Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The problem is so big, and elected governments are so unreliable…
‘A kind of dark realism’: Why the climate change problem is starting to look too big to solve
By Steven Mufson
Updated 05 Dec 2018 — 2:03 PM,
first published at 11:26 AMIn the daunting maths of climate action, individual choices and government policies aren’t adding up.
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But effective policy is lacking. Nordhaus advocates a whopping carbon tax, which the Climate Interactive model shows would kill off most coal, sharply reduce driving and boost purchases of more fuel-efficient vehicles.
No appetite
Getting such a carbon tax adopted in the US, however, is hard to imagine. Washington state voters in November rejected a $US15-per-tonne carbon “fee” after Big Oil companies poured more than $US31 million into the state to block the measure. BP, which had endorsed a $US40-per-tonne nationwide tax, gave the most to defeat the bill.
Congress hasn’t shown any appetite for a carbon tax, either. A proposal to impose a $US40-per-tonne carbon tax and return the revenue to people in dividends has not caught fire yet.
In France, President Emmanuel Macron has ignited protests by proposing fuel taxes he says are needed to fight climate change. “One cannot be on Monday for the environment,” Macron said, “and on Tuesday against the increase of fuel prices.”
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Lack the authority
That’s partly because international organisations lack the authority to enforce rules on wayward nations. In Poland, several major countries are expected to admit to missing the targets they agreed to at the Paris conference three years ago. One example is Brazil, whose new president Jair Bolsonaro, the “tropical Trump”, has talked about clearing part of the Amazon for roads and development. That would damage the world’s lungs – the trees that absorb carbon dioxide and pump out oxygen at high rates.
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What kind of world would we live in, if the UN had “enforcement” powers?
Imagine Brazil wanted to develop the Amazon, to help lift their suffering people out of poverty A United Nations armed with “enforcement” powers could send an international army to Brazil, to stop Brazilian politicians from “damaging the world’s lungs”.
What if French deplorables objected to climate change fuel taxes? The United Nations would issue an enforcement decree requiring the French government to crush the protests, to ensure the progress of vital policy action to combat global warming.
What if the USA elected a President who opposed United Nations policy? I think you get the idea.
There seems little room for doubt about the kind of world we would live in, if greens like Mufson have their way.
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But there is no climate crisis. Climate change is currently so slow that it takes a network of sophisticated sensors decades to even detect it. Do not mix up true global climate change with weather cycles that are part of the current climate. Extreme weather events are part of the current climate and are not indicative of climate change. Based on the paleoclimate record and the work done with models, one can conclude that the current climate change is caused by the sun and the oceans over which mankind has no control. Despite the hype, there is no real evidence that CO2 has any effect on climate and plenty of scientific rationale to support the idea that the climate sensitivity of CO2 is zero. Even if the UN had all the resources of mankind available to “fight climate change” they would still have no power to stop the Earth’s climate from changing. It is all a matter of science.
I’m reminded of the old joke, “Trust us! We’re from the government and we’re here to help you.”
Where’s the punch line? *WHACK* Oh, there it is… &*#$@ur momisugly!
I am surprised the UN does not organize mass tree plantings.
They cannot collect bribe money from tree plantings. Besides, they would screw that up also.
Bezos is really not very different from Henry Ford, who bought a Detroit newspaper from which to protect his money and promote his bigotry.
Only Bezos is even richer than Ford ever dreamed about, and has much less regard for his workers. Ford, in his early years, was famous for good treatment and high pay for his workers. So even though he was a bigot he cared for America
Bezos is a bigot who despises both his workers and the United States.
His paper, the Amazon Post reeks of its owner’s self seeking oligarchical prejudice and arrogance.
In the not too distant past journalists recognized that having a nation’s decisions controlled by the selfish greed of a guy worth about $80 billion might not be a good thing. Now journalists are just part of if the Amazon Borg.
I just have to shake my head in wonderment at this. To see how effective the UN would be in doing anything to help anyone under any circumstances, please see the amazing film Hotel Rwanda. The UN “peacekeepers” were enjoined from doing anything to prevent the mass slaughter of the Tutsi tribe in Rwanda by political types living comfortably half a world away.
As for what would happen if the UN attempted military action against the US, we would respond the same way Switzerland did: “When the German Kaiser asked in 1912 what the quarter of a million Swiss militiamen would do if invaded by a half million German soldiers, a Swiss replied: shoot twice and go home. (http://davekopel.org/2A/OthWr/Target_Switzerland.htm)” Except in our case, the militia amounts to 90 million people.
The League of Nations. Formed after WW1. It was supposed to prevent another such outbreak by giving the nations a “neutral” forum to air their grievances short of war.
The United Nations. Formed after WW2. It was supposed to prevent another such outbreak by giving the nations a “neutral” forum to air their grievances short of war.
Wars continued during and after the formation of both.
(I read an article from a 1932 article in an magazine about “International News” and the League of Nations. (no mention of Germany) It had to do with the Chinese representative trying call the body’s attention to information he had via a radio message (no internet then) that the Japanese had landed several thousand troops at Shanghai and were moving toward Nanjing.
