO2 or other "greenhouse gases" are practical approaches. Rather it's all about creating penalties. Raise taxes. Create fees. Force uneconomical changes in the name of "risk management."

Okay, who is going to tell the Chinese that they can't start operating their new hydroelectric dam that was "clean" until this study said it wasn't?

(sssshhh... nuclear power the French were right)
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Addendum:

Some related posts I came across after I posted the above.
http://climatesci.atmos.colostate.edu/2007/01/18/comment-on-climate-resets-doomsday-clock/#comments

http://mangans.blogspot.com/2007/01/doomsday-clock.html

Teachers Say No To The University

SEARCH BLOG: UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN and FREAKONOMICS

Detroit Mayor wants more charter schools for the city.

The problem is twofold:

• The State has a cap on the number of charter schools
• The Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) opposes changes related to charter schools

Here's how I see the problem: charter schools are a substitute for existing schools rather than a solution.

It's not that public schools are bad (which many in the city of Detroit are) or that charter schools are better (that may be the case for some). It is that the politics surrounding charter schools pits the old public schools against the new charter schools. It's an "all or nothing" proposition.

I have written several times about how the University of Michigan should put "its money where its mouth is." Charter schools are not what I meant since those enterprises are designed to "generate money where it mouth is."

Rather than competing with Detroit Public Schools, U of M... and all other area universities and colleges... should develop a voluntary, hands-on consulting relationship with individual Detroit schools... the key words here are "hands on" rather than "consulting". Simply "telling" the schools what the answers are is not the answer. Working with the schools is.

Detroit's teachers have it bad enough with a failing system. University charter schools will bury that system. Of course, the DFT needs to be visionary enough to accept a situation where it can adapt to working with outside agencies... and make appropriate changes to their political agenda.

*******

But let's not blame it all on the schools that can only do so much with what they are given. Perhaps it is time to own up to what a massive study of Chicago's schools revealed. In the book Freakonomics by Dr. Steven Levitt of the University of Chicago, his analysis of this study revealed some interesting and sobering facts.

The short version is this: "bad" schools are not necessarily bad because of class size or teacher's education or computer-student ratio. Bad schools share common traits such as gang problems, non-student interferrence, and lack of PTA funding... symptoms or indicators of underlying social issues. And then there are the startling correlations between student performance and parents' backgrounds and actions. One hint: among the factors that didn't make a difference in the study were:

• the child's family being intact
• the child's parents moving to a better neighborhood
• the child attending "Head Start"
• the child's parents read to him nearly every day

What does make a difference? I suggest you read the book. This is in chapter 5. But I'll give you a hint: one factor was the mother's age when her first child was born.

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How To Reduce CO2 Emissions Now

SEARCH BLOG: CO2 and TRAFFIC SIGNALS

I've had forum discussions as well as private email exchanges with those who are concerned about CO2 increases in the atmosphere.

Some, but not all, are understanding of the situation enough to admit that the relationship of CO2 to climate change is complex because there are so many other potential factors... and the fact that CO2 increases have, historically, followed temperature increases... not vice versa. And then there is the matter of CO2 concentrations being much higher... as much as 16 times higher... in the past while earth was in cooling phases.

Be that as it may, most of the arguments to reduce CO2 fall into the "risk management" area. We can't afford to not reduce CO2 levels on the chance that it is the primary forcing factor in this climate change.

Fine. If you believe that reducing CO2 production immediately is critical, what should we do... now!

Well, here are some lifestyle changes that we could make:

• Shut off unused rooms and close the heating vents in those rooms ... we do that now!
• Replace standard light bulbs with spiral florescent bulbs ... we do that now!
• Turn water heater temperature to a lower setting ... we do that now!
• Turn winter heat setting to 67 degrees ... we do that now!

These are simple conservation efforts that we can implement with little effort or expense.

The next level of action becomes a little harder.

Replacing power plants that produce CO2

• Use nuclear power instead? Well, that's something we can't do now! But conventional power plants are where the greatest CO2 production occurs.
• Wind power? You all read about those rich, Democrat, environmentalists in Cape Cod who squelched that idea... would spoil the ocean view, you know.
  

Replace all vehicles with fuel-efficient vehicles:

• Number of vehicles on the road: over 230 million
• Median age of all vehicles: almost 9 years

That means it would take about 18 years to remove nearly all of the inefficient vehicles... if we stopped buying them now! Of course, much of the reduction would be offset by population and vehicle increases, but the rate of increase of CO2 production would be decreased gradually.

Replace all home heating and cooling systems with geothermal units.

Who will mandate that one? And they do need electricity from power plants to operate.

So, do we ignore the homeowner/consumer produced CO2, beyond turning down the heat and changing some light bulbs, and place all of the burden on businesses? Since so few of us own or work in businesses, that would work (feel the sarcasm here).

Here is something we can do now!

Contact your Department of Transportation and demand that their traffic engineers synchronize traffic signal progression! Have you ever read the city/highway EPA stickers on new vehicles ... something like 21 mpg city/29 mpg highway. That's because all of those extra hours you give up each week due to poorly timed signals also increases your cost of driving and CO2 production from unnecessary idling and acceleration. This can be corrected now!

If you want to make a big difference now, start raising the roof with your state, county and local Departments of Transportation and Traffic Engineering Departments. Poorly timed traffic lights are the single biggest, unnecesary producer of CO2 in the U.S.

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We've Done Our Part

Click on image for larger view.