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This is a talk Tsvi Bisk gave at the World Future Society annual conference in Boston on July 9th 2010. It was entitled: Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS): Energy/ Environmental Strategies. Claiming that the environment/energy conundrum is one of primary strategic issues of human survival in the 21st century Tsvi posits that we complicate it more than necessary. His point is that a KISS Energy/Environment policy has the possibility of enlisting 100% of the citizenry by bypassing the entire global warming debate by simply asking the following questions:
1. Does dependence on oil compromise our national security? (financing both sides of the war on terror) Yes or no
2. Does dependence on oil compromise our economic security (70% of America’s trade deficit)? The real costs of OPEC oil (policing Persian Gulf, lost tax revenues etc. make the present actual cost of a barrel of oil around $400)
3. Does air pollution, caused by burning fossil fuels damage personal health and property (and thus our economy and the taxpaying citizen)?
Even an uber-conservative climate change denier thinks the proper function of government is to protect the person and property of the individual, provide for the common defense and guarantee social order at minimum expense to the taxpayer.
Practical answers to the above three questions would as a consequence also alleviate the human contribution to climate change thus satisfying the environmental community.
Tsvi Bisk is also the author of “The Optimistic Jew”
