President Obama told federal agencies yesterday that they had only 90 days to set goals for cutting their greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. It was his way to "lead by example" in fighting climate change. (Remember, kids; "climate change" is the hep term nowadays. Talking about "global warming," which has been busted wide open by hard science, has become counter-productive.)It's all a game, of course. For there is absolutely no way that greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced enough to make any real difference on the world's climate.
Obama knows this. And even the writer of this Reuters story (Jeff Mason) notes Obama's posturing. "Obama's international credentials on fighting climate change have been called into question as chances dim that the Senate will pass a bill mandating emissions cuts across the United States economy by December, when U.N. talks on a global warming treaty take place in Copenhagen. The White House order may be intended to counter concerns about the president's climate change commitment."
This posturing, however, doesn't mean that Obama and other extreme liberals are not in deadly earnest about exploiting the hysteria of climate change. They are. And their purposes have nothing to do with science or climate whatsoever. Indeed, they are driving to impose yet more severe socialist controls on our economy and our personal freedoms. They must have a crisis in order to demand even greater domination of our lives by government -- and what greater crisis than the end of the world?
But ironically enough, Obama's "leading by example" turns out to be a pretty nifty idea. For the quickest, surest way to reduce America's carbon footprint is to start trimming our Nanny State's enormous feet.
For instance, one illuminating factoid that Mason drops into his brief news story is this: "The federal government is the largest consumer of energy in the U.S. economy, the statement noted, occupying nearly 500,000 buildings and operating more than 600,000 vehicles."
Hmm. Add to that the energy consumption of those millions of additional buildings and vehicles operated by state, county, and city governments and...whoa, Nelly. It begins to look like the most effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in America is to start radically reducing the size of government itself.
I think we've got a rallying call here. What do you think?
