Letters to the Editor for March 10
FXBG Advance invites readers to submit letters to the editor. Letters should not exceed 500 words, include the writer’s name, city, and phone number (for contact purposes only), and should not include ad hominem attacks or inappropriate language. FXBG Advance reserves the right to edit all letters. Send your letters to mdavis@fxbgadvance.com.
Questioning ‘Climate Crisis’
Instead of “Annual Youth Climate Conference Gives Students an Opportunity to Educate and Learn From Each Other,” the title should have been: “Annual Youth Conference Gives UMW Students an Opportunity to Misinform Students and Learn Climate Untruths from Each Other.”
There is no “Climate Crisis” except that in the fervid imaginations of those unaware of what real science is: “The attempt to discover the causes of natural phenomena, the practice of which is governed by the Scientific Method.” Bottom line: Carbon Dioxide, CO2, whether from natural sources, as it was before the Industrial Revolution, and now also including man-made CO2 from burning fossil fuels, is plant food, the basis of food for all living things on earth. CO2 reacts with water, H2O, in a chemical reaction energized by sunlight and catalyzed by chlorophyll, to make sugars such as glucose, the source of energy for plants and animals. No CO2, no life. More CO2 (up to about 20 times what we have now), more life. Less CO2, less life. It is food, and most definitely not pollution.
The CO2 generated by humans burning fossil fuels does contribute to atmospheric warming. The total, manmade plus natural warming, since 1979 when satellite measurement of average atmospheric temperature was invented, has been only 0.15C per decade. That means that if we do nothing at all, the temperature rise until 2050, when we supposedly will have to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to achieve “net zero”, will be less than .4C or 1F. The technology simply doesn’t exist to do that and maintain a semblance of modern society with modern hospitals, energy for farming to produce our food, energy to pump clean drinking water, refrigeration for safe food, heat in the winter, cooling in the summer; the list is practically endless.
The idea that it can be done with “renewables,” solar and wind, is the pipe dream of dilettantes who haven’t a clue as to what they are talking about, and who are fundamentally ignorant of science and engineering.
There are two distinct things that will happen to bring future society to net zero, long before warming will be a problem:
One, as the re-greening of the earth continues, plants will increase their consumption of CO2, turning it into wood; they will pull it out of the atmosphere and fix it as a solid. As deserts turn to savannas and forests, that rate will decline, reaching zero.
Two, technology. While fossil fuels will always be around, their use will diminish and be replaced by cheap nuclear power, which is clean and does not emit any CO2. The only thing holding back the commercialization of cheap nuclear power is incompetent regulators, but as other countries move forward, our regulators will catch up.
By the end of this century there will be abundant nuclear energy to fuel our technologically advanced society; there is no reason to fear man-made catastrophic climate change.
Bill Stewart
Stafford
Local Obituaries
To view local obituaries or to send a note to family and loved ones, please visit our website at the link that follows.
Weather and Traffic
Support Award-winning, Locally Focused Journalism
In less than a year, FXBG Advance has become the news leader in Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, and Stafford through its innovative mix of:
Twice-daily newsletter - At 6 AM and 5 PM every Monday through Friday, the Advance brings the most important news directly to your inbox.
Education Reporting - Adele Uphaus has won multiple awards for her coverage of education issues locally and across the state. Now, she brings her experience, insights, and expertise to the Advance, providing our citizens some of the finest education writing and reporting in the commonwealth.
Political Reporting - From council meetings to campaigns, and fundraising to finance, the Advance is returning the Fourth Estate to its rightful place as a government watch dog.
Breaking News - From court cases to high-profile government moves, the Advance is the first to inform residents.
Investigative Journalism - Last year, the Advance broke major stories around improperly filed election documents, misleading sample ballots, disenfranchising Spotsylvania Count School parents, and book bans.
Election Coverage - The Advance offered the most complete coverage of the 2023 election, with in-depth candidate profiles, daily tracking of events, leading debates, and pre-dawn to post-midnight Election Day coverage. And 2024 brings even greater coverage.
Spotlights - From local businesses to nonprofit organizations and regional leaders, the Advance brings the people who make things happen to your attention.
Multi-partisan Commentary - Martin Davis is a 20-plus-year journalist recognized for superior commentary and political writing; Shaun Kenney has his hands on the pulse of political leaders across the Commonwealth. Together, they bring an unparalleled level of analysis and insight into the issues that drive debate in our region.
Political Cartoons - Clay Jones is a nationally recognized talent who draws weekly for CNN. He has returned to Fredericksburg to level his critical eye and razor-sharp drawing at the topics which make us both laugh, and look closer at ourselves.
New Dominion Podcast - Each week, Martin Davis and Shaun Kenney interview guests from across the region and the state. Growing to over 1,000 listeners in just six months, NDP has become a leading force in political, cultural, and social discussion.
We thank each and every one of you who have made the Advance a part of your day, and we’re excited to say that more-exciting announcements are just around the corner as we continue to innovate and expand our coverage of the region.
The donations of individual readers have made this year possible. Please join the hundreds who are supporting excellence in journalism by subscribing for just $8 a month.
Where does your money go?
It goes to support the great journalists we have - like Adele Uphaus - and the ones we look to hire in the year ahead.
If you can spare $8 a month, we’ll be both grateful, and reward your trust in us with more journalism, more stories, and more connections to organizations and people who make our region a great place to live.
If you can’t, thank you for reading the FXBG Advance!, and consider sharing us with your friends.
In 2024, let’s build an even better Advance - together!
Thank you for reading and supporting FXBG Advance.
-Martin Davis, Editor-in-Chief
cont. A year ago, the US installed about 200 miles of electrified train track. China installed 10,000....
10,000. The world's largest producer of electric cars? China. Solar panels?
If I'm wrong, the worst we've done is not only developed an independence from Russian dictators, Venezuelan dictators, Jared Kushner's boss, sorry Saudi dictators who chop journalists up into little pieces (by accident, of course, these things happen) - but also independence from folks like Exxon.
And infrastructure such as solar and wind are much less susceptible to terrorism or being military targets than power plants or pipelines, and especially nuclear power plants. Not much bang for the buck in sending a million dollar cruise missile against a 50k solar array as compared to a power plant. Ask Ukraine, as they keep the lights on in hospitals and water pumping stations.
Finally, nuclear. Bless your heart.
Something that has a half-life of 10000 years. Recorded human history is around 2500 years. Learning it, does it seem particularly stable to you? The present doesn't seem that stable. Wars in Africa, Asia, Europe, possible civil war here. And nothing bad will happen for 10000 years to the nuclear material produced? Man, I want some of what he's having...
Nuclear power has been around for 80 years.
In that time, we've had Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Bikini Atoll, Nevada testing, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima, and now we're on tinterhooks as we await the fate of Zaporizhzhia as yet another unstable dicatator debates weaponizing it. And those are the ones we know about. Think the US military, Russian, Chinese, N Korean, Indian, etc. governments advertise their close calls when they don't have to?
Again. Bless your heart.
No. Marketize decarbonization, invest in our future and get out of the way and let innovation and a capitalist society do its magic. Or cling to fear and ignorance as we slowly sink into irrelevance.
Choice seems pretty clear to me.
God, I hope this was meant for the Onion.......
Interesting, if true.