Many of us recall the old folktale, “Chicken Little”, a story about a cluck who believed the sky was falling because she was hit on the head by a falling acorn. The value of these tales is to point out that similar individuals walk among us. They are the adherents of Al Gore’s fable called anthropogenic global warming. Scientific data continues to show that whatever warming is happening (an uncertainty, at best), it is from natural causes related to sun activity and other phenomena which have occurred over eons of time. Fossil fuel combustion by humans has no significant role in the planet’s climate.
We hear that a two week period of high temperatures has convinced a local person that we must take action immediately and support President Obama’s CAP legislation to avert a catastrophe being caused by coal-fired power plants. Of course, this week, local temperatures are significantly below historical norms so the panic may well be premature.
In Chicken Little’s case, no damage was done other than her peers calling her a fool. In the case of anthropogenic warming, the economic price to be paid by acting on such foolishness is monumental and ineffective in any case. Enacting strict measures to reduce U.S, CO2 emissions to even pre-industrial levels would have negligible impact on total worldwide emissions because of those emanating from China, India and other developing economies. However, the impact on the U.S. economy would be tragic.
It is telling that some among us can be so swayed by the flimsiest of evidence when it comes to political matters. Unfortunately the results often show up at the ballot box as well.