Can Obamacare Help Fight Global Warming?

We all know about Obamacare’s de facto 30 hour work week. The insurance mandate applied to full-time employees is inspiring many employers around the nation to cut hours for their employers. Also, the taxes included in that law are already costing jobs too.

But you know what? Maybe it’s a good thing, because according to a DC-based liberal think tank, we can help fight global warming by being less productive:

A worldwide switch to a “more European” work schedule, which includes working fewer hours and more vacation time, could prevent as much as half of the expected global temperature rise by 2100, according to the analysis, which used a 2012 study that found shorter work hours could be associated with lower carbon emissions.

The Center for Economic Policy and Research is a liberal think tank based in Washington.

“The relationship between [shorter work and lower emissions] is complex and clearly understood, but it is understandable that lowering levels of consumption, holding everything else constant, would reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” writes economist David Rosnick, author of the study. Rosnick says some of that reduction can be attributed to fewer operating hours in factories and other workplaces that consume high levels of energy.

I’ve often joked that the global warming alarmists would rather we carbon-based life forms spend most of our time reducing our carbon footprints by laying in darkened rooms and breathing shallowly.

Maybe that’s not really a joke.