Jack Dini

Lake Superior, the Great Lakes and Europe Defy Climate Experts

A little over one year ago, The New York Times and USA Today were reporting that the Great Lakes hit all time lows in water levels. According to those reports, Lake Huron and Lake Michigan were 29 inches below their average measurements taken since 1918. Scientists warned communities that they could only expect more tragedy with the Great Lakes. With a lack of rain from climate change, they told everyone to expect levels to continue to drop. (1)

Ocean Patch Claims Are 99.5% Garbage

Media exaggerated the patch size by a factor of more than 200

Climate Change 'Realists” Meet in Las Vegas

You've heard about carbon dioxide and its effect on temperature world-wide. But have you heard that temperature increases first, then hundreds or more years later carbon dioxide levels rise? My guess is probably not. Also, there have been periods when atmospheric CO2 levels were as much as 16 times higher than they are now—periods characterized not by warming, but by glaciations.

As Poor Nations Grow, Carbon Emissions Rise

Prakash Javadekar, India's environment minister has taken a bold stand on the carbon emissions issue and stated a stark and inevitable truth. Though he emphasized the fact that India is committed to reduce carbon emissions, they may increase in the process of development and poverty eradication. He stressed the fact that India, as a developing nation, needs to grow and prosper and in that process there is no denying that fact that carbon emissions will substantially increase. (1)

Feds Being Sued Over Wind Farms 30-Year Eagle Kill Permit

When it comes to bird kills, oil, gas and electric utility companies face heavy fines. Wind farms get a free pass

Chinese: Big Luxury Spenders and Red Wine Lovers

Chinese are spending large amounts of cash on luxury goods in major cities around the world. Paris has become a prime shopping attraction for many Chinese tourist groups, the last stop on a multicity, multinational European bus tour. The average shopper in Paris spends 1,300 euros on shopping. Galleries Layfayette in Paris reports that the typical Chinese tourist spent 1,000 euros in two hours of shopping during 2009, 87 percent of it on fashion items, including shoes and handbags. The number of Chinese tourists to France in 2010 rose to 550,000, and they spent 650 million euros ($890 million). In 2009, Chinese surpassed Russians as the highest spending non-European visitors to France reports David Shambaugh. (1)

Hygiene Hypothesis Revisited

Babies who are exposed to both bacteria and allergens in the first year of life are less likely to develop asthma and allergies, a recent study reports. (1)

Renewables Are Too Expensive

Despite massive taxpayer-funded subsidies, 'clean energy' is a failure because it remains far too expensive to compete in the marketplace. (1)

Green Energy Subsidies Drying Up In Many Places

The rain in Spain may stay mainly in the plain, but it won't be falling on giant solar panels for very long says Kenneth Green. Spain is in full retreat on its ill-advised renewable push. It has found its foray into renewable energy unsustainable. (1)

India Has Worse Air Pollution Than China

India has the worst air pollution in the entire world, beating China, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh, according to a study released in 2012. Of 132 countries whose environment were surveyed, India was dead last in air ranking. (1)

Vaccines Save Lives

Vaccines given to infants and young children over the past two decades will prevent 322 million illnesses, 21 million hospitalizations and 732,000 deaths over the course of their lifetimes, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (1)

Portland: City of Pure Water

In early April a teenager urinated into one of Portland's water reservoirs. Admittedly, this is a dumb, irritating thing to do. But as Laura Helmuth points out, in one of the most spectacularly stupid decisions in years, the city is going to drain the 38 million gallon reservoir. The most unbelievably stupid decision in about three years anyway--if this sounds familiar, that's because Portland did the same thing in 2011, when they emptied 7.5 million gallons from the same reservoir for the same reason. (1)

Manganese- An Essential Element

Humans need manganese, although this was only realized in the 1950s, perhaps because the requirement is so modest. (1) Some of the health benefits of manganese include helping promote healthy bone structure, bone metabolism, and creating essential enzymes for building bones. It also acts as a co-enzyme to assist metabolic activity in the human body. Apart from these, there are other health benefits including the formation of connective tissues, absorption of calcium, proper functioning of the thyroid gland, and sex hormones, regulation of blood sugar level, and metabolism of fats and carbohydrates. (2)

Germany's Energy Flip-Flop

In his 'climate change speech' at Georgetown University in June 2013, President Obama said, “Countries like China and Germany are going all out in the race for clean energy. I want America to win that race, but we can't win it if we're not in it.” (1)

Scientific Publishing Issues

After 350 years in the slow-moving world of print, Nature magazine notes that scientific publishing has been thrust into a fast-paced online realm of cloud computing and ubiquitous sharing. The result has been an era of ferment, as established practices are challenged by new ones- most notably the open-access model in which the author pays publication fees upfront. (1)

Volcanoes and Climate Change

The impact of volcanic eruptions on global warming could provide a new explanation for the so-called 'pause' in climate change. According to a recent study, models for predicting the rate at which temperatures around the world would rise from 1998 onwards did not take into consideration the measurable impact volcanoes can have. Rather than contributing to global warming, eruptions release particles into the air that reflect sunlight--causing temperatures to drop. This phenomenon was not taken into account when predictions were made--offering an explanation for why the world seemed to stop heating up. (1)

Afghanistan- Narco Nation

The opium trade prospers in lawless countries, and thirty years of strife in Afghanistan turned that country into a major producer of opium in the mid-1980s. It's now labeled a narco state in which drug lords and traffickers control both the economy and law enforcement.

Regulations Growing Like Topsy

The cost is $1.8 trillion. That's the price of complying with Washington red tape—and that's not a misprint, reported Tom Price in 2012. (1) It clearly has to be higher today. For the first time this amounted to more than half of total federal spending. It is more than the GDP's of Canada or Mexico, notes Wayne Crews. (2)

Solar Panel Degradation

Everyone has heard the pitch for solar energy, install solar cells on your roof and get free electricity from the sun. Sure they cost a lot up front, but they will last 25-30 years—which just happens to be about the payback time given current electricity rates from coal, nuclear and natural gas. So when the solar panels start failing in two or three years the economics of solar power collapses like a house of cards. That is exactly what is happening around the world. Cheap Chinese solar panels have flooded the market and are now starting to fail at an alarming rate. Solar panels covering a warehouse roof in Los Angeles were only two years into their expected 25-year life span when they began to fail. Worldwide, solar power adopters are reporting similar problems and the $77 billion solar industry is facing a quality crisis reports Doug Hoffman. (1)

Solar Waste Disposal and Bankruptcy Issues

Colorado-based Abound Solar that got hundreds of millions of dollars in federal loan guarantees before going belly-up didn't just empty taxpayers wallets—it left behind a toxic mess of carcinogens, broken glass, and contaminated water. The Northern Colorado Business Report estimates it will cost up to $3.7 million to clean and repair the building so it can again be leased reports Fox News. (1)