Recent headlines in The Island Packet ("Oil Prices Stalling Economy Fixes") and the Wall Street Journal ("Markets on Tear: Wheat, Oil, Euro") highlight serious problems this country and the world are facing.

The problem is we are in short supply of oil, natural gas, coal, corn and wheat - all needed for economic growth.

At the same time, demand for these items is increasing in growing economies around the world. India and China, in particular, have stepped up their use of fossil fuel for electricity and transport. The Chinese have made deals all over the world for oil, including one with Cuba for drilling 80 miles off the coast of Florida and more recently in Canada for extracting oil from shale.

Meanwhile, we are committed to fluorescent light bulbs, wind-generated turbines, solar panels and, worst of all, ethanol from corn. All of these are laudable endeavors. All are taxpayer subsidized and not cost effective in any sense. Corn-based ethanol is a double whammy because it is driving up the price of grain-based food products worldwide. Maybe in twenty years or so these and other technologies can be perfected and cost-effective, but we should not allude ourselves to think we can get away from current energy sources any time soon.

Seven years ago, the Bush administration proposed drilling for oil in Anwar. Off shore exploration has also been suggested in Alaska and other parts of the U.S. The Democrats, with the help of global warming alarmists and other overzealous environmentalists, have thwarted all such efforts. The same crowd has made it extremely difficult to build new nuclear plants - Japan and France are getting up to 80% of their electric power from nuclear. Also, efforts to use "clean coal" and our vast resources of this product have been diffused. The same can be said about new gas refineries.

We say that we want to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but we are paying more than $100 a barrel for oil, resulting in more than $3 a gallon for gasoline. Much of the oil comes from "thug" nations that want to destroy us.

Much of this subject is covered in a remarkable book by Dr. S. Fred Singer entitled, "Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years." Dr. Singer is an atmospheric physicist professor emeritus at the University of Virginia. His book is a New York Times Bestseller. He cites the work of physical scientists around the world, particularly three men from Denmark, Switzerland and France who were awarded the 1996 Tyler Prize, an environmental version of the Nobel Prize administered by the University of Southern California.

He shows that global warming occurs in cycles and has little to do with manmade activity. Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" is dangerous because it influences our government and others to take drastic action that will negatively impact the lives of Americans and billions around the world. Dr. Singer contends, "The best way to protect the Earth, its wildlife and, most importantly, its people, is to harness the tremendously powerful forces of competition, progress, and political and economic freedom, as well as genuine environmental stewardship." It's about intelligent conservation of our resources, not reckless governmental intrusion in our business and private lives.

To this end, huge progress has been made in this country in my lifetime of 80-plus years. The air has never been cleaner or the water more pure than today. There are more ducks, geese, deer, freshwater fish, wild turkeys, bald eagles, alligators and, yes, even polar bears than ever before.

Many politicians and bureaucrats in Washington feel that government can solve all the problems of the world. I should like to see a few examples of this having occurred. They do not believe that free markets will solve problems. They really can if not overburdened with ruinous regulations and taxation. As Ronald Reagan said, "The government is like a baby's alimentary canal with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other."

James R. Brigham is a resident of Carbondale.