Killing the Environment to Save the Environment

I take a lot of heat for being a skeptic on man-made global warming. Well, a lot of my skepticism comes from reading stories like this one:

Primate scientist Jane Goodall said on Wednesday the race to grow crops for vehicle fuels is damaging rain forests in Asia, Africa and South America and adding to the emissions blamed for global warming.

"We're cutting down forests now to grow sugarcane and palm oil for biofuels and our forests are being hacked into by so many interests that it makes them more and more important to save now," Goodall said on the sidelines of the Clinton Global Initiative, former U.S. President Bill Clinton's annual philanthropic meeting.

As new oil supplies become harder to find, many countries such as Brazil and Indonesia are racing to grow domestic sources of vehicle fuels, such as ethanol from sugarcane and biodiesel from palm nuts.

The United Nations' climate program considers the fuels to be low in carbon because growing the crops takes in heat-trapping gas carbon dioxide.

But critics say demand for the fuels has led companies to cut down and burn forests in order to grow the crops, adding to heat-trapping emissions and leading to erosion and stress on ecosystems.

So basically, in order to save the environment from global warming we are condoning the undertaking of methods that cause additional global warming. And that's doubly so considering the additional smoke from burning and the additional loss of rain forest acreage. Combine that with the environmental damage caused by the manufacturing of biofuels, you have a triple play of environmental degradation in the name of saving the environment.

I have never been one to say that we should do nothing for the environment, because obvious it is in the best interest of us individually and as a species to keep the environment as clean as possible. But in order to avoid doing more damage we have to go out of our way to make sure we are taking an appropriate course of action. We have to make sure not to switch fuels and cause additional environmental damage. We should not rush to abide by useless, biased international treaties, or follow the environmental suggestions of ambitious politicians. And we certainly should not follow the example of environmental hypocrites who condemn the proletariat for their abuse of the environment from their luxurious private jets.

Appropriate environmental action calls for reason, not overreaction. That is what causes the problems Dr. Goodall notes....