"One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results."
--Milton Friedman
OUR THANKS to Gentle and Informed Reader for pointing out yet another reason why the United States didn't really need to be a part of the Paris Accord on climate change. As mentioned before in these columns, the new president's decision to pull out of the deal won't affect global climate much, if at all, considering the number of coal plants being built around the globe today. Most of the carbon "reductions" are just promises made by countries that, oft times, don't keep promises. And these reductions--supposedly coming years in the future--are voluntary anyway. The United States, with its wealth of environmental outfits with lawyers on speed-dial, would certainly be held to any promises in a courtroom. That can't be said for Russia, China, India, etc.
But, as our correspondent notes, this country is already doing its part. The United States is reducing emissions already, and has been for years.
The Environmental Protection Agency keeps up with these things. The government requires it. The website epa.gov has the latest report, "Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks, 1990-2015." (Sinks are things that soak up carbon emissions, like more forests.)
There is a lot of information on the EPA website, as you can imagine.
But the trend, or trends, seem to be the same: This country's production of greenhouse gases increased from 1990 to about the time of the Great Recession. Then, after that, the emissions seem to click down.
In 2007, according to the EPA, this country put 7,349 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in the air. By 2015, that had dropped to 6,586 MMTs. From 2014 to 2015, the level had dropped 2.3 percent.
The EPA says the decrease between 2014-15 was caused by a number of factors. More coal is being replaced by natural gas to make electric power. (Thank you, fracking.) We've had warmer winters of late, and fewer folks had to heat their homes with carbon-heavy fuels. And there was a general decrease in demand for electricity in 2015. We'd also add that folks today think more about the environment than in years past. And turn the lights off when leaving a room, grow more local food, and buy cars with better fuel standards.
And it's doubtful that millennials, outdoorsmen, foresters, automobile makers and others are finished. Innovations are out there, and more will come tomorrow.
Why a Paris accord? It seems if other countries followed our example, there would be no need for treaties and pacts. If every country agreed to decrease its carbon footprint by 2.3 percent every year, how long before this problem went the way of Global Cooling?
The United States hasn't abandoned leadership on this issue. We're leading by example.
Here's hoping we continue to.
Editorial on 06/06/2017