Climate and Conspiracy
Climate Change–Those Hacked Emails
It’s been a week or more since a gentleman hacker stole a bunch of private emails from the University of East Anglia in an attempt to liberate supposedly secret evidence that the entire climate change crowd is in on a conspiracy to defraud the public. I haven’t yet heard if anyone is filing charges against the man, but evidently some folks, especially the Limbaugh-Beck screaming meme crowd, feel this is the new Pentagon Papers and the hacker in question is their Daniel Elsberg.
It is an unfortunate fact that some things—like this issue—are so complex that most people cannot follow all the data to the conclusions. They haven’t the time, the resources, or, frankly, the inclination. But then if anybody could parse evidence at this level, what would need scientists for? Why would anyone devote an entire life to researching one thing? If Joe the Plumber could actually understand the science behind the Large Hadron Collider, Paleontology, Evolution, and Climate Change, what do we need specialists for?
I’m sure someone has an answer along the lines of “We don’t! They just sponge off taxpayers and study stuff no one gives a damn about!”
I’d like to think most people are not so easily gulled, but I’ve been disappointed before and probably will be again.
Niklaus, I couldn’t agree with you more. The worst of the impacts of climate change are projected decades into the future. We have already begun to feel the impact of the end of cheap energy, and it’s quite painful. These effects are here now, and by solving the energy problem, we will most likely have automatically solved the climate quandary.
Aren’t you making my argument? Shall we trust the results presented by the multi-trillion dollar fossil fuel industry, or those of the the struggling, liberal, independent “green” studies?
Again, who has the money and profit motive to spin climate results?
Dan,
It would seem that way in a superficial sense, but the major proponents of anthropogenic CO2 as the major cause of global warming are those in a position to profit greatly from trading carbon credits as a commodity.
The groundwork has already been laid for the open trading of carbon credits in commodity brokerages. The result of cap and trade will leave the CO2 production unaffected, while the polluters will pass the cost increases to the consumer to offset for the money skimmed by the brokers, and for the fluctuations in the price of the credits caused by speculators. It sounds very much like the kind of energy commoditization scam that Enron built their business model on.
So those who are publicizing the knowledge of global warming are those few with enough money to do so; those who are already in a position to make back their expenses and then some. This is supposed to be a surprise?
Cap and trade may do little in the short term. But the precedent of monetizing waste products will force people to consider the long term costs of short term actions. Because of this policy, people will not have to “consider” in the thoughtful sense to do the right thing. They will just notice the price tag.
The only way to profit from cap and trade is to act responsibly; to earn the credits. Because this is anathema to current ways of doing business, there are billions being spent to block it.