DPU event to focus on green jobs

Next Green Police?

Green Tea Any One? Lets have a Party like its 1986!

Has anyone been paying attention to the weather? Blizzards on the east coast, snow and ice all across the country. So much for that Global Warming thing Al Gore made millions off of. Green Jobs, what exactly are green jobs? That's right just another brilliant idea by the government. I got a plan to get people back to work. It's called "drill baby drill". How about we build more coal mines, nuclear power plants (very safe for the enviroment), natural gas. That would make us energy independent. Furthermore, let's get one other thing straight. I do not need someone telling me how to be a better stewart of the enviroment. I keep my heat on 68 during the winter, hardly ever turn on my air conditioning, turn off the lights when I am not in a room. Why? Because I can't afford not too. Thank you to all of those enviromental activist who won't let us drill, coal mine, build nuclear power plants. They are the reason we are still dependent on foreign oil.

Thank you Sue Murray and the city for your efforts and planning this event to better educate and inform the people that reside in the community and the surrounding areas! We all have so much that we can learn!

ig⋅no⋅rance

/ˈɪgnərəns/

--noun

the state or fact of being ignorant; lack of knowledge, learning, information, etc.

To HL Resident:

Look up the definitions for the words "climate" and "weather." You will see that they are very different and that you don't know them. Changing atmospheric conditions over the long term = climate; a storm right now = weather. Global warming does not say the Earth's axis is going to change ending the seasons; we will still have winter storms in winter. My suggestion would be to refrain from speaking about an issue where you are completely ignorant of the basic definition of the word the topic concerns.

Boilerup, according too many people we are currently going through a period of cooling. Long Term!!! Which would go against the warming claim. Furthermore, I am ignorant because I do not buy into the hype of Global Warming, Climate Change or whatever the word of the day is. Show me where the scientific evidence is to show any such major changes other then the world going through it's usual cycle of warming and cooling. And, please let's not use the fake and phony science like those scientist who have been recently busted for makeup information about climate change. 30 years ago many of the same people who are making claims of Global Warming or Climate Change were stating we were headed for another ice age. My how ingnorant they were. Considering many of them are now chanting Global Warming.

The reality is that a lot of the earths resources are not renewable and will eventually run out. The more people learn about alternatives the better we all will be. A big problem is whether there is really the focus on "green". I hate to point out the obvious, but about 85% of this 2 day event is geared towards students, retired people, or government employees who most likely would get paid to attend. The rest of the working class could not lose a 2 days pay to attend.

As DePauw's Sustainability Coordinator, I am most appreciative of the information given the community about our upcoming Focus the Nation event. I do hope many from the community will attend any and all events! For those not familiar with the campus, there is a campus map online at http://www.depauw.edu/visitors/campus-map/ Also, Watson Forum is inside the Pulliam Center for Contemporary Media (609 S. Locust) and the Peeler Auditorium is inside the Peeler Art Bldg. (10 W. Hanna St.). I look forward to seeing many of you on campus!

As DePauw's Sustainability Coordinator, I am most appreciative of this story in the B-G. We hope to see lots of community people at any and all of these events. For those not familiar with the DePauw campus, there's a map at http://www.depauw.edu/visitors/campus-map/ Also, Watson Forum is inside the Pulliam Center for Contemporary Media (609 S. Locust St.) and Peeler Auditorium is inside the Peeler Art Bldg. (10 W. Hanna St.).

I totally agree with Heritage Lake Resident..

I am so tired of some people automatically thinking that people that disagree with them are ignorant!

We choose not to accept the $$$ driven statistics. There are many reputable scientists that are proving that most (not all) of the data is incorrect and being distorted to further they're misguided cause. I also am sick and tired of being accused of not caring about our planet because the word "Green" to me now means money in they're pockets and not in mine.

Barb, you are correct that simply having a different opinion is not ignorance. However, that is not the situation here. HL Resident did offer a proper opinion that new energy should be gotten from nuclear power and more fossil fuels. I disagree with that opinion but did not address it. Saying that global warming is invalidated because of the occurrence of a winter storm during winter is not an opinion, but actually reflects ignorance of the definitions of climate and weather and what causes the seasons. I'm sick of people who take false umbrage when ignorant people are called out onto the carpet for being such.

HL Resident: I'm not sure where to begin since its clear that all your claims are based on ignorance and nothing more than right wing radio host talking points. Do you realize that Limbaugh, Beck and Hannity have no education beyond high school? Do you really think such people have the education necessary to properly evaluate claims made by the science professionals?

The statement made by you and Barb that people are saying we are going through a long term cooling period is simply wrong. The 2000s were the warmest decade on record. 2008 was a year cooler than some of the years preceding it, but first of all, one year does not make a "long term" trend. This did not stop the ignorant talk show hosts from claiming the end of global warming though, because they too don't know the difference between climate and weather. It was still the 10th warmest year of all time and is easily explained by that year having a La Nina (cooling of the ocean) and being at a solar minimum. 2009 jumped back up to the 3rd warmest year as the La Nina ended and we began to leave the minimum (but were still low in the sun spot cycle).

The notion that scientists were once predicting an imminent ice age is nothing less than a lie passed around the right wing echo chamber and soaked up by the gullible. One paper was published evaluating the ice age cycle that came to a conclusion that we would experience an ice age thousands of years from now, but only if human forcing didn't alter the cycle-which is clearly the case now.

