Governor Doyle heard from his Wisconsin-based study group on carbon footprints, wind generators, etc., etc. a few days ago after it spent 16 months studying the 'problem'. He recently defended his participation in the Midwest Regional Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord Advisory Group (the acronym MRGGRAAG just doesn't work for me, by the way) by saying that the various regions across America have to get to work on the issues surrounding us without regard to what others may or may not be doing.
What is missing in all this rhetoric?
Our environment is globally-dynamic. Remember the Mount St. Helen's ash clouds moving around the earth? Do we see any continuing issues from that eruption other than (possibly) in the immediate vicinity? How about forest fires? Our small local, state or regional efforts to solve the perceived ills of the globe might be likened to the effort to drain Lake Michigan with a thimble. The dynamic environment is pouring water into the lake all the while we're trying to empty it with our thimble and we think we're having a noticeable impact?
This is yet another vestige of the climate change/global warming/global cooling group. There still is no scientific proof behind the myriad suppositions. Nothing has changed since the last time we discussed this other than for the rhetoric to have been dialed up by the Gore groupies.
Just as the United States threatens its own economy by thinking it needs to establish the magical 'cap and trade' marketplace when China and India and the emerging economies in the rest of the world ignore the issue, it is equally as damaging to Wisconsin and the Midwest to think that it can solve the 'problem' in the face of much greater odds.
Just because John McCain was unwise enough to voice support for a national 'cap and trade' plan for campaign purposes alongside Barack Obama, it still isn't true. Al Gore notwithstanding, this is bunk...but I repeat myself. I far and away prefer the 'preaching' of Representative Jim Ott (an accomplished professional meteorologist and student of the sciences).
The Governor's medicine threatens the patient far more than the perception of a 'problem' that has yet to be proved.
