THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XII, Issue # 185, September 8, 2010
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
ENVIRONMENTALISTS, LEFTISTS, & STREET THEATER "EDUCATION":
The Climate & Renewable Energy Con Is Losing Its Luster,
Prompting Anguish & Desperation
By Paul K. Driessen
WHAT ENVIRONMENTALIST GROUPS, GLOBAL WARMING ALARMISTS, THE IPCC, & THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY-CONTROLLED
U.S. CONGRESS ARE DOING IN THE ENERGY & CLIMATE AREAS, THE DANGERS THEY POSE TO OUR LIVES & LIBERTIES, & WHY
THE NOVEMBER, 2010, CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS ARE SO IMPORTANT
FULL STORY:
It’s been a rough few weeks for the “eco-progressive” fringe.
Static jet streams induced near-record high temperatures in parts of the United States and Russia, but extreme cold
pummeled Seattle, England, and much of the Southern Hemisphere. Perhaps Al Gore, Michael Mann, and Rajendra
Pachauri can turn this hodgepodge into “catastrophic climate change,” but most folks understand it as Mother Nature
and weather.
Polls and news accounts find more Americans, Europeans, and other people becoming weary and skeptical of “manmade
global warming disaster” claims, convinced that natural forces are the primary cause of recurrent climate change, and
unwilling to accept soaring energy prices and reduced living standards in the name of stabilizing Earth’s unpredictable
climate.
Few Americans place any value on Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson’s meaningless
statement – that “climate change is happening and humans are contributing to it” – to justify the draconian regimes the
agency is trying to impose. The issue is whether our emissions of plant-fertilizing carbon dioxide is causing catastrophic
climate change, and there is no credible evidence of that.
The U.S. House-passed energy and climate bill remains moribund in the U.S. Senate. The Environmental Protection
Agency is trying to regulate carbon dioxide in the absence of congressional action – based on its assertion that
automotive, power plant, and factory CO2 emissions “endanger human health and welfare.” However, Texas refuses to
knuckle under, other states may likewise balk, and the next Congress could overturn the “endangerment” finding and
bar the EPA from rewriting the Clean Air Act and implementing its job-killing rules.
“Avatar” Director James Cameron double-dared global warming disaster skeptics to debate him – then morphed into a
chicken and cackled off when they accepted his increasingly ludicrous debate terms, calling his critics “swine” as he
headed for the hills.
Having read too many Gore, Pachauri, Quinn and other Deep Ecology treatises, LunaBomber James Lee held Discovery
Channel employees hostage and denounced the TV station for its support of “parasitic human infants,” before being
shot by police. His website and actions underscore how demented some Earth Liberation and global warming fanatics
have become.
As their economies have deteriorated, Germany, Italy, Spain and other countries have pulled the plug on unsustainable
wind and solar subsidies, eliminating thousands of “green” jobs and putting hundreds of “clean energy” companies on
the verge of bankruptcy.
Glen Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally on the National Mall drew 300,000 people. Meanwhile, “CarnivOil” events in
Wisconsin drew more yawns than people, as desperate environmentist groups struggled to regain their momentum,
by ranting about global warming, the Gulf oil spill, and “evil” oil companies.
Americans increasingly understand that even sending U.S. carbon dioxide emissions back to 1870 levels, as
congressional climate bills would do, will not reduce global atmospheric CO2 levels, because emissions from China, India,
and other nations will rapidly offset our painful reductions. Those countries have made it clear that they will not sacrifice
improved living standards for assertions that we can stabilize global temperatures by keeping atmospheric CO2 levels
below 0.035-0.045% (350-450 ppm).
As China’s former representative for climate negotiations recently said: “Developing nations … are not willing to combat
climate change, if the price is continued poverty.” The Chinese government has made “no concessions on the country’s
right to develop.” Many problems can be solved only through development. “There are 600 million people in India
without electricity. The country has to develop and meet that need. And, if that increases emissions, I say, So what? The
people have a right to a better life.”
Harvard University investigated and sanctioned Professor Marc Hauser for grossly exaggerating his primate research
results. Yet, his actions pale by comparison to what Phil Jones, Michael Mann, and other Climategate researchers
engaged in. Hauser’s grants were a drop in the bucket compared to the climate cabal’s. And he was not advocating
massive, expensive, punitive changes in our lives, liberties, and energy and economic systems. Will other institutions
match Harvard’s demand for integrity?
The independent InterAcademy Council investigated the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and issued a
tough report that may help bring some integrity, transparency, accountability, and sanity to what, thus far, has been
mostly politics and activism masquerading as science. The IPCC, says the IAC, needs to replace data manipulation,
suppression, and bias with honest science; end conflicts of interest; incorporate contrary data and opinions; and back
up headline-grabbing disaster claims with actual evidence (not just computer modesls or World Wildlife Fund press
releases).
In other words, it must stop trying to prove manmade carbon dioxide is the sole or primary factor in climate change –
and seek evidence-based answers to what drives climate change, what we might expect in the future, and how humans
can better adapt to warmer, colder, wetter, or drier futures.
The IAC and Hauser precedents should serve as a warning to climate colluders and manipulators. They are also
increasing pressure on IPCC Chairman Pachauri to abdicate his throne, and be replaced by a respected climate expert
who can bring a degree of integrity to this politicized organization.
However, a belligerent Pachauri has told the Times of India:
“[I have] shed any inhibitions or feelings of cowardice.
I believe this is now my opportunity to go out and do
what I think is right. In the second term, I may be a little
more uncomfortable for people than I was in the first.”
Senator Harry Reid says he may still try to pass even a minimalist renewable energy bill in the Senate, and then use it
to ram through an economy-disrupting climate bill during a lame duck session, if even by a single vote. That would
make the United States the only country to enact draconian climate and energy rules in the midst of a recession –
sending millions of jobs overseas, where energy prices and regulatory regimes are more hospitable and governments
believe people have a right to better lives.
Aided by George Soros, Leftist foundations and our own tax dollars (via EPA and other government agencies), radical
Greens are spending millions to lobby Congress. The Washington Post is giving free media to what it calls
“some of the country’s most respected environmental groups” – helping them spin absurd street theater like CarnivOil
into “educational” programs about saving Planet Earth (with vile oil executives bribing boxing referees and knocking
out crab-costumed activists).
Teamster, teacher, auto, and service employee unions are paying their own employees minimal wages and benefits, and
sacking them for trying to unionize, columnist Deroy Murdock chronicles – while preparing to pump $50 million and
legions of campaigners into ruling class Democratic Party reelection campaigns.
Meanwhile, Congress and EPA are pouring tens of millions of taxpayer dollars into Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiatives,
to help RGGI Director Jonathan Schrag persuade states to implement increasingly restrictive fossil fuel, emission, and
renewable energy mandates, regardless of what Congress does – and pay for Schrag's new $2.2-million loft in Manhattan.
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Today, on energy security issues, we unfortunately have less to worry about
from external enemies, than from our own elitist politicians, bureaucrats, and pressure groups.
In this critical election season, let us hope enough voters step up to defend our liberties, jobs, civil rights, and children’s
future.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
American Politics, Political Competition, & the Control of
Public Policy: Elections, Political Parties, Political Factions,
Ideologies, Special Interest Groups, & Political Corruption
American Government & the U.S. Congress:
Congressional Legislative Politics & National Public Policy
Paul K. Driessen is a senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow and is the author of
Eco-Imperialism: Green Power - Black Death (2004).
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity