Global Warming Today: Meat Is Murder Or Something

So, you’re thinking of a burger for lunch and a steak for dinner? You’re looking forward to spring so you can crack open the grill and cook up some awesome strip steaks? Heck, maybe you’ve said “damn the cold and snow, we’re grilling out!” Well, you’re a murderer. So says Vice’s Matt Smith

Meat Is Murder — On the Climate, Anyway

Beware the cows.

Sure, it looks like we’ve got them where we want them, penned up in farms, easily led to the meat-packing plants. But in an ongoing display of passive resistance, they may be trying to take us with them.

Beyond the fat and cholesterol, they’re also one of the leading sources of methane — a planet-warming greenhouse gas with 25 times the punch of carbon dioxide on a 100-year time scale. And those emissions are expected to go up planet-wide as developing countries urbanize and get richer, putting a Western-style diet within the reach of billions more people.

So, it will allow people starving in 3rd world sh*tholes, er, developing nations, to get enough food? What’s the downside? Why is it that 1st World Warmists are always trying to deny those in 3rd world nations the same benefits the 1st Worlders have?

And when you total up the effect of all the feed, fertilizer, and fuel involved in modern farming, that quarter-pound cheeseburger ends up having the same carbon footprint as a nearly seven-mile (11-kilometer) drive, said Dawn Undurraga, a nutritionist with the nonprofit Environmental Working Group.

So, Warmists shouldn’t have either, in order to save Gaia? Chicken and pork are not quite as bad, but, they’re still EVIL.

Worldwide, livestock account for about 15 percent of global emissions — and reducing consumption “will be critical” to hitting the climate change targets world leaders set in Paris in December, the British think-tank Chatham House estimates. That pact set a goal of limiting climate change to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial times, a mark the world is roughly halfway toward already.

“A shift to healthier patterns of meat-eating could bring a quarter of the emissions reductions we need to keep on track for a two-degree world,” Chatham House reported in November.

The notion here is that millions, many even billions or trillions!!!!!!!!!1!!! will die if the temperature of the earth goes up a wee bit, so, all you people should mostly stop eating meat, otherwise, doom.

Eating too much meat also contributes to the rise of obesity and the spread of chronic diseases like cancer and diabetes. But worldwide consumption is expected to expand more than 75 percent by 2050 — and few people are aware of the connection between climate change and diet, Chatham House noted.

“Few people care about the connection between climate change and diet.” Fixed that.

Read: Global Warming Today: Meat Is Murder Or Something »

Does The GOP Face Rebellion Over Establishment Calls To Stop Trump?

That’s the question the headline on the front page of the NY Times is asking, while the headline in the article reads

Rank and File Republicans Tell Party Elites: We’re Sticking With Donald Trump

From Michigan to Louisiana to California on Friday, rank-and-file Republicans expressed mystification, dismissal and contempt regarding the instructions that their party’s most high-profile leaders were urgently handing down to them: Reject and defeat Donald J. Trump.

Their angry reactions, in the 24 hours since Mitt Romney and John McCain urged millions of voters to cooperate in a grand strategy to undermine Mr. Trump’s candidacy, have captured the seemingly inexorable force of a movement that still puzzles the Republican elite and now threatens to unravel the party they hold dear.

In interviews, even lifelong Republicans who cast a ballot for Mr. Romney four years ago rebelled against his message and plan. “I personally am disgusted by it — I think it’s disgraceful,” said Lola Butler, 71, a retiree from Mandeville, La., who voted for Mr. Romney in 2012. “You’re telling me who to vote for and who not to vote for? Please.” (snip)

The furious campaign now underway to stop Mr. Trump and the equally forceful rebellion against it captured the essence of the party’s breakdown over the past several weeks: Its most prominent guardians, misunderstanding their own voters, antagonize them as they try to reason with them, driving them even more energetically to Mr. Trump’s side.

