Increased average surface temperature will
likely result in:
- - Expanded tropics - the tropical regions of Earth contain the greatest concentration and largest diversity of life than anywhere else in the known Universe!
- - Longer growing seasons - more plants and more food, allowing smaller plots of land to support larger populations.
- - Fewer temperature-related deaths - cold weather kills more people than warm weather.
Yet environmentalists have decreed that the average temperature of the Earth just before widespread industrialization is the perfect temperature and needs
to be preserved at all cost.
Politicians have all too quickly jumped on the "stop global warming!" bandwagon, and are clambering over each other to implement the fiercest restrictions and most ambitious programs under the guise of "protecting the environment". Consider what harm similar hasty decisions have done in the past:
- - Banning of DDT - Pressure from environmental lobbiests led to an international ban of this supposedly dangerous chemical. Since then, millions of Africans have died from malaria, a disease which given today's technology should be preventable. DDT, if used properly, could stop the spread of this horrific disease at almost no risk to humans or livestock.
- - Biofuels - President Bush's legislation requiring a certain proportion of fuel used in cars to come from 'renewable' sources. Government subsidies for
growing biofuels led to less land being used for food, driving up the price of basic foods.
Current environmental policies look to be just as damaging. Barack Obama was quoted during his campaign as saying he would destroy the coal industry, a source of cheap, domestic energy and thousands of jobs. Despite huge investments in renewable energy, we are still heavily dependant on fossil fuels, and taxes or cap-and-trade programs will drive up energy prices, hurting most those society is supposed to protect, the poor.
Politicians need to slow down and consider the long term implications of the legislation they write, instead of trying to ride the protecting-the-Earth feel-good factor through the next election. The global warming hysteria brought about by the media, public figures and politicians will cause more harm than good.