THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 13, January 21, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
AN ECONOMIC SUICIDE PACT FOR EUROPE & THE U.S.A.:
Climate Alarmism Threatens Intense Pain, for No Environmental Gain
By Paul K. Driessen
THE IDEOLOGY OF POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM IN CONFLICT WITH TRUE SCIENCE & ECONOMIC REALITY:
ADHERING TO HUMAN-INDUCED GLOBAL WARMING & CATASTROPHIC CLIMATE CHANGE THEORY, LEADERS OF THE
NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONGRESSIONAL MAJORITY, IN LEAGUE WITH THE POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS & THEIR
PRESSURE GROUPS, ARE POISED TO RAM THROUGH CONGRESS HEAVY-HANDED LEGISLATION MANDATING SHARP
REDUCTIONS IN GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS, LEGISLATION WHICH, IF ENACTED, WILL HAVE A DEVASTATING IMPACT
ON THE AMERICAN ECONOMY & ON THE HEALTH OF AMERICANS -- SEEKING TO IMPOSE ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THE
UNREASONABLE CONTROLS DEMANDED BY THE KYOTO PROTOCOL & THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION -- IMPOSING
IMPOSSIBLE REQUIREMENTS & PUTTING CLIMATE-CHANGE IDEOLOGUES & ALARMISTS & THEIR FELLOW TRAVELERS
AMONG POLITICIANS & BUREAUCRATS IN CONTROL OF EVERY HOUSING, HEATING, COOLING, TRANSPORTATION,
MANUFACTURING, & CONSUMER DECISION
FULL STORY:
Europeans have worked themselves into such a lather over “climate chaos” that they’ve set themselves up for a head-on
collision between ecological ideology and economic reality. With the new Democratic Party majority Congress poised to
ram through heavy-handed climate legislation, the U.S.A. may be heading down the same path.
At long last, European Economic Ministers and CEOs are realizing they cannot meet even current Kyoto commitments to
cut greenhouse gas emissions 5% below 1990 levels, by 2012. They are voicing growing concern that Kyoto will hammer
consumers and living standards, and send facilities and jobs to China, India, and other nations that aren’t required to cut
emissions.
Despite lofty Green rhetoric, Spain is some 20% above its target, Italy 15%, and Austria 25 percent. At “just” 7% above its
target, Germany faces a future with no nuclear power (by law it must shut down all reactors by 2020), no coal-fired
generators (greenhouse gases), little hydroelectric (4% of its total electricity), unreliable natural gas (Russia controls the
spigots), and forests of gigantic, undependable wind turbines.
But the European Commission won’t budge. Instead, it’s demanding even more draconian reductions by 2020. It knows
even perfect compliance with Kyoto would keep global temperatures from rising only 0.2 degrees F by 2050 – assuming
CO2 really is the culprit, rather than the sun and other natural forces that obviously controlled previous climate shifts.
That’s why alarmists now say we must slash total global emissions by 60-80% by 2050, to keep CO2 at a “safe” level and
“stabilize” a climate that has never been stable. If poor developing nations remain exempt (as they should), developed
countries will have to go virtually carbon-free to reach this goal.
The impact would be catastrophic. Such actions would change life as we know it. They would put alarmist politicians,
bureaucrats, and activists in charge of every housing, heating, cooling, transportation, manufacturing, business, and
consumer decision.
They would terminate millions of jobs, cost hundreds of billions of dollars, and send living standards tumbling, while
giving every U.S. citizen a “carbon allowance” akin to what other parts of the world now “enjoy” (2.3 tons of CO2 per year
in Cuba or 1.2 in India, versus our current 19.8 or Canada’s 17.9).
The elderly and minority workers and families would be especially hard hit. Deaths from Winter cold and Summer heat
waves would soar, as energy prices rise and heating and air-conditioning become luxury items.
Memo to Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Prince Charles: Switching to fluorescent bulbs isn’t the answer,
and few envision you living in cottages or becoming jetliner-free homebodies. So, what will you personally do to cut your
energy use and emissions 20, 40, 60, or 95 percent? What will the rest of America do?
