Nitrogen Dioxide

Hmmm...

First, Covid. About 80% of the adult population has been vaccinated and the older and less healthy population are overrepresented in this group. Most of the unvaccinated population has had Covid at least once so also has developed some immunity. Also it is well understood that immunity declines over time after either vaccination or infection. And, the SARS-CoV-2 virus is mutating rapidly so there are new variants all the time which limit both the effectivness of the vaccines and of immunity after infection. And uptake of the booster shots has been much lower than the original vaccine. Given all the above, of course more vaccinated people are dying from Covid now than unvaccinated people. For myself, I have a depressed immune system so anything that reduces my risk of contracting it is good  I will continue to take every Covid booster shot that is available to me. 

Re burning natural gas, while the CO2 induced greenhouse effect was first identified in 1859 and anthropogenic climate change was first predicted in the 1890's, no one identified that it was actually occuring until the 1930s. So that is whats different now from the 1880s. Things change and our scientific understanding improves over time.

Take lead pipes as an example. They were always a problem, we just didn't understand it way  back in the day. We don't gripe about not being allowed  to use lead in our pipes anymore do we? Even though that was normal back in the 1800s? Of course not. We know it's dangerous and anyhow we've developed better alternative materials. Bet the lead industry bitched about it at the time though. 

The same thing will occur in our view of fossil fuel use in the future. For many folks whose homes are powered by solar or drive EVs that day has already arrived. My current house is 100% electric. . I dont miss having natural gas at all. 

It's easy to get angry about the idea that the government enters our personal lives, but that has always been the case, whether it was being forced to work for the lords of the manor as a peasant on his land, practice his religion, making personal medical decisions that are uniquely private, not raising pigs in your suburban home, or having to be quarantined as OG points out.  No one likes to be told what to do.  At the risk of continuing the political tone of this thread, I can personally say that I never met any of our founding fathers, though sometimes I feel that old.  I don't have a clue what they may have truly intended.  I have read much about the founding of our country, but I have to say that virtually everyone, including myself, says the founding fathers intended this or that based on our own biases and preferences.  And what difference does it make anyway?  We live in this world now, not in the days before indoor plumbing, unheated homes, horse transportation, and black powder muzzle loading muskets.  Truly, none of us really knows what the founders of our country intended; we just make stuff up to support our preferences.  We need to be practical and pragmatic, while trying to preserve the balance between our individuality, the needs of our communities, and respect for one another.