The first portion of the attached "news" report has been used as "proof" that Global Warming is a hoax perpetrated by Al Gore and his supporters.
Now personally, I think that anyone quoting Fox news as proof of ANYTHING has some personal issues that may well be beyond sorting out.
Having said that, I am NOT an avid supporter of Al Gore's version of "the sky is falling" routine, but this article DOES contain a pretty significant flaw. Sure, those 4 "major global tracking outlets" probably did register a huge temperature drop over the past year. Considering we have posted several record high global temperatures over the last decade (ratcheting up the global temperature), it is little surprise that there could be a year of "record" cooling. Indeed, most rational arguments about global climate change possibilities do not talk of warming alone. The generally accepted term is Global Climate change, for this very reason.
Yes, there will be people, like Mr. Gore appears to be, who will strive to profit mightily from this situation, just like there are those who seek to profit mightily from the sheer exploitation and mindless consumerism which generally has drastic ecological ramifications. It is right to heavily question the sort of conflict of interest that the article mentions, but to suggest that only one party OR the other is involved in such dealings is a bit naive. The arguments back and forth seem to be, to me at least, a great distraction from the real issues at hand.
As for the second article in the posting...ethanol as the remedy to climate change is as erroneous a suggestion as the suggestion that humans have no environmental impact at all. Ethanol has its benefits and its drawbacks, the article mentions a potentially huge drawback. But the biggest reason ethanol is an albatross is the fact that we could devote the entire planet's food production capabilities to ethanol production and not even make a dent in global fossil fuel production. Algae may be the only plant matter than could be grown in enough quantities to replace fossil fuel usage, AND it looks like we can produce enough of it without affecting food production quantity at all. The capital cost of developing this process on a large and/or small scale is the greatest force working against algal biofuels, but it seems to me that it took enormous resources to develop the fossil fuel industry as well.
Peace to all.
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