Firstly, apologies for this *rant* being somewhat out of sync. I may or may not edit it later.
So, I've read the arguments, for and against, and I prefer to call myself a climate agnostic, rather than a denier. Reason being is that I'm just not sure what to believe. Plus, I don't like the word denier because elitist snobs tend to use it on those who don't agree with them ie: politicians. Because there is no middle ground, and you're either one or the other, I have chosen to be the other.
It wasn't that long ago that I was a paying, marching member of greenpeace. And it wasn't that long ago when I would always vote one particular way, no matter who the candidate or what their policy was. Since then, my eyes have opened, and while I still have the ability to think for myself, I will.
In the recent global warming debacle, I have tended to take the one side (denier), while still looking at the info, statistics, and sometime Scary propaganda from the other side (warmists). Some makes sense, and some makes no sense. The scary stuff tends to make me go the other way because I don't like being preached to. Both have made me think hard about all this. Climategate only gave me an entry into something I might otherwise not have noticed.
For years, I have kept my lights off (I just went around the house and turned off 4 lights, 1 tv, 1 microwave and a computer that the kids had left on - they'll never learn no matter how often they are told). I conformed to those funky light globes because I was given no choice, even though they might not be as energy efficient as we were led to believe. I don't use an electric heater in winter, and only light the fire when blankets just aren't warm enough. I have done this for years, even before all this Copenhagen stuff took center stage and long before Al Gore sent everyone into a panic with that film (which I still haven't seen and don't plan to).
I'm a sole parent of four, through no choice of my own, working full time in a somewhat crap job, and getting not much more than minimum wage. My bills however, are the same as those earning a whole lot more than me, and pocket change to those in the ivory towers, with chauffer driven limousines, jetting about all over the world to "chat" with others in similar ivory towers. The ones who make the decisions. I don't own a house. I pay exhorbitant rent for little more than a shack, and I drive a shit car from the mid 90's. But even though I don't have a lot, I have a lot more than some people, in other places in the world, and for that I am grateful. I hate to think that others are living a less than pleasant life.
However, I am against the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)/Cap & Trade/Call it what you will. I think it will destroy what we have known so far.
I can't see how we must pay money to "developing" countries who are so highly polluted, due to a
per capita deal. 1.3 billion of them. 20 million of us (in Australia) I can't remember the last time I purchased something that wasn't made in, used something from, imported from, or owned by China. Our jobs have gone to them. Our businesses have gone to them. Our call centres and IT jobs have gone to India. This country owns nothing anymore. It's all offshore. How is it fair that we pay them, when they own so much of us already?
And didn't we, and other countries, just borrow a crapload of cash from China to fund the economic landslide of the global financial crisis?
Who the hell is going to pay it all back? WE are the poor people now, 10 times over. Look at our already crippling national debt, and it's only going to get worse.
So who pays?Enter ETS/C&T/Etc. We joked for years about how "
some day the bastards would find a way to tax the air we breathe". Well, they have, and we'll be paying out our arses for it.
What our government here has done, is give carbon credits to those major polluters, LOTS of credits, some lasting 10 years, to compensate them for the "inconvenience". What this means is that they are going to continue to pollute, and while they pander about coming up with ways to fix things, WE will be paying more for our energy costs, our air fares, our food, AND paying those countries I mentioned before.
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- It's all a massive hypocrisy. Our mines have to buy the credits. China buys the coal from us, pollutes the crap out of their air, and we pay them compensation.
- We export uranium to China. They do "god knows what" with it, and we pay them compensation. (massive hypocrisy and don't get me started on my fears for that one)
- We import all the crap el-cheapo toys, food, appliances from China, giving them money, jobs and MORE compensation because we will have to pay tariffs on all imports due to shipping and aviation pollution.
OK, this is getting to be an anti-China rant. My apologies, but you get my drift here.
Just to take the heat off China for a minute, will we be forced to pay compensation every time an Indian call centre phones at dinner time or we need to call the bank?
We are supposedly one of the worlds largest polluters, because we are spread out so far in such a huge country. Per capita, our electricity stations spew more crap into the air than those with 160+ people per sq km. Yet when I go outside, I can see for miles, through smog free air. I can see the stars at night. I can see to the bottom of the nice clean rivers. I can swim at unpolluted beaches. I love warm summer days and cold winter nights. I don't want that to change, and it won't, but
do they seriously think we believe it's because we're paying a tax?Some things that I just can't understand.....
They want us to buy hybrid cars, which save on petrol/gas. Um, this may sound dumb, but don't you have to plug those hybrid cars into the ELECTRICITY to recharge them overnight? Doesn't take an idiot to see the stupidity there. Buy the car, plug it in, pay MORE for your energy bill, and make us help the energy producers pay compensation to China. What about natural gas? Isn't there an abundance of it just about everywhere? Why aren't we using more of that?
Celebrities and politicians are travelling the world spewing the global warming message/hysteria, leaving their 40 room mansions to tell the public how bad pollution is, and how to fix it. Fair enough. Did they swim to all those foreign lands? Of course not. The hypocrites FLEW. In those massive carbon emitting jumbo jets. So, while they do this, WE have to pay compensation to China, while they (and their entourages) fly first class and get chaufferred from place to place.
Do the calculations, and see just how many trees it will take to filter out all the hot air and emissions from this conference. The numbers are disgusting. And while we pay our hard earned cash to countries who already get all our hard earned cash, the powers that be sit back in their ivory towers and congratulate each other for saving the planet.
What the fuck?
It just doesn't make sense.
confused
cynical
amused