Mass Marketed Environmentalism

In our fast food society, the public's quest for easily-consumable, superfically-tasty tidbits isn't limited to burritos and hamburgers. Everyone seems infected. It only depends on what your desires are. In fact, those who would only rarely be caught at a fast food joint are sometimes the first to gobble up the empty substance and false advertising of what I call convenience environmentalism.

The truth, like good food, does not come unless you are willing to prepare and understand the process. How many of today's environmentalists have actually studied the subject? How many try to understand the complexity of the environment and more importantly the effects of man's economy on it. Very few.

Case in point, the mad rush for Hybrid Cars. Many economists have been questioning the value of these cars but finally a bonafide "lefty" has dared to speak the irrefutable illogic of these cars. Jamie Lincoln Kitman's article succinctly debunks the value of these environmental placebos.

Isn't it obvious that a gasoline powered car will get less miles per gallon when it has to haul around a couple of hundred pounds of extra equipment, not to mention all the energy that is lost manufacturing the "hybrid" part of the car? So shouldn't someone have asked the obvious question of where the break even part happens? How much creeping traffic do you have to be in to make it work? and most importantly, are there any alternatives that are cheaper and more effective?

It's easy to do the math. The "hybrid" part of the car adds roughly $6,000 to the sticker price (we're not even including the incentives that automobile manufacturers receive nor the added maintenance cost). Assuming a bad scenario of $4/gal, 20% fuel savings (a real stretch) and a base mpg of 30 (remember we're comparing similar style cars, more on this later). Guess what. It will take 270,000 miles before your hybrid car pays off. At 12K a year, that's 22.5 years. That is, it would never cover the energy required to "create" it.

The general public, especially the self-proclaimed activists, and, therefore, politicians don't really understand that fuel consumption is only a small part of the total equation. The energy that goes into a car includes all of the energy that goes into making it. That includes the people who drive to work to make that car. Your hybrid makes no sense if while you're saving energy, you're paying someone else to waste it.

Now let's talk about an ugly fact. For the most part, hybrid cars consume more fuel than comparable pure gasoline or diesel cars. They are really only worth it for those who spend a lot of time, and I mean a LOT of time, in stop and go traffic. Once you get on the highway, you're actually wasting fuel. The better alternative to buying a roller skate with a hybrid engine is to buy a more efficient, straight gasoline roller skate. Or to car pool. Or live closer to work. Or become concerned enough about the problem to demand real answers. Don't just consume what the mass market environmentalists want you to consume.

Or just buy the damned roller skate with the lawn-mower engine and don't worry that you'll have the same car as the single mom-waitress where you sometimes slum it. That's what this drive to hybrids is about. Elitism parading as concern for the environment.

The Scorpion and the Frog

The movie The Crying Game used the fable of the Scorpion and the Frog to illustrate the inevitable actions of bad people:

A scorpion asks a frog for help crossing a river. Intimidated by the scorpion's prominent stinger, the frog demurs.
``Don't be scared,'' the scorpion says. ``If something happens to you, I'll drown.'' Moved by this logic, the frog puts the scorpion on his back and wades into the river. Half way across, the scorpion stings the frog.
The dying frog croaks, ``How could you -- you know that you'll drown?''
``It's my nature,'' gasps the sinking scorpion.

Politicians are well served to heed this parable and treat with skepticism past scorpions. In that light, the recent actions of the Russians in the Palestinian/Hamas situation should not surprise anyone. Many are upset at the Russians and their duplicitous behavior in regard to Iran's nuclear ambitions but were willing to reason that they were merely supporting their economic interests. Were that the case, we might have no reason to worry. However, the Russians know very well that the money they may make off the Iranians will in no way compensate for the instability the Iranians bring to their muslim provinces. The attractive feature for the Russians is that the Iranians can present an even bigger drain on the West, especially the United States. Even while the Arabs are pushing Hamas toward peace, Russia is holding out hope for continued conflict.

The short sighted scorpion would view a regional conflict in the Middle East as a good thing. Russia has its own supply of energy. A war might give them the opportunity to revive the empire. Don't scoff. More than half of the Russians recently polled think that Stalin was a good leader and even more regret the loss of their rule over neighboring republics. Spend time in the Baltics to understand how the Russian's chaffe at the audacity of these former soviet dominions acting independently. That Stalin killed tens of millions of his own people is inconsequential to the scorpion.

And just because Communism no longer exists in Russia does not mean that the imperialistic tendencies of the Eastern Bear have vanished. Russia has a long history of imposing the empire on her neighbors long before Lenin was born. Destabilizing the West, especially Europe, was always a way of keeping their competitors weak and ripe for takeover. Moreover, Russia has shown a tendency to deal with her own scorpions for the chance of stinging in the future. Stalin's bargain with Hitler started World War II, a conflict Stalin knew would leave a vacuum of power in eastern Europe that he could walk into. A similar desire led the Russians to mobilize and help start the first World War. They've never minded conflict even to the point of their own ruin.