Talking Points on the Environment #4

Warning: Environmentalists May Be Hazardous to the Planet's Health

Mother Earth may have adversaries from an unexpected quarter -- the environmental movement. Consider:

• Acid Rain - Swamps, bogs, marshes and other "wetlands" naturally produce sulfur and nitrogen compounds -- or the "acid" found in "acid rain." Between 35% and 85% of the earth's sulfur compounds and between 40% and 60% of its nitrogen are produced naturally. Nonetheless, radical environmentalists not only oppose the loss of any wetlands whatsoever, but want to expand them.
• Global Warming - Radical environmentalists dismiss reforestation as insignificant, insisting that "tree farms are not real forests." To them, only old growth forests are "real." But reforestation is significant: Young trees remove 5 to 7 tons more of the "greenhouse gas" CO2 per acre per annum than do old growth trees. While the preservation of some old growth forests is certainly a worthy goal, without the old growth timber harvests of the past and subsequent reforestation, atmospheric CO2 levels would undoubtedly be much higher.
• Air Pollution - Self-styled "environmentalists" advocate taxes on energy as a means of improving environmental quality. Such taxes can sometimes do just the opposite. For example, a BTU tax that places duties not only on the energy content of various fuels, but on the energy used to extract, refine and transport the fuels to market, could actually increase air pollution. Such a tax would encourage industry to switch from using clean western coal to using high-sulfur eastern coal because the cost of western coal relative to eastern coal would rise as a result of the tax. Western coal producers, who must transport their product vast distances to bring it to market, would bear the brunt of the tax.
• Energy Conservation - Environmental radicals want to sharply restrict logging in the U.S., some advocating reductions of up to 50%. For every billion board feet of lumber replaced by wood substitutes, however, energy consumption would rise by 720 million gallons of oil and CO2 emissions would increase by 7.5 million tons. The U.S. currently consumes roughly 77 billion board feet of wood fiber each year. If wood consumption were reduced by 50%, 27.7 billion additional gallons of oil would be needed for wood substitutes and CO2 emissions would rise by 288.8 million tons.

Information from Trashing the Planet by Dixy Lee Ray (Regnery Gateway, 1990); Center for International Trade in Forest Product Working Paper No. 361; and "The Flaws in Clinton's Energy Tax," Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 934 by John Shanahan

Issue Date: June 4, 1993

Talking Points on the Economy: Environment #4, published by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 501 Capitol Ct NE, Washington, D.C. 20002 Tel. (202) 543-4110, Fax (202)543-5975, info@nationalcenter.org, http://www.nationalcenter/inter.net. For more information about Talking Points on the Economy: Environment #4 contact Bob Adams at 202/543-4110 or EPTF@AOL.com.

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