Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/77640
6A Daily News – Tuesday, August 7, 2012 Opinion DAILYNEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer's home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. 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How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 Attention political candidates, "Nothing is easier than faultfind- ing. No talent, no self-denial, no brains, no character is required to set up in the grumbling busi- ness," Wendell P. Loveless. Brenda Bronson, Red Bluff Blame Editor: Recycling requirements Editor: options to comply with the new mandate: • Subscribe to the recycling collection service of Green Waste of Tehama, call 528-8500. • Donate recyclable materials law requires the following busi- ness to arrange for recycling ser- vices: As of July 1, California State five or more units. California State law requires apartment owners to offer recy- cling services at residents' request. Apartment owners may require tenants to recycle. Busi- nesses and Multi-Family commu- nities that meet the threshold must recycle at the place of work or jobsite. • Any business that generates 4 cubic yards or more of waste per week; and • Multi-Family dwellings with The following are recycling to a recycling company. Call North Valley Services for free paper recycling at 528-3035 or donate to another recycling com- pany. • Self-haul recyclable material to the Material Recovery Facility (MRF) at the Tehama County/Red Bluff Landfill for free, if all items are recyclable and segregated from trash; or • Self-haul recyclable to a ensure your staff and tenants know which materials can be recycled and where to place the recyclable materials for temporary storage and ultimate collection. You can also take part in the local recycling center — e.g. Big Foot Recycling, Rob's Recycling etc. Recycling service provided by Green Waste of Tehama includes single-stream recycling and costs half as much as garbage service. You simply place all of your recy- clables in the container. No segre- gation of recyclables is necessary. In many instances you can reduce your garbage service by imple- menting recycling. employees or tenants. Employees and tenants are the key to com- mercial recycling success. Please Be sure to educate your Tehama County Smart Business Alliance (SBA) and receive incentives — including free desk side recycling bins while supplies last and free advertising — by recycling and reducing your waste stream. For more information about commercial recycling or the SBA, please call me at 528-1103 or send an email to TC4R@clearwire.net. We are here to help you. Brin Greer, Red Bluff All taxpayers benefit by pay- ing nonunion prevailing wages for public works projects rather than adding 20 percent to the costs with union wages. Since 88 percent of workers and retirees are nonunion it is not fair to burden taxpayers with the added costs of mandated union Unions Editor: pay. Your Turn deficits, from excess public employee pay and benefits, could be immediately reduced 20 percent by substituting pre- vailing non union wages for all city, county, and state projects. Deficits could be reduced another $6 bil- lion yearly by reform- ing public employee pay and benefits to pri- California's bankruptcy vate sector levels. This includes ending defined pensions and substituting a 5 percent match of employee salary for a 401(k) plan, limiting annual sick pay to five days, limiting vacations to 3 weeks with no carryover past year end, and ending all public employee retiree health care subsidies, upon early retirement prior to age 65, and by limiting government subsidies for work- ers health insurance to a maxi- mum of $7000 yearly with employees paying the balance. Taxpayers should not be bur- dened by pubic employee pen- sions exceeding Social Security plus a 401(k) plan. Joseph Neff, Corning Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319-2102 STATE SENATOR — Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2595 Cean- othus Ave., Ste. 182, Chico, CA 95973; 893-8363. U.S.SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224- 0454. More nails in the global warming coffin Commentary Let's consider more of the disconnected arguments and fal- lacious assertions that have come our way from the global warming/climate change alarmists. First, they like to define the debate, they're "real- ists" while we on the other side are derisively called "denialists." Skeptic is the appropriate term, and it should put us in the main- stream of lay and scientific thought on issues of scientific nature. It is simply undeniable that any scientific contention is theory until all testable, provable questions and critiques are put to peer review, independent test- ing and analysis. I'm all for that process. Skepticism must prevail as long as any given theory retains any rational basis for doubt. Any scientific theory must also be falsifiable, meaning