The case for neglecting global warming

In the July 30 edition of The New York Times, Gina Kolata reports on recent research findings on the health of modern citizens of industrialized countries. You might expect that this research reveals us denizens of early 21st-century capitalist economies to be staggeringly unhealthy -- our physiques so obese and flabby, our arteries so clogged with cholesterol, our lungs so inundated with pollutants and our brains and spirits so burdened with stress that we are aging faster and suffering more than ever before. In fact, the opposite is true. The great majority of us today enjoy unprecedented good health. According to The Times:

New research from around the world has begun to reveal a picture of humans today that is so different from what it was in the past that scientists say they are startled. Over the past 100 years, says one researcher, Robert W. Fogel of the University of Chicago, humans in the industrialized world have undergone "a form of evolution that is unique not only to humankind, but unique among the 7,000 or so generations of humans who have ever inhabited the earth.

The difference does not involve changes in genes, as far as is known, but changes in the human form. It shows up in several ways, from those that are well known and almost taken for granted, like greater heights and longer lives, to ones that are emerging only from comparisons of health records.

The biggest surprise emerging from the new studies is that many chronic ailments like heart disease, lung disease and arthritis are occurring an average of 10 to 25 years later than they used to. There is also less disability among older people today.

The closest this long report comes to offering up bad news is to acknowledge that some experts believe that today's childhood obesity will eventually negate, or seriously subtract from, these remarkable health gains. But this prediction seems silly in light of the colossal, documented health gains that people in the West have enjoyed over the past five or six generations.

And although The Times' report avoids firmly answering the question "why?," the reason for this much-improved health isn't hard to find given that these health gains have been greatest in the industrialized world and that they started within the past two centuries.

The answer, in a word, is "capitalism." Capitalism produces so much food that we are never malnourished; it produces ample clothing and sturdy homes to protect us from the elements; it produces the soaps, shampoos, toothpastes and detergents that we use every day to cleanse our bodies and living spaces of bacteria and other dirt. And by continually substituting machines for human labor, capitalism progressively makes our work less backbreaking and less perilous. These gains are significant and real. And they are continuing; no one knows where, or even if, they will stop.

Those of us who recognize these important benefits of capitalism -- those of us who understand that capitalism's true greatness lies not (as many critics insinuate) in producing oceans of pointless trinkets and baubles but in making the lives of ordinary people richer and fuller and longer -- are reluctant to yield power to governments to tackle global warming. We worry that this power will kill the goose that's laying this golden egg.

If you think that such a worry is exaggerated, recall the language Al Gore used in his book "Earth in the Balance." The former Vice President asserted that we are suffering an "environmental crisis" that can be avoided only if we "drastically change our civilization and our way of thinking."

"Drastically change our civilization." Hmmm. This sounds like a call to significantly scale back markets, trade and industrial activities in order to lessen humankind's "footprint" on the Earth and its environment. We can, no doubt, make our environmental footprint smaller -- but how great a benefit will this achievement be if it returns us to the ages-old condition of high mortality and morbidity?

Undoubtedly, most people who seek government action to fight global warming are "reasonable." They envision no drastic changes to our civilization. And I concede that, in principle, cost-effective steps to reduce global warming are possible. But I'm sure that it's also true that most of the "reasonable" people who demand action against global warming are unaware of the critical role that capitalism plays in improving the lives of ordinary men and women.

So given this fact along with the hysterical language used by the likes of Al Gore -- who, after all, is not on society's fringes -- it's a perfectly legitimate stance for truly reasonable people to conclude that the best policy regarding global warming is to neglect it -- and let capitalism continue to make us healthier and wealthier.

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HOW NOMINALLY "GREEN" CALIFORNIA BURNS FAR MORE GASOLINE THAN IT NEEDS TO

Yesterday I had the opportunity of going to the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach. This is a beautiful show of art and music, explaining the history of art, though the paintings have live people in them. Unless you knew that in advance, you would think it was just a blow up of the painting. This is a wonderful experience and a chance even for those of us that don't understand art to gain an appreciation of the colors and the stories behind each rendition and the artists values, motives and history--I could pass a test, if this was the way art history was taught.

While I knew this was going to be an exciting evening, I also dreaded going to the event. I live in Simi Valley, about 100 miles from Laguna. Even on a Sunday afternoon, you need to give yourself significant extra time, just to make sure you weren't caught in a traffic jam. Sure enough, once we hit the Westside of Los Angeles on the 405 Freeway, we came to a halt. This went on for several miles. No accident, no "lookie lou's", no animals on the freeway. Instead, lots of work NOT BEING DONE on the freeway, to expand lanes and repair a system not fixed in years. At one point the freeway goes from five lanes to three lanes--imagine the bottleneck that creates--I know, I was in it. For several miles you can see gigantic equipment and pick up trucks, bulldozers and other equipment all meant to make the 405 somewhat workable again.

