The Economy is Not a Good Reason

While the federal government soap opera continues in Washington, there have been a couple of alarming things in the last couple of days happening in the environment.  A giant iceberg twice the size of D.C. just broke free and the temperature in Antarctica hit 69 degrees!  Now, I know that climate change is cyclical and humans have very little, if any impact…or at least that is what idiots tell me…but why can’t we at least attempt to mitigate the change.  Oh, that’s right, because we could potentially have a negative impact on the economy.  I know most of us can see how moronic this way of thinking is.  It’s been said by plenty of people much smarter than me that going to a more sustainable, “green” economy really doesn’t have any drawbacks other than the minor pain of the transition.  If operating on wind, solar, geothermal, and any other renewable source doesn’t ultimately “save the planet” and we misinterpreted the human impact on climate change (which is highly unlikely), we are left with an economy which has created new/long term jobs, we have a cleaner environment, and the U.S. is self sustaining.  You want to get out of the Middle East? Stop using their oil.  You want a better trade deal?  How about the U.S. being at the forefront of renewable technologies. Can you say “net exporter”?  The benefits go on and on.  Using the economy as a justification for continuing to support the oil and coal industries while the environment goes in the tank is misguided and dangerous.  These industries are subsidized for a reason and it certainly isn’t for environmental stewardship.