Ellen Schroeder Mackey recently wrote an opinion piece for the Denver Post about the effects of man-made climate change. The piece is aptly summarized by the third paragraph, which reads:
“When we gum up the mechanisms that balance the ecology of the Earth, we will reach a tipping point of changes cascading so quickly that we will be unable to cope with them.”
That’s a pretty conclusive statement, is it not? So one might expect that Ms. Mackey is a scientist of some sort, right?
Wrong. Her byline describes her as a “librarian and storyteller.”
So the Denver Post went with an article about the impacts of climate change written by a “storyteller.” I am floored by the rich cosmic irony at work here.
BTW, a friend of the Cooler Heads Coalition, Denver’s Dave Bufalo wrote this great letter in response to Ms. Mackey’s piece.
More than 20 years ago, climate scientists began to raise alarms over the possibility global temperatures were rising due to human activities, such as deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels.
Tony Blair is to lead a new international team to tackle the intractable problem of securing a global deal on climate change which would have the backing of China and America.
European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso vowed on Thursday to defend industry threatened by competition from countries with lower environmental standards if international climate change talks fail.
Brussels EU leaders clashed last night over how to cut greenhouse gases a year after making climate change their top priority with a series of tough targets.
Do cold and snowy winters lead to “snow rage”? So says the police spokesperson in Quebec, where winter has been bad this year, leading to more violence:
Quebec City police said they had been called to a dozen violent disputes about snow from one property ending up on someone else’s. The drifts outside some houses are 12 feet and higher.
. . .
Police in the French-speaking province of Quebec said on Wednesday that people were fighting over snow clearing and even parking spaces.
Recent Canadian winters have been mild but this one looks set to break all-time records for snow. One storm last weekend dumped 23 inches on the capital Ottawa and 19 inches on Quebec City, which has already received 210 inches this year.
Global warming catastrophists constantly point to the dire effects of a warmer planet and push for carbon taxes or other schemes to raise the costs of fuel. But, tragically, bitter cold, blizzards, snow, ice, and sleet usually take a higher toll. And the elderly, who may not be able to afford fuel, often suffer the most.
The Europeans are threatening to impose tariffs on the U.S. if it fails to knuckle under and accept some international climate regulatory system–undoubtedly drafted to favor the Europeans. Reports the Times of London:
America and China face trade protection measures from Europe if they fail to join a global climate deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol, EU leaders will caution at their summit in Brussels today.
Nations that refuse to curb greenhouse gases will be told that they face “appropriate measures” — code for trade sanctions — if they try to gain a competitive advantage by continuing to allow cheap, high-pollution production.
EU leaders are particularly concerned to try to stop big companies relocating from Europe to countries that refuse to join a post-2012 climate change agreement in order to avoid the EU’s tough CO2 targets.
I don’t normally advocate threatening trade retaliation, but Washington needs to make clear that the U.S. won’t accept trade protectionism under the guise of climate protection.
CEI has said it again and again: cap and trade is a lobbyist’s dream. No matter how many times a presidential candidate refers to cap and trade as “market based,” it still requires central planning of the economy, because emissions—and therefore energy use—must be rationed. That means big government. But bureaucratic complexity is a lobbyist’s best friend, because it provides myriad nooks and cranny’s into which they can stuff special favors for their special clients.
As reported by E&E News, the games have already begun,
“A brewing debate among electric utility companies over the best approach for curbing climate change has burst into public view.
Companies with substantial baseload generation from nuclear power and natural gas, such as Florida Power & Light and California giant Pacific Gas & Electric, want to sway Congress toward establishing an auction as the primary method for distributing credits in a new U.S. carbon market.
But utilities carrying significant coal capacity, such as American Electric Power Corp. and Duke Energy Corp., are pressing lawmakers to go with what they know. That means following the example of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments and setting up a new climate law that includes free credits given to industry based on historic emission levels.”
A scary European Union report is doing the rounds here in Brussels. The seven page summary of all the main alarmist climate change scenarios is well timed.
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