The last comment on here is absurd. There are a lot of naturally occuring greenhouse gases. There are also naturally occuring climate cycles, which is part of why, beyond saying that human development has had a negative impact, we can’t say for sure in detail how strong that impact has been. The reality is that we can’t do anything about the greenhouse gases we breathe out, nor do we have an obligation to. We can’t do anything about water’s presence, nor do we have an obligation to. What we can do is do our best to reduce the massive amounts of extra greenhouse gases we emit doing things that no other species, or society, does.

As for the other post, on the “conservative conservation” issue. The government can’t impose a system where the free market will force companies to go green. The government can, however, do certain things. We can stop subsidizing biofuels and commercial agriculture whose energy use hardly makes up for the environmental or economic benefit. We can educate the public about the reality of our environmental footprint, inspiring more people to buy green.

I’m not telling you exactly where I stand on the issue, because I don’t really know, I’m just saying that from a truly “conservative” political standpoint, the “compassionate conservative” and the “conservation conservative” are simply degradations of what conservative political thought is all about. The Republican party is now leaning toward forcing people to provide public services to the rest of the population, and forcing businesses to conduct business in a certain way. Meanwhile, we’re forcing people to live their lives without abortion or gay marriage.

For a party that’s all about the free market and free will of people to do what they want with little government interference, the Party is doing a pretty crappy job, wouldn’t you say?

I have thought for some time that this is nowhere near a conservative administration. It is fundamentally fascist to it’s core. That they call themselves conservative is only going to blot whatever honor is left in that movement.

When you think about the absolutely astounding hubris that has suffused the Bush “administration” and the Republican party that mindlessly enables them it just takes your breath away. Torture, subverting the constitutionally protected rights of habeus corpus and privacy , waging bogus war, ignoring the law via “signing” statements that directly contradict the will of the people as expressed by their representative government. Sweet Jesus! What else do they have to do to convince their mindless minions that they are evil?

I used to think that Nixon was as extreme as it gets (see the good doctor’s obit on him for a refresher http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/graffiti/crook.htm ), but he was clearly a short hitter in Bush’s league.

I still wonder why the Republicans, with all their money and power and “smarts” had to choose this manifestly incompetent bogo-rube to be their leader.

Must have been a death wish, I think. I hope it comes true….