Carbon Dioxide News Blog @newzblogz.com

WASHINGTON (AP) ? With concern growing about global warming, researchers said Wednesday they have developed a new system to track carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Being able to determine where and when this major greenhouse gas increases or decreases should help in projecting future climate change and evaluating efforts to reduce releases of carbon. "This is a pretty exciting opportunity," said Richard Spinrad, head of research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

It produces an unbiased, objective statement of carbon observations, he said, but doesn't favor any particular policy or economic model.

Tracking carbon dioxide release and absorption will improve understanding of its impact, he said, noting that one-third of the economy is weather and climate sensitive ranging from agriculture to transportation to insurance and real estate.

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Re: Larry Smilgius? ?Don?t be soft-hearted? letter.

It is appropriate that the Riviera Golf Estate association?s ?ruling authority? should enforce the rules established for the ?health, safety and benefit of the majority.?

But, how does Paul Smith?s hobby of making dominoes infringe on anyone?s health, safety or benefit?

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For a town that once argued for months about whether to allow a sculpture resembling a fishing pole and tin can in Gore Creek, Vails decision to commission 3,000 windmills on the golf course was remarkably quick. Two council meetings, and it was done. The dotted line was signed, and $100,000 was readied for outgoing mail.

What the Claes Oldenburg fishing pole was supposed to represent, other than a fishing pole, I cant tell you. Art is supposed to be that way, I suppose, something to wonder and argue about.

For that matter, Im not sure what these windmills are about, either.

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Seldom, if ever, has a former or present ambassador of the United States come to our area, the Temecula Valley. Ambassador Pierre-Richard Prosper will be the keynote speaker at an upcoming Republican event at Pat & Oscar's in Temecula.The event is meant to shed light on genocide in Africa as well as other places in the world.

Prosper was U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues under President George W. Bush and served as a war crimes prosecutor for the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. He successfully prosecuted Jean-Paul Akayesu for his involvement in the Rwandan massacre of the early 1990s.

This was the first case of genocide since the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was enacted. Prosper also won additional life-sentence convictions for other crimes against humanity and was able to convince the court to recognize rape committed in time of conflict as an act of genocide and a crime against humanity.A person like Prosper is uncommon. He, like others in history, has risen to the occasion. They help those who have no means of protecting themsel...

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Al Gore made an emotional return to Congress on Wednesday to plead with lawmakers to fight global warming with moral courage. He called it "a true planetary emergency."

> Gore first testified before a joint hearing by two House committees ?- Energy and Commerce and Science and Technology ?- and later before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

> His wife, Tipper, sat behind him. Beside him was a stack of boxes containing what he said were about 516,000 e-mail petitions he received in "a few days" after he asked for expressions of public support.

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Gore tells Congress of a "true planetary emergency"

08:58 PM EDT on Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Nedra Pickler, Associated Press Writer

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SPRINGFIELD - Illinois came closer to Texas on Wednesday in the race to land a $1 billion experimental power plant.Senate lawmakers approved a measure that protects Illinois from some lawsuits if problems arise with the FutureGen project.Mattoon and Tuscola are two of the four remaining finalists for the coal-fired plant, which pumps carbon dioxide emissions thousands of feet underground, instead of into the air. Two towns in Texas also are finalists.Texas already has laws to deflect Future...

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Al Gore made an emotional return to Congress Wednesday to plead with lawmakers to fight global warming with moral courage while revealing nothing about whether he'll join the 2008 presidential race. The former vice president is a Democratic favorite for the presidential nomination even though he says he's not running. Fresh off a triumphant Hollywood appearance in which his climate-change documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," won two Oscars, Gore drew overflow crowds as he...

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* First-time writer: Respect the president, even if you disagree

* No wonder Alcoa is short on electricians

* Former mayor Gibbs seeks 1st Ward seat

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SPRINGFIELD -- Illinois came closer to Texas on Wednesday in the race to land the $1-billion experimental FutureGen power plant for which both Mattoon and Tuscola are finalists.Senate lawmakers approved a measure that protects Illinois from some lawsuits if problems arise with the FutureGen project.Mattoon and Tuscola are two of the four remaining finalists to win the coal-fired plant, which pumps carbon dioxide emissions thousands of feet underground instead of into the air. Two towns in Texas are also finalists.A decision is expected in September.

