WSJ, via Instapundit;
To this day, the zombie science of acid rain lives on at the EPA’s website, which falsely states that acidification of soil, streams and lakes is caused by emissions from power stations. The EPA reckons the annual cost of anti-acid-rain measures in the U.S. will reach $65 billion in 2020, but it no longer claims that the money will prevent ecosystem damage. Now it just claims to be improving public health.
In its approach to the science of global warming, the EPA under current Administrator Scott Pruitt couldn’t offer a greater contrast with the acid-rain coverup perpetrated by the EPA during the late ’80s and early ’90s. Instead of attacking dissident scientists, Mr. Pruitt’s proposal to hold red-team/blue-team appraisals would put dissenters on the same footing as consensus-supporting scientists. This will enable proper debate between both camps to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of the scientific consensus on global warming.
Open debate is as crucial to science as it is to democracy. Capping sulfur-dioxide emissions is an economic pinprick compared with the multitrillion-dollar cost of cutting emissions of carbon dioxide. If people’s way of life is to be forcibly changed in an expensive attempt to decarbonize society, at the very least it should be done with their informed consent.
I remember being taken in/enticed by all the “acid rain” hysteria as a youngster in the 80s and stating to my older brother and mother that I thought the trees would stop growing within 10 years. Luckily this University of Chicago educated meteorologist brother set me straight at the time. That was the beginning of my healthy skepticism of the environmental movement.
These scares seem to happen when there is a Republican in the White House. Remember the Ozone Hole crisis which also occurred in the 80s? Environmentalists can take ordinary, everyday occurrences and turn them into crises of epic proportions.
With COP 23 coming up next month and Trump in the White House, I expect the warmistas will become hysterical to a level we have never seen before.
And what will the environmental COST be when every automobile is MANDATED to be an EV ? Based on what? The foul air of Los Angeles? (hint: did you see the gorgeous views of the San Gabriel mountains from Dodger stadium … uh, yeah as IF America/CA hasn’t cleaned-up and managed the IC automobile). The EV hysteria hasn’t really been thought through on a global (if not National) scale. As IF the massive-sized batteries and proliferation of these batteries won’t produce unintended eco-damage? As-if anyone would WANT the HUGE power plants necessary to recharge (constantly) these batteries in their neighborhood? So the power plants get moved further and further away from the need, creating further waste of power in transmission losses.
I blame MY generation of dirty 1970’s, Jimmy Carter granola-eaters who have been carping about “Big oil” and their “green dreams” since the very first Earth Day in 1970. True story: I was a 7th grader in 1970, and my local Jr. Hi. administration organized and sanctioned the ENTIRE school to MARCH through our downtown as a show of support for this new secular humanist High Holiday … Earth Day. 400 middle school kids walking through the downtown, happy ONLY to get a reprieve from the confinement of the classroom. In hindsight, it was a fairly SICK-in-the-head political manipulation of innocent children. A thorough indoctrination … uh, yeah … based almost entirely on the overblown ‘science’ of Acid Rain … and the flaming Cuyahoga River in Cleveland.
Is it good to clean-up the environment and … so to speak … not SHIT where you EAT. Uh, yeah. But not EVERY greenish-sounding notion is good. Every sea change proposed to our wildly successful society should be carefully examined from ALL viewpoints … there is not now, nor has there EVER BEEN such a thing as ‘Settled Science’
Oh … and BTW … re: Scott Pruitt … WINNING! The American people are WINNING! MAGA baby MAGA. MY President keeps EXCEEDING my expectations DAILY! Tweet-away, Mr President! Let your ‘freak-flag’, FLY!!! Make EVERY career politician squirm in their loaded ‘Depends’ adult diapers.
Not too many people are aware that the pH level of all rainwater is about 5.5. This means all rainwater IS acidic. Water vapour reacts with carbon dioxide (CO2) and creates carbonic acid (H2CO3) Granted before scrubber technology was fully implemented phosphoric and sulphuric particles played a role as well, which made rainwater more acidic.
“Remember the Ozone Hole crisis which also occurred in the 80s? Environmentalists can take ordinary, everyday occurrences and turn them into crises of epic proportions.”
They just discovered the Ozone Hole in the ’80s. It had never even been noticed before. Who knows how large it was in the past or what size it will be in the future. One thing we do know after such a short period of observation is that it oscillates. WHY has not been proven.
Correlation is not causation.
I love the insanity of carbon based organisms trying to get rid of carbon. CO2 is necessary for life on earth to survive. foolish does not begin to describe it.