As discussed here time to time, politics and the goals of special interest groups often infect - I mean influence - environmental polices. In Conservative Comebacks to Liberal Lies: Issue by Issue Responses to the Most Common Claims of the Left from A to Z author Gregg Jackson answers the claims of liberals against conservatives. He spends Chapter 13 on environmental issues. I’ll quote some of the short answers here, but keep in mind that in the book he follows these with more detailed discussions.
Claim #4 “Kyoto will stop global warming”
Response: Only severe reductions in global C02 emissions - on the order of 60 percent or more - will alter the computer forecasts.Claim #5: “Increased human economic activity is causing massive environmental pollution and damage.”
Response: Major pollutants declined by 25 percent [over the past 30 years in the U.S.].Claim #6 :“We are running out of oil…”
Response: …Oil reserves are growing. Between 1948 and 1992, oil reserves increased a whopping 1400 percent.Claim #8 “Democrats are the party of the environment.”
Response: Democrats advocate extreme positions on environmental issues, even when it financially harms the poor.Claim #10: “Nuclear power is too risky…”
Response: Currently 103 nuclear power plants supply 20 percent of our electricity in the U.S…In 1999, natural gas cost 3,52 cents per kilowatt hour compared to 2.07 cents for coal and 1.83 cents for nuclear!Claim #11 “Deforestation…is an enormous threat to the environment.”
Response: The are more aces of forestland in America today than when Columbus discovered America in 1492. [People don’t realize how fond of clearcutting/burning of forests the natives were.]