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HOBART (Reuters) - The impact of global warming on the vast Southern Ocean around Antarctica is starting to pose a threat to ocean currents that distribute heat around the world, Australian scientists say, citing new deep-water data.

Melting ice-sheets and glaciers in Antarctica are releasing fresh water, interfering with the formation of dense "bottom water," which sinks 4-5 kilometers to the ocean floor and helps drive the world's ocean circulation system.

A slowdown in the system known as "overturning circulation" would affect the way the ocean, which absorbs 85 percent of atmospheric heat, carries heat around the globe.

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WASHINGTON ? Al Gore made an emotional return to Congress Wednesday to plead with lawmakers to fight global warming with moral courage while revealing nothing about whether he'll join the 2008 presidential race.

The former vice president is a Democratic favorite for the presidential nomination even though he says he's not running. Fresh off a triumphant Hollywood appearance in which his climate-change documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," won two Oscars, Gore drew overflow crowds as he testified before House and Senate panels about a "true planetary emergency."

He said the issue should not be partisan or political, but Gore faced skeptical Republicans who questioned his personal commitment to reducing energy usage and the science behind his film.

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ARMONK, N.Y. (AP) ? IBM Corp. is pledging that by 2012, it will have reduced its greenhouse gas footprint by 7 percent since 2005, primarily through energy conservation.

The technology company made the vow Thursday as part of the Environmental Protection Agency's voluntary "Climate Leaders" program, in which more than 100 companies have committed to reducing their output of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

IBM's first such pledge was a 4 percent decrease from 2002 to 2005; the company says it achieved a 6.2 percent reduction.

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WASHINGTON - Democratic California Sen. Barbara Boxer refereed a blistering verbal assault on Al Gore by the leading Republican skeptic on global warming Wednesday as the former vice president returned to Capitol Hill to call for immediate congressional action to save the planet.

Gore, whose documentary film "An Inconvenient Truth" recently won an Academy Award, had a heated exchange with Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who tried to paint the Tennessee Democrat as an overzealous hypocrite when Gore ducked a question about whether he would sign a pledge to have his household cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The testy exchange came in an otherwise laudatory hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which Boxer heads.

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SACRAMENTO — After repeatedly being asked about his conservative critics, including talk show host Rush Limbaugh, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dropped his diplomatic veneer Tuesday and declared their views irrelevant to his work in California.

"All irrelevant. Rush Limbaugh is irrelevant. I am not his servant," the governor said on NBC's "Today" show.

Limbaugh then declared on his radio program that Schwarzenegger, lacking the communications skills to persuade Californians of his Republican values, had sold them out.

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The pursuit of more isn't better when it means choking our planet to death.

By Bill McKibben, BILL MCKIBBEN is a scholar in residence at Middlebury College and author of "Deep Economy: the Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future."

March 21, 2007

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Al Gore, a Democratic favorite for the presidency despite pronouncements that he's not running, spoke out on his signature issue Wednesday, telling Congress that climate change poses a crisis that threatens civilization. In a return he described as emotional, Gore testified before House panels that it is not too late to deal with climate change "and we have everything we need to get started." Gore's return to Congress marked the first time he had been in the Capitol since ...

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WASHINGTON - Global warming has gone Hollywood, literally and figuratively. The script is plain. As Al Gore says, solutions are at hand. We can switch to renewable fuels and embrace energy-saving technologies, once the dark forces of doubt are defeated. It's smart and caring people against the stupid and selfish. Sooner or later, Americans will discover that this Hollywood version of global warming (largely mirrored in the media) is mostly make-believe.

Most of the many reports on global warming have a different plot. Despite variations, these studies reach similar conclusions. Regardless of how serious the threat, the available technologies promise at best a holding action against greenhouse gas emissions. Even massive gains in renewables (solar, wind, biomass) and more efficient vehicles and appliances would merely stabilize annual emissions near present levels by 2050. The reason: Economic growth, especially in poor countries, will sharply increase energy use and emissions.

The latest report came last week from 12 scientists, engineers and social scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Called "The Future of Coal," the report was mostly ignored by the media. The report makes some admittedly optimistic assumptions: "carbon capture and storage" technologies prove commercially feasible; governments around the world adopt a sizable charge (a.k.a. tax) on carbon fuel emissions. Still, annual greenhouse gas emissions in 2050 are roughly at today's levels. Without action, they'd be more than twice as high.

