What happened to all of the doom and gloom economic threads?

Most people would be surprised to discover that the laws, regulations, and mandates designed to protect our environment may actually be harming it instead. Long gone are the days of sooty smog, acid rain, brown sunsets, leaded children, and rivers on fire. The new environmental challenges are almost imperceptible, and until the development of highly-advanced, highly-sensitive atomic mass spectroscopy systems, unmeasurable. To combat these nearly invisible and unmeasurable problems, new regulations and mandates have gone into effect. But these new regulations and mandates may actually be hindering our attempts in dealing with the more measurable and easily observed problems, as well as our economy.

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After fixing the problems with burning lakes and rivers, environmental protection found a new enemy: toxic metals. Metals are purified from ores that are extracted from the ground. Many different metals tend to be found in the same ores. For example, lead and cadmium are usually found with zinc, and zinc may be found with copper. Much of that zinc (with lead and cadmium) was once part of living organisms, and was concentrated into ore deposits during metamorphic transformation of the limestone (calcium carbonate) that was created by those organisms. How did it get into the living things in the first place? It was leached out of rocks by surface water. All of the toxic metals are found naturally on the surface of the Earth, in water and living things, and frequently at levels higher than what the EPA considers "safe", but significantly lower than what causes adverse health effects.

So what has a radical crusade against toxic metals gotten us? One company wrote a proposal to the Department of Energy to investigate a way to make cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells more efficient. Many of the reviewers thought it was a good idea, but one reviewer said, "nothing with cadmium is any good." The proposal was not funded, probably beaten out by a shrimp treadmill, but at least that reviewer prevented all of that cadmium getting from our environment back into our environment. You see, whether it is used to make solar cells or not, all of that cadmium comes as a byproduct of zinc smelting. It has to go somewhere.

Lead is used to make batteries, and batteries are needed to store energy for when the Sun goes down or the wind stops blowing, or when you unplug your electric car. Lead was one of the cheapest metals around until the lead crusade started. Now the batteries alone make solar cells and electric cars too expensive. Yes, putting lead into gasoline and creating a lead vapor smog over the entire world was not a good idea; neither was using lead as a paint pigment, but the crusade continued. Do you seriously expect your child to munch down your cell phone, eat your kitchen faucet, consume your car battery, or rip apart your computer to make motherboard pasta? The lead crusaders did. The result is called RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances), which defines minimum levels of toxic metals in electronic devices, often as 'no detectable amount'. Then along came measurement methods that could detect single atoms. Thanks to Mother Nature, our entire world is a toxic waste dump. We were only just able to notice.

As new health studies observe toxic effects down to levels even below those naturally present, the limits on allowable toxic metals get even lower, and technology gets even more expensive. Talking about lead and cadmium, did you know that the toxic effects of these metals are very similar to chronic calcium deficiency? Their method of action is to displace calcium, and when calcium is lacking, they come in. Did you know that about 70% of children and 50% of adults are calcium deficient? What have those studies actually been measuring?

While we torture ourselves with possibly baseless, excessive environmental protection, business has already found its own solutions: foreign countries. When businesses feel as though they are "under attack from our own government", they find nicer governments. Many people think that businesses move to China for the cheap labor, but this is simply not the case. The difference is that China does not attack its businesses: the business of China is business. To start a factory in America, you need millions of dollars in lawyers and several years to get through all of the permitting and regulation issues. If you are working with pollutants, you need a workforce that is certified, in multiple ways. Most of your applicants are probably unqualified due to the certifications alone. Meanwhile, all of the unskilled Chinese labor is more than qualified to run a clean shop, in China, if you choose to run a clean shop.

How to fix it? First, we might get rid of certifications. All they do is make our workforce unqualified, and put money into the deep pockets of big education. Look at Chicago's failing public schools, staffed by certified teachers who fail at teaching. Very few of the teachers in private schools are certified, and yet they are generally considered superior. The same is true of all certifications.

Most definitely, listen to the concerns of small businesses. Big businesses like onerous mandates; big government harassment is a good way to kill potential competitors. Just because a business complains about the rules, regulations and mandates does not mean they "just want dirty air and water." Business sees a flaming hoop, with no valid justification, not a reasonable rule to prevent pollution. Politicians should listen, not make ridiculous accusations.

