Global Warming & Carbon Offsets

That’s good, J.E.M. “Hollywood run amuck.” We sure seem to be a “Nation of Sheep,” as some author said. And far too many people have jumped on the “save the planet” band wagon for their own benefit.

I’ll wait to buy my carbon offsets until they become popular in China, India, Mexico, and Brazil. I’ve spent my C/O budget replacing all the lights in my house with those little twist fluorescents. I’ve parked my '96 Chevy Tahoe and bought a Hyundai Accent. I don’t want to be whined at by Al Gore again. By the way, doesn’t he own an interest in a company that sells offsets? So when he says he’s purchasing offsets he’s basically sending himself a check. Until that’s resolved I’ll save my money for one of those little motor scooters, 100 mpg is sounding really good to me.

Amtrak already has high speed service from DC to Boston (Acela) with stops in New York and Philadelphia. High speed service could eventually include Chicago; lines already run from Chicago to DC, New York, and Boston. Atlanta is available through DC or New Orleans to Chicago. Track ownership would definitely be federal. Amtrak receives 19% federal funding, and any capital expenditure of this magnitude would have to be funded by you (and me) exclusively. Given the billions required to lay new parallel track or replace the existing track with high speed capable rails, I’m not sure it would be worth it except over the very long term. Trains are successful in Europe because everything is so close together. The distance from London to Moscow - the entire width of Europe - is 1500 miles. There are many stops in between. The distance is about like New York to Dallas. While there are several stops between them, there is still a huge area of the USA unvisited.

I think that it is great that people consider our impact on Earth. Unfortunately, we are just people and are not omnipotent. We guess what might be going on and then test the hypothesis to see if it is correct. Global warming may be our doing, and one way to find out is to decrease our carbon dioxide output and see what happens. If correct and as little as 2 or 3 degrees Celsius increase on average has a significant impact on climate, we’d better start working on it now. The penalty for reducing carbon dioxide emissions unnecessarily is poorly spent money, and we’ll do that anyway.

Global warning is a very political issue, which in itself, is something we have to look at skeptically. And, if Al Gore wasn’t the squeekiest wheel in the environmental bunch I would agree that the sky is falling. Aren’t we all a bit sick of the doom-sayers? My father is famous for saying, “When democrats stop manipulating the peoples’ fear of the earth being destroyed just to make a buck, I’ll be concerned about the environment.” He started saying that during the Carter years when he was on 8 months of sick leave after crushing his leg. Some California tree hugger got everyone into a panic and suddenly everyone had to put these half-assed “Smog Devices” on their cars which barely made a difference in the air pollution - and being out of work for 8 months, we could have used that money elsewhere. As long as it makes a buck the instigators wont care how it affects the little guy.
I’ve done some research into the environment frenzy (Off hand I can’t remember the names of my sources). A well-known professor at an Ivy-league college was granted money for a study into how fast the globe was warming. He was quickly stiffled when his report came back that the environment is warming at less then 1% each fifty years or so. He adds that this change in the environment is very insignificant, especially considering that man can adapt and change physically (Evolve) quicker than 1% every 50 years. So, either he is wrong or the entire theory of evolution is wrong. He agrees that, yes, the weather has been less predictable in the past few years, but historically the earth goes through these cycles.
Along with this, one has to look at his faith in a higher being. God made man in his own image, and he made the earth for the benefit and support of man. Of coarse there is a law-of-God that tells us that we shouldn’t take more from the earth than what we need to survive, and this should be all the environmental policy we need. Not everyone obeys that law. History tells us this fact. But, “Consider the lillies of the field. They toil not, neither do they labor…:” Doesn’t the sun also shine on the sinners?
I think we need to worry more about the rapture, than Al Gore’s worries.

Agree; our family decided in 2004 (before Al Gore ruled the airwaves) to seriously reduce our carbon emissions. After installing 38 fluorescent bulbs,LED Xmas lights, replacing old appliances, super-insulating the house, installing a high efficiency (96%) furnace, and trading 2 8 cyl cars for 2 4 cyl ones, we reduced our gasoline consumption by 50.7%, our electrical consumption by 27.75%%, and our natural gas for heating by 49.0% compared to the 1990 Kyoto reference level.

Al Gore wants a 12% reduction from that 1990 level, so we’re well ahead. I did learn theat Al’s house consumes more electricly in one month than mine does in a whole year. Also, all his air travel generates a lot of greenhouse gasses, as well as oxides of nitrogen. Aiplanes do not have catalytic converters.