Democrat Delusions On Global Warming Mean They Have Abandoned Blue Collar Workers
What is carbon dioxide (CO2)? Can it rationally be labelled “pollution,” as President Obama does routinely?
CO2 is a naturally occurring trace gas (0.04 percent of the atmosphere), as natural as oxygen. Everyone reading this article today emits CO2 24/7, every time they exhale.
The Democrat Party-controlled-media never report that trace carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is essential to the survival of all life on the planet! Plants need CO2 to grow and conduct photosynthesis, which is the natural process that creates food for animals and fish at the bottom of the food chain. Without CO2, plants would die, and without plants, animals, including humans, would die for lack of food.
The increased concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere caused by the combustion of fossil fuels has actually increased agricultural output, causing a greening of the planet.
For these reasons, CO2 cannot rationally be called “pollution.”
Sea levels have been rising, since the end of the last Ice Age, over 10,000 years ago! Recently, that sea rise has been slowing, to about 1 mm to 3 mm a year. The Polar ice caps have not been melting. The Antarctic ice cap has grown to record size, and the Arctic ice cap recently has been fully restored.
U.S. satellites orbiting the Earth 24/7 produce the only incorruptible, authoritative, temperature record. That record confirms that there has been no increase in global temperatures for the past 19 years. During that period, 130 billion tons of carbon has been added to the atmosphere, about a third of all the CO2 generated by humanity since the dawn of the industrial revolution.
Soon that period of no global warming will be longer than the period of actual global warming, which lasted only about 20 years, from the late 1970s to the late 1990s. Before that was 30 years of global cooling. During the 20thcentury, and before, temperature patterns have not followed the consistent increase of CO2 emissions, but the cyclical trends of natural causes.
The source of the claim that human emissions of CO2 are causing catastrophic global warming is the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a body empaneled by the UN. The UN is an organization of governments favoring an expansion of government power and authority, and therefore biased in favor of the theory of catastrophic global warming. That is not because of “science,” but because it is a justification for government takeover of the energy industry, and massively increased regulation, taxes and government spending.
The UN loves it because it inspires fantasies of the UN growing up to be a world government, with real government powers of global taxation, spending and regulation, all to “save the planet.” Scientists who go along with the cause are rewarded not only with praise for their “social conscience,” but also with billions in science and research grants for their cooperation.
In contrast to the UN’s IPCC, a peer group of hundreds of independent, private sector scientists has organized the Non-governmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC). The NIPCC states, “It is wholly independent of political pressures or influences and therefore not predisposed to produce politically motivated conclusions or policy recommendations.” By sharp contrast, the IPCC “is government-sponsored, politically motivated, and predisposed to believing that climate change is a problem in need of a U.N. solution,” the NIPCC reports.
The IPCC produces long, voluminous “Assessment Reports,” making the case that human emissions of CO2 from burning fossil fuels threaten catastrophic results for human civilization, and, indeed, all life on the planet. But the NIPCC has now established a record of producing equally long, voluminous, reports thoroughly and logically rebutting the IPCC’s Assessment Reports and discussing at least as much scientific data and peer-reviewed scientific literature, probably more. The NIPCC reports are published by the Heartland Institute, under the title Climate Change Reconsidered II. That title now encompasses three one-thousand page volumes of peer-reviewed scientific literature and analysis published over the last year. This is the world leading source for the alternative to global warming alarmists, like President Obama.
The conclusions of Climate Change Reconsidered II are that the U.N.’s IPCC has exaggerated the amount of global warming attributable to mankind’s emissions of CO2, which “is likely to be modest and cause no net harm to the global environment or to human well-being.” The primary, driving force of global climate change is natural causes, not human effects, it shows. These scientists explain, “The hypothesis of human-caused global warming comes up short not merely of ‘full scientific certainty’ but of reasonable certainty or even plausibility.”
