While the UN issues scare reports about global warming, other reports keep stacking up that these alarmists are full of hot air. The earth’s climate is immensely complex. The UN’s “consensus” process is immensely opaque. The UN’s accountability for anything it does is close to zero. What we really need is not UN-brokered, state-imposed restrictions on all productive activity (for which carbon rationing is a pretty close proxy), but the freedom to invent and adapt to whatever might lie ahead.
Thirty years ago the fear was climate “cooling,” with worries that a glacier would be back over Manhattan’s Central Park in no time. Now we are told the climate is warming so fast that we must re-tool almost all human activity pronto, or live out our days surrounded by underwater cities awash in the skeletons of dead polar bears. Actually, whether the climate is warming or cooling, or whether carbon dioxide emitted by mankind has anything to do with it at all, is far from clear.
But what is clear is that there’s lots of dictatorial power to be gained by any outfit — whether the UN, any national government, or some global Ministry of Air — that ends up in charge of rationing the right to give off carbon dioxide. For pals of such a crew, there’s lots of money to be made by trading in those rights. And in the fancy circles where multilateral bureaucrats and big business sup together, there seems to be almost no interest in signs that the great global warming scare could be the millennial equivalent of the idea that the sun revolves around the earth.
Last week I went to a black tie dinner in Manhattan, in which the theme was “green.” The main event was the webcast appearance on two huge screens, like some oracle from on high, of UN climate guru Rajendra Pachauri — whose agenda and credentials for this role ought to evoke dismay and probing questions, not the applause he got. More on that in my column this week for Forbes.com , “Dinner With the Green Glitterati.”
I don’t doubt that among those now counting their carbon emissions are people of good intentions. I can see good reasons for trying to cut down on good old-fashioned crud (which carbon dioxide is not) — which is something that democracies tend to do of their own accord, in answer to popular demand, as soon as they can afford it.
But as the cult of carbon sweeps the banquet halls of the high and mighty, complete with awards, prizes, back-scratching speeches and plans to turn this stuff into a global carbon-emissions-rationing regime (in which the U.S. would be expected to comply with its promises, and others would not), I do wonder how much in the way of unnecessary sacrifice — let’s say that again, quite possibly pointless, useless and unnecessary sacrifice – these climate demi-gods might impose on the world before they’re done. I also wonder who among the well-connected is going to get awfully rich in the process.
According to Dr Fred Singer and >371,000 other US scientists, there IS no global warming crisis, nor is there any proof of human causes.
chip
Today (Nov. 20, 2008) Senator Inhoff’s site has a roundup of articles on GW, most of which are inconsistent with tGW dogma.
The first clause of the title of the post is: “Planet Has Cooled Since Bush Took Office.” http://tinyurl.com/5gcesx
You gotta love it.
Claudia,
Do you have to take anti-barf pills before attending these things? I am amazed at your sacrifice. Thanks for keeping us informed.
It still amazes me how people can still care about global warming. The amount of contradictory evidence is profound. The enviro movement claims that ice is melting in Antarctica. Isn’t ice expanding in the Arctic Circle? When the earth’s temperature was rising, wasn’t it also rising on Mars or Mercury? Planets that don’t have a single car on them? I didn’t know that the earth’s temp has gone down since 2007 according to the linked article above (I thought it had been constant since 1998). Well, what happened that caused the temp to go down? There hasn’t been a decrease in industrial activity. There’s actually been a boom in it. Especially in China/India. Therefore, how is it possible? How are all these things possible? Maybe there are other uncontrollable factors that control the earth’s temp??
A sure sign that the enviros might be skeptical of their doctrine is the shifting of the term “global warming” to “climate change.” What a nice term. Now any change in the climate can be indicative of disaster and major overhauls are thus required to correct this “change.” Another sign is how the alarmists have a propensity to shout down the doubters – or try to simply dismiss them as if they’re claiming the world is flat.
A couple of questions that never get any press should make us all wary. What is the global temperature? How is it calculated? I assume that it’s some sort of average of temperatures across the planet. I don’t think I’ve ever heard what the global temperature is. More importantly, what is the “ideal” temperature? What’s the goal? Does the reason we don’t see the “goal” have anything to do with the fact that the enviros would have to pack up and go home if we ever were to reach that temp??
And how about the benefits of rising temps? They’re lots of them. Farmers in northern climes being able to farm their land longer and produce more food, just to name one.
I hope Al Gore lives long enough to be exposed for the fraud that he is. My first thought when the 2nd plane hit the WTC was “bin Laden.” My 2nd thought was “thank goodness for those 500+ voters in FL who put GWB in the WH.” I imagined Prez Al Gore lamenting the damage that black smoke would have on the atmosphere more than anything else. We need to be expending our resources on more important issues in the world (economy, jihadism, nuclear proliferation) than the red herring of global warming.
There is no warming, and there is no observable greenhouse effect from CO2. Global warming or climate change or whatever it is today is an excuse for ne’er do wells to build useless bureaucracies.
But in reality, global warming is now the single most effective tool in the war of collectivists against free markets and capitalism. Global warming means government must seize control of auto manufacturers and all energy producing industry, including nuclear. Energy for Americans must be centrally regulated, and throttled.
We are not far removed from food shortages caused by shortened growing seasons and global cooling. This happens on Earth with regularity, including recent history. It is likely that ne’er do wells (like Al Gore) have damaged our energy resource development so severely as to greatly worsen the impact on human lives when this happens as it will inevitably.
This is all connected to UN Agenda 21
Also check out a 7 minute U-Tube video on Bill Clinto and Al Gore’s involment toto
Al’s Trick
U tube