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So bad that the chief executive of one of the nation's largest oil companies is on a 50-city tour trying to communicate what the industry is doing to expand oil production, respond to consumer frustration over energy costs, and deliver a message about bills being drafted in Madison and Washington, D.C.

John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil USA, on Tuesday used an appearance in Milwaukee, 29th on the 50-city tour, to praise efforts under way in Congress to enact a law restricting emissions of gases linked to global warming and criticize a state plan to tax oil company profits.

A favorability survey conducted last year by the Edelman public relations firm ranked the oil industry dead last, 20th of 20 industries surveyed.

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At a gas station 175 miles north of Tampa, there's something motorists won't find anywhere else in the state.

A retail pump dispensing ethanol.

The lone outlet says a lot about Florida's aspirations for alternative fuel and the promises surrounding ethanol. For all the hype about how good ethanol can be, it has problems that must be overcome before it can be sold for mainstream use.

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Re "Extra day off for city employees considered":

As a former 20-year resident of Long Beach (still paying property and sales taxes in the city) and as a combat-injured Marine veteran, I am against giving city employees a paid day off on Veterans Day. Although Councilman Val Lerch's proposal is an honest attempt to honor America's veterans, it will not cause anyone to reflect on or to remember the sacrifices of those who served.

Reflection and remembrance should come from the heart - not from the public till. Like the rest of the population, those city employees who will observe Veterans Day (either actively or passively) will do so with or without a paid day off.

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When Larry Cox opens a bottle of wine while dining at home with friends, he is especially eager to hear their opinion.

"Good friends will tell you if it needs more fruit or less fruit," Cox, an estimator for an asphalt company, explained. "Good friends will tell you the truth."

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Les Blumenthal did not quite get the whole story straight. The growing of palms for oil will be a short-term problem, but when companies are new they need startup products. Blumenthal failed to inform the public of the work in the field of oil-producing algae. There is a lot of research using secondary-treated water from our sewage plants to grow the algae and in capturing the carbon dioxide from coal-fired plants as a carbon source for growth.

Production of oil from algae yields 38 times more oil per acre than soy beans. It would help resolve the high nutrient flow from our sewage plants into our waterways and help clean up our mess. Every community with sewage treatment plants could potentially benefit from waste reduction and the sale of a feedstock to offset the cost of the physical plants. There is work in genetic engineering of plants that create the oils and also in direct conversion of cellulose to ethanol using the whole plant for fuel.

These steps help reduce the need of fossil fuels and help us clean up our fouled nest. We also need to move away from food- source feed stocks, and in time this will happen. We need the startup companies that think outside the box to get the process going. Don?t let the petroleum industry hacks derail this program. Our future is at stake.

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The flap about the climatologist in Oregon is funny, if it wasn't so tragically stuck on the wrong points. I guess my humor comes in when one knows that the largest single greenhouse gas emitter in the region recently was Mount St. Helens.

In the serious part of the discussion, there are points that should be made.

Global warming is very present in regional settings; the debate is really about global impacts. For example, the glaciers in Africa are disappearing, mainly because the forests have been cut down on the mountain slopes where they exist, a definite human impact.

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After six years of delays, construction will resume on an 850-megawatt, coal-fired power plant with ties to Joplin.

Empire District Electric Co. confirmed Tuesday that Kansas City Power & Light will begin work again on Iatan 2. The plant will be near Weston, just north of Kansas City, next to the Iatan 1 plant.

Empire owns 12 percent, or 80 megawatts, of Iatan I, which has been operational since 1980. It owns 12 percent of Iatan 2, or about 100 of the 850 megawatts it is expected to generate. Iatan 2 is scheduled for completion in 2010.

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Climate is changing and changing faster than ever, John J. Magnuson, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of zoology and limnology told a crowd of about 60 Thursday night at the Hilton Garden Inn.When discussing climate, most people are shortsighted and don't see the long-term effects, he said. For example, people said global warming occurred this winter when the temperature remained above average in December and January. When cold weather moved in at the end of January and into Febru...

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My fellow Americans, people all over the world, we need to solve the climate crisis. It's not a political issue. It's a moral issue. We have everything we need to get started, with the possible exception of the will to act. That's a renewable resource. Let's renew it.

