The Week That Was by S. Fred Singer, December 22, 1998, published by the Science and Environmental Policy Project, 4084 University Drive, Suite 101, Fairfax, VA 22030, reports that Canada's Minister of the Environment, Christine Stewart, speaking about "global warming'' to editors and reporters of the Calgary Herald said, "No matter if the science is all phony, there are collateral environmental benefits . . . .
Climate change [provides] the greatest chance to bring about justice and equality in the world.'' This sort of non-thought binds much of the enviro movement together. Each group (they rarely think as individuals) is convinced that enviro measures will serve whatever social purpose provides their current reasons for self-justification. Truth being irrelevant to them, they all climb together on each antitechnology bandwagon that passes by.
As reported in "Dream Ran Out of Steam - Geysers Goose Egg'' published in The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, California, November 29, 1998, p B1, California has lost $600 million in the failure of two steam power plants that were built by the administration of California governor Jerry Brown. One of the plants never operated at all, and the other ran at about 10% of capacity for a few years before it was closed. California still must repay the bonds issued to build them.
The problem - the state built these two geothermal steam powered plants in locations where there was not enough steam to operate them. Although this deficiency was known to experts associated with the project, the Brown administration, enthusiastic to have its very own alternative energy demonstration project, pushed ahead with the plants without an independent study of steam availability.
The Spirit of Free Enterprise by George Gilder, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1984, and Recapturing The Spirit of Free Enterprise by George Gilder, ICS Press, San Francisco, 1992. (The second book also contains the first.)
It is said that people are motivated primarily by greed and fear (and sex - if you believe the "entertainment'' industry). While the base motivations of greed and fear are powerful (look how far the Clintons have ridden them), these are not the human characteristics that have motivated those who have built our civilization. It is the higher characteristics of the human spirit to which we owe our way of life - as George Gilder ably sets forth in these books.
BELLE Newsletter published by NREPHC, University of Massachusetts, School of Public Health, Amherst, MA 01003, issues 6, 3 (1998) and 7, 1 1998). BELLE stands for "Biological Effects of Low Level Exposures.'' These two issues explore the toxicological and societal implications of hormesis - the biological tendency for radiation and chemical exposures to be beneficial at low dose levels.
Environment News published monthly by The Heartland Institute, 19 South LaSalle, Suite 903, Chicago, IL 60603. The November 1998 issue is typical of this excellent antienviro publication.
