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The Student Newspaper of DePaul University

The DePaulia

The Student Newspaper of DePaul University

The DePaulia

The Student Newspaper of DePaul University

The DePaulia

Don’t spend green on green technology

Denis Hayes, coordinator of the first Earth Day, speaks to a crowd during the first annual student-hosted Climate Action Festival during Earth Day celebrations. (Jordan Stead/seattlepi.com via AP)
Denis Hayes, coordinator of the first Earth Day, speaks to a crowd during the first annual student-hosted Climate Action Festival during Earth Day celebrations. (Jordan Stead/seattlepi.com via AP)

With last week being earth week, what once was a week to reflect on the ecological problems we face has been turned into a sort of climate Halloween in which environmentalists go door to door and try to scare the American public.

Instead of wearing masks, they make outlandish claims citing the Huffington Post’s article titled, “14 U.S. Cities that Could Disappear over the Next Century,” that the ocean will swallow Miami, New York and Boston if America continues down its path of ever increasing carbon pollution. Instead of candy, these fear mongers ask for cash, which they will funnel into PACs and organizations that will elect far-left candidates.

Once elected, these politicians funnel billions of taxpayers’ dollars back toward the fear mongers in the form of failed green energy projects. These green businesses receive hundreds of millions of dollars despite the fact that for every $250 billion invested in green energies, the result on the climate will be about .01 degrees a hundred years from now, according to Bjorn Lomborg’s book “Cool It.”   

What’s dangerous about this system is not only that our money is being wasted on projects such as the $525 million spent on the now defunct Fisker Automotive or the $400 million on Abound Solar, but the cause of our careless spending in the first place. Claiming that global warming is so dire that Miami, New York and Boston will be underwater if we do not act to curb carbon emissions is as much counterfactual as claiming climate change is not happening at all.

The scientific community estimated a one-foot sea level rise by the year 2100.  There are only a handful of scientist estimates that varied from this.

One side, mostly funded by large oil and coal corporations, claims the sea level is not expected to rise, to which the media rightly criticizes and chastises their view. On the other extreme, there are a few scientists that claim the sea levels will rise over seven feet in the same time frame. According to this prediction, New York would become a modern-day Atlantis. This group’s prediction is even further from mainstream science than the climate deniers. The media, however, does not criticize them but often reports their findings without any disclaimer. News stations want viewers, and as a result the most sensationalized climate studies are the ones reported, despite their scientific inaccuracies.

Benjamin Strauss, a researcher at Climate Central think tank, often pedals this climate alarmism. In an interview with the Guardian, Strauss, referring to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, said, “Pretty much everywhere it seems you are going to be under water unless you build a massive system of dykes and levees.”

This statement was meant to scare Americans, but in fact, it is actually good news. A massive system of dykes and levees would only cost a fraction of the $120 billion the Obama administration has spent trying to slow global warming to no avail. There is no doubt that the American people are being lied to because it is just not exciting to forecast a sea level rise of one foot. 

We can no longer let fear cloud our judgment. We need to be honest with ourselves. It may feel good to install solar panels, but green tech is not yet cost efficient.  The money can be better spent elsewhere. Our best option right now is to continue the switch from coal to natural gas while investing our tax dollars in research and development of renewable energies. The green lobby will be disappointed to no longer receive million dollar subsidies, but our planet needs real action for a real problem.

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    David AllredMay 6, 2015 at 6:46 am

    This article takes a very narrow view on both green technology and climate change and is cherry picking data to make its point while offering no references to its data or putting it into context. Sea Level rise of 1 foot of less is based on aggressive CO2 emissions cutbacks and is a best case scenario. Sea level rise will also continue well pass 2100 so unless we plan on only living here for another 80 years we may want to take a longer view on this one. Also it is important to put into context what a 1ft sea rise would actually mean to many regions especially in the tropics area which will feel the effect of sea level rise much more. You can read about this in the following links. The oceans are receiving 90% of the extra heat that is being trapped in by the increased greenhouse effect and most of the rise is attributed to basic science that water molecules expand with heat. Think of it like mercury inside of a thermometer. Not to mention that this article only talks about 1 part of the problems associated with global warming. Acidification of the oceans through increased CO2 absorption is another scary aspect of the increased C02 levels. 97% of climate scientist agree that current climate change rates are directly linked to human causes, principally the burning of fossil fuels. The scientific community has an overwhelming consensus that this is happening. Fear mongering also is not the way to go to inform the public of what is happening and I wish people would also stop doing that. Please do some real research into the science before spreading mis information or cherry picking data to make a point for an article. It is time for people to get very serious about tackling this. Nobody would like to disbelieve in climate change more than I would but nearly all current science show that this is simply not the case. The facts I stated here can all be found at the following links

    http://www.skepticalscience.com
    https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/20595
    http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/report/our-changing-climate/sea-level-rise#intro-section-2

    If you really want to get serious about understanding what the science consensus is I highly recommend enrolling in the free course
    https://www.edx.org/course/making-sense-climate-science-denial-uqx-denial101x

    It is free and this class really helps put into context what the world’s leading climate scientist are working with. If nothing else it will help you write better articles against climate change if in the end you still find yourself skeptical.

    Also if you are going to point out the failures of governments loaning to green tech you also need to point out to its successes. Look into the loan made to Tesla which was paid back with interest and is helping to transform and industry to greener options. Green tech is still new and not as cost effective as fossil fuel technologies (coal and oil are awesome fuel sources which is why we use them and they are what have built modern civilization) however at this point the long term costs of relying on these fuels are quite high for society.