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

From: Alan Browne (alan.browne_at_FreeLunchVideotron.ca)
Date: 10/28/04 

Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 19:21:03 -0400

H.W. Stockman wrote:

> "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.

And so what? The point is, regardless of the symbol, that water issues in the
southwest are dramatically important, but you are doing all the wrong things
about it. Letting even small waste occurs makes people think that the bigger
issue is not so big.

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

I agree with you there, and I'll also drop this line. 

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