-- Al Gore

accepting an Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth

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Man caused global warming is a myth. Globalists are using Al Gore's movie and one-sided United Nations reports to force us into world government. Their chicken-little allies in the media and government are promoting these lies.

Remember the global cooling headlines of the mid-seventies in Time, Newsweek, Science and National Geographic. The death and suffering caused by efforts to solve the mythical global warming or cooling "crisis" is deliberate. They want to reduce world population by 90 percent (see the Agenda 21, Biodiversity Assessment) and are the means to an end for the global power elite.

Implementation of the Kyoto Treaty would greatly reduce our standard of living and consolidate more power into world government elitists.

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By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Is Thomas Edison's most famous invention, the incandescent light bulb, about to fizzle into obscurity?

Thanks to global warming, the ban-the-bulb movement is gaining strength. Australian officials and European lighting manufacturers have announced phaseouts of the energy-draining bulb. A California legislator has proposed a ban. Now, in a move that could speed the move away from the 128-year-old invention, some of the world's largest bulbmakers have joined environmental groups and the California Energy Commission in talks that could lead to a phaseout in the US within a decade, sources say.

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Turn on a television or flip through a magazine, and you are likely to see ads for Toyota, Ford and other automobile manufacturers extolling their commitment to a cleaner, greener planet.

In federal courtrooms -- including one here in Fresno -- their actions tell a much different story. For the last three years, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers -- a trade group that represents all major car companies except for Honda -- have been suing California and other states to prevent them from regulating automobile emissions that cause global warming.

If that weren't egregious enough, the automakers are now effectively attempting to pursue these lawsuits in closed courtrooms. Federal judges must not let that happen.

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Most folks attending a long scientific conference feel exhausted by the last day, and attendance usually suffers. Youd never guess this, however, from the crowd gathered for the hourlong talk by Susan Solomon on the last day of the recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Solomon led the international team that prepared the first of this years reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This was the North American release of that report. It concl...

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Turn on a television or flip through a magazine, and you are likely to see ads for Toyota, Ford and other automobile manufacturers extolling their commitment to a cleaner, greener planet.

In federal courtrooms, their actions tell a much different story. For the last three years, trade groups that represent major automobile manufacturers have been suing California and other states to prevent them from regulating automobile emissions that cause global warming.

If that weren't egregious enough, the automakers are now effectively attempting to pursue these lawsuits in closed courtrooms. Federal judges must not let that happen.

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Tim Flannery, author of the popular global warming book The Weather Makers, visited Houston Monday and spoke at The Progressive Forum. Before the speech, he sat down with Eric Berger to discuss the scope of global warming and outline why governments should be taking steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and recapture carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. To hear a recording of the entire interview, visit blogs.chron.com/sciguy/

Q: You're in Houston, the energy capital of the world. Texas, by itself, emits more carbon dioxide than all but six countries in the world. Should we be ashamed?

A: I don't know whether shame is all that useful of a sentiment. I think it might be motivating, but I think you could be much better motivated by opportunity here. As you said, you're the energy capital of the world. How are you going to stay that way? Are you really sure you'll still be there in 10 or 20 years? That's the challenge. As we're seeing, we're living in an increasingly carbon-constrained world. So Houston faces both a threat and an opportunity.

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Pamplin Media Group, Mar 13, 2007 (4 Reader comments)

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To the Editor:Re: March 5 story “War against Warming.”My name is Kristy Mitchell, and I am 17 years old.I think that the Cool Cities Initiative program, sponsored by the Sierra Club, is a good one, and I feel that it will be effective in the long run.Global warming is a big problem that is affecting our country and the world.The citizens probably don’t know how bad global warming is right now.It has not affected us much today, but in the future, our children will be the ones wh...

More Letters

* End empty rhetoric

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— On a frigid afternoon in early March, construction workers pinned steel columns to expansive girders 30 stories above Bryant Square Park, building what will be the new Bank of America tower. From the outside, the skyscraper looks little different from the others that surround it.

But inside, crews are installing an array of energy saving, pollution-fighting features that will make it arguably the worlds greenest skyscraper. The building is the first to have obtained a platinum certification from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), whose rating system sets the benchmark for green buildings in the U.S.

