MUENCHHAUSEN

AN ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ENVIRONMENT,
RENEWABLE RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY,
AND RELATED TOPICS

By BOOTSTRAP PRESS, INC.
BETHESDA, MD
JJGREENBARON@VERIZON.NET

FOR COMMENTS: GREEN_BARON99.MUENCHHAUSEN@BLOGGER.COM

===============================================================
SEPTEMBER 21, 2007
===============================================================

WELCOME!

The Green Baron welcomes one and all who take the time to read Muenchhausen. He aims to “tell it like it is” as much as possible, and avoid advocacy and ideological positions. There are enough of those to go around in other publications.

The Green Baron also welcomes comments from anyone who may read Muenchhausen. Please send comments to the e-mail address above or to Green_Baron99.muenchhausen@blogger.com.

ARCTIC ICE SHRINKAGE

It looks as if there is more documentation that what The Green Baron (TGB) addressed in Muenchhausen, Dec. 4, 2003 (http://muenchhausen.blogspot.com/), may be materializing. In that issue, TGB reported on a meeting he attended as far back as Feb. 21, 2002, in which Navy Commander (CDR) Steven W. Warren, then director of the National Ice Center (Suitland, MD), spoke about predictions that the fabled Northwest and Northeast Passages of the Arctic Ocean could become navigable channels for ships to sail by 2006 or, in the case of the Northeast Passage (north of Scandinavia and Russia), as early as 2005.














Satellite photo of Arctic sea ice near Svalbard, Norway
Photo courtesy European Space Agency

Perhaps the 2005—2006 forecasts were a bit sanguine. Nevertheless, according to the European Space Agency (ESA) and similar organizations, during the summer of 2006, about 200 satellite photos showed that a passage north of Greenland, Canada, and Alaska actually had become ice-free. Danish space scientist Leif Toudal Pedersen of the Danish National Space Center noted that the Arctic ice area (sea ice, as opposed to icebergs), covered about 1 million square miles, compared with 1.5 million square miles in 2005, and, to be sure, much more during the mid-20th century. A full story with photos is available at http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEM7ZF8LURE_index_0.html.

It has been predicted that the Arctic Ocean and its adjacent waters could be ice-free in summer as early as 2070, and perhaps even a bit sooner. Were that to happen, shipping routes between Scandinavia and Japan could be cut by nearly 50% of previous distances. Moreover, one could expect the establishment of Arctic Ocean ports and mineral and oil/gas extraction. The combination of shipping, industry, and associated activities could, environmental advocates fear, lead to heavy pollution—even with robust precautions taken, for accidents do happen—that would be extremely hard to clean up, given the harsh polar climate, even in the absence of ice. Natural processes would work very slowly, and then only during the brief polar summer; one can only guess at what manmade cleanup technologies might be available for Arctic regions.

For more on this topic, please see Keaten, J. (Associated Press), Washington Post, Sept. 16, 2007, p. A15.

GLOBAL WARMING AND AGRICULTURE

TGB thanks the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics (Washington, DC) for having invited him to the luncheon and seminar at which global warming and agriculture were discussed. It is certain that global warming can have profound effects on agriculture worldwide, some perhaps good, others possibly quite nasty.

William R. Cline, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development since 2002, discusses climate change effects on world agriculture, breaking it down by many individual countries. He has written an important book on this topic:

Global Warming and Agriculture: Impact Estimates by Country. William R. Cline. xi + 186 pages. 2007. Center for Global Development and Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics, 1750 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036-1903. Inquire about price.

“THE EARTH’S KIDNEYS”

There will be a meeting on ecosystem restoration and creation that emphasizes wetlands. Wetlands have often been characterized as “the earth’s kidneys”. TGB has attended some of those meetings during the 1980s and 1990s, and can warmly recommend attendance to those who are interested.

34th Annual Conference on Ecosystems Restoration and Creation. Plant City, FL. Nov. 1—2, 2007. Hillsborough Community College, Ed Geiger, Dean of Workforce Development, Plant City Campus, 1206 N. Park Rd., Plant City, FL 33566-2799. www.hccfl.edu/depts/detp/ecoconf.html. Registration $100 through Oct. 1, 2007; $130 thereafter.

WHAT IS BOOTSTRAP PRESS?

Bootstrap Press is a nonprofit organization founded in Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.A., to promote the development and management of technology and businesses based on renewable resources. We also encourage the preservation of our Earth's natural habitats and its plant and animal species. So do a lot of other organizations, and more power to them for doing so!

Bootstrap Press is different because its members believe that the development of renewable resources and the preservation of habitats and species are receiving far more lip service than the financial and technical support needed to achieve these goals. We also think they will continue to be subjects of more talk than action until someone can show how renewable resources and the diversity of biological species can be the basis for potentially profitable businesses as well as a matter of ethics. Bootstrap Press intends to provide a forum for the discussion of how to build up such business, and of related topics.

