Getting Greener and Greener by Bill Bonner

A man who doubts the global warming hypothesis is asking for trouble. He
might just as well question the virgin birth in St. Peter's or praise a
sirloin steak in Benares. He is sure to be damned by everyone.

The whole earth is going green. Every newspaper tells us so. And anyone
who stands in the way of this great trend will be treated like a holocaust
denier - that is, like a wicked kook.

Communism, famine, plague, the Huns - all the old enemies are in retreat.
Now, climate change and terrorism are the threats du jour. All a good
citizen has to do is pick one...or both. Then, he can be properly lined up
and enrolled in the crusade - cajoled, connived and conscripted into
fighting a battle in which he is almost sure to be the loser.

Climate change got off on the wrong foot in 1974, when TIME magazine's
cover pronounced the coming of "Another Ice Age," somewhat prematurely, it
turned out. Now, the same TIME magazine is warning us that the old globe
is on the verge of burning up, but no one giggles.

Instead, the media and the activists march along with the serene
confidence of a religious cult, convinced that the world is in imminent
danger and only they can save it. Politicians, corporate do-gooders, and
investors are not far behind...each hoping to get something out of the
whole things. And bringing up the rear guard are the yeomen soldiers...the
poor grunts who will go along with anything, so long as it's sufficiently
idiotic.

Our beat here at The Daily Reckoning is, of course, money...not politics.
But there are billions of dollars at stake in global warming...in
subsidies, tax incentives, contracts, taxes, carbon credits, the whole
shebang. Besides, like any great public spectacle, global warming has its
comedic dividends as well as its financial returns.

Why are rising temperatures a threat, anyway? Practically everyone we know
welcomes warm weather...and looks forward to the mosquito months more than
a white Christmas. You'd think a few more days of sunny skies and outdoor
barbecues would be to their liking.

Today, in Paris, we saw several groups of American tourists - dressed for
summer, with their shorts and flip-flops. How they must wish Europe were
more like Florida and not gray and chilly.

Rising temperatures would be good for tourism, and for more practical
reasons too. Growing seasons would be longer. The well-fed complainers
have fingered carbon dioxide as the culprit, but we know that plants are
fond of CO2. Longer growing seasons plus higher levels of CO2 boost crop
yields, say the experts. And that helps keep people from starving.

Nonetheless, for reasons never fully explained to us, global warming is
viewed not as a boon to humanity but as the dawn of its doomsday.

Mr. Ban Ki Moon, as we mentioned earlier this week, is both the current
Secretary General of the United Nations and a man whose feet seem to have
left Mother Earth. Writing in the IHT, the U.N. man asserts, "the science
is clear. The earth's warming is unequivocal; we humans are its principle
cause." We are always impressed with people like Mr. Moon. As a scholar of
climate change, we suspect his credentials are as good as ours, which is
to say - he has no idea what he is talking about. Most people would hedge
their bets...roll meal around in their mouths...mutter under their
breath...on one hand this, on the other that. But Mr. Moon comes down,
unequivocally, like a hammer on an egg, with a bold, powerful lie.

The science is anything but clear. Even some of the world's greatest
scientists are scratching their heads. The idea of global warming rests on
three major things: A series of observations - melting ice, rising
temperatures in certain places; a guess about how the earth's climate
works - the so-called greenhouse hypothesis; and a proof, of sorts, based
on some further observations that suggest that as CO2 levels have risen
over the last century or so, temperatures have, as well. The hypothesis
further supposes that higher CO2 levels are caused by humans.

But a quick reading of the literature yields more questions than proof.
Atmospheric CO2 concentrations have apparently risen 21% in the last
century. But, during the Depression of the 1930s, when human CO2 emissions
dropped 30%, CO2 in the atmosphere continued to rise. Maybe human activity
really doesn't contribute that much to global CO2 levels. Even during the
Eocene era, there was three to four times as much CO2 in the atmosphere,
and that was 20 million years before the first SUV was built.

One of the great scientists of our time, Freeman Dyson, concludes:

"Concerning the climate models, I know enough of the details to be sure
that they are unreliable. They are full of fudge factors."

Yet, those very same climate models are now read by many as passing
Biblical judgment on the entire planet. "The Big Thaw," proclaims the
cover of this month's National Geographic. The cover shows a photo of a
polar bear on a melting iceberg. The reader thinks the poor animal is
doomed...and guesses that he must be doomed too.

But no problem is so pressing and so monumental that heads of state can't
get together and turn it into a carnival sideshow. Today's International
Herald Tribune carries a photo of George W. Bush, Vladimir Putin and
Angela Merkel sitting together, apparently enjoying a lighthearted moment.
The headline tells us that they are getting close to solving the problem;
the American president has signed on to "consider" cutting carbon-dioxide
emissions.

This is surely a historic moment. Future historians will look back and
label it a turning point. For now, the chief of the world's chief carbon
dioxide-emitting tribe, has taken the first step towards saving the planet
from the evil of warmer weather. The world still has a chance, dear
reader.

Meanwhile, at the grass-roots level, the fight against carbon dioxide
takes on an absurdity of its own. A group was formed recently to campaign
against airline traffic, especially on short-hauls, on the theory that
airplanes use too much fossil fuel and thus leave big "carbon footprints"
all over the skies. The activists made one good decision, deciding to call
themselves "Plane Stupid." From there on, things went into a tailspin.

To draw attention to their cause, the group decided to occupy the London
headquarters of EasyJet. They invaded the building, hung out a banner, and
locked arms around it so that neither customers nor employees could enter.
At that point, someone should have pointed out to the saps that EasyJet's
headquarters were in Luton, not London. The world-improvers had targeted
the headquarters of EasyGroup, which has nothing to do with air travel.

Is global warming worth worrying about? What do we know? But, we wouldn't
be so suspicious if there weren't so many billions of dollars at stake.
Not that we doubt the sincerity of Al Gore or the other earth savers; in
fact, we don't know how the old planet survived so long without them. But
pile up so much bread in one place and it is bound to attract rats.

The most likely remedy is a new tax on carbon-based fuels, designed to
raise prices and discourage users. Who will collect the money?
Politicians. Who will they redistribute it to? The needy and sick? No,
they will tell you that the money will go into wind, sun and sea
energy...into hydrogen and hydroelectric. But neither wind nor water makes
campaign contributions.

No, dear reader, the high-minded money will pass through the usual low,
greasy palms - cronies and contractors, oil companies, honey-tongued
lobbyists, fleet-footed hustlers, and private equity investors. Gradually
and inevitably, the Holy Cause for which the tax was imposed will be as
forgotten as the Bill of Rights and the loot will make its way into the
customary lost causes and holes in the ground, most prominently at the
Pentagon - the biggest gas guzzler this side of Hell.

Regards,

Bill Bonner
The Daily Reckoning