Fill the Earth and Subdue it! - Genesis 1:28
My Thoughts:
Did God create an earth that would run out of essential resources because of human development? The earth has abundant resources that God put here to bring benefit to us. We will never exhaust the earth's resources by developing them and using them wisely. Much has been made of global warming which rests upon a hypothesis represented by computer models, not on empirical observations of the real world. These computer models do not take into account the Greenhouse Effects of our atmosphere which was intelligently designed. Just like our bodies are able to "clot" blood, our environment is able to accommodate increased levels of Carbon Dioxide. We have been misled in so many ways. In the film "An Inconvenient Truth" Al Gore claimed that melting ice from West Antarctica and Greenland would cause a twenty-foot increase in sea-level worldwide. Yet, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control estimates that melt from these two locations would add only about 2.5" to sea level over the next hundred years.
We daily send our hard earned dollars overseas to countries that we import oil from, some of which use these monies to sponsor terrorism against us. God did not provide us with an abundance of natural resources for us to not make use of them. Our president just called his counterpart in Canada to say thanks, but no thanks, on the Keystone pipeline. We need to reduce our dependency on foreign oil by developing more of our own supplies of oil, coal, and natural gas. Nuclear Energy - I am delighted that we are studying the construction of two nuclear power plants in Georgia, but we are so far behind. France's nuclear power program produces 77% of its electricity. The spent fuel from a nuclear power plant, used to produce electricity for 360,000 families of four (1.4 million people) for a year, will fit in a container the size of a 40 gallon hot water heater. The population of West Virginia is just under 1.9 million people. We could power our entire state for a year with nuclear power and only produce 51 gallons of nuclear waste.
If you are concerned about the safety of nuclear energy, like I am, there is a simple solution. We can have cheap nuclear power without high-level risks by swapping thorium for uranium. Why Thorium? Thorium-fueled reactors are much safer than uranium-powered ones, use far less material (1 metric ton of thorium gets as much bang as 200 metric tons of uranium, or 3.5 million metric tons of coal), produce waste that is toxic for a shorter period of time (300 years vs. uranium's tens of thousands of years), and is hard to weaponize. In fact, thorium can even feed off of toxic plutonium waste to produce energy. And because the biggest cost in nuclear power is safety, and thorium reactors can't melt down, they would be much cheaper. The U.S. has an estimated 440,000 metric tons, Australia and India have about 300,000 metric tons, and Canada has 100,000 metric tons. Until recently, U.S. and Australian mining companies threw it away as a useless byproduct. There is enough thorium to power the earth for about 1,000 years, versus an estimated 80 years' worth of uranium. Let's build a Thorium fueled reactor together in our great state.
I read this analogy: It would be like an architect designing a building and when it was finished, it toppled over because the architect walked up and leaned against it. God designed our environment to be able to regulate itself.
This is not to say that we are not to be responsible and reasonable with our environment and our natural resources. We should not use the earth in a wasteful or destructive way or intentionally treat animals with cruelty. We must apply common sense and err on the side of humanity.
Struggle points as I understand them:
Global Warming - Carbon Dioxide emissions
I support: Elimination of CAFE standards on automobile manufacturers to allow them to produce safer cars for our loved ones to drive. Fight against the "Cap and Trade" system, which would add unnecessary regulations and controls over our industries, thus further destroying our economy. We must decrease our dependence on foreign oil. Finally, I support a reduction of the EPA's influence over our local environment.
There are so many issues concerning our "over regulated" environment to address in one webpage. In summary, I believe that our environment needs to be managed by local citizens.
Did God create an earth that would run out of essential resources because of human development? The earth has abundant resources that God put here to bring benefit to us. We will never exhaust the earth's resources by developing them and using them wisely. Much has been made of global warming which rests upon a hypothesis represented by computer models, not on empirical observations of the real world. These computer models do not take into account the Greenhouse Effects of our atmosphere which was intelligently designed. Just like our bodies are able to "clot" blood, our environment is able to accommodate increased levels of Carbon Dioxide. We have been misled in so many ways. In the film "An Inconvenient Truth" Al Gore claimed that melting ice from West Antarctica and Greenland would cause a twenty-foot increase in sea-level worldwide. Yet, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control estimates that melt from these two locations would add only about 2.5" to sea level over the next hundred years.
We daily send our hard earned dollars overseas to countries that we import oil from, some of which use these monies to sponsor terrorism against us. God did not provide us with an abundance of natural resources for us to not make use of them. Our president just called his counterpart in Canada to say thanks, but no thanks, on the Keystone pipeline. We need to reduce our dependency on foreign oil by developing more of our own supplies of oil, coal, and natural gas. Nuclear Energy - I am delighted that we are studying the construction of two nuclear power plants in Georgia, but we are so far behind. France's nuclear power program produces 77% of its electricity. The spent fuel from a nuclear power plant, used to produce electricity for 360,000 families of four (1.4 million people) for a year, will fit in a container the size of a 40 gallon hot water heater. The population of West Virginia is just under 1.9 million people. We could power our entire state for a year with nuclear power and only produce 51 gallons of nuclear waste.
If you are concerned about the safety of nuclear energy, like I am, there is a simple solution. We can have cheap nuclear power without high-level risks by swapping thorium for uranium. Why Thorium? Thorium-fueled reactors are much safer than uranium-powered ones, use far less material (1 metric ton of thorium gets as much bang as 200 metric tons of uranium, or 3.5 million metric tons of coal), produce waste that is toxic for a shorter period of time (300 years vs. uranium's tens of thousands of years), and is hard to weaponize. In fact, thorium can even feed off of toxic plutonium waste to produce energy. And because the biggest cost in nuclear power is safety, and thorium reactors can't melt down, they would be much cheaper. The U.S. has an estimated 440,000 metric tons, Australia and India have about 300,000 metric tons, and Canada has 100,000 metric tons. Until recently, U.S. and Australian mining companies threw it away as a useless byproduct. There is enough thorium to power the earth for about 1,000 years, versus an estimated 80 years' worth of uranium. Let's build a Thorium fueled reactor together in our great state.
I read this analogy: It would be like an architect designing a building and when it was finished, it toppled over because the architect walked up and leaned against it. God designed our environment to be able to regulate itself.
This is not to say that we are not to be responsible and reasonable with our environment and our natural resources. We should not use the earth in a wasteful or destructive way or intentionally treat animals with cruelty. We must apply common sense and err on the side of humanity.
Struggle points as I understand them:
Global Warming - Carbon Dioxide emissions
I support: Elimination of CAFE standards on automobile manufacturers to allow them to produce safer cars for our loved ones to drive. Fight against the "Cap and Trade" system, which would add unnecessary regulations and controls over our industries, thus further destroying our economy. We must decrease our dependence on foreign oil. Finally, I support a reduction of the EPA's influence over our local environment.
There are so many issues concerning our "over regulated" environment to address in one webpage. In summary, I believe that our environment needs to be managed by local citizens.