I was recently in America. It’s a country I love but it was depressing. All the energy for legislating on climate change has drained away. Those once leading the debate are now silent, the deniers have turned up the volume. The Administration has stalled on this vital subject. The President said in his State of the Union speech “the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy”. If that’s true (and I believe it is) then America has already begun to cede its premier place in the world economy.
The Chinese are already talking about the economic downturn as “the North Atlantic Crisis”. And according to the Pew Centre Research “China is emerging as the world’s cleanest energy powerhouse”. It has already become the world’s leading investor in renewables aiming for 15% of its energy to be generated through renewables by 2020. It has designated 5 provinces and 8 cities as China’s Low Carbon Pilots, representing 350 million people, 27% of the population and one third of the economy. The centre of gravity is shifting from West to East not just for the World Economy but for the Green Economy.
Future historians will ponder long and hard on why the North Atlantic nations fell so easily on their swords and pressed the self-destruct button.
Umm, are we talking about the same China, whose air pollution is so bad that they halted large swathes of industrial production during the 2008 Olympics, so as to protect the athletes? The same China that is opening scores of new coal-fired power stations? The same China whose pollution is now reaching the western shores of the United States?
“All the energy for legislating on climate change has drained away.”
Goodness, I wonder why!
I also wonder if any of these folks will ever understand just how damaging their global warming fraud has been to actual conservation. I recognize that it was never about that — it was about collectivists being able to garner the power to take over more of individual and corporate resources and decisions.
But at the end of the day, the fraud of global warming has ended up creating a far FAR more cynical informed public who now look at conservation efforts in general with a jaundiced eye.
Sarah, the global warming argument is sound, based on sound and wide spread data. Its conclusions are almost universally agreed to by the broad range of scientists. Even if you cannot grasp this, you need only to look at the disappearing glaciers and ask yourself -if you are still able to – why are they disappearing so fast. Then look at the spread of desertification in Africa and ask the same question. Is the answer, “This is all a fake, a put up job by scientists in collusion.” Larry
RE: “global warming fraud”
The fraud has nothing to do with *the what* of anything regarding climate change, it has to do with *the why*.
And yes — it’s BS and a fraud. And most informed non-leftist Americans understand that. It doesn’t bother me one whit that you or anyone else actually believes the BS — that’s neither here nor there and people are allowed to believe things that aren’t true till the cows come home, I don’t try to convince them otherwise.
The tragic result of the fraud, however, is something that does concern me — and that is prevailing cynicism regarding all conservation efforts, including any market-based, private-property-rights efforts.
I don’t mind people being deceived. I do mind those who are not so deceived being affected by sneering cynicism regarding all things conservation. The only plus side that I can come up with it that it *is* excellent that they have sneering cynicism regarding the collectivists who spawned the fraud. *That’s* good, anyway.
Sarah, THANK YOU for posting.
The bishop’s melancholy tone reminds me of my son’s art teacher, who responded to my offhand question, “Isn’t it a beautiful day?” by saying, “I only wish I could enjoy it. All it does is remind me of Global Warming and of how we’re all going to fry.”
I honestly wonder how these folks make it through a day. While I share your concern about the way the AGW hoax deters actual conservation, I’m mainly concerned about the number of people who will end up in therapy because of it.
And what do you do about the accumulated evidence? Or is the evidence a con too. Well, I’ll ask one more time: How do you explain the disappearance of the glaciers? Or are the eye witness reports and photographs a conspiracy? Such blindness will damage conservation more than all the assertions of fraud, because sound conservation must deal with evidence. L
RE: “Such blindness will damage conservation more than all the assertions of fraud, because sound conservation must deal with evidence.”
Yes — but while someday you [i]may[/i] deal with actual evidence, I’ll still worry about the fraud. ; > )
Sorry, Larry Morse — I don’t try to convince the climate change fraud believers, any more than I try to convince folks who are revisionists. We just don’t share enough in common regarding science, the rules of evidence, weather, history, the role of the state, the role of humans, and far more for it to be profitable — [i]as the various threads on climate change here at T19 attest far far better than I.[/i]