I do not deny that our ecosystem is changing, and that the weather patterns are changing. Where I disagree is that mankind is the sole cause of it. Weather patterns shift as part of the natural order of things. It’s difficult to extract ourselves from the equation and to decipher which is which. I also loath the self-deprecation that “believers” have towards our country as it comes to our level of pollution and contribution to said climate change. We have made MASSIVE strides in this country on being more conscious of our emissions, and yet we continue to get slapped about the head and face by ecoterrorists that insist everything that runs on fossil fuels is akin to a mortal sin.Our way of life is built around fossil fuels, mostly because there is no good, cost-effective alternative. The concept of going green is fine and dandy, until you involve the end consumer in the process, especially the middle and lower classes. First, the easiest to fix would be electricity, mostly because it doesn’t require direct investment by the consumer. But what you don’t see is that if we convert all of our processes to green processes, we run the risk of brownouts or worse. On top of that, the investment made by utility companies will spike the costs passed on to the consumer. Do you want to see a family of 4 making $35k a year (poverty) see their utility bill double or triple? You honestly think they can absorb that cost? If you say, “government programs will pay for it,” where do you think that comes from? Why, it comes from schlubs like me that can afford to pay my utility bill, so our rates will go up nearly double to make up for it. It hurts the middle class the worst, because the upper class doesn’t care. They have enough money to pay it without even batting an eye. Then we get to heat… a lot of people use heating oil or forced-air natural gas or other natural-gas-using devices. If you have to convert all those units to Geotherm or electric (because we somehow magically converted everything to have an abundant electricity supply), that’s a massive expense to lay out for individual homeowners or business owners to convert everything in the buildings to electric or geotherm (not cheap). Who is going to pay for this?? How can the middle and lower classes afford this, on top of the increased electricity bill above? Again, the rich have enough money so they don’t care.I could continue, but I’m looking at this from a practical approach. Do we need to reign in emissions? Sure? Maybe? Does India and China? Absolutely. But can the rank-and-file consumer afford to do a major overhaul of our system to meet ecoterrorist demands? Not in even the best-case scenario can we do that. it’s simply too expensive for the average household to retool to meet your expectations. Or do you have a more pragmatic approach that is reasonable for every day people?
I do not deny that our ecosystem is changing, and that the weather patterns are changing. Where I disagree is that mankind is the sole cause of it. Weather patterns shift as part of the natural order of things. It’s difficult to extract ourselves from the equation and to decipher which is which. I also loath the self-deprecation that “believers” have towards our country as it comes to our level of pollution and contribution to said climate change. We have made MASSIVE strides in this country on being more conscious of our emissions, and yet we continue to get slapped about the head and face by ecoterrorists that insist everything that runs on fossil fuels is akin to a mortal sin.Our way of life is built around fossil fuels, mostly because there is no good, cost-effective alternative. The concept of going green is fine and dandy, until you involve the end consumer in the process, especially the middle and lower classes. First, the easiest to fix would be electricity, mostly because it doesn’t require direct investment by the consumer. But what you don’t see is that if we convert all of our processes to green processes, we run the risk of brownouts or worse. On top of that, the investment made by utility companies will spike the costs passed on to the consumer. Do you want to see a family of 4 making $35k a year (poverty) see their utility bill double or triple? You honestly think they can absorb that cost? If you say, “government programs will pay for it,” where do you think that comes from? Why, it comes from schlubs like me that can afford to pay my utility bill, so our rates will go up nearly double to make up for it. It hurts the middle class the worst, because the upper class doesn’t care. They have enough money to pay it without even batting an eye. Then we get to heat… a lot of people use heating oil or forced-air natural gas or other natural-gas-using devices. If you have to convert all those units to Geotherm or electric (because we somehow magically converted everything to have an abundant electricity supply), that’s a massive expense to lay out for individual homeowners or business owners to convert everything in the buildings to electric or geotherm (not cheap). Who is going to pay for this?? How can the middle and lower classes afford this, on top of the increased electricity bill above? Again, the rich have enough money so they don’t care.I could continue, but I’m looking at this from a practical approach. Do we need to reign in emissions? Sure? Maybe? Does India and China? Absolutely. But can the rank-and-file consumer afford to do a major overhaul of our system to meet ecoterrorist demands? Not in even the best-case scenario can we do that. it’s simply too expensive for the average household to retool to meet your expectations. Or do you have a more pragmatic approach that is reasonable for every day people?