Saturday, August 21, 2004

AN INTERESTING THEORY ABOUT GREENIE SCARES FROM A READER:

"I remember when I was a teenager in the 80's we were all doomed soon because we were going to run out of oil. Part of this fear was probably inspired by OPEC at the time but the argument wasnt that OPEC was making the oil disappear, we were just running out, according to scientists.

Then I remember following global warming in magazines like Omni and Discover in the late eighties and we were all doomed. Lately reading about how they keep finding more and more oil it occurred to me that the fear of running out of oil disappeared around the same time global warming became a looming disaster. At least this is what it looked like in the popular media.

This can't be a coincidence. It's my guess that when the environmentalists could no longer scare us with empty tanks, and scientists could no longer tap this fear for alternate energy resources, and Democrats could no longer blame Republicans and big oil for this nearing economic disaster, a new cause took its place. It probably wasnt planned but just happened automatically.

Now occasionally I see the oil shortage scare popping up, and this happened at the same time global warning theories are starting to crumble. But I believe something fascinating is going to happen soon. Not too long ago we banned CFCs because of the hole in the ozone, even if many scientists thought this might be a natural cycle. After they turned off the CFCs the hole in the ozone still got bigger. The scientists were a little puzzled but I actually saw some blame it on global warming!!! But then the hole got smaller and they are now claiming we saved all life on earth despite depriving poor countries of cheap refrigeration that the developed countries benefited from for so long.

I believe that soon, both the global warming theories and the oil shortage theories will crumble simultaneously and finally under overwhelming evidence and this will horrify Greenies everywhere, and terrify underfunded scientists everwhere, as the world grows richer guiltlessly buring the seemingly endless supply of fossil fuels...

And then a miracle happens! Natural cycles will cause the hole in the ozone to grow bigger again, and a link will be found between burning fossil fuels and the depletion of ozone. It will be some crazy chemical reaction like carbon monoxide or acid rain reacts with salt water and it releases bromine that floats up and destroys ozone".

The ozone hole does indeed fluctuate but it probably fluctuates too wildly to be of any further use to the Greenies. As is reported here, the hole was at its biggest in 2000 -- well after CFCs had been banned. Even more interesting, however was that in 2002 the hole shrank so much that it disappeared -- being replaced by two much smaller holes. Then in 2003 it was back at its second largest size ever. Extreme changes like that clearly indicate random natural fluctuation rather than systematic influence from ozone or anything else man-made. Even Greenies would not like a theory that could be turned on its ear in 12 month's time.




GREENIES RED IN TOOTH AND CLAW

Another way Greenie measures kill

"The U.S. Senate will devote most of March to debating a $35-billion energy package that supposedly will protect Americans from both greedy sheikhs and global warming. But if enacted as proposed, the measure actually would result in a good deal of American blood needlessly spilled on U.S. highways.

At the heart of the proposal is a dramatic tightening of automotive fuel economy standards fleet-wide to 35 miles per gallon by 2013. Current standards require passenger cars to average 27.5 mpg and light trucks 20 mpg. But the vehicle downsizing necessary to meet such a standard would jeopardize the safety of American motorists far more than any threat posed by an oil embargo or melted ice caps. For all the fury against trading blood for oil in foreign policy, the fuel economy chorus largely disregards the lives lost to satisfy mileage requirements.....

Fortunately, Americans have heeded their own experiences rather than the tired rhetoric of the auto-bashers. Indeed, small trucks comprise nearly half the vehicles on the road today, and most motorists instinctively know what empirical research and the laws of physics confirm: larger vehicles are safer than small ones.

But stricter CAFE standards would require further downsizing of the nation's fleet. A 10-percent reduction in weight, for example, increases mileage by 8 percent on average, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. However, reducing vehicle weight by 500 pounds also increases crash fatalities between 14 percent and 27 percent annually (2,000 to 4,000 additional deaths), according to research by Harvard University and the Brookings Institution. And the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has found that cars with a curb weight under 2,500 pounds account for two-and-a-half times as many crash fatalities as sport utility vehicles weighing 5,000 pounds or more....

Driving habits largely beyond the reach of government intervention are the primary cause of most traffic fatalities. Nearly two-thirds of those killed in crashes were unbuckled, and 40 percent of all traffic deaths were alcohol related.

As to the notion that SUVs are major contributors to global warming, Robert Crandall of the Brookings Institution has shown that emissions from all new vehicles amount to around 2 percent of all CO2 emissions in the U.S. "Changing truck fuel standards is an inefficient way to address global warming," he says.

Congress has been fully apprised of CAFE's inherent dangers. In the upcoming Senate debate, then, lawmakers need only decide whether to score political points or save American lives.

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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.

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