Unfortunately for me I don’t know enough about air or water quality to respond authoritatively. If what you say is true, I’d assume much of it has to do with sanitation and treatment regulations.

Maybe I should have said that some forms of basic technology are more earth and human-friendly than others. When you have one of the largest fresh water bodies on earth (Lake Erie) that used to catch fire because the level of pollution in it, you have to concede that certain levels of by-prodcuts produced by some technologies may not be for the best, in the long run, if not handled differently.

When technologically primitive Native Indians roamed North American plains, was the air and water quality poorer than it is now?

No one can dispute that the earth has repeatedly warmed after Ice Ages in the past.

No one is claiming that those Ice Ages and the subsequent warming periods were caused by man’s activities since man obviously wasn’t a significant presence in the past.

Therefore, what evidence do you have that this warming period, if it is indeed occurring, is not 100% caused by the same factor(s) that were the entire cause of the former warming periods?

What evidence do you have that this warming period is unique in the history of the earth and has a new cause–man?

Do you even know what factor(s) were the cause of earlier warming periods?

If so, how did you conclude that they are not relevant today?

What evidence do you have that a gas (carbon dioxide) that is responsible for only about 2% of the green house gas effect (water vapor is responsible for 97% of the greenhouse gas effect) could ever be a significant factor in global temperature change?

What evidence do you have that a gas that represents much, much less than one part per thousand in the atmosphere could ever be a significant factor in global temperature change?

In both the scientific community and Western Civilization is there any reason not to view you as worse than a vandal scribbling graffiti on the walls? The vandal at least runs from the scene of the crime when the authorities come.

The fraud that these intellectual savages are attempting to perpetrate with the aid of a complicit and lazy press is especially offensive to me. They are the modern kin at least in spirit to the priest in Mel Gibson’s “Apocalypto” and the Vandals who helped destroy the Roman Empire ushering in the dark ages.

1) Genius = “Self appointed genius.”

2) You ought to know that I, of all people, would never recommend government to prevent a descent into stupidity. Government has made stupidity an art form. Man left to his own devices is man with no spiritual anchor to which to attach his knowledge. The love of God is the beginning of wisdom. The fool hates God and evidence of this is his foolish

But there is merit to some environmental precautions. The fisheries industry is one example where we’ve literally seen “teeming billions” of food resources sharply decline – various fish, lobsters, etc. I don’t know if there is any way around this problem though.

The fact remains that technological advancements have permitted humans to affect nature more dramatically than ever before. [Is this why the more technologically developed a country is, the better its air and water quality?] His oil spills, non bio-degradable products, and toxins will eventually come back to haunt him. But I see this as the natural course of things.

And who is to blame for global warning according to that show? The ‘evil’ industrial nations of the West (especially the U.S.), and the internal combustion engines that are flooding the atmosphere with CO2. What was not mentioned is the massive deforestation that is occurring in places like India, China and South America. Excuse me, Ilana, but I think I was taught in the 4th grade that plants, like trees, remove CO2. So, wouldn’t make sense that when forests are eliminated it too would contribute to a rise in CO2 levels? I don’t know, I guess it was not discussed in depth because when I was in the 4th grade, the media & ‘scientists’ were screaming about the coming Ice Age due to global cooling.

Of course, the show paraded the global warming poster boy, former VP Al ‘I invented the Internet’ Gore, in front of the camera to sprout his propaganda. The one line he said that got to me was something along the line, “The U.S. has to show the moral leadership in the global warming ‘crisis.’ By the U.S.’s example, China and India will follow along.”
Yeah…right!
Two countries that if combined have almost 7 times the population of the U.S. are going to look to us for ‘moral’ leadership. Hey, Al, what reality are you living in? Those two countries are going to do whatever it takes to prosper/dominate their regions of the world. I am certain that any cutback in consumption of resources by the U.S. will be looked at by those countries as, ‘Good! That means more for us.’ All I have to say to the environmentalists out there is this, “Hey, tree-huggers! What are the differences between U.S. coal-firing power plants and China coal-firing power plants? The ones in the U.S. are more efficient and less polluting!”

Wow! That venting felt great! Thank you, Ilana for the great article you wrote on 12/29/06, and thank you for the opportunity to get some of my frustrations vented. I expected better from The History Channel, maybe they should change their name to, ‘The Re-Writing History Channel’.

Nature is indeed beautiful – and terrible as well, like all things of sublime beauty. Astronomy, geology and paeleontology have revealed that the universe is a place of unimaginable violence and that most species that ever lived – have died.

The Greens have made nature warm and fuzzy. And the primitives they idealize know damn well that ain’t true.

With respect, I believe that it is more accurate to say that primitives placate nature, rather than worship it. An attitude far removed from the Judaic commandment to love God and keep his laws. The former views nature as chaotic and malign, the latter that nature is subject to laws made by a rational being. They may both be myths – but which is more likely to lead to a technological civilization?

In the same tradition, the notion that Man was given mastery over the earth, so offensive to Greens, implies that we are responsible for it. By contrast, the Asian idea that we are all part of nature that they so admire, is just as likely to lead to the attitude of, “If we’re part of it, we have as much right to use it up as any other species.”

You take your criticism of these crazies a step further than I generally have, and it’s a step closer to the truth. I always thought that environmental doomsayers were just people who like to worry – earthly hypochondriacs, if you will. However, it is true that any so-called medicine to combat global warming must entail government coercion and a limiting of freedom. Well done.

I work as an actuary in the insurance industry (exciting, eh?). [Challenging, certainly] One difficulty in our work is separating out true underlying changes in loss trends versus expected changes. A 10% rise in the cost of claims in a year may sound alarming, but is less so when one considers the long-run average increase of, say, 7%. Likewise, a few heat waves may alarm the kooks, but a few heat waves are not at all unusual in the history of the world. But hey, since when have these people let facts get in the way of their opinions?