Global warming is a worthy subject much discussed in recent times. Those who believe that global warning poses a serious threat to the survival of all living things say that the chief culprits are the emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping "greenhouse" gases from automobiles and industrial plants. Former Vice President Al Gore produced AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, a film on global warming which will probably receive an Academy Award nomination on Tuesday for best documentary. Also on Tuesday, trying to turn attention away from Iraq, President Bush is expected to make global warming a cornerstone of his STATE OF THE UNION address.
How serious is global warming? Not all scientist agree. Some believe that we are merely experiencing a cyclical climate change. While most scientists agree that global warming is a serious problem, many do not believe it is as serious as Al Gore has made it out to be in his documentary. President Bush appears to be jumping on the anti-global warming bandwagon only in an attempt to reverse his sinking popularity. The Bush administration has never before been evironmentally friendly.
The Bush administration has done little to clean up industrial pollution. The administration seems to believe that forcing industry to employ more anti-pollution measures would be so costly that many plants would be shut down and rebuilt in countries which have few, if any pollution standards. Instead, the President has called on the American people to conserve energy and for the country to become less energy dependant on fossil fuels as a means of cleaning up the environment.
Many proposals have been put forth on ways to stop global warming. If all of these measures were adopted by this country, would that reduce global warming? If tomorrow this country were to become completely pollution free, would that actually reverse global warming? The answer is "no." Third world countries and emerging nations are responsible for far more pollution than that emitted by the United States. Fossil fuel emissions from Mexico drift across our borders more unimpeded than illegal aliens.
Third world countries are not concerned about pollution. These poor countries are only interested in acquiring economic wealth and are not about to require any costly anti-pollution measures which might discourage new industries from coming. The emerging nations of China and India are going to produce ever increasing amounts of pollutants. China and India are experiencing a huge demand for more and more automobiles and they are going to have to build a large number of dirty coal burning power plants to meet their energy needs.
America should do everything it can to conserve energy and to reduce, if not eliminate, its dependance on fossil fuels. But, it is a pipe dream for us to believe that if we eliminated our automobile and industrial emissions, global warming would actually be reversed.
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