Kyoto Treaty Solves Nothing
Editor
The Fence Post
The ICO response to Dean O. Maxwell's letter printed in the 3 August 2001 ICO, "Egotistical opinions," was a masterpiece of misdirection. While it is correct that just about all the nations of the world are signatories to the Kyoto Protocol, none of the 15 member states of the European Union has yet to ratify it. In fact, the last news I saw on the issue, only Romania of all of the world's nations had ratified it. As Mr. Maxwell noted, under the Clinton Administration, the U. S. Senate rejected the protocol 95-0. An example of true bipartisanship at work.
A recent weather study using computer modeling determined that, if the protocol objectives were attained, the resulting average world temperature would only be 0.02 of a degree Celsius lower than without the protocol. It has been estimated that to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 2012 to a level 7 percent below 1990 levels, the United States would be required to drastically reduce our business activity to achieve a reduction of 30 percent. Are the drastic consequences to our economy worth it given the speculative nature of the effects of global warming?
If your answer is yes, then why aren't people who are upset about global warming equally upset about the certain outcomes of other types of disasters, such as the collapse of Social Security and the failure of our public school system? In 2016, Social Security payments will exceed income, and there are only government IOU's in the so-called Trust Fund. If more funds are diverted into the Trust Fund, it will only increase the height of the IOU pile. After 2016, benefits will either have to be cut, or Social Security taxes raised, and then raised again, and government borrowing will have to rapidly increase.
Public schools, particularly in inner cities and throughout California, are documented failures, and the costs of failure are children sentenced to a lifetime of poverty, government dependency, and urban sprawl caused by flight from cities to the suburbs to get away from our education disaster. Self-righteous Democrats defeat school choice, even as they exercise school choice themselves by moving to better schools, home schooling, or as many public school teachers do, sending their children to private schools. Even some community leaders in our area send their children to schools far from their homes, avoiding rather than trying to fix the Point Arena school system.
I have heard it said that we must do something about global warming even if we are unsure of its existence or its consequences, because it will be too late to fix it if we wait until we are sure. Well, what is our excuse for not doing anything to save our public school students and Social Security from certain disaster?
The Fence Post
The ICO response to Dean O. Maxwell's letter printed in the 3 August 2001 ICO, "Egotistical opinions," was a masterpiece of misdirection. While it is correct that just about all the nations of the world are signatories to the Kyoto Protocol, none of the 15 member states of the European Union has yet to ratify it. In fact, the last news I saw on the issue, only Romania of all of the world's nations had ratified it. As Mr. Maxwell noted, under the Clinton Administration, the U. S. Senate rejected the protocol 95-0. An example of true bipartisanship at work.
A recent weather study using computer modeling determined that, if the protocol objectives were attained, the resulting average world temperature would only be 0.02 of a degree Celsius lower than without the protocol. It has been estimated that to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 2012 to a level 7 percent below 1990 levels, the United States would be required to drastically reduce our business activity to achieve a reduction of 30 percent. Are the drastic consequences to our economy worth it given the speculative nature of the effects of global warming?
If your answer is yes, then why aren't people who are upset about global warming equally upset about the certain outcomes of other types of disasters, such as the collapse of Social Security and the failure of our public school system? In 2016, Social Security payments will exceed income, and there are only government IOU's in the so-called Trust Fund. If more funds are diverted into the Trust Fund, it will only increase the height of the IOU pile. After 2016, benefits will either have to be cut, or Social Security taxes raised, and then raised again, and government borrowing will have to rapidly increase.
Public schools, particularly in inner cities and throughout California, are documented failures, and the costs of failure are children sentenced to a lifetime of poverty, government dependency, and urban sprawl caused by flight from cities to the suburbs to get away from our education disaster. Self-righteous Democrats defeat school choice, even as they exercise school choice themselves by moving to better schools, home schooling, or as many public school teachers do, sending their children to private schools. Even some community leaders in our area send their children to schools far from their homes, avoiding rather than trying to fix the Point Arena school system.
I have heard it said that we must do something about global warming even if we are unsure of its existence or its consequences, because it will be too late to fix it if we wait until we are sure. Well, what is our excuse for not doing anything to save our public school students and Social Security from certain disaster?
posted by Major Combs | 8:02 PM
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