Charleston Gazette OpEd Sinks Daily Mail's Global Warming Denials

by: One Citizen

Tue Jun 17, 2008 at 10:03:39 AM EDT

Armbrecht begins by taking up the gauntlet:

Energy alternatives are the future -- will W.Va. lose out?

With regard to recent Daily Mail editorials regarding "the myth of global warming" and Henry Payne's diatribe against Sen. Rockefeller (Daily Mail, June 4), I'd like to make a few comments.

It is now evident that the debate is over. The fact of the crisis is accepted: world leaders, national and state political leaders, CEOs of the majority of U.S. and world corporations, and the scientific community, including social and health disciplines, are working to address the problems this crisis presents. They are not sitting around grasping at straws seeking any harebrained idea to say it isn't so with the sole purpose of defending the status quo; they are determining how the crisis will affect their businesses, their constituencies, their shareholders and, most importantly, their heirs and how they can rise to the challenges.

After taking but a second to carefully aim:

Evidence of this change can be seen daily in the press, even in the Daily Mail news pages.

Armbrecht fires his withering broadside salvo:

# Exxon no longer pays "scientists" to debunk global warming.

# The world's insurance companies are looking at the impact of rising waters on coastal properties.

# AEP, Duke Energy, BP (now called BeyondPetroleum), among others, are looking for ways to expand into alternative forms of energy.

# Wal-Mart planned to sell 1 million compact fluorescent bulbs, and has now sold almost 2 million.

# The automotive industry (belatedly in the United States) is testing fuel-cell and electric technologies to replace oil.

# European countries such as Germany and Denmark are far exceeding their alternative-energy goals.

# Rooftops all over the world are fitted with solar panels to heat water.

# Chicago requires all alleys to be paved with porous surfaces to prevent sewer system overload and return water to the aquifer.

# New York and Phoenix are building roof gardens to cut back temperature-driven fuel costs.

# While "green" building is not new, suddenly the extra costs have been greatly lowered and pay-off times greatly reduced. Even the West Virginia School Building Authority has decided that while all new buildings should use green solutions, at least one new school per year will achieve LEED Silver certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, the national building standard).

And with his blistering volley Armbrecht all but tears the Daily Mail's mast completely away, destroying her rudder while toppling firstmate Payne floundering into the swells.

Catch the Charleston Gazette's entire OpEd here