Liberal Ideology at work

About a month ago, on December 12^th  bureaucrats, CEOs, educators, entertainers, and journalists from around the world concluded the United Nations’ COP28UAE global warming conference in Dubai.  These ‘elites,’ who have absolutely no influence, control, understanding and dominion over the sun, its corona, its spots & flairs, the formation of clouds, the tug of the moon on the earth, the snow, the wind, ocean currents & tides, El Nino, El Nina, tectonic plate movements, the perturbations of the Earth’s orbit or its changing axis, all of which affect climate, made decisions affecting the quality of life for 8 billion people.

Articles will be written telling the world how they can keep the earth’s temperature from rising, ice caps from melting and sea levels from flooding coasts and will tell us how they can prevent calamities such as droughts, floods, and storms… just by reducing CO2…and giving them a couple of trillion dollars.  Never mind that not a single goal of the Paris Climate agreement has been met (nor will they ever be) or that the Chinese the world’s largest polluter, continues to build coal fired plants at an ever-increasing rate, but if the rest of us will just eliminate carbon, we can save the planet.

~ The Evils of Carbon Dioxide? ~

Recently Bobbi and I watched the Netflix documentary “Life on Our Planet,” narrated by the Hollywood icon Morgan Freeman, who I’m certain, was chosen for a reason.  The documentary takes the viewer on an evolutionary tour de force of planet Earth from the dawn of time to the present day.  We were enjoying the documentary until Mr. Freeman, who, according to the Media Psychology Research Center possesses most calming and believable voice in America, referenced the evils of carbon dioxide.

I guess the script writers forgot to advise the actor (note, I wrote actor, not scientist) that CO2 is the life force behind photosynthesis and the very essence of life on earth.  And that the lack of this ‘noxious gas’ in our atmosphere would create a domino effect within the food chain, essentially eliminating all life on the planet, considering that plants require CO2 to exist, and without CO2 there would be no plant life and without plant life there would be no animals and by extension, no human beings.  Pretty evil stuff, eh!

~ A Realistic Goal? ~

Common sense dictates that goals be made realistic & achievable or they will never be met; and the stated goal of the Paris Climate Agreement is to limit the Earth’s temperature increase to 1.5* Celsius.  Now think about that for a moment, people without a lick of knowledge of a science that remains highly speculative and in its nascent stages, are going to control (emphasized for effect) the earth’s temperature to within 1.5* C- Really!

At the same time the apocalyptists have determined that early 20^th century earth temperatures are the optimum temperature for the planet – no matter that the earth has alternately warmed and cooled by hundreds of degrees over the last 4.5 billion years, somehow, they know, what the planet’s ideal temperature is.  So, vis-à-vis this certainty, I have a rhetorical question: are these people delusional or have the media and our schools done such a masterful job of brainwashing that millions are just following like sheep?  I can’t answer that question, but I know who’s not following the herd – China, a nation that imports cheap Russian oil and builds dozens new coal fired plants every year in order to manufacture solar panels to sell to the west!

Perhaps instead of trying to change or alter Nature, it would be wiser and less costly to ameliorate any deleterious effects.  In the Netherlands, the Dutch didn’t try to lower the sea level, instead they built dikes.  Even in uber-liberal Minneapolis the city fathers didn’t build giant heaters in the downtown area to keep shoppers warm (and shopping), instead they built skyways between buildings.  We build dams to control the flow of rivers and breakwaters to protect shorelines, and there are nascent technologies out there to address and redress the effects of a naturally occurring and ever-changing climate in smaller ecologically friendly steps rather than sinking billions or trillions into a dry hole trying to revamp entire economies?

We’re already seeing the results of the green movement – higher energy costs, black outs, child labor mining cobalt for car batteries while damaging the environment, and reduced standards of living – btw, have you ever wonder just how those EV batteries and wind turbine blades are made, but more importantly how they’re disposed of?  There’s a reason the green movement doesn’t advertise how these items of “green technology” are manufactured and disposed of, and suffice it to say child labor plays a prominent role in both.

~ Grandstanding and Virtue Signalling ~

In 2009 Hillary Rodham Clinton, then U.S. Secretary of State told the world in Copenhagen Denmark,  “The US is prepared to work with other countries to jointly mobilize $100 bn a year by 2020,” and how well did that work out?  Meanwhile, climate activists will fly from conference to conference in their private jets, spewing more CO2 on a single flight than entire regions  in East Africa will expend in a lifetime, all while flapping their virtue-signaling gums.  And just like Hillary’s grand-standing promise in Copenhagen –absolutely nothing will come of it.  Fourteen years ago I wrote a commentary for the Vail Daily after Hillary made her announcement.  I said it then and I’ll say it again – these are little more than feel-good empty promises that gain traction with the politically naive.

Liberals are big on noble intentions, vague promises, optimistic projections, and expert opinions; they will tell you how much money they’ve spent (or are going to spend) on any given problem and they’ll tell you who is supposed to benefit, but what you’ll seldom hear a liberal talk about are the results of their policies!  In fact, by self-admission, since 2016, the year the Paris Climate Agreement was signed, its greatest achievement has been, and I quote from the UN Website “…notable success in encouraging countries like China, Japan, India and the EU to set carbon neutrality goals and embrace net zero targets, and beginning in 2024, signatories to the agreement will report transparently on actions taken and progress in climate change mitigation.”

WOW! And it only took 7 ½  years for the world’s major polluters to “Embrace net zero targets,” – not hard-fast written goals mind you, but “targets” and then to (voluntarily of course) report on their progress” – Gee, we can only imagine what progress we’ll see in the next 7 ½

Thought for the day: Eliminating the production of 500,000 American barrels of oil a day to buy 500,000 barrels a day from Venezuela is simply, …well, …stupid.