Warming Debate in Senate

Marc Sheppard at The American Thinker takes a look at the "Great Debate" over climate change and actually goes so far as to examine the evidence, which is a lot more than our Congresscritters have apparently done. While the vote went against the socialist greens, the arguments against the climate bill were couched not in scientific terms, but economic. Sheppard I think argues it should have been both.

"Don't get me wrong -- the fiscal arguments against the bill's draconian business regulations were inexorable -- its massive consequent spike in energy costs would be nothing short of ruinous to the nation. An April EPA analysis of the bill estimated a 53 cents per gallon increase in the price of gasoline and a 44% jump in electricity costs by 2030 should it become law. Even those figures precariously assumed a 150% increase in nuclear and "significant use of biomass" for electricity generation; otherwise costs will be "significantly higher." Add a projected net loss of almost a trillion dollars in GDP by that very same year and this blatantly socialistic power-grab attempt deserved the pauper's funeral it received on financial grounds alone. That's without even considering that there's no proof whatsoever that the actions of mankind can influence global temperatures even one degree Celsius in either direction."

Sheppard also points out that even Kyoto treaty signatories such as the UK, Japan, Russia, Italy and France haven't even come close to making their targeted reductions. The US increased its carbon emissions only 6.57%, while France, which generates a majority of its energy from carbon friendly nuclear power, just barely beat that figure with an increase of 6.21%. The global average increase was just over 18%, with Russia and Itlay over 15%, and Japan over 10%.

Despite the failure of Kyoto and the increase in global carbon emissions, the predicted planetary catastrophe just isn't happening, in fact, the world average temperature is cooling, not warming, and has been since 2002. In fact the temperature reductions from the last 5 years alone have countered all of the recorded warming from the last 100 years. Further, the JPL is predicting that a shift in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation will bring a colling trend for the next 20-30 years.

You'd like to think the new data would ahve an impact, but the hysteria continues.