The Myth of Oil Addiction

America is no more addicted to oil than our ancestors were to horse fodder. We use oil, as they used fodder, to get us where we want to go. What consumers care about is not the oil or the fodder, but the mobility it provides and the associated costs. Yes, those costs include environmental impacts. But, mile for mile, the horse is a far more polluting ‘technology’ than an automobile. As soon as an alternative fuel comes along that delivers more bang for our transportation buck, Americans will demand it, and competition will drive profit-seeking firms to supply it.

Batteries from the Carboniferous | Watts Up With That?

...Nature has already solved this problem for us a very long time ago. It developed a system to capture solar energy and store it underground for future use in gas, liquid or solid form — to be used any time or anywhere we want, in rain or shine or in windy or calm conditions.

We call this energy capture system, “photosynthesis”, and this battery, “fossil fuels”.

Nature would never have thought that elements of humanity would look this gift horse in the mouth.

- Bishop Hill blog - Haunting the back issues

Barry Woods is doing an excellent impression of the now-silent-again Haunting the Library. Barry has been trawling back issues of the newspapers for global warming predictions and has come up with this:

[2008] The UK is to be hit by regular malaria outbreaks, fatal heatwaves and contaminated drinking water within five years because of global warming, the Government has warned the NHS.

- Bishop Hill blog - In the pay of Big Green

Russell Cook at the American Thinker carries the fascinating news that IPCC vice-chairman Jean-Pascal van Ypersele was working for Greenpeace while in position at the IPCC. This makes M. van Ypersele's constant refrain about sceptics being in the pay of Big Oil look, well, a tad rash.