| by heath_harrison
West Virginia Coal Association President Bill Raney had a column printed in a few state newspapers this week.
Raney tries to position himself as a defender of jobs and the well-being of West Virginians (which is funny as he's an ally of the pro-outsourcing U.S. Chamber of Commerce, but that's an issue for another time and place).
And, of course, Raney wants you to overlook the countless jobs his industry has eliminated as they extract record amounts of coal while employing fewer workers using more destructive methods.
Anyway, the piece is typical Raney, loaded with some of the most hysterical rhetoric we've heard since the night the lights went out at Spike Maynard headquarters.
But one line in particular, on the EPA regulating carbon dioxide emissions really jumped out:
"And keep in mind that we are talking about CO2, carbon dioxide, the same thing we all exhale with every breath. How harmful can that be?"
As you can imagine it's a common talking point from the rightwing. Here's the debunk from Media Matters for America:
But scientists are not saying that carbon dioxide is inherently harmful, as Media Matters for America has documented. Rather, they point to the danger posed to the atmosphere by excessive discharges of C02, as the Natural Resources Defense Council has noted:
[A] pollutant is a substance that causes harm when present in excessive amounts. CO2 has been in the atmosphere since life on earth began, and in the right amounts CO2 is important for making the earth hospitable for continued life. But when too much CO2 is put into the atmosphere, it becomes harmful. We have long recognized this fact for other pollutants. For example, phosphorus is a valuable fertilizer, but in excess, it can kill lakes and streams by clogging them with a blanket of algae.
Indeed, while C02 is a natural gas, the current levels in the atmosphere are the result of human activities. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, "Since the Industrial Revolution in the 1700's, human activities, such as the burning of oil, coal and gas, and deforestation, have increased CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. In 2005, global atmospheric concentrations of CO2 were 35% higher than they were before the Industrial Revolution."
According the 2007 United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 "Synthesis Report," "Global GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions due to human activities have grown since pre-industrial times, with an increase of 70% between 1970 and 2004." It further explains, "Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most important anthropogenic GHG. Its annual emissions have grown between 1970 and 2004 by about 80%, from 21 to 38 gigatonnes (Gt), and represented 77% of total anthropogenic GHG emissions in 2004."
We could ask if Raney is so ignorant that the concept of "excessive" is beyond his understanding, or if he's just trying to confuse readers on the issue - but, considering that this is a guy who probably works closely with teams of lawyers and lobbyists on these matters, we all know the answer.
Are standards truly so low at West Virginia newspapers that dishonest, easily-debunked garbage like this is guaranteed a prime spot on the opinion page? |
