March 12, 2007

C-PAC: Global Warming Mourning

While at C-PAC, we sat in on a panel discussion regarding Global Warming and its portrayal in the media. This panel was made all the more relevant by the recent Academy Awards presentation, in which Hollywood fell head-over-heels for Al Gore and the "we're all gonna die" hysteria.

The first panelist was Chris Horner, author of "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming." He spent most of his time talking about the Kyoto Treaty, which would force the United States to spend hundreds of billions annually to reduce its emissions.

Just before Horner spoke, Senator Inhofe stated that agreeing to Kyoto would cost the United States "$300 billion annually... and a family of four $2,700 per year." It would become the largest tax increase in the history of the United States, and yet would do little to save the environment.

Horner tied these remarks into his own presentation, where he states that America had actually already signed the Kyoto Treaty. I actually didn't know this--and really, you would never know this if you listened to what people in the entertainment and media industries were saying. The treaty was actually signed by Vice President Al Gore back in 1998, despite a vote in the Senate 95-0 against signing Kyoto. So, if we have already signed the Kyoto Treaty, why are people blaming Bush for not signing it? Horner is as baffled as I am.


"America only signs treaties once," he said. This is very true. Horner said that attacking Bush for not signing Kyoto is like attacking him for not signing the Treaty of Versailles. We don't need to keep signing these things... especially when they are as ineffective as the Kyoto Treaty.

Horner made sure to point out that America isn't "going it alone" on this one, either, despite what the Left may say. Yes, we signed it, but only symbolicly. We haven't actually ratified it--but we surely aren't the only ones. He said that there are 155 other countries that have also not ratified or signed the treaty. And to think, I was being misled by believing what "Futurama" and the Beastie Boys were telling me about America's involvement with Kyoto... for shame!

Dan Gainor, of the Media Research Center, followed Horner. His presentation was more of an examination on the mainstream media's portrayal of global warming. He made sure to include a healthy amount of video clips of news anchors and weathermen telling us that "something is terribly wrong" with the weather.

"Good weather isn't the end of the world," Gainor said, "It's just the end to good journalism."

Posted by MikeRubino at March 12, 2007 7:41 PM

Comments

I recently read the Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming. First, in the interests of honest authorship, I should say that I believe that climate change is occurring. In fact, evidence seems to indicate that it is slowly accelerating (my blog source: realclimate.org). Yet where I part company with the left almost immediately is on the primary causes of climate change. Second, I agree with Chris Horner that we are starting down the slippery slope of spending millions of dollars on an issue which needs more study. Whether we implemented Kyoto or not makes little difference. If the earth is undergoing a natural change in weather patterns combined with increased Co2 emissions from the time of the Industrial Revolution going forward, we can do little to stop the inevitable warming. Third, if there is indeed climate change at work, we need to concentrate on adaptation to the new environment (whatever that new world will be like) and avoid turning it into a political football. That serves no useful purpose. As Mike points out, the media and entertainment industries are subjecting us to a lot of unmerited hype....There are people in government with legitimate concerns--the President mentioned climate change in his recent state of the union speech--but good science can't and shouldn't be done in front of a video camera. Let's all take a breath. For this reason, I'm thrilled to read books like the "Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming", because it helps us gain perspective and thoughtfully consider the evidence for ourselves, not the Hollywood Hype.

Posted by: e. glicker at March 30, 2007 2:42 AM