Tom McGee's Blog

This winner in Dumbest WSJ Op-Ed of the Week contest goes to “What’s the Next’Global Warming’?”, a piece by Bret Stephens that starts,

So global warming is dead, neailed into its coffin one devastating disclosure, defection and re-evaluation at a time, which means that pretty soon we’re going to need another apocalyptic scare to take its place.

Among his evidence is the fact that “the extent of Arctic sea ice in March was around the recorded average.” I guess we’re supposed to go “oooh, a data point!” But of course a single data point does not a trend make. Here in north-central New Jersey we’re going to set a record high temperature today. And that, too, does nothing to prove or disprove climate change.

But here’s where it gets really silly, when he does a drive-by on the subject other threats.

My water is that within a few years “climate change” will exercise global nerves about as much as overpopulation, toxic tampons, nuclear winters, ozone holes, killer bees, low sperm counts, genetically modified foods and mad cows do today.

The point he’s trying to make is threefold, I think. One, they weren’t real to begin with; two, they just went away by themselves; and three, nobody cares about them anymore anyway. Let’s discuss:

1. Overpopulation. It’s true we’re not freaked out about it like we were in the 1970s. The Green Revolution has done a great job in increasing the global production of food-per-capita. So it’s a tragedy averted, for a while at least, because of a tremendous effort to mitigate it. Fresh water remains a problem.
2. Toxic Tampons: The type of tampon associated with toxic shock was taken off the market. Improved product labelling and education have also helped. This was more than a threat, there were real cases. But again, it didn’t go away by itself — changes were made.
3. Nuclear Winters: Like overpopulation, a threat, not current a condition to be worried about. Why do we not worry about nuclear winter anymore? Simply because we don’t have to worry about global thermonuclear war anymore. One would think that the idolatry offered up to St. Reagan by these people would give them the grace to recognize that his defeat of the Soviet Union, flaming sword in hand, made us free from the fear of nuclear winter.
4. Ozone Holes: Actually, just one. Caused by chloro-fluorocarbons, which were taken off the market. Action taken, problem solved.
5. Killer Bees: They’re still out there, and are reaching the natural barriers which were predicted (all along) to stop their spread. Last month they were spotted in southern Utah, two women in Phoenix were in critical condition after being attacked by a swarm, and in south Florida a family’s dog was killed by them. While the hysteria has died down, the problem is, apparently, still there.
6. Low Sperm Counts: I’m sorry, but I really don’t remember the public scare over this. I was probably too busy raising my kids.
7. Genetically Modified Foods: Funny, I was just reading a product label over the weekend touting that it had no genetically modified ingredients. Somehow, it’s still a concern.
8. Mad Cows: The Bush Administration in its last years put the kibosh on a meat processor in the US that wanted to test all of its beef for mad cow disease. The Bushies said no, it would cast doubts on the safety of the meat coming from all the other processors. Meanwhile, just today, a North Dakota company recalled 25,000 pounds of beef for just that reason, and Japan announced it is not changing their trade restrictions on US beef. Last week, Canada’s 18th case of BSE was discovered, and 76 groups petitioned the USDA to prohibit Canadian beef from coming into this country.

Stephens’ thesis seems to be that these were things we used to care about, that were really no big deal, and went away by themselves. But only in the “la la la I can’t hear you” world of conservatives, where anything that suggests that government might have to act must be immediately belittled. Because of the sacredness of free markets, you know.

However, to summarize, we actually had two potential threats averted by human action (overpopulation and nuclear winter); two real threats minimized by human action (toxic tampons and ozone holes); one ongoing threat that has faded from attention a little but is still deadly (killer bees); one concern that remains a concern (GMF); and one real threat (Mad Cows) that we’re still wrestling with.

And that thing about low sperm counts.