Rossputin.com: Rational Thinking About Our World

I recently received a mass email from Colorado State Senator Ken Gordon. He's a Democrat who ran for and (luckily for us) lost the race to be Colorado's Secretary of State. Among his many bad ideas included splitting our electoral vote based on the results of the popular vote, a direct attack on the system which our Founders wisely implemented for a reason. In any case, he mentioned that he was considering "legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions". Following is my response to him:

Senator Gordon,

Let me say up front that you and I disagree on pretty much everything other than social issues...I'm basically libertarian, although registered Republican. (I promise to keep it clean, as you ask.)

While I think you're wrong about Iraq, it is at least a debate that can be had honestly.

However, the "greenhouse gas" issue and current global warming hype is one that seems never to be debated honestly by those on the Al Gore side of things. Available science does not justify the massive and immediate costs to society that the anti-development, anti-liberty crowd, posing as environmentalists, want us to accept. And a very big percentage of the new science coming out is disproving old studies which have been used to scare people.

A few points I'd make to you:

* It appears that CO2 levels lag, not lead, temperature changes.
* It seems highly likely that most of the variance in temperature comes from changes in solar activity, not something we can control.
* A very recent study in Greenland showed that even when the earth was MUCH warmer than it is now, the ice sheets there remained much thicker than anticipated, so any sea level rise one might have guessed from melting ice would have been massively overestimated.
* There is no reason to assume that normal cycles of temperature change (or even somewhat abnormal) must be harmful. For example, if you assume warming, clearly, if you are in a very low-lying area near the ocean and sea levels rise, you might have to move. But if you live in Siberia or northern areas of Canada, you may find yourself able to produce much more food for yourself and the rest of the world than you could before, and you may find areas become habitable that previously weren't. Generally, the global warming alarmists completely ignore how adaptable people are...not only people, but animals as well if that's a concern of yours.
* We have been through these scares before, most recently with a global cooling panic in the 70s, and they've always been wrong.
* China has already passed the US as the largest producer of greenhouse gases, and India is coming up fast. Furthermore, there are a lot of sources of greenhouse gases that are not anthropogenic. So even if the US massively cut its human-caused greenhouse gas output, it would make only the tiniest dent in the total atmospheric concentration, almost certainly not enough to make any difference of any sort, and absolutely certainly at an unjustifiable cost to our economy, employment, and standards of living.

Global warming alarmism is a great issue for the left because it can be made very frightening to people who don't read or understand the actual science. It lets the left raise money and win Academy Awards. But it is a farce...unfortunately one with very dangerous consequences to all of us if politicians try to implement laws to deal with the non-problem.

I encourage you in the strongest way to do some serious reading, including reading some global warming skeptics, about the issue before you try to change laws in a way which will make Colorado a far less desirable place to live.

Here are a few articles and resources for you, if you're willing to take the time to do a little reading:

Note, the first link below contains a series of links to a series of articles about "The Deniers". It's quite good reading and should cause you to reconsider the views you currently hold, at least if you still have an open mind about it (which many liberals seem not to.)

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/comment/story.html?id=597d0677-2a05-47b4-b34f-b84068db11f4&k=29751
http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=267750744226033
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,291071,00.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/science/13gore.html?ex=1187582400&en=b774d5bf299a4ec0&ei=5070
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010098

I truly hope you will look at this issue with an open mind, because blinders on this issue can cause more damage to the state and the country than just about any other issue I can think of.

Regards,
Ross K