The widely stated accusation that the bags kill 100,000 animals and a million seabirds every year are false, experts have told The Times. They pose only a minimal threat to most marine species, including seals, whales, dolphins and seabirds.

This figure is based on a misinterpretation of a 1987 Canadian study in Newfoundland, which found that, between 1981 and 1984, more than 100,000 marine mammals, including birds, were killed by discarded nets. The Canadian study did not mention plastic bags.

Fifteen years later in 2002, when the Australian Government commissioned a report into the effects of plastic bags, its authors misquoted the Newfoundland study, mistakenly attributing the deaths to “plastic bags”.

The figure was latched on to by conservationists as proof that the bags were killers. For four years the “typo” remained uncorrected. It was only in 2006 that the authors altered the report, replacing “plastic bags” with “plastic debris”. But they admitted: “The actual numbers of animals killed annually by plastic bag litter is nearly impossible to determine.”

Over the last decade many countries have imposed a fee for consumers to ask for “plastic” instead of “paper”. Here in LaLa land, the City of Santa Monica is about to pass an ordinance banning plastic bags entirely.

The deep pocketed environmental group, “Heal the Bay” supports the measure. “This is the farthest-reaching bag ban in the United States, if not the world,” said Mark Gold, president of Heal the Bay. “It’s a bold move by Santa Monica that . . . we hope serves as a model for California and beyond.” Gold said Malibu, Los Angeles and Long Beach were watching Santa Monica’s actions.

San Francisco has banned non-biodegradable bags from large grocery stores and pharmacies. Los Angeles County recently adopted a voluntary program that critics derided as ineffectual.

Last month, the Chinese government announced that a ban would take effect June 1, and Australia is considering a ban.

A program in Ireland that imposed a fee for each plastic carry-out bag has reduced the use of plastic bags by 95% since March 2002.

This attempt at saving the planet is misguided by the fact that more paper bags will be used, resulting in more trees being harvested and more air pollution from the paper mills and of course the trucks hauling the raw materials and finished products to their destinations.

Heal the Bay’s press release on the “Ban the Bag” campaign confirms this; “While paper bags are largely biodegradable and do not foul the marine environment, the bags come with an environmental price tag. Their creation emits global warming gases, pollutes watersheds and requires significant amounts of raw materials.”

Meanwhile in Great Britain, Lord Taverne, the chairman of Sense about Science, said: “The Government is irresponsible to jump on a bandwagon that has no base in scientific evidence. This is one of many examples where you get bad science leading to bad decisions which are counter-productive. Attacking plastic bags makes people feel good but it doesn’t achieve anything.”

Posted: 1700PT 03/08/08
autone.wordpress.com

I think this sums it all up for me!

Posted: 1645PT 04/29/07
autone.wordpress.com

Global Warming – Doomsday Called Off — Part 3

Global Warming – Doomsday Called Off — Part 4

Global Warming – Doomsday Called Off — Part 5

Also see more on the global warming hysteria here, here and here.

Posted: 1927PT 04/10/07
autone.wordpress.com

Global Warming – Doomsday Called Off — Part 1

Global Warming – Doomsday Called Off — Part 2

Posted: 0845PT 04/10/07
autone.wordpress.com

Photo: Amanda Byrd

Those stranded polar bears on the shrinking Arctic ice – victims of global warming – certainly tugged at the heart-strings. That photo was published not only in the Sunday Telegraph. It made it onto the front page of the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune. It also ran in London’s Daily Mail, The Times of London and Canada’s Ottawa Citizen – and that’s just to name a few. All used it as evidence of global warming and the imminent demise of the polar bear. But the photo wasn’t current. It was two and a half years old and it wasn’t snapped by Canadian environmentalists. It was taken by an Australian marine biology student Amanda Byrd, on a field trip in the summer, when every year the fringes of the Arctic ice cap melt regardless of the wider effects of global warming.

So were the polar bears stranded? They didn’t appear stranded according to Denis Simard of Environment Canada. He told Canada’s National Post, “You have to keep in mind that the bears are not in danger at all. This is a perfect picture for climate change…you have the impression they are in the middle of the ocean and they are going to die…But they were not that far from the coast, and it was possible for them to swim…They are still alive and having fun.”

Photographer Amanda Byrd gave her photo to fellow cruiser, Dan Crosbie – to have a look. Dan Crosbie gave the image to the Canadian Ice Service, who gave the image to Environment Canada, who distributed the image to 7 media agencies including AP. The Associated Press released the photo two and a half years after it was taken, on the day the United Nations released its major global warming report.

Al Gore (”The planet has a fever”) saw the photo and he used it in a presentation on man made global warming. “Their habitat is melting… beautiful animals, literally being forced off the planet,” Mr. Gore said, with the photo on the screen behind him. “They’re in trouble, got nowhere else to go.” The audience members let out gasps of sympathy.

The MSM led by Al Gore and the recent United Nations report are once again saying the world’s coming to an end. What ever happened to that Ozone Hole crisis or the return of the ice age theory in the 70’s?

See: Global Warming: The Very Inconvenient Truth

Posted: 1655PT 04/07/07
autone.wordpress.com

AMPAS 2007

However the real inconvenient truth is the big fat lie that is being rammed down your throat by the MSM and bogus pseudo-science.

You must watch this terrific documentary from Channel 4 of Great Britain, called “The Great Global Warming Swindle” to fully understand the hype and hysteria.

Note: Over the last year I have been re-linking the video — this is my 7th attempt!

Part 1/8

Part 2/8

Part 3/8

Part 4/8

Part 5/8

Part 6/8

Part 7/8

Part 8/8

Posted: 0102AM PT 03/12/07
autone.wordpress.com