Upcoming Events & Programs:
10/17	New Events at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library
10/24	Fullerton Rotary 85th. Anniversary

Dick Daybell -

“Recognitions” (continued)

Joanne Brannock- attended her husband’s 50^th high school anniversary and visited a cemetery.

Paul Dudley was in Maui last week, Bob Savage said N. Calif may turn off the water to us to save the Smelt fish.

USC fans and alumni stood in honor of beating Notre Dame by a point.

A busboy was recognized for singing “Smile”.

Claude Jones wasn’t fined because his favorite team won last weekend.

Drawing Chet Schultz pulled a 4 of spades and won $10 from Gary Goodson

Buck Catlin said a few words in honor of Harry Brown (whose memorial service was last week) noted that their friendship goes way back. During WWII, the each commanded the same submarine at different times. “Rest your Oar”, Harry!

Program-

Dick Glaus introduced Dr. Arnold Baker, advisor to the President Bush and Dick’s son in- law, spoke of the interrelationship of Globalization, Global Warming(he prefers “Climate Change”, Energy and Security.

Interaction and communication among different countries and geographic areas of the world is the most prolific it’s ever been and is certain to continue increasing. New sciences are being created and used in an attempt to improve our living conditions. Dr. Baker pointed out that this will continue the escalation of change in the world. This is exacerbated by the uncertainty created when unpredictable occurrences take place and upset the “Optimized” situations created for efficiency during normal times.   For instance, oil prices in Europe increased as a result of  hurricane Katrina. It is virtually impossible to accurately predict all consequences which makes politicians seem a bit non-committal and indecisive in their decisions. The infrastructure of energy is very costly and requires significant lead time for changes to occur.

Six countries in the Persian Gulf control 60% of the world’s crude oil reserves and 70% of the natural gas reserves. Four countries (USA, Russia, China and India) have 2/3rds of the world’s coal.

There has been a 40% increase in carbon dioxide compared the pre industrialized era and it’s debatable if this is causing climate changes or if it is largely a result of a normal cycle of solar radiation. For various reasons, there is a push to decrease our dependence on carbon dependent energy. Surprisingly, the 5-6 cents per kilowatt-hour cost to produce energy is shared by coal, nuclear, geothermal and wind energy. Solar voltaic is another 5 times more expensive.

Currently, the USA gets half of it’s energy from coal and California gets 60% of it’s energy from fossil fuels (14% coal and 43% natural gas) 40% of our carbon emissions are from motor vehicles.

Dr. Baker hopes that Nanotechnology will enhance the storage capacity of batteries for hybrid vehicles. He predicts that hydrogen as a significant factor is another 20 years off. The push for Corn Ethanol is causing some food prices to go up, and it doesn’t greatly reduce the carbon emissions. He commented that “Emissions Trading” is sure to be a boondoggle because politicians will set the price of the emissions credits making it a political game that will be a nightmare to manage.  Dr. Baker feels that if  energy was taxed and allowed to be deducted, (and use some of the proceeds for energy R&D), clearer signals to the consumer would make energy conservation more intuitive.

Prez. Tom closed with a quote that you could only appreciate if you were there…so BE THERE NEXT WEEK!!