My daughter is an “environmentalist wacko”.
I do not mean this as an insult. What I find fascinating is to watch my children form strong and passionate opinions that – to the best of my knowledge – are their own. Do I have some influence on them? Sure. But ultimately they are free to agree or disagree with what we pass on to them.
My daughter is much more passionate about environmental concerns than even I am. She appears to agree fully with the whole “global climate change caused by human activity” line – which I am willing to accept but am increasingly concerned that government efforts to combat “global climate change” have much more to do with politics than science.
I am the “electricity nazi” of our home. “Turn off lights in rooms you are not using! Do not just turn off electronic devices – unplug them and/or turn off the power strips!” (This actually goes back to when I was in seminary and we were a family of two then three then four living on a very slim income. Every light bulb left on represented another dollar in electricity we could not afford.)
We recycle more than we throw away. I am the fellow who got the church to start recycling – although it is clear the congregation was more than ready for this they just needed someone to get them started. And even if you have doubts about global climate change and the role humanity plays in that – surely we can agree that petroleum and metal are finite resources. Anything that reduces the extent to which we use up these is a good thing. Even if we reach a point where we no longer use gasoline for transportation – we will always need petroleum for plastics. And if we stop using plastics for trivial things like packaging or disposable utensils – we will always need plastics for medical uses.
All that having been said – I am deeply concerned that in the name of protecting the environment there are some who throw good science and economics out the window.
There is in our congregation a young man working on his doctorate in Climatology. I asked him about global warming. He made it quite clear that he – along with his professors and classmates – do not accept the alleged “consensus” on human-caused global warming. “It is all about politics” he explained.
George Will points out some of the follies of proposed government action in order to deal with “global climate change”.
The Spanish professor is puzzled. Why, Gabriel Calzada wonders, is the U.S. president recommending that America emulate the Spanish model for creating “green jobs” in “alternative energy” even though Spain’s unemployment rate is 18.1 percent — more than double the European Union average — partly because of spending on such jobs?
Calzada, 36, an economics professor at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, has produced a report which, if true, is inconvenient for the Obama administration’s green agenda, and for some budget assumptions that are dependent upon it.
Read the whole thing here. You do not have to register.
In a nutshell – the Obama Administration’s rhetoric about stimulus spending on “green” jobs does not hold up to scutiny. It could in fact result in a net loss of jobs. Create ten thousand “green” jobs – and thereby lose twenty or thirty thousand jobs elsewhere.
Look – should we develop alternative source of energy? (Energy that does not depend on petroleum or coal.) Of course. (My family was one of the first and few to have solar heating way back in the late 1970′s.) I would love to drive a hybrid – if I could afford one.
But let us not pretend that (a) tens or hundred of billions of dollars in deficit spending along with (b) tens of hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes on business and consumers – is somehow going to create jobs and economic prosperity.
It may in fact cost jobs and cripple the economy right when it is struggling to recover.
What troubles me about politics and popular culture during the Obama Administration is this – this apparent drive to put (ostensible) good intentions above evidence-and-reason. It is not virtuous to wreck a nation when you claim you are trying to save it.
Additional final note – This has been an extremely busy summer. I have been traveling about every other week (meetings and conferences as well as a family holiday). That is why I am not posting very much. Not to mention I am becoming increasingly sick of the whole “the internet is taking over our lives – blogs and facebook and so on”.
I have several ideas for posts – but am short on time and energy at the moment. Especially a series of posts on the theology of the writings of Tolkien.
