Saturday, November 17, 2007

The right plan even if the wrong reasons

I'm torn between wanting to criticize speculation by scientists and supporting the same public policies that they advocate. The UN has issued a warning about the consequences of manmade climate change. I think they're exaggerating the consequences but America should still take exactly the steps they suggest.

The report predicts that more people will die from heat. It ignores the offsetting decline in deaths from cold. Food production in Africa is predicted to decline, but the manmade problem in Africa is not climate, it's unscientific farming practices. We are warned against the rising oceans, but in fact they are going up at about an inch per decade.

But after disagreeing about these points, I fully support making America less dependent on fossil fuels. We have a limited supply of them and we are forced increasingly to buy from overseas. These leads to two unsustainable trends. Economically, we are destroying the greenback as the international reserve currency, and militarily, we are becoming dependent on people with different national interests. We owe the Chinese a trillion dollars already.

I can't understand why there is so much policy debate. Even people who disagree about the science should come to the same conclusions about policies. America needs to go Green for its national survival.

1 comment:

Joseph Hunkins said...

they're exaggerating the consequences but America should still take exactly the steps they suggest

Yes! Ironically some of what appear to be science shenanigans and certainly science exaggerations, when they come to light, may undermine the excellent policy decisions they were designed to promote.