Then the Japanese representative was quoted as saying that such a thing had never happened.
“The Rape of Nanjing” followed. And worse.
Has the UN done better?
Now the UN wants actual authority over other nations’ laws and constitutions to continue to make nothing good happen?!?! Because of CO2 and a tree ring!?!?!?
LONG past the time the US should send them out of the US. Move their HQ to the Hague. Then quit.
Today is December 7th.
We were caught by surprise once.
Lets not be blind sided again…from within.
“…Congress hasn’t shown any appetite for a carbon tax, either. A proposal to impose a $US40-per-tonne carbon tax and return the revenue to people in dividends has not caught fire yet…”
Either this guy is clueless or hopes readers are.
But how will they know when the great calamity is over? How will they tell when weather extremism has finally been conquered and dispatched from heaven and Earth? And the great war against natural-variability has been finally won, and the Earth converted to a perfectly serene heavenly blue-green marble, where lion doth lay down with the lamb?
Can the UN General Assembly rise to their feet in unison, raise their fingers to heaven like times of old, and simply tell the sky, “Be still”.
Or will they need our extracted precious bodily fluids to help make wallets out of our firstborn’s foreskins, to help stuff our cash into their pockets, before that great and wondrous day cometh, which day arrives like a UN thief-in-the-night, the time of which no man knoweth?
I’m pretty sure it’ll be the later.
The UN put together a peacekeeping force for Rwanda which stood by while the massacres of fellow Rwandan citizens took place. The Dutch stood by in Srebrenica. It was the Us not the UN that stopped that.
the human rights commentariat is staffed by human rights violators. How can Saudi Arabia head a UN Human rights organisation .
the thought of giving them enforcement powers should make our blood run cold. Mind you, I dont think the outcome would be good if they tried enforcement action in the USA. The Russians have never been that stupid.
“We need to institute World Government so we can address Climate Change,” started as “We need to create Climate Change so we can institute World Government.”
BINGO!
The UN could be a positive force if it stuck to its original mandate but like all governments
as long as there is some fool to pay them they just need to grow .
As Steve pointed out , Maurice Strong UN bureaucrat and reformed fossil fuel executive , called for the collapse of industrialized civilisation . Now that’s an organization you would not want to trust
expanding their reach . Collapse civilization and put billions into poverty . Maybe a few big wars to
cull the herd while pretending to set the earths thermostat .
The global warming con game was their virtue signaling taxing authority . Hollow out the middle class
and return to the days of yore where a few rich run the slaves . Oh give them a vote to create the illusion of
democracy but don’t get carried away . Screw up the Universities and own the media . Just all part of the plan .
Trump bought time for normal people to fight back . Bye bye Macron . Trudeau is on deck .
Damn straight Trump bought us time(I’m Canadian)and Macron is the poster child for what’s wrong with the Paris accord….Trudeau said we have to except the CHANGE, translation= get used to less and spend more and deeper the soon to be signed (5 days?)agreement through the UN for full rights for migrants showing up at your borders to be ok’d by Macron, Merkel, Trudeau, etc. OPEN BORDERS!?!>?
When/where was the vote takin on this? Who dreamed this up and who agreed? How many and from where, how much will this cost me? What about the people who have been waiting in line for a year to get here legally? Maybe they should just declare themselves migrants?
Can I just become a migrant to ANY country? !?! Cuzzzzz Canada sucks. Hmmm looking around..!
I remember reading about a climate “scientist” calling for a climate dictator to set things straight. I recall Bill Gates saying we need to get away from representational government to solve this so-called problem. I also recall the Bible talking about an anti-Christ world dictator that will take over the world and begin a time of tribulation. I’m not a Christian but damn it all seems to be falling into place!
It’s the oldest trick in the book to mask fascist plans with utopian lies. And everyone is pretending right along with them, like the Emperor’s New Clothes. Debating the junk climate science is like debating the Emperor’s fashion style, and if no one calls it what it is and soon – A NAKED POWER GRAB – we’ll be marched into a totalitarian system the likes of which the world has never seen before.
Maybe those who attend UN conferences and meetings are just looking to see how they can cash in on the UN global agenda?
Speaking of Trudeau lite , China owns him .
10 to 1 he knew about the arrest of Meng Wanzhou because it was cleared through
his pals ahead of time .
China has a top 100 in Canada who have stolen billions yet Canada doesn’t turn them over . Hmm ?
Marcon and Trudeau are the poster boys for virtue signalers that people have quickly gotten sick of .
Set the earth’s temperature by pretending a trace gas is the control knob ? Now that’s a real denier .
Why does the Pope also want a “world political authority” empowered to “impose sanctions” to protect the environment and regulate migration amount other things? Doesn’t he know that such a world authority would impose all sorts of restrictions on the church if not ban it outright?
From the Encyclical Letter of Pope Francis:
175 “…To manage the global economy; to revive economies hit by the crisis; to avoid any deterioration of the present crisis and the greater imbalances that would result; to bring about integral and timely disarmament, food security and peace; to guarantee the protection of the environment and to regulate migration: for all this, there is urgent need of a true world political authority, as my predecessor Blessed John XXIII indicated some years ago”.