Re: "US could shoot down EU satellites..."

From: H.W. Stockman (stockman3_at_earth-REMOVE_THIS-link.net)
Date: 10/28/04 

Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 21:52:54 GMT

"Alan Browne" <alan.browne@FreeLunchVideotron.ca> wrote in message
news:f%agd.3383$dd6.110873@weber.videotron.net...
> H.W. Stockman wrote:
>
> > I guess I would like to believe there will be a day when people actually
> > make valid quantitative judgements, rather than rely on emotional
knee-jerk
> > reactions. Anything else is irrational. Just because someone has
"concern
> > for the environment" doesn't mean that such person actually helps the
> > environment. By focussing lots of money and effort on unimportant
issues,
> > people tend to draw attention and funds away from important issues.
>
> In a region of the world where aquifers are disappearing, where rivers are
> running dry, where lake levels are lowering annually, there is no such
thing as
> an "emotional" reaction to water waste. It is mismanaged, abused and
> politicized by big-business over common sense or the common good. Waste,
> whether fossil fuels or water, is waste.

OK, let's take a specific example.

Here in Las Vegas, there was a hue and cry over the water fountains, which
have been stopped (some very high-profile fountains -- on the Strip
itself -- persist). Meanwhile, the powers that be argue that growth must NOT
be stopped, and have pushed through a plan to suck the aquifers in Lincoln
County, to the north -- so we can bring in at least a million more residents
to an area that gets 4.5" rain/yr. This plan is intended to get around the
reasonable limits on Colorado water use, and this plan is supported mainly
by developers, who support our politicians. The irrational, emotional
arguments about the fountains have led people to a false sense of security,
and drawn focus from a new water use that will be thousands of times as
great. In the "fountain" crisis, I see an analogy with the "disposable
diaper" non-crisis that occupied so much energy 14 years ago, when people
felt compelled by political factors to use diaper services of dubious
environmental benefit, but continued to fill up the other 99.5% of landfills
with less dramatically identifiable junk.

 I don't have an interest in using these groups as a political soapboxes, so
this will be my last post on the issue.

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