Tag Archives: global warming

Sustainability in Pittsburgh

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Could the irony be any richer? Upon the departure of Pittsburgh’s greencoordinator, we learn there is actually a full time permanent position bearing that title. According to one Council member the position is necessary to enhance Pittsburgh’s greenness. A City with spending that is unsustainable, with legacy costs that are unsustainable, with huge debt burdens, a school system that is little more than a high cost money pit, a declining population and a decade long flat private sector employment base is consumed by worry about Pittsburgh’s impact on the global climate.

We might never know if the two year tenure of the now resigned coordinator did much to save the planet, but we can say with some assurance that having a government dedicated to economic principles known to be inimical to growth and private sector employment expansion has done a great job of holding Pittsburgh’s economy in check. Whether the resultant slow or no pickup in CO2 emissions and actual pollutants has made any difference to the global climate is at best a guess.

It is too bad the same degree of Council zealotry, clarity of purpose and devotion to the world’s wellbeing is not in evidence when it comes to dealing with the problems the Council is elected to deal with.

A Breath of Reason Needed at the Lung Association

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As sure as robins returning in the spring, along comes the American Lung Association with its preposterous perennial pollution rankings. The Pittsburgh region is tarred as one of the nation’s worst-ranking third this year-because of readings taken at one monitoring station in Liberty Borough. No matter to the geniuses at the Lung Association that other monitors in the region, which covers a seven county area, are well below target limits for pollution levels.

Local officials have followed Allegheny Institute analysis and recommendations to fight back against this pseudo science and call the Lung Association conclusions what they are: drivel.

Hearing the reasonable complaint of county officials against the tarring over hundreds of square miles of the region with the brush of one monitor’s readings, the Lung Association responds with a lame brained excuse. Their spokesman’s comment? People from the metropolitan area travel into and out of those areas (with high monitor readings) to work, shop, visit and travel. It would be interesting to know just how many residents of Butler, Washington or Armstrong County make it to Liberty Borough each day to work, shop, or travel. Indeed, one might actually want to know how many West Deer, Moon or Ross Township residents get to and spend 20 minutes in Liberty Borough in a year before using the silly explanation offered for their rationale.

The Lung Association’s justification for smearing Pittsburgh is pure politics. If looney tunes science and analysis can be used to shut down the coke plant causing Liberty Borough’s problem that would suit the zealots in the Green movement and the global warming religion adherents perfectly fine. After all, for these true believers, the ends justify the means as we have seen recently with the global warming hoax.

Tripe must be recognized for what it is and called out otherwise politically correct nonsense will completely destroy reasoned, rational debate and policies.