But, on a Sunday afternoon, not a soul working, just the results of the potential to see.

Earlier last week I was driving on the 23 Freeway, which connects the 101 with the 118. It is a short freeway, maybe eight or nine miles. It is four lanes, two each way. But an expansion is going on. A local newspaper noted that this should be completed by 2010 (not a typo). The 118 is also adding a lane--no one knows for sure when that effort will be completed. I am sure in your area, the same. Lots of disruptions, bottlenecks and construction that will go on for years. But the work week is five days (if that) and the hours are maybe 7:00am till about 2:30pm.

The upshot is higher costs, cars burning gas in traffic jams and an increase in "greenhouse" gas causing more Global Warming ( for those that believe in this). Not to speak about roadrage being created, grumpy people showing up at events and work and some, just not going to places they absolutely don't have to go. In almost every other place in this country, when you ask people how far is it, from here to there, they tell you in miles. In California, we answer with minutes and hours--miles don't count. Try going from Danville to San Francisco at 7:00am on a Wednesday morning--will you have any sanity left when you arrive?

That is why I nominate Governor Pete Wilson as one of the all time great governors of California. He proved that government can work, when we must make it work. When the January 17,1994 earthquake hit, the 118, the 405, the 5 and other freeways in the Los Angeles area had huge sections that had totally collapsed. The first estimates were a minimum of three years to fix the roads--and at an outrageous cost. This would destroy the Southern California economy, jobs lost, businesses closed and an exodus that had not happened in California before.

Instead of raising taxes, bemoaning his bad luck, not blaming the Federal government for not acting quickly enough, Gov. Pete Wilson, like the Marine he will always be, took action.

By Executive Order he temporarily ended many environmental laws that were only meant to slow the building process and to make it more costly. He put aside the phony "prevailing wage" laws that are meant to provide unions with tribute for their donations to hack politicians. Then he did what private industry does--he gave a bonus to construction firms that finished ahead of schedule. Most government contracts have penalties for finishing late. Wilson understood that the public was being inconvenienced and business could not operate without a solid freeway system. Instead of three years, almost all the needed work was completed in eight months, and the most needed in less than three months. Businesses made money, union workers and non union workers got paid premium wages, yet the State of California saved money. It was a win win situation for all.

Instead of taking over 2 years to fix the 10 Freeway, it took 66 days. Here is an article written by Gov. Wilson on how he did it: Three shifts, working 24/7 made the completion in a little over two months, not two years! Reason magazine did a complete analysis of how Wilson repaired the freeways, this is a must read for those that say we need a $20 billion bond, what we need is a system that works today, not a repair schedule that goes out twenty years

Yesterday I saw empty, non working equipment on the 405--Wilson would not allow that. I contend we are in a freeway crisis as bad, if not worse than the 1994 earthquake disaster. Instead of saving money, government wants to throw money at the problem. Instead of fixing it today, they want to take twenty years (which means they really don't want to fix it). Instead of saving gas, they want to continue gridlock. Instead of handling greenhouse gases, they have no problem promoting policies that grow the problem, and then create legislation that harms families and business.

The answer is simple. Governor Schwarzenegger should make former Governor Pete Wilson the czar of fixing the freeways. Allow him to use the same methods and via Executive Order, use the same powers he used in 1994, to fix the freeways. Either take the crisis serious or don't wring your hands about gridlock, freeways that don't work, hours lost in traffic and folks "cocooning" even more because they can't get anywhere.

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Deep-sea sediments could safely store man-made carbon dioxide

Deep-sea sediments could provide a virtually unlimited and permanent reservoir for carbon dioxide, the gas that has been a primary driver of global climate change in recent decades, according to a team of scientists that includes a professor from MIT. The researchers estimate that seafloor sediments within U.S. territory are vast enough to store the nation's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for thousands of years to come.

"The exciting thing about this paper is that we show that CO2 injected beneath the seafloor is sequestered permanently," said Charles Harvey, an associate professor in MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Harvey is a co-author of a paper on the work that appears in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "CO2 injected underground on land is buoyant, and hence has the potential to escape back to the surface," Harvey said. "This is not the case under the deep ocean. Because the ocean floor is so cold, liquid CO2 stored beneath the floor is denser than water and will not rise to surface. Furthermore, the top of the injected CO2 plume will form a hydrate, an ice-like solid that plugs up the pore spaces, 'self-sealing' the injected CO2 plume into the deep sea sediments."

The leader of the work, Daniel P. Schrag, said, "Supplying the energy demanded by world economic growth without affecting the Earth's climate is one of the most pressing technical and economic challenges of our time." Schrag is a professor of earth and planetary sciences at Harvard University. "Since fossil fuels -- particularly coal -- are likely to remain the dominant energy source of the 21st century, stabilizing the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide will require permanent storage of enormous quantities of captured carbon dioxide safely away from the atmosphere," Schrag said.

