THE GREENEST GENERATION?  

June 9, 2008 

Each generation of Americans is defined by the epic struggles of its time. Pioneers opened the West. The Greatest Generation won World War II. The post-World War II generation fought the Vietnam War, won the Cold War, and stopped the spread of communism. How will future generations of Americans define the current one? Will they remember it as the Greenest Generation because it stopped global warming and saved the planet? Or will they remember it as the Wisest Generation because it defeated radical Islamic terrorism and achieved Middle East peace? That will depend on which one it makes its highest priority.

Activists, former Vice President Al Gore the most prominent among them, believe global warming is the greatest threat to mankind and warn of the direst consequences. They predict melting glaciers, rising seas, expanding deserts, flooded cities, disease, food shortages, and worse if we fail to quickly begin to limit the CO2 and other greenhouse gasses we pump into the atmosphere. 

Dissenting voices exist in no small numbers. They point out flaws in the models global warming advocates use to press their case and their abundance of dogma rather than hard scientific proof. Many, like Czech President Vaclav Klaus, argue that global environmentalism is nothing more than the intellectual left’s attempt to establish the rationale for controlling society that communism failed to provide.

Global warming advocates and their cheerleaders in the mainstream media, however, are undaunted. Legislation recently proposed in Congress, supported by both Barack Obama and John McCain, called for a system of cap and trade credits for CO2 emissions. Opponents of the legislation claimed it would create a massive new government bureaucracy, cost trillions of dollars, drastically raise the price of gas, and cripple the US economy. President Bush promised to veto it before the Democratic leadership in Congress withdrew it for political reasons in an election year.

People who believe global warming is our greatest threat will push for a similar bill next year after a new Congress and a new president are sworn in. No matter that India, China, and other countries have no intention of taking any measures that would impede their economic growth, true believers in the United States and Western Europe will press on.

Personally, I agree with Charles Krauthammer’s sentiments in his May 31 column, Environmentalists Pick Up Where Communists Left Off  “I'm not a global warming believer. I'm not a global warming denier. I'm a global warming agnostic who believes instinctively that it can't be very good to pump lots of CO2 into the atmosphere, but is equally convinced that those who presume to know exactly where that leads are talking through their hats.”

We could be wrong. Global warming may be every bit the serious threat that Al Gore and others proclaim it to be. If it is, we have to do something about it. We should begin with more convincing scientific evidence and less religious-style dogma. While we're doing that, a few more nuclear power plants would be a good bet.

More immediate threats for which there is hard evidence are radical Islamic terrorism and Iran. Are Americans becoming less interested in them than global warming? Despite all the recent rhetoric on the campaign trail, many are.