 June 17, 2009
Dear Friend, As you read this week's WeGetIt.org Wednesday Bulletin, please be thinking of friends who would benefit from it, and then forward it to them. Thanks for your support! When climate control competes with health care Economists never tire of harping on "opportunity cost": What gets used for fuel can't be used for food, what gets spent on high-tech pizza ovens for rich Americans can't be spent on low-tech water purification systems for poor Zimbabweans, etc.
A particularly good illustration of the importance of counting opportunity cost arose when British Columbia's SurreyLeader.com reported that area hospitals would have to cut $4 million per year out of other parts of their budgets to pay the province's new carbon tax and offset their carbon footprints. "The Fraser Health Authority will pay $616,000 in carbon tax this year, rising to $821,000 next year," SurreyLeader.com reported. "And by 2010 Fraser will also be paying $1.3 million a year to the province's Pacific Carbon Trust to offset its projected 52,600 tonnes of carbon emissions released." That's all money that it won't have available to buy better diagnostic or treatment equipment or pay more doctors and nurses to give more and better care to patients. Quiet Sun a harbinger of cooler Earth?
The Canadian Wheat Board warns that cool temperatures have delayed growth of western Canada's wheat and barley crops by at least 10 days and put them at risk of damage from frosts. "You're pushing development into a period with better likelihood of getting a frost,” said Bruce Burnett, director of weather and market analysis for the Canadian Wheat Board. “It's not particularly what we need at this moment. It's just too cool.” In the Southern Hemisphere, Brazil has reduced its corn output forecast for the same reason. Both may be due to global cooling driven by a quiet Sun. The number of sunspots correlates closely with Earth's sea surface temperature--much more closely than changes in atmospheric greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.
Record-low sunspot numbers over the past two years suggest that Earth could be heading into what one blogger calls "Little Ice Age II, The Sequel." The original Little Ice Age, from about A.D. 1300 to 1850, brought devastating crop failures and greater storminess all over the Northern Hemisphere and probably the Southern as well, and the global warming since then has been largely or perhaps entirely a natural recovery from that cool period. Keep that in mind the next time you hear dire warnings of manmade global warming. Climate alarm produces dangerous plans, environmental damage As global warming hysteria increases, some people are turning their attention in another direction: geo-engineering. The aim is to cool the earth by reducing the amount of the Sun's energy that reaches planet's surface. According to one advocate, the two most promising methods are injecting sulfates into the atmosphere (mimicking "massive volcanic eruptions"), and increasing cloudiness. "To trigger a drop in global temperatures, we’d need to loft between two million and 10 million tons of sulfur dioxide (which combines with oxygen to form sulfate particles) into the lower stratosphere," says James Cascio in The Wall Street Journal. It would have to be repeated every year, since the particles eventually fall out of the atmosphere. Alternatively, we could inject massive amounts of sea spray into the atmosphere to increase cloudiness, thus reflecting more sunlight back into space. Both options have significant risks, like causing local or regional flooding and unnatural weather fluctuations. International tensions would arise over who got to choose which nations would benefit, and which would suffer, from the changes. With new reports appearing frequently showing the dubious scientific basis of manmade global warming fears ; hard data showing that we've had about 7 to 8 years of global cooling; and the likelihood, discussed above, that a quiet solar cycle will bring on yet more global cooling, it seems imprudent at best to think about purposely trying to cool the Earth. If one thing's clear, our understanding of the incredibly complex climate system is in its infancy. That would suggest that we move slowly on intentionally trying to control it. Now, please forward this message to your pastor, other Christian leaders, and friends and urge them to sign the WeGetIt.org Declaration, too! The more people sign, the stronger the message our leaders will hear that Biblical principles and factual evidence, not media hype about speculative fears like global warming, should guide our care for the environment and the poor.Gratefully, We value your privacy. If you received this from a friend, you can join the campaign at www.WeGetIt.org. This message was originally sent to [email address suppressed] because someone signed the WeGetIt.org Declaration as "fullname." Edit your name | Bulletin Archives | Unsubscribe | Inquiries |
