Friday, December 31, 2010

The Apple Dumpling Gang Strikes Again...(Part V)

Wow....

I'm not surprised that the Apple Dumpling Gang (and their InterLeft fellow travellers) are gung-ho about having the EPA take over Texas refining industry, what surprises me the most is their main argument: It's good for Texas.


Unless, that is, you're one of the approximately 30% of Houstonians (and the real number is probably higher) who earn a living off of the petro-chemical industry. THEN it's not so good for you. So the main argument seems to be that a lot of you will be homeless, but at least the air you breathe will be .05% lower in carbon dioxide.


Yup, that's worth killing the economy.


The funny thing is that those who claim to be "for the little guy" only look at the success of the big guys when they gauge an impact on an industry. Stock goes up? Well, everything must be just fine. Executives are raking in bonuses? Yup, all's well. What these residents of A Place Called Perfect ignore is that those stock price increases and bonuses are built on cost reduction in a profit-unfriendly environment. The single, biggest cost for most companies is labor. Industry giants look to other countries, smaller players lay-off and the unemployment rate hangs stubbornly around 9-10%. All to try and "fix" a problem that is most probably 99.98% natural occurrence.

Is the Earth's climate changing? You bet it is. Just as it has for Millennia, and will continue to do so even IF humanity were to shut down all traces of industrial activity tomorrow.

The best thing to do is try and live a clean life. Give a hoot, don't pollute, go out and buy some reusable grocery bags, conserve energy, join a local clean-up effort. And while industry progress on some clean-up efforts are (admittedly) slow, realize that forcing them to take drastic steps is just going to put a lot of people out on the street, with no immediate prospects for employment. (The so-called "green" economy being a jobs non-starter.)

Pollution sucks, we get that. But the answer to our pollution concerns is not going to be letting an activist EPA come in and start dismantling our economy so that Al Gore's green investment firm can realize another half-percent return on their principal. He's done a good job convincing a sizable minority that it is however. That this same minority's favorite political party is all but dead in Texas (for now) should tell you something.



New Year's Resolution: Live clean, don't buy the "green" hype. In other words: Be a Conservationist not an Ecomentalist. Your life, and the economy, will be better off for it.




Oh, and stop paying attention to The Apple Dumpling Gang. That's the first step to ridding Houston of intellectual pollutants.

1 comment:

Ed T. said...

That "economy killer" thing is even worse, given that the whole "green economy" house of cards depends on some fairly rare materials, most of which are found in China. And, guess what? China is *restricting exports* of said materials, for - you guessed it! - "environmental considerations".

I detect the odor of irony here...

~EdT.

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