Rusted Sky

I tend to believe global warming is real. As readers of this blog know, I've looked at a lot of the science behind it, and am pretty well convinced by Ruddiman's article that it's real, and it's been going on since the beginning of human agriculture. And given the cyclical nature of climate change, it's managed to stall off a significant cooling trend that would leave Canada in the grip of glaciers.

So when Al Gore comes in like a prophet, insisting that we must change how we're doing things, but refuses to take a pledge to cut his own energy use, that just doesn't cut it. He's attempting to turn the entire subject of global warming into a religion, complete with indulgences, that HE is the high priest of with the implication that he is infallible and cannot be questioned. You must accept that Global Warming is real, that Al Gore is the only person with a clue on what to do, and you must do what he says or we're all gonna die.

My Way News - Gore Implores Congress to Save Planet

Fresh off a triumphant Academy Awards appearance in which his climate change documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" won two Oscars, Gore drew overflow crowds as he testified before House and Senate panels about a "true planetary emergency" if Congress fails to act. He said addressing the problem is a moral issue and should not be a partisan or political.
But Gore faced a more skeptical reception than the warm embrace he received from Hollywood as Republicans questioned the science behind his testimony.

"You're not just off a little, you're totally wrong," said Texas Rep. Joe Barton, the leading Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, as he challenged Gore's conclusion that carbon dioxide emissions cause rising global temperatures. Barton and Gore's exchange grew testy at one point - Barton demanding that Gore get to the point and Gore responding that he would like time to answer without being interrupted.

"Global warming science is uneven and evolving," Barton said.

Gore insisted that the link is beyond dispute and is the source of broad agreement in the scientific community.

Perhaps a poor choice of words? Trying to save the planet? A true planetary emergency? Somehow, I wouldn't cast Gore into the role of humanity's savior on this issue, primarily because I wouldn't trust the man as far as I could throw him.

It doesn't help when he comes up with stuff like this...

Gore advised lawmakers to cut carbon dioxide and other warming gases 90 percent by 2050 to avoid a crisis. Doing that, he said, will require a ban on any new coal-burning power plants - a major source of industrial carbon dioxide - that lack state-of-the-art controls to capture the gases.

He said he foresees a revolution in small-scale electricity producers for replacing coal, likening the development to what the Internet has done for the exchange of information.

"There is a sense of hope in this country that this United States Congress will rise to the occasion and present meaningful solutions to this crisis," Gore said. "Our world faces a true planetary emergency. I know the phrase sounds shrill, and I know it's a challenge to the moral imagination."

I wonder if he'd force the same controls onto China or other developing countries?

A WARMING WORLD / China about to pass U.S. as world's top generator of greenhouse gases

Far more than previously acknowledged, the battle against global warming will be won or lost in China, even more so than in the West, new data show.

A report released last week by Beijing authorities indicated that as its economy continues to expand at a red-hot pace, China is highly likely to overtake the United States this year or in 2008 as the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

This information, along with data from the International Energy Agency, the Paris-based alliance of oil importing nations, also revealed that China's greenhouse gas emissions have recently been growing by a total amount much greater than that of all industrialized nations put together.

It also doesn't help that Al Gore cofounded a company that sells carbon offsets - which he promotes as a way to atone for your carbon-using sins.

Trading and or purchasing carbon offsets is an emerging business, and CNSNews is also pursuing an investigative story into whether Gore or his company are making money from these offsets. It’s quite possible, for example, that GIM’s offsets actually produce financial benefits for the Gores either through tax deductions or even business profits.

A Gore spokesman refused to shed light on the personal net financial impacts to Gore, instead telling CNSNews that Mr. Gore, "as a private citizen, does not release his private income.”

So, the high priest of Global Warming can ease his conscience by writing himself indulgences for energy use. And by selling them to others, can make a tidy profit on the side. After all, just because he's doing good doesn't mean he can't do well, right?

Today in Investor's Business Daily stock analysis and business news

Environmentalism: Gore's carbon footprint may be the size of Godzilla's, but he eases his conscience with 'carbon offsets.' He buys them from himself. And every time someone else buys them, Big Al gets richer.

So is it safe to say that Global Warming has become a religion? It's got a high priest, it cannot be questioned or disagreed with, has practices you must adhere to and sacrifices you must make or be considered a 'heathen', but if you slip in your carbon use you can buy indulgences to allow you to sin without bothering your karma. It promises impending doom (but not immediate, and strangely variable depending on who you talk to) and the chance of salvation.

And Al Gore will gladly sell you a nebulous, unverifiable way to atone for your sinful emissions. Saviour or con man? You decide. Like I said, I think global warming's real. There's also indications that the sun's output is a bit higher than it was, so things are open to interpretation - it's hard to lock down a particular course of action (if there even is one) about what to do about Global Warming.

But I think L. Ron Hubbard coming up with Dianetics was a piker in comparison to the scam Al Gore's running on the world.

Carbon offsets to relieve global warming, sold to you by the guy who is promoting the idea that global warming is a threat and we must act NOW, with no hesitations, no questions, because it's a planetary emergency...

Is it just me, or is there something wrong with this picture?

J.