WAITING TO EXHALE

Author Mark Ellingham, according to The Observer, tells us that travelling is so environmentally destructive that there is no such thing as a genuinely ethical vacation. This is bad news for the global warming sympathizers I know who list among their hobbies, travel. “Climate change is an issue that dwarfs all others and the impact of flying is key to this”, said Ellingham. “All of us involved have a responsibility to inform travelers as clearly and honestly as possible about the environmental cost of their journeys.”

Ellingham authored “Rough Guide to Climate Change” which is nominated for the Royal Society Prize for Science Books award, to be announced next week. Okay, you’re dying to know which book launched his career way back in 1981? Why, it was “Rough Guides,” which revolutionized the travel industry, particularly by encouraging young people to explore the world! It sure isn’t hard to find contradictions in this debate, is it?

Please look at two new takes on what has to be tackled to get a grip on this environmental problem we call ‘global warming.’ The think tank Optimum Population Trust has declared that children…yes children, are bad for the planet. John Guillebaud, co-chairman of OPT and emeritus professor of family planning at University College London, said: “The effect on the planet of having one child less is an order of magnitude greater than all these other things we might do, such as switching off lights. “The greatest thing anyone in Britain could do to help the future of the planet would be to have one less child.”

Seems those nasty child-creatures produce a greenhouse gas. They exhale carbon dioxide. That which we exhale and which feeds the plant life on earth, CO2, is a pollutant. Apparently, even at the level at which a child exhales!

To take it several billion steps further, Paul Watson, founder and president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, warns that mankind is “acting like a virus” and is harming Mother Earth. By the way, Mr. Watson is also famous for militant intervention to stop whalers. (Save the Whales, Kill the Children!) “I once was severely criticized for describing human beings as being the ‘AIDS of the Earth.’ I make no apologies for that statement.”

The kind environmentalist, Mr. Watson, wants the world population to drop below 1 billion. That means that over 5 billion of us have to …how do you say…leave the planet! Watson essentially called for humans to return to primitive lifestyles. (More primitive than the Middle East?) “We need to stop flying, stop driving cars, and jetting around on marine recreational vehicles. The Mennonites survive without cars and so can the rest of us.” I wonder how many of my self proclaimed ‘environmentalist’ friends will entertain the prospect of taking measures like those? Actually, he calls for much of what Robert Malthus, an English political economist, called for a little while back…IN THE 1700s! None of this is new!

So no babies and five out of six of us have to go!

John Edwards said Tuesday that he worked for a hedge fund between campaigns to learn about, ready for this? Poverty! Of course he had to come up with something like that when asked about it because, well, a focus of his second White House bid is eradicating poverty. So I guess one of the better ways to accomplish this is to work for a hedge fund that traditionally caters to the rich. This guy is a slimy, snake-in-the-grass trial attorney - See my blog of April 26, “And the Loser is…,” for more about Edwards.

QUIT EXHALING – YOU’RE CREATING CARBON DYOXIDE!!!

JD.