Global Warming -- All Things to All People

Sometimes it sucks living on the West Coast. I'd intended to write a post this morning about how I was positive that the radical enviro community would find a way to "link" the massive snow storms and cold front on the East Coast to global warming.

I arrived at my office this morning -- around the 7:30 a.m. hour -- to find a very detailed post from the Heritage Foundation about global warming called, "Global Warming - Is There Anything It Can't Do?"

I do feel it's important to re-post two interesting -- and contradictory -- articles contained in Heritage's e-mail. The first is an article by Time magazine that says the snow storms pounding Washington, D.C. may be caused by global warming. The second is an article by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in the Los Angeles Times that says the opposite. In fact, the most telling quote by Kennedy is:

"In Virginia, the weather also has changed dramatically. Recently arrived residents in the northern suburbs, accustomed to today's anemic winters, might find it astonishing to learn that there were once ski runs on Ballantrae Hill in McLean, with a rope tow and local ski club. Snow is so scarce today that most Virginia children probably don't own a sled. But neighbors came to our home at Hickory Hill nearly every winter weekend to ride saucers and Flexible Flyers."

So, rather than re-hash the entire post, I would like to state how impressed I am by the global warming community and its dexterity in making their case that global warming is real...and therefore the United States should pass a massive "cap-and-tax" energy policy that would have marginal, if any, environmental benefits, would swell government coffers (perhaps that's their real goal)...and would require massive taxes on EVERYONE to do so.

Now, the New York Times, in an article called "Climate-Change Debate Is Heating Up in Deep Freeze" also attempts to make the case that "a heating planet will produce more frequent and more intense weather events." Convenient...essentially, no matter what global warming skeptics try to argue...it's wrong. Unseasonably hot weather -- global warming. Record cold weather -- global warming. Middle-of-the-road weather -- global warming!

I'm more convinced now than I ever have been that global warming -- more accurately the "scientific" efforts to control it -- is nothing more than a government-enforced plot to control people. Of course, the "elite" or the "intelligentsia" wouldn't be bound by any carbon-inspired restrictions. They'll simply be able to buy "offsets" for their "abuse" but poor, average Joe and Jane Six-Pack won't be able to do so. Driving will cost more. Flying will become cost-prohibitive. Factories will close down...but, we'll be creating all those "green jobs" so everything will be OK.. PLEEEEEEZ!

Al Gore, we're told, has a massive house that consumes tremendous amounts of energy. He travels the world on private jets...planes that belch massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere...making the problem Al has waxed poetically about for years that much worse. But, all is well, we're told. Al purchases off sets...so, it's all good! Al is planting trees in some far-off rain forest. Whew. I fell better now.

I've told my business partners, my friends, my family -- anyone who would listen for years that this whole global warming thing is over-blown. Everyone, in some way, shape or form, is an environmentalist, especially in California. I love the beach and our parks as much as the next person. However, once governments or elected officials attribute specific costs to any "environmental" measures (cap and tax being the most recent)...that's when support for them declines precipitously.

And, so it (the support) has declined. Obama's cap and tax proposal is all but dead. The rhetorical flourishes by Al Gore and the radical enviro crowd have become less vocal...perhaps it's because they over-played their hand and realize that the American people aren't buying what they're selling.