Jonah Goldberg: The gulf tragedy doesn't negate the fact that oil is a green fuel

[Are_grits_groceries]

Counterintuitive as it may seem, biofuels would do the Earth more harm.
Jonah Goldberg

June 15, 2010

A rolling "dead zone" off the Gulf of Mexico is killing sea life and destroying livelihoods. Recent estimates put the blob at nearly the size of New Jersey.

Alas, I'm not talking about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. As terrible as that catastrophe is, such accidents have occurred in U.S. waters only about once every 40 years (and globally about once every 20 years). I'm talking about the dead zone largely caused by fertilizer runoff from American farms along the Mississippi and Atchafalaya river basins. Such pollutants cause huge algae plumes that result in oxygen starvation in the gulf's richest waters, near the delta.

Because the dead zone is an annual occurrence, there's no media feeding frenzy over it, even though the average annual size of these hypoxic zones has been about 6,600 square miles over the last five years, and they are driven by bipartisan federal agriculture, trade and energy policies.
<snip>
Of course, that's just one of the headaches "independence" from oil and coal would bring. If we stop drilling offshore, we could lose up to $1 trillion in economic benefits, according to economist Peter Passell. And, absent the utopian dream of oil-free living, every barrel we don't produce at home, we buy overseas. That sends dollars to bad regimes (though more to Canada and Mexico). It may also increase the chances of disaster because tanker accidents are more common than rig accidents.

But wait a minute — isn't that precisely why we're investing in "renewables," to free ourselves from this vicious petro-cycle? Don't the Billy Sundays of the Church of Green promise that they are the path to salvation?
<snip>
If you remove the argument over climate change from the equation (as even European governments are starting to do), one thing becomes incandescently clear: Fossil fuels have been one of the great boons both to humanity and the environment, allowing forests to regrow (now that we don't use wood for heating fuel) and liberating billions from backbreaking toil. The great and permanent shortage is usable surface land and fresh water. The more land we use to produce energy, the less we have for vulnerable species, watersheds, agriculture, recreation, etc.

"If you like wilderness, as I do," Ridley writes, "the last thing you want is to go back to the medieval habit of using the landscape surrounding us to make power."

The calamity in the gulf is heartrending and tragic. A thorough review of government oversight and industry safety procedures is more than warranted. But as counterintuitive as it may be to say so, oil is a green fuel, while "green" fuels aren't. And this spill doesn't change that fact.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-goldberg-biofuel-20100615,0,2204191,print.column


'I can't believe that!' said Alice .

'Can't you?' the Queen said in a pitying tone. 'Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.'

Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying,' she said. 'One can't believe impossible things.'

'I dare say you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.'


It would take infinity + 1 to begin to practice that much.

[LaurenG]

1. I just can't believe this "impossible thing"

What a lot of nerve Jonah Goldberg has. :rofl: The bs that people spew, the landscape? I mean I can't remember ever using a tree to fill my car.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Everytime Jonah Goldberg opens his pie-hole, he convinces more people of the fact

that he is a blithering idiot.

[zipplewrath]

3. What a crock

Orwellian at best. Getting rid of oil in no way is connected with FUTURE deforestation, just because the use of wood for fuel prior to fossil fuels was common. A "green fuel" movement would almost assuredly use sources of bio-matter that would come predominately from "waste" materials of other processes (wood chips, etc.) and from water based sources (such as algea and sea weed). And the VAST source of green energy would be solar and wind, with some tidal and geothermal thrown in.

[Oregone]

6. Further....

Agriculture is a great cause of deforestation BTW...not necessarily people burning wood to keep themselves warm. Oil leads to a massive expansion of agriculture (which leads to booms in population growth). IMO, the exponential growth of the population is as much linked to oil (which allows scouring of far off resources to support growth) as it is to people having more than 2 children.

Also, if oil also contributes any bit to industrialization (and we know it does), then such industrialization also has a demand for wood...etc. Oil drives growth and consumption. It doesn't replace natural consumption.

Deforestation is accelerated by more people and more demand on food & wood.

[Oregone]

4. This could not be dumber. You cannot be more wrong

"Fossil fuels have been one of the great boons both to humanity and the environment"

Fossil fuels enable rapid human expansion and the high rise of standard of living. In turn, that increases the consumption of the earth's natural resources. Humanity is literally tearing the earth apart to keep up with the jones' (figuratively speaking), all while being propelled with oil.

This is absurdity.

[dhill926]

5. one of the most willfully stupid.....

commentators out there.......

[TheKentuckian]

7. Stuck on stupid. Hemp, waste, and grasses are high yield and need little

weed control or much maintenance, we can use the weeds as well.

Not using food crops will resolve most of his concerns.

[drmeow]

8. Whenever I see the name

Jonah Goldberg I am reminded of his interview on the Daily Show which was so bad they could barely get a coherent segment out of it to air.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-january-16-2008/jonah-goldberg

An expert in 1984 double speak.

[catbyte]

9. Is JG just ignorant or delusional? Nah, just a LIAR n/t

[Initech]

10. Science vs. nonsense.

[metapunditedgy]

11. Reeling in the crazies made Rush very rich; Jonah just wants a cut of the take.

But wow, he really does write to feed the crazies... you could cut the stupidity with a plastic knife.