Climate change is the topic for today. I’m not a climatologist nor do I have scientific research training. I don't mean to alarm you but among the 435 people in our Congress making laws for us, there may be a handful of them with scientific training.
My skill in assessing this is my ability to connect the dots and see if they add up. Now let me assure you that climate change is as real as your reflection in the mirror, and just as dependable. Most people can't tell you what that reflection in the mirror actually is, they just know it's there, like climate change.
To make the most of this information, it's important to understand what honesty and integrity is in reference to a person that is trying to convince you of something. The asset I value the most is my honesty and integrity. I would never waste this by trying to sell you something or mislead you, which is why it is easy for me to admit when I'm incorrect because my goal is to be correct. Not to be right. This is how I maintain my objectivity when it comes to so much information on any particular subject.
I do not wrap my identity around any particular point of view, fact, or belief. My goal is to be correct so when I do discover information that leads me to think I made a mistake, I can quickly pivot, absorb the new information, and hopefully formulate a new opinion that is correct. As long as your opinion is based on fact and reality, and the desire to be correct, you will not have to get angry in an attempt to bend reality to your beliefs.
I tell you this because if there is anything in my statements that are incorrect, I want you to understand I do not have any intent to purposely mislead you. Climate change is a complicated subject.
As always there's a few words that need to be defined. Global warming is a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth’s atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, methane gas, and other pollutants. Whether man-made or natural.
Climate change is a changing global or regional climate pattern, in particular a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onward attributed largely to the increase levels of atmosphere carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. This is the dictionary definition; climate change does not have to be from the mid-20th century onward. It could be any period as long as it is defined.
For the purposes of this conversation, I would like to discuss climate change for the last 11,700 years which is when the Holocene period began. This is when the last major ice age transitioned to the relatively stable and warm climate conditions that persist to the present day.
This can be verified in many ways, most easily by core samples in ice recovered from the poles. One of the indicators for an ice age is year-round ice on north and south poles. This steady warming trend has been interrupted periodically by things such as volcanoes, which act in such a manner as to occlude the sun by dumping billions of tons of ash into the atmosphere causing global cooling.
Make no mistake, all of these things are very complicated and I'm trying to keep it simple. I have a background in gas science due to my extensive training as a deep-sea salvage diver in the Navy. I reference this so you understand that I'm not a complete novice and to provide you with a basis to believe in what I'm telling you.
Our atmosphere is made up of 78.08% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, and .04% carbon dioxide. Remember carbon dioxide is the gas that is concerning us in regard to climate change. To make this easier to understand let's use a mile, which is 5280 feet long. Nitrogen would represent 4120.7 feet, oxygen would represent 1104.9 feet, argon would represent 49.1 feet, and carbon dioxide would represent 2.1 feet.
As you can see carbon dioxide is an extremely small number in reference to the entire atmosphere. To further illustrate this and drive the point home. Consider a square foot of air from our atmosphere. If there were 1 million molecules in that square foot, only 412 of those molecules out of 1 million would be carbon dioxide. Scientists estimate over the last 55 million years the highest carbon dioxide levels have risen in our world is 1000 to 1400 parts per million.
If the owner of a greenhouse wants to maximize production, it's not uncommon for them to elevate the carbon dioxide to 1000 ppm. After all plants use carbon dioxide in the photosynthesis process. The baseline for measuring carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was established in 1958 when Charles Keeling measured the parts per million at 313 ppm.
Our current measurement of carbon dioxide is proximately 414 ppm. That is an increase of approximately 25% in 66 years. Based on this information I have some really good news for my fellow citizens. Our very wealthy leaders of our country, and the scientists they have purchased with our tax dollars to support their belief that we're all doomed, are probably wrong on the time frame it will take to kill us.
Our planet started warming 11,700 years ago. Climate change is inevitable and it's incremental and it is as dependable as the reflection of your face in the mirror. Do I think human activity is increasing the pace? Yes, it most definitely is. How much is questionable? What are the chances that our leadership is taking us in the correct direction? I don't know, but I can tell you they haven't gotten anything else right in the last 80 years when it comes to big decisions like this.
The same people said that if we would start trading with China, they would see the error in their way and become a democracy within 10 years. Well, they're still communists. Back in the 90’s they said we had 10, maybe 15 years before the whole world would collapse, that didn't happen either. Is it possible they just don't know? I'd say yes.
Now that we have established the end of our civilization caused from climate change is most likely more than 100 years away, I would say we have a little bit of time to change our ways and to accommodate the planet. As I mentioned they've been wrong on most everything. So, let's examine how they have been wasting our money and directing us toward electric cars.
I personally have driven a Tesla and thought it was the coolest car I've ever driven. I'm not getting into which technology costs more economically and environmentally to build, there's lots of videos out there to provide that information.
Electric car charging stations can cost as much as $250,000 each. Our electrical grid has not been fortified and improved to support the additional need for electricity to support the cars being sold. This includes power plants that are needed to produce electricity.
Electric cars in cities are a great idea to reduce the concentration of noxious fumes caused by burning gasoline, but this does not work well in areas such as southern Florida. Imagine if you put your wife and three kids in an electric car and leave Miami trying to get to Georgia because of a major hurricane heading your way, and there are 5 million other people also driving electric cars. They do not have the range or the capacity to recharge that many vehicles in that short period of time regardless of how many stations you have for charging. Plus, don't forget the grid will be down for 2 to 3 weeks when you return home.
