An Inconvenient Truth

[sohotrightnow]

Well, Gore was just on NBC's Today show this morning with Katie Couric and he altered his wording slightly, stating "there is almost a consensus amongst the scientific community." He also made sure to add that the oil industry shells out millions of dollars each year to scientists to give an alternative viewpoint regarding the matter. I only caught the last few minutes, but I am sure there is a transcript online.

[UofMLaxGoalie11]

Well, Gore was just on NBC's Today show this morning with Katie Couric and he altered his wording slightly, stating "there is almost a consensus amongst the scientific community." He also made sure to add that the oil industry shells out millions of dollars each year to scientists to give an alternative viewpoint regarding the matter. I only caught the last few minutes, but I am sure there is a transcript online.

Dont they also shell out millions in research in alternate energy sources?

[laxfan25]

Well, Gore was just on NBC's Today show this morning with Katie Couric and he altered his wording slightly, stating "there is almost a consensus amongst the scientific community." He also made sure to add that the oil industry shells out millions of dollars each year to scientists to give an alternative viewpoint regarding the matter. I only caught the last few minutes, but I am sure there is a transcript online.

Dont they also shell out millions in research in alternate energy sources?

I guess they can spare the loose change out of the $30+ B in profits for ExxonMobil the last quarter...

[Kyle Berggren]

The tax benefits in that industry are rediculous. . . We also need to remember that they get to depreciate billions of $ of equipment, which only adds to the tax benefits. I'm just glancing through but. . .

Exxon 12 month Revenue $338+ Billion
Exxon 12 month ROE just under 34%
Exxon 12 month Gross Profit $157+ Billion
Exxon EBITDA $73+ Billion
Exxon Net Income $36+ Billion

So in short, they brought in $338 Billion, but only profited $157 Billion, were taxed on $73 Billion & report final earnings of $36 Billion. . . What happened to the $84 Billion that wasn't taxed? Oh yeah, interest expense (total debt is $8 Billion) and depreciation "Expense."

To qualify these statements, I just pulled this up very quickly, I didn't examine the ins & outs of their balance sheet, income statement, or statement of cashflows. The 12 month figures were from March to March I believe, and I did leave out a lot of other pertinant information. I just put this up here to show what type of business it actually is. . . I could go on and on about 'wildcat drilling' and other advantages these guys have (joint ventures are my personal favorite), but what we hear on the news doesn't seem to accurately reflect what's going on. 1 company grossed $340 Billion of revenue in 12 months. . . It will take a lot of voters to actually make it to the polls if anyone wants something other than what the oil lobby is interested in. . .

[Sonny]

The tax benefits in that industry are rediculous. . . We also need to remember that they get to depreciate billions of $ of equipment, which only adds to the tax benefits. I'm just glancing through but. . .

Exxon 12 month Revenue $338+ Billion
Exxon 12 month ROE just under 34%
Exxon 12 month Gross Profit $157+ Billion
Exxon EBITDA $73+ Billion
Exxon Net Income $36+ Billion

So in short, they brought in $338 Billion, but only profited $157 Billion, were taxed on $73 Billion & report final earnings of $36 Billion. . . What happened to the $84 Billion that wasn't taxed? Oh yeah, interest expense (total debt is $8 Billion) and depreciation "Expense."

To qualify these statements, I just pulled this up very quickly, I didn't examine the ins & outs of their balance sheet, income statement, or statement of cashflows. The 12 month figures were from March to March I believe, and I did leave out a lot of other pertinant information. I just put this up here to show what type of business it actually is. . . I could go on and on about 'wildcat drilling' and other advantages these guys have (joint ventures are my personal favorite), but what we hear on the news doesn't seem to accurately reflect what's going on. 1 company grossed $340 Billion of revenue in 12 months. . . It will take a lot of voters to actually make it to the polls if anyone wants something other than what the oil lobby is interested in. . .

Have you ever heard the term profit margin?

[laxative]

[I just went from feeling "meh" about Oakland to thinking I should donate some $$$ to the school.

Somebody paid attention in their Intro to Logic class. Nice argument Joe.

[semilaxed]

"The entire global scientific community has a consensus on the question that human beings are responsible for global warming, and he has today again expressed personal doubt that that is true,"

INSANE!!!!! comment. Many!!! scientists believe differently.

