Let's Hit the Reset Buttonby
Suzann Darnall
I am totally in favor of America adopting do-overs on many of Washington DC's biggest mistakes over the past decades … heck, maybe even over the last century or so! And, I'd like to offer the EPA, et al, as the first sacrificial experiment in getting rid of fraud, waste, and abuse.
For a long time, some of us have believed that reports on "global warming" and "climate change" (as defined by Al Gore and minions) were just the Progressives' most popular boogey-man stories. Many more people are now coming to realize that the boogey-men might actually be Al Gore, Barack Obama, and a whole host of others. Political or fanatical people are crying "Wolf" when it's really just the same little ol' puppy dog that's always been hanging around the neighborhood. World history and archeology shows drastic swings between hot to cold are scattered through both recorded and unrecorded times. These can be read in the geological layers that the Earth uses as evidence of occurrences. It can also be found in reading about times past in the accounts kept by man.
One of the most telling evidences of changing weather patterns for me was the freezing or not freezing of the Thames River in England. This has been well-documented over the centuries. The Thames used to freeze so solid they held frost fairs on the ice. But, even during the 400-500 years they had these great freezes, there were eras when it was only briefly frozen for a few days and other times when it lasted for months. However, lest one think the lack of freezing of the Thames is due to "global warming," let me make mention of man-made constructions that first slowed the river allowing for easier freezing and later narrowed the river, making it flow faster, which impedes freezing.
More evidence of Mother Nature's changing ways from warm to cool to warm is revealed in reading about Europe's "Medieval Warm Period" followed by its "Little Ice Age". The warm period lasted from the 9th to 12th centuries, while the so-called ice age went from 16th to 19th centuries. In view of these facts and much more, I have always felt that what has been occurring in our weather patterns is just part and parcel of the natural way of things. Warming and cooling cycles have happened all over Earth for millennia. Some are more drastic than others, but all a normal way of the world.
Understand that I am not saying we do not need to care for our environment and protect our resources; I just think we need to be sensible and realistic about the steps we take. We need to rethink environmental protection, nature conservation, endangered species, and all attendant programs. We need to look at them with a real world view and not through the rose-colored glasses of fiction that far too many Progressives adopt when dealing with unpleasant truths. Not that the truth that our world is better off than they believe it to be is unpleasant, but it is unpleasant for them to have to face the facts which show their beliefs to be fiction!
Common sense people have been bullied for far too long by the elitists who seem to consider humanity a blight upon the face of the Earth. I guess maybe it is old-fashioned of me, but I look at humanity, with all our imperfections, as the crowning glory of God's handiwork. I believe He created man and woman to tend to His garden, as well as to multiply and fill the Earth. And, while I believe this means we are to care for our world, I also believe we are to make use of its resources in the way that best serves mankind.
We should not be penalizing farmers and depleting the food supplies of America with an essentially man-made drought, because of a possibly endangered 3" fish in California. We need to put people before otters, seals, turtles, frogs, and whatever ever other pet-projects animal rights activists dream up to drain our coffers.
Texas is taking a step in the direction of a reset by suing the EPA over the finding that greenhouse gases are a threat to public health. The EPA relies heavily on information from the United Nations' panel of climate scientists to make decisions. Many believe the UN's international scientific community bases its findings on faulty science laced with cover-ups, and on the suppression of facts and destruction of scientific evidence. This makes the EPA essentially an unelected body pushing a political agenda. There are similar suits from businesses and the US Chamber of Commerce, as well as some federal lawmakers. While Texas was the first state to file, additional states have filed petitions or asked for other EPA interventions.
Obama wants to impose enormous tax burdens on US citizens, based on the global-warming hysteria. He also wants to impose greater government rule over our society with various "czars" and their regulations regarding widely varied aspects of environmental impact. Al Gore raises concerns about global-warming, creates a market for "green" technologies, then makes millions with his portfolio of "environmentally-friendly" businesses. Is it just me? or does it seem they just may have hidden agendas (well, poorly hidden agendas) that really and truly have nothing to do with wanting to make Mother Earth a happier place to live? Obama's got to pay for his "Hope and Change" somehow, while Al Gore's jet and limousine don't come cheap. They got to get the money from somewhere, and fear has always been a good way to gain funding.
We also need to rethink the idea of a global green community. We hear a lot about caring for the planet. Much is made of other countries "doing the right thing." But, realize that these tales are being spread by the same media that has helped spread the climate myths. America is not the worst in the world about environmental care, nor is green-living the panacea to economic woes. Also, we have to remember that not all the world wants to play nice with one another, so a true global community is not a reality anytime soon. Lots of the other countries don't care about human rights, environmental issues, or universal peace. So, let's not be suckered into destroying our society based on the naïveté of the elitists who think a one world government will fix everything.
While America is not one of the top-listed countries when looking at environmentally-friendly standings, we have to take them with a grain of salt, considering that many of the experts falsifying the climate-change data also quantify these rankings and reports. Basing a theory on false statistics kind of tends to make the hypothesis less than valid. While we may not be perfect, we are doing better. We strive for cleaner air, clean water, proper waste disposal, etc. We have an essentially healthy environment. Let's not beat ourselves up about it not being perfectly pristine.
Obama and his Administration keep preaching about moving into the future as a green-economy. Let's look this over really carefully before we make that leap of faith. Spain is a good case in point when talking about the idea of green jobs. Each "green job" created with government money in Spain over the last eight years came at the cost of more than two regular jobs. And, only one in ten of the new green jobs became permanent.
It is hard to truly research the success or failure of green jobs economies because so much of the information is in the category I'd call "fuzzy math." There are a lot of phrases like "going to help promote," "will create," "huge potential for." These phrases show it is about what they hope will change, not what is happening. Successful, actual green economies seem as mythical as global warming. Talk about your unicorns!
I think all common sense Americans need to jump on the bandwagon and insist that our government hit the reset button on the EPA and all other facets of regulation that have been mocked-up all these years because of politically-driven agendas based on duplicity, cupidity and stupidity. We need to give real relief to our farmers, businesses, and citizens. We need to turn on the water denied to farms and turn off the restrictions that are binding commerce. Above all, we need to cut taxes by cutting funding to pointless programs. Let's take care of our people as well as our environment.
© Suzann C. Darnall, FEBRUARY 2010