Re: TownHall.com – 4/24/2008 – “Voters Don’t Care About Global Warming, But They Should” – Amy Menefee

Menefee shows a healthy degree of skepticism about the suitability of WW-II as a model for a “war on climate change” as well she should. A much more effective model is the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb and in the process, commercial atomic power, Teflon, and numerous other scientific and engineering discoveries/inventions that aided mankind and the civilian economy. But the Manhattan Project was highly secret and a military necessity, so perhaps the Mission To Space is an even better model, a project that got us to space (that was not exactly a short-term necessity) but also resulted in science and engineering advances (those in Computer Science in particular) and greatly improved science education from kindergarten thru graduate school.

The fact of the matter is that even those who doubt the bad effects of global warming must see that the two most likely tools in the fight against global warming are energy efficiency and non-fossil-carbon (alternative) energy sources, the only long term solution to our excessive dependence on imported oil and arguably the most reliable and cost effective way to lessen that dependence in the intermediate term.

Rather than concentrating on their disagreements with the global warming believers, why don’t people like Menefee collaborate with their global warming opponents on actions which are in both their interests?

Why? Because like many global warming and anti global warning fanatics, they are more interested in reflexively defending their philosophical positions then using their intelligence and practical experience to solve real problems.

I can’t say that the abysmal, incompetent media coverage consisting mainly of repeating verbatim the loudest and most radical rantings from the extremes has helped any, either.