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California To Commit Eco-Suicide In late August, Democrats in the California legislature and Governor agreed to a deal that would impose a limit on all greenhouse gas emissions. As reported by the Associated Press, "The bill would require the state’s major industries—such as utility plants, oil and gas refineries, and cement kilns—to reduce their emissions of the pollutants widely believed to contribute to global warming." Among the many problems involved with this deal is the fact that there is no global warming as defined by environmentalists, i.e., a sharp, scientifically predictable increase in the Earth’s overall temperature in the years, decades, and centuries ahead. After touting a coming Ice Age in the 1970s, the Greens reversed course and began to conjure up global warming. Basing public policy on a hoax has become the political choice of Democrats. Worse, the California deal would allow businesses "to buy, sell and trade emission credits with other companies." A completely bogus market will be created where real money will buy meaningless "credits" while the emissions involved will continue.
If there was ever a better way to drive business and industry out of the State, it has yet to have been invented. The Democrat Party, intellectually and morally bankrupt as this point in its history, has decided to embrace environmentalism’s biggest lies because they will provide a new basis to attack the industrial heart of the nation’s economy. Ignoring the real threat, the worldwide Islamic Jihad, Democrats will attempt to distract Americans with scary stories about the future climate of the Earth. Addressing the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco in late August, Sen. Dianne Feinstein offered the Democrat plan to attack global warming in the next session of Congress. She unveiled a legislative package she intends to introduce that would require the auto industry to improve mileage and "coax" power producers to meet emissions standards. This is an extension of the deal California lawmakers have reached with the Governor to the entire nation. "There is now a scientific consensus that global warming is happening and we can’t stop it," said Feinstein during an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle. This is a lie. A very big lie. Far from any consensus, there is a growing body of scientific evidence that utterly disputes and debunks that claims made for global warming. In a recent policy analysis report issued by the Cato Institute, Patrick J. Michaels, a senior fellow in environmental studies, a professor of natural resources at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and the past president of the Association of State Climatologists, concluded that "It is apparent that many recent stories on melting of high-latitude ice, hurricanes, and extinctions are riddled with self-inconsistencies, are inconsistent with other findings, and are reported—as much by scientists themselves as by reporters—in extreme or misleading fashions that do not accurately portray the actual research." The Cato analysis was buttressed by 77 footnotes documenting the misuse of science to advance the global warming hoax. Ironically, the early Green warnings of a coming, new Ice Age were far closer to the truth, given the fact that the Earth is nearing the end of an interglacial period, thus putting us closer to a colder, not warmer, future. There is no need for the control of greenhouse gas emissions. Even with such controls, the climate of the Earth will be determined by known cycles of solar activity, by known cycles of oceanic activity, by known cycles of hurricane activity, by forces far beyond the control or influence of human activity. The Democrat program of emissions controls is a cruel hoax tied the even greater hoax of global warming. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Sen. Feinstein’s "goal would be to keep global temperature increases to a manageable 1 or 2 degrees by the end of the century. To do so by 2050, she said, the United States would have to cut carbon dioxide emissions to levels 70 percent below those of 1990." What Sen. Feinstein and the Democrats are proposing is nothing less than a criminal conspiracy to undermine the American economy while nations such as China, India, and even Europe would continue to ignore such senseless limitations on the use of energy to expand their economies. Sen. Feinstein told her audience at the Commonwealth Club that, "without such measures, the global temperature could rise by maybe 9 degrees. In that scenario, three of every five species would die, the sea would rise by two feet, massive floods would hit every 10 years and the state’s drinking water supply would be in jeopardy." This is lying and scaremongering on a grand scale and it is about to make its way from California to the halls of the U.S. Congress. She will be joined by Sen. Kerry who is calling for "energy independence" by advocating mandates to reduce U.S. consumption of oil by 2.5 million barrels a day by 2015. Among the steps that would achieve true energy independence would be to open a small section of ANWR to oil drilling and that alone would take ten years before its effect would be felt. Another step would be to require states to permit offshore drilling for oil and natural gas. Meanwhile, China, in cooperation with Cuba will be drilling for oil just ninety miles off the shores of Florida, while that State continues to refuse to permit any drilling. California is about to commit eco-suicide and wants the rest of the nation to join it. The business and industry that will flee the Golden State to is incalculable. The danger of these anti-energy policies to the future of the nation is beyond comprehension. Have you purchased your autographed copy of Alan Caruba’s new book, "Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy"? It is the ideal gift for conservative friends and family. Start by clicking here.
