Collateral Damage of Good Intentions

It's ironic how often we do something good and it turns out to have a downside. MTBE was added to our gas to make the fuel burn cleaner and produce less air pollution. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Yet, after a few years we noticed it turning up in our wells and drinking water. Then it also turned out to be a carcinogen. Why couldn’t we have researched the downside before it was introduced? It would seem to be a simple process. In all likelihood it was rushed through under lobby pressure because cars would test lower in emissions with the additive- a freebie for the car manufacturers. Notice how quietly it went away. I think someone is trying to avoid a megasuit.

Another attempt to clean up the air came with the introduction of catalytic converters in the early seventies. Unburned hydrocarbons were being spewed into the air and created heavy smog in urban areas. The air was dirty- even unhealthy to breath at times- cities issued warnings to stay inside on  particularly bad days. It continues to today in some cities. Catalytic converters did a great job of removing the unburned hydrocarbons and city smog was reduced measurably. The byproduct of the converters is water and carbon dioxide. CO2 was considered a friendly gas, even essential to the environment. Now CO2 is classified as a polutant. Today vehicles with catalytic converters produce nearly one-third of the world’s CO2. Would global warming have continued without the introduction of catalytic converters? Sure. Would it be worse today without catalytic converters? That’s a debatable question.

How about butter? We were driven away from it only to be victimized by hydrogenated fats.

Recycling glass, plastic and paper is another good intention- and probably worthwhile, but at what cost? When these products were mandated to be recycled, the primary motivation was to unclog our landfills. I don’t think anyone thought about the energy spent, or the carbon footprint of the process. It would be interesting to know if it takes more energy or less energy to use recycled material to manufacture products, rather than to make things out of raw materials. Reusing makes sense. I’d pay extra if someone would refill a bottle. Zero waste products make sense, but making products, and then using a lot of energy to remanufacture them- I don’t know. I’d like to see the round trip energy cost of that process.

Have you noticed how long the CYA statement is on prescription drugs? They seem to go out of their way to tell you how bad all the side effects could be, so if you do suffer from it, they’re covered and they can say I told you so. Why should we have to put up with such nonsense? It seems like the FDA has gone to sleep on us.  If the drug makes you sick instead of healing you, they should be liable. Putting a label on a bottle shouldn’t absolve the drug industry of their responsibility to do no harm. It’s crazy. If we ever get a Consumer Protection Agency, the collateral damage of good intentions might improve in many areas.