Global Warming
Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 5:43 pm
Our local birdcage liner includes about 5 letters a week from watermelons whining about the US' role in "global warming."
I sent the following missive off a little while ago.
The flow of letters here bemoaning the US’ role in “global warming” is a constant source of amazement to me.
The relevant facts about “global warming” are quite simple, regardless of whether you believe the phenomenon is man-made or not. The US produces about a sixth of the world’s man-made CO2, and China produces about a fourth. Our CO2 emissions are going down, but China’s are going up dramatically, being almost exclusively responsible for a 2-1/2% global rise last year. India is now at about 6% of the total, but with a billion people who all want cars and air conditioning, they are going nowhere but up as well.
So even if the entire US population were to park its cars and turn off all our lights, global human CO2 production would continue to rise in spite of our efforts. In fact, the US’ discretionary contribution to projected global warming is microscopic and purely speculative. So forcing Americans to buy expensive, heavy, slow, electric cars and dangerous curly-cue lightbulbs, and harassing our electric utilities about their coal-fired power plants are meaningless, self-destructive gestures.
Our beloved President ignores a string of trillion dollar deficits that are a real and imminent threat to the younger generation, but announces a moral crusade against “global warming.” And if the letters to the P-G are any indication, we really are this gullible.
The point is, even if you believe the hype about anthropogenic global warming, there is essentially nothing we can do about it, so why beat ourselves up for nothing? It would be like me getting rid of my 9mm because gang-bangers are killing each other off downtown. Totally pointless.
I sent the following missive off a little while ago.
The flow of letters here bemoaning the US’ role in “global warming” is a constant source of amazement to me.
The relevant facts about “global warming” are quite simple, regardless of whether you believe the phenomenon is man-made or not. The US produces about a sixth of the world’s man-made CO2, and China produces about a fourth. Our CO2 emissions are going down, but China’s are going up dramatically, being almost exclusively responsible for a 2-1/2% global rise last year. India is now at about 6% of the total, but with a billion people who all want cars and air conditioning, they are going nowhere but up as well.
So even if the entire US population were to park its cars and turn off all our lights, global human CO2 production would continue to rise in spite of our efforts. In fact, the US’ discretionary contribution to projected global warming is microscopic and purely speculative. So forcing Americans to buy expensive, heavy, slow, electric cars and dangerous curly-cue lightbulbs, and harassing our electric utilities about their coal-fired power plants are meaningless, self-destructive gestures.
Our beloved President ignores a string of trillion dollar deficits that are a real and imminent threat to the younger generation, but announces a moral crusade against “global warming.” And if the letters to the P-G are any indication, we really are this gullible.
The point is, even if you believe the hype about anthropogenic global warming, there is essentially nothing we can do about it, so why beat ourselves up for nothing? It would be like me getting rid of my 9mm because gang-bangers are killing each other off downtown. Totally pointless.