The Merry-Go-Round

Once, a hole opened up in the Antarctic ozone layer.

The scientists said, "It's chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)."

Dupont said, "CFCs are safe. We need more studies."

The politicians said, "Let's not rush to judgement without studies."

Finally Dupont's CFC equipment was fully amortized.

Dupont announced as a good citizen they were stopping CFCs.

Spinning wheel's going around

Seems to me I've seen this horse before

Now, we a have Texas sized decrease in the arctic ice pack.

Scientists say a major culprit is the gas HFC134a.

What's HFC134a?

It's the gas Dupont used to replace CFCs.

Dupont says this gas is only used in leakproof systems.

Spinning wheel's going around.

Seems to me I've seen this horse before.

SUVs are an environmental blight.

Hybrid cars seem to be the answer.

But the government mileage numbers for hybrids are exaggerated.

Still they count toward meeting stricter mileage laws.

So carmakers have announced hybrid models for all of their SUVs.

Spinning wheel's going around.

Seems to me I've seen this horse before.

Ethanol will reduce our oil needs and global warming.

But to replace 10% of our gasoline will require 30% of the arable land in U.S.

The overall reduction of global warming from gas use is less than 1%.

The continued diversion of foodstocks will result in widespread famine.

Large corporate ownership of American agriculture will increase dramatically.

Spinning wheel's going around.

Seems to me I've seen this horse before.

Doesn't this merry-go-round have a brass ring?

Yes.

Our vote

Joe Henchy

Notes:
The justification for the first stanza can be found at www.ejnet.org/rachel/rhwn259.htm . DuPont announced with great fanfare that they were phasing out CFCs in 1989. They stopped in 1995, a few months before the law would have forced them to stop.

The back-up for the second stanza is on Page 5 of the 9-23-06 issue of New Scientist Magazine where the size of the ice pack loss is identified and Page 6 of the 9-30-06 issue which identifies HFC 134a as the culprit and says it is 1000 times worse than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.

In June of 2006, Consumer Reports stated that real gas mileage averaged 17 mile to a gallon less than the EPA figures. The extrapolation in the third stanza is just the obvious.

The fourth stanza is beased on an article "Fuel Gold" on Page 36 of the 9-25-06 issue of New Scientist magazine.