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10/08/01: my comments
Posted by: grundle2600@hotmail.com (grundle)
The government should *allow* more oil drilling. But they should not *subsidize* it.
Those doomsayer predictions for the caribou are bogus. 25 years ago, the doomsayers said that drilling at Prudhoe Bay would kill the caribou. In reality, since the drilling began, the caribou population has more than quadrupled.
And today's drilling technology is far less damaging to the environment than the technology of 25 years ago. Once they drill a hole, the drill can go sideways for 5 miles.
Drilling at ANWR would affect 2,000 acres out of 20 million. That's equivalnet to an airport in an area the size of North Carolina. That's pretty insignificant.
One survey showed that among the people who live near ANRW, 78% are in favor of drilling. Only 9% are against it.
Whenever environmental groups like the Audobon Society and the Nature Conservancy discovered oil on their own land, they always drilled it, and made lots of money from it. They know that drilling can be done without wrecking the environment. They are fully aware of this, because of their own experience.
Those doomsayer predictions for environemntal catastrophe are basically the same kinds that the radical left has been making ever since the 1960s. Let's just remember that if the past doomsayer predicitons had come true, then by now, the world would be in the middle of an ice age, there would be no trees left, most people in the U.S. would have starved to death, the air pollution would be so bad that everyone would have to wear a gas mask, there would be no oil left, there would be no copper left, there would be no gold left, the entire country of England would not exist, and the entire South American rainforest would be gone.
The doomsayers' proposed "cure"
for these problems was to halt economic growth. But we
ignored their advice. And it's a good thing that we did,
because
economic growth is precisely what enabled us to develop new
technology that improved the conditions of the environment.
Automobile exhaust is indeed a real problem, and it does kill people. However, more than 90% of car pollution comes from less than 10% of the cars. These are mostly older cars that don't have the newer technology, and cars that need a tuneup. If the radical left really cares about reducing car pollution, they should shift their focus to these cars.
It's certainly possible that the world will be warmer in 100 years than it is now. But world temperature has always been going up and down, ever since the earth came into existence.
Even if worldwide climate change does cause as much economic damage as they claim, the Kyoto Treaty would cause a much larger amount of economic damage. Besides, how many people would be willing to cut their use of gasoline, oil, etc., by 40% by the year 2011? Poeple like having heat in the winter. They like the fact that they can travel wherever they want, whenever they want. They like the fact that goods such as food, clothing, and medicine can easily be transported to where they are needed. They like having electricity to power their refrigerators and washing machines. Cutting gasoline, oil, fuel, and electricity use by 40% is not something that most people would be willing to do.
Real world history shows that a strong, growing, healthy economy, combined with reasonable government regualtions, is the best way to ensure a healthy environment. Yes, some regulation is necessary. But regulation that goes too far, and fails to take into account a cost/benfit analysis, will not help the environment, and can actually harm it. As the economy grows, and we become wealtheir and wealthier, it becomes easier and easier for us to pay for the invention and use of newer and better technologies to protect the environment. Getting all scared and panicky is not an effective way to protect the environment.
The radical environmentalist doomsayers like to take advantage of the fact that most people aren't aware of their past bogus doomsayer predictions. Younger people have never heard about these failed predicitons of the past, and older people forget that the predictions had ever been made. The doomsayers prey upon the ignorance of their audience. The best thing that I can do to deal with this is to tell the truth. And the more I see articles like the one above, the more I will keep making posts like this.
For the record, this is not a copy and paste. I typed it all in fresh.
Also, you made that post deliberately to bait me. I may be repetitive and annoying, but I'm not stupid.
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