THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 181, July 25, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
MAKING THE HEAT WAVES DEADLY AGAIN
By Dennis T. Avery
DEPOPULATION VIA REDUCED FOSSIL FUEL USE: THE ENVIRONMENTALIST CAMPAIGN TO SHUT DOWN THE COAL
MINES & COAL-FIRED ELECTRICAL POWER PLANTS & THEREBY GET RID OF THE COAL THAT COST-EFFECTIVELY PROVIDES
HALF OF AMERICA'S AIR CONDITIONING -- ENVIRONMENTALISTS SEEKING TO OBTAIN A BAN AGAINST THE FRACKING
PROCESS THAT IS EXPECTED TO PROVIDE AMERICANS WITH SHALE GAS, THE BEST ALTERNATIVE TO BURNING COAL TO
PRODUCE ELECTRICITY -- REDUCING FOSSIL FUEL USAGE & THEREBY MAKING COLD WAVES, AS WELL AS HEAT WAVES,
REALLY DEADLY
FULL STORY:
This last heat wave has been sweltering, but that happens. It was even hotter in 1934, 1911, and other “hot” Summers in
the past. That’s not extreme weather, it’s “normally abnormal.”
The benchmark to remember is that 12,000 people died in the heat wave of 1926! Newspapers as far flung as Australia
reported U.S. babies “died like flies” in the Chicago ghetto in 1911. With no power for air conditioning, today’s far-larger
urban population and hotter urban heat islands might have suffered 50,000 deaths last week!
Last week, ironically, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York gave $50 million from his vast personal fortune to the Sierra
Club’s get-rid-of-coal campaign. Mayor Bloomberg says he hopes the campaign will shut down one-third of America’s
coal-fired power plants by 2020. Get this straight: the Mayor didn’t donate $50 million to helping poor people pay their
electric bills during a hot summer. Instead, he donated that money to get rid of the coal that cost-effectively provides half
the nation’s air conditioning!
Mayor Bloomberg has made his anti-coal donation at the same moment cities and towns are suspending assistance to
poor people to pay their electric bills. Laying off public employees is also increasing fuel poverty for their families.
Britain will soon have 20 percent of its families in fuel poverty — paying more than 10 percent of their incomes for gas
and electricity. The shortterm goal of the British government is to eliminate 40 percent of its current electric generating
capacity in the next six years. The only energy strategy the Brits have been able to agree to is building thousands more
huge wind turbines on barges off the coast. Wind turbine electricity is famously erratic and expensive — and the most
expensive of all is the seaborne kind. Imagine the repair bill for the turbine gears after the North Sea’s salt water and
storms have been at them for five years. .
We’ve had a very moderate increase in global temperatures — probably just half a degree Celsius from 1850 to 1940; and,
given the urban heat bias, perhaps no net heat increase at all since 1940. This modest “heat” has thrown the Western
intelligentsia into a well-educated panic. A former U.S. Vice President has famously and loudly claimed that the world is
parboiling itself with fossil fuels, and, robot-like, we are hastening to get rid of the fossil fuels — just in case. Better safe
than sorry, right?
To our credit, the U.S.A. hasn’t yet gone far down this road. Most of us don’t realize that Europe has to keep fossil fuel
plants in “spinning reserve” to match 90 percent of its installed wind and solar capacity.
Moreover, if Mayor Bloomberg succeeds in shutting down coal-fired electricity, the best alternative would be the shale
gas now being discovered across the U.S.A. But New York City has fostered a ban on the fracking process that delivers
the new natural gas. The Sierra Club is backing a campaign against the shale gas too. Never mind that our water wells are
hundreds of feet deep and our shale gas wells are thousands of feet deep, we’ve got to protect our water wells from
rapacious energy producers. Better safe than sorry, right?
If we listen to our “best and brightest,” we can make heat waves really deadly again. And our cold waves too. Those
death tolls will reduce our fossil fuel usage, not to mention population amongst the poor. Is that the Sierra Club strategy,
or just an accidental by-product?
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Dennis T. Avery, a senior fellow for the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., is an environmental economist. He was
formerly a senior analyst for the U.S. Department of State. He is co-author, with S. Fred Singer, of Unstoppable Global
Warming Every 1500 Years. Readers may write to Avery at P.O. Box 202, Churchville, Virginia, 2442; email him at
cgfi@hughes.net; or visit our website at www. cgfi.org
Return to Top of Page
Go to the WEBSITE INDEX
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
Most Recent Articles
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume XIII, 2011
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights
Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage
CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION
This is not a commercial website. The sole purpose of the website is to share with interested persons information regarding civics,
civic and social education, political science, government, politics, law, constitutional law and history, public policy and political
philosophy and history, as well as current and recent political developments, public issues, and political controversies.
POLITICAL EDUCATION, CONSERVATIVE ANALYSIS
POLITICS, SOCIETY, & THE SOVEREIGN STATE
Website of Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr.
Government, Politics, Public Policy, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, Government & the Economy, Cultural Values, Foreign Affairs,
International Relations, Military Defense & National Security, Geopolitics, Terrorism & Homeland Security, American National Interests,
Political Systems & Processes, Political Institutions, Political Ideologies, & Political Philosophy
INDEX FOR THE ENTIRE WEBSITE
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity