Spring Break
Climatology speaker only rained propaganda
George Maynard
Issue date: 4/6/09 Section: Commentary
As a natural resources student, an environmentalist and a relatively decent human being, I was appalled by the greedy, sarcastic message being fed to students as "science" last Tuesday night in Castleman. For those of you who missed out on this well-spoken mockery of research, Chris Horner - a Washington, D.C. lawyer with an interest in climate science - gave a sardonic, condescending lecture on how America's youth has been brainwashed by the environmentalist left to believe that communism and rejecting progress is the only way to save humanity from certain doom. The performance was sponsored by Collegians For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT). I'm not sure what their tomorrow looks like, but if it's anything like Chris Horner's, they probably won't be around to see it.
The focus of Horner's speech seemed to be bashing Al Gore for his hysteria-spawning film, "An Inconvenient Truth." I'm not going to take issue with that, since I'm no Gore fan myself. While his intentions producing such a film were probably good, Gore's science and behavior leave something to be desired. With that said, I still found Horner's speech to be condescending and full of misinformation.
For example, something that Horner harped on excessively was that every American should be able to have a big house, filled with babies, off in the suburbs, with a road into the nearest city so they can drive their huge SUV's to work each day and come home to raise their brood at night. All of this, Mr. Horner says, has no deleterious effects on the environment. Anyone who says otherwise is - in his eyes - a freedom-hating, technology-fearing socialist member of the insidious red-green coalition.
Well, he is wrong. First and foremost, your choice of vehicle does have an effect on the environment. Any science textbook will tell you that combustion of fossil fuels releases a variety of chemical compounds including, but not limited to, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides and various heavy metals. These are bad for living things to breathe in. I'm not making this up. If you don't believe me, read about what happens to people who turn on their cars and inhale the exhaust fumes. If you're too lazy to look it up, I'll tell you; people who inhale enough exhaust die. So, the more gas you burn, the more pollutants you put into the atmosphere. Thus, it is more environmentally friendly to drive a smaller vehicle (like a Honda Civic) than a larger vehicle (like a Mack truck).
The focus of Horner's speech seemed to be bashing Al Gore for his hysteria-spawning film, "An Inconvenient Truth." I'm not going to take issue with that, since I'm no Gore fan myself. While his intentions producing such a film were probably good, Gore's science and behavior leave something to be desired. With that said, I still found Horner's speech to be condescending and full of misinformation.
For example, something that Horner harped on excessively was that every American should be able to have a big house, filled with babies, off in the suburbs, with a road into the nearest city so they can drive their huge SUV's to work each day and come home to raise their brood at night. All of this, Mr. Horner says, has no deleterious effects on the environment. Anyone who says otherwise is - in his eyes - a freedom-hating, technology-fearing socialist member of the insidious red-green coalition.
Well, he is wrong. First and foremost, your choice of vehicle does have an effect on the environment. Any science textbook will tell you that combustion of fossil fuels releases a variety of chemical compounds including, but not limited to, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides and various heavy metals. These are bad for living things to breathe in. I'm not making this up. If you don't believe me, read about what happens to people who turn on their cars and inhale the exhaust fumes. If you're too lazy to look it up, I'll tell you; people who inhale enough exhaust die. So, the more gas you burn, the more pollutants you put into the atmosphere. Thus, it is more environmentally friendly to drive a smaller vehicle (like a Honda Civic) than a larger vehicle (like a Mack truck).
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