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Panetta Labels Climate Change a National Security Threat
skipkent writes "Defense Secretary Leon Panetta declared global warming a national security threat [Wednesday] during a speech before an environmentalist group in Washington, D.C. 'The area of climate change has a dramatic impact on national security,' Panetta told the Environmental Defense Fund last night. 'Rising sea levels, severe droughts, the melting of the polar caps, the more frequent and devastating natural disasters all raise demand for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.'"
You seem confused so I'll break it down for you:
Small list of observed facts:
-Carbon Dioxide, Nitrous Oxide, and Methane Gas are all greenhouse gasses.
-Human behavior at this time includes producing or releasing these gasses.
-Government regulators in the United States have mandated that cars run at reduced fuel efficiency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
-Our records indicate that average temperature over time has increased.
-There are lakes of methane hydrate crystals on the ocean floor.
-Changes in temperature and pressure can cause heavier-than-water liquids and solids to change phase in to lighter-than-water gasses.
This is a theory:
-The recorded change in climate is caused by the human release and production of greenhouse gasses.
These are hypothesis:
-A tipping point exists where the Earth's climate will cease to be habitable to human life.
-We have passed, or are approaching this point.
-Human influence on climate is significant.
I wish the Democrats would yank the window around. The sad fact is that they don't.
Twenty years ago, the Republicans supported cap & trade as a free market alternative to the Democrats' policies. Today, they've renamed it "cap & tax" and it's politically toxic. Their new alternative is to do nothing because they don't even acknowledge the scientific truths that they did years ago.
Twenty years ago, the Republicans supported the individual mandate as a free market alternative to the Democrats' policies. Today, it's a "government takeover of health care" that will institute "death panels". Their new alternative is to sell state insurance across state lines, meaning that all insurance companies would move to the state with the most lax regulations, meaning the quality of care would drop like a stone.
Twenty years ago, Medicare was a beloved program and considered untouchable. Today, the Republicans, including their presidential nominee, have announced their intention to end the program, replace it with one that covers only a fraction of seniors' medical costs, and give the savings to the super rich in the form of the largest tax cut in decades.
Twenty years ago, waterboarding was an evil torture technique used against American servicemen in WWII. Today it's a useful "enhanced interrogation" technique.
Twenty years ago, a ban on assault weapons was a reasonable compromise in gun control. Today, even after the near assassination of a Representative and murder of several bystanders, we can't manage to pass a law against extended magazines -- weapons that have no purpose other than mass murder.
The only area in which the Democrats have gained any ground is gay rights. Sorry, but truth doesn't get through to people. The average American is way too stupid to recognize a logical fallacy when he hears one. You can either lose every argument and watch the country go down the shitter, or you can fight fire with fire.