Magic Statistics

Bright and early tomorrow morning we're driving south for a summer vacation, so blogging will be very sparse for the next two or three weeks.  I’d expect to post an item or three from the road, but I don't know when that might be.  Prayer posts are already scheduled for Sunday mornings and St Bartholomew's Day; other than those, nothing definite is planned.  I should be able to check my e-mail every day or two.

God willing, on Monday evening we will arrive in Calgary to visit family for several days.  After that, we have plans to travel much farther afield—by air.  (No snags will arise there, we hope.)

Regular blogging should resume in about three weeks.  Prayers for safe travel and a refreshing vacation would be appreciated.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by the members of the European Union increased in 2004 for the second consecutive year, according to a report from the European Environment Agency (EEA).  Although the percentage increase was very small (0.4%), the magnitude of emissions is so large that, in absolute terms, the increase is huge.

"In 2004, about 11 tonnes of greenhouse gases were released on average per person in the EU-25.  The 0.4 % increase is comparable to the amount of CO2 emissions released by 3 million people if they were to drive their cars around the earth," said Professor Jacqueline McGlade, executive director of the EEA.

Spain saw the largest increase–4.8%, or 19.7 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent—followed by Italy,with 0.9% or 5.1 million tonnes.

The blue line on the above chart indicates annual CO2 emissions by EU members.  The dark red line shows annual GHG emissions, while the light red line tracks the 5-year moving average of GHG emissions.  The small red circles in the lower right show the permissible level of emissions under the Kyoto protocol, which the EU has committed to meet beginning in 2010.  Think the EU will meet that Kyoto target?  Me neither.

The relationship between the trend of GHG emissions and the Kyoto target shown in this chart bears a striking resemblance to the similar chart tracking Canadian emissions, which can be found at this post.  Canada recently admitted that its Kyoto target will not be met.

The EU has not yet made the same admission, perhaps because, as John Ray notes, EU members may decide to continue fiddling with its base period calculation.  With the right fiddle, it can meet its GHG emission reduction target while avoiding actual reductions.

h/t: Greenie Watch

Source of chart: EEA press release, "EU greenhouse gas emissions increase for second year in a row".

Previous related posts:

• CO2 emissions up in Europe, stable in US
• Germany upsets environmentalists over industrial emissions target
• Who’s the environmental saboteur now?

A first for this blog: A commenter has just threatened my country.

Mrs Farhat Hashmi, an Islamist teacher in Canada illegally, was the subject of a post on 17 July.  She entered Canada in October 2004 on a temporary visa, was ordered to leave in September 2005, but she's still here.  Based on an online report in Maclean’s magazine, I blogged the circumstances of her illegal stay and the content of her teaching.

Pakistani scholar Farhat Hashmi entered Canada in October 2004 on a visitor's visa, has twice been denied permission to work, and was ordered to leave the country in September 2005.  Yet she is still here.  In the meantime, she has founded al-Huda Islamic Centre of Canada, a girls' school in Mississauga where she teaches a strict Islamist interpretation of the Koran.

At 3:32 pm this afternoon, this comment was left at the post:

oh my god has canadianan gone mad why are they trying to make dr farhat hashmi leave their beloved country listen people in their sense only you guys should feel honoured that an angel is among them until she is in canada gods wrath and punishment will not come to them plz open up your eyes and make an efforts to make her stay and make the world a better place through her ,if not just watch the sky for godsend punishment

This person says that God will not send his “wrath and punishment” against Canada as long as Mrs Hashmi is allowed to stay; but if she is turfed out, God will send punishment from on high.

The commenter, who gave his/her name as “syma”, uses an ISP out of Eastpointe, Michigan.  The IP address is 68.241.96.243.  Here’s a screen shot of the sitemeter panel for syma’s visit to Magic Statistics.  (The full IP address was found on the e-mail notification automatically sent by WordPress software.)