2 days ago, the EPA declared itself the GHG police for 6 greenhouse gasses: “carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride”. New regulations can be expected within a year and they WILL change your life.
Let me refresh some facts.
- The world population has tripled in about the last 60 years.
- The US population has tripled in less time.
- Greenhouse gasses are measured by country and not per capita which means the total population is important, adding people does not increase the allowable greenhouse gasses for a country.
- The US has been committed to reductions from 2005 levels and that means much more than the 17% you’re seeing in the media because that’s 17% from 2005 levels and that likely means real reductions of about 25% from current levels. That’s a huge reduction and we’re to get there within a decade despite increasing population. That is a very short period of time for a very dramatic change.
- The “poor” nations want money so we’ll be committed to sending some, well, a lot of money. There are nations that want funding to MOVE.
- There’s a new plan to treat everyone in Africa for HIV. That means one of the largest populations will grow, probably have a population explosion, and it may well be a population in perpetual need of expensive AIDS drugs. Despite decades of assistance, African nations seem no nearer being able to care for their own and the world will most likely be expected to step in to help the growing population as well.
- We’re about to get some form of national health care in which one is criminalized if too poor to afford coverage (and act as a de facto form of national ID) and which will cost trillions of dollars and our economy is still in the tank. Oh, and the headline yesterday was that our president recommends spending our way out of this debacle and today it was an extension of the bailout for almost another year; more big buck spent. Yet we are amongst the “wealthy” nations expected to provide money to other “poor” nations.
Those are just a few of the highlights.
To the extent we were a wealthy nation and a leader, much of that simply must be attributed to the American way of life and its fundamental values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness/protection of property rights. What I see in the above changes is a straight up re-distribution of wealth and the near sweeping away of a large chunk of those fundamental values.
For those of us who own living property, this story gets worse. Of course, we’re already fighting those who presume to know what’s best for all animals and have little or no regard for our rights in them as property and that’s exactly what they are.
I OWN 3 cats. No matter how I feel about them or treat them, I OWN them but there are those who believe they have some public interest in being able to snatch them up based on mere allegations of neglect. NOW, I get to deal with the methane police who will want to limit my ability to provide beef to my carnivore “kids”. Lest you think methane regulation will only affect beef production since that’s the one most commonly mentioned in the media, let me dissuade you. Methane is produced by ruminants and that includes all of these: “cattle, goats, sheep, giraffes, bison, yaks, water buffalo, deer, camels, alpacas, llamas, wildebeest, antelope, pronghorn, and nilgai”. I’m no religious scholar but I seem to recall that list is nearly identical to the list of “clean” animals in the Abrahamic traditions. (Someone correct me if I got that wrong.)
Then there’s the 4 dogs that I OWN and then there’s the humans in my household. I happen to be amongst those who think we are all omnivores still leaning toward the carnivore traditions rather than wanna be vegans who haven’t quite made the switch. I have no intention of giving up our ruminant meals!
Greenhouse gas regulation by the EPA will affect far more. Here’s a very few highlights:
- Nitrous Oxide. You recognize that if you’re a dental wimp like me. Wonder how fast they take it away from use in dentists offices. It’s used in many other ways too from whipping cream to the extra “air” in potato chip bags to cooking sprays. You’re gonna miss it too! It will be less available and it will cost more.
- Hydrofluorocarbons. These abound in your life and you don’t even know it! If you’ve had to put refrigerant in your A/C and gasped at the increased cost of the new refrigerant, just wait for the impact of really serious restrictions of these chemicals!
- Perfluorocarbons. We could probably live without many of these unless you need some of the anesthetics to save your life. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfluorocarbons#Derivatives
- Sulfur hexafluoride. I don’t think I’ll miss this one much but I could be wrong.
- Carbon dioxide. We’ve all heard about that one, mostly in relation to auto and factory emissions. Why do I suspect we’ll be paying more for vehicles and there will be a tax on baker’s yeast before the factory emissions are really dealt with? And just say good bye now to dry ice for Halloween parties!
