Thought I'd provide a little food for debate ~ this guy has opinions you are not going to like about almost anything you can think of. Caveat: I don't endorse his views, just thought his website looked interesting.
anxietycenter.com
>>Global Warming: Not happening. The earth is always going through warming and cooling cycles, but they generally require several hundreds of years to emerge and to change. The most recent cooling cycle was the "Little Ice Age" during the 1400's for a 450 year period. Since then, the earth has warmed about one degree Fahrenheit in the past century, but that warming ended in the 1940's, fully 50 years ago. For the past 20 years, meteorological satellites and radiosonde balloons all have produced data suggesting little change, but possibly a very slight cooling.
El Nino and La Nina: Natural warming and cooling cycles of the Pacific Ocean. They have widespread impact on global temperatures and events. In a similar fashion, the several hundred active volcanoes effect the world's weather by putting tons of dust and other chemicals into the atmosphere. By comparison, human activities have virtually no real impact.
U.S. Forests: The U.S. still has 70% of the forests that existed in 1600 when the Pilgrims first arrived. Fully 737 million areas of the U.S. land mass are forest acres. Timberlands now contain 28% more standing timber volume than in 1952. Fully 247 million acres are reserved from harvest by law or represent slow-growing woodlands unsuitable for timber production. Wood is a renewable natural resource and is completely recyclable.
Who Owns Most of the U.S.? The Government! The Federal government owns 456 million acres of forests, grazing lands, the minerals in and under those acres, as well as the wildlife and recreational amenities they represent.
Environmental Laws: Currently, one third of all federal laws are devoted to the protection of the environment. In 1997, the Environmental Protection Agency set new records by assessing $264.4 million in fines from 704 civil and criminal cases referred to the Justice Department. In addition, U.S. federal law identifies as criminal fully 10,000 activities, based on 3,000 federal criminal laws.
Oil Reserves: The world is not running out of oil. A U.S. Geological survey puts the world's currently known oil reserves at nearly one trillion barrels; enough to support petroleum needs for at least 45 years. However, U.S. dependency on imported oil is 55%, up from 35% in the 1970's, despite extensive U.S. oil reserves.
Safe Water: Americans consume 110 million gallons of water every day! Utilities routinely perform several thousand tests annually to insure safe drinking quality. Chlorine, a chemical which Greenpeace wants banned, is essential to the purification of water and the manufacture of countless life-saving chemicals.
Clean Air: The air in U.S. cities has improved significantly. Airborne lead has decreased by 89%, carbon monoxide by 37%, sulfur dioxide by 26%, and ground level ozone has dropped 21%, from 1984 to 1993. The Environmental Protection Agency, however, has pushed through more stringent air quality standards that even includes "dust."
Radiation Exposure: Natural sources, not man-made, account for upwards of 80% of exposure. Sources of radiation include Radon gas ( 55% ), outer space ( 8% ), rocks and soil ( 8% ).
DDT and Pesticides: A 1989 health study reported in the American Journal of Public Health revealed no link between cancer risks and DDT. The banning of DDT has led to a dramatic increase in the mosquito-borne disease of malaria. Insect and rodent pests not only destroy one third of all the world's food each year, but are also the primary vectors of a wide variety of diseases. The United Nations not only banned DDT, but is now trying to ban eleven other pesticides and herbicides.
Acid Rain: A U.S. study costing between $400 and $500 million revealed no evidence of environmental harm due to so-called "Acid Rain." Insect and plant diseases were determined to be the prime causes of problems in forests.
Endangered Species: Nearly all species, 95%, that ever existed on earth are extinct. Darwin was right! The U.S. Department of the Interior recently announced that 29 species have been removed from the official list because they have been "saved" from extinction, but, of these, five were already extinct and four others were species that do not clinically exist. Another eight species were removed for what was called "clinical errors." Extinction is a natural process.
Garbage: The U.S. and the rest of the world have virtually infinite capacity to deal with garbage. There's ample space for safe landfills. Incinerators can handle the rest.
Overpopulation: The entire population of the United States lives on three percent ( 3% ) of the nation's land mass. You could put the entire population of the world in the state of Texas and still have room left over for more. Click here to visit overpopulation.com.
Diseases: Of the fifteen leading causes of death in America, thirteen were at an all time low by 1996. The National Center for Health Statistics disclosed that the death rate is 493.6 deaths per 100,000 population, the lowest figure since 1900 (when the government started tracking this number). Death rates for heart disease and cancer, the two leading causes of death, declined by three and ten percent respectively between 1995 and 1996. Life expectancy in America hit a record 77.1 years.
Safe Food: Most food illnesses are entirely avoidable and would be greatly reduced with the use of irradiation to kill pathogens in meat, fish, and other foods. As for meat, Americans consume 25 billion pounds of it every year.
Crime: Crime rates in every category continue to decline nationwide. The crime rates in the 1990's have not changed much since the 1970's, except to decrease. Americans, however, represent a $40 billion market for illegal drugs, part of a worldwide problem.<< |