The windows, bank executive Mark Nicholls explains, are made from low iron glass, which lets in more natural light than normal glass and will lower the buildings use of electricity. Inside, an innovative underfloor climate system will allow workers to control the temperature of their workspace.

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Provided by FastCompany.comOne degree: In the effort to confront global climate change, a single degree of warmth may seem insignificant. But at Aspen Skiing Co., which runs one of the world's top ski resorts, a single degree is the margin between viability and disaster.

"To be in business," says Patrick O'Donnell, who was Aspen's CEO and environmental conscience for a decade before retiring in November, "we rely on putting down 2 feet of good [artificial] snow, good hard snow that we make the last two weeks of October and the first two weeks of November. That way, when March comes, we can still have skiing, we can still get a full rate for our lift tickets.

"But many of those nights in the fall, we make snow right on the bubble. I've had the staff go back and collect the records--we often make snow within one degree, or one-and-a-half degrees, of being able to. If we can't do it, we have a problem."

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WASHINGTON - Large pension funds and companies called Monday for Congress to place limits on emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming, the latest among several business-oriented groups to call for a national climate policy.

The 65 signers of a letter to President Bush called for a 60 to 90 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2050, a goal that could require, among other changes, a major shift away from fossil fuels used to run power plants and automobiles. The letter promotes a market-based system that would give companies the incentive to curtail growth of these emissions.

The White House opposes mandatory, economy-wide carbon caps to deal with climate, instead citing its efforts to spend almost $3 billion a year on energy-technology research and development to slow climate change. Critics of strict limits on greenhouse gases, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, argue that any new laws on climate change should be crafted to avoid harming the economy.

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Sometimes the most dangerous course of action is doing nothing.If we do nothing, then global climate changes already making their mark on our weather, glaciers and air quality will harm our environment in irrevocable and dire ways.Washington is especially vulnerable to climate change because of our dependence on snow pack for summer stream flows and because any rise in sea levels would threaten our many coastal communities.If greenhouse gas emissions continue unchecked, temperatures will rise by...

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Plano couple opens up winery in downtown Forestburg

FORESTBURG — When Larry and Brenda Thompson began work on Weinhof Winery in Forestburg many of the locals were curious about the changes to the building and the couple’s efforts to start a vineyard and wine bottling business.

Larry Thompson laughs when he recalls how his neighbors sometimes asked him if people would accept outsiders such as he and his wife into the community.

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The drive to dislodge the Bush administration and Congress from their lethargic response to climate change is not likely to turn on the ice worm. A photogenic symbol of global warming was needed.

''Ice worms on glaciers have really gone down, but nobody cares about ice worms: The polar bear is a great charismatic species to which everyone is attracted, said George Divoky, the Seattle-based Arctic researcher who has gained renown by precise observation of the globe's shifting climate.

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Cleaning up the environment is hard but rewarding work. But what if you could celebrate Earth Day by helping prevent the environment from getting messed up in the first place?

It's easier than you think, and it's something every kid can do. Ride your bike more, ride in the car less. You'd be following in the path of Colton and Grant S., two brothers from Oak Park, Ill., who have been biking a lot for the last six years.

"Every mile you bike instead of going by car prevents one pound of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere," says Colton, 14.

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For a long time now - indeed, since the first Earth Day in 1970 - self-styled "environmentalists" have been warning the rest of us that our planet is spinning its way toward ecological Armageddon.

It's a depressing litany: Melting glaciers, rising temperatures, violent weather, crop failures - and nearly all of it, we're told, the fault of human beings engaged in such unforgivable activities as creating businesses, driving cars and ... well, breathing.

"We humans are about as subtle as the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs," New Scientist magazine says. "The damage we do is increasing. ... We are heading for cataclysm." The Washington-based Worldwatch Institute finds "the key environmental indicators are increasingly negative." And Greenpeace predicts that "half the Earth's species are likely to disappear in the next 75 years."

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CAMBRIDGE -- It's not every start-up technology company that has a vision quite this bold:

* Turn one of the world's dirtiest energy sources, coal, into one of the cleanest, natural gas.

* Slash gas and electric bills for millions of New Englanders and residents of other areas far from energy sources.

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When employees don't turn off their computers after work, it can cost companies millions each year in wasted electricity. But one Seattle startup has turned this failure to shut down into a plan to rake in revenue.

