greenhouse joke

Today's Wall Street Journal has an editorial pointing out the contradiction in people's outcry for climate change laws and their even louder cries for cheaper gas. For once, I have to give the Journal credit for a well written and sensible editorial. It is amazing how cowardly our lawmakers are reacting to the current "gas crisis." Even those calling for tougher regulation and the need to do something about global warming see no issue in simultaneously calling for cheaper gas. According to the Journal nobody can get elected, or even govern on the premise of more expensive gas. Clearly that is not the case, as most European governments are doing just that. And they are doing fine too. Not only do they have more expensive gas, they have higher gas taxes too.

Fortunately for the Europeans, their infrastructure was built before cars and cheap oil came along. What that means is that the layouts are more sensible and more robust. In contrast, America's layouts, especially those in the West, are as poorly adapted to the new reality as the giant dinosaurs were so many millions of years ago.

As for lawmakers, McCain, Clinton, Obama, all have pledged to take action to combat global warming. And here is the easiest and best thing anyone can do: raise gas prices. Instead of calling for cheaper gas, a gas tax holiday and other gimmicks, these candidates should applaud the current situation and call for even higher gas prices. Anything else, as the editorial quotes McCain in saying, "is a joke."

I have pointed out before how people fail to grasp the most basic issues. If you are serious about ending the war in Iraq, if you are serious about global warming, then please stop driving so much. If you drive less, you also won't have to worry about high gas prices. Turn off your lights at night, turn down your heater and your air conditioner, especially when you are out. It is perfectly possible to live in a nice house and use half the energy that most people are using today. Even with higher prices, those who are serious about conservation should be able to save money without giving up any comfort.

And please don't talk about investing in alternative energy. About solar and wind power and other "innovations." The key to our problems is not there. Because global warming is just one symptom of a much wider problem. And that problem won't go away by installing solar panels or windmills or any other technology for that matter. The problem is with our life-style. A life-style that we are exporting to other countries, who are eager to mimic our gluttony.

The key is overconsumption. We are too fat in more ways than one, and so we need to consume less. Consuming something else is just deluding yourself. Installing solar panels so you can keep using as much electricity as you did before -or more as some do- is just plain idiotic. Buying a hybrid so you can keep driving is equally boneheaded.

All it shows is that you fail to grasp the problem, or maybe, that you choose to ignore it and go on as before. The problem however, will not just go away. Ignoring it will not help. The longer we wait and the more we try to prop up our unsustainable life-style with desalination plants, alternative energy, biofuels, and other crutches, the harder we will crash. Better swallow a bit of pain now.