The Orange County Register

June 13, 2008

http://www.vvdailypress.com/opinion/co2_6913___article.html/devastation_year.htm...

QUOTE: Global warming is the perfect big-government issue. First, it's
predicated entirely on predicted disasters based on arbitrary data fed
into computers.

QUOTE: Second, global warming is unscientific because it can't be
disproved

QUOTE: Third, global warming is blamed for what has happened since the
beginning of time

QUOTE: Fourth, if government imposes costly, Draconian solutions, and
temperatures rise, it only means more Draconian solutions are needed. If
temperatures drop, it only means Draconian solutions must continue.

The nation avoided global warming-related devastation last week. The
Senate killed a grandiose scheme to clamp down on emissions of CO2, a
benign, necessary, natural atmospheric gas. However, something similar,
if not worse, will be back next year.

The devastation wouldn't have been the 1- or 2-degree temperature
increases that may have occurred over the next century, which may not
even be related to CO2. The real devastation would have been gasoline
prices increasing $1.40 per gallon by 2050, millions of jobs lost or
shipped overseas, an effective $3,700-a-year tax on families, a
33-percent increase in home energy costs by 2020, and, says the Heritage
Foundation, the equivalent economic cost of 35 Hurricane Katrinas every
year for two decades.

Those would be certain results of the failed Climate Security Act's
vastly expanded government controls to extract trillions of dollars from
productive companies and redistribute the money to politically favored
interests, say the bill's opponents.

What's uncertain is whether the trouble and expense would have bought
anything. Even if CO2 emissions are returned to the level of
horse-and-buggy days, an increase of 0.013 degree Celsius might be
avoided over the next century, says climatologist Patrick Michaels.
That's if CO2 increases temperature, which many scientists doubt. So,
why go down this path?

"Controlling carbon is a bureaucrat's dream," MIT climate scientist
Richard Lindzen said. "If you control carbon, you control life."

Global warming is the perfect big-government issue. First, it's
predicated entirely on predicted disasters based on arbitrary data fed
into computers. What's fed changes continuously. That's why a few years
ago sea levels were predicted to rise 20 feet, but now only 20 inches or
less. Garbage in, garbage out.

Second, global warming is unscientific because it can't be disproved.
When temperatures slightly dropped over the past decade, then were
predicted even by alarmists to drop more over the next decade despite
ever-rising CO2, rather than admit their theory is wrong, the story line
changed. Now we're told the entirely unpredicted 20-year cooling is only
temporary. If temperatures go up, it proves global warming. If they go
down, voila! It proves global warming.

Third, global warming is blamed for what has happened since the
beginning of time. Climates always change. This ensures permanent
government involvement.

Fourth, if government imposes costly, Draconian solutions, and
temperatures rise, it only means more Draconian solutions are needed. If
temperatures drop, it only means Draconian solutions must continue.

Last week we saw how political support is mustered for such an
unintuitive idea. Hundreds of billions of dollars never collected by the
government before would be doled out to favored interests, after
government pocketed its share. The failed bill would have given $51
billion to so-called energy-efficient manufacturers, $68 billion to
automakers making government-smiled-upon cars and $150 billion to owners
and operators of favored energy producers.

Disguised as a "cap-and-trade" plan, it would have made CO2 emitters pay
to do what they've always done for free. Deceptively passed off as a
market-based plan, cap-and-trade is really a hidden tax.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid assured us, "Gas prices will not go
up. They will go down." In the end, the obvious connection to
ever-higher gas prices politically killed the Climate Security Act.

Next year another version is certain to return with a president inclined
to sign it. We had a preview of the future last week. It's grim, costly
and authoritarian.
--

Warmest Regards

Bonzo

". none of the climate states in the models correspond even remotely to
the current observed climate. In particular, the state of the oceans,
sea ice, and soil moisture has no relationship to the observed state at
any recent time in any of the IPCC models." Kevin Trenberth, IPCC
Coordinating Lead Author