The forthcoming issue (Dec. 8) of the scientific journal Nature will contain an article that abundant quantities of methane have been conclusively shown to exist on Titan, one of the moons of Saturn. “We have determined that Titan's methane is not of biologic origin," reports Hasso Niemann of the Goddard Space Flight Center, a principal NASA investigator. Methane, a key hydrocarbon and the principal component of natural gas, actually has been found throughout the solar system. If methane can be produced by an abiotic (or abiogenic) process, so can more complex hydrocarbons. Once you have methane, “the rest is easy,” says Stanford Penner, Ph.D.
Dr. Penner, who is an authority on the Second Law of Thermodynamics, notes that Russian and Ukrainian scientists have produced an elegant proof that abiotic oil production (from intense pressure and high temperatures at least 100 kilometers below the earth's surface) is entirely consistent with the Second Law of Thermodynamics, but that no such proof has ever been put forth for the fossil fuel theory. In fact, he states that there is no “fossil fuel theory,” merely a hypothesis for which no proof has ever been set forth.
Furthermore, oil has been discovered in the earth's Archeozoic rock formations. These are the most ancient of rocks, which were formed before any plants or animals existed on earth. So petroleum here must have had an inorganic origin, rather than being produced from dead dinosaurs and ancient forests, as is commonly believed.
Finally, some older oil wells previously regarded as depleted have been known to be replenished from below. This is certainly evidence that oil is being produced at depths in the earth (where there are no fossil remains) and being pushed upward by intense pressure from below. The best example of this is Green Island in the Gulf of Mexico. When all the oil that could profitably be extracted had been pumped out, the wells there were closed and forgotten about. Then, twenty years later, those wells were found to contain more oil than before any had been removed! If petroleum is constantly produced by an inorganic process, we are never going to run out of oil.
All of which shows that political policies based on the idea that the world is running out of oil are based on a false theory. Just like claims about man-made global warming ruining the earth (see our new chart on global warming). Both ideas depend on “consensus,” a popular belief that prevails because of constant repetition rather than scientific proof.
Friday, December 01, 2006
Sunday, November 26, 2006
New Links
We have added several new links to our homepage that we think our readers may find of interest. The Friends of Science website is excellent on global warming. It contains a marvelous, very professionally done five-part video that you can download, from which you can see and hear a half-dozen real experts in various aspects of climate science debunk the global warming nonsense. It also has a number of papers of varying lengths, all very readable for the layman, which are excellent.
The Science and Environmental Policy Project website (SEPP) is that of Dr. S. Fred Singer, one of the world's foremost atmospheric physicists. Here are some of his impressive credentials: Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science, University of Virginina; Distinguished Research Professor, Institute for Space Science and Technology; Distinguished Research Professor, George Mason University; received the First Science Award from the British Interplanetary Society; and was elected to the International Academy of Astronautics. He founded the astrophysics department at the University of Miami. He served as: Vice Chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmospheres; Chief Scientist for the U.S. Dept. of Transportation; Deputy Assistant Administrator at EPA; Director of the Center for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Maryland; Research Physicist, Upper Atmosphere Rocket Program, Johns Hopkins University; and Visiting Scholar at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Calif. Inst. of Technology. And by the way, he founded the U.S. Weather Satellite Service and invented the device for measuring ozone in the stratosphere. He has also written fourteen books and hundreds of scholarly articles in professional journals. His website is mostly about global warming; in this, it is the most extensive, detailed, and lucid site we know of on this subject. The site occasionally comments on various environmental issues besides global warming. It is always worth reading.
