New Ecological Developments Flummox Environuts

The contretemps of Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard summer sojourners is both amusing and enlightening. Ecological correctness challenges them to put their commitments (for others) where their mouths are.

You see, a string of eco-friendly windmills to generate clean electricity for pristine playgrounds will create “visual pollution.”

At issue is a proposal by Cape Wind Associates -- an energy company at Boston -- to erect a string of 130 giant windmills stretching across Nantucket Sound to generate “clean” electricity.

Winds are steady there – which enthralls the Kennedy’s and the Cronkite’s who are partial to sailing yachts.

The mills – collectively called “wind farms” -- would be 30 stories tall, a third of a mile apart. Three 161-foot blades would whirl 16 revolutions a minute.

Trouble is, when folks at Hyannis Port, or the Vineyard, turn their eyes seaward, just so, they would see the string of windmills halfway to the horizon. Zounds! There goes the view.

Hey! And what about all those stupid seagulls zooming around out there?

So what? When the wind blows, the wind farm would produce 1.8 percent of total electrical needs of New England without one whiff of carbon dioxide.

What’s a conscientious environut to do? Retired TV newscaster Walter Cronkite, who summers on Martha’s Vineyard, huffs and puffs. “Yes, but; our national treasures should be off limits to industrialization.”

There’s a cute response known by the cute acronym NIMBY – “not in my back yard” – a la California.

Yes-butters are the bottom of the environut food chain. The distance between Cape Cod purists and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) terrorists is less than one might think.

The FBI classifies ELF the largest and most active U.S.- based terrorist group. Since ELF surfaced in 1996, its cells have burned more than 600 homes, resorts, fur farms and research buildings near forested areas.

The Vail, Colorado, Ski resort arson by ELF was a $12 million disaster. Financial damage nationwide – including the recent torching of a condo-development under construction -- exceeds $50 million.

Now comes a pair of new, scientific reports debunking the favorite environut bogey – global warming by man-made “greenhouse gases.”

According to the National Center for Atmospheric Research, if all the nations that logged onto the Kyoto Protocol – and the United States joined in – the world temperature would drop less than a half-degree over a 50- year period.

This miniscule, so-called “improvement” would raise energy prices 50 percent, depress the U.S. Gross Domestic Product 1 percent and cost a million jobs.

In truth, carbon dioxide spewing from volcanoes -- and dribbling from automobiles and smoke stacks – are vital to the growth of grass, forests and ocean algae. These exude oxygen, which are vital to the growth of people and other air breathers.

It’s not nice to fool around with Mother Nature.

Another misguided proposal is unrealistic increases in the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ) – an example of unintended consequences.

Cars today get better fuel economy. Yet, the dependence of foreign oil has risen from 35 percent in 1974 to 52 percent today. When driving gets more efficient, motorists drive more. Be careful what you wish for.

The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics debunks the claim that 1990 was the hottest decade in a thousand years because of human activity.

The new study is based on glacial ice cores, tree rings and historical accounts. These show that the present warming is considerably less than that during the “Medieval Warm Period” from the 900 A.D. to 1300 – followed by a “Little Ice Age.”

About 1900, the earth began to warm up again but has yet to reach those of the Medieval Warm Period. Not to worry, warm temperatures increase sea-evaporation, which create more clouds, which produce more rain, which increase crop production.

In short, when one starts measuring from a low temperature, then change has to be up. Good science measures a long period of normal fluctuations. Indeed, we may be headed for another Ice Age in a thousand years.

Today’s lesson is: don’t stampede when environuts become hysterical. Be careful, but not care-full.

PARTING SHOTS

Opinion polls show Arnold Schwarzenegger may get elected in California. If so, he will be the first governor to have shown his naked butt on movie film.

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The Bush administration has forced the United Nations headquarters in New York to get rid of its sub-machine guns. Ban machine guns, and only terrorists will have machine guns.

Lindsey Williams is a Sun columnist

Sunday – aug. 17, 2003

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