Heartland Update: A Californian and an Environmentalist
Nicolas Loris /
This morning’s breakfast had two very interesting speakers: climate skeptic Congressman Tom McClintock from California and Canadian author, columnist and environmentalist Lawrence Solomon. Solomon is a founder and managing director of the Energy Probe Research Foundation and is a strong advocate of renewable energy and written a book against urban sprawl.
When Congressman McClintock addressed the audience he emphasized that the actual threat of global warming is a big one, but not because of temperature and more so because of what the radical environmentalist movement can do to control the message and hurt the economy. He discussed the detrimental economic and environmental effects that the state’s ethanol policy had on California and warned that California should not be the model for the rest of the country.
He said:
People love to watch events in California – in much the same way that people love to gawk at car wrecks. You feel guilty about it, of course, and you know you shouldn’t stare, but you just can’t help yourselves. But you do anyway and there’s at least a respectable reason for it. When you drive by that wreck, you can tell your children, ‘Kids, that’s what happens when you don’t pay attention when you drive.’ And California’s wreck is a good time to remind voters, ‘Kids, that’s what happens when you don’t pay attention when you vote.”
The quote drew a resounding applause.