There's one more thing we should mention about Muenchhausen and Bootstrap Press. We try to present only the scientific and technical facts that are correct to the best of our knowledge, belief, and good faith. It is up to Muenchhausen's readers to draw their own conclusions and make their own judgments.

NOTE: The mention of a product or service in Muenchhausen is in no way to be regarded as an endorsement of that product or service by Muenchhausen, Bootstrap Press, the Green Baron, or any other contributor to Muenchhausen. Also, the views expressed in Muenchhausen are The Green Baron’s own, and are based on the best of his knowledge, belief, and good faith.

MUENCHHAUSEN

AN ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ENVIRONMENT,
RENEWABLE RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY,
AND RELATED TOPICS

By BOOTSTRAP PRESS, INC.
BETHESDA, MD
JJGREENBARON@VERIZON.NET

FOR COMMENTS: GREEN_BARON99.MUENCHHAUSEN@BLOGGER.COM

===============================================================
SEPTEMBER 13, 2007
===============================================================

WELCOME!

The Green Baron welcomes one and all who take the time to read Muenchhausen. He aims to “tell it like it is” as much as possible, and avoid advocacy and ideological positions. There are enough of those to go around in other publications.

The Green Baron also welcomes comments from anyone who may read Muenchhausen. Please send comments to the e-mail address above or to Green_Baron99.muenchhausen@blogger.com.

MORE ON ENERGY DAWDLING

In his last issue of Muenchhausen, The Green Baron (TGB) revisited the question of why the United States did not embark on a Manhattan Project-type effort toward development to alternatives to oil and gas for energy, when the first Arab oil embargo was imposed in October 1973. He recalled—correctly, he believes—that the U.S. received a stiff warning from petroleum producers that such a project would be regarded as an “unfriendly act,” which could be interpreted as just short of a pretext for war. After this warning, any talk of “Project Independence 1980” came to a sudden end.

Indeed, when TGB attended the International Energy Conference in Detroit in 1974, he heard then-President Gerald Ford give a speech that centered, energy-wise, on a “Project InTERdependence”. That is when TGB became convinced that the U.S. caved into the oil producers. Besides, the embargo ended in March 1974, and was soon forgotten.

However, dawdling on energy source development cannot be blamed entirely on U.S. government timorousness. The major oil and gas companies also had a cogent interest in delaying a major push toward alternatives at the time—an interest that seemingly remains extant.

“Leaving alternative energy development to the oil companies is like giving the wolf a golden key to the henhouse. They have absolutely no motivation to develop something that will make their products obsolete,” suggests Frank Salvato, vice president and executive director of Basics Project (Downers Grove, IL) (1).

Here is TGB’s musing on this subject: What Salvato says about (major) oil companies certainly held true in 1974, and, to a large extent, holds true currently. However, oil and gas supplies, though still large, are finite, and will dwindle with increasing rapidity as developing nations industrialize and demand spirals. At some point, therefore, to keep from going out of business, these companies must embark on different enterprises. Indeed, some are advertising that they are moving in just that direction, from biofuels to solar. Perhaps TGB may be accused of being something of a conspiracy theorist, but is it not possible that the major energy firms would not want to keep the lid on marketing alternatives such as fuel cells, solar, and the like, until they can essentially oligopolize their manufacture and marketing as they did oil and gas?

Let us take fuel cells as an example. Future technology might well make possible the use of fuel cells to supply energy to vehicles, homes, and businesses. Why could the “majors” not lease, not sell, such energy systems? There is precedent for this with which TGB had personal acquaintance:

In early 1947, TGB’s parents, who were practicing attorneys, obtained from International Business Machines (IBM) an electric typewriter, which were then relatively new technology. IBM at the time essentially had a lock on these products and refused to sell them. My parents had to pay a monthly rental, plus fees for maintenance. To be sure, things changed when competition developed for electric typewriters (Remington, Smith-Corona, etc.), and litigation that went all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which IBM lost during the 1950s, forced that firm to begin selling its products.

It is possible that if the major energy companies wanted to market its alternative energy technologies the way IBM did. True, they might be working against the IBM decision, but is it not possible that Congress would not pass a law that allows these majors to market exclusively by leasing, the IBM decision notwithstanding?

References:

1. Salvato, F. “Common goals and political differences”. Forum, The Washington Times, Aug. 26, 2007, p. B5

WHAT IS BOOTSTRAP PRESS?

Bootstrap Press is a nonprofit organization founded in Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.A., to promote the development and management of technology and businesses based on renewable resources. We also encourage the preservation of our Earth's natural habitats and its plant and animal species. So do a lot of other organizations, and more power to them for doing so!

