The Sky is Falling

Eli,

It's July, and it's hot, so there is only only possible explanation: Global Warming. According to Eugene Robinson, if you don't believe in climate change you are "either deep in denial or delirious from the heat." The wildfires in the Colorado and Utah? Global warming. Duh. I grew up on the front range and I offer another reason why houses are burning in a semi-arid part of the country: more home development in areas prone to wildfires.

In my part of the world, however, the temperature seems just fine. As a matter of fact I've been keeping a record of my electric bills over the past six years which includes the average monthly temperature for the billing period. The graph below shows the average monthly temperature as reported to me by my electric utility. I don't know about you, but I can't see anything extraordinary about temperatures in my part of the world.

I know what you are thinking, "The temperature at your house over the past six years doesn't prove anything." I agree. Nor does a storm in the mid-Atlantic and wildfires in Colorado.

I do believe man impacts climate. How can man not impact climate? The only way we can eliminate man's impact on climate is eliminate man. I'm not willing to accept that step.

What would I do? Nothing. Not a thing. Well actually, no, I would do one thing. I would hydro frack every shale formation in the world. That would result in a faster, cheaper and broader reduction in greenhouse gas than anything else proposed.

Over man's history we have moved from inefficient, carbon intensive sources of energy to more efficient less intensive sources of energy. That is, wood to coal to oil to natural gas. Natural gas fired electric power is now equal to coal fired electric power in the US. Natural gas produces half the amount of carbon that coal does. Imagine that. The Free Market has done quietly and effectively what all of Al Gore's bloviating has failed to do: structurally reduce the nation's carbon emissions.

If the greens were really serious about reducing carbon emissions they wouldn't be fawning over electric cars and tilting at windmills. They would be encouraging China and India to hydro frack in order to replace coal with natural gas. This all can be done with price. Let the market do it. It's worked in the US. It will work there also.

Frack baby frack.

Bill