I rate this book as an extremely thoughtful and perceptive statement about the real truth and intentions of the environmental movement and its global warming initiative. The book's basic thesis is that from an economic and practical standpoint, the threat of global warming is deliberately exaggerated, the economic consequences are disastrous, proposed mitigation solutions fail the test of cost-effectiveness, and the real threat of the movement is to take away individual initiative, a desire to excel, a will to achieve, and development of one's creative skills. I couldn't agree more and recommend every concerned citizen read this excellent book. The sensible balanced section on solutions at the end shows ways we can ACCOMMODATE and ADAPT to climate change without shutting down the American Dream (which everyone in the world wants to emulate), and can do so with making a few minor adjustemtns as a society.
My exposure to the stridency of the environmental movement came when I served in the joint position of President of the New Jersey Marine Sciences and as Director of the New Jersey State Sea Grant College Program between 1993 and 1996. The consortium headquarters are on Sandy Hook in Monmouth County, a hotbed of Coastal environmental activists.
Let me share two examples of what I observed.
1). One of the Board members of the NJ Marine Science Consortium was executive director of a coastal environmental activist group. Every year, her organization held a fund-raiser at a period-piece Jersey shore hotel in Monmouth County.
To show support for a board member, my wife and I attended. When we arrived, we noticed the cars were all high end (mine was mid-end). The people attending the event were all financially well off, judging from their clothes and jewelry. They were all LILLY WHITE. The only non-white person there was my wife, a Korean (now an American citizen), and absolutely no-one, and I mean no one, talked with us, much less sat at our table!.
Then the guest of honor arrived. He was a local legislator who I knew personally and he also had met my wife at another function we attended. After going to the head table to notify the organizer he was there, he turned around, scanned the audience, saw my wife and me, and immediately came over to talk with us for about five minutes. From that point on, everyone started to talk with us and people sat at our table.
That experience suggested to me that the environmental crowd is affluent, wishes to use the environmental agenda to control people who are not of their class or race, and use whatever means are at their disposal to keep people unlike them in their place (like in Medieval times). Their concerns are their own rights, not Human Rights.
I discussed this with two influential New Jersey leaders, one a former minority leader of the NJ State Senate, and the other the director of an infrastructure group. Both agreed that my inference and they also added that "The federal government is watching those movements carefully to be sure they are in compliance with all laws governing equal opportunity and civil rights. Funding decisions were to be scrutinized if there is no compliance."
2). While NJ Sea Grant director, the program funded a marine biologist at member college. Her research was on the fate of pollutants in fish. She discovered that pollutants preferentially resided in fish organs, so when preparing fish for consumption, she recommended they be filleted and the organs removed. The filleted remains were edible because there was no dispersal of pollutants from the organs into the rest of the fish body.
Two things happened after her findings were announced. First, the New Jersey Department of the Environment immediately published advisories banning recreational fishing in areas of known water pollution. Second, the ever-aggressive press officer at her college sent out a press release about the marine biologist's findings and it was picked up by a local TV station in the greater New York area.
After telling the audience the results of the marine biologist's work in lay English, they panned a shot of the advisory notice because they sent out a video crew and announcer to see if it people paid attention. The video crew then interviewed three people who were fishing and asked each one if they had read the notices and why were they still fishing.
Fisherman #1 - A Caucasian, unshaven man of around 80 merely said "I ain't dead yet" and cast his fly rod into the water while smiling.
Fisherman #2 - An African-American man who said "Yes, I read the notices, but life is very difficult for us. I have a family to feed and that's more important".
Fisherman #3 - A Hispanic man, who barely spoke English, mumbled something about not understanding `gringo' rules.
Clearly, in this case, economic need by the less-advantaged members of society trumped environmental regulation OR human needs/rights trumped environmental elitism. The eindividual made their chocies and understood the consequences in one case.
3). All this comes down to a third issue. Do environmental rules and laws place Human beings at a disadvantage? Klaus's observations suggest the goals of the environmental movement are no different from the practices of totalitarian communist states (and he should know). In many respects he is right.
In short, this book provides a balanced and fair insight into the global climate change and environmental movement.
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An everyday book
It is packed with powerful leader opinions. Sometimes, it suffers from hyperbole and from lack of research in disciplines other than economics. It gives some very strong and aspiring conclusions in short sentences, that can cover many areas of human life and be easily adopted and put to practical use by many. Leader's stuff!
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