Time for Thorns

“Every aspect of our lives must be subjected to an inventory … of how we are taking responsibility.”

Those are Speaker Pelosi’s words,  and they ought to scare you spitless,  because she’s talking to the Chinese about combating climate change.    She also declared a healthy environment a human right,  and that governments would have to make decisions and choices based on science,  something neither she nor the Obama administration has any intention of doing.

“They also have to do it with openness,  transparency and accountability to the people,”  she said. “  Everyone has to have their situation improved by it.”

If you still harbored the faint hope that the eco-Nazis wanted to heal the earth instead of increasing power,  this should disabuse you  of that quaint notion.

If you find the current level of government intrusion into your life a cause for concern,  just wait until liberals legislate themselves the right to tell you what vehicle to drive — oh, wait,  Obama is in the process of doing that.    Mark my words —  it will be less than 2 years before Congress cranks up standards  and regulations to such an extent that only government-owned manufacturers will be able to meet them.   If too many people try to hang on to their non-conforming vehicles,  there will be lawsuits against them for potential vehicular homicide,   since tiny cars invariably lose crash contests.    Democrats in Congress will nobly step forward to “protect” us environmental heathens and legislate the larger vehicles out of existence.  Except for theirs,  of course.

Meanwhile,  if your electricity comes from coal,  as it does in much of the Southeast  and elsewhere,  you will be forced to either pay exorbitant amounts for “cleaner” power,  or go back to candles and fireplaces  — no,  wood-burning fireplaces are already outlawed in California.    Perhaps they’ll let us burn vegetable peelings and rags,   and the upholstery from the cars we once drove.

The panic buying of incandescent light bulbs in Britain may be fodder for comics, but it’s really quite serious.  If you haven’t discovered the Planet Gore blog at National Review,  do, here:

http://planetgore.nationalreview.com/

Brendan O’Neill smartly points out that without the heat produced by incandescent bulbs, people may turn up the heat in their homes.  The environmental movement is full of similar examples where unintended consequences arise.   Perhaps the worst so far is ethanol, which involves using a food crop to produce fuel — truly stupid.

I chose halogen work lights for my greenhouse precisely because I get both light and heat from them, and a mere 2000 watts has seen it safely through overnight temperatures of 14 degrees, with wind chill running down to near zero.

Larrey Anderson has a fine explanation of environmentalism as religion over at American Thinker:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/12/worshipping_the_weather.html

As a farmer’s daughter, and a gardener myself, I know the weather changes, and that it tends to run in cycles.  This appears beyond the observational powers of  members of the UN’s climate panel, and most environmentalists, the majority of whom have never managed anything larger than a flower pot.

The worker bees in environmental groups may actually believe they’re saving the planet, and their souls, but their leaders see the issue as a way to obtain power and control.

The one thing Larrey omits is the success of environmentalists in convincing mainstream religious houses to incorporate “the environment” as part of their pastoral focus.   If your minister  preaches environmentalism, hand him Larrey’s column and watch him like a hawk.   Good stewardship of the land is proper and sensible, but if the environment is your Lord, you’re in trouble.

I’m thrilled to report that California regulators have approved the most sweeping global warming plan in the nation.

http://www.newsmax.com/us/california_greenhouse_gases/2008/12/11/160600.html

Since that state is already $14.8  billion or so in the red, this idiotic plan should provide a graphic lesson in the severe economic costs of doing something based on emotion instead of reason.

Environmentalists are so worried about carbon dioxide levels — the sky is falling! — but they are now about the same as they were pre-industrialization.  Check out the clear-headed Dr. Tim Ball, here:

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/6855

This is too funny:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2008/11/nbc_fires_twc_environmental_un.html

NBC axed the entire staff of the The Weather Channel’s “Forecast Earth” environmental program during the middle of NBC’s “Green Week.”

But it’s still comitted to saving the earth, don’t you know.