Bootstrap Press is different because its members believe that the development of renewable resources and the preservation of habitats and species are receiving far more lip service than the financial and technical support needed to achieve these goals. We also think they will continue to be subjects of more talk than action until someone can show how renewable resources and the diversity of biological species can be the basis for potentially profitable businesses as well as a matter of ethics. Bootstrap Press intends to provide a forum for the discussion of how to build up such business, and of related topics.

There's one more thing we should mention about Muenchhausen and Bootstrap Press. We try to present only the scientific and technical facts that are correct to the best of our knowledge, belief, and good faith. It is up to Muenchhausen's readers to draw their own conclusions and make their own judgments.

NOTE: The mention of a product or service in Muenchhausen is in no way to be regarded as an endorsement of that product or service by Muenchhausen, Bootstrap Press, the Green Baron, or any other contributor to Muenchhausen. Also, the views expressed in Muenchhausen are The Green Baron’s own, and are based on the best of his knowledge, belief, and good faith.

MUENCHHAUSEN

AN ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ENVIRONMENT,
RENEWABLE RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY,
AND RELATED TOPICS

By BOOTSTRAP PRESS, INC.
BETHESDA, MD
JJGREENBARON@VERIZON.NET

FOR COMMENTS: GREEN_BARON99.MUENCHHAUSEN@BLOGGER.COM

===============================================================
SEPTEMBER 11, 2007
===============================================================

WELCOME!

The Green Baron welcomes one and all who take the time to read Muenchhausen. He aims to “tell it like it is” as much as possible, and avoid advocacy and ideological positions. There are enough of those to go around in other publications.

The Green Baron also welcomes comments from anyone who may read Muenchhausen. Please send comments to the e-mail address above or to Green_Baron99.muenchhausen@blogger.com.

SEPTEMBER 11, ANNIVERSARY VI

The Green Baron (TGB) is sitting in a computer booth in the Eric Friedheim Library of the National Press Club, musing on the events of September 11, 2001 and their relation to the oil and gas market. Perhaps the dastardly attack of that day might have been mitigated, if not averted altogether, had the United States proceeded with a Manhattan Project-type effort to develop alternative sources of energy back in 1973, when the first Middle East oil embargo was imposed. TGB states again that if his memory serves him well, this project was stillborn because of warnings by oil producers that it would have been considered an “unfriendly act.”

Perhaps, however, had the United States chosen at the time to challenge the producers and undergo the period of austerity necessary to wean itself from total dependence on petroleum, sponsors of terrorism might have lacked sufficient funds to order operations. Yes, life during the later 1970s and the 1980s might have been very austere, but the dividends by the current decade likely would have been manifold. However, this is all speculation; the U.S. government and private sector “chickened”, and thus we find ourselves being whipsawed by a tense oil/gas market and huge sums of money in enemy hands to finance terrorism. “Could’a, should’a, would’a, we didn’t!” – Quote from Hillary Rodham Clinton, mid 1990s.

Perhaps, given the political and economic climate of today, if the United States today embarked on an all-out effort to develop alternatives, especially renewable ones, to oil/gas, complaints by oil-producing countries of an “unfriendly act” hopefully would fall on deaf ears. TGB’s query, though, is whether such an effort undertaken today, even at full blast, would not be the proverbial “day late and dollar short.”

TGB wants to get this Anniversary VI issue of Muenchhausen online. During the days to come, he shall expand on some difficulties and pitfalls that even attempting to launch an alternative-energy-source Manhattan Project would encounter.

WHAT IS BOOTSTRAP PRESS?

Bootstrap Press is a nonprofit organization founded in Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.A., to promote the development and management of technology and businesses based on renewable resources. We also encourage the preservation of our Earth's natural habitats and its plant and animal species. So do a lot of other organizations, and more power to them for doing so!

Bootstrap Press is different because its members believe that the development of renewable resources and the preservation of habitats and species are receiving far more lip service than the financial and technical support needed to achieve these goals. We also think they will continue to be subjects of more talk than action until someone can show how renewable resources and the diversity of biological species can be the basis for potentially profitable businesses as well as a matter of ethics. Bootstrap Press intends to provide a forum for the discussion of how to build up such business, and of related topics.

There's one more thing we should mention about Muenchhausen and Bootstrap Press. We try to present only the scientific and technical facts that are correct to the best of our knowledge, belief, and good faith. It is up to Muenchhausen's readers to draw their own conclusions and make their own judgments.

NOTE: The mention of a product or service in Muenchhausen is in no way to be regarded as an endorsement of that product or service by Muenchhausen, Bootstrap Press, the Green Baron, or any other contributor to Muenchhausen. Also, the views expressed in Muenchhausen are The Green Baron’s own, and are based on the best of his knowledge, belief, and good faith.