The rising of the Himalayan mountains is a large producer of co2. More Hurricanes are produced by a shift in the north atlantic current. The earth has frozen over many times with out people here. Why is it hard to believe that it might get warmer. Much of this is simple propaganda with very little actual science behind it.

Heres a hint when someone says all or entire it is rarly a true statement. All people never agree on and statements like that are lies plain and simple.

[StrykerFSU]

Yowsers, with all this condemnation of the oil companies I'm thinking you all must be getting your talking points from Bill O'Reilly.

[FLAK]

Yowsers, with all this condemnation of the oil companies I'm thinking you all must be getting your talking points from Bill O'Reilly.

Next they're gonna start raving on about how the oil companies would poison the pristine environment if they drill in A.N.W.R. like they were reps from the Sierra Club.

[StrykerFSU]

This is an article by Gregg Easterbrook who some of you may know as the Tuesday Morning QB on ESPN.com but he's also a very well respected author. Just another perspective on Mr. Gore's movie.

http://www.slate.com/id/2142319/nav/tap1/

[Sonny]

Chill out over global warming
By David Harsanyi
Denver Post Staff Columnist

You'll often hear the left lecture about the importance of dissent in a free society.

Why not give it a whirl?

Start by challenging global warming hysteria next time you're at a LoDo cocktail party and see what happens.

Admittedly, I possess virtually no expertise in science. That puts me in exactly the same position as most dogmatic environmentalists who want to craft public policy around global warming fears.

The only inconvenient truth about global warming, contends Colorado State University's Bill Gray, is that a genuine debate has never actually taken place. Hundreds of scientists, many of them prominent in the field, agree.

"They've been brainwashing us for 20 years," Gray says. "Starting with the nuclear winter and now with the global warming. This scare will also run its course. In 15-20 years, we'll look back and see what a hoax this was."

Gray directs me to a 1975 Newsweek article that whipped up a different fear: a coming ice age.

Quite frankly," says Pielke, who runs the Climate Science Weblog (climatesci.atmos.colostate.edu), "I think the media is in the ideal position to do that. If the media honestly presented the views out there, which they rarely do, things would change. There aren't just two sides here. There are a range of opinions on this issue. A lot of scientists out there that are very capable of presenting other views are not being heard."

Al Gore (not a scientist) has definitely been heard and heard and heard.

His documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," is so important, in fact, that Gore crisscrosses the nation destroying the atmosphere just to tell us about it.

"Let's just say a crowd of baby boomers and yuppies have hijacked this thing," Gray says. "It's about politics. Very few people have experience with some real data. I think that there is so much general lack of knowledge on this. I've been at this over 50 years down in the trenches working, thinking and teaching."

Full column:
http://www.denverpost.com/harsanyi/ci_3899807

[OAKS]

WOW. Try not to bash your head against the wall.

Carbon Dioxide - They Call it Pollution, We Call it Life.

http://streams.cei.org/

[sohotrightnow]

Scientists agree with Gore

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/06 ... index.html

[Rob Graff]

So does an upcoming study to which the insurance industry is paying attention:

Study: The Hotter the Waters, the More Severe the Hurricanes

Global warming accounted for around half of the extra hurricane-fueling warmth in the waters of the tropical North Atlantic in 2005, while natural cycles were only a minor factor, according to a new analysis by Kevin Trenberth and Dennis Shea of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The study will appear in the June 27 issue of Geophysical Research Letters

Summary quote from "Claims E-news, covering the business of Loss" weekly E-mail.

Rob

[StrykerFSU]

Researchers are currently mixed on the GW/hurricane question. I don't have time to go digging for papers but I've received several journal articles pointing to a connection and others that don't so the jury is still out on that one.

One problem is that our tracking of hurricanes has become much more sophisticated in recent years resulting in what could be misleading information, i.e. did someone in 1860 know what a Cat. 5 hurricane was? Also, recent hurricanes may appear to cause more damage because there is more development in hurricane prone areas now.

Another problem is that global warming does not happen evenly around the globe. Most of the warming occurs at high latitudes, hence all of the melting in the Arctic. Hurricanes are fueled by warming in the tropics and are a mechanism for the transport of heat towards the poles. Beware of folks citing a rise in global average temperatures being linked to a rise in hurricane intensity or frequency. What researchers are really looking at our any increases in sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the tropics. Again, it is difficult to draw a correlation between SSTs and hurricanes because our record of SSTs is relatively short.