Posted on 05/27/2006 6:03:30 AM PDT by Tom D.
The End of the World
By Daren Bakst
May 26, 2006
This week’s “Daily Journal” guest columnist is Daren Bakst, Legal and Regulatory Policy Analyst for the John Locke Foundation.
The world is about to end. It may even end the day after tomorrow. There will be tidal waves, earthquakes, and burning temperatures (or freezing temperatures, one or the other). I know how to stop this from happening, though.
If you believed me, and you thought I could stop the end from happening, you’d let me do what I wanted in order to prevent it. I could raise your taxes, keep you from buying certain cars, prevent you from living where you want, and much more.
Global warming alarmists have figured this out. Global warming is their end of the world excuse to push policies that they’d like to see implemented. North Carolinians should care because these policies, if adopted, will change their lives in drastic and negative ways.
The goal, if we think global warming is a problem, should be to develop sensible policies that reduce the temperature. That seems simple enough. There is only one catch, though, for the alarmists. We can’t reduce temperatures in any meaningful way.
Dr. Thomas Wigley, a well-known climatologist from the U.S. National Center for Scientific Research and global warming alarmist, examined the impact of the Kyoto Protocol. This treaty, which the U.S. wisely hasn’t ratified, calls on countries to reduce drastically their emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), and specifically calls for the U.S. to reduce emissions by 7 percent below 1990 levels.
According to Wigley, if there were 100 percent compliance with Kyoto by countries that were original parties to the treaty (not just the countries that ratified it), including the United States, the effect on temperature would be undetectable. The temperature would be 0.0126° F lower by 2050 and anywhere from 0.18° F to 0.37° F lower by 2100. This data is outlined in greater detail in a recent John Locke Foundation study.
This puts a damper on the global warming parade. Fear not, though, alarmists have mastered the art of illusion – or possibly convolution – to scare people, including policymakers. Their goal now is to take the means that allegedly would lower temperatures, reducing CO2, and turn it into the goal. This new goal can be measured and can show reductions, albeit at a high cost. The illusion is achieved by throwing out so many statistics, arguments, and distortions on CO2 that the real goal gets lost. Nobody remembers to ask how policies to reduce CO2 will reduce temperature.
So to reduce CO2, which will prevent the end of the world, legislators and other state officials are discussing policies that will affect you. If these policies will prevent the end of the world, how can we disagree with those advocating reductions in CO2? That would be like opposing the existence of all human life and the very existence of our planet. It is pretty tough to counter that argument. Who wants to be labeled anti-Earth?
We have to support rail systems because they will encourage people to stop driving. Do you want a house with lots of land in suburbia? Too bad, you only can get a 417 square foot studio apartment downtown because we need to make the community more dense. Are your eyes set on that beautiful SUV for your family? Keep dreaming. You’ll drive an electric car that goes 0-30 miles per hour in 1.6 minutes, and you’ll like it!
All of this is possible if alarmists get their way. Rail systems, smart growth (a.k.a. Soviet-style stagnation), and limited vehicle choice are just some of the ideas that could be forced upon North Carolinians in the name of reducing CO2. For example, the state’s Climate Action Plan Advisory Group (CAPAG) is considering a multitude of options that will undermine your freedom and could form the basis for legislation.
If you weren’t concerned before with the whole global warming debate because you know it is all junk science, be concerned. Be very concerned. These CO2 reduction policies are very real possibilities and can have significant costs.
To give some perspective on how far global warming alarmists are willing to go in the name of reducing CO2 and at the expense of the economy and society, we have to look only at the impact of Kyoto. The U.S. Energy Information Administration determined in a leading 1998 study that U.S. compliance with Kyoto would mean a loss of 4.2 percent in Gross Domestic Product (or $437 billion). The National Black Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce estimated that as many as 3.2 million Americans could lose their jobs.
I’m not quite ready to hand over policymaking decisions to the global warming alarmists. Some may want to do whatever they recommend, but jobs, freedom, and the future growth of North Carolina are more important than addressing scare tactics. In North Carolina, we often hear that we need to be a leader on environmental issues. I completely agree. We should be one of the few states that stop listening to alarmists and start listening to reason.
This is a good point that is worth remembering. These whackos: declare that X is bad; Y will prevent X; therefore, keep your eye on Y and don't pay any attention to what happens to X. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
The scientific evidence for "Global Warming" just isn't there. Thirty years ago the liberals were warning about "Global Freezing". That didn't happen either.
This entire crisis is manufactured by the MSM and Dems to get them back into power. They need to "prove" that their crisis is more important that terrorism. Time and money for only one crisis at a time.
In the 1970s Paul Erlich in those liberal books he wrote predicted that by the early 21st century nearly all of Canada would be covered by a glacier.
You gotta give them credit for trying.
The global warming hoax will be exposed for what it is. That will have
profound effects. The people and institutions that advocate the hoax will
be simultaneously exposed. The mainstream media and environmentalist whackos
will lose credibility.
Bump
if al gore is on it, it's bogus..........
I don't think he has any friends....
Excelcior!
FTI: FreeRepublic does not 'bump' like VB or UBB. When you post, it does not 'move to the top', so it is useless to post "bump" here.
If you meant to bring it to someone's attention, convention is to type "Ping" in the reply box, and address the "To" field to whomever you wish to notify (seperate several nicks but comma)
we've had global warming since the end of the last ice age and it will continue untilthe beginning of the next ice age
algore be dammed
I wish that were true, but I see nothing that is going to jump up and stop it.
This is a hoax that makes the believers and advocates feel good about themselves. These types of hoaxes are very hard to stop, since those who believe it feel they are more concerned and caring people, and thus, all detractors are simply selfish and evil. Thus, just like any good conspiracy theory, facts never get in the way.
If you have more to say as to how it will be exposed, please clue me in.
A Million Little Incovenient Truths
By Tal Flores
I will work tirelessly to see that you don't!
I will take my message to the corners of the earth. I will log thousand upon thousand miles to warn of the need to stop travelling.
Nothing will stop me from delivering my message.
-New Guinea?
-No Problem. We'll clear a goodly portion of the jungle to lay down a runway. then a gift shop. then...We'll deliver our message to those folks (native people staring blankly)
By Mother Earth, we'll save her! Essscelsior!
All I know is that when a major pharamaceutical company removes a highly-effective asthma medicine from the market and replaces it with an "ozone-friendly" type that doesn't work half as effectively in order to "save the ozone layer," the nuts have gotten control of the nuthouse. Where in the hell are the sane people?
Its already happening. Time's cover story and 60 Minutes' breathless "warming" story have been picked apart like pile of dead lobster. We're beginning to laugh at them and THEY JUST CAN'T STAND IT !
The guy's is the reincarnation of the bored pampered literary character known as Don Quixote. He's never had the chance to fight a real battle so he's going to go about slaying this defenseless and essentially contrived enemy.
Like I said, I mean he's big on Buddhist Temples and such, so it should come natural to do the right thing. He needs to find a hollowed out tree trunk, strip to his Hanes and assume the meditative pose of a true ascetic.
Make ya just feel all warm and fuzzy toward Al Goreghoul don'tchaknow.
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ONCE upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were -- Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter. They lived with their Mother in a sand-bank, underneath the root of a very big fir tree. ... |
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