The irony is that the
policies advocated now by the “green new deal” would actually reverse the current
positive trend.
I’m tired of talking about politics
and the ridiculous impeachment. Let’s
talk about climate change and the green new deal today.
A wind farm requires far more
concrete and steel than an equivalent system based on gas. Even after the wind farm is built and paid
for, it is still the most inefficient methods of generating electric power ever
conceived. The cost of maintaining them is unbelievable.
Hydro-electric generators are much
more efficient, but we have pretty much reached the limit on the number of dams
we can build in the United States. Many environmentalists
Say we have already dammed up far too many of our rivers and streams
The only thing remaining is nuclear
power and solar energy. Environmental opposition to
nuclear power has hindered the generating system that needs the least amount of land,
least amount of fuel and least amount of steel or concrete per megawatt. Solar energy is still fairly new, and I expect solar energy technology to improve and become much more popular...
Burning wood instead of coal in
power stations means the exploitation of more land, the eviction of more
woodpeckers — and even higher emissions. Organic farming uses more land than
conventional.
Geological records show that today's
CO2 levels are very low — so low that plants grow slower and need more water. Many greenhouses which grow plants indoors
actually have CO2 generators to make their plants grow faster.
Moreover, the ice core records from
Antarctica and Greenland show clearly that atmospheric temperature always rises
before CO2 levels rise. So rising CO2 is the effect of
rising temperature, not the cause. Warming oceans expel
bubbles of CO2 into the atmosphere. When oceans cool, they take the
CO2 back.
We live in a natural warm interlude,
but we are past the warming peak. There will still be fluctuations
and extreme weather events, but the next big move will be global cooling — the
11th freeze-up in about a million years. Ice ages have been a
periodic threat to much of life on Earth. As the ice sheets spread
from the North Pole, there will be massive depopulation, and survivors will
need to relearn hunter-gatherer skills or have access to reliable
energy. Even the Great Niagara Falls froze in 1848 during the
Little Ice Age.
Technology has put us on a path to a
cleaner, greener planet. We don’t need to veer off in a new direction with the
green new deal. If we do, we risk retarding progress. We need to concentrate on the REAL environmental
problem, which is the reckless pollution of our planet…
