This is what Global Warming is REALLY about................................

by Warlock 17 Replies latest jw friends

Warlock

Posted By Marc Morano – [email protected] – 5:35 PM ET
[See Related UN Bali Blog Reports: Over 100 Prominent Scientists Warn UN Against 'Futile' Climate Control EffortsSkeptical Scie ntists Urge World To ‘Have the Courage to Do Nothing' At UN Conference ]
Global Carbon Tax Urged at UN Climate Conference
BALI, Indonesia –A global tax on carbon dioxide emissions was urged to help save the Earth from catastrophic man-made global warming at the United Nations climate conference. A panel of UN participants on Thursday urged the adoption of a tax that would represent “a global burden sharing system, fair, with solidarity, and legally binding to all nations.”
“Finally someone will pay for these [climate related] costs,” Othmar Schwank, a global tax advocate, told Inhofe EPW Press Blog following the panel discussion titled “A Global CO2 Tax.” Schwank is a consultant with the Switzerland based Mauch Consulting firm
Schwank said at least “$10-$40 billion dollars per year” could be generated by the tax, and wealthy nations like the U.S. would bear the biggest burden based on the “polluters pay principle.”
The U.S. and other wealthy nations need to “contribute significantly more to this global fund,” Schwank explained. He also added, “It is very essential to tax coal.”
The UN was presented with a new report from the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment titled “Global Solidarity in Financing Adaptation.” The report stated there was an “urgent need” for a global tax in order for “damages [from climate change] to be kept from growing to truly catastrophic levels, especially in vulnerable countries of the developing world.”
The tens of billions of dollars per year generated by a global tax would “flow into a global Multilateral Adaptation Fund” to help nations cope with global warming, according to the report.
Schwank said a global carbon dioxide tax is an idea long overdue that is urgently needed to establish “a funding scheme which generates the resources required to address the dimension of challenge with regard to climate change costs.”
'Diminish future prosperity'
However, ideas like a global tax and the overall UN climate agenda met strong opposition Thursday from a team of over 100 prominent international scientists who warned the UN that attempting to control the Earth's climate was "ultimately futile."
The scientists wrote, “The IPCC's conclusions are quite inadequate as justification for implementing policies that will markedly diminish future prosperit y. In particular, it is not established that it is possible to significantly alter global climate through cuts in human greenhouse gas emissions." The scientists, many of whom are current or former members of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), sent the December 13 letter to the UN Secretary-General. (See: Over 100 Prominent Scientists Warn UN Against 'Futile' Climate Control Efforts – LINK )
‘Redistribution of wealth’
The environmental group Friends of the Earth, in attendance in Bali, also advocated the transfer of money from rich to poor nations on Wednesday.
“A climate change response must have at its heart a redistribution of wealth and resources,” said Emma Brindal, a climate justice campaigner coordinator for Friends of the Earth. ( LINK )

Calls for global regulations and taxes are not new at the UN. Former Vice President Al Gore, who arrived Thursday at the Bali conference, reiterated this week his call to place a price on carbon dioxide emissions. ( LINK )
In 2000, then French President Jacques Chirac said the UN’s Kyoto Protocol represented "the first component of an authentic global governance." Former EU Environment Minister Margot Wallstrom said, "Kyoto is about the economy, about leveling the playing field for big businesses worldwide." Canadian Prime Minster Stephen Harper once dismissed Kyoto as a “socialist scheme.” ( LINK )
'A bureaucrat's dream'
MIT climate scientist Dr. Richard Lindzen warned about these types of carbon regulations earlier this year. "Controlling carbon is a bureaucrat's dream. If you control carbon, you control life," Lindzen said in March 2007. ( LINK )
In addition, many critics have often charged that proposed tax and regulatory “solutions” were more important to the promoters of man-made climate fears than the accuracy of their science.
Former Colorado Senator Tim Wirth reportedly said in 1990, "We've got to ride the global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing — in terms of economic policy and environmental policy." ( LINK )
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Related Links:
Over 100 Prominent Scientists Warn UN Against 'Futile' Climate Control Efforts
Skeptical Scie ntists Urge World To ‘Have the Courage to Do Nothing' At UN Conference
INHOFE SLAMS NEW CAP-AND-TRADE BILL AS ALL ‘ECONOMIC PAIN FOR NO CLIMATE GAIN'
Debunking The So-Called 'Consensus' On Global Warming
New UN Children's Book Promotes Global Warming Fears to Kids (11-13-2006)
Scientists Counter AP Article Promoting Computer Model Climate Fears
New Peer-Reviewed Scientific Studies Chill Global Warming Fears
Newsweek Editor Calls Mag's Global Warming 'Deniers' Article 'Highly Contrived'
Newsweek's Climate Editorial Screed Violates Basic Standards of Journalism
Latest Scientific Studies Refute Fears of Greenland Melt
EPA to Probe E-mail Threatening to ‘Destroy' Career of Climate Skeptic
Prominent Scientists Reverse Belief in Man-made Global Warming - Now Skeptics
Senator Inhofe declares climate momentum shifting away from Gore (The Politico op ed)
Scientific Smackdown: Skeptics Voted The Clear Winners Against Global Warming Believers in Heated NYC Debate
Global Warming on Mars & Cosmic Ray Research Are Shattering Media Driven "Consensus'
Global Warming: The Momentum has Shifted to Climate Skeptics
Prominent French Scientist Reverses Belief in Global Warming - Now a Skeptic
Top Israeli Astrophysicist Recants His Belief in Manmade Global Warming - Now Says Sun Biggest Factor in Warming
Warming On Jupiter, Mars, Pluto, Neptune's Moon & Earth Linked to Increased Solar Activity, Scientists Say
Panel of Broadcast Meteorologists Reject Man-Made Global Warming Fears- Claim 95% of Weathermen Skeptical
MIT Climate Scientist Calls Fears of Global Warming 'Silly' - Equates Concerns to ‘Little Kids' Attempting to "Scare Each Other"
Weather Channel TV Host Goes 'Political'- Stars in Global Warming Film Accusing U.S. Government of ‘Criminal Neglect'
Weather Channel Climate Expert Calls for Decertifying Global Warming Skeptics
ABC-TV Meteorologist: I Don't Know A Single Weatherman Who Believes 'Man-Made Global Warming Hype'
The Weather Channel Climate Expert Refuses to Retract Call for Decertification for Global Warming Skeptics
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choosing life

