Global Warming on FreeRepublic
Posted on 05/26/2007 5:06:19 PM PDT by Reform Canada
Climate hysteria now invading our homes and businesses By Dr. Tim Ball and Tom Harris, www.nrsp.com
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Ontario environment minister Broten's ban of used oil heating just the latest example of an increasing intrusion into daily life by governments that ignore science
"That government, dedicated to saving the environment from the evils of technology, had been voted into power because everybody knew that the Green House Effect had to be controlled, whatever the cost. But who would have thought that the cost of ending pollution would include not only total government control of day-to-day life, but the onset of a new Ice Age?" -- Ref.
It has been 15 years since these words were first used to promote Fallen Angels, the science fiction classic written by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and Michael Flynn. Looking at the World of 2007, it is tempting to conclude that they were not just writing fiction but were also making a forecast of the direction we were headed if environmental extremism ever really took hold in government.
Sadly, that is exactly what has happened over the past decade and a half. In a public and government relations coup of unprecedented proportions, governments world-wide have been frightened into bowing before "so-called" romantic environmentalists, a well-funded but misguided movement that has thoroughly distorted the public policy debate. Anyone who questions their dogma is to be silenced, shunned and disgraced. Policies that in other fields would be subject to intense, independent audits before even being suggested are now being announced routinely and promoted aggressively by environment ministers who have no knowledge or interest in what science really says about the impact of their decisions. 'It looks good in the press; it will keep environmentalists off our backs; the science is irrelevant - just do it!' must be the advice politicians are receiving from back room strategists.
Of course the mother of all baseless policy decisions was Jean Chrétien's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol on behalf of Canada in December 2002. His environment minister, David Anderson, admitted to the Ottawa Citizen at the time, "His [Chrétien's] critics, who frequently denounce this [ratification], fail to realize it is one of the signs of his genius that he doesn't want to know too much about certain things. He gets the right gut feeling. And he's got the antenna, which very few people have, the political antenna."
Only now is the general public starting to wake up to the long term impact of Chrétien's cynical and irresponsible decision. Big Government has teamed up with 'Big Green' to force foolish and unnecessary greenhouse gas controls on society, something that is clearly going to result in Big Trouble for average people and small businesses.
Plans to ban inexpensive and increasingly clean coal-fired electricity generation to help 'stabilize climate' were only just the beginning. It was quickly followed by plans to declare carbon dioxide (CO2), the most important life-giving gas in the atmosphere, a toxin so as to allow its control under regulations designed to restrict real pollution. Indeed this has just happened in the United States where the Supreme Court has effectively declared carbon dioxide a pollutant to be controlled under the Clean Air Act.
But since most of the public and media are still not demanding that governments hold open science consultations to properly consider whether we really can affect climate on a global scale, politicians have become bolder. They are now coming right into our homes and business with green regulations that, while costly and inconvenient, may not help the environment at all.
By now everyone is familiar with government plans to restrict convenient and inexpensive technologies such as incandescent light bulbs to 'combat the climate crisis'. We can add a new one to list courtesy of Ontario's Minister of the Environment Laurel Broten - used oil heating is gong to be banned. And like everyone else in politics these days, she substantiated her decision with the same sort of climate change rhetoric we hear regularly from federal Environment Minister John Baird concerning the light bulb ban. When announcing her used oil heating ban, Broten warned consumer and business, "We also know that taking on global warming will require a massive adjustment in the way we live and how we do business." Now that's an understatement -- dedicating vast sums of taxpayer money on any impossible objective in total ignorance of the facts would require massive "adjustments in the way we live and how we do business."
So used oil heating is being sacrificed to the god of climate change. Does it really matter?
It certainly does to hundreds of small businesses in Ontario - car dealerships, bus fleets, farm equipment dealers, etc. -- who for many years now have successfully burned used oil from various sources to reduce space heating costs. Strict emission regulations apply to these heaters and we know of no evidence that these regulations are not being adhered to. Yet Broten decided to ban the heaters in favour of the complex process of collecting and re-refining the used oil so that a portion of it may be re-used.
