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24 Aug 09 - (Excerpts) - On August 18, both the New York Times and
Washington Post featured uncharacteristically shrill top-of-masthead
editorials demanding immediate climate-change legislation. The Post
warned of an imminent geophysical “tipping point” because of global
warming, while the Times went one better, threatening the national
security of the United States.
The great unwashed are in open revolt
Why the desperation? Perhaps because the great unwashed who live
outside the Beltway or somewhere other than Manhattan are in open
revolt, and not just against Obama’s health care proposals..
Things are getting out of hand in the real world. Since the June 26
House vote on the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, lawmakers from
both chambers have backed significantly away from the legislation.
The first raucous town-hall meetings occurred during the July 4
recess — before health care. Voters in swing districts were mad as
heck then, and they’re even angrier now.
Yes, we're talking about a carbon tax
The Post resignedly confesses its favored approach to the warming
menace: “Yes, we’re talking about a carbon tax.” The idea there is
that a carbon tax will be less complicated than cap-and-trade
(true), and that the cost to individuals and businesses “could be
rebated . . . in a number of ways.”
The Times, meanwhile, accurately notes that “proponents of climate
change legislation have now settled on a new strategy: warning that
global warming poses a serious threat to national security” and that
absent regulation, global warming could induce resource shortages
that would “unleash regional conflicts and draw in America’s armed ”
Utter nonsense.
Utter nonsense. Every nation is short of some kind of resource, and
the supply of many are dependent upon year-to-year fluctuations in
weather, as well as to long-term fluctuations in climate. This is
why we have markets. It’s too cold in Canada to buy corn, so they
import ours and export ice hockey. Markets are always more efficient
than Marines, and will doubtless work with or without climate
change.
Simultaneously, the evidence for this climatic tipping point has
gone AWOL. Global surface temperatures haven’t budged significantly
for 12 years, and it’s becoming obvious that the vaunted
gloom-and-doom climate models are simply predicting too much
warming.
Taking us back to 1867
By mandating a reduction of over 80 percent in current emissions by
2050, Waxman-Markey will allow the average American the same carbon
dioxide emissions of the average American in 1867.
Alternatively, consider the Post’s energy tax. How high does it have to
be?
The last time gasoline hit $4.00 a gallon, we managed to reduce our
consumption by a grand total of 4 percent. How high does the price have
to go to knock out 80 percent? The answer is pretty simple: no one
knows, because a technologically and politically feasible alternative
does not exist. How expensive will fossil-fuel powered electricity
become?
See entire article:
http://planetgore.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NWZhM2E0NDgyMWUzM2I0M2M3OWY1ODk4ODYzYWJjYmQ=
— Patrick J. Michaels is senior fellow in environmental studies at the
Cato Institute and author of
Climate of Extremes: Global Warming Science They Don’t Want You to Know.
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