Global Health Threats, Foreclosure Relief and Food Riots
Members of Congress hear testimony on whether global warming will become a threat to human health.
Senators agree on a foreclosure relief plan for mortgage holders in default.
Dramatic increases in the prices of basic foodstuffs causes rioting throughout the developing world.
1. ENVIRONMENT
Members of Congress hear testimony on whether global warming will become a threat to human health.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis on the likely effects of warmer temperatures:
“We are skeptical that the warming predicted by activists will ever appear, but even if it does, the available evidence suggests that slightly warmer temperatures would be a boon for human health and well being. The threats from extreme cold dramatically outweigh those from extreme heat, and whatever possible influence future warming may have on extreme weather, the record of the 20th century—allegedly a period of ‘unprecedented’ global warming—is clear: Both mortality rates and aggregate mortality related to extreme weather have declined dramatically since the 1920s.”
2. BUSINESS
Senators agree on a foreclosure relief plan for mortgage holders in default.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Special Projects Counsel Hans Bader on the misguided foreclosure bailout proposals:
“Previously, we wrote about how the Senate ‘foreclosure relief’ bill will actually increase, rather than reduce, foreclosures, while costing taxpayers a bundle, and how it contains pork for left-wing housing groups. Daniel Gross of Slate exposes an additional flaw of the bill: it contains a ‘perverse, absurd, and unwarranted provision’ that will bail out some financially reckless rich people and their companies, at taxpayer expense. We earlier criticized even more costly mortgage bailout proposals by Congressman Barney Frank and Senator Chris Dodd, noting that most Americans oppose mortgage bailouts.”
3. FOOD
Dramatic increases in the prices of basic foodstuffs causes rioting throughout the developing world.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Energy Policy Analyst William Yeatman predicts a future scenario:
“America will suffer a major drought sometime in the next three years that will cause the price of a bushel of corn on the international market to pass $10 (now, it’s at an all time high of $6). In China, the price of pork, a politically sensitive commodity, will skyrocket, because pigs are fed corn. The Communist government will step in and try to ration swine. That will create a robust black market in ‘the other white meat,’ which will allow the rich will buy up all the pork. The poor will be reminded of China’s gross inequality and they will start to riot.”
Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, Open Market.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
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