Can global warming be a non-priority?
I don't believe global warming is a fraud just based on the evidence and on the words of many of the world's top scientists. I listen to the outrageous conclusions of its believers and run away like an atheist from church.
There's the view expressed by Rep. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose father's eloquence he never inherited, when he affirmed that hog farms were a greater threat to the world than Osama bin Laden. The statement came in response to a question from Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. King asked him if Kennedy was quoted accurately in a 2002 Iowa report in which he stated, “Large-scale hog producers are a greater threat to the United States and U.S. democracy than Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network.” Kennedy said he did make that statement.
What planet is he from? Hog farms a bigger threat than Osama Bin Laden, 9/11, and terrorism? More destructive than suitcase nukes? I know my doctor doesn't want me to eat bacon, but I don't think he'd go that far.
There are the new enemies of toilet paper. You may have heard Greenpeace is telling Americans to “wipe their fixation on toilet paper” They say our devotion to multi-ply paper for our sensitive needs is worse for the planet than gas guzzling cars. We're devouring virgin forests, they say. Well, we also replant that forest, so what's the deal?
I suppose they'd be happier if we plucked the leaves off the trees rather than refined them on a roll.
Ever think of your refrigerator as a gun held to the head of the planet? Some do. They call it “refrigerator lust.” This anti-fridge movement might use the example of Duncan Campbell, Columbus, Ohio, who's lived without a refrigerator for three years. He eats only beans, grains, and cans vegetables. Ok. Nothing wrong with that personal choice. The problem comes when that choice becomes the glimmering of a rallying cry against “consumerism”, that we all need to be weaned away from the icebox.
A lot of people in the environmental movement have a romanticized idea of living like a pioneer, but rotting food would tend to change my mind.
One husband complained his wife's new obsession was keeping him from enjoying a cold beer out of the fridge. That raises the choice: the fridge and the beer, or the wife?
The problem is when people move from their own personal choice to wanting to take away yours, for the good of the earth of course. And there are those who would pull the plug on the fridge and make us live like in the days of the covered wagon. Strange, as I'm sure those rugged pioneers would love to trade trails with us. Fortunately, most environmentalists pull away from this level of extremism. A woman in Arlington, Texas named Gretchen Willis is a person committed to recycling and using fluorescent bulbs, but she draws the line on any environmental practice that'll result in greater cost or inconvenience. She said she'd have to buy more food in smaller quantities to prevent spoilage, prepare exact amounts for her four children because there couldn't be leftovers, and make daily trips to the grocery store.
In late February, a report out of South Africa proudly described how growers of food and wine were studying the impact of their industries on the South African carbon footprint. They want to counter the natural logic that products shipped from abroad will make more smoke than that grown locally. Apparently, they have a market that cares. Here they are on a continent of malnutrition, of farms wasting away, rampant AIDS, revolving door military coups, and so forth. And they're worried about their carbon footprint.
In a Pew Center Research poll, twenty issues were rated in order of importance by the American public in January, 2009. The top three priorities were the economy, jobs, and terrorism. At the very bottom, below helping the poor, crime, and trade policy, was global warming. Dead last. Unfortunately the administration places it near the top with its “cap and trade” policy in the next federal budget, attacking carbon emissions in the name of global warming.
Last but not least, when Kiefer Sutherland left his “Jack Bauer” persona on Fox's “24” and said the set was green, I was so disappointed. The real Jack, and his admiring audience, would care less about the environmental friendliness of his set. Just knock sense into those soft-on-terror senators.
We have too many real human needs to behave as though the cycles of nature are within our control. And, we have too many crazies and elitists, who'll take the opening to drive us back into the 18th century, and make us pay higher economic and personal costs for the privilege.
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Mike Shelton is a Yuma resident and guest columnist for The Sun. E-mail him at mikshelt@msn.com
