Diocese of Edmonton appoints an Environment Chaplain

From here:

Bishop Jane is pleased to appoint Sarah Ficko as Environment Chaplain. Sarah is a member of the St. Aidan’s community and St. George’s, Edmonton.

Other than supervising the diocesan Gaia worship, I’m not entirely sure what an Environment Chaplain does.

We may glean a clue from the speciality of the person who was appointed: it is saving lichens. I can only assume that Bishop Jane Alexander, having given up on – or, perhaps, being unable to see the need for – the saving of souls has turned to something easier. The saving of foliage.

The Green Abortion

New Zealand’s Green Party wants to legalise abortion to “protect the right to end a pregnancy.”

Green fundamentalism, whether it comes from a political party or the church is similar in its diminishing of the uniqueness and importance of human life: the earth wasn’t made for Man, Man was made for the earth. So it’s not surprising, I suppose, that Greenies are obsessively protective of members of any endangered species as long as they are not humans still in the womb.

From here:

The Green Party has ratified a formal policy on abortion, making it the only party in Parliament to have one.

It would legislate to decriminalise abortion and protect the right to end a pregnancy.

Having an abortion in New Zealand is still a crime under the Crimes Act, unless a pregnant woman faces a danger to her life, physical or mental health.

The ultimate alternative fuel

The problem with electric cars is that their batteries run flat after driving about 65 miles and they take 8 hours to recharge. But there is a solution:

From here:

An astronaut has many things to worry about – the safety of the mission, the claustrophobic surroundings and the loneliness of the venture.

But now, they have one more thing to worry about – flatulence.

As humans produce two flammable gases – hydrogen and methane – which ignite when accumulated in an enclosed space and can ignite astronauts are potentially at risk as they are cooped up in their spacecrafts.

Some imaginative plumbing, a trunk full of baked beans and you can drive across the continent – or fly to the moon.

Those who need to go even further can install one of these extra large tanks in the passenger seat:

 

How to make yourself even more unelectable than you already are

It isn’t an easy job to further reduce the election chances of the Halton Family Coalition candidate but, with a few well-chose words, Tony Rodrigues proved himself up to the daunting task. There are many reasons for suspecting that the received dogma on global warming is incorrect, so why did Rodrigues have to support an even less plausible theory?

From here:

Family Coalition candidate Tony Rodrigues got the panel off to a unique start stating he does not believe in climate change, but feels the severe weather irregularities around the globe are due to a large dam in China is [sic] tilting the earth off its axis.

The dam does have the potential for increasing the length of day by 0.06 microseconds – around the same length of time Rodrigues spent pondering his environmental platform – but earthquakes have a far greater effect on the earth’s rotational speed.

Thomas Edison wept

At the behest of the green gestapo, Canada is set to ban the incandescent light bulb in 2012. The only problem is that, as often happens when the government meddles in things it shouldn’t, the result is likely to backfire and increase pollution not reduce it – mercury pollution in this case.

From here:

The Canadian government’s new energy-efficiency rules for light bulbs are fast approaching implementation, but no national standards exist to deal with the toxic waste they are expected to create.

The federal government admits the patchwork of regulations for disposing of compact fluorescent bulbs, or CFLs, is one of the unintended consequences of rushing in the new energy-efficiency regulations.

Environment Minister Peter Kent said he was surprised to hear from CBC News that the provinces — which are responsible for setting garbage disposal regulations — were at different levels of preparation for the new light-bulb regulations, which begin Jan. 1, 2012.

Traditional incandescent bulbs won’t meet the energy-saving rules. Kent said a national technical group is working out a system for recycling the mercury-containing bulbs that consumers will buy instead.

“If you’re finding a patchwork of understanding, I’ll make sure that we issue communications to my provincial colleagues and suggest that they come up to speed,” Kent said.

But experts in mercury pollution and recycling say they are unimpressed, and they worry the mercury will end up in municipal garbage dumps.

