The Environment

Here is my take on the current Environmental Topics that people are discussing.

Global Warming
"Global warming may be a long term problem, but there are more pressingg environmental concerns, such as the depletion of the rain forest, the mercury levels in our water, the chemical and other pollutant levels in our water, air, and soil, and the unknown effects such pollutants have on the environment (including humans and animals). An international effort must be made to reduce the output of pollution. While preventing the adverse impact on the environment may be important, such avenues must be realistically analyzed in regards to the negative economic impact that might result. After all, global warming is unlikely to kill us all, some studies show it could have a positive impact in some areas and the negative consequences are quite a few years off, while economic crashes worldwide could starve us all to death." They should then go on to for instance the pollution put out by China every year. I have a blog on this from a while back. They should then follow up with the need for better government regulation and investment that invests in the development of hybrid cars and cleaner emissions from vehicles. Then in to how SUVs could be more fuel efficient (the technology exists), but that lobbyists prevent such legislation. Companies that dump pollutants should be heavily penalized. Products from foreign companies that use high pollutant producing processes for production should be heavily tariffed to discourage such processes abroad and encourage homegrown environmentally friendly production procedures (Now before you start screaming free market, when government regulation prevents any type of equivalant playing field, arguing free market as the reason why foreign production processes that are harmful to everyone shouldn't be penalized when American companies cannot use such cheap processes and so cannot realistically compete, is kind of dumb. We've long since destroyed the concept of free market when we implement legislation to protect workers while other countries just let their workers die for the sake of a cheap product).

Drilling in Alaska
OK, I understand, oil is in short supply and prices are high. There is oil in Alaska. So logical answer - let us drill in Alaska. But let's probe a little deeper. We already drill in Alaska and much of the oil is exported to places like China. Why would I want the government to allow another company to come drill in Alaska when there is no guarantee that the oil will even find its way into America's gas tanks? Maybe sneaky regulation that highly taxes the exportation of oil to foreign countries from the United States would be called for, though this would anger OPEC, so probably not. Maybe the US gov't could offer tax breaks to any American owned oil company that buys the Alaskan oil fields and then sells say 75% of it to American refineries to be sold to Americans. Anyway, until the government figures out how to keep oil from Alaska in the United States, it probably shouldn't allow any other drilling to go on there. Not to mention that whole risk to animal thing that's involved, when really the drilling will have little to no impact on the cost of gasoline.
to read about the potential environmental impact of drilling:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/17/polar.bears.drilling/index.html

Hmmm...what other environmental concerns? Maybe encouraging recycling throughout the United States, etc.
Or perhaps a line of reasoning connecting back to the rise in the general unhealthiness of US citizens and other health concerns that must be addressed and are just as important as global warming. We are, after all, part of the environment.