The thing that astounds me most about what you said, though, is the horrid intellectual dishonesty you displayed by asking for evidence but then dismissing all such evidence as fake or phoney. What are you expecting? The "busted" you refer to concerning the East Anglia emails is right wing radio nonsense. They reveal nothing more that people get sloppy in their language when writing emails. Anyone knowledgeable about the science and explored the context of them quickly reveals how benign they are. The temp. data I provided was from NASA. If you're going to dismiss it as fake because it came from leading scientists working for the government, you're nothing but an irrational conspiracy theorist, and I will have nothing more to do with you.

No need for name calling. Le'ts discuss the fact that since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere has increased. The majority of this carbon dioxide comes from the combustion of fossil fuels. Trees and other plants naturally take up carbon dioxide but forests world-wide are not being used in a sustainable manner. Glaciers and arctic ice caps are melting and retreating. As the glaciers and arctic ice melts, sea levels will continue to rise (due to subsidence, they have already risen in some areas such as New Jersey).

So, looking at just those couple of facts, it seems like it would be in our best interest to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and reduce our emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

Sustainability is not just about global climate change however. Other aspects include reducing the amount of solid waste (garbage) we produce so that our landfills last longer and there is a decreased risk of soil and water contamination. Sustainability also means using good land management practices to reduce nonpoint source pollution to our streams and lakes and reducing soil erosion. In homes, a person can lessen their impact by choosing to use appliance that rated to use less energy (and it will save you money!).

If you have read this far, thank you! We could continue to argue about climate change and weather and global warming, or we can accept the fact that we are on this planet together and if we don't all take responsibility for taking care of it, we're going to be in a heap of trouble.

boilerup: You might look into the website "Friends of Science" before you start regurgitating Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth. While this site does not say your wrong it will through scientific study correct you on some facts that Al failed to mention. Beck does have some college (Yale) but dropped out after his first theology class. Limbaugh spent a year at Missouri State. Hannity New York University. And besides a college education doesn't assure you the basic common sense it takes to look at both sides of the story objectively before you make your judgement.

Boilerup, Beck, Hannity and Limbaugh may not have college degrees but I do. I am not a conspiracy theorist I just expect scientists to use their own scientific method to prove facts, which has not occured when discussing this matter. For every scientist that states Global Warming is a real issue there are just as many that say it is not. I am not saying that we should not take care of the enviroment. However, I will not listen to individuals like Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi and others who are telling me that I need to cut back on my carbon emissions when they are flying private jets, using more electricy in their homes than an entire state and so on. Furthermore, the Anglia emails are of great importance and not just a lie being spewed by the nasty right wing media. Sloppy writing in emails is not an excuse for making up science. If this is such a huge issue then the people pounding the drum need to be better leaders.

At least Hannity, Beck and Limbaugh didn't accept the Brain Washing of left wing Professors that can not be objective and listen... we all need to listen and stop all the Hot Air Carbon Dioxide, that can be a good first step! Extreme views from both wings are Bad for all! Somewhere the Truth is out there, X Files?

WoW...

The facts that are choosen to be included in Manmade Global Warming rhetoric does not support the geologic records.

Here in Putnam County, Indiana the evidence of a glacier estimated a mile or so thick confirms that climate indeed has been cooler. Furthermore, the fossil record plainly shows evidence of tropical plant and animal life imbeded in the limestone record. The climate was at some point, much warmer in the past.

Climate change has always occured. How man has adapted to it is relevent. What man has done to cause it, is largely, irrelevent.

Anybody remember the Mount St. Helens eruption? More carbon dioxide sent into the atmosphere in 10 minutes than 10 years of man made carbon dioxide. The earth has a remarkable way of healing itself.

Thank you all for the statements made in this small debate. It is so nice to hear that others are not "ignorant high school graduates" but intelligent people that continue to learn far past their school years. My point exactly in the attitude of boilerup!!

Apparently, those of us with strong arguments based in facts are still here debating the issues, while those who instantly wanted to resort to name calling have moved on because there last and only line of defense backfired. I do not throw my degree out there in people's face for the fun of it, however, if you are going to call me ignorant and imply that I am a liar and uneducated I will gladly throw it in your face that I do have my degree and can think for myself and form my own opinions without having to watch a film called the Inconvient Lie and get my talking points from Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama and the United Nations!!!!!

Back to the beginning....I fully agree with Heritage Lake Resident. Case closed !!!!

Oops!!! I forgot to include bought off scientist in that last diatribe.

Yes, global climate change has occurred in the past. It is not the temperatures that are of concern it is the rate at which the change is occurring that is of concern. Also, we have severely affected the earth's ability to 'heal itself'. We have destroyed natural carbon sinks and now are spending money on researching and testing carbon sequestration projects.

And, newsflash for ya, humans didn't adapt to the climate change when the shallow tropical inland sea covered Indiana, resulting in the deposition of limestone beds (with the associated fossils of marine plants and animals), because there weren't humans around then.

The main scientist from Anglia came out recently and stated that there has been no significant warming since 1995. Once again this just goes to show there is no true factual scientific data to back up climate change as being man made. The earth goes in cycles it warms it cools that's just the way it is. Let's just all be honest here in the fact that those who want to see legislation on climate change like Cap and Tax just want to see taxes raised on people to the point that we all go back to mud houses, no heat in our homes and no cars to get back and forth to work.