Jonah Goldberg's defense of America's carbon emissions relies on the most comical, jingoistic series of non-sequiturs I've ever encountered:
It's not like these greenhouse gasses don't have a context. The American economy sustains the planet, pulls millions out of poverty, keeps the sea channels open, develops most of the medical breakthroughs, provides most of the funding for international institutions (including the finger-waggers at the UN's environmental divisions), offers the best higher education to the world's leaders, and generally provides a blanket of security for much of the planet.
Jonah's right -- these gases do have a context. But none of it appears on this list. Christ -- how much carbon does he think molecular geneticists are emitting? And I'm aware conservatives believe academics produce a lot of hot air, but surely not enough to warm the planet.
Here's some data breaking down our carbon emissions by type: 82% come from fossil fuel combustion. 82%. We power our economy on fossil fuels, drive huge, laughably inefficient automobiles, eschew serious public transportation options or high CAFE standards, make no effort to convert a certain portion of our electricity to wind or solar, and genuinely do nothing to ease our reliance on oil and coal. Fossil fuels powers our economy, and we make no effort conserve or substitute in renewables. That's a choice. It is not the only choice. Medical breakthroughs are no harder when powered by solar electricity, and Harvard has no problem educating despite the fact that its students ride the subway.
This new conservative strategy of pretending efforts to slow global warming are mutually exclusive with the continued survival of our economy is truly low. Last night, John Stossel said that the global warming furor is, at base, "a hatred of capitalism." Today, Goldberg sets conservationists in opposition to advances in medical technology. They've lost the scientific argument, so now we're back to some sort of neo-McCarthyism. Looks to me like they know they're losing.
Update: From the article Jonah is mad at:
Americans represent 5 percent of the world's population but contribute 45 percent of the world's emission of carbon dioxide, the main pollutant that causes global warming, according to a report by the nonprofit group Environmental Defense.
Americans own 30 percent of the world's vehicles, drive farther each year than the international average and burn more fuel per mile, the report says. Additionally, the sport-utility boom of the past decade put vehicles on the road that could be spewing carbon dioxide for years to come.
We burn more fuel per mile! And he takes this and twists it into a defense of cancer drugs. Just breathtaking dishonesty.
Update 2: Edited for a "fucking" I hadn't noticed I put in there. Freudian slip. I try not to curse on the blog, but sometimes the subconscious decides the only proportional response to such silliness is profanity.
