Gore in the political balance
By Ben Wattenberg
Copyright 1999 Washington Times
April 15, 1999
Two new books tell us about Al Gore and his campaign for the
presidency.
"Gore - A Political Life" is a fair, readable and
thoughtful biography of the vice president by Bob
Zelnick, former ABC-TV correspondent. Mr. Zelnick describes the
diligent
"raging moderate"
familiar to Washington hands, who courageously broke with Democrats
to vote for
the Gulf war, who worked productively within the Clinton
administration to
support free trade, welfare reform, budget balancing and other
moderate New
Democrat policies.
But, as Mr. Zelnick sees it, Mr.
Gore as Dr. Jekyll is shadowed by Mr. Gore as Mr. Hyde - zealous,
mean,
misleading, ready to attack the motives of his opponents. Several
examples are
offered, with
"global warming" the case in point, and appropriate for
consideration as Earth Day approaches
(April 22).
Mr. Zelnick cites Mr. Gore's book
"Earth in the Balance," which claims global warming
"threatens an environmental holocaust . . . today the evidence
of an ecological
Kristallnacht is as clear as the sound of glass shattering in
Berlin." Mr. Gore foresees the outbreak
"of a kind of a global
civil war" between the ecological
"resistance fighters" and the
"silent partners of destruction." Mr. Gore says opponents
are
"enablers" of such totalitarianism. (Unabomber anyone?)
Mr. Gore likes to point out that
"the scientific argument about global warming is
settled." Non-warmist scientists are said to practice
"junk science" and are
just like researchers who sell their souls to the tobacco industry.
But, Mr. Zelnick asks, what about James Hansen, director of
the Goddard
Institute for Space Studies? He was a key witness in Mr. Gore's
1988 Senate
subcommittee hearings, testifying he was
"99 percent certain" that
global temperatures had increased. But in a 1998 National Academy
of Science
paper, Mr. Hansen pulled back, writing:
"The growth rate of greenhouse gas peaked in the late 1970s .
. . and has
declined since then."
Where might Mr. Gore's extremism come from? Mr. Zelnick
sees it as
a personal character pattern. If so, it may be unfixable. But some
of it also
comes from Mr. Gore's adherence to the playbook of far-out
environmentalists.
In 1990, Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich's book
"The Population Explosion" called for reducing per capita
income, reducing
Social Security, increasing foreign aid, doubling gasoline prices,
and favoring
regulations telling Americans how many children they may have. Sen.
Gore wrote
a blurb for that volume:
"The time for action is due, and past due. The Ehrlichs have
written the
prescription. . . ."
Is Mr. Ehrlich just
one well-publicized green loony in a world full of sensible
environmentalists?
Well, there are indeed many clear-eyed environmentalists.
But consider now
"Beyond Malthus" by Lester Brown, Gary Gardner and Brian
Halweil, all of the Worldwatch
Institute, of which Mr. Brown is president.
Worldwatch is no marginal organization of green flakes. The book's
introduction notes that Worldwatch is supported by some of the most
important
foundations in America, including Ford, Rockefeller Brothers,
MacArthur,
Hewlett, Packard, Turner, Charles Stewart Mott and, wouldn't you
know, the U.N.
Population Fund (your
tax dollars at work).
Talk about
junk science. Ignoring much demographic evidence, Mr. Brown's
thesis is that the world is
suffering from
"demographic fatigue," that the AIDS epidemic in
sub-Saharan Africa is the leading indicator, and
it's all going to get worse unless we do what the book's authors
say, immediately.
What is this fatigue? What causes it? According to
"Beyond Malthus," the world's population is growing so
fast in the less developed countries
(LDC) that there soon won't be enough grain, water, forests, fish,
energy,
jobs, housing or meat. Such strains are already raising death rates
in
sub-Saharan Africa, via AIDS. Tomorrow the world. Birth rates may
be falling
now, but AIDS-like tragedies will (inexplicably) increase birth
rates, causing
worse tragedy. Everyone everywhere ought to have condoms.
For the record: In the last 30 years total
fertility rates in the LDCs plummeted from above 6 children per
woman to below
3 and are still falling, rapidly. World population grew by 400
percent this
century, while people got richer and healthier. U.N. projections
indicate a
35 percent to 50 percent
increase by 2050, after which population will likely fall.
Most fatiguing about the book is its Gorelike tone. The
argument is settled.
You may not disagree, or people will starve. The fate of the Earth
is in the
balance.
There are some lessons in these books for Al Gore and his
run for the
presidency. Mr. Zelnick's book shows Mr. Gore to be both rigid and
sanctimonious about certain of his beliefs. Now, Mr. Gore neither
wrote nor
praised
"Beyond Malthus," but, arguably, the book suggests some
of the intellectual sources for his
rigidity and sanctimony on green issues. It
behooves Mr. Gore to rethink and reformulate some of his stated
views and
re-evaluate the environment whence he gets environmental guidance.
The success
of his campaign, already showing signs of fatigue, is in the
balance.
Ben Wattenberg is a nationally syndicated columnist.
Comments on this posting?
Click here to
post a public comment on the Trash Talk
Bulletin Board.
Click here to send a private
comment to the Junkman.