Let’s Have the Debate

Journalist Peter Foster reports in the “National Post” today that he is heading off to New York City to attend the 2009 International Conference on Climate Change. Dubbed the largest ever gathering of climate change skeptics, the title of the event is: “Global Warming: Was it Ever Really a Crisis?” Dozens of presenters from the scientific community will offer papers disputing the conventional wisdom that global warming exists and that, in any event, is not a threat to humanity. Presumably, (and hopefully) they will discuss the economic folly of promoting drastic measures in the midst of a worldwide recession.

I suspect that this conference will not get even a passing reference in the mainstream media. That would prove embarrassing to the media and Obama Administration as they push forward with their plans to impose a $650 billion cap and trade regime (carbon tax) on the American people. Even Obama and his fellow socialists admit that energy costs will skyrocket, while they are less forthright in admitting that this war on CO2 amounts to a huge tax increase on everyone. No one in support of this scheme wants to confess that poorer citizens will be hardest hit. That famous 13 bucks a week in tax breaks (falling to $7.10 in 2010) for lower income Americans will quickly evaporate as the cost of everything goes up…. except the stock market, of course. That will be going down and so will the job market as industries flee the country. You really have to wonder if these guys have a clue. Or maybe, (and God I hate to say this) it’s intentional. Can it be possible that they hate business so much that they would intentionally destroy the American economy? When ideology trumps reason and science you have to wonder.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond in Merry Old England where they are still seething over the dissing of PM Gordon Brown by the White House, another conference is taking place. This one at the University of the West of England in Bristol brings together psychologists, sociologists and eco-gurus and will explore the Mental Disorder of “climate change denial”.
Yes indeed, the 650 certified meteorologists and climate scientists on the US Senate compilation of climate cataclysm skeptics and the 32,000 scientists who signed the Oregon Petition saying they dispute that humans are causing climate change are certifiably nuts. Hold on while I see if I can find a straight jacket on eBay.

Foster dubs this group climate true believers adherents of a “global state religion” or “eco-shariah” and anyone disagreeing with accepted dogma in need of serious psychological treatment. Like the medieval Christianity, Islamic fundamentalists or communist dissenters, non-believers need to be tortured (re-educated?) until they accept the true faith. Perhaps a little electro-shock therapy would do the trick?

This sort of thinking lends a lot of credence to the late Michael Crichton’s contention that modern society has embraced environmentalism as a secular religion. Only a true believer refuses to look at scientific evidence with an open mind.

One thing remains clear, no one in the Obama Administration wants to have a debate about the validity of global warming. (Al Gore doesn’t want to debate anyone on the science either.) And, they certainly don’t want to have a vote on this massive tax increase. They can avoid that messy confrontation by simply imposing cap and trade through the regulatory auspices of the EPA and/or regulations under the ESP (Endangered Species Act. Remember those “endangered” polar bears?) Having a debate would expose millions of people to the scientific evidence and raise the question of whether this is about saving the planet or simply a massive tax and power grab.

Can you say taxation without representation?