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279 Smart Am. • New 2B82BA • Bats Room • Bjmooo Roots • 'Nrw Town" • $169,800
243 Cieveiind • 38R/1BA • ‘Newtown’ • Downtown • Owl From PorcH • $149,900
235 CMm# • SSHIBA • Oxdx Arcs • Cwwwl fnrt Aortfi • i mte to 9* vch • $149,900
54# Odd Slmt • 4BJV28A • RenovSed. Huge Space & Yirt. In-Town • $169,900
140 Arch $L • 38a'l.58A • Wood Rocn • CiwBve Touches • Fenced Y*d • $174,900
245 Worttfg* CWt • 381V28A Newly Rmowfcd • + Bufclaae la Ned Door • $124500
145 lUhewi An. • 38M 58A • NorrrotowR • Woods Root • Updttd Otfw • fenced • $188,500
150 PutsUJ Heights • 2 BulO»t* Lots • 3®V28A House * Huge Warefioose * $269,920
515 CtmeM Or. • 38FV156A • Cud House • Bq Fenced YvO • Stonot BuMng* $123,500
112 Fertn* Or. • 58R48A • fA* Ports Custom CftfSran • Wfiod Boon • tan* • $625,000
132 AthOreok Dr. • 46fV38A • Soaring Clings • Cedar Sauna • East Aftens* $369,000
920 East Bread • Commercial Lot • Downtown • 505' x 215.5' • $735,000
775 Skm Kidd M. • 38H7BA • Mobfe home on 8 4 acres • Plus a horse • $145,000
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8 - FLAGP6tE^OM'HUNE^,'2008" u ’
GLOBAL WARMING COMES TO GEORGIA
In these hazy, 90-degree Georgia days,
with gas prices soaring and smog hovering,
the guilt trip that global warming proponents
are selling is easy to buy. And with indus
try and academia seeing the green in being
"green," it's even to tougher for ordinary
Georgians to resist the strengthening tendrils
of government mission creep on the subject.
BP now markets itself as "Beyond
Petroleum" instead of British Petroleum and
offers a carbon footprint calculator on its
opening web page. In
May, Georgia's newest
liberal arts college,
the Georgia Institute
of Technology, held a
global warming confer
ence where humans'
negative impact on and
ability to affect change
in climate were the
givens.
Helping "facilitate"
at the conference was
the Center for Climate
Strategies, which gener
ously offers low-cost
assistance to states to
help in responding "to
the challenges posed
by global warming and
related opportunities
for economic development, clean energy and a
sa f er environment." The center, which portrays
itself as an independent, objective climate
change consulting firm, was in fact founded
by the Pennsylvania Environmental Council,
an advocacy group that embraces alarmist
positions on global warming and is funded by
environmentalist foundations including the
Rockefeller brothers and Ted Turner.
That a global warming policy is tough to
justify in Georgia, which has actually shown
a cooling trend over the past century, is irrel
evant. The Brookings Institution, with Georgia
Tech researchers' help, recently published a
study that put metro Atlanta in the top third
of cities in the country for its carbon emis
sions footprint. "Rising energy prices, growing
dependence on imported fuels, and accelerat
ing global climate change make the nation's
growth patterns unsustainable," the study
authors opine.
The assumption that climate change is the
product of human impact is the basis for the
zealous push to regulate emissions of green
house gases around the world. It's based on
dire predictions of the U.N. Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose report
states: "Global atmospheric concentrations of
CO-, methane (CH*) and nitrous oxide (N.0)
have increased markedly as a result of human
activities since 1750 and now far exceed pre
industrial values."
This is no fait accompli. John Christy, a
lead IPCC author and contributing author,
correctly points out that the U.N. report's
government-appointed authors came equipped
with an alarmist mindset. And he adds:
"Mother Nature is incredibly complex, and to
think we mortals are so clever and so percep
tive that we can create computer code that
accurately reproduces the millions of processes
that determine climate is hubris (think of pre
dicting the complexities of clouds). Of all sci
entists, climate scientists should be the most
humble. Our cousins in the one-to-five-day
weather prediction business learned this long
ago, partly because they were held account
able for their predictions every day."
The Heartland Institute's survey of 530 cli
mate scientists from 27 countries found that
nearly all agree that global warming is already
under way. But it also found "no consensus
regarding the causes of the modern warm
ing period, how reliable predictions of future
temperatures can be, and whether future
global warming would be harmful or benefi
cial." And last month, the Oregon Institute of
Science and Medicine released the names of
31,072 Americans with university degrees in
science—including 612
Georgians—who signed
a petition rejecting the
scientific validity of the
hypothesis of human-
caused global warming.
Hand in hand with
global warming policy
is the call for energy
"independence," usually
meaning conservation
and costlier, less reli
able, "cleaner" "renew
ables." It emanates from
the same people who
block responsible use of
domestic resources.
Economic growth
brings a better qual
ity of life. But a good
economy is dependent
on a reliable source of energy, and renewable
resources and conservation will not meet that
need.
More vehicles mean more fuel is needed,
however efficient they are. U.S. electricity
consumption is expected to grow by as much
as 30 percent by 2030; the average household
uses 21 percent more energy than it did in
1978. Expansion of nuclear energy (including
two new reactors at Georgia's Plant Vogtle),
which is reliable and clean, has met resis
tance; coal, the country's most abundant fuel,
is demonized despite enormous technological
advances. Oil refineries and liquefied natural
gas terminals are lagging demand. Using more
energy yet producing less obviously results in
more imports.
Time and again, American ingenuity and
technological advances clearly have been
proven solutions to a cleaner environment and
better quality of life. But as the discussion
escalates in Georgia, business and citizens
will be lulled into accepting (a) that there is
a consensus that global warming is humans'
fault; (b) that human sacrifice can change the
climate; (c) that in such a "crisis" Georgians
should be willing to pay the price to reduce
our greenhouse gas emissions and (d) that
government regulation and higher taxes are
the means to that end.
In the boiling frog theory, a frog will allow
itself to be be boiled alive if it's placed in
cold water that is heated slowly enough. It's
happening with global warming policy. And
the water's getting warm in Georgia.
Benita M. Dodd
Benita M. Dodd is vice president of the
Georgia Public Policy Foundation, an indepen
dent think tank that proposes practical, market-
oriented approaches to public policy to improve
the lives of Georgians. Nothing written here is
to be construed as necessarily reflecting the
views of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation or
as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of
any bill before the U.S. Congress or the Georgia
Legislature.
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