The Kingdom Divided, Part 8

2007-3-20 06:47:00

The Question:

Those who teach as well as practice conservation. They use the resources they need but try to avoid waste and excess.
Those who make no effort to conserve resources. These people will often make fun of those who drive a Prius or use the new energy conserving light bulbs. This category would also include the environmental hypocrites who want others to conserve, but not themselves.

At least this was an easy one. Most of those on both sides of the political spectrum support conservation of the resources we use within reason.

Both the left and the right can be faulted though. Probably about a third of those on the right seem to have the attitude that only that which they can afford should determine how much energy they use. If they can afford a private jet or a limo then some will have no concern about the amount of fuel used.

A larger percentage of those on the left voice support of conservation, but unfortunately many of them only want the little guy to cut back while they continue to use a horrendous amount of energy. At least the excessive energy consumers on the right practice what they preach in this area. They believe in using lots of energy and they follow through and do so.

The left believes in conserving, but many do not practice what they preach.

We recently cited Al Gore as an example of this. He owns four mansions and in just one of them he uses 20 times the energy as the average home, leaving a giant carbon footprint and even a bigger one from often flying in a private jet.

Barbara Streisand is always preaching about conservation yet she owns a tremendous mansion that uses $22,000 worth of water annually so you can imagine her electric bill. She either drives an SUV or a motor home. She often drives the gas guzzling motor home to appointments so she can have her own bathroom wherever she goes.

Bobby Kennedy Jr. often flies on a private jet and his family is suing to have a windmill project torn down because it will ruin their view. The windmills are several miles out at sea where you need binoculars to even see them.

Michael Moore owns stock in Boeing and Halliburton. When traveling he has been observed holding a press conference in a humble motel and then after it is over he moves to his real location which is often an expensive suite.

Ralph Nader claims to live in a humble apartment but has several expensive homes in the name of his siblings where he often resides.

Most of the Hollywood crowd who gave Al Gore a standing ovation at the Oscars used more energy just getting to the Oscars than you or I use in a year. If they really believe Al Gore's message they would have ridden bicycles or at least a Prius to the Oscars.

It really frosts me when someone preaches to me what I should do when they do not practice what they preach. It is true the right has their share of hypocrites, mostly in religion, but the difference with those on the left is that their influence has power to impact my life with restrictive laws and religious zealots do not have much power to do this.

Next let us look at education. The educational system in the United States has been going downhill for some time despite a greatly increased cost per child.

One group wants to improve our educational system by giving power to be able to hold teachers and administrators accountable as well as giving incentives to teachers. They also support the idea of making the schools more competitive with each other and giving more choice to students as to which school they can attend. They also want more power to discipline students and expel the bad ones.
All the other side seems to want is to keep things as they are with the exception of getting more money for smaller classrooms and pay raises and benefits.

It should be obvious which side is the most enlightened here so I'll ask another question. When it is obvious that more money alone will not improve our educational system why is it then that this is the only move the majority seem to support? What can we do to turn things around?

Global Warming Enlightenment:

There is an atmospheric greenhouse effect, and carbon dioxide plays a role in it, but that's as far as it goes. There is only 0.037 percent of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by volume, and of total global emissions of carbon dioxide each year only 0.6 percent comes from cars - this is an insignificant contribution. Greens 'forget' that 96.5 percent of carbon dioxide comes from natural sources so mankind can have but little effect. Also the equilibria, or balance processes, at work in parts of the short-term carbon cycle mean that if we do succeed (we won't) in reducing carbon dioxide levels 'artificially', then nature will boost them again!

http://www.abd.org.uk/gwt_qa.htm