The article makes a good point: the voters are doing what voters do: vote. They’ve picked their candidate. And, for good or bad, Trump is doing better than Rubio, Cruz, and Kasich. Other Republican contenders have been knocked out (personally, I think Scott Walker would have been the best choice, but, it looked like he didn’t want to participate in the Trump Show). The point of the primaries is for the voters to choose their candidate, and, if it ends up being Trump with the required delegates, then, for good or bad, he’s our contender. And the voters do not want the Establishment thwarting that process.

I’ll avoid editorializing on Trump himself, as I think you know I am not a fan. I will say, based on Trump’s positions, many in the GOP are correct in their assertions, but, Republicans are tired of the Establishment dictating the direction of the Party, and this very much shows in the way the Trumpistas, as Rush Limbaugh calls them, are responding and supporting Trump.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

Read: Does The GOP Face Rebellion Over Establishment Calls To Stop Trump? »

If All You See…

…is a world turning to desert because Other People haven’t gone vegan to reduce their carbon emissions, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is House Of Eratosthenes, with a post on the small thermal exhaust port.

That’s Kirsty Gallacher. British.

Read: If All You See… »

One Chart That Shows How CWAAAAZY Trump Is On Hotcoldwetdry

Think Progress’ Special Warmist Snowflake Samantha Page is very vexed by Donald Trump’s position on ‘climate change’, and, really, this would apply to most Republicans running

This One Chart Shows How Crazy Trump’s Climate Positions Are

Now that the results from Super Tuesday are in, we can officially pivot to considering Donald Trump as the most likely Republican presidential nominee. November will see a Trump v. Clinton or a Trump v. Sanders face-off, barring a few, impressively over-analyzed scenarios.

With that in mind, ThinkProgress wanted to revisit our climate and energy candidate chart, where we help voters understand where candidates stand.

We have updated the Democratic candidates, now whittled to only Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, by breaking out Atlantic and Gulf offshore drilling and including new data on fossil fuel donations, and we added a few lines that reflect some of Trump’s more aggressive energy and climate positions.

The Republican candidate has been remarkably mum on climate issues — perhaps because, as he has repeatedly Tweeted, Trump believes climate change is a hoax. (He also may or may not believe that the hoax is perpetrated by the Chinese.)

I will say this, I think Trump is completely off base when he says it is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. That’s silly. But, on to said chart, which is below the fold, because it is very long

Read More »

Read: One Chart That Shows How CWAAAAZY Trump Is On Hotcoldwetdry »

‘Climate Change’ To Cause Up To 500,000 Extra Deaths A Year By 2050 Or Something

Another day, another breathless report on Doom from ‘climate change’

(UK Guardian) Climate change could kill more than 500,000 people a year globally by 2050 by making their diets less healthy, according to new research published in the Lancet.

The research is the first to assess how the impacts of global warming could affect the quality of the diets available to people and found fewer fruit and vegetables would be available as a result of climatic changes. These are vital in curbing heart disease, strokes and diet-related cancers, leading the study to conclude that the health risks of climate change are far greater than thought.

How to stop this?

“The health burden related to climate change is much bigger than we thought,” Scarborough said. But cutting carbon emissions and improving education and the availability of fruit and vegetables would reduce the number of deaths, he said.

So, certainly this would require massive government intervention for the first two. As for the latter, agriculture has massively increased over time. We keep having record crops. But, think about it: it would also require massive government to force companies to give their fruits and veggies to people, possibly on the taxpayer dime. Would they force people to eat their fruits and veggies?

Jo Nova describes it all thusly

The Lancet study in a nutshell: Take climate models that don’t work, and guesstimate what might happen to agriculture because of the climate we probably won’t get. Then use those guesses of food production in 2050 to fantasize what that means for human mortality. After all, we don’t know how many people are killed today by “4% less fruit and vege and 0.7% less meat”, but we can estimate what that dietary change will do in 2050 after a medical revolution, 35 years of plant breeding and agricultural changes. Not to mention a few more rounds of global food fads and phases of Vegan, Paleo, Atkins, and 5:2 Fasting. (But how did they factor in the mortality effect from another 2,000 episodes of MasterChef?)

