Hey, Environmentalists, Face Reality

1. We are nowhere near being in a position to give up fossil fuels.

2. We should have engaged in a massive project of building as many nuclear power plants as we could back in the 1970s, except that you guys were dead-set against that.

3. Meanwhile, outsourcing the drilling of oil to foreign countries doesn’t reduce the carbon footprint of the world.

4. So, when we do so, there is no benefit to the world (in terms of carbon footprint).

5. But also when we do so, there can be a huge cost to Americans.

6. So, start drilling now.

7. But of course, you won’t, which means that you are both stupid and evil.

Comments

[JKS]

#1, absolutely true. Steven Den Beste was blogging about this 15 or more years ago from an engineering point of view. Most people have no concept of how much energy a modern industrial society requires, and the idea that we can generate enough from such diffuse and unreliable sources as windmills and solar panels is delusional.

#2, well, it's probably just as well that we didn't build a lot of nuclear plants 50 years ago. Today's technology is **much** better -- smaller, more reliable, more scalable, and especially . . . safer. We should be building them now.

#3-6, couldn't agree more.

#7, well . . . I understand the rhetorical point you are making, and I agree that many if not most environmentalists/tree huggers/moonbats are, if not stupid then stridently ignorant, but I hesitate to brand them as "evil." This seems to illustrate the kind of political discourse we have today: civility is dead; our ideological opponents are not merely mistaken or misinformed, they are stupid and evil. I think this is going too far. It seems to me that most left wing types are basically decent people who want the same sort of things we do -- the greatest good for the greatest number, to put it concisely -- but choose very bad means to accomplish that goal. I suppose I should mention that several members of my immediate family, including my beloved daughter, are environmentalist nitwits -- but I love them anyway. They are decidedly *not* "evil."

[John Pepple]

You're right. I should have said "stupid or evil." Thanks.