N/A Snowmen turn to a life of crime because of the effects of Global Warming on their snow supply. image:39387:5::0

"In an insane world, the sane man must appear insane." - Lt. Commander Spock, USS Enterprise

The earth is burning up.

The planet has a fever.

Doomsday is nigh, and woe is us unless we act.

And if you don't think we should act and act fast, you must be insane.

The problem now seems to be that if we do act, according to the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, woe is us anyway, because the prices of everything will be insane.

And you know the funniest thing about it all?

It doesn't lower pollution one bit, because whatever 'green' credits are generated will be bought up by overpolluting companies. Like, say, oil, electric and natural gas industries.

And we'll all be paying for it big time, because we always do.

Charles Ponzi must be laughing in his grave.

The latest, from Senator James Inhofe, the Ranking Member of the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee, had the following to say on the Great Green Boondoggle:

“The latest version is nothing more than window dressing for a bill that has been exposed by numerous government and private analyses as costly and damaging to America,” Senator Inhofe said.

“Lieberman-Warner will redistribute over $5.6 trillion from American consumers to pet congressional projects. Despite paying for the trillions of dollars mandated by this cap-and-trade scheme, American families and workers will only receive back $800 billion in consumer tax relief -- $7 paid for every $1 returned.

“The fact is that the Lieberman-Warner bill is the largest pork bill ever considered by Congress. No matter how many revisions this bill undergoes, it remains a massive redistribution of wealth, the largest new tax and spend program in our Nation's history.

The handouts being offered by the sponsors of this bill come straight from the pocket of families and workers in the form of higher gas, power, and heating bills. The newly revised Lieberman-Warner bill offers nothing new except more pain at the gas pump and more expensive consumer goods.”

Here's a breakdown on the Act by GovTrack.us.

So if American companies like the coal, gas and electric industries are paying out those kind of bucks on cap-and-trade schemes, who do the bucks always get passed to?

Also, if companies can still overpollute by buying up all the credits other companies generate, where is the pollution reduced?

In other words, where is all the Global Cooling in this Hoax To End All Hoaxes?

Fortunately, President George Bush has promised to veto the bill. And I don't include the words Fortunately and George Bush in very many sentences.

But there's always next year. And every candidate running for president is for it.

Fact is, the UN already has a head start on Lieberman-Warner, and it's already costing us billions in wasted dollars.

Maybe a portent of things to come here in America?

Billions of pounds are being wasted in paying industries in developing countries to reduce climate change emissions, according to two analyses of the UN’s carbon offsetting programme.

Leading academics and watchdog groups allege that the UN’s main offset fund is being routinely abused by chemical, wind, gas and hydro companies who are claiming emission reduction credits for projects that should not qualify.

The result is that no genuine pollution cuts are being made, undermining assurances by the UK government and others that carbon markets are dramatically reducing greenhouse gases, the researchers say.

The criticism centres on the UN’s clean development mechanism (CDM), an international system established by the Kyoto process that allows rich countries to meet emissions targets by funding clean energy projects in developing nations.

Credits from the project are being bought by European companies and governments who are unable to meet their carbon reduction targets.

The market for CDM credits is growing fast. At present it is worth nearly $20bn a year, but this is expected to grow to over $100bn within four years. More than 1,000 projects have so far been approved, and 2,000 more are making their way through the process.

There have been a lot of other popular green measures as well that could cost in more ways than just money.

Say, mercury-laced 'green' fluorescent light bulbs.

They may be green, but don't break one around your kids or they're sure to be.

And there is already charging for disposal and special handling fees for these greenest of green light bulbs.

Kids sick? Got the flu? Need to turn up the thermostat?

Great. No problem. Just call your local friendly Thermostat Regulation Office and see if you can beg them to turn up the heat because you're kids are dying.

Don't expect a whole lot of sympathy. Your kids may be burning up, but so is the earth. Priorities are priorities.

Let's not forget how that whole biofuels thing is working out.

Or that biofuels have environmental problems of their own.

The real questions you have to ask yourself are these:

Just how sure are experts who can't even predict the weather that the earth is in fact burning up?

How much do those who call GW skeptics 'paid tools of Big Oil' and 'deniers on the order of the Holocaust' have to gain financially, or power-wise as petty tyrants in new 'green' bureaucracies?

Lastly, and most important, how much more are YOU willing to pay personally in taxes, higher prices on everything and potentially the most intrusive government regulations in American history for what can fairly be called a populist scientific theory at best?

This matter has hardly been settled in my mind.

Certainly not to the point of enacting draconian bills like Lieberman-Warner and all that is sure to follow in 'green' taxes, and stifling and intrusive laws and regulations like blackouts, energy rationing and 'green' bulb HAZMAT disposal fees.

You ready for all that?

It's coming, you know.

And once the foot's in the door, that's all, folks.

You won't be working for yourself anymore.

When somebody can present me evidence comparable to the Table of Elements or the Laws of Physics that the earth is indeed ready to burst into flame, then maybe I'll believe them.

Until then, I'm going to be of the opinion that it has a lot more to do with money and absolute power than it has to do with the planet having a fever.

Call me cynical.

Or even insane.

But I've got a lot of professional company. And not all of them work for Big Oil.

And we're not the ones running around like crazed Chicken Littles shouting Doomsday is Nigh conspiracy theories without any real substantial proof, or empirical evidence that doesn't keep changing.

Who you gonna believe?

And what are you willing to pay?

That is the question of the day.

And, perhaps, for the foreseeable future.

Last question.

When do we stop paying?

When do we know the earth is cool again?

Short answer: Never.

Who can know such a thing?

Best to just keep paying up to keep Doomsday off our doorsteps, right?

Mankind's future depends on it.