Dave Murray: What would I give up for a climate emergency?

Many in my party (Democrat) are calling on President Biden to declare a climate emergency. In an emergency, he can dictate new rules and regulations to control our lives and impact our pocketbooks. If this is a serious emergency, then there are things in our lives we should consider doing without.

Electricity: Every electrical conductor needs to be insulated. The most common material is a thermoplastic compound derived from natural gas. Growing up, our house (built in the early 1900s) had a “knob and tube” scheme for routing the conductors. The wires were insulated with asbestos. Without natural gas I can see the new lawyer TV ads: “Have cancer and knob and tube wiring? Then we can get money for you.” Look at all the good jobs making candles and killing whales for oil.

Rubber: A recent “Modern Marvel” episode educated me on rubber. It turns out that only 10% of all rubber comes from rubber trees. The other 90% is formulated from natural gas. I guess we could get the Amish to teach making wheels out of wood. I am not sure if the vehicle death rate will go down because we are driving slower or up because we can’t stop as fast. The cars will definitely require better shocks.

Indoor plumbing: The majority of our water and sewer lines are made from PVC (polyvinyl chloride). You guessed it, this is also derived from natural gas. When I was growing up, we had an outhouse. I can assure you they are not the most pleasant facilities. One thing I could never understand was why there were two seats. I don’t ever recall having someone share the “go” with me.

Polyester: If your clothes are not made from wool, cotton or leather, then they are made using artificial fibers. These fibers also come from natural gas. I tried to envision a trip to the beach when polyester is banned. One warning, leather shrinks in the hot sun after getting wet. I am OK, my underwear is cotton, but I don’t think I can give up my Dri-FIT golf shirt.

Plastic: Plastic is sourced from natural gas. Currently some areas are banning plastic grocery bags. In an emergency, Biden will have to ban all plastic; you wouldn’t want to buy anything bagged, wrapped, boxed or bottled in plastic. Next time you are at the grocery store, see what the means to you. Besides packaging, there would be no cell phones, solar panels, TVs or computers, along with millions of other items we use or play with daily. I guess we could go back to glass milk bottles. No, wait, furnaces used to melt the sand in glass-making are heated by natural gas. I better order my pottery wheel before there is a shortage.

Carbonated beverages: Every time we open or dispense a Coke, Pepsi or beer, we are releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. I thought CO2 is bad. It seems only bad for the climate alarmists. Our food crops and trees suck up all the CO2 they can to grow bigger and healthier.

We all need a trip to Williamsburg to see what life was like 200 years ago when we had none of these things. I have traveled around the world and seen how some other less fortunate people get by. I watched women pat cow dung into patties, paste them on a wall and, after the sun dried them, stack them for later use as a cooking fuel. I wonder what flavors that adds to a meal. Many countries don’t have the abundant fuel sources that the USA is blessed with.

If natural gas is so bad, why is the local bus transit authority touting “Going Green” on the recently purchased buses powered by natural gas? The local UPS delivery trucks proudly display “Powered by Natural Gas” on their sides. If natural gas is soo bad, why don’tt the gas ranges in our kitchens connect to a chimney like a coal or wood-burning stove?

It seems that all the policies to date have been to kill the gas and oil industries at the expense of the average American. Why not try a new approach? We have more than enough fossil fuels to make the U.S. energy independent. The U.S. sends billions of dollars in foreign aid to other countries. Why not send the aid in the form of clean natural gas so that countries don’t have to cut down trees for fuel or cook with cow patties?

I am a skeptical Democrat and have yet to see proof that there is a climate emergency. Thousands of science experts have a consensus that it is real. Science is based on facts instead of opinion. The consensus in 1492 was that the earth was flat. We all know how that worked out.

They say the computer models predict it is so. I have an electrical engineering degree and a minor in computer science. Every program I ever worked on had a result as a target. The same could be true for these models. You create a model knowing the result beforehand. The other rule in programming was garbage in equals garbage out. Suppose a model used a data parameter which has a sensor in a position (near a heat source) that would record a temperature higher than actual. An example, Pittsburgh is always declared the dirtiest city but the lone sensor is across the river form the Clairton coke plant. I can remember going through the Squirrel Hill tunnel not being able to see downtown because of the smoke from the steel mills.

I wish these experts would focus on a couple of small tasks before trying to control the weather for the whole earth. I suggest two such tasks. First, develop a device that would reduce the severity of a single tornado (say from a Cat 5 to Cat 1 or no tornado at all). Second, create a way to divert or change the direction of a single hurricane so that if would not make landfall and cause death and destruction. There are thousands of these experts; surely these are small enough tasks compared to the climate or weather for the whole earth.

Back to the question in the headline. For me, it is none of the above, because I am skeptical of a real emergency and I like the benefits of all of them. I read that animal farts contribute to greenhouse gases. Broccoli really gives me gas. So to do my part for the climate, I promise not to eat broccoli.

Dave Murray is a skeptical Democrat from Hempfield.