Annoying Science

By Alan Caruba

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chairwoman of the House Environmental and Public Works Committee, has pledged to “follow science” when it comes to drafting legislation and one of the first new laws she wants passed is one that would impose a cap-and-trade limit on greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid the dreaded global warming that is NOT happening.

I must confess I am always perversely impressed with the ability of politicians to lie through their teeth, be obscenely ignorant, and do both at the same time. The problem for politicians and the environment organizations is that the real science of climatology and meteorology can be very annoying.

According to Sen. Boxer, “The surest way to create good jobs in this country is to mobilize for clean energy” (wind and solar). What California needs is real jobs, not green ones, but considering how spectacularly mismanaged its budget has been under the current green Governor, it’s a wonder that Sen. Boxer can say such things with a straight face.

“The whole world,” says Sen. Boxer, “is doing cap-and-trade, so we need to be consistent.” Oh yeah? Well, China isn’t doing it. India isn’t doing it. It’s not being done throughout Africa or most of Asia. A handful of European nations that signed onto the UN Kyoto protocol have tried it and they are trying to find a way out because cap-and-trade is a great way to weaken businesses and industries by sucking money away from their need to compete and grow.

Capping greenhouse gas emissions and trading “carbon credits” (the business that Al Gore happens to be in) to avoid a global warming that is NOT happening is criminally stupid.

Based on the notion that carbon dioxide and humans are the driving force behind global warming, it ignores the fact that CO2 is 0.0038 of the Earth’s atmosphere and six billion humans exhale CO2 daily. Do humans change the climate? Or does the Sun have something to do with it? Oceans, too. And clouds!

Meanwhile, on February 5, Greenpeace will release the results of a “carbon footprint analysis on the economic recovery package” via a teleconference whose participants will assert that “global warming will create a major drag on the U.S. and world economies…” No, it is all those idiotic UN environmental treaties that do that. And, again, there is NO global warming.

All this talk of “green jobs” ignores the fact that the more than a half million job losses that have been announced in recent weeks have nothing whatever to do with the environment. If you have lost your job with Home Depot, Starbucks, Microsoft or Caterpillar the last thing on your mind is global warming or the environment. You weren’t laid off because the Earth is supposedly getting warmer.

We do not have a “green economy”, currently the popular Obama administration buzzword. We have an economy in crisis because banks are not financially stable and people are not buying cars, not able to sell their homes, eat out as often, and all the other countless decisions that mean formerly thriving industries and businesses are in big trouble.

The next time you hear someone talk about a “sustainable environment”, keep in mind they are talking about stopping the construction of roads, bridges, coal-fired or nuclear plants, and just about anything else that represents more energy, jobs, and development of any kind.

There’s a reason that Barbara Boxer’s California is an economic disaster area. It’s because they have passed so many “environmental” laws that businesses, industries, and people cannot leave fast enough.

While President Obama and some members of Congress try their best to ignore the vast amount of actual science that demonstrates there is NO global warming the truth will continue to manifest itself until it can no longer be denied.