Posted on 08/26/2002 5:43:35 PM PDT by madfly
Along with death and taxes, the U.N.'s America-bashing is one of the few things in life you can count on. The only variables in this global version of the Whack-A-Mole game are the time, place, and manner of the whacks. This week the venue moves to Johannesburg, South Africa, the site of the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development. The forum aims to focus on the deteriorating state of the environment in poor countries. News accounts remind us that 100 presidents and prime ministers from around the world will attend-but not George W. Bush!
(gasp!)
The New York Times' "news account" of the 10-day event includes the gem: "The United States, the world's biggest polluter, has also refused to commit to time frames for reducing greenhouse gas emissions"
(Double gasp!).Of course conveniently omitted from most reports about global warming, etc., is that while the US may produce 25 percent of the world's greenhouse gases, we also have the world's largest economy. And what about the untold number of jobs created abroad through our ballooning trade deficit? Or the fact that we feed the world, unless thugs like Mugabe don't allow it? Then there's the small matter of our having defeated communism and kept other tyrants in check.
As Bjorn Lomborg lays out so eloquently in his book The Skeptical Environmentalist, the environment is not going to hell in a hand basket. Fewer people are dying of starvation today, energy and other natural resources are actually becoming more, not less, plentiful. Only about 0.7 percent of species are predicted to vanish within 50 years. And most forms of pollution have been widely exaggerated by ENVIROS, who won't be truly content until we all go solar and eat vegan.
While it is tempting to brush off these UN-sponsored forums as left-wing claptrap, we should resist doing so. America's dedicated liberals know they're never going to convince Americans to dump their SUVs. And they know they can't get elected on far-left agendas that will end up costing taxpayers dearly. So they look to conferences like this to publicize their pro-regulation cause, and shame the US into coughing up more foreign aid for developing countries. Middle America understands what too many who frequent these UN conferences don't-how to make an honest living. We've seen what no-strings-attached welfare system did to the poor in the US and most of us don't much feel like seeing that repeated on a global scale.
WORD OF THE WEEK
leitmotif (leit·mo·tif) n.1. A melodic passage or phrase, especially in Wagnerian opera, associated with a specific character, situation, or element. 2 A dominant and recurring theme, as in a novel. As in-The Left's recent leitmotif is that the Bush Administration is wedded to a dangerous course of unilateralism.
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Sorry I was not at Friva to hear her talk.
Note: The weekly E-Blast is emailed on Mondays, and posted to her site on Tuesdays.
please add keywords :)
Thanks for sharing.
Now I know who added the kick-butt keywords.
This woman's thought process is so sharp. She's tough but kind.
She lost me right there. Other than a substantial grain surplus that comes back in imported beef, we don't even feed ourselves any more.
Sure.
Try the Center for North American Studies (CNAS) at Texas A&M. They have a paper and a powerpoint slideshow compiled for the Millennium Summit that is most instructive. The data is about four years old and the situation has worsened considerably since then. Tyson, for example, is moving big operations in both chicken and aquaculture to Argentina. Also, be careful when you read it to understand what I meant. I said FOOD. That doesn't include catfish or tobacco, for example.
Perhaps, instead of bemoaning our reasonable lack of support the flawed and anti-American Kyoto treaty, they should ask that we share our pollution/emission technology with the very countries that were exempted from the treaty, India and China. Since both countries comprise a good third or better of the world's population, and are emerging economies in terms of industry and transportation, why not give them the technology we developed so they will not further contribute to the huge yellow cloud covering their countries in southeast Asia? Better yet, sell them our emission controlled cars (especially the crappy electric cars)! Considering what they are forced to drive now, they will thank us for decades to come!
Doing things like this instead of asking us to retard our economies might be mutually beneficial in terms of both the environment and our economies.
One can only hope that they will be predominantly liberals.
Now I recognize her from the TV talk shows.
Since it appears to be a five show a week program, I don't know what it is we are getting on Sunday - just one repeat show from the week or a highlight show or what... but I have enjoyed her and wish they would find a place for regular airings.
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