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October 22, 2010

When liberal activists collide with themselves

By Jerry Shenk

Conservative spectators of left-wing special interest activist organizations find few things more amusing than the collision of multiple progressive interests. Such occasions tend to discomfit the politicians the groups bankroll at the same time they reveal the hypocrisy and irreconcilability of liberal agendas.

It's funny when the interests of two groups disagree, but belly laughs may ensue when the interests of a single liberal group come into conflict.

We are pleased to report such a newly-discovered potential conflict. In the October 20, 2010 offering of Green Machine, the weekly Newscientist.com column on the latest advances in environmental technologies, we learn that "Trees may spell trouble for wind power."

Egads!

The Report informs readers:

Wind speeds are falling across much of the northern hemisphere, and this could mean less electricity is available from wind turbines.

Robert Vautard at the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences (LSCE) in Gif-sur-Yvette, France, and colleagues analysed surface wind speed data from 822 sites around the world, covering the last 30 years.

They found that surface wind speeds have declined by 5 to 15 per cent across much of the northern hemisphere over this period. The slowing has been more marked for winds of over 10 metres per second than for lighter winds.

News Scientist asks:

Could a greener world be bad news for green energy?

And concludes:

An increase in the amount of vegetation may be to blame.

[A scientific team] modelled [SIC] the effect of vegetation increases across Europe and Asia over the period, they found this could explain most of the drop-off. "Large parts of Earth are becoming greener, partly due to efforts in Europe to maintain forests..."

Ouch!

Now what's a good greenie to do? It's a conundrum. The rain forest crowd won't approve cutting down trees, and the renewable energy people out to save us from Big Oil aren't going to tolerate the interference of a bit of obviously malevolent foliage in their money-making scheme. By the way, whose agenda is responsible for all that extra greenery in the first place?

Butter the popcorn, folks, open a cold one, sit back and enjoy the show.

 
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