1) Ivan Amato, Science 261, p. 152 (9 July 1993) "The Crusade Against Chlorine" begins with the lead, "As environmentalists broaden an unprecedented campaign to banish an entire element from industrial chemistry, industry and scientists ready their counterattack." If we were not all caught in the backwash of this madness, this fight would be a joy to watch. Here we have the head of chlorine production for Dow Chemical Company leading a parade of enviro-appeasing corporations in a battle against the logical result of all the pseudoscientific nonsense that these companies have tolerated and supported in the "environmental" movement. The "logic" as expressed by lead envirogroup, Greenpest goes as follows: Since DDT, PCBs, and CFCs were scourges, why not ban the other more than 10,000 industrially produced chlorine compounds just to be on the safe side? (DDT saved more lives from disease than any other human discovery, PCBs economically prevented many electrical fires without harm, and CFCs have failed to reverse the decline in UV radiation levels in American cities regardless of their reputed effects on the ozone layer.) The appalling fact is that these people are actually serious and are being taken seriously. The government of Norway is considering a total chlorine ban and the International Joint Commission established by the U.S. and Canada to watch over the Great Lakes has actually called for a broad phase-out of chlorine in industry. The enviros are also working toward consumer boycotts of chlorine-containing products. Most of their propaganda work has already been done for them by corporations that misrepresent environmental risks in order to promote their own "enviro-friendly" packaging and products. Stay tuned to American politics folks as, one by one, the entries in the periodic table just disappear. 2) There could merely be a blank space here with instructions to fill in whatever Clinton did to America on the day you read this, but
Visualize for a moment three generations of scientists and engineers who have worked to make the production and consumption of energy as efficient as possible. Energy is literally the currency of human technological progress. The the lower the cost of energy, the farther and faster our society can develop.
Now visualize a Rhodes dropout (it is actually difficult to be a Rhodes Scholar and yet fail to receive a degree, but Clinton achieved this) and war protester who has never held a productive job in his life. This towering intellect, with the help of a gaggle of lesser lights in Congress, will simply sign away large parts of that science and engineering by raising the cost of American energy—not by mistake, but on purpose.
This is being done to fulfill his promise to improve the economy, create jobs, and increase the nation's wealth, so that we can afford more environmental regulations.
One of the Founding Fathers is reported to have said that we should be loyal to our country always—and to our government when it deserves it. Do we even have a government?
3) Byte magazine printed in July an article by Paul Saffo entitled "A Conspiracy of Silence. Let's not hide the health risk of electro-magnetic-field radiation any longer." This reminds me of a health food guru I knew long ago who advocated the placement of a tray of growing wheat grass just under and in front of each television set to prevent damage from television radiation. Soon the EPA may require that a package of wheat berries be shipped with each video terminal.
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Vol. 21, No. 1
Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive Volume: Issues Issue/No.: Vol. 21, No. 1 Date: September 01, 1993 04:42 PM Title: Petr Beckman
Copyright © 2004 - Access to Energy Newsletter Archive
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