THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 147, June 14, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
WILL THE GREENS SACRIFICE THEIR OWN "SACRED COWS"?
By Dennis T. Avery
ENVIRONMENTALISM & HUMAN PROGRESS: ENVIRONMENTALIST HERESIES -- WIRED MAGAZINE'S
REJECTION OF MAJOR IDEOLOGICAL TENETS OF THE ENVIRONMENTALIST MOVEMENT -- KNOCKING THE PROPS OUT FROM
UNDER ENVIRONMENTALIST ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING AIR CONDITIONING, ORGANIC FARMING, OLD-GROWTH FORESTS,
BIOTECHNOLOGY, & NUCLEAR POWER
FULL STORY:
Wired Magazine has published a list of “Green sacred cows” it says must be sacrificed to save the planet.
Wired’s Founding Editor, Kevin Kelly, formerly edited the Whole Earth Catalog, so the magazine has
credentials for rethinking what it means to be Green.
“Today, one ecological problem outweighs all others: global warming,” says Wired’s May 19, 2008, issue.
“Restoring the Everglades, protecting the Headwaters
redwoods, or saving the Illinois mud turtle won’t matter
if climate change plunges the planet into chaos. . . .
Winning the war on global warming requires slaughtering
some of environmentalism’s sacred cows. We can afford
to ignore neither the carbon-free electricity supplied by
nuclear energy nor the transformational potential of
genetic engineering. . . .”
Here, then, are some of Wired’s new eco-heresies:
Air conditioning is good:
“As a symbol of American profligacy, the air conditioner
may rank second only to the automobile. . . . But this
stereotype gets it wrong. When it’s 0 degrees outside,
you’ve got to raise the indoor thermometer to 70 degrees.
In 110-degree weather, you need to change the temperature
by only 40 degrees to achieve the same comfort level. . . .
In the Northeast, a typical house heated by fuel oil emits
13,000 pounds of CO2 annually. Cooling a similar dwelling
in Phoenix produced only 900 pounds of CO2 a year.”
Organics are not the answer: Wired notes that organic farms yield less food per acre. Actually, the organic yields
are only about half as high as conventional because the world has an urgent shortage of manure. So all-organic farming
would give up half the current world food output, threatening hunger for billions and extinction for species whose wild
forests get cleared to plant more low-yield crops. Additionally, organic steers are on pasture much longer, burping up
twice as much methane per pound as a feedlot steer, according to the UN’s FAO — and needing three times as
much of the world’s scarce land.
Farm the forests like fields: Old-growth forests have a problem.
“A tree absorbs roughly 1,500 pounds of CO2 in its first 55
years. After that, its’ growth slows and it takes in less
carbon. Left untouched, it ultimately rots or burns and all
that CO2 gets released. . . . The most climate-friendly policy
is to continually cut down trees and plant new ones. Lots
of them.”
Use the wood to build durables such as furniture and houses, says the magazine.
Accept biotechnology: New nitrogen-efficient genetically engineered crops need only half as much nitrogen fertilizer —
which Wired says could save a whopping 50 million tons worth of CO2 emissions per year, with almost no leftover
fertilizer to leach into streams. An organic dairy cow, with no boost from biotech growth hormone, gives 8 percent less
milk. That means more cows, eating more feed, and emitting more methane, to produce organic milk that contains identical
growth hormones.
Embrace nuclear power: “Nukes are the most climate-friendly industrial-scale form of energy.” A recent British government
white paper says that from, uranium mining to decommissioning, a nuclear power plant emits only 2 to 6 percent of the
carbon per kilowatt-hour as natural gas.
“Embracing the atom is key to winning the war on warming. . . .
One of the Kyoto Protocol’s worst features is a sop to Greens
that denies carbon credits to power-starved developing
countries that build nukes — thereby ensuring they’ll
continue to depend on filthy coal.”
We commend Wired for indeed focusing on environmental first principles. Now, if some additional warming actually
occurs after our ten-years-and-counting vacation from higher temperatures . . .
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Agriculture, the Economy, & Human Welfare:
Policy Issues Relating to Food Production
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Dennis T. Avery is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., and is the Director of the Institute's Center for
Global Food Issues (www.cgfi.org). Formerly he was a senior policy analyst for the United
States Department of State, where he won the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement. He is the co-author, with
atmospheric physicist Fred Singer, of the book, Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 Years (Blue Ridge Summit,
Pennsylvania: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006). Avery's book, Saving the Planet With Pesticides and Plastic: The Environmental
Triumph of High-Yield Farming (Washington, D.C.: Hudson Institute, 1995), continues to be popular as a readable overview
of realistic agriculture for the future and for today. Readers may write Avery at Post Office Box 202, Churchville, Virginia, 24421.
Email: cgfi@hughes.net
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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,
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity