Environmentalists are the fossils

North Jersey Newspapers ^ | 08.07.05 | H. STERLING BURNETT

[Coleus]

Environmentalists are the fossils

Sunday, August 7, 2005

Those who regard SUVs rather than the gnawing poverty of developing nations as the chief threat to the world's environment often hide their hatred of our lifestyle behind the mantra "the planet is running out of fossil fuels."

Like many shared delusions of conventional wisdom, their mantra is completely false. The world's 2 billion poor cause more air pollution than citizens in advanced democracies, and soon will produce more greenhouse gasses as well.

Just by decimating the forests of Amazon basin, Africa and southern Asia for wood-fuel, they spew immeasurable tons of pollutants into the atmosphere each day. Their eco-systems would be much better off if they burned cleaner oil and natural gas using state-of-the-art emission controls.

Meanwhile, far from running out of fossil fuels, the world is awash in them and more are coming online each day. And viable alternative energies hold great potential as well. Consider a few hopeful rays:

New, eco-friendly drilling techniques and reasonable environmental rules will allow the United States to extract crude oil and natural gas in places like the Arctic Natural Wildlife Refuge, in many of the lower 48 states and off America's shorelines.

• Renewed interest in clean nuclear power, which safely supplies 85 percent of the electricity generated in environmentally conscious France, will allow the U.S., China and India to shift from coal-fired utilities that belch pollution.
• Massive private/public sector projects like Stanford University's Global Climate and Energy are hard at work seeking new ways filter pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from many of today's energy sources.
• The Alberta oil tar sands in western Canada are projected to contain more petroleum than in the entire Middle East, and with oil in $40 to $50 a barrel range, extracting it becomes economically feasible.
• And, as its "ace in the hole," the U.S. currently has an estimated 750-million years of coal reserves and is rapidly developing the technology to scrub pollution from every lump.

None of these new sources, however, is immediately available, but if we start now we can have many of them online by the end of this decade.

One of the most hopeful signs in recent days, has been the opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, a 42-inch, 1,000 mile-long pipeline that will shore up energy supplies in North America and Europe well past mid-century.

Output from the fields in the tiny former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan is expected to reach 1-million barrels a day - about 1 percent of present global production. But even at full production that will be like draining a drop of water each day from Lake Erie since the vast underground reserve is believed hold upward of 220 billion barrels.

The pipeline will wend its way from the shores of Azerbaijan across the Caspian Sea through the Republic of Georgia to the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, who attended the grand opening ceremony for the pipeline, called it "a significant step forward in the energy security of the region."

But it is more than that. By spreading prosperity through many impoverished areas in Central Asia, it will bolster the world's fight against Islamic terrorism and decrease U.S. dependence on the potentially unstable oil supplies of the Middle East.

With a bright energy future on tap, it's time for American environmentalists to realize that the very best way to cleanup the environment and win the global war on poverty is to embrace the kind of full-throttle economic growth that supplies the surplus capital needed to achieve these goals.

H. Sterling Burnett is a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative, free-market oriented think-tank with offices in Dallas and Washington.

[Southack]

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[Jacquerie]

I am continually amazed at the pols that kowtow to the whack job enviros. Between coal, nuke and tar sands, the US and Canada can develop all the energy we need.

Of course our Congress does not respond until there is a crisis. The war on terror is an example. At some point our government must act on the fact that underdevelopment of domestic energy is a national security threat and take the necessary measures.

[05 Mustang GT Rocks]

Good article. the enviro-nuts, however, don't give a rat's behind about the environment. They are hiding behind it while attempting to destroy our way of life. the enviro-nuts are like watermelons - green on the outside and red on the inside.

[satchmodog9]

Lies. Lies I tell you. :)

[Coleus]

Good article. the enviro-nuts, however, don't give a rat's behind about the environment. >>

sustainable development and agenda 21, the UN and other pagan groups are behind the movement, has nothing much to do with trees.

[BigTom85]

EXACTLY! The enviornmental nutjobs main purpose is to take down capitalism while hiding beind the 'enviornmentalist' way of life.. These people are all hypocrits to the 10th degree... Makes me want to drive my SUV.. Time for a drive to the state park... haha

[Cicero]

To be fair (?) to leftist environmentalists, they are perfectly well aware that third world populations threaten the environment. That is why they have devoted so much energy to killing them off with "family planning" projects. It's a delicate balancing act, pretending to sympathize with these people while killing them, but they do it very well in the name of "family planning," "women's rights," "reproductive health care," and the like.

[freepatriot32]

Rights, farms, environment ping.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

List of Ping lists

[wmileo]

"Of course our Congress does not respond until there is a crisis"

You have it all wrong. 'They' are the Crisis. Has it ever occurred to you that a significant number of our elected officials want us to fail so they can transform this country into a socialist paradise? Castro and Chavez are their Heros and Venezula is their model. Buy the people with goodies so that they will support you with votes.

[05 Mustang GT Rocks]

When the weather gets a little cooler here, I am going to start my chain saw (insert a Poulan sound here). Of course, my wife and I, the greedy capitalist pigs that we are, trim only dead or unnecessary limbs of our oak trees. That keeps them really healthy. On the other hand we get to kill all the mountain cedars that we want.

[BigTom85]

start that chain saw up!! VROOOMMM VROOOOMMM!

[sawmill trash]

"But it is more than that. By spreading prosperity through many impoverished areas in Central Asia, it will bolster the world's fight against Islamic terrorism and decrease U.S. dependence on the potentially unstable oil supplies of the Middle East."

I don't understand how "spreading prosperity" through these impoverished areas will help fight islamo terrorism .... it doesn't help in the middle east...they are awash in $$$ and still we get islamoterrorism ???

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Excellent analysis! It took me a long time to put all the puzzle pieces together, but now it's crystal clear to me.

Unfortunately, it also seems to me that they're doing a bang-up job in our country as well, as far as pushing "family planning" through abortion on demand and Morning After "emergency contraception" access.

We can't have wasteful, polluting, gas-producing, oxygen-hogging American babies littering up the landscape now, can we? ;)

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!

[Jacquerie]

So I have it all wrong? Gee, why don't you enlighten me. Please tell me all about your superior education in general and energy markets in particular.

[wmileo]

"So I have it all wrong? Gee, why don't you enlighten me. Please tell me all about your superior education in general and energy markets in particular"

Aren't we sensitive? Perhaps my phrasing was a bit harsh. I feel that the "do nothings" in congress are not just incompetent. They are perpetrators who want the USA to fail. As far as my education is concerned, I have a Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering. When it comes to energy, I am the market and so is everyone else who makes a biweekly visit to the pump. Good day.

[Jacquerie]

No sensitivity at all. Your near insults were not necessary to make your point and are more appropriate for screeds over at DUh

[wmileo]

If Democrats soil the institutions they control, you must soil your underwear every time you get sensitive about a post. Good day, again.