One Good Thing
For the second installment in this occasional series (do two installments a series make?) … we draw your attention to Steve Benen, who gives props to John McCain for the latter’s comment about global warming during yesterday’s (by all reports, exremely boring) GOP debate:
John McCain actually had a really good answer about climate change: “Suppose that climate change is not real, and all we do adopt green technologies, which our economy and our technology is perfectly capable of. Then all we’ve done is given our kids a cleaner world. But suppose they are wrong. Suppose they are wrong, and climate change is real, and we’ve done nothing. What kind of a planet are we going to pass on to the next generation of Americans? It’s real. We’ve got to address it. We can do it with technology, with cap-and- trade, with capitalist and free enterprise motivation. And I’m confident that we can pass on to our children and grandchildren a cleaner, better world.” Republicans will probably hate this, but he’s right.
Steve’s not a Republican-lover, not by a long shot, and he has taken McCain to task on other issues, including torture. But Steve recognizes a heroic stand when he sees one, regardless of party or politician. And for that, he gets the “One Good Thing” Award of the Day.
2 Responses to “One Good Thing”
McCain had it wrong, and was even self-contradictory. Funny how normally “err on the side of caution” is used by lefties to argue against something or doing something (such as with the irrational opposition to nuclear power), except in this case.
Get rid of the vacuity and address the substance. That is the one thing of value in McCain’s statement, though buried in nonsense about E-Z alternative energy sources and uses. Air pollution is real, a long-known threat with serious health effects. That is not true with the lefty pet cause of global warming. All that the lefties have is (woefully sloppy) speculation and emotionalism.
It’s sad given what is known about air pollution, which so often involves incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons (for which we aren’t going to find a practical, economical replacement any time soon). Perfect combustion of methane releases carbon dioxide and water. That’s what knowledgeable people want to see in place of what is also emitted when combustion is incomplete! When combustion isn’t perfect (complete) or the fuel is more complicated chemically or is contaminated, etc., then things get dirtier. That is what merits our attention at this time. That, and in the case of power plants, getting over irrational opposition to nuclear power, though I have little faith in that.
MCain’s statement gets my seal of approval.
I’ve been trying to make that argument on another site, but I failed to put it as consisely, clearly or compellingly.
Bravo, MCain!