01 March 2006
A little healthy debate never hurt nobody
An email from Deb that I felt was appropriate for the blog. Enjoy:
My two cents on global warming:
The severity of last year's hurricane season (and the relative severity of hurricane seasons in our lifetime, as compared with the preceding century) are just small bits of voluminous evidence that climate change is taking place. Whether these changes are caused by humans -- as opposed to natural or divine processes -- is surely a question up for debate. But, whatever is causing it, the icebergs really are melting, and the ozone layer really does have a hole. This year's hurricane season is supposed to be worse than last year's -- particularly on the Carolina coast. Instead of wasting time trying to refute scientific fact, critics of the anti-global warming agenda would better serve us all by attacking the collection of theories that pigeonholes climate trends and links them directly to you and your car.
On the topic of air pollution generally, those who use use terms like "envirofascists" to describe those who advocate clean air and recycling demonstrate nothing but their own immaturity and lack of knowledge. Global warming or not, there's good reason to regulate pollution of the shared air -- individual property rights being one reason and general public health being another. That ought to be enough to satisfy both sides of the political fence. For God's sake, what idiot decided that breathing was going to be a partisan political deate? It used to be, not all that long ago, that Republicans and Democrats could agree on the value of clean air and preserving our natural heritage. What happened?
My two cents on global warming:
The severity of last year's hurricane season (and the relative severity of hurricane seasons in our lifetime, as compared with the preceding century) are just small bits of voluminous evidence that climate change is taking place. Whether these changes are caused by humans -- as opposed to natural or divine processes -- is surely a question up for debate. But, whatever is causing it, the icebergs really are melting, and the ozone layer really does have a hole. This year's hurricane season is supposed to be worse than last year's -- particularly on the Carolina coast. Instead of wasting time trying to refute scientific fact, critics of the anti-global warming agenda would better serve us all by attacking the collection of theories that pigeonholes climate trends and links them directly to you and your car.
On the topic of air pollution generally, those who use use terms like "envirofascists" to describe those who advocate clean air and recycling demonstrate nothing but their own immaturity and lack of knowledge. Global warming or not, there's good reason to regulate pollution of the shared air -- individual property rights being one reason and general public health being another. That ought to be enough to satisfy both sides of the political fence. For God's sake, what idiot decided that breathing was going to be a partisan political deate? It used to be, not all that long ago, that Republicans and Democrats could agree on the value of clean air and preserving our natural heritage. What happened?