Among the thousands of scientists expressing this viewpoint are: Atmospheric Physicist Richard Lindzen, Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorologyat the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, IPCC author and contributor, with over 220 published, scientific, peer reviewed publications; Physicist William Happer, Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics at Princeton University, former director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Science; Meteorologist Roy Spencer, Principal Research Scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and the U.S. Science Team leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer on NASA’s Aqua satellite, formerSenior Scientist for Climate Studies at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center; Physicist Fred Singer, Emeritus Professor of Environmental Science at the University of Virginia, founder of the U.S. National Weather Satellite Service, President of the Science & Environmental Policy Project; John Christy, Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science and Director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, IPCC lead author, NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal; Patrick Michaels, Research Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia, past President of the American Association of State Climatologists; Solar Physicist Willie Soon, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Judith Curry, Professor and former Chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Craig Idso, a lead author and editor of Climate Change Reconsidered II. There is no better collection of climate scientists in the world.
(Part II to continue tomorrow)
Lew Uhler is Founder and President of the National Tax Limitation Committee and of the National Tax Limitation Foundation. Peter Ferrara is Senior Fellow for Entitlement and Budget Policy at the Heartland Institute, a Senior Policy Advisor to the National Tax Limitation Foundation, and an attorney for the Energy and Environment Legal Institute. He served in the White House Office of Policy Development under President Reagan, and as Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States under President George H.W. Bush.
Myanmar’s ‘Hero’ Holds Anti-Free Market Views
The Myanmar miracle marches on, but don’t stop holding your breath. Great hazards are emerging ahead.
Still, the most recent shockingly good news is that former military dictator Than Shwe has declared the woman he kept under house arrest during his 20 years in power, Aung San Suu Kyi, “the future leader of the country.”
“I will support her with all of my efforts,” he said of Suu Kyi, whose NLD (National League for Democracy) won last month’s election by a landslide.
Well before the results were in — even while votes were being counted — the military acknowledged her victory. “Even though there is no official confirmation… I want to congratulate Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD for their success in the election,” said Ye Htut, spokesman for military strongman and current president Thein Sein.
Even better, Myanmar is posed to soar economically.
Under the generals, Myanmar suffered from some of the worst economic policy in the world. In the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom Index, described by Nobel laureate Douglass North as the “best available… description of efficient markets,” Myanmar ranks 146th out of 157 economies.
Why is that promising? Countries that move away from horrible economic policy even only to bad policy experience explosive growth, at least until they reach the level of prosperity associated with their new level of economic policy. Then additional reform is required for further growth.
So in very short time with a dose of economic opening, the people of Myanmar could see their prosperity improve dramatically. Free market reform appears to be what the generals had in mind when they decided to open Myanmar up to the world and moved to democracy.
Isolated from the liberal democratic world, Myanmar was squeezed by the loving embrace of China: its economy dependent on China and its resources flowing to benefit China with very little in return for the people of Myanmar.
The generals did not like their near-puppet status. To escape the Chinese trap, they envisioned economic reform to open up to the world, ending dependence on China. That meant they also had to move to democracy to end Myanmar’s isolation.
So the future looks bright. Sadly, possibly standing in the way of this optimistic future is the hero of the moment, Nobel laureate Suu Kyi.
Although western criticism of Suu Kyi has been muted by admiration for her as a courageous democracy advocate, media reports going back several years have cautiously noted an authoritarian streak of inflexibility in her. Many NLD party leaders and rank-and-file members have resigned in protest over her autocratic temperament.
As the Boston Globe noted after the election, “Aung San Suu Kyi is also known to be dictatorial and inflexible.” She is also a poor listener, lecturing instead of conversing and reluctant to absorb new information or even hear it.
She has declared that she will be “making all the decisions as the leader of the winning party.” The word “all” is worrying.
Unfortunately, her “dictatorial” tendencies are combined with lack of economic knowledge, policy that speaks only in generalities, and statist tendencies. The Wall Street Journal reports that international and national business leaders have been alarmed by her anti-free market views and apparent hostility to foreign investment, telling foreign firms they will have to operate as she wishes and make what she wants — in others words, an extension of the closed, government-directed economy, which failed Myanmar under the generals and will fail it under a new government. All of this underscores the importance of Myanmar adopting not just democracy, but liberal democracy, complete with checks on executive power, institutions that uphold and promote the rule of law, respect for both majority rule and minority rights.
The poverty-entrapped people of Myanmar desperately need the free market reform and openness to the world that brought booming prosperity to countries in the region that, like Myanmar, once suffered devastated economies and military dictatorships such as Taiwan and South Korea. China and Vietnam have revealed that even limited economic reform can improve the lives of people.
Will it happen in Myanmar? That question is the reason to continue holding your breath.
Fred McMahon is a Fraser Institute resident fellow and holder of the Dr. Michael A. Walker Research Chair in Economic Freedom.
Socratic Wisdom And The Limits Of Knowing Thyself
Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living. Bold, right? But consider the statement in its historical context. Sure, he tackled some head-scratchers in his time, but it’s not like he ever calculated how fast water poured out of a cylindrical cone. Never had to translate The Aeneid for that shrew Mrs. Throckmorton, or apply game theory principles to solve pressing global problems. Such as how should Tangerine Dream, 38 Special and Survivor behave to ensure that together they get every movie soundtrack in the 1980s? Oh, wait, that already happened. Still, no insights from Socrates, who let’s face it, would have to cheat like a banshee just to get through Wood Shop.
My goal isn’t to undermine the pillars of Western Civilization. I’m just saying things aren’t always what they seem, and in every age man must learn to think critically. Example: though you adore the novels of E.M. Forster, if in your hotel room you order a movie from the adult section called Howards End, you’ll only have yourself to blame. Besides, it’s not wrong to do what we’re doing here. I’m sure in antiquity they said snide things about Grok the Wise, a leading light from the Paleolithic Age, whose brilliance consisted of nuggets like don’t piss off the Mastodon and when returning from unsuccessful hunt, nothing lifts spirits like screeching pterodactyl gag.
Socrates later dialed it back with that aw-shucks, I know that I know nothing routine, but recent scholarship suggests it was just false modesty employed to pick up South Athens barflies. For here’s what usually followed his humble assertion: But I do know this – I shouldn’t be alone tonight. And then something I can only paraphrase, about showing her the real meaning of the Socratic Method if she played her cards right. Truth? If still uncoupled at last call, he’d tell any woman who’d listen that he’d help her Know Thyself. Sad, really.
I don’t mean to pick on the Greeks – little known fact, but a young John Calvin crushed it on the speed-dating scene with his manipulative use of predestination — but that last bit of Delphic wisdom makes me wonder. What do we really know about ourselves and the world around us? Does it even matter? Just because I don’t know the laws of nature doesn’t mean they don’t exist. I don’t understand Bernoulli’s Principle – it does sound like a money-spinner of a pizza franchise for Cambridge, Massachusetts — yet I’m confident my airplane will achieve lift-off by runway’s end. Not since trying to pick up chemistry majors in college using the classic Avagadro line – call me, you know my number – has my misunderstanding of science mattered less.
There’s no sense sugarcoating it — what I don’t know about the universe could fill a warehouse. This wouldn’t please the Oracle at Delphi. But she would be happy to know one thing. I know quite a lot about myself. That’s the good news. The bad news is they are useless insights, such as:
I will never throw a pot, bake a soufflé or read anything by Theodore Dreiser. I’m fine with all of this.
Mastery of Venn diagrams gives me confidence to make sweeping statements during lulls in conversation. Did you know there’s not a single United States Marine living in North Carolina who’s seen Harold and Maude?
Gerund, preposition, proper noun — Leg-Wrestling with Wilford Brimley, Flex-Spending With Bert Blyleven, Crop-Dusting With Juice Newton – slays me, I don’t know why. I also don’t know why these images visit me only during Parent-Teacher conferences.
The universe occasionally sends clear and certain warning signs which we ignore at our peril. One of them is to never get serious with a girl whose favorite song is Crazy on You by Heart.
There are two kinds of American males in the world: those who get choked up at “you wanna have a catch?” at the end of Field of Dreams, and liars.
Fair-minded people can admit that haikus don’t give you enough time to say something meaningful. I bet originally they were just drafts, but his poetry teacher was like “Robert, these are wonderful” and then Bob Haiku was like “yeah, I know. I call them haikus.” Time to come clean, Japan.
I would be horrified to learn that Liam Neeson relaxes by listening to Enya. But I wouldn’t put it past Rutger Hauer or Sean Bean.
I can’t help but think that this isn’t the self-awareness that the Oracle at Delphi had in mind. So in a way, Western Civilization owes me one. Had I approached the high priestess, she’d probably have quit on the spot, opting for easier money timing the Peloponnesian currency markets. You’re welcome.
- 1.0.1306
No comments:
Post a Comment