Environmental nonsense

There are ominous signs that the Earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production. The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only 10 years from now.

TNewsweek, April 28, 1975 his Newsweek article is more than 40 years old, but it sounds like the beginning of a typical news story today. There is nothing wishy-washy about the assertions in popular press stories on the environment. We’re doomed. No maybes are in the forecast of food shortage by 1985. Newsweek knows with certainty where the problems will occur. The Newsweek story has the science down pat and presents it in a manner that leaves no room for doubt:

• A survey by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reveals a drop of half a degree in temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere from 1945 to 1968.

• Satellite photos indicated a sudden, large increase in Northern Hemisphere snow cover in the winter of 1971-72.

• NOAA scientists note that the amount of sunshine reaching the ground in the US diminished by 1.3% from 1964 to 1972. So there we have it. Those of us who did not starve by 1985 will freeze to death.

Newsweek says scientists want to melt the Arctic ice cap with black soot collected from coal-fired power plants. Such action would require a huge global bureaucracy and lots of taxes. Disaster can only be met with central planning. This sounds like the politically fashionable scare de jour of global warming and its central planned solutions. For 50 years, Western nations kept their citizens in a state of perpetual fear of nuclear war and the Communist menace. Communist countries did the same. Then in the fall of 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall created a vacuum of fear. Nature abhors a vacuum. Something had to fill it. Terrorism is a reason for fear.

Has it occurred to you how astonishing the culture of Western society really is? Industrialized nations provide their citizens with unprecedented safety, health and comfort. Average life spans increased 50% in the last century. Yet modern people live in abject fear of strangers, disease, crime and germs they cannot even see. Even more amazing, they are convinced that the entire planet is being destroyed around them. Like the belief in witchcraft, it’s an extraordinary delusion – a global fantasy worthy of the Middle Ages. Those of us in the energy business might ignore the environmental movement’s wasteful conservation that will raise the price of energy. But we have our own fear of what harmful policies will flow from the belief in environment doomsday.

Jim Clarkson is an energy consultant. More about him at www.rsmenergy.com

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