An Inconvenient Truth

[Kevin OBrien]

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. . .

So.....oil companies shouldn't be allowed to use the same benefits as everyone else in the business community, ie depreciation, interest expense, etc?

I had no idea that companies that profit must have something wrong with 'em or be cheating someone somewhere....

On another note, I recently saw something on The History Channel about how we're just coming out of what people have called a mini-ice age. Basically, for the past 400 years, the world has been drastically colder than it used to be....on average 2 degrees than current. Before this mini ice age, which incidently coincided with a blooming of human civilization where agriculture wasn't nearly as hard going (you could apparently produce wine grapes in vineyards in England, much to the distain of France back then) it was 4-7 degrees warmer. What this means to me is that we've got another 2 degrees minimum to go until another blooming of human society!!!

Seriously though, one of the ways they proved it (which I hadn't thought of before) was...when was the last time that the Delaware River froze over like it was in the artist's portrayl of Washington Crossing the Delaware?

[StrykerFSU]

The Delaware never iced over the way it was portrayed in the painting. The Delaware ices over in sheets, not iceberg-like chunks. The scene was actually modeled after a river near the artist's home in England. There are also many historical inaccuracies in the artist's rendition of the crossing so I'm not going to take it as evidence of any aspects of climatology thank you very much.

What other evidence was put forth of the Little Ice Age? Anecdotal evidence from diaries, paintings, etc? I'm not arguing that the world may have not been cooler over the past 400 years because I think that this is a classic example of make them watch the right hand so as not to see what the left is doing. Global warming is at its root climate change. Climate change can be caused by many factors but in the 4.5 billion year history of the planet and climate change there has never been a species significantly altering natural processes. As I have said before, the question to me is not whether the average global temperature has risen X degrees over the past Y years, it's what is going to happen when we double or even triple the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere?

[laxfan25]

what is going to happen when we double or even triple the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere?

Um, plants will grow two or three times bigger?

[OAKS]

I want to see football field sized bacteria a-la Evolution

[Kevin OBrien]

The Delaware never iced over the way it was portrayed in the painting. The Delaware ices over in sheets, not iceberg-like chunks. The scene was actually modeled after a river near the artist's home in England. There are also many historical inaccuracies in the artist's rendition of the crossing so I'm not going to take it as evidence of any aspects of climatology thank you very much.

What other evidence was put forth of the Little Ice Age? Anecdotal evidence from diaries, paintings, etc? I'm not arguing that the world may have not been cooler over the past 400 years because I think that this is a classic example of make them watch the right hand so as not to see what the left is doing. Global warming is at its root climate change. Climate change can be caused by many factors but in the 4.5 billion year history of the planet and climate change there has never been a species significantly altering natural processes. As I have said before, the question to me is not whether the average global temperature has risen X degrees over the past Y years, it's what is going to happen when we double or even triple the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere?

Other documents were referenced, like the french passing a law against english wine that was being made from english grapes, etc.

I did a quick check and saw that the artist was german who grew up in the US. I'm not sure how accurate that assertation was, but it was the most memorable. Also, apparently the only two casualties were two soldiers that apparently froze to death...something that's fairly hard to do when on the march, but I don't know if there were other circumstances that contributed (sickness, etc).

Anyways, the real question isn't whether the earth has warmed up since then (depending on which side you support), it's whether the earth was warmer prior to the alleged time of the "little ice age"...which was before the industrial revolution when global warming was supposed to start.

sorry I couldn't be of more help...it was on the history channel about a month ago. It ended talking about global dimming, which they were saying could lead to another ice age. Any way to get all of these guys in a room so I can figure out if I should stock up on shorts or snowpants?

[Sonny]

Al Gore has spoken: The world must embrace a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." To do otherwise, he says, will result in a cataclysmic catastrophe. "Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb," warns the website for his film, An Inconvenient Truth. "We have just 10 years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tailspin."

Graciously, Gore tells consumers how to change their lives to curb their carbon-gobbling ways: Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs, use a clothesline, drive a hybrid, use renewable energy, dramatically cut back on consumption. Better still, responsible global citizens can follow Gore's example, because, as he readily points out in his speeches, he lives a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." But if Al Gore is the world's role model for ecology, the planet is doomed.

For someone who says the sky is falling, he does very little. He says he recycles and drives a hybrid. And he claims he uses renewable energy credits to offset the pollution he produces when using a private jet to promote his film. (In reality, Paramount Classics, the film's distributor, pays this.)

Public records reveal that as Gore lectures Americans on excessive consumption, he and his wife Tipper live in two properties: a 10,000-square-foot, 20-room, eight-bathroom home in Nashville, and a 4,000-square-foot home in Arlington, Va. (He also has a third home in Carthage, Tenn.) For someone rallying the planet to pursue a path of extreme personal sacrifice, Gore requires little from himself.

Gore isn't quite as green as he's led the world to believe:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-08-09-gore-green_x.htm

[Riss]

Interesting. If you want others to change you have to start with yourself. He does emphasize personal change as one of the major ways to combat global warming in the movie.

However, the editorial goes eskew when he makes the leap from Gore's alleged hypocrisy to the notion that global warming isn't as serious a problem as claimed. Gore didn't come up with the theories, he's just an advocate for them. So maybe the advocate is discredited, not the theory.

Unrelated- we just spent 150 bucks on energy efficient lightbulbs. It will reduce the energy used by 80 percent. Good economically in the long run (as well as environmentally)

[StrykerFSU]

Gore also travels the country on a private jet, perhaps the least fuel efficient means of transportation. One cross country trip on a private jet emits as much CO2 as a year of average driving in a hummer.

Riss, your's is a good example of little things we can do to reduce use and pays off at utility bill time. The City of Tallahassee offers free home energy audits where they visit your home and give you advice on how to reduce use. When I did mine they gave me two free light bulbs like the ones Riss mentioned. I also qualified for some low-income programs which entitle me to free yearly AC inspections and they also doubled the insulation in my attic for free. I encourage everyone to check to see if their communities offer similar programs.