Lane 3

Views of an Anthropogenic Global Warming Skeptic

Does Climategate a) reinforce your previously held beliefs, b) spark your curiosity, or c) cause you to put another brick in the wall protecting a sacred cow?

Does AGW exist to an extent to cause catastrophic problems? What contributes to my skepticism is that politicians are so hell-bent on imposing “cap and trade” and that AGW is its raison d’etre. What is cap and trade, you ask?

Cap: The government tells an emitter, say a utility company, that it must limit its release of greenhouse gases.

Trade: Because particular utilities cannot stay within the government mandated emission limits they must purchase “carbon credits” to “offset” their release.

Do you get that? The polluters still pollute – they just have to buy the right to do so!

When the utility company’s costs rise due to having to buy the carbon credits it will pass these cost on to the consumer through a higher utility bill. In a nutshell, the government would be imposing a regressive tax - a tax that hits the poor and middle class the hardest. As an aside, it is seemingly ironic that it is the conservatives fighting for the lowly consumer and liberals are the ones who are trying to increase their costs.

There is a ton of money to be made if AGW is believed to exist – by the entities originating carbon credits, the exchanges trading these credits, the companies that would audit the utilities, etc.

So, getting back to Climategate, when confronted with knowledge of motive and opportunity is it unreasonable to be skeptical of the means being employed?