Despite having been under attack since 1979, it wasn’t until September 11, 2001, that the blinders fell from the eyes of Americans. Now, some want to put them back on. The calls to withdraw American troops will grow louder as the November elections grow closer. There is considerable sophistry behind the assertion that the "real threat" is al Qaeda and not those seeking control of Iraq in much the same way Hezbollah was used to secure control of Lebanon. The United States cannot get out of the Middle East, no matter how much we might want to. This war was imposed on us by ruthless, opportunistic men. Now we must finish it on our terms. The creation of Middle East scenarios is the constant occupation of the various policy constituencies in Washington, D.C. these days. The Middle East has always been a sinkhole that swallows up the aspirations of the West because the hatreds that consume Muslims remain a mystery to nations governed by more pragmatic, rational philosophies.
Arabs are still smarting over the Crusades. Do we really expect them to find common ground with each other or us in the near future? The most pressing question these days is whether Iraqi politicians can work together. After more than three decades of oppression by Sunnis under Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s Shiites are in the driver’s seat. This is giving Sunni-run nations like Saudi Arabia and Egypt fits, but someone has to take charge of Iraq and run it like a modern nation. Like Brer Rabbit’s famed tar baby that ensnared Bred Fox, the Middle East tar baby has a grip on the U.S. and the West. Originally it was just about oil (and to a great extent still is), but now the Islamist genie is out of bottle. Leaving the Middle East will solve nothing.
While the murderers who seek to advance the Islamic Revolution hold our attention, one aspect of change that goes relatively unnoticed is the relentless process of globalization, forcing the Middle East to slowly, often painfully, be "connected" to the rest of the world. That change is being resisted by a relative handful of people acting in the name of militant Islam. It is an Islam that wants its unelected clerics to have all the power in the region. Seventh century Islam is at war with the twenty-first century.
So far as the present hostilities are concerned, the Middle East has been "in play" since the late 1970s when Iran’s Shah, an ally of the United States, was overthrown. Beyond its oil, Iraq’s real importance to the United States was and is its strategic military position in the Middle East, particularly as regards the threat posed by Iran’s Shiite leaders. Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons would constitute a major shift of power. Literally no one would be safe from the ayatollahs. In a world where many nations have nuclear weapons, only Iran represents the potential for their actual use. The U.S. and its coalition partners have their military in Afghanistan and Iraq, two nations that border Iran. The U.S. has bases in other Persian Gulf nations as well. In theory, this limits Iran’s options in the region, but ironically what really limits Iran’s options is the flight of direct foreign investment. What limits Iran’s options is the failure of its leaders to abandon radical Islamism in favor of the multinational capitalism that is reshaping much of the world. Most Iranians, young and pro-American, know this. Thomas P. M. Barnett, the author of two groundbreaking books on globalization, says that, sooner or later, we will end up talking to Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Muslim Brotherhood and they will have to talk to us because globalization is a force that is bringing about change whether they want it or not. The U.S. has shown little inclination to speak with them. History suggests that diplomacy with rogue states and terrorist organizations is unproductive. Iran’s "diplomacy" has proven to be a fabric of lies. The fruitless efforts expended on the Palestine Liberation Organization, now eclipsed by Hamas, are yet another example, as have been the actions of Hezbollah. For now, the Islamic Revolution will continue. Its defeat, like that of the former Soviet Union, is likely to require much of the twenty-first century and will be full of attacks and retreats on both sides.
While we struggle with the Middle Eastern tar baby, Russia and China will use the conflict to advance their own agendas to weaken the United States economically and militarily, hoping that the Middle East will remain a place where empires go to die. The benefits of increased global trade and even increased global peace will continue to take second place to the mad dreams of both Communism and Islam, but globalization is as relentless as a glacier. In time, if we remain resolute, the Middle East will be forced to conclude that it must shake loose of ancient traditions and enmities in favor of a world that offers more incentives, more benefits, and more freedoms. The Center welcomes donations to help maintain our communications programs. By clarifying the issues that affect the world and our nations, we believe we are making a contribution to a better understanding of them. If you want to support this effort, please consider making a donation. Thank you. |
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You want electricity? Other than nuclear and hydroelectric power, you will have to tolerate some emissions. Slightly more than half of the electricity generated in America today comes from the burning of a resource we have in abundance, coal. California, which has consistently failed to provide for sufficient generation, now wants to make the provision of electricity even more costly.
The current version of what passes for collected wisdom seems to be saying thatthe situation in Iraq is untenable and that the mindless killing going on between Shiites and Sunnis will not end. The split between the Shiites and the Sunnis dates back to a dispute at the beginning of Islam concerning a succession to the prophet Muhammad, well over a thousand years ago.