Oops: Climate Policies Making Things Worse

Posted July 19, 2009, 9:44 p.m.

When I saw the article in my RSS feed reader, I thought it was a joke from The Onion. No, it was from The Washington Post.

Before CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) became Al Gore’s environmental boogy-chemical, the environmental exaggeration artists were focused on chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). These chemicals were blamed for creating holes in the ozone layer. If you’re about my age (mid-to-late twenties) you probably heard a whole lot about this in elementary school. CFCs were emitted into the atmosphere by air conditioners, refrigerators, and all kinds of spray cans for hair spray, inhalers, etc. In 1987, the governments of the world signed the ‘Montreal Protocol’ and began to stringently limit CFCs.

Scientists developed an alternative called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which have since become the norm for the aforementioned air conditioners, refrigerators, and spray cans, and CFCs have essentially been eliminated. But, guess what! HFCs are a greenhouse gas, and now we’re finding out that they are 4,400 times worse than CO2. Congratulations, HFCs: you saved our ozone layer, but now you will turn the Earth into a boiling hot mass of molten magma.

Or, perhaps you won’t do much of anything. After all, the science behind CO2 being responsible for global warming (or ‘climate change’, which is the new, vaguer term) is shaky-at-best. That’s a rant for another day.

Scott Bradford has been putting his opinions on his website since 1995—before most people knew what a website was. He has been a professional web developer in the public- and private-sector for over twenty years. He is an independent constitutional conservative who believes in human rights and limited government, and a Catholic Christian whose beliefs are summarized in the Nicene Creed. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from George Mason University. He loves Pink Floyd and can play the bass guitar . . . sort-of. He’s a husband, pet lover, amateur radio operator, and classic AMC/Jeep enthusiast.

Quotes

History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.

He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness still.

The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts.

Failure is only the opportunity more intelligently to begin again.

It is infinitely better to have a few good men than many indifferent ones.

‘Sola scriptura’ reduces the Bible to a riddle that no one can interpret with certainty because each person can only rely on his or her fallible understanding of the sacred text.

When you have something to say, silence is a lie—and tyranny feeds on lies.

Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?

Nobody has the right to search (or disarm) a citizen in a public space.

For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: If any one will not work, let him not eat.

Although man has many points of resemblance with the brute creation, one characteristic is peculiar to himself—he improves. . . .

In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.

Therefore the wise avoid extremes, excesses, and complacency.

Christianity doesn’t begin by telling people what they must do, but what God has done for them. Gift comes before duty.

An unconditional right to say what one pleases about public affairs is what I consider to be the minimum guarantee of the First Amendment.

Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

The Son of God became a stumbling block when he humiliated Himself to the human level, taking on the form and habit of man. It is hard on the intelligentsia to believe that greatness can be so little.

When I hear somebody sigh that ‘Life is hard,’ I am always tempted to ask, ‘Compared to what?’

Defending the West is made more difficult by the fact that so many Europeans harbor an extreme anti-Americanism. Many do not accept that the United States is a part of the same Western civilization, and that it stands or falls together with Europe in the face of a new totalitarian threat.