Why Climate Change is a Hoax
I feel very let down when our leaders call climate change a hoax or deny that it is a serious threat to humanity. How can they turn their back on one of the most pressing problems of our time? During my forty year history working as a conservationist and technology professional, the evidence for human induced climate change has increased substantially. Today that evidence is about as solid as it gets in science. The potential negative consequences of taking no policy and individual action are enormous whereas the consequences of taking action are likely to be highly beneficial. From a risk management point of view alone, it seems obvious that we must do whatever we can to mitigate the climate change threat.
As a scientist you are trained to be skeptical and question the validity of your conclusions. So normally I enjoy discussions with skeptics since I almost always learn something new from them. But after years of heated and fruitless arguments with climate change doubters and deniers, I’ve greatly lowered my expectations of trying to persuade them. Instead I focus on enjoying the humor on both sides of the debate while hoping I’ve planted a seed for future change. This keeps me moving forward rather than wallowing in doom and gloom thinking. It also reminds me that it is going to be the climate change believers that will have to do the heavy lifting and problem solving. Many of our leaders and friends will likely never come around, remaining under the influence of the hoaxers. Who is behind the hoax is another story, but here I thought you might enjoy these humorous but surprisingly prevalent and clearly exaggerated arguments supporting the climate change hoax.
Climate change is a hoax promoted by the liberal left
Climate change believers have liberal social values and beliefs. These people are primarily socialists who believe government owes them a living. After saving the planet, they are most interested in bigger government, universal healthcare and legalizing marijuana.
Liberals think they are cool driving electric cars
Liberals want everyone to have an electric car so they can feel justified in purchasing an ugly car with limited range. Liberals really aren’t that interested in preventing climate change and saving future generations. They only care about trendy green gadgets and looking awesome. They love to sneak up on you with their silent ugly car.
Climate change believers are hypocritical
Climate change believers still heat their homes, use air conditioning, and fly in jets. They justify their hypocritical behavior by advocating for costly environmental programs, greener technology and making greener purchasing decision if it’s not too inconvenient.
Climate change believers don’t have faith that God can take care of the planet
God created the Earth for mankind and has always taken care of it. Citing a moral obligation to combat climate change, the Pope is seriously over reaching his authority. After all, the Pope is not a scientist. Why should he weigh in on a political debate having little immediate consequence to his 1.2 billion followers?
Fox News regularly exposes the climate change hoax
This reliable news network has an unblemished fair and balanced standard that liberal news networks lack. On Fox, the 3% of under represented scientist who question climate change will continue to have an equal voice in the debate. Anyone else for that matter should be allowed to weigh in and help balance the lopsided scientific point of view.
Treating climate change as a serious problem will have severe economic consequences
If we switch to more renewable energy, Russia and other fossil fuel rich countries will have an economic advantage over the U.S. by continuing to profit from their carbon rich countries. These governments will also save billions by not having to diversify their economies. Sure the U.S. has great technological talent and leads the world in innovation, but aside from Tesla’s pure luck, what makes us think we could also lead and profit from a renewable energy revolution?
The Paris climate agreement is a global conspiracy to weaken the U.S.
Teaming up with other countries to solve a problem that doesn’t exist can only weaken our dominant economic position in the world. It takes real leadership and strength to go our own way and not follow the herd. Let the other 194 countries that signed the Paris agreement waste their money on renewable energy technology that could prevent a warmer, less habitable planet.
The free market will best solve any problem that may exist due to climate change
Government will only waste money on climate change by distorting free markets. We are blessed with an efficient free market economy based on unfettered supply and demand for goods and resources. We are also fortunate that our fossil fuel industry has a well-funded and unfettered lobbying effort to prevent pesky government interference under the guise of the public good.
Scientists are biased by government funding
Government funds the bulk of scientific research on climate change. If government funding is cut, scientists may be out of a job. Consequently, scientist will promote the research that funds them. Besides how many scientists do you know who are motivated by scientific curiosity rather than money?
When was the last time you cancelled a family picnic due to global warming?
We’ve never had to cancel a barbecue or any activity due to global warming. We haven’t even had to run our air conditioner that much more. We should worry about climate change when it’s too hot to go outside. The scientists who say the problem may take tens of thousands of years to stabilize are more interested in long-term job security.
There is significant uncertainty around the impacts of climate change
We should not take action until we know for certain how bad and where climate change impacts will occur. If our children and grand children ask us why they live in a hotter, more polluted, politically unstable world, we can tