European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 1, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday june 1, 1992 the stars and stripes Page 13 commentary George will threats to environment often overblown Many confidently a even eagerly a predicted catastrophes Are late in arriving. There is a lengthening list of traumas to the planet that were supposed to have happened but Haven t. This is one reason to be unimpressed by the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro Brazil the Audubon society Calls that Summit a the most important meeting in the history of Mankind. A a so much for the Council of Trent which acted to Reform the Catholic Church in the 16th Century the Congress of Vienna which redefined Europe after the defeat of Napoleon and the first meeting of Plato and Socrates but any time agents of 160 governments gather remember some third world governments which arc most of the worlds governments Are  they would rather redistribute the first worlds wealth than abandon the statism that is the basis of their Power. Statism also is the impediment to their Peoples Prosperity and therefore a cause of environmental injury. Some environmentalists usually at comfortably endowed universities in developed countries dislike economic growth and Many environmental measures hinder it. But growth is a prerequisite for environmental improvement. The worldwide pattern is that environmental damage increases until per capita income increases to a Point where people enjoy a social surplus and feel they can ask government to Trade some growth for environmental Healing. So before we arc stampeded into growth inhibiting actions to combat global warming we should recall that less than 20 years ago a not Long in a planets life a the politically Correct panic concerned global Cooling. Then there were a Many signs pointing to the possibility that the Earth May be heading for another ice age the new York times aug. 14, 1975heading a toward extensive Northern hemisphere glaciation a science Magazine dec. 10, 1976and facing a continued rapid Cooling of the Earth global ecology 1971 and a the approach of a full blown 10,000-year ice age a science March 1, 1975. It was then said that a a new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear War As a Likely source of wholesale death and misery a International wildlife july 1975 and that a the worlds climatologists Are agreed that we must a prepare for the next ice age science digest february 1973. Newsweek reported april 28, 1975 a ominous signs that a the Earth a climate seems to be Cooling Down and meteorologists a Are almost unanimous that a the trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the  the Christian science Monitor reported aug. 27, 1974 that armadillos had left Nebraska retreating South and heat Loving snails had retreated from Central european forests and a the North Atlantic is Cooling Down about As fast As an Ocean can Cool a glaciers a have begun to advanced and a growing seasons in England and Scandinavia Are getting  nowadays  a Greg Easterbrook writing in the Washington monthly offers his Law of doomsday ing predict catastrophe no later than 10 years hence but no sooner than five years away a soon enough to ask the candidates so ovum in �>10w Emmi Ummat   .  Omeco. We oort  Mabl terrify but far enough off that people will forget if you Are wrong. Easterbrook has not forgotten Stanford University infallibly wrong Paul Ehrlich who in 1968 said a the Battle to feed humanity is already lost. We will not be Able to prevent Large scale famines in the next  since 1968 world Grain production has increased 60 percent. For 30 years world excess food stocks relative to consumption have grown faster than population. In 1989, Ehrlich bet economist Julian Simon $1,000 that in a decade the prices of five resources Copper Chrome Nickel tin Tungsten would Rise. The prices of All five fell. Ehrlich paid. And Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute reports in the Public interest that contrary to predictions that increased population and industrialism would produce scarcities a by every objective measure natural resources became More not less plentiful in the 1980s.�?� indeed a Many environmentalists now complain of the ecological damage that will be done by cheap and accessible Energy a Moore says. Measured in terms of the amount of time a person must work to Purchase them natural resources arc on average 20 percent cheaper than in 1980, half As costly As in 1950 and five times less costly than in 1900. .1 we Jet Moa of to Ipoh nit Tom imn ii Cut wok Naast tour _ ortasououcr7 eco pessimism persists More solid than environmental science in part because it serves a political program. Some environmentalism is a a Green tree with red  it is the socialist dream a ascetic lives closely regulated by a Vanguard of Bossy visionaries a dressed up As compassion for the planet. Various reasons for gloominess come and go dioxin and acid rain have recently been demoted As menaces but the Supply of gloominess is remarkably constant. A recent science Magazine editorial a the attractiveness of gloom a satirically offered a new version of Murphy s Law a things Are worse than they can possibly  it quotes a fictional or. Nottall who says his fellow Gloo mongers Are handicapped by the fact that standards of living and life expectancy keep rising. However he takes Comfort from the fact that anxiety will remain High because a expectations always increase More rapidly than  and he contentedly anticipates a the panic that will spread through the population when they read about the epidemic of deaths through natural  you read about it first Here. C 1992. Wasi Unstan Post Amer coup Carl Rowa America needs to know where Perot stands Why am i in nervous when i see these polls showing Ross Perot running almost even with president Bush and Democrat Bill Clinton with Perot projected to gel More votes than any third party candidate in the nations history Why my unease at the thought that Perot could win or throw the presidential election into the House of representatives the vice presidential decision info the Senate or even produce a gridlock during which the speaker of the House would become president i think its because Perot is a billionaire pig in a poke an enigmatic Man whose views on the critical issues of this society Are so vague that a third of the people seem willing to take him on astigmatic Faith. In be just read a Washington Post poll showing that Perot comes out on top by 34 percent to 29 for Clinton and 25 for Bush when people arc a ked which Man would do the Best Job of dealing with the Economy. Perot wins based on what i ask do some people assume that any Man who can achieve billionaire status will know automatically How to pull the country out of debtor status Perot gives a facile but vague Promise to a Stop the bleeding a to stanch the River of red Ink that has put the nation almost $4 trillion in debt. But when asked which Bandage clothing agent or Tourniquet he will use to a Stop the bleeding a he acts insulted by the temerity of the questioner. Perot does t want to say whether he would raise taxes Ell the Pentagon that it can to have s274 billion next year take social Security payments away from the affluent whack medicare and medicaid in half or what. A lot of us will want the questions answered before we cast ballots. As for the racial social issues in America Perot does no to fare Well in the Washington Post poll. Respondents say Clinton would do Best at improving relations Between the races with 38 percent against 28 percent for Bush and Only 18 percent for Perot. Why so Low for Perot is it because he has harshly criticized Bush for playing the Iuie Horton a race card in the 1988 presidential Campaign blaming Bush in part for sowing the seeds of violent strife in los Angeles or is Perot downgraded because he talks out of both sides of his Mouth on things like affirmative action to hire and promote minorities asked on meet the press whether he favors some preferential hiring based on race he said a a it a got its pluses and  on several aspects of the emotional abortion Issue Perot ducks and Dodges with credulity straining claims that i Haven t spent a minute thinking about  its fashionable to Bash Bush and Clinton As two a a evils that give us no Choice. But the fun of ridiculing the nominees of our entrenched two party system must not lure us into the giddiness of embracing someone about whom we done to know very much. A couple of weeks ago after some embarrassing non answers to the Media Perot asked for a sort of cease fire a hiatus in which he could think out and consolidate his position on the vital issues. Well he should put on some Speed because America needs to know where he stands a and what he is offering to whom. Nor c aft trn 4 inc to of Mono a pram Lomo cake my cartoon in Mimm a Nwe Man  no of to m Renil Poroo m of Imam to mow of Tho Siloro on St too of to Unoyo sum Goon now