It is highly unlikely that anything will come out of the Paris climate conference of world leaders other than a bunch of statements and announced goals. There will be few if any actions besides the production of more hot air from all the speeches.
I've written many times about the serious problems with the theory that Earth is seeing man made climate change. Today, I want to look at another aspect of the issue. Let's assume for the moment that there really is global warming and that it is caused by the carbon dioxide that man is unleashing into the atmosphere (no matter how shaky that assumption is.) Let's consider how likely it is that the government of the USA or the governments of the world will be able to control or reverse that problem. Here are some things to think about.
1. Since the mid-1960s, the USA has spent trillions of dollars on programs which the government designed to eradicate poverty. The level of poverty in the country, however, has not declined at all during that time.
2. Over the years, there have been many government programs to help disadvantaged children get a better education. One, Head Start, provides pre-school education to help the disadvantaged children when they start elementary school. The government has funded the program for almost 50 years. The Department of Education did a major study on the efficacy of Head Start a few years ago. That study confirmed the findings of many other studies, namely, Head Start does not work. The children who go through the program do no better than the children from similar socio-economic backgrounds by the end of second grade. In other words, any effect from Head Start is gone in two years. One would think that these findings in the government's own major study would lead to the ending of Head Start and the search for something that works. Instead, president Obama has proposed making Head Start universal. Spending would increase so that every child in America went to a Head Start pre-school or the equivalent. The program doesn't work, so the government (under Obama) wants to make it bigger.
3. The Congress enacted Obamacare in 2010 and provided generous funding for that program for the first ten years of its existence. One critical piece of the program is the federal exchange to sell individual health insurance policies. The government had almost four years to construct that website. By the date the site went live, the government had spent more on that site than any other website in the history of the internet. In fact, it wasn't even close; the Obamacare exchange cost at least four times more than had ever been spent on any previous website. As we all know, the website did not work and it was incomplete. Today, two years later, the Obamacare exchange functions, but it is still incomplete. The government just gave up ever trying to complete the back end of the site. In other words, the government spent over a billion dollars to finally get part of the site completed.
4. Think back over all the accomplishments of the United Nations during the last 70 years. That is one of the world's shortest assignments. Even better, think of all the UN has accomplished during the last 25 years. There's nothing.
There's a lot more failure that could be listed for the US or the UN governments. Why would anyone now assume that controlling the climate is going to be any different? Isn't Paris going to be just another fool's errand on the list of great government failures? The simple answer is YES!
I've written many times about the serious problems with the theory that Earth is seeing man made climate change. Today, I want to look at another aspect of the issue. Let's assume for the moment that there really is global warming and that it is caused by the carbon dioxide that man is unleashing into the atmosphere (no matter how shaky that assumption is.) Let's consider how likely it is that the government of the USA or the governments of the world will be able to control or reverse that problem. Here are some things to think about.
1. Since the mid-1960s, the USA has spent trillions of dollars on programs which the government designed to eradicate poverty. The level of poverty in the country, however, has not declined at all during that time.
2. Over the years, there have been many government programs to help disadvantaged children get a better education. One, Head Start, provides pre-school education to help the disadvantaged children when they start elementary school. The government has funded the program for almost 50 years. The Department of Education did a major study on the efficacy of Head Start a few years ago. That study confirmed the findings of many other studies, namely, Head Start does not work. The children who go through the program do no better than the children from similar socio-economic backgrounds by the end of second grade. In other words, any effect from Head Start is gone in two years. One would think that these findings in the government's own major study would lead to the ending of Head Start and the search for something that works. Instead, president Obama has proposed making Head Start universal. Spending would increase so that every child in America went to a Head Start pre-school or the equivalent. The program doesn't work, so the government (under Obama) wants to make it bigger.
3. The Congress enacted Obamacare in 2010 and provided generous funding for that program for the first ten years of its existence. One critical piece of the program is the federal exchange to sell individual health insurance policies. The government had almost four years to construct that website. By the date the site went live, the government had spent more on that site than any other website in the history of the internet. In fact, it wasn't even close; the Obamacare exchange cost at least four times more than had ever been spent on any previous website. As we all know, the website did not work and it was incomplete. Today, two years later, the Obamacare exchange functions, but it is still incomplete. The government just gave up ever trying to complete the back end of the site. In other words, the government spent over a billion dollars to finally get part of the site completed.
4. Think back over all the accomplishments of the United Nations during the last 70 years. That is one of the world's shortest assignments. Even better, think of all the UN has accomplished during the last 25 years. There's nothing.
There's a lot more failure that could be listed for the US or the UN governments. Why would anyone now assume that controlling the climate is going to be any different? Isn't Paris going to be just another fool's errand on the list of great government failures? The simple answer is YES!
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