Saying we can’t afford the expense, House Speaker Pelosi wants to chop $1 billion off the Coast Guard budget. But she’s
perfectly willing to have America sacrifice hundreds of billions a year in direct costs, lost jobs and plummeting GDP, as
her climate rules go into effect.
She and her colleagues railed against $3-per-gallon gasoline last year, but now appear happy to push all energy prices
sharply higher, to “save the world” from a far-fetched climate Armageddon. They don’t seem to realize that abundant,
reliable, affordable energy is the backbone of the entire U.S. economy. Tampering with the energy system – locking up
oil and gas, or making it harder to use or pay for fossil fuels – puts jobs, families, and national security at risk.
Other than fossil fuels, no technologies exist to provide the 100,000 megawatts of new electricity the U.S.A. will need
during the next decade. Nuclear plants can’t come online that quickly, even if Congress streamlines the glacial approval
process. And even the best wind turbines would require some 2 million acres (Delaware plus Rhode Island) to provide
100,000 MW of intermittent electricity that requires gas-powered generators (and drilling off our coasts) as backup.
Europe already has Green taxes on air travel, a $50-a-day climate charge on big cars in London – and a proposed “food
miles” tax on the distance produce is shipped. Already Rainforest Action and CERES are pressuring U.S. banks not to
finance coal generators, dams, and fossil fuel projects in the U.S.A. or Africa. Compliant banks are caving in, and
calling it “socially responsible,” while EU and UN officials are telling Africans that climate change is a greater threat
than malaria, TB, HIV/AIDS, or poverty.
Efforts to restrict energy and economic development in Africa are “literally a life-and-death matter” for tens of millions
on that continent, says University of Pretoria Emeritus Professor W. J. R. Alexander. “We can do without this resurgence
of European colonialism and paternalism.”
Yes, there is consensus that Earth’s temperatures have risen slightly, and humans played a role. But there is no
consensus that climate change will be catastrophic, human CO2 emissions are the primary cause, or slashing emissions
will prevent the supposed cataclysm.
It’s a classic bait-and-switch tactic, repeated endlessly in a well-coordinated propaganda campaign by activists,
scientists, journalists, bureaucrats, celebrities, and politicians. They used similar tactics 30 years ago to excise DDT and o
ther insecticides from disease control programs. Tens of millions died from malaria – and not one of the perpetrators has
ever apologized, admitted error, or been penalized or otherwise held accountable for the unconscionable disease, brain
damage, and death they perpetuated.
Now they say we should trust them on climate change.
Computer models, headlines, weather anomalies, and horror movies are not evidence. We’d never rely on 50-year or even
2-year computer forecasts to make investment decisions. To trust family, state, corporate, and national futures to deficient
climate models is sheer folly. To silence climate chaos skeptics, ignore inconvenient questions and truths, circumvent
inconvenient congressmen like John Dingell, and railroad through life-altering climate legislation is to commit economic
seppuku, or hara-kiri.
Why do many support such legislation? Follow the money, says meteorologist James Spann. “Billions of dollars of grant
money are flowing into the pockets of [scientists] on the man-made global warming bandwagon.” For activists, bureaucrats
and politicians, it’s money, power, and control. For companies, it’s avoiding public floggings, and selling new lines of
politically correct, tax-subsidized technologies.
If there’s no crisis, the gravy train dies up.
We can and should develop new technologies, to further improve energy efficiency, reduce pollution, and enter a new era
of energy generation. But we need not and must not rush to judgment, trash our economy or slash our living standards,
just to “do something” about a speculative climate change “catastrophe.”
We need a rational debate, with all views fully represented – not a media and congressional circus, and certainly not a
legislative juggernaut more suited to Zimbabwe or North Korea than to the United States of America.
© 2007 Paul K. Driessen
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Paul K. Driessen is Senior Policy Advisor for the Congress of Racial Equality, the Committee for A Constructive Tomorrow, and the
Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise. Driessen is author of Eco-Imperialism: Green Power, Black Death, which can be
obtained at www.Eco-Imperialism.com. Email: pdriessen@cox.net --- Telephone:
(703) 698-6171
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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