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THE GREENS' PERMANENT CRISIS MODE
Commentary by Harold Hough Aug/Sept 2009

It seems that under the Obama Administration we are seeing new environmental policies being promulgated on a weekly basis. Each one is guaranteed to succeed, providing we sacrifice more of our freedom and money. However, no one wants to ask how successful some of the previous policies have been.

One of those "successful" policies is the Montreal Protocol that banned Chlorofluorocarbon gases (CFCs), which were widely used for refrigeration and air conditioning. They were replaced with hydrofluorocarbon (HFCs) gases, which would have less effect on the ozone layer. Wasn't that wonderful? Does that mean the Greens will let us use our air conditioners without feeling guilty?
"We did not know so much about HFCs back in the 1980s," Tony Juniper told the London Times. Juniper was formerly the head of the Friends of the Earth and one of the proponents of eliminating CFCs from industry.

Environmentalists are now saying that HFCs are a major contributor to "Global Warming." According to them, a ton of HFC23 used in refrigeration has the same global warming potential as 14,800 tons of CO2. A ton of HFC-134a, widely used in vehicle air-conditioning units, is equivalent to 1,430 tons of CO2. The problem has been increased by the rising demand for refrigeration and air-conditioning because of economic expansion and population growth in Asia.
A study that came out in June stated that by 2050, HFCs could account for up to 19% of global warming. "By 2050, the contribution of HFCs to global warming will be more than that of current global CO2 emissions from houses and office buildings," said Guus Velders of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, who did the research.

Ironically, a separate study by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), an environmental activist group, found that large amounts of HFCs are also released in the manufacture of insulating foam used to make buildings more energy efficient. In other words, the government mandates to get rid of CFCs and to better insulate our buildings are actually contributing to global warming. It makes one wonder if these environmentalists and government bureaucrats actually know what they are doing?

But that doesn't stop Juniper, who is ready with a convenient excuse. He said industry had long known about the global warming threat from HFCs. Obviously, they hid the truth from those honest, hard working government bureaucrats. Does that mean the Greens will let us start using CFCs again? Does that mean that as world temperatures continue to decline, they will change their minds on using HFCs? Of course not.

The people behind these Green solutions aren't concerned with solutions that make our lives better. They want to control our lives and the ability of people to make their lives better. Juniper once said, ""If everybody in the world consumed like the British, the Europeans or the Americans, then we'd need about eight planets to meet people's needs. And it would still be unsustainable." In other words, what he is saying is that he is willing to needlessly consign millions of people in the Third World to poverty and early death in the name of preserving nature. And, since people are unwilling to give up their hopes of a better life, environmentalist Mark Lynas suggests, "The unwillingness of people to act just reinforces the need for government to do something collectively." So much for democracy.

The environmental movement isn't about solutions, but creating a state of perpetual crisis. Their goal isn't the elimination of some pollutants like CFCs and their replacement with more environmentally friendly alternatives. Just as they first told us that paper bags were bad because they caused the destruction of trees and then told us that plastic bags were even worse, their goal isn't to make life or the environment better, but to make every aspect of our behavior subject to their whims.
The mining industry can chose to compromise on some issue like sustainable growth, but that doesn't mean that the environmental lobby will let us go. The actions we take today to silence Green critics today will only be used against us in the future. It's not worth sacrificing our freedoms and industry just to keep environmentalists quiet for a season.