Boom. As she notes, it’s not like CO2 is bad for plants

Seriously, CO2 has increased crop yields, and will continue to do so until we hit 1000ppm (or maybe 2000). Around the planet, plants grow in warm places, and shrivel up and die in cold ones. So do people. Cold kills 20 times as many people as heat does. It must take a lot of modeling to calculate “more deaths” from two good outcomes.

Of course, we have breathless freakouts from many in the media over this, such as Washington Post, Bloomberg, Phys.org, BusinessGreen,TIME, New Scientist, Carbon Brief, Reuters, Climate Home, Telegraph. Let’s not forget the Lancet’s insane statistical study claiming 650,00 Iraqi deaths at the hands of US forces, which was thoroughly debunked.

Read: ‘Climate Change’ To Cause Up To 500,000 Extra Deaths A Year By 2050 Or Something »

Winners And Losers From 11th GOP Debate

Who really lost? The viewers, who had to listen to this drivel, something I’ve never seen before, and I put the onus directly on Donald Trump, for dragging the discourse down instead of focusing on issues in a substantive manner

(Fox News) What did Michigan voters think about tonight’s GOP debate in Detroit?

Frank Luntz shared the reactions of his focus group on a special post-debate edition of The Kelly File.

The voters had some very negative things to say about the tone of the debate, objecting to the intense personal attacks and lamenting a lack of substance.

Using words like “sophomoric,” “shameful” and “despicable,” the voters agreed that this debate did not help the GOP overall.

That focus group picked John Kasich as the winner, mostly for staying above the fray. Here’s how The Hill scores it

Winners:

  • Megyn Kelly, for apparently asking questions to Donald Trump
  • Donald Trump: for surviving the cage match, which he mostly started
  • Hillary Clinton: because the cage match in the first half was an embarrassment, and a protracted fight can supposedly help her
  • Ted Cruz: for smacking Trump around on his previous Democratic Party positions and donations

Mixed

  • John Kasich, because, who?

Losers

  • Marco Rubio, who seemed tired and somewhat listless. His attacks took away his optimism and youthfullness
  • GOP Establishment: because neither Rubio nor Kasich really have a path to the nomination

Meanwhile, in case you missed it, both of the previous GOP presidential losers, Mitt Romney and John McCain, are having hissy fits towards Trump. It’s not that they’re necessarily wrong, they’re just the wrong people to deliver the message.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

Read: Winners And Losers From 11th GOP Debate »

Preliminary Autopsy Shows Raleigh Man Hit 4 Times By Officer

Remember, the initial “witness” reports stated that the officer shot criminal Akiel Denkins in the back

(WNCN) Preliminary results from the North Carolina Medical Examiner, according to Freeman, said, “There was a wound of his right chest with injuries of his heart and both lungs, and there were wounds of his left forearm, right upper arm, and right shoulder.”

The news release did not specify where the bullets entered. His mother has said she was told by a witness that he was shot in the back.

Sure seems as if they were to the front. I do find it interesting that there is so little national interest in this case, like with other cases. I guess the news media isn’t particularly interested without riots and violence.

And an update

A separate report from the Raleigh Police Department said that Senior Officer D.C. Twiddy and Akiel Denkins were struggling and that Denkins was reaching for a gun when he was shot. (snip)

As he came around the corner of the house, Twiddy saw Denkins attempting to climb a second fence. Denkins then stopped and turned toward Twiddy, according to the report.

Twiddy ran and grabbed Denkins in an effort to take him into custody. While the two struggled, Twiddy saw Denkins start to pull a handgun from the front of his waistband and move it toward Twiddy, the report states.