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4est_4est_Gump said:

Environmental Protection: The Enemy of Green
Anthony J.Ciani, The American Thinker
October 24, 2012



http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/10/environmental_protection_the_enemy_of_green.html

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I've written before about the diminishing returns on that front. Most people outside the car business have no idea how little progress has been made since the late 1980s -- because most of the progress was made around that time and since then, the automakers have been chasing literally fractional decreases in tailpipe emissions. When you hear or read about a proposed "10 percent" reduction in the emissions output of new cars, you ought to read the fine print -- which of course is never published. The fine print is that the reduction won't be 10 percent of 100 percent. It will be 10 percent of the 3-5 percent of the exhaust stream that isn't either carbon dioxide or water vapor. Everything else has already been chemically scrubbed by the catalytic converter. An ideal air-fuel ratio is perpetually maintained by a modern car's fuel injection system. Genuinely harmful pollutants -- the stuff that forms smog -- are virtually nil. Have been nil for decades.

But Uncle can't admit this -- because to do that would mean no more justification for new ukases.

So, even if the Nano is -- like any modern car fitted with a catalytic converter, 02 sensor, and fuel injection -- already 90-95 percent "clean" at the tailpipe, that will not be sufficient. It will have to be 96-98 percent clean, as is required of current (and soon to be here) cars -- no matter the cost (to consumers).

Just the other day, I was over at my friend Graves' place. He has a '63 Buick Special sedan. In its day, this was a modestly priced, middle-of-the-road car. But it had a V-8 engine and a spacious, open-feeling cabin. And even though it only had a two speed automatic, it still could return 20-something MPGs on the highway -- because it only weighed about 2,800 lbs (a current mid-sized car typically weighs closer to 3,800 lbs.) And it only weighed about 2,800 lbs. because it did not have to comply with the "safety" ukases in effect today.

And it only cost $2,600 (base price) back in 1963 because it didn't have to have air bags, or back-up cameras, or auto-stop. $2,600 is equivalent, in today's Fed Funny Money, to about $19,662 (see here if you don't believe me). To put a finer point on it, back in '63, an American could buy a V-8, rear-drive sedan for about the same money you'd have to spend today to get into a decently equipped four-cylinder powered FWD compact.

Because the Buick did not have "value added" by Uncle.

Just wait till he gets through with the Nano... or anyone else who dares to produce a basic, affordable new car.

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Beco said:

Wow, Romney may actually win this....come on Virginia

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Beco said:

Wow, Romney may actually win this....come on Virginia

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mercury14 said:

I've never seen such volume of cut and pastes from AJ. What's going on with him?

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RobDownSouth said:

I goaded him yesterday to break his single-day record of 19 cut-and-pastes...he tuckered out after 13 but managed to make 95 posts in two hours.

Did you read that he's now a Romney supporter (surprise! surprise! surprise!) because you, me and U_D were mean to him?

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mercury14 said:

Are we more or less mean than Obama?

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RobDownSouth said:

I never considered you to be delusional before.
(on non-Israel related issues, anyway)

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mercury14 said:

Are we more or less mean than Obama?

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vetteman said:

The stock market isn't the economy. There are millions more out of work than when he took over.

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IrezumiKiss said:

As of last Friday, The New York Times calculated Obama has had the fifth most significant rise in the Dow of any president over the same period of time since 1900 – right behind FDR, Calvin Coolidge, Bill Clinton and Dwight Eisenhower.

All those presidents served more than one term.

It turns out the stock market has been like a lot of other things under No-Drama Obama. We have good days — we have bad days. But overall, the situation had gradually, steadily gotten better.

Your next retort to the person who complains about rising gas prices.

http://current.tumblr.com/post/34199883303/as-of-last-friday-the-new-york-times-calculated

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vetteman said:

The stock market isn't the economy. There are millions more out of work than when he took over.

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jeninflorida said:

all I can say is WOW. you blow me away with your insanity and stupidity

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