The scientists say an ideal storage method could be the injection of carbon dioxide into ocean sediments hundreds of meters thick. The combination of low temperature and high pressure at ocean depths of 3,000 meters turns carbon dioxide into a liquid denser than the surrounding water, removing the possibility of escape and ensuring virtually permanent storage. Injecting carbon dioxide into seafloor sediments rather than squirting it directly into the ocean traps the gas, minimizing damage to marine life while ensuring that the gas will not eventually escape to the atmosphere via the mixing action of ocean currents.

At sufficiently extreme deep-sea temperatures and pressures, carbon dioxide moves beyond its liquid phase to form solid and immobile hydrate crystals, further boosting the system's stability. The scientists say that thus stored, the gas would be secure enough to withstand even the most severe earthquakes or other geomechanical upheaval.

Other researchers have proposed storing carbon dioxide in geologic formations such as natural gas fields, but terrestrial reservoirs run a risk of leakage. "Deep-sea sediments represent an enormous storage reservoir," said Kurt Zenz House, a Harvard graduate student involved in the research. "Some 22 percent, or 1.3 million square kilometers, of the seafloor within the United States' exclusive economic zone is more than 3,000 meters deep. Since we estimate that the annual U.S. emission of carbon dioxide could be stored in sediments beneath just 80 square kilometers, the seafloor within U.S. territory could store our nation's excess carbon dioxide for thousands of years to come."

Outside the United States' 200-mile economic zone, the scientists write, the total carbon dioxide storage capacity in deep-sea sediments is essentially unlimited. The scientists note that thin or permeable sediments are inappropriate for carbon dioxide storage, as are areas beneath steep deep-sea slopes, where landslides could free the gas. They add that further assessment of the mechanical feasibility of delivering carbon dioxide to the seafloor, as well as study of possible effects on sea levels, is needed.

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Farmers vs. Greenies in Australia

My mother is from a West Australian farming family, so we all grew up believing farmers to be the ultimate environmentalists. They know the land better than anyone and are motivated to care for it because they depend on its health for their livelihood. True to her roots, my mother was recycling, conserving and composting for years before it became fashionable. She walks around the house turning off lights and wears layers of jumpers before turning on a heater. She can't venture into the street without picking up litter and pulling up stray weeds. And yet she is completely alienated by the big city green movements.

It has dawned on me, from talking to green group spokespeople over the years, that the feeling is mutual. Greenies feel towards farmers the way Hezbollah does towards Israel. No mercy, no compromise. Farmers are environmental vandals who must be driven off their land - compensated, if need be, with taxpayer money, like the loggers driven out of once thriving timber towns.

There is no better example of this attitude than the Wilderness Society's campaign on land clearing, complete with heart-tugging posters of trees and the slogan: "It's like bulldozing Waltzing Matilda". It claims farmers are damaging the environment by illegally clearing the equivalent of six cricket grounds every hour in western NSW. It has been pressuring the Government to introduce increasingly draconian regulations controlling native vegetation, to the point at which farmers can't work their land any more. The result has been an effective state seizure of private land on the western plains to create cheap national parks.

Apart from the injustice to farmers, the problem is that much of the native vegetation is invasive scrub, what farmers call "woody weed", which has smothered other species, including native grasses that had held the soil together for thousands of years.

Aborigines used to manage the land by periodically burning it, to keep the invasive scrub at bay. But now, with the greenies in charge, the weeds are on the march. So instead of buying a new tractor this winter, the farmers and small businesspeople of Nyngan and Cobar have hired a Sydney public relations firm to run a counter-campaign they hope will save their farms.

The Wilderness Society shows aerial photos of the western plains showing what looks like thriving new tracts of native vegetation, while, on the ground, the farmers respond with press releases and photos to show the reality - parched, bare and badly eroded soil. As Cobar farmer Alastair McRobert told Channel Nine's Sunday program last week: "They're not forests. They're weeds. They have encroached on beautiful native grasslands and taken it over, smothered them out and they're degrading the soil."

Farmers such as McRobert have to fill out 70-page forms and work through all sorts of bureaucratic green tape to beg for permission to rehabilitate their own land and stop the soil erosion. It is a surreal situation, but the purpose of the native vegetation regulations was never really about the environment. It was all about winning Green preferences in inner-city seats. And as long as they get rid of farmers, true greenies don't care if they wreck the environment in the process.

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Many people would like to be kind to others so Leftists exploit that with their nonsense about equality. Most people want a clean, green environment so Greenies exploit that by inventing all sorts of far-fetched threats to the environment. But for both, the real motive is to promote themselves as wiser and better than everyone else, truth regardless.

Global warming has taken the place of Communism as an absurdity that "liberals" will defend to the death regardless of the evidence showing its folly. Evidence never has mattered to real Leftists

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