I used to be very much behind the global warming theory until I read the book State Of Fear by Michael Crighton (sp?). He has a lot of research in the book showing that climate change is not always depicted honestly and that man cannot control the environment in any meaningful way.
I still recycle and treat the earth with respect, but there are some implications in the article posted that give me reason to pause. There's a lot of politics behind the movement and there is big money involved which opens the door wide to the greed factor.
Warlock

I still recycle and treat the earth with respect,
I do the same thing, and feel all of us should do these things.
Both cars in my household are LEV, low emission vehicles, and we recycle plastic and aluminum.
We don't do these things because of global warming, we just feel it is the right thing to do.
Warlock
zack

I think we should pitch in to the Solar Extinguishing and Earth Inhabitant Relocation Fund. In a billion years or so the sun will burn out. If we start saving now, we can have enough money for the research and tools necessary for future generations to find alternative habitable planets or solar systems with near Earth-like planets that they can somehow colonize. I think we all owe it to future generations. I volunteer to be the custodian of the fund.
BrentR

Warlock, don't forget the arctic Sea is melting again for the third time in just over 100 years. The news media conveniently leaves out that little tid-bit of info. Never let history get in the way of a good story.
Liberty

Thanks Warlock for bringing up these views. Global Warming a very emotionally charged subject ripe with deep political vitriol. I don't need more enemies but I would just like to add a few thoughts from experiances with my own research and University Prof.s I had classes under.
The common theme that surprized me the most in my many Earth Science related courses was the great immensity of the Earth. Humans really do not intuitively feel just how huge the Earth is. I was stunned by just how infinitesimally small we humans really are and how little we really matter (in the grand scheme of things) after studying the Earth in detail.
All the weapons ever produced including the most modern nukes even if fired all at once would barely put a small dent in the crust. Humans CANNOT destroy the Earth! I repeat, humans do NOT have the power to destroy the Earth! I emphasize this point because before taking these classes I too thought that a lot of nukes could literally destroy the planet. We have the power to wipe out most of the higher plants and animals on the surface but the Earth itself would remain virtually untouched. The vast majority of the lower life forms which make up the highest percentage of the Biomass of the Earth would also feel little effect. We never think about these lower life forms because they are largely unnoticed and therefor are practically invisible but they do make up the greatest actual living weight on the planet and we cannot destroy them.
Human's are naturally species-centric so we really think mostly about ourselves and how important we are and the things that are important to us. In short, we have an unrealistic view of the greatness of our own power and influence. This extends to our obsessions with Doomsday scenarios as well. Many religions unrealistically see humans at the center of the Universe and of primary interest to the forces of good and evil, God and the Devil etc. Even as some of us move away from religion we still retain the arrogance which falsely percieves us as the center of the Universe and certainly the planet.
Global Warming is the perfect example of this arrogance and misperception. A dozen very active volcanoes would produce more pollution in a few hours than humans have produced in our entire history. Where do you think all the carbon in our emmisions came from in the first place? We did not manufacture it, we are just releasing it. Every bit of it came from the Earth's atmosphere originally. The atmosphere has changed drastically over and over again in the very long history of the Earth and humans had nothing to do with it for 99.9% of that history.
Natural forces way beyond our control account for nearly every change ever seen on this planet. 99.9% of every life form that ever existed went extinct before we had even evolved. Extreme climate change has always been a constant in the Earth's history which is one of the reasons there are so many extinct life forms. Global Warming is not new nor unique. All the evidence from just 70 or so million years ago shows average temperatures throughout the entire surface of the globe at a constant 90 degrees F., hence tropical plant and animal fossils near the then poles (since the continents have shifted position since then).
Many of my Earth Sciences/Paleontology Prof.s were very skeptical of a human driven climate change hypothesis. They were especially skeptical of climate change driven solely by human activity. The best bet is that humans may contribute slightly to overall climate change leaving most of it to natural forces we are still struggling to fully understand.
Always keep in mind that quick radical changes in our energy use would kill far more people than Global Warming would. We need to approach the problem using reason and logic and not emotion. We need to proceed with caution and build a solution upon our best objective knowledge and not political extremism/exploitation.
BrentR

