Article Contributed on: 6/26/2009 11:48:50 AM
Recently while driving around I found myself behind a car most likely belonging to a liberally leaning woman which had an Obama 08 sticker, a Mark Udall sticker, a gay equality sticker, a pro choice sticker, and a few other catchy but possibly sacreligious quotes. One sticker really caught my attention. It read, "Real conservatives conserve the environment."
Now, I don't expect this person really knows much about political conservatism and what it means to those who practice it, but this sticker lead me to think about the National Party's stance on environmental issues and how things that the national leaders say may be doing more harm to the GOP than good.
About a month ago, John Boehner, the minority leader in the U.S. house was on M
eet the Press discussing his stance on global warming and what kind of plan house republicans plan to draw up to counter the Obama administration's plans for environmental protection. Boehner responding saying comments such as:
"The idea that Carbon Dioxide is a carcinogen is perposterous"
"When we breathe out, we expel CO2, when Cows....do what they do.....thats CO2"
The second one confused me to no end until i realized he was speaking about cow flatulence.
The ignorance about basic chemistry and biology in these statements were a little frightening and I wondered why no one had prepared him to answer a question like this. I'll try to take it easy on those without the science background since I may underestimate the level of understanding of those without a science related degree.
The claim environmentalists have about CO2 emissions is that it transmits visible light but absorbs infrared. This occurs in many gases (O3-ozone, nitrogen,etc)that environmentalists call "Greenhouse Gases." The effect is similar to a greenhouse. The transmission of the light comes as heat. Some of you may have learned this in a physics or physical chemistry class. Increasing the amount of CO2 will increase this type of heating without any doubt among the science community. The real question is, is it any worse than the natural cycle of the earth that has occured for tens of thousands of years?
Boehners statement about carcinogen either clearly outlines that he doesn't understand the liberal argument, or that he doesn't know what a carcinogen (cancer causing) is and just threw out the word to sound more intelligent.
His second statement about cows shows a big confusion on his part between methane, which is expelled "when cows do what they do" and carbon dioxide, the "green house gas" liberals are worrying about.
I admit, there are conservatives in the house that have been working on a bill to counter Obama's over-the-top green tax as I like to call it, and the media, which clearly has a pro-Obama bias, is failing to cover that side. I would hope that the house republicans will start putting people who know what they are talking about, into leadership positions within the caucus, for the betterment of the environment, our economy, the pocketbooks of tax payers, and the National Republican Party.