Back in June of 2011 it was reported that in the United Kingdom, Tim Oats, director of Research at Cambridge Assessment Board, one of the biggest exam boards in Europe, stated that climate change should not be taught in the United Kingdom national curriculum. It was seen as a subject that was too politicized.

In April of this year I came down wth a debilitating disease which put me out of commission for over four months. Thanks to the great care of my wife I am back and ready to continue my rants on global warming, alternative energy, and other subjects of interest. And yes, I will continue to use that much politicized word "Global warming." If you still don't believe it is real or think it is a hoax perpetrated by the entire world of scientists, you are an idiot or work for an oil company. After the past year with it's hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, drought, and glacial melting your powers of reasoning are seriously challenged. Or maybe you are just a Republican on the dole from an oil company.

My wife started a novel a year or so ago. It had at its basic premise that the world was being consumed by wild fires, the reasons for which were somewhat obscure. Today this prophesy has in part come true, except the disasters are worse than she imagined and the reasons are well known. The southwest has been burning for the past two months. Wildfires have consumed huge areas in the State of Arizona and are still burning out of control.  Thousands of fire fighters have been employed along with hundreds of helicopters and tanker planes. The cost to the state and municipalities could do much resolve or at least ease their budget shortfalls. But the wild fires are just one aspect of the disaster. We had the Mississippi rivere flooding on its lower reaches flooding farmland and homes and only through extreme measures not being the worst flood in history. Right now the upper reaches of the Missouri river in Iowa and Nebraska also flooding. Wildfires aren't just confined to Arizona, Colorado and the northwest. Texas ans the south East are suffering huges areas of prolonged drought. The year 2011 has been declared the most disastrous year in recorded history. Tornadoes have killed hundreds of people this year and destroyed hundreds of homes. What is going on here?

The Senate voted down a bill which would have removed the tax subsidy on ethanol this week. You would think the Tea Baggers would have embraced this bill. Even John McCain and Jon Kyle, Arizona's two raging right wingers, voted for it. The bill referred to ending the tax credits for blenders of ethanol and gasoline. Adding ethanol to gasoline is desirable as it reduces our need for imported oil. The only problem is where most of our ethanol comes from.  Here in the United States ethanol is made from corn. Corn is a lose/lose material from which to make fuel. Making it uses horrendous amounts of water, our most precious resource,  and uses more fuel to make than it produces. If it weren't subsidized it would never become economically viable. Why do we do this? It was part of George W. Bush's gift in his last election to the Iowa corn farmers along with a tariff on imported ethanol.