Forces.org was attracted to our website by our several postings debunking the phony claims about secondhand smoke. We do not smoke or promote smoking; our interest is sound science and intelligent public policy—but these are not evident in the wave of state and local anti-smoking ordinances, which are based on junk science and the systematic violation of individual rights (specifically, property rights). As Dr. Michael Siegel, a medical doctor and public health official with 21 years experience in tobacco research, put it: “The anti-smoking movement is driven by an agenda—an agenda that will not allow science, sound policy analysis, the law, or ethics to get in its way.” Although Forces.org was created to fight local smoking bans, the CEO of that organization has written, “It soon became clear that smoking was just the cutting edge of a general mentality that is repressive in nature and dishonest in essence. Junk science is but an excuse to forward agendas of social and economic control at a planetary scale: tobacco, industries, food and a thousand other issues.... It was clear then that the issues had to be expanded beyond the narrow band of smoking.” He also wrote: “Our group concerns itself not just with the passive/active smoke issue but, more in general, with the alarmist, health-obsessed, zero-risk, zero-tolerance mentality that seems to prevail today.” Amen.
The Smokers Club, Inc. is another organization dedicated to fighting smoking bans because they violate individual rights. It is a resource for research studies exposing the junk science involved in secondhand smoke campaigns—which the activist/advocates of those campaigns pretend don't exist.
Dr. Mary Ruwart's website sells her books and audio and video tapes, which clearly explain how the libertarian philosophy applies to a spectrum of issues. She also writes a regular column for the Advocates of Self Government. Her best known book is Healing Our World, but all of her writings are highly recommended.
The Science and Environmental Policy Project website (SEPP) is that of Dr. S. Fred Singer, one of the world's foremost atmospheric physicists. Here are some of his impressive credentials: Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science, University of Virginina; Distinguished Research Professor, Institute for Space Science and Technology; Distinguished Research Professor, George Mason University; received the First Science Award from the British Interplanetary Society; and was elected to the International Academy of Astronautics. He founded the astrophysics department at the University of Miami. He served as: Vice Chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmospheres; Chief Scientist for the U.S. Dept. of Transportation; Deputy Assistant Administrator at EPA; Director of the Center for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Maryland; Research Physicist, Upper Atmosphere Rocket Program, Johns Hopkins University; and Visiting Scholar at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Calif. Inst. of Technology. And by the way, he founded the U.S. Weather Satellite Service and invented the device for measuring ozone in the stratosphere. He has also written fourteen books and hundreds of scholarly articles in professional journals. His website is mostly about global warming; in this, it is the most extensive, detailed, and lucid site we know of on this subject. The site occasionally comments on various environmental issues besides global warming. It is always worth reading.
Forces.org was attracted to our website by our several postings debunking the phony claims about secondhand smoke. We do not smoke or promote smoking; our interest is sound science and intelligent public policy—but these are not evident in the wave of state and local anti-smoking ordinances, which are based on junk science and the systematic violation of individual rights (specifically, property rights). As Dr. Michael Siegel, a medical doctor and public health official with 21 years experience in tobacco research, put it: “The anti-smoking movement is driven by an agenda—an agenda that will not allow science, sound policy analysis, the law, or ethics to get in its way.” Although Forces.org was created to fight local smoking bans, the CEO of that organization has written, “It soon became clear that smoking was just the cutting edge of a general mentality that is repressive in nature and dishonest in essence. Junk science is but an excuse to forward agendas of social and economic control at a planetary scale: tobacco, industries, food and a thousand other issues.... It was clear then that the issues had to be expanded beyond the narrow band of smoking.” He also wrote: “Our group concerns itself not just with the passive/active smoke issue but, more in general, with the alarmist, health-obsessed, zero-risk, zero-tolerance mentality that seems to prevail today.” Amen.
The Smokers Club, Inc. is another organization dedicated to fighting smoking bans because they violate individual rights. It is a resource for research studies exposing the junk science involved in secondhand smoke campaigns—which the activist/advocates of those campaigns pretend don't exist.
Dr. Mary Ruwart's website sells her books and audio and video tapes, which clearly explain how the libertarian philosophy applies to a spectrum of issues. She also writes a regular column for the Advocates of Self Government. Her best known book is Healing Our World, but all of her writings are highly recommended.
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