Consider living in Montana and it's 40 below zero outside and you don't own a garage. That electric car has to sit out there and keep its batteries above freezing. It's either plugged into the grid consuming energy without doing anything or it is depleting the batteries that lose their efficiency in the cold.
If electric cars are such a good idea why does the government have to pay us to buy them? That is essentially what happens when you get a tax credit, but most of us don't know that because we aren't rich enough to pay that much in taxes every year so we can’t buy an electric car.
Shifting gears let's talk about solar on your roof. Most people that would like solar can't afford it because they are too busy paying for the inflation that the government has caused and are providing for their family. Once again, the average family doesn't make enough money to qualify for the tax credit from the government.
Would it be better just to have all those rich people pay their taxes, take that money and block grants to power companies and let them manage the program in the form of a loan that stays with the house when you sell? Then it wouldn't matter how rich you are, and everybody could get solar if they wanted it. I figured this out just sitting in my basement!
If we had a balanced budget amendment, our fearless leaders would have less money to waste. We spend billions of dollars every year fighting forest fires, we should be spending billions of dollars employing foresters to manage our valuable assets instead of letting it burn every year creating more CO2 in support of global warming.
If we harvested wood and used it for construction instead of using concrete, we would reduce CO2. Manufacturing concrete is one of the largest CO2 contributors.
We demonize fossil fuels which really aren't fossil fuels, they are hydrocarbons, petroleum products. They are an essential part of our modern life. Only 15% of petroleum products are used in transportation and our fearless leaders act like it’s 85%.
• How much carbon do you think has been emitted into the atmosphere from the Ukrainian war?
• How much carbon do you think it will emit into the atmosphere rebuilding Ukraine when they decide to quit fighting?
• How many concrete buildings have the Israelis knocked down in Gaza? -How much money do we spend every year transporting things back-and-forth across the oceans?
Instead, develop Central and South America as industrial hubs and increase their standard of living so they don't invade our southern borders. The people in charge of our economy and government have gotten so many things wrong it’s hard to believe they got this climate change correct. Don't forget these are the same geniuses that opened up our border for three years and let 8 million people into our country. Most of these dinosaurs have been in Congress so long that they are the ones that started the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
How much CO2 is dumped into the atmosphere every year supporting this huge army that they use in an effort to control other countries? How many bad decisions have our leaders made in the last 25 years? I suggest it's countless, and Jon Tester has been there for most of this time, supporting bad decision after bad decision.
I don't think that climate change supported by CO2 buildup is our most pressing problem. I think general pollution caused by people on the planet is the existential threat to our existence. We must examine our own lifestyles and realize that we can only influence other countries by setting an example and not beating them into submission. Only 15% of petroleum is used for transportation.
Very few people are having a conversation about micro plastics, forever chemicals in our water supply, and the companies that are making a profit while destroying a piece of the planet without setting any money aside for reclamation. Blaming everything on CO2 will not force the corporate world to clean up the environmental mess they have created over the past two centuries. It's much more cost-effective for our corporations to purchase politicians that will transfer the liabilities onto the taxpayers.
My proposal is not to limit capitalism, it is to make the corporations that are benefiting responsible for mitigating the pollution created in the process of pursuing wealth.
One such issue in regard to climate change is orphan wells. We have been drilling for oil in our country for over 150 years. We may have as many as 1 million uncapped wells spewing methane, which is 28 times more damaging to the environment than CO2. It's not just methane coming out of these wells, they emit dangerous gases into our environment 24/7, 365 days a year.
In the past 40 years, federal, state, and local governments have spent billions of dollars of taxpayer’s money to mitigate this problem. The problem continues to grow because the government is not good at doing these things. There's too much bureaucracy and corruption. I will not name any one particular company that drills for oil, because there are many. Why are they not picking up the tab?
There are super fund cleanups all over the country. One of the largest is in Butte, MT. It doesn't make sense from a government standpoint to have a company create jobs, profit half a billion and create an economic mess for the government that lasts decades and costs us over $1 billion in taxpayer money. The offending company simply sells the asset to a shell company that has no resources to clean up the mess, which ultimately forces the government to go into partnership with this company to attempt the cleanup.
Simply put, this means we fund the company’s effort to mitigate the problem. Let me assure you it is much easier for Congress to talk about UFOs, Hunter Biden's laptop, and try to impeach a president even after he's out of office than it is to address this problem.
Don't forget we are $34 trillion in debt as a nation, we need a balanced budget amendment to control Congress. We need a Congress that's not bought and paid for by the corporations, so that means we need election reform.
Let me assure you all of these things happening in our country are tied together, including what the media chooses to talk about and most importantly what they choose not to talk about. I am just one lone voice connecting the dots that everybody sees, and no one wants to point to.
Without your assistance I may as well be standing on a mountaintop yelling at the wind. I'm not just some guy sitting in the basement talking to a camera. I am the only one who is willing to stand up against a three term sitting US senator and say enough is enough, you have to retire.
Always remember, you don't go into war with the army you wish you had, you go into the war and fight the battle with the army you have. And I am all you have. I'm the only one who stood up and said I'll do it.
Get involved, talk to people, go to my website Mikeformontana.com.
If you made it this far, thank you for sticking with me. I don't want your money, but I may need a few bucks. You can donate down below or go to my website, Mikeformontana.com.
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See you in the next video, where we're going to talk about artificial intelligence and how Congress has still not acted to secure the Internet. Don't accept the status quo, question everything, including me.
My name is Michael Hummert the next United States Senator from the state of Montana.
Thank you
- Michael Hummert