So….the bridge collapse was Jay Reding’s fault?? Who knew?? And here I thought it was because our taxes aren’t high enough and that evil genius Karl Rove was somehow behind it all. Dang! Nobody ever tells me anything…

Shame on you, Jay.

“The global-warming debate’s great un-mentionable is this: we lack the technology to get from here to there. Just because Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to cut emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 doesn’t mean it can happen.”

2050 is 43 years away; and, in technological terms, 43 years is a hell of a long time, especially these days. Given the increasing push in efficiency technologies, clean energy, nuclear (fission and fusion) research, electric/hydrogen cars, mass transit development, etc; the thought that in such a time frame it’s possible to cut emissions by such an extreme amount is hardly far-fetched. If Schwarzenegger had set the goal at 2025, though, he’d be out of his mind.

My biggest beef with the environmental movement these days is that they’re never able to acknowledge the dramatic wins that they’ve had in the last several decades. Since the founding of the EPA and the environmental legislation of the 1970’s, the US has made marked improvements in the quality of our air and water; not to mention the most successful international environmental initiative ever, the CFC ban, which has dropped CFC production to less than 1% of 1990 levels and allowed the Ozone layer to begin healing (atmospheric scientists estimate that the ozone hole should heal completely by the 2060’s, provided there is no reversal in the policy).

And, amazingly enough, in the same time period since the 1970’s, we’ve gone through a massive economic expansion. Economic progress doesn’t necessarily require pollution, if it’s accompanied by efficiency and innovation. Too bad so much of the environmental movement seems more interested in selling doom, gloom, and asceticism than a high-tech ecotopia.