Excellent and intelligent post! It's just the latest tactic to get people to hate corporations who otherwise would not.
How many JWs do you think there would be if the "big A" was not part of thier doctrinal teachings? Fear is the oldest tactic in the book and it is still used because it still works.
nvrgnbk

It's just the latest tactic to get people to hate corporations who otherwise would not.
Does "Big Business" deny global warming and/or mankind's role in it?
Top Businesses Demand Climate Action
By SETH BORENSTEIN 11.30.07, 8:50 AM ET
WASHINGTON -
Some of the world's top business leaders are demanding that international diplomats meeting next week come up with drastic and urgent measures to cut greenhouse gas pollution at least in half by 2050.
Officials from more than 150 global companies - worth nearly $4 trillion in market capitalization - have signed a petition urging "strong, early action on climate change" when political leaders meet in Indonesia.
The hastily prepared petition drive, coordinated through the environmental office of Britain's Prince Charles, is signed by leaders from mainstream powerhouse companies such as Shell UK, GE International, Coca-Cola Co., Dupont Co., United Technologies Corp., Rolls Royce, Nestle SA, Unilever, British Airways and Volkswagen AG.
The petition is aimed at the United Nations conference in Bali, convened to draft a new environmental treaty to replace the Kyoto accord, which expires in 2012.
"We urge world leaders to seize this opportunity," the petition says.
Contrary to the argument that mandatory pollution cuts would harm the economy, the business leaders' petition says ambitious emissions reductions would "create significant business opportunities."
"You've got businesses around the world saying, 'Give us certainty so we can do what's right for our investors, society at large and the broader environment,'" said Richard Barrington, head of sustainability for Sun Microsystems in the United Kingdom and Ireland, whose boss signed the petition. "If you look at the risks associated with climate change, they're just as much business risks as they are human risks."
In the three weeks that the business leaders circulated the petition, primarily in the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States and Australia, more than 80 percent of the giant firms contacted agreed to join in, said petition coordinator Craig Bennett, of the University of Cambridge's Programme for Industry.
Just how drastic the cuts in man-made greenhouse gas emissions - carbon dioxide is the main one, generated mostly from the use of coal and oil products - should be left up to science, the business leaders said. But their communique refers to a recent international report on climate change, which said a 50 percent cut in emissions by 2050 is needed to prevent catastrophic global warming. Barrington said "that's the minimum order of what we're looking for."
"It's a massive problem for humanity; it's a huge problem for our businesses," Bennett said. "The politicians have got to sit up and do something."
In January, the CEO's of 10 major U.S. companies urged President Bush to support mandatory industrial greenhouse gas emission cuts. The White House is against that policy. Since their January plea, the industry group, the United States Climate Action Partnership, has grown to include 27 of the world's largest firms.
Other companies signing the British-based petition include Nike Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Virgin Group, Barclays PLC, Gap, Nokia, Pacific Gas and Electric, and the Rupert Murdoch-owned News Corp., which runs the conservative Fox News Channel.
"There are voices that you may not normally expect to be heard on this particular issue," Barrington said. "It just shows how concerned we are about the issue."
Copyright 2007 Associated Press.
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/11/30/ap4390693.html
Warlock and funkyderek had an interesting exchange on the thread.
Always keep in mind that quick radical changes in our energy use would kill far more people than Global Warming would. We need to approach the problem using reason and logic and not emotion. We need to proceed with caution and build a solution upon our best objective knowledge and not political extremism/exploitation.
Good points, Liberty.
Excellent post.
Thanks for the topic and the article, Warlock.
BrentR

Business will talk-the-talk in a heartbeat if it means increasing revenue and dividends for shareholders. That is thier job.
I used to avoid global warming threads but each one forces me to research and I end up learning something. Until a couple days ago I never realized the Arctic Sea has routinely thawed enough to allow ships to navigate through it.
Mastodon

Don;t know if any of you have seen this but it's about Al Gore's film 'An Inconvenient Truth'

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23416151-details/Judge+attacks+nine+errors+in+Al+Gore's+'alarmist'+climate+change+film/article.do

This is what Global Warming is REALLY about................................

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