It’s hard to quantify, but the number of underground coal fires in this country, estimated at close to 200, and those in the rest of the world are almost impossible to estimate. China alone burns at least 10 million tons of coal in these underground infernos every year. Dan Cray brought this problem to light in a Time magazine article at http://www.time. He says every coal field in the world has these fires, with most in developed or developing countries. The amount of green house gases spewed out by these fires is staggering, with some having burned for 48 years.

You see it time and time again. Stories about climate change are always overwhelmed by deniers about ten to one. If nothing else, they are organized. One is tempted to tell them, "Fine. Keep on polluting and using fossil fuels and don't worry. We can't do anything about it any way. PS, I hope you don't own sea shore property that disappears because of climate change. Yes, it's all Al Gore's fault because he is becoming a billionaire on his movie, An Inconvenient Truth...

The journal Nature, in it's recent issue, tells us that air pollution from Asia is showing up over the western states in the skies over California, Oregon and Washington. It comes as no surprise and it has likely been going on for a long time...

Why are we Stimulating Europe's & China's Economy? Because we have been so slow adopting alternative energies, Chinese and European companies have been sucking up all of the stimulus money being spent on wind power generating technology. The same can be said for solar power. In Arizona alone two new solar farms are in the works with the equipment coming from China...

These funds should have had strings attached requiring the equipment to come from the US. There are US companies, like GE, making this wind turbines and solar collectors. Instead, jobs were created in Germany, France and China.

I applaud the stimulus in so far as it helped our companies and our people.  But why  we should give it to other countries is baffling. Acting in haste to get the economy back on track seemed a good thing. But to act without thinking through the consequences is unconscionable.

Ever hear of Rare Earth Metals? You well might in the near future. They represent a class of materials that have received little attention until recently. China has been trying to corner the market in them. Why? They are vital to almost all high tech equipment like alternative energy production,  including batteries, electric motors and the permanent magnets used in those giant wind turbines. They are also used in solar cells, photo optics, communication systems, precision munitions, navigation and guidance systems, lasers, and spy satellites. In other words they are vital, not only to the development of alternative energy systems, but also to our security. A Toyota Prius carries almost 25 pounds of rare earth metals. Unfortunately our government has made no effort to stockpile these rare earth metals, opting to import 100% of what we need…mostly from China…

I just watched a frightening program on the Science Channel called China's Raging Sands. If you don't believe in human activity causing climate change you need to watch this film...