that if a process is producing consis- tent results (suggesting it holds up to scrutiny), the counter argu- ment must be provable: chang- ing the process or variables will change the result. If a+b+c=d, then changing a, b or c will not produce d. This principle speaks to the most egregious aspect of the theory of human-caused global warming/climate change (or agw for "anthropogenic global warming): nothing that happens, will happen or has ever happened disproves it. Comput- er models have been shown to produce the same "warmist" results no matter the inputted data. ory. Instead, from the beginning, around the time of Al Gore's fanciful movie, the agw advo- cates have fabricated data to support their theory, and manip- ulated or buried data that would clearly undermine it. I will provide examples of all this, but first let's dismiss some of their assertions against the skeptics: Supposedly, there is a scientific "consensus" among those with the credentials, train- ing and expertise on the subject. It turns out that the so-called (and relatively limited number of) experts in the U.N.'s IPPC, the source of all such "consen- sus," are not universally quali- fied in the relevant sciences – some being of political or socio- logical background. Polling of scientists shows a large divide on the issue. It also turns out that there are literally tens of thousands of degreed scientists that have pub- licly signed petitions expressing their doubt in the agw theory. Sixty of them signed a letter to the Canadian Prime Minister a while back, casting their vast authority and expertise on the side of skepticism. Besides, there is no such thing as "scien- tific consensus," there are facts, laws and proven theories – human-caused global warming is none of those. Think about it and you'll realize that you never hear any of the advocates express the slightest ability to consider that if x, y, or z were to happen or had ever happened, it would undermine or disprove their the- An often-peddled argument is that scientists and advocates have been bought off and take their positions only due to the influence of oil, gas and other energy companies. It's just not true and research into, and cri- tiques of, global warming stand or fall on the merits. The truth of the matter is that truly vast sums of money pour into the climate change advocacy movement from government grants, univer- sity funding and environmental deep pockets. That funding is all predicated on continued support for the conventional, alarmist positions. The battle of the bud- gets would be of no conse- quence if research, analysis and the scien- tific method were allowed to stand on their own merits. Much of the falla- cious nature of the agw side stems from the smug acceptance of computer-driven results of analyzing vast amounts of data treated and massaged by algorithms (no pun intended) and formu- las into supposedly irrefutable conclu- sions. The subject is, we are told, so monu- mentally, so earth shakingly critical for (according to the most alarmed of the alarmists) the survival of humanity. There is no room for doubt because the threat is so severe that to slow down and question (i.e. corrobo- rate and ascertain) the scientific theory is to condemn untold masses to destruction. What utter nonsense! There is virtually nothing of the agw beliefs that has come to pass; very little of what they say has happened throughout geo- logical history actually occurred and what happened doesn't sup- port their current alarmist theo- ries. There has been no net glob- al warming for 12 to 15 years. So what, some might say. Well, if all of the most powerful and conclusive computer modeling, based on the most sophisticated Don Polson The way I see it We are regularly harangued with dire observations and pre- dictions of the decline of the Arctic ice and the poor polar bears. Reality is that the last ten years of recorded ice coverage is but a millisecond of millennial time; satellites have only given us data for a few decades; the ice coverage has shrunk, and now expands, proving …. Nothing. Again, go to "wattsupwith- that.com" and "donpolson.blogspot.com" (scroll down to the "global warming" label) for deeply informative articles. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@yahoo.com. theories and programming, told the world in the 1990s that something would happen by 2012, namely consistent warm- ing, it better happen. Or accept the inevitable diminishment of the whole agw theory. This reality has been accepted by none other than the father of global warming, envi- ronmentalist and scien- tist James Lovelock, (Toronto Sun, June), who "acknowledged that he had been unduly 'alarmist' about climate change" with "extraor- dinary" implications. If the "father of Gaia" acknowledges the reali- ty that the best and brightest calculations have failed to accurate- ly predict temperatures over a significant time period, it "lowers the boom on climate change hysteria."