During the struggle, Twiddy drew his weapon and fired multiple shots as Denkins continued to move his gun in his direction, the report states. After the first shots were fired, Twiddy felt Denkins’ hand or arm make contact with his gun, and fearing that Denkins was going to shoot him or take his gun, he fired additional shots.

Sure looks like the story is breaking down for the “he was shot in the back while running. Why did those evil racist cops shoot him?” crowd. Oh, and Denkin’s gun was stolen.

Read: Preliminary Autopsy Shows Raleigh Man Hit 4 Times By Officer »

If All You See…

…is an evil pool that is bad for climate change on many levels, hence should be banned for Other People, you might be a Warmist

The blog of the days is American Power, with a post on the #NeverTrump crowd needing to get a life.

That’s Jessica Jane Clement.

Read: If All You See… »

Quick, Pass A Carbon Tax: ‘Climate Change’ Could Expand Range Of Snakes

Today’s story of doom, which could easily be solved if we initiated a carbon tax!

Snakes’ Expanding Habitat Could Bring Their Venom to Surprising Places

Forget the spread of ticks and mosquitos. Climate change could be responsible for bigger bites by drawing poisonous snakes northward into a band along the U.S. and Canadian border, as well as southward into wide swaths of South America.

Using models to predict the ranges of 78 venomous snake species across the Americas, researchers at the University of Kansas’ Biodiversity Institute found snakebite risk areas could increase significantly. By 2050, they could reach as far north as Alberta and Quebec and southward into Argentina and Chile.

If only members of the Cult of Climastrology would stop driving fossil fueled vehicles, this could be solved. All snake bites in areas that the models (snicker) say will happen are on the heads of Warmists who fail to go carbon neutral.

In fact, many snakes, including venomous ones, already reside in these areas, and have for quite some time.

Read: Quick, Pass A Carbon Tax: ‘Climate Change’ Could Expand Range Of Snakes »

DOJ Grants Immunity To Person Who Set Up Hillary’s Private Server

But, don’t worry, this isn’t a criminal probe and not even probing her personally, according to Hillary and company. Alas, people are usually not given immunity unless it is a criminal investigation

(Washington Post) The Justice Department has granted immunity to a former State Department staffer, who worked on Hillary Clinton’s private email server, as part of a criminal investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information, according to a senior law enforcement official.

The official said the FBI had secured the cooperation of Bryan Pagliano, who worked on Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign before setting up the server in her New York home in 2009.

Patterico notes the spin by Team Clinton on this, as well as this tweet

https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/705209813400047617

Meaning, this looks really, really bad for the target of the investigation. And, let’s not forget, it’s most likely that the target is not just Hillary Clinton, but her inner staff, many of whom colluded in the use of the server, and were involved in passing material at all the various classification levels in contradiction of the law, including material they were not legally entitled to see.

As the FBI looks to wrap up its investigation in the coming months, agents are likely to want to interview Clinton and her senior aides about the decision to use a private server, how it was set up, and whether any of the participants knew they were sending classified information in emails, current and former officials said.

As one of the commenters at Patterico’s article notes

Paul Mirengoff at Powerline points out that the real threat to Hillary! might be if the FBI seeks to interview her. On the one hand, it would look awful for her to assert her Fifth Amendment rights and even the vassals in her press detail might wonder what she has to hide. On the other hand, if she agrees to an interview she might inadvertently wander into a perjury trap of the type that ruined Petraeus.

Taking the 5th in the middle of a presidential race would look really, really bad. Of course, Democrats wouldn’t give a damn, and will vote for her no matter what. Think differently? How did they keep electing former KKK member Robert Byrd? How about William “Cold Cash” Jefferson, re-elected while under criminal indictment for bribery? They continue to support Bill Clinton, despite all the serious allegations about his sexual assaults.

Read: DOJ Grants Immunity To Person Who Set Up Hillary’s Private Server »

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