THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VI, Issue # 264, December 17, 2004
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
PROPHETS, FALSE PROPHETS, & PROFITEERS:
HOW GLOBAL WARMING HAS BECOME BIG BUSINESS
By Paul K. Driessen
THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS AS FALSE PROPHETS OF DOOM -- COP-10, DISSEMINATION OF GLOBAL WARMING PROPAGANDA, &
DIRE PREDICTIONS OF FUTURE GLOBAL ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHES THAT CAN BE AVOIDED BY GIVING ENVIRONMENTAL
ACTIVISTS & GLOBAL BUREAUCRATS CENTRALIZED CONTROL OVER FOSSIL FUEL USE, ENERGY PRODUCTION, ECONOMIC
GROWTH, LIFESTYLES, HOUSING, & TRANSPORTATION: ACTIVITY DESIGNED TO PRESSURE THE UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA & THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA INTO RATIFYING THE KYOTO PROTOCOL, WHICH WOULD FORCE THE U.S.A.
& AUSTRALIA TO DRASTICALLY REDUCE FOSSIL FUEL USE AND WOULD COST THE TWO NATIONS MILLIONS OF JOBS AND HAVE
RUINOUS ECONOMIC & SOCIAL IMPACTS WORLDWIDE
FULL STORY:
Some ten thousand delegates, scientists, activists, politicians, and journalists have convened in Argentina for the COP-10 confab
on “solutions” to the theoretical problem of “dangerous” and “catastrophic” global climate change. Months of hype and
consternation preceded the event. All of this activity was intended to pressure the United States of America and the Commonwealth
of Australia into ratifying the Kyoto Protocol.
“The Day After Tomorrow” and interminable activist group press releases provided appropriate horror movie scenarios. A hearing
chaired by Senator John McCain promoted his prophecy that a climate Armageddon is near – and his legislative palliative.
A new report warned that North Pole temperatures are rising. Science magazine asserted that not one of 928 studies
supported the position that climate change is naturally occurring.
United Kingdom Science Advisor Sir David King said global warming is a greater threat than terrorism, and greenhouse emissions
will have to be cut by 80% by 2050 to avoid massive coastal flooding, due to melting Greenland ice sheets. European Trade
Commissioner Pascal Lamy hinted that the European Union would give preferential access to its markets for poor countries that
accept Kyoto.
The hysteria and caterwauling swamped essential facts.
Actual satellite and weather balloon data – as well as historic and geologic records of numerous warming and cooling cycles –
contradict computer models, theories, and assertions that humans are causing disastrous weather events and climate shifts. Arctic
temperatures were even higher in the 1930s, before cooling again for several decades. Science editors didn’t mention
countless studies that analyze natural warming and cooling cycles – or the fact that 18,000 scientists have signed a petition saying
they see “no convincing scientific evidence” that humans are disrupting the earth’s climate.
All the countries in the world together are responsible for less than 3% of the Earth’s total greenhouse gas emissions (the rest are
natural), and the U.S.A. emits only 1/5 of this. The Kyoto treaty would force the U.S.A. to slash emissions and fossil fuel use by
some 25% over the next decade – an impossible task that would cost millions of jobs and over $300 billion annually, according to
government and other studies.
Even perfect compliance with Kyoto would keep average global temperatures from rising only 0.3 degrees less than they would by
2050 in the absence of a climate treaty. Actually stabilizing greenhouse gases and temperatures would require 19 to 40 “successful
climate treaties” – causing ruinous social and economic impacts, and diverting resources from solvable problems like AIDS, malaria,
poverty, and poor sanitation.
What, then, energizes all these false prophets of doom and their demands for immediate drastic action? Simply put, profits and
power.
Just the 12 largest environmental lobby groups in the U.S.A. had a combined budget of $2 billion in 2003. Collectively, the global
environmental movement has a war chest of up to $8-billion a year. That buys a lot of influence, but apparently it’s never enough.
As National Audubon Society Chief Operating Officer Dan Beard has admitted, “What you get in your mailbox is a never-ending
stream of crisis-related shrill material designed to evoke emotions, so that you will sit down and write a check.”
Global warming is big business. The U.S. government ladled out $15 billion on global warming research and “education” between
1992 and 2000. The United Nations spent billions more, as did the European Union, and big foundations provided hundreds of
millions more.
Unfortunately, most government money goes to researchers who support the position that human-caused climate change is a
serious problem. Foundation money does likewise, for operations like the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Global Climate Change Center,
and an International Institute for Sustainable Development $700,000 study of “how farmers in India may be vulnerable” to
problems supposedly caused by “economic globalization and climate change.”
“Scientists must be allowed to conclude that we don’t have a problem,” MIT professor Richard Lindzen insists, and funding should
not be based on politics and preconceptions. What’s needed are nonpartisan funding mechanisms to support climate research
Climate treaties are driven by near-religious convictions, Lindzen and author-producer- molecular biologist Michael Crichton
observed. This further politicizes science, makes rational debate unlikely, and keeps people perpetually anxious – and in desperate
search of saviors.
“To capture the public imagination,” global warming scientist-activist and former global cooling false prophet Stephen Schneider
once said, “we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we
might have. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest.”
Former Boston Globe Editor Ross Gelbspan urged a Washington, D.C., audience in July, 2000:
“Not only do journalists, not have a responsibility to report what skeptical scientists have
to say about global warming, they have a responsibility not to report what these scientists
say.”
In a similar vein, Time Science Editor Charles Alexander told a Smithsonian Institution conference:
“I would freely admit that, on [global warming], we have crossed the boundary from news reporting
to advocacy.”
Many climate alarmists see the Kyoto Protocol and other treaties as instruments of international power politics. Ultimately, they seek
to give activists and centralized government bureaucrats control over fossil fuel use, economic growth, lifestyles, housing, and
transportation.
European Union Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstroem says that Kyoto --
“is not a simple environmental issue, where you can say scientists are not unanimous. This is
about international relations, this is about the economy, about trying to create a level playing
field for big businesses throughout the world. You have to understand what is at stake and
that is why it is serious.”
And French President Jacques Chirac has termed the Kyoto Protocol “the first component of authentic global governance.”
Even now, proposals are being floated in Argentina that would allocate the right to emit carbon on a per capita basis throughout the
world. Eventually, the scheme would ensure that every person has an “equitable” right to the same (minuscule) amount of energy –
whatever global bureaucrats and activists determine is “appropriate” and “sustainable.”
The Economist has observed:
“Environmentalists are quick to accuse their opponents in business of having vested interests.
But their own incomes, their fame, and their very existence can depend on supporting the most
alarming versions of every environmental scare. Pressure groups, journalists, and fame seekers
will, no doubt, continue to peddle ecological catastrophes at an undiminishing speed.”
Actually, industry has much stronger motivations for honesty than do the activists, Daniel Koshland, Jr., noted when he was
Science magazine Editor. “Businesses today have product liability and can incur legal damages if they place a dangerous
product on the market.” Environmental pressure groups “have no such constraints.”
All this should be on everyone’s mind – in developed and developing countries alike – as COP-10 attendees debate the merits and
demerits of Quixotic proposals to “control” the world’s climate.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Paul K. Driessen is Senior Policy Advisor for the Congress of Racial Equality, the Committee for A Constructive Tomorrow, and the
Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise. Driessen is author of Eco-Imperialism: Green Power, Black Death, which can be
obtained at www.Eco-Imperialism.com. Email: pdriessen@cox.net --- Telephone:
(703) 698-6171
© 2004 Paul K. Driessen
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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