Climate Change! Climate Change!

The sky is falling! The world is going to end! We're all going to die! Green Party Leader Elizabeth May come and save our poor environmentally challenged hides!

Why? Because Carbon emissions have been rising despite the glorious Kyoto deal that was supposed to fix all our global climate change woes:
"From 2000 to 2005, the growth rate of carbon dioxide emissions was more than 2.5% per year, whereas in the 1990s it was less than 1% per year..."

But how can that be? We were told by our enlightened Liberal overlords that Kyoto was achievable not unrealistic and saner than Public Healthcare. We could meet our Kyoto targets by the deadline by everything they said. And it didn't matter that they were going to magically evaporate their Kyoto reductions by trading carbon credits on a new "Carbon Market" - Free lunches can happen in Liberal land. That's what we were told. That's what we were promised. Can it be that Emperor Kyoto has no clothes?
"'There has been a change in the trend regarding fossil fuel intensity, which is basically the amount of carbon you need to burn for a given unit of wealth,' explained Corinne Le Quere, a Global Carbon Project member who holds posts at the University of East Anglia and the British Antarctic Survey."

But isn't that what Bush, and Harper have talked about reducing for years as an alternative to reducing Carbon emissions on bulk? Ralph Klein in Alberta mused about putting targets for reducing carbon intensity didn't he?

That's ridiculous. The Enviro-Enlightenend like Al Gore couldn't be wrong could they?
"'The other trend is that as oil becomes more expensive, we're seeing a switch from oil burning to charcoal which is more polluting in terms of carbon.'"

'The Project does not have data on precisely where this is happening, but there is anecdotal evidence of increases in charcoal burning in parts of Asia and Africa.'

Anecdotal evidence? I see "anecdotal evidence" of environmental science befuddling everyday but that just be me with my errant unenlightened perspective. Because afterall truth is only relative if it supports a particular world view that's best expoused by people in big Cities and yuppy lifestyles. Good. My blinders are back on firmly.
"'At these rates, it certainly sounds like we'll end up towards the high end of the emission scenarios considered by the IPCC,' commented Myles Allen from Oxford University, one of Britain's leading climate modellers."

"The 'high end' of IPCC projections implies a rise in global temperature approaching 5.8C between 1990 and the end of this century. "

Time to get that ground shelter built and start buying rations. We're all going to die folks. Time to take our cash out of the family bank and start cultivating tofu in the bathtub.

Of course there have been times in earth's history when the climate was a few degrees warmer than today, but let's forget about that and drink our environmental Koolaid.
"At the recent United Nations climate summit in Nairobi, a number of delegations, including those of Britain, Australia and the US, pointed out that they had managed to grow their economies without significant increases in carbon emissions."

"But, said Corinne Le Quere, the latest data showed this approach would not be enough to curb emissions in the future."
What's this? The US and Australia - the climate devils - managed to grow their economies without significant increases in carbon emissions? You're telling me that two non-Kyoto countries did better than Enviro-saint Pro-Kyoto countries?

The world has been turned upside down.

3 comments:

  1. Here in Florida we've had ZERO hurricanes this year. And I thought they were supposed to increase in frequency and intensity! How strange...

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  2. Anonymous3:52 PM

    For me, the precautionary principle is the issue. Say you are wrong, and the evidence of non-linear human impact on climate change is bang on: Aren't you going to feel a little sheepish explaining to your grandchildren just why you thought it would be okay to conduct such a large-scale experiment on *their* planet???? Reality doesn't care about our opinions - not even yours or mine! We shall see soon enough...

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  3. "Reality doesn't care about our opinions - not even yours or mine! We shall see soon enough..."

    Fair enough. And if in 40 years time you sit down with your grandchildren and hear them talking about "global cooling" you'll look back on this time and feel a little sheepish yourself wouldn't you?

    Truth is truth. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But based on what I can see, the environmental community is drastically overstating the climate change we have ahead of us. I might be wrong, but that's my opinion.

    "...the precautionary principle..." is certainly a valid argument. Discretion though should be used though in it's application. The principle of making decisions based primarily on caution could justify any number of things that are harmful.

    In the end none of it matters though. As I've been trying to point out the targets from Kyoto have not been met - by signatories of Kyoto no less. There was a lack of a sense of reality when the Kyoto treaty was first signed by Canada and other countries in my opinion. We expected to continue emitting CO2 without end. All we had to do was to fund some commercials and get credit for clean energy we already exported.

    There Aint No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Carbon emissions are up. If were serious about cutting emissions, it's going to require some pain. If not we should at the very least be honest about our intentions - which I think was to mainly appease environmentalists but not really believing them in the first place.

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