The world climate summit is taking place in Glasgow as I write this. World leaders and climate bigwigs have flown in on their private jets and then driven in fleets of cars to the summit so that they can wring their hands and decry the people who produce major carbon emissions. But they're supposed to be saving the planet from temperatures rising by 2 degrees or so.
But think about these facts:
1. 20 years ago, we were told by climate cognoscenti that if nothing serious were done, in ten years it would be too late to prevent major warming and all manner of disasters. Carbon emissions increased over those ten years in nearly every country but no disaster came 10 years ago, we were told by climate cognoscenti that if nothing serious were done, in ten years it would be too late to prevent major warming and huge disasters. Some countries decreased emissions in a major way - the USA for example -- by others like China and India increased their emissions by more than the decline in the rest of the world. No disasters came.
3. The biggest single reduction in carbon emissions resulted from horizontal drilling and fracking so that natural gas production rose by huge percentages and reduced prices. Utilities that burned coal, switched to natural gas and cut emissions by about 70%. Of course, when Old Joe Biden took office, the first week he delayed leasing federal lands for natural gas production and banned fracking for the time being on federal land. Some states with liberal Democrat governors followed suit. After all, their mantra is "rossil fuels are bad/" As a result of these moves, the supply of nat gas decreased and prices rose. Right now they have doubled in the USA in the ten months that Biden has been in office. Millions of Americans who heat their homes with natural gas are paying twice as much as a year ago, and with winter coming, that price increase will really hit home for those families. From a climate standpoint, though, Biden and his allies have actually managed to raise the price of nat gas so high that some utilities are switching back to cheaper coal. COAL!!! That means that those plants that switch will emit three to four times as much as they did while burning gas. It could be enough that this year or next, the USA may go back to increasing carbon emissions. Thanks Joe!
Look, there really is no definitive proof that humans have contributed to climate change. Earth has been warming unsteadily since 1816. Between 1900 and 1940 warming was by the same amount as was the case over the last 40 years. Everyone agrees, however, that during 1900-1940 there was no human contribution to warming. So we had the same warming with or without human carbon emissions. But even if there is a human contribution to global warming, misguided policies that raise emissions while raising prices for average Americans to heat their homes and fuel their cars are, at best, idiotic. Someone has to explain that to Old Joe and hope that he has enough functioning brain cells left to understand his mistake and change course. Doubtful.
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