Climate Change--Are You a True Believer?
Friday, December 4, 2009 at 04:46PM I still subscribe to the hometown weekly paper from my boyhood home of Monticello Utah, the San Juan Record. A few months ago the editor and good friend Bill Boyle invited Jim Stiles, Editor of the Canyon Country Zephyr to write a weekly editorial comment. The Canyon Country Zephyr is a witty online publication with mostly a "green" slant. I don’t agree with everything Jim has to say but find myself agreeing with him more often than not. A recent piece titled “The Climate Change Test” posed thoughtful questions regarding the climate change debate that forced me to consider what I really believe.
For the past three years, we in Beaver County have tried hard, with some success, to brand ourselves as the center of renewable resources in the state. Because of that, I guess I am all for climate change. But do I really believe in it? I have been quoted many times as saying “global warming is no religion to me” and adding quickly “…but it has been the best thing to come along in years for rural economies.”
From that standpoint, I guess I am squarely in the camp of what Jim Stiles calls the Madison Avenue crowd asking “how can I make money from this crisis?”. The question to me is less a question of personal success than one regarding the success of rural communities. I don’t know if the true believers of man's culpability in climate change think it somehow wrong or immoral to make money off the crisis but to me, that’s the real good stuff.
Renewable energy projects are the rural economic developers dream. They represent large investments, create little impact with respect to the social infrastructure and, if they are well placed, generate little controversy. That is not to say there is never controversy, just remember I said “well placed”. Compare the response to the wind farm in Milford with the response to the proposal for wind turbines in New Harmony. The former generated no known negative comments and the latter nearly caused World War III in the “teapot” of New Harmony. Heck, I could have told them that project wouldn’t fly; but no one asked.
Another side of the economic argument is that power from renewable sources is too expensive, I counter by saying that yes, it may seem more expensive now, but most forms of renewable generation are fixed costs, they last a long time and they are not subject to volatile fuel price fluctuations. Some of the cheapest power in the United States today comes from hydroelectric dams along the Columbia River. Columbia River power is cheap for three reasons 1) heavy subsidies in the beginning from the federal government, 2) the dams are largely depreciated and 3) no fuel is required. I see the investments in renewable energy today as forming a similar foundation of a more secure energy future.
The best thing about the climate change debate is that it has the potential to get rural residents of all factions together at the same table with the real possibility of maybe becoming friends. I am speaking of the multigenerational families that have worked hard to scratch out an existence in rural Utah for the past 150 years and the “new westerners” (code for environmentalists—whatever that means) that have recently come to our communities for the solitude, the beauty and heaven forbid, “the wilderness experience”.
So what do I really believe about climate change? Surprisingly, I have no idea regarding the truth of either end of the scientific argument. I felt much more confident in my opinions about such things back in the 60s & 70s when I was a student at Monticello High School taking math and science classes. Now, 40 years later there is so much that I knew back then that I realize now, I don’t.
This much I do know—the climate change debate is more of an opportunity than a threat to rural communities. Let the money grubbers and the environmentalists join hands.
Reader Comments (35)
Yes I believed in everything you said. Climate has change since there were many well develop companies in our area.
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I absolutely believe climate change is real... just like evolution is real. Vikings reached America because they were following seal and walrus hunters who migrated west as Greenland's ice caps melted. Huge areas of South America were depopulated hundreds of years ago due to climate change. Global warming... and cooling... is real. The question is the degree to which humans are impacting global warming and the jury is still out on that one. The other question is, "So what?" How much human impact is acceptable? Do we cripple the economiies of the industrial West to stop global warming only to have China who has no environmental sensitivity at all take over the world's economy. Now, regarding alternative energy... you bet... full speed ahead. Alternative energy is today's "race to the moon" and it's a race that will, as Rob noted, have potentially huge positive impacts on rural America.... but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater... can fossil fuels be done in a more environmentally sensitive manner... sure... should fossil fuel extraction be stopped... of course not... besides..who will fund the world's environmental movement in the economy of the West collapses? Don't be stupid.
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