Verdiem offers Surveyor, software that basically does what any individual can do: It turns a computer off and then back on. Yet unlike a human, the software always remembers to do it.

With increased awareness of global warming and greenhouse-gas emissions, as well as rising oil prices, companies are placing more importance on go-green measures to reach initiatives and slash spending.

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Over 250 Peninsula residents demonstrated their commitment to combating climate change Sunday by giving up a sunny afternoon to attend the launch of the Sierra Club's Cool Cities campaign, a grass-roots effort to urge immediate action on global warming at a local level.

The families who came to Sequoia High School to hear speeches by Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, state Sen. Joe Simitian and other leaders didn't need to be convinced of the urgency of the global climate situation or their responsibility to do something about it. Many people arrived on bicycles, and nearly everyone raised their hand when asked if they had seen Al Gore's environmental documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth."

They came to be recruited as foot soldiers in the battle against public apathy. The Cool Cities campaign, which unofficially began in November, hopes to use residents' lobbying power to persuade every City Council in San Mateo, Santa Clara and San Benito Counties to adopt the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.

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The United States objected to key parts of a discussion on climate change

at a meeting between G-8 environmental officials and representatives from five

influential developing nations, Germany's environment minister said.

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Climate change is an inevitable fact of life on this planet. The question, then, is: Is there anything that can be done by mankind to create a stable climate? Those who believe it possible have not even proved that carbon dioxide at certain levels creates a warmer climate than carbon dioxide at other levels. A 90 percent probability consensus is not proof in the scientific world.

Why not err on the side of caution? Because the cost of what is being proposed is enormous and will have an adverse impact on anyone who uses energy for any purpose whatsoever. It is estimated that a bill setting carbon caps introduced by Sen. John McCain will increase energy costs by at least 35 percent, and McCain is a conservative.

We are being asked to accept the idea that modern man is the cause of climate change on faith in the authority of politicians, United Nations officials, a consensus of some scientists and a bunch of movie stars. Their tactics are fear and hysteria. Their motive is power lust, pure and simple.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - When climate scientist Andrew Weaver considers the idea of tinkering with Earth's air, water or sunlight to fight global warming, he remembers the lessons of a favorite children's book.In the book, a cheese-loving king's castle is infested with mice. So the king brings in cats to get rid of the mice. Then the castle's overrun with cats, so he brings in dogs to get rid of them, then lions to get rid of the dogs, elephants to get rid of the lion...

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NEW HAVEN, W.Va. - Mountaineer Plant will be the first to feature a new type of technology designed to decrease greenhouse gas emissions.According to a news release, American Electric Power soon will be installing a carbon capture at Mountaineer, which will make it the first commercial use of technology to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions from existing plants.The project is expected to complete its product validation phase in 2008 and begin commercial operation in 2011.AEP has ...

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Every once in awhile a little humor creeps in here. Thank goodness! Mr. Gore may be a bit overweight, then again that's the national condition.

However, those effects are offset some by the absence of the millions of buffaloes which ran free, creating all sorts of now environmentally unpleasant conditions.

How the we and the earth survived all that we will never know. Good thing they're not around anymore. All that carbon dioxide and other gasses they produced. Oh, my.

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The coal industry faces a bleak future unless ways are developed on a commercial scale to capture and store carbon dioxide in the campaign against global warming, according to a recent study.

The report by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says coal, which accounts for half of the country's electricity production, will remain the fuel of choice to produce electricity in the United States because it is relatively cheap and abundant.

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A dozen disheveled men brush past one another, locked inside a cell the size of a bedroom in a small ranch home. They eat, sleep and stand for ours huddled face to face inside the Oakland County Jail, so close they can taste each other's breath. Intake cells designed to temporarily hold a few prisoners instead keep dozens of men, who sit and sleep on cement floors, occasionally getting up to perch themselves on an exposed aluminum toilet - in full view of all their cellmates.

The Oakland County Sheriff's Office allowed The Oakland Press to see the inside of the jail recently on three occasions. During the tours, cells were seen crammed with inmates. Some cells have only two average-sized blankets on the cement floor that are used as beds.

Sheriff Michael Bouchard acknowledged the crowding problem will not go away without changes in prisoner sentencing. But he also said it's not his job to make any inmate's stay a pleasant one.

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