There is threat recently unleashed on the public that may change our lives forever. Under the guise of saving the planet a group of control-freaks have devised a way to control everything in our lives. As bikers we know the drill, when we dismantled helmet laws, and then Joan Claybrook came up with the public burden theory.
This time it’s a Government by the People for the Planet powered by ever-expanding government agencies.
Remember the McCarthy era, the public was sold on our demise through the threat of communism so the government took control. It was a hoax.
In this case the threat of Climate Change has made your car, motorcycle or truck the bad guys, and we were convinced there was nothing we could do but succumb to the mandates of a growing number of agencies and control mongers.
This lead to a rapidly growing prohibition on fossil fuels. We all know how well prohibition worked in the ‘20s. The temperance movement made every beer drinker the bad guy. Now it’s mom in her SUV.
Here’s the shame, even beyond the mandates, the laws, the restrictions and the money. We live twice as long as our ancestors. We are healthier and have medical treatments able to cure almost anything. We live safer and our homes and cars are amazing. We conquered leaded fuels and the worst emissions. We should be free to do so many things because we’ve accomplished so much. We should be celebrating not punishing our fellow citizens for driving cars or smoking a cigarette. We should be free to modify anything we want. We should be dancing in the streets, but we are not.
So, why can’t we be happier and more content than ever before? Suddenly there’s a higher calling and it’s not a religious mandate, it’s save the planet and compete with every other country on the globe to do a better job of it. Unfortunately only 16 of 197 countries are currently signed up for the UN Climate accord. If we never drove again, it wouldn’t matter, even if the climate change claim was true. Unfortunately it’s not. Man does not control the climate.
I could slip easily into the global warming debate with volumes of info: from the planet is currently cooling, sea rise has subsided and there are more polar bears than ever before. The man-made aspect is a small fraction of emissions compared to forest fires and volcanoes. Actually the CO2 concentration is way below what is was thousands of years ago. Besides, we need CO2.
Sure, we have issues and I will touch on two: The infrastructure and education.
We could fix the infrastructure. Now, there’s the key. After WWII we built roads all over the country and afforded the public the ability to drive almost anywhere. Why can’t we fix the infrastructure now and expand it for a growing population?
So, the issue is not to punish the people but to expand our infrastructure to afford more roadways for more cars, trucks and motorcycles. This could be handled in many friendly, supportive ways. I actually came up with a concept but the DOT sent it back without opening it.
An educated society is fully capable of making sound decisions without undue government oversight.
We may also need to kick around risk and how we don’t need zero anything. We need happy people who are strong and educated, not relying on government to do everything for them.
I don’t want to outlaw guns. I want everyone to know about them, train and be educated. I don’t want to outlaw cigarettes. I want people to be educated and aware of the risks and deal with them on their own (if you don’t like this bar find a smoke-free joint).
I don’t want there to be universal helmet laws for motorcyclists, I want people to know all the info and make their own choice. I don’t want to outlaw sodas, but I want people to be educated and aware of the risks. I don’t want a prohibition against fossil fuels, I want people to be educated as to the real threats and the real polluters. I want folks to be educated as to the history of the earth. We wouldn’t have an earth without climate change. We wouldn’t have life on earth without climate change.
I want Americans to be happy, free and dancing in the streets.
