One of my biggest fears about the future and the well being of mankind are Laws. Yup, that’s right. Laws. I am more worried that these laws, passed in their haste, will cause even more harm. Consider that if the US signs up with the kyoto protocols all of our energy costs will climb. Consider also that since the US is one of the world’s major food suppliers, and the cost of food is the most directly important thing in getting it to the hands of starving people, every single cent in the increase in the cost of food amounts to a certain number of deaths. Whats that number? How many people will a 10% increase in the cost of energy and subsequently food kill? 10,000? 10 million? What number is acceptable?
We really have to remember that every one of these laws passed has negative consequences, usually in the form of human lives.
Consider passing a law which demands an increase in the efficiency of cars. There are only two ways to increase the efficiency of a car, give it new technology, or make it lighter. Usually, making it lighter, makes it less safe. Which means people will be killed. Think about how the Honda Insight bodes in a crash compared the Cadillac Escalade. Conversely, new technology will make a car more expensive, putting new safety features out of the reach of poorer individuals. When one acknowledges that if we are going to die a premature death it will most likely be in a car accident concern over the cost and safety of cars is very important. I have a new Diesel Jetta TDI, which gets 43 miles per gallon and exceeds all other cars in side impact crash tests. It gets mileage comparable to a hybrid, but is one of the safest cars on the market. Yet it is illegal to buy diesel cars in Massachusetts, a law passed over environmental hysteria.
Consider the ban on nuclear power plants, the WHO estimates that 1.25 million people die every year premature deaths from the inhalation of the combustion products of fossil fuels. Many people in Africa COOK THEIR FOOD by burning COW DUNG. Every year since 1975, at 1.25 million people per year, more than 30 million people have now died who probably otherwise wouldn’t have. How many people have died from Nuclear power plant accidents? ~26. How many die from natural gas explosions? Some 4,000 yearly in the world. How many die from Carbon Monoxide poisoning? A completely irrational fear of nuclear power spearheaded all of the laws that now cause millions of deaths. In reality, a few well guarded underground breeder reactor plants, which can be hundreds of miles from population centers, could provide all of the power needed by the US.
Consider also that it is now illegal to drill for oil in the continental United States, even though we have large oil reserves. Instead we prop up murderous dictatorships in the middle east which breed terrorists that have no killed some 50,000 people total. Moronic environmentalist fears pushed these laws through. We prop up brutal dictatorships in South America as well, which foment anti-American sentiment of their own.
Consider of course DDT, which I have mentioned many times. An irrational fear of DDT led to the banning of it by the EPA, and subsequently the UN, which denied foreign aide to any country that continued to use it. At the height of it’s spraying 10 - 20 people died GLOBALLY from malaria. We were on the verge of eradicating it from the human condition. The inventor of DDT received a Nobel prize and was credited with saving 500 million lives. Instead, today, we are ravaged by mosquitoes again. 1.5 - 3 million people die every year from Malaria, mostly children in Africa. Over 30 years that is up to 90 MILLION PEOPLE that have been killed because we IRRATIONALLY BANNED DDT. This is a HUGE black cloud hanging over absolutely everything the environmentalist movement says and does. And until this egregious mistake is acknowledged and corrected, I don’t trust *anything* they say. Mosquitoes are the primary vector for 10 of the 12 worst diseases that have struck mankind, including denguine fever, encephalitis, yellow fever, etc. It has been suggested that Mosquitoes, and the pathogens they carry, have killed HALF OF ALL THE HUMANS THAT HAVE *EVER* LIVED.
It is only by a sheer stroke of luck that mosquitoes currently absorb HIV, should it mutate into a form transmittable by mosquitoes WE ARE TOTALLY FUCKED. All ready there are many cases of HIV that people can’t figure out how they contracted it. Could it be that some these are from mosquitoes?
So more than anything right now I fear the LAWS that governments enact trying to make people safer, because they are NEVER rational, they always cater to the lowest common FEAR. And millions and millions of people die as a result of it.
Michael
