In today's New York Times, Paul Krugman takes on what he calls the "cockroach arguments" of climate change deniers. Cockroach arguments are "false claims you may think you’ve gotten rid of, but keep coming back."
Even when proved false, these arguments are recycled. Consider taking the temperature from a particularly warm year and arguing that succeeding years have been cooler:
Climate change models “have not been very successful,” declared Larry Kudlow, the top White House economic adviser. Actually, they have: Global warming to date is well in line with past projections. “Something’s changing and it’ll change back again,” asserted Donald Trump on “60 Minutes,” based upon, well, nothing.
Trump makes up all kinds of stuff. Then there's the argument that, while the planet may be warming, man is not responsible for the rise in temperatures:
“I don’t know that it’s man-made,” said Trump. And while he has sort-of-kind-of backed down on his earlier claims that climate change is a hoax concocted by the Chinese, he’s still seeing vast conspiracies on the part of climate scientists, who he says “have a very big political agenda.”
Think about that. Decades ago experts predicted, based on fundamental science, that emissions would raise global temperatures. People like Trump scoffed. Now the experts’ prediction has come true. And the deniers insist that emissions aren’t the culprit, that something else must be driving the change, and it’s all a conspiracy.
Trump is all about conspiracies. Then there's the argument that the economy can't withstand efforts to fight global warming:
Apocalyptic claims about the cost of reducing emissions are especially strange given tremendous technological progress in renewable energy: The costs of wind and solar power have plummeted. Meanwhile, coal-fired power plants have become so uncompetitive that the Trump administration wants to subsidize them at the expense of cleaner energy.
It's all humbug. But, these days, there's a big market for humbug.
Image: LeadGenius
6 comments:
Conservatives only deny climate science because they know the solution is a scam: carbon pricing.
Trudeau, Scheer, Mad Max all plan on turning 3-trillion barrels of bitumen into atmospheric carbon. Most of the emissions go on China's side of the ledger. And they have no plans to reduce GHGE.
So people will get gouged with carbon taxes, while the rich get richer off carbon markets, while the factories and jobs go out the window and GHGE continue to grow exponentially!
Bring the people something other than corruption and they will listen.
"You can fool all the people some of the time. Some, all of the time. But you can't fool all of the people all of the time." - Honest Abe
-CC
There is a cap and trade arrangement, CC -- which the Ford government has just nixed. The word is that Ford has taken $3 billion from the province's coffers.
CC conveniently omits the important part of carbon taxes is that they be revenue neutral. The taxes are dividended out to the public periodically. There should be no gouging given that the amount returned to the individual should be greater than the additional levy at the fuel pump.
As I understand it, Mound, that's exactly the kind of carbon tax which is currently being used in B.C.
The Cons hate carbon taxes because, unlike income taxes, their wealthy backers haven't figured out a way to avoid them. The problem is the positive correlation between wealth and carbon emissions.
The 20% of the world's population living in comparatively wealthy industrialized nations are responsible for about 80% of global carbon emissions. Similarly, within countries, the top-earning 20% are responsible for about 80% of the country's envisions. The reasons for this are obvious: the top 20% heat bigger houses, drive more and bigger vehicles, fly more often and buy more carbon-intensive products.
This is why the Harper crew dropped carbon taxes like a hot potato after first supporting them.
Cap
The irony of all this, Cap, is that the Conservatives claim that their mission is to advance "the people's" agenda. The truth isthat they seek to advance a small sliver of the population's agenda. It's the wealthy who count in their universe.
Post a Comment