Which is more dangerious - Pollution or the Enviromental Lobby
By bobmnu
@bobmnu (8157)
United States
March 27, 2008 12:47am CST
It seems that we are becoming a nation of people who will do what ever a group of people tell us to do because it is good for the environment. It seems that we can not question something that is good for the environment. Congress passed an energy bill that calls for the increased use of Ethonal and other bio fuels. Some experts claim that it will take 1 gallon of Gasoline to produce 1 gallon of ethonal. It will take more ethonal to get the same mileage you would from a gallon of gasoline. The other side effect of increased ethonal use is the increase in the price of food. The use of ethonal will increase our fuel costs, food costs and the cost of all goods and services that require or use transportation.
In the new energy bill congress is requiring the use of Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs (CFLs) by people in the near future. There have been concerns raised about the safety of the CFLs because they contain mercury. If the bulbs breaks the mercury is released in the form of vapor or a powder. The amount is small but is still a hazard that has to be dealt with in the proper manner. There is also a problem when it comes time to dispose of the CFLs.
I am a believer in the free market and feel that the market will take care of the problem earlier and better than the government can. Two examples come to mind. Right now many communities are inacting smoking bans and are not well received by some people. The airlines gave people a choice and slowly they baned smoking on airlines because that is what the consumer wanted. Long before the government started banning smoking the Airlines were smoke free. The other example is professional baseball. Long before the government passed the Civil Rights Act baseball was integrated. Good players could not be kept in the Negro League. The fans (market) wanted to see the good players and have their team win.
If we let the market work we can have economic growth and a healthy environment.
1 person likes this
3 responses
@Destiny007 (5805)
• United States
27 Mar 08
The environmental lobby is going to wind up costing us trillions of dollars and for what?
In a recent EPA analysis of the Lieberman/Warner Global Warming Bill it was found that we would spend about 2.9 trillion by 2050 and only reduce CO2 output by 25 PPM by 2095.
CO2 is rapidly losing favor as a significant contributer to Global Warming/Cooling and Climate Change and the Sun and water vapor are now increasingly being recognized as the causes instead.
The environmental lobby claims that the debate is over and a consensus has been reach.
Scientists say that science is not run by consensus and results only lead to more questions.
The environmental lobby does not care for the science beyond that which makes their case, and then they declare the debate over.
All they care about is the money and funding that they stand to gain by convincing everyone that global warming can be and must be prevented, while conveniently ignoring the fact that the earth has been in a cooling trend since 1998.
The environmental lobby is far more dangerous than pollution is, and the impact is even more far reaching and will be felt by everyone.
1 person likes this
@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
28 Mar 08
i remember an article that I read when I was in college. It dealt with the National Parks and groups that claimed they wanted to preserve the National Parks and keep them in a natural state. Their proposal was tho have the visitors limited to afew people at a time. You could make a reservation to get a permit to visit the park of your choice 30 days in advance. When some people looked into the groups they found that most of these groups were made up of young professionals who could get time off any time they wanted. A working family had to schedule their vacation a year in advance. In effect the "environmental groups" wanted the National Parks for their private play grounds. Now the same type of people want to force us to live their lifestyle and change society to suit them. They are all about what I want and to H--- with thr rest of you.
@wherethegoodgo (16)
• Canada
4 Apr 08
We live in a finite physical world with an infinite economic system that requires growth year after year to be considered successful but is fueled with finite fossil fuels. When we do the math to explain this situation it is obvious our infinite economic system requires an infinite energy source to be sustainable. Do you know of an infinite energy source?
Given the price of oil these days and the fact that we are mining some of the most expensive oil to produce out of Tar-Sands deposits because all the easy to get oil is unable to meet demand. This is clear evidence we have reached "peak oil" whereby oil production will decrease year after year from this point forward and will no longer be able to fuel our infinite economy. As oil production decreases so to will our economy, unless we can find an unlimited energy source.
