The EPA released a report that claimed 600 cities in the United States had air toxics levels from industry and mobile sources that measured cancer risk levels of 100 in a million. This far exceeds acceptable levels. The news media exploded with the story but one detail that had been left out from the ones that I read was that the study was from data collected in 2002. It was difficult finding the study on the EPA website but I eventually came across it at www.epa.gov/nata2002. Of course we can expect this announcement will be used to push additional legislation for air cleanup laws.

Last week, the EPA released a report that they claimed demonstrated man-made climate change was continuing to cause damage to our environment. Another log on the fire as it were.

In the meantime, temperatures over the last few years have been declining according to the National Weather Service. This spring, it was pretty cool across the Northern Tier of states and in the Northeast. A reporter on MSNBC commented that the cooler weather was a result of global warming but I failed to understand her reasoning. She did go by it pretty quickly.

Another news report that was boldly released claimed in the headline that CO₂ levels were the highest in nearly 2 million years. You have to read the story carefully to learn that this is data collected from a single ice sample. I know they are journalists making these reports but I would think they should take at least one course in statistical analysis before they start reporting and making statistical conclusions.

There is a website that tracks the weather on the Sun. They report on a number of conditions but one I found interesting in this debate is the sunspot count. Intuitively, one might think they just count the number of spots they see. However, there is actually some science involved along with accepted conventions. Anyway, here is a chart of sunspot activity going back to the 1700s and applying the conventional calculation. You can draw you own conclusion. In my opinion, it explains not only the phenomena witnessed here but explains why atmospheric temperature averages increased at other places in our solar system, like Mars. Go to www.spaceweather.com

One might think that a promise from the administration to apply science to environmental decisions would use this and a myriad of other readily available information before passing new legislation. No. Pelosi is at this very moment pressing to pass a new bill that will result in a lot of changes that will impact every one of us. She and her cohorts are claiming that the bill will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, create jobs and lower our energy bills by about 7 percent by 2020. The opposition claims that jobs will be lost and our energy costs will skyrocket. I recall that when gasoline and other energy costs leaped up last year, the President was finally able to push the legislature into allowing the moratorium against drilling for oil to lapse. Prices declined shortly after that and came down dramatically. However, one of the first things the new team did was to reinstate those restrictions and we have seen nearly 60 straight days of increased prices. We have had a week of price leveling but I bet the march will continue upward shortly.

Bellyaching probably will do little good right now. Politicians know more than us regular people and they can find the scientists (or people that claim to know science) that will back them up. The changes are coming. We just have to survive them and hope we can eventually turn this situation into a positive.

I heard a description for the origin of politics the other day that really struck a cord with me and I think explains a few things. Poli comes from poly, which means many. Tics is from tick, which is a blood-sucking insect.