NRSP's interest in the issue was aroused because Broten expects Ontarians to actually believe that her ban will contribute towards the impossible goal of 'stopping climate change'. We wondered - under the guise of reducing CO2, the non-polluting gas of concern in most climate change plans, was the used oil heating ban actually going to result in an increase in real pollution that causes acid rain and smog, and fouls our ground water? Only a comprehensive life cycle environmental impact assessment of the options for handling used oil would reveal the answer.
On April 20 NRSP asked Ontario Minister of the Environment Laurel Broten how she came to her decision to ban used oil heating in the province. One would expect that, if her decision was based on real science and a full life cycle analysis of the competing options for handling waste oil, she would readily share with us how the decision was made. Six weeks later, despite e-mail reminders, courier deliveries, radio references to the ban and even an OpEd on the subject, Broten has yet to respond.
The Minister announced the ban from the local headquarters of the largest used oil re-refiner, a company that stands to significantly increase their business as a result of the minister's decision. Flying in from Texas for Broten's announcement was the president of the re-refiner company who also had an announcement of his own -- they had just purchased six hectares of land adjacent to their existing property. This sequence of events should make Ontarians suspicious -- is the ban really about protecting the environment at all? And if it is, would it off-set the financial loss suffered by business owners who had already invested in used oil furnaces? Concerning her assertions that the ban would help the environment, we asked the Minister to "prove it". It appears that, like so many of her environment minister peers, she can't -- it is all spin and no substance.
The fact that Broten would ban a specific technology, instead of simply setting pollution standards that must be met across the board and letting the marketplace determine winners and losers, should concern everyone. Such an intrusion into the competitive marketplace has no place in a free society. And it is even more inappropriate if Broten's department did not follow a transparent, unbiased and science-based process to come to her decision, as increasingly appears to be the case.
Broten's actions on used oil issue should be a warning to all Ontario's businesses -- are you next? You may be meeting all government regulations concerning the product you produce or use but the government may suddenly ban it. And for what? Stopping climate change? Despite recent excitement, climate has never been stable and never will be -- we have no chance of stopping this natural phenomenon and we shouldn't even try. Instead, real environmental problems -- air pollution, toxic waste dumps, ocean pollution, etc. -- demand our attention and resources.
In an eerie parallel with the issues facing characters in Fallen Angels, governments are indeed beginning to intrude into our daily lives in ways only a science fiction writer could have foreseen. If the public and business ever thought they could get away with quietly accepting, or simply ignoring climate change hysteria, they must now realize they couldn't have been more wrong.
It is not too late to stop environmental extremism before it bulldozes our society into one resembling that foreseen by Niven et al. But it will take guts, determination and a solid grasp of real science and technology to stand up to the Big Government/Big Green steamroller. The Natural Resources Stewardship Project was created for that purpose -- we ask for your support.
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Dr. Tim Ball, Chairman of the Natural Resources Stewardship Project, is a Victoria-based environmental consultant and former climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg. He can be reached at letters@canadafreepress.com
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/global-warming052607.htm
ping
Lemme guess: he said that with a straight face and slept well the following night.
this term is starting to take on a whole new meaning.
Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Response: It works as an effective tool of governance.
Comment: Actually about 125 years ago an astute social commentator characterized the four foundation stones of public discourse: Hysteria, Histrionics, Decadence and Degeneration. Nothing has changed.
Global Warming on FreeRepublic
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Click on POGW graphic for full GW rundown
New!!: Dr. John Ray's
GREENIE WATCH
Ping me if you find one I've missed.
1. Shut down the greenhouses to cut down on the gases.
2. Eat more cows to cut down on their methane.
3. Plug Rosie O’hoggle’s mouth to stop her gases.
I am not familiar with “used heating oil”.
They burn used motor oil and the like. You want to see a greenie's head explode, tell 'em you heat with used motor oil in a burner you made yourself.
On second thought, you might not want to end up with an EPA SWAT team at your house...
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