Courtesy of the indispensable Al Fin, we're directed to an article on Climatequotes which examines the amounts being spent by the US Government in 2011 on climate change research. They're quite staggering.
That amounts to almost $2.5 billion. Yes, billion, with a B.
Given the monumental fraud, featherbedding and waste involved in the whole field of climate change research, and the size of our national deficit, which is slowly but surely strangling any hope this country has for future prosperity (not to mention our children's future), is there any good reason to spend a single penny of that sum? If you can think of one, you're more creative than I am!
I can't for the life of me see how it's anything but more wasted money . . . at a time when we have none to spare. However, if you think that our political leaders will do anything to stop it, I have this bridge in Brooklyn, NYC I'd like to sell you. Cash only, please, and in small bills.
Politicians! Bureaucrats! Anthropogenic climate change proponents! Grrr! A pox on the lot of 'em!
Peter
It's a jobs program at this point.
ReplyDeleteI'd say the money is being spent because it isn't a fraud. I'm sure there's some featherbedding and some waste--same with any government program, anywhere, about anything--but the science is there, and it's solid. (To be clear, the overwhelming majority of scientists firmly believe that global warming is real; the debate is only over a] how much of it is anthropogenic, and b] what we should do about it.)
ReplyDeleteA few links for you--which I hope you'll read, as I know you pride yourself on being well-informed, skeptical, but not a denier:
Daryl Cunningham Investigates: Climate Change
Profiles in Republican Courage #1: Bob Inglis’ Swan Song [Lame duck congressman Bob Inglis (R-SC) speaks on the record about climate change]
Science the GOP can't wish away [I call on my fellow Republicans to open their minds to rethinking what has largely become our party's line: denying that climate change and global warming are occurring and that they are largely due to human activities.]
The Real Story of Climategate
Carbon dioxide outburst spurred warming 40 million years ago [A sharp rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide 40 million years ago increased South Pacific sea surface temperatures roughly 5 to 11 degrees, report climate scientists.]
Climate change: How do we know? [NASA: The Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat, with the abrupt end of the last ice age about 7,000 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era — and of human civilization. Most of these changes are attributed to very small changes in the Earth’s orbit changing the amount of solar energy the Earth receives.
"Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal."
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The current warming trend is of particular significance because most of it is very likely human-induced and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented in the past 1,300 years.1
Earth-orbiting satellites and other technological advances have enabled scientists to see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate on a global scale. Studying these climate data collected over many years reveal the signals of a changing climate.
Certain facts about Earth's climate are not in dispute:]
Hmmm, $2.5 Billion dollars at stake? It couldn't be that supporting the Global Warming theory is providing paychecks to a lot of people, especially scientists?
ReplyDelete