“They don’t really have a plan,” said Dana Silk, the general manager of Envirocentre, an Ottawa non-profit organization that works to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by delivering energy-efficiency goods and services.

Even worse is the fate suffered by the poor suckers who make CFLs:

From here:

WHEN British consumers are compelled to buy energy-efficient lightbulbs from 2012, they will save up to 5m tons of carbon dioxide a year from being pumped into the atmosphere. In China, however, a heavy environmental price is being paid for the production of “green” lightbulbs in cost-cutting factories.

Large numbers of Chinese workers have been poisoned by mercury, which forms part of the compact fluorescent lightbulbs. A surge in foreign demand, set off by a European Union directive making these bulbs compulsory within three years, has also led to the reopening of mercury mines that have ruined the environment.

The longest lasting light bulb in existence is an incandescent one: the Centennial incandescent light which has been burning for 109 years. The only thing that could put it out is the government.

Diocese of Niagara publishes its religion of works

And they are green works. The list is here and includes the 10 pieces of dogma to which a person must adhere to be fit for green heaven.

Just as in real Christianity, some of the articles of faith are harder to comprehend than others: a notable example is the difficulty in deciding whether to use a garbage bin, green box or blue box to chuck your Niagara Anglican in before reading it. The diocese suggests the pious family will ensure that “[e]veryone in the home has been “trained” in the correct use of the blue, green and regular garbage bins.”

It goes without saying that:

Low flow shower heads are installed
Single use plastic bottles are not used in the home
Fair trade coffee and other products are used in the home
At least two days a week are designated as meat free
Organic Ontario food is bought when possible
One day a week the car stays in the garage

And so on. As you can see, the Diocese of Niagara is keen to inflict  its 21st C version of self flagellation on parishioners and is encouraging family members to inform on one other when a miscreant is caught sneaking a bite of non-organic Texas beef by the light of an incandescent bulb in between swigs of water from a plastic bottle. With non-fair-trade coffee to follow. Violators will be incarcerated in the nearest Justice Camp for re-education.

Pooping for the planet

From the BBC:

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In a somewhat unusual research project, scientists have found that sperm whale faeces may help oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the air.

Australian researchers calculate that Southern Ocean sperm whales release about 50 tonnes of iron each year.

This stimulates the growth of tiny marine plants – phytoplankton – which absorb CO2 during photosynthesis.

No BS here, just WS.

The longest burning light bulb in history

Has been lit for 109 years.

The improved incandescent lamp, invented by Adolphe A. Chaillet, was made by the Shelby Electric Company. It is a handblown bulb with carbon filament. Approximate wattage-4 watts. Left burning continuously in firehouse as a nightlight over the fire trucks. For some research test results on a sister bulb at Annapolis follow this link.

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The upper limit of the lifespan of one of these:

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is 15,000 hours or, if left on, around 1.71 years; it would take 63 fluorescent bulbs to provide light for as long as the Shelby Bulb has – and it is still going.

So the question is, over 100 years, does it take more energy to make and light one Shelby Bulb or make and light 63 fluorescent bulbs and safely dispose of 62 of them?

I suspect the answer is 63 fluorescent bulbs although, admittedly, at 4 watts, the Shelby Bulb would be a little dim.

Rowan Williams and the carbon gospel

Secular dictionary definition of “Gospel”: The proclamation of the redemption preached by Jesus and the Apostles, which is the central content of Christian revelation.

Rowan Williams’ definition of “Gospel”: Less carbon dioxide.

Some 3,000 Christians gathered in Westminster for an ecumenical service before joining tens of thousands of campaigners in a march through the capital today to call on the UK to take the lead at next week’s UN climate change summit in Copenhagen.

Dr Rowan Williams said the human race had until now not been very good news for creation, as he warned that the failure to tend to the health and wellbeing of creation was already having negative effects on the lives of the most vulnerable communities in the world.

He said: “We are to be bearers of good news for the world that God has made. Not for any one little bit of it, not any one community at the expense of others, not even for humanity at the expense of everything else in the universe. Good news for all of creation.