WICKED WEEDKILLER

The Center for Regulatory Effectiveness seems like a good outfit -- and not only because they have this blog on their front page at the moment! They are a non-governmental watchdog and seem to be instrumental in seeing that the U.S. Federal Data Quality Act is being enforced. And how the Greenies are squealing now that there has to be sound scientific evidence of harm before anything is banned! See here for a big Greenie rant about how unfair it all is.

Note how quickly the Greenies descend into character assassination and questioning of motives when they find that they cannot get America's second-leading weedkiller banned. That it has been widely used for many years with no obvious ill-effects just seems to make it a more obsessive target for them: A lot like the way the enviers are always trying to find fault with McDonalds.

CRE also have up a response showing the dishonesty of the Greenie rant in question. See here. Some short excerpts:

"Not withstanding press reports to the contrary, the Data Quality Act has its origins in the amendments to the Paperwork Reduction of 1995, at which time the Congress directed OMB to issue guidelines regarding the dissemination of information. OMB failed to comply with this directive and similar directives in 1998,1999 and 2000; culminating in Congressional action in 2000. Interestingly, Congress conducted extensive hearings in 1995, which often does not make it into press accounts which allege the Act was passed with no hearings or debate..... The assertion that Jim Tozzi rejected the proposed Reyes Syndrome labeling is completely inaccurate...."





SOME GOOD COMES OF THE GLOBAL WARMING SCARE

In trying to find something to do with the "excess" carbon dioxide that modern life is said to be producing, scientists have stumbled across a way of making a very powerful fertilizer which also happens to gobble up carbon dioxide. Excerpts:

"Researchers in the southeastern United States are experimenting with a procedure they believe could reduce greenhouse-gas pollution using a discovery pioneered thousands of years ago by farmers in the Brazilian Amazon. The technique, which uses a charcoal-based fertilizer to absorb gases, is one of several experiments under way as scientists concerned about global warming are looking for someplace -- any place -- to hide excess carbon dioxide.....

These facts have prompted researchers to look for new technologies to siphon off the amount of greenhouse gases that are produced by burning fossil fuels like petroleum products and coal.

Meanwhile, one entrepreneur is working with a team of government scientists who believe that the answer to the carbon question was discovered by South American natives centuries before Columbus set sail. Danny Day, the president of Eprida, a developer of clean technology, believes that greenhouse gases from burning coal and fossil fuels can be captured and injected into charcoal, which is then combined with ammonia to create a powerful fertilizer. Day said his company was developing a method for turning biomass materials into hydrogen, a process known as pyrolysis, when the new idea was born. Researchers working on the biomass experiment discovered that turnip plants were growing in a pile of charcoal produced during the pyrolysis process.

Later, Day stumbled upon research stating that charcoal had been used thousands of years ago by farmers in the Brazilian Amazon to create rich, dark soil known as Terra Preta de Indio. "We have to build a 'carbon reef'" to store the excess carbon, Day said. "And I realized that it had to be in the ground." Day, along with researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Georgia Institute of Technology, is developing technology based on the carbon-rich Terra Preta concept that uses charcoal to absorb greenhouse gases at facilities that burn fossil fuels. The charcoal is then mixed with other nutrients to create a super fertilizer, according to Day.

Day said that to create the charcoal that could be used as fertilizer, the biomass must be burned at temperatures somewhat lower than usual (say, 250 to 300 degrees Celsius). The charcoal fertilizer could be used to restore the nutrients in areas around the globe where soil has been depleted, according to Day. He believes charcoal-enhanced soil could increase crop yields by 200 percent to 300 percent.

Johannes Lehmann, assistant professor in the Department of Soil Fertility Management and Soil Biogeochemistry at Cornell University, however, said the carbon has been retained in the soil at the Terra Preta sites in South America for up to 3,000 years. Lehmann, who spent three years researching in the Amazon, said that possibly as long as 4,000 years ago, indigenous people discovered that partially burning wood materials at lower temperatures (250 to 350 degrees Celsius) to create charcoal and then combining it with nutrients such as fish bones or animal products made for a very effective fertilizer.

Researchers found that agricultural communities created nutrient-rich oases of fertile black soil in areas that were otherwise nearly barren of calcium and nitrogen. Tribes who treated their soil were able to stay in a single location for hundreds of years, according to Lehmann. "The charcoal is quite stable in retaining carbon in soil," said Lehmann, who is familiar with Eprida's research".

More here

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Many people would like to be kind to others so Leftists exploit that with their nonsense about equality. Most people want a clean, green environment so Greenies exploit that by inventing all sorts of far-fetched threats to the environment. But for both, the real motive is to promote themselves as wiser and better than everyone else, truth regardless.

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