Carbon Crusaders

Today's quote: "We are the President." Hillary Clinton, 1993.

547 days until election day and counting...

THE CARBON CRUSADE

Liberals are always looking for a big new crusade to join. They have been without one for most of the past 27 years, ever since President Reagan came to office.  Reagan's positive, pragmatic approach to solving problems totally disarmed them and began a period of policy reformation in the United States led by the Republican Party. As we moved away from bigger government solutions to problems toward solving problems locally and reducing taxes, Democrats chafed as they watch many of their prize social programs reformed.

Well, they now have found their new cause: Global Warming.  Led by former Vice President AL Gore, who is as famous for his Inconvenient Lie, "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." as he is for his Oscar winning drama, "An Inconvenient Truth."  Democrats think they have found the Holy Grail; or the equivalent of the Holy Grail in the secular world, an unproven scientific hypothesis. Twenty years ago, climate research took a sudden sharp turn when it was redefined as the study of the effect of greenhouse gases produced by man. At the time, this was just another hypothesis among hundreds of hypotheses on climate,  most of which have been proven to be wrong.

No matter, like Hollywood, all the Democrats need is a good storyline.  Fiction is melded with convenient, unrelated facts and a script is written by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  The storyline? They declared that most of the rise in temperature since the mid-20th century is very likely due to man-made greenhouse gases.  This unproven hypothesis has become the conventional wisdom. Of course, if one looks into the short history of the Intergovernmental Panel, one discovers that it is a very self-serving group.  Many of the scientists who espouse the greenhouse gases hypothesis are the recipients of millions of dollars in grants to do more studies to confirm the preferred outcome. Anyone challenging their hypothesis need not apply for a grant.

There can be little doubt where this is heading. Soon, coming to a theater near you will be the wide screen production, Greenhouse Rock, where leading Democrat stars will trade conspicuous carbon consumption for carbon credits, while we are instructed in how to reduce our carbon footprint and where less is more and the sucking sound you hear is nothing less than your wages being siphoned from your pockets like Chinese noodles from a Kyoto Bowl.

This Oscar winning film will be followed by the sequel, Greenhouse Gulag with the appropriate subtitle: From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs, a Karl Marx production.

RANDY