Environmental Extremism: Fear... Not!
Just wishing and hoping
and thinking and praying
and planning and dreaming...
- Dusty Springfield
Foolishness?
There is a line between hope and false hope that is not always clear. Is the U.S. on the verge of strong economic recovery or on the verge of a new recession? Are jobs being created faster than lost or are lost jobs gone forever? Are the forces in Iraq opposing the U.S. finally being exposed and eliminated or are they simply increasing? If there is a line between hope and false hope that isn't clear... there is also a line between fear and false fears that isn't clear.
Is our country investing in its future security by spending billions of dollars in the Middle East or are we pouring money down a rat hole? That seems to be the central issue in this coming election. Heads or tails. No matter what you call, it is still a coin... but you have only one chance in two of being right.
Early on I said that:
- Nothing is ever as simple as it first seems
We have alternatives to the Middle East for our energy needs, but we have some strong forces in our country that believe we can significantly reduce our dependency on Middle East oil if only the automobile manufacturers will produce vehicles that run on alternate fuels. Well, duh! But they also don't want to be bothered with the details about the technology necessary to create a new infrastructure and the time that will take.
Yet those same "rational" conservationists and anti-oil interests refuse to accept that there are safe, existing technologies that could free up enormous amounts of oil and natural gas... the most obvious being nuclear power. Not in my back yard! This "environmentalists" would really rather that we all heat our homes with woolen blankets and use bicycles as a primary means of transportation (hook up about 100 bicycles to pull that semi-trailer down the highway). What they don't want to acknowledge is that there is safe, nuclear power that could eventually reduce or eliminate their dependency on the Middle East oil nuts.
So, we will keep "protecting our interests" in the Middle East because we allow our irrational fear of nuclear power to keep us dependent on a region of the world where irrational hatreds abound. What those opposed to using nuclear energy (or new generation coal plants) lack is a viable alternative. They know what they don't want... they just can't provide a better answer... other than don't use energy or advocating a technology like solar or wind power which would cover the landscape with voltaic cells and large wind turbines (to which Sen. Edward Kennedy and friends say..."not in my back yard".)
By the way, there is a safe, reliable nuclear power plant "in my back yard" along the shoreline of Lake Erie. I go fishing only a few miles offshore from the plant... and none of the fish I have caught and eaten have three eyes and glow in the dark.
It is not about resources... it is about fear. There are plenty of energy sources. It is all about using our resources in the most constructive way possible. We have a world full of coal, but we fear it because we remember the soot scattered over the white snow 50 years ago and refuse to accept that it can be burned cleanly today. We have a world full of nuclear materials and safe designs for power plants, but we fear it because we remember the shoddy way it was handled in Chernobyl. We have an abundance of oil in North America, but we are slow to develop it because importing it is politically easier (but may not be cheaper very soon).
We fear the future... because we cling to the fears of the past.
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