THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 93, May 23, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
EIGHT MONTHS TO SAVE THE PLANET
By Dennis T. Avery
CLIMATE CHANGE, POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM, & GLOBAL WARMING THEORY: WILL THE EARTH SOON BE
FACING CATASTROPHIC CLIMATE CHANGE, DUE TO GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS PRODUCED BY INDUSTRY,
TRANSPORTATION, & OTHER HUMAN ACTIVITIES? WILL THE PLANET BE SUBJECT TO MASSIVE OVERHEATING,
HUGE SEA LEVEL INCREASES, & MILLIONS OF LOST SPECIES? WHAT IS GOING ON -- HUMAN-INDUCED CLIMATE
CHANGE, OR NATURAL WARMING & COOLING CYCLES LINKED TO SOLAR ACTIVITY?
FULL STORY:
The UN Climate change panel -- the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) -- says we have eight months to
save the planet from massive overheating, huge sea level increases, and millions of lost species. How is the world taking
this dire news?
India says global warming is a problem for the Brits and the Americans, who started it all.
Germany says it will cut its CO2 emissions by 80 percent — in 2050. For the moment, however, it plans to build another 26
power plants fueled with low-grade lignite coal, the dirtiest fuel on the planet.
California Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger says he wants Detroit to cut auto emissions per car — but he won’t raise
California’s gasoline tax right now because Californians would blame him for bringing on a statewide recession.
Democrats say Republican President Bush is blocking the Kyoto Protocol, but they haven’t introduced a usable bill to
reduce U.S. greenhouse emissions below the 1990 level. If such a bill passed with a two-thirds majority, it would become law.
However, it might well trigger a massive recession, as U.S. jobs fled to China.
Everyone thinks we should be able to use less energy — but not a lot less. SUV drivers wish they could get another 6 mpg.
Honda Civic drivers think everyone should get 40 mpg. Bicycle riders think they’re saving the world, but ride home to their
air-conditioning.
Eco-activists, or political environmentalists, are fond of telling us how easy it would be to cut our greenhouse emissions by
15 percent. But the only defensible goal of greenhouse reduction, according to the environmentalists, is to cut First World
greenhouse emissions by 80-90 percent — while preventing the Third World from raising theirs. Hardly anyone in America
is thinking about a 90 percent energy reduction, and certainly no one wants to confront the Chinese leadership with that
message.
The world has enough uranium and thorium to make nuclear the fuel of the future. If the environmentalist movement really
believes global warming is becoming the absolute worst disaster in history, and the rest of us concur with that belief, then
we’ll build nuclear plants. Many reasonable people are beginning to think that’s the way out, among them Greenpeace
co-founder Patrick Moore. But the Greens say nuclear power is irresponsible.
Fortunately, none of this is likely to make much difference in the warming of planet earth. We’ve known for more than 20
years about the long, natural climate cycle which was first revealed in the Greenland ice cores in 1983. The cycle is about
1,500 years long, plus or minus 500 years. It’s moderate, with temperatures rising about 1-2 degrees C at the latitude of
Washington and Paris, less at the equator and more in the Arctic. It’s linked to the sun, through cosmic rays that create
more or fewer of the low, wet clouds that deflect solar heat back into outer space. The cycle has been tracked backward
at least 1 million years in the ice cores and seabed sediments.
That’s why 70 percent of the world’s recent warming occurred before 1940, even though 80 percent of the human-emitted
CO2 came after 1940. That is why the supposed cause of the warming doesn’t line up with the claimed effect. That’s why
the Polar Regions aren’t warming as the Greenhouse Theory dictates they should.
Each of us will soon be left to define our own conservation ethics. Many will continue choosing to reduce their fuel use,
but not all. The environmentalist movement will suffer the biggest setback in a generation, as it becomes clear that the sun,
not human-emitted CO2, is governing our longterm temperature changes.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
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 analyst for the United States
Department of State. 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). Readers may write Avery at Post Office
Box 202, Churchville, Virginia, 24421. Email: cgfi@rica.net
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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