Letter: Much ado about climate change
So I just totaled up my natural gas home heating bills for the months of January, February and March. And then I compared them to last year's total for the same months. This year's was $428.57 higher.
Yet and still, I constantly read in the letters people begging for a carbon fee to punish those nasty fossil fuel companies. Well, guess who you will actually be punishing with such a fee? Yep, you. That will get tacked onto your bill.
If you think any dividend returned to you will cover your higher bills after the money is filtered through the government, guess again.
As to the causes of global warming, I thought it was cow flatulence. Then I heard volcanoes, then forest fires, and then barbecue grills.
Buildings are heat sinks, so the more we build, the more heat they absorb during the day. Ever notice how sometimes Chicago is 10 degrees warmer than the suburbs?
Did you know the number of buildings in the world will double by 2060? And every new driveway we blacktop, oh my, think of the heat absorbed, it must warm the earth.
And don't forget the population of the earth has increased by more than 6 billion people since they started keeping global temperature records. And guess what, those people walk around with an average temperature of 98.6!
Remember one more thing. China has coal reserves of 690 million tons, and they have new coal production of 300 million tons per year.
If everyone in the United States drove an electric car, would the globe stop warming?
Not that you'll notice!
Bill Hartman
Barrington