@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
4 Apr 08
In the 1890 to 1910 era New York City was facing a major health problem. This problem threaten the whole city and the dangers were great. Their water supply was in danger, outbreaks of disease were always a danger and the fumes were becoming dangerously high where people could not escape them. The savior of NYC was the internal combustion engine and the automobile. NYC did not have enough wagons to haul the manure out of the city every day from all the horses.
Today we have two great energy sources and we are being asked to create a new energy source that will not be as efficient nor as good and will cost more to produce. Oil and electricity have made this country great. The environmental lobby has stopped the exploration and drilling for new oil sources and will not let us build new refineries, that would be more efficient and less pollution. To produce electricity we need to look to wind which is not effective, and we can't put up enough to fuel our nation. We can't use nuclear power because of a false sense of danger. The Sierra Club said it was bad, even though the former head said it was one of the best alternatives and was save.
There was a time when only large colleges and research institutes could afford the time saving machines. Machines that could save time and money doing mundane work for man. Thanks to the free market I can carry a computer around in my pants pocket and connect to the Internet in most places. The market is open to all ideas and lets anyone in. If the government controls the research only the ideas approved by the politician will get funded and it will be restricted to politically connected groups to do the thinking.
@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
5 Apr 08
I understand that the fossil fuels are limited, but I see the free market as the answer not more government. When faced with a problem the free market will solve it. A good example is the exploration of the New World. The French and Spanish had the government control over how the settlements were run and who you could sell your products to. The English allowed the settlers to develop trade and anyone could make money in the settlements. The free market works because people work harder fro themselves. The free market is what made this country great and it will solve the energy problem for us not bigger and bigger government with all the regulations.
@wherethegoodgo (16)
• Canada
5 Apr 08
And infinite free market system is the problem and cannot solve our up and coming energy shortages. While we can see improvements in the lumber sector it is an entirely different matter when it comes to finite fossil fuel deposits. Lumber can be renewable to an extent but fossil fuels are not renewable at our current rate of consumption. I mean we have already used millions and millions of years of fossil fuel deposits and it will take millions and millions of years to replace making fossil fuels a finite resource.
Bio-fuels no matter the type can not replace fossil fuel given our current rate of energy consumption. To understand what I have said is true and correct all you have to understand is where most all our energy comes from and that is the sun. Bio-fuel energy is really solar energy via photosynthesis's electron transfer form photons from the sun. Fossil fuels are also stored solar energy. The big difference between fossil fuels and bio-fuels is bio-fuels are limited to the amount of solar energy hitting the earth annually. Unlike fossil fuels which is millions of millions of years of solar energy deposited in the earth crust. Using fossil fuels is like dipping into a finite energy bank, albeit enormous after the millions of years of store solar energy.
As soon as the energy bank hits its peak energy production we will need to face the limitations of fossil fuels. This will also reveal how solar, wind, bio, tidal, geothermal energy can not replace fossil fuel energy at our current rate of energy consumption. Nothing we know of on earth can replace fossil fuel energy. Even the fuel for nuclear energy is finite which can and will be depleted. Uranium like fossil fuels is also finite. And it is estimated there is less nuclear energy than fossil fuel energy, therefor, nuclear energy will be depleted much quicker than fossil fuels given our ever growing economy.
@mansha (6298)
• India
27 Mar 08
I am not that savy about gasoline and eathanol and stuff but I do find environmental lobbyists fundas quite stupid at times. Like we have a rule here not to cut trees. Now my mom was teaching in a government school and there was an old huge tree leaning towards the school building and could have collapsed anytime on the building. Several letters were forwarded to the ministry to allow them to cut that tree before it falls on the classroom and hurt someone but to no avail. Thankfully it did fell on the classroom but at night. If it would have been day time then authorities would have a ahrd time explaining things to the harried parents.
Next instance is of a tree in front of my house whose branches are now leaning on the electric wires. We know that so we are careful when the rain comes but sometime soon it may break one of the wire and we may have a tragic incident involving someone,