I’m NOT a big fan of chemicals and I think we would all do better to do some self educating and self reductions of them in our lives. However, the EPA regulating them makes me nuts. The result will be that corporations have virtually unlimited access to them but will jack up prices claiming the minor restrictions on them are actually huge. In addition, many items I might need in small quantities in my own arsenal for life may disappear completely.
Here’s what really torques my butt in all this. We started talking about limited resources, the need to reduce, reuse, recycle, etc., etc. back in the 1970s. We were also talking about Zero Population growth. Those Super Scary Smart people were telling us we were headed for problems 30+ years ago! But I’m going to go back further than that…
I’ll only go back to the Gold Standard because I think most have at least heard that term although before that there were other standards (like the silver standard referenced in the Assizes of Bread and Ale). Every time there’s a war, the governments tinker with the money. They did it during WWI and WWII. In there is Black Friday of 1929 and then the Great Depression. Of course there’s a connection there! 1971 and we’re in the midst of Vietnam and say good bye to the gold standard altogether. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_standard
1973-1975: Welcome to stagflation with high unemployment and high inflation and a stock market crash lasting nearly 2 years. And the selfish ME generation is coming of age. They’ve dropped out of school and are retaliating against all things and started the Environmentalist movement without regard to fundamental values but they were also the greedy MEs so went to work and disregarded traditions in business as well to fulfill their ME wants and environmentalism took a back seat while they procreated more than zero growth as well. They rebuilt the market on a house of cards that has collapsed repeatedly. Since then, there have been numerous recessions: 1980, 1981-82, 1990-91, 2001, 2007 to PRESENT. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recessions_in_the_United_States
And whenever there’s economic problems the government tinkers with the money. All too often, they print and print money. THAT is exactly what causes inflation because the paper money has no inherent value so it takes more and more to equal the same real value. The US government doesn’t have ANY money to do all the things it is currently committing to so they’ll be printing away and the inflation will follow as it always does.
It looks to me as though we haven’t made any real progress in 30+ years because we’re too busy fulfilling the ME wants of the ME generation that is now in power, filling our government. The ME generation has taken us further and further away from any standard to which we can tie progress except the one on Wall Street and we should certainly know by now that is one huge house of cards. Now the ME generation is getting on board with the environmental changes of the 1970s and we’re all about to experience 30 years of catching up in very short order and without the market system being fixed. The protesters of Vietnam, have also signed us on for perpetual world wide war it seems. All with no regard whatsoever to those fundamental values so many hold dear. I suspect many of them hold those values dear on some level and have no idea what they are doing has been and is destroying them.
As badly off as many of us feel, get ready as I think it’s going to get worse, much worse, before it’s over. I simply can’t see how we can possibly fund all we’ve signed on to pay for while simultaneously reducing our standard of living yet paying more for it and all while the unemployment rate is at a record high which means tax revenue will be low so tax increases can be expected, further reducing our own standards of living. They’ll print money but that will only further devalue it and increase inflation.
We’ve built up a very centralized system. I’m headed back to what my forebears taught and that’s decentralization. A decentralized system is much more difficult to dictate to and, if they’re going to drive us into poverty anyway, we should start growing/raising our own food and bartering with the neighbors as soon as possible. I know I can’t stop the ME generation from bulldozing ahead as they’ve done for 30 years but I’m going to do my best not to get bulldozed nor voluntarily give up my fundamental values and the rights so many have died to protect and defend. I took that oath too, several times. It means something to me.
I know my fundamental values as expressed in the US Constitution. I will voluntarily reduce my standards of living, my usage of stuff that harms the planet, because I understand I am a member of a greater community but I will also defend my fundamental rights by living my life in accord with them. That includes not supporting those who would violate them. That includes fighting back against those same people. It means not lending my support in any way to any public or private organization that would see those fundamental rights removed through illegal laws or force.