Important Questions on Global Climate Change

There are a few questions we all need to ask ourselves about the entire global climate change debate. I will list them below and go into the a bit more in depth.

1- Is Global Climate Change real?
2- If Global Climate Change is real, did humans cause it?
3- If Global Climate Change is real, and we caused it, can we stop it?
4- If Global Climate Change is real, and we caused it, and we can stop it, is government regulation the way to solve the problem.


So, first off, is it real? I think it is. The climate is changing all the time. Science has shown that the Earth goes through certain periods of warming and cooling. I believe, however, that this change is cyclic. I remember reading in my Earth Science textbook that the climate would change so much that we would end up in a new ice age. That was in the early 90s when I was in 8th grade, and it was a reference to a theory from the 1970s. See how far behind public education was? They couldn’t even keep up with the lies they were telling twenty years before. Then we started hearing about global warming. That has been the standard term for about the last 20 years. Now, with people still shoveling snow in early May in some parts of the country, we get the term global climate change. What a catch-all phrase. I guess when they can’t make their minds up and prove anything conclusively one way or the other; they cloak their funny science in generalities. It’s cyclic, get over it.

So now that we have established that climate change is real, is it caused by us? My view on this is no. Maybe we have altered things to a very minor degree, but we have not done anything that will have catastrophic effects on us in the future. Carbon dioxide emissions are not a problem.

Argon is the third most prevalent gas in our atmosphere. Carbon Dioxide is the fourth. Argon is a poison, Carbon Dioxide is not. Carbon Dioxide is essential to plant life. Someone tell me how CO2 is bad! To demonstrate how much CO2 is actually in our atmosphere, I will use an analogy. Imagine 1000 pennies laid out on a table. If you were to pick up one penny and cut it into thirds, lay down two thirds, and keep the other 1/3 in your hand; you would be holding the entire amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere right now. Do you really think that driving an old pickup truck is going to affect this amount that much? How about cows that pass gas? Give me a break!

Question three is irrelevant at this point since I don’t think we have anything to fear, but I will cover it anyway. If global climate change is real, and we caused it, can we stop it? Who knows? This 2005 article from the San Francisco Chronicle explains that it may be too late already. Like putting a Semi-truck in neutral and pushing down a mountain road, there isn’t anything that we could do to stop it. Some might make the argument that we should try to prevent getting to that point. I don't think we have anything to worry about, but if we did, I don’t think we could do anything to stop it anyway. The only thing that might work in that situation is completely doing away with all fossil based fuels. I don’t see that happening anytime soon since the only other real option would be nuclear power. The same environmental nuts that are against fossil based fuels have lobbied for restrictions on nuclear power as well. We haven't built one new nuclear power plant in over 20 years. Solar and wind power sources are a good step towards energy independence; but nuclear power is just as clean and safe as any other option out there. Does this make sense to anyone? If you want to do away with fossil fuel energy, use all available options!

"Giving society cheap, abundant energy...would be the equivalent of giving an idiot child a machine gun." --Paul Ehrlich, president of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford, 1978

Now we come to government control. Our bureaucrats in Washington seem like they have bypassed all of these simple and logical questions and gone straight to the end. They say, “Look, the climate is changing, we need to fix this!” I’m glad they didn’t do any fixing back in the 70s when they thought we were headed for a new ice age. One proposal back then was to cover the polar ice caps with a black coating causing them to melt. I call that "playing God." This isn’t about the climate, it’s about control. The politicians know what is really going on. They see an opportunity grab control of business, and pass legislation for higher taxes. This is just another way to misdirect the populace into giving up more individual freedom. The kicker is Cap and Trade. This is a new proposal for a Global Tax on carbon emissions. Even though the Senate turned down a proposal to get in on the Kyoto Treaty by a narrow margin of 95-0, Obama is bringing the topic back up again. We have one foot already in the door here, and are about to step into a new era of a one world government. Wake up people, you are being misled!

[Kyoto is] “the first component of an authentic global governance.” --Jacques Chirac

Do you know the number one reason for buying a Prius hybrid? Top result is, “It says something about me.” What does that really say about you though? That you care about the environment? Give me a break! I can understand if you buy a hybrid for the sole purpose of saving gas money. But even then, doing a cost analysis will show you that over a five year period you are not really saving any more money since you are paying more for the hybrid in the first place. To me, driving a Prius says, “I am a lemming. Look how stupid I am!”

Do I think that a textile mills should be able to dump toxic waste into the water supply? Hell no! I think there should be reasonable restrictions on these kinds of things, but the key word there is reasonable. If restrictions and taxes are forced onto companies and individuals due to funny science, we are all going to end up paying higher prices in the end. And if we let this get too far out of control, we are going to see our national sovereignty fall by the wayside, and start giving up all of our freedoms in the name of global wellbeing. That is a price I am not willing to pay!

“To capture the public imagination, we have to offer up some scary scenarios, make simplified dramatic statements and little mention of any doubts one might have. Each of us has to decide the right balance between being effective, and being honest.” --Stephen Schneider, lead 2007 UN IPCC report author

If you want to do something that will help the environment, volunteer with a local group to go pick up roadside garbage, or plant trees in a washout area. Join a hunting or a fishing group. Outdoorsmen do more to help the environment every year than all of the environmentalist whackos ever thought of. Supporting politicians who favor tougher restrictions for the environment is not the answer. They just want your vote for their own selfish ends, and you are playing right into their hands.