KARL's BLOG
An Independent Voice on American Life
Politics
Environmental Issues
Global Warming Hypocrites
By Karl Logan, 11/13/2010
Isn’t it nice to know that the people telling Americans to cut back on energy use are abusers themselves? In a piece from the internet shortly after Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth” won an Academy Award, a blogger compared Al Gore’s residence with George Bush’s home in Texas. 10,000 sqft – verses - 4,000 sqft. Not only is Gore’s home 2.5 times the size of Bush’s, George W. Bush has one of the most efficient home in the United States using Green Technology. Gore on the other hand is a huge waster of energy. Gore’s Mansion uses 12 times the electricity of the average home in Tennessee. Snopes.com has a great comparison in “A Tale of Two Homes”.
Other hypocites include; Barbara Streisand, John Travolta, and Barack Obama.
Barbara Streisand has suggestions for the regular Americans like using fluorescent light bulbs.
John Travolta preaches about green technology but does admit he is not a good example as he flies jets.
Barack Obama’s Chicago home is another example of decadence and energy wasters.
Resources
Bush and Al Gore’s house
http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/house.asp
Barbara Streisand’s house
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=620DCA46-18FE-70B2-A8C7AB28D178EB68
http://celebslam.celebuzz.com/2008/02/barbara-streisand-house.php
http://www.californiacoastline.org/streisand/lawsuit.html
Barack Obama’s house
http://www.zillow.com/blog/barack-obamas-chicago-house/2008/09/
John Travolta’s house
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=john+travolta+house&FORM=IGRE1&adlt=strict#
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/article-23390848-with-five-private-jets-travolta-still-lectures-on-global-warming.do
Wood Products Industry
Posted by Karl Logan 11/03/2010
A recent discussion regarding the decline of the Wood Product Industry led me to examine the real cause of the destruction of an industry. Was it the spotted owl or log exports that fueled the decline? Finding quality unbiased information the greatest challenge. I have looked at a number of sources and found two that read together provide a balanced assessment of the decline of the Wood Products Industry.
Mitigating factors include: World economies, wood product prices, habitat, endangered species, business factors including import and exports, technology, and legislation to name a few.
The most hotly debated issue was the spotted owl. While the spotted owl is equally delicious whether fried, baked, or roasted, its mere existence put a very bad taste in the mouths of the logging industry. The spotted owl legislation effectively shut down large tracks of forest land. However, world economies like China and Japan also caused shifts in wood product demand. The reduction in building both domestically and worldwide significantly impacted the industry. Over the years, wood products were exported as finished products and as raw logs. The finished products kept Americans working. Raw log exports reduced domestic jobs. However, to put it in prospective, only 25% of raw logs from State lands were exported. While up to 33% of logs from private land were exported, the combined exports do not account for the destruction of the industry. In addition, in the 1990’s legislation was passed to prevent exports of raw logs from State owned forest land.
Improved Technology also reduced jobs. As more efficient ways to cut and process logs came on line, domestic milling was changed and jobs were lost. However, the global economy gets some of the credit, or blame, for the job loss. America is not the only producer of raw logs. Canada, Russia, and South American are also big players. In fact, Canadian exports significantly altered lumber prices worldwide. American also imported Canadian logs because they were cheaper as a result of America’s environmental laws. Ultimately, tariffs were put in place which helped balance the playing field.
The bottom line, the Wood Products Industry is complicated just like every other global industry. People hang onto a single issue in an attempt to drive home their point of view. Like most hot topics, there were many issues and problems combined that devastated the Wood Products Industry. However, there is no doubt that the spotted owl and destruction of habitat were key issues in the decline. But the owl alone did not ruin the industry. The owl did strain the industry and shut down key logging tracks. Much of the industry was set up for old growth (large logs) so switching gears and retools required time and money. As demand changed the cost of retooling was not always profitable. To suggest that exports of raw logs alone was the cause of the decline is short sighted. Especially when legislation was quickly put in place to reduce that practice. After all, we do live in a global economy, and other countries are just as profit motivated as the U.S.A.
Resources:
http://www.globalwood.org/market1/aaw20050301c.htm
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/stock-alert/cinw_china-now-third-biggest-consumer-of-wood-paper-products-720433.html
http://www.ifallsjournal.com/index.php?q=news/editorials/forestry-news-views-us-world-s-largest-consumer-wood-11509
http://www.fas.usda.gov/ffpd/Wood_Products_Presentations/US_Exports/USexports.pdf
http://www.drewno.fordaq.com/fordaq/news/Sawnwood_Prices_Plywood_22821.html
http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=108&subsecID=900003&contentID=254174
Barbara Streisand's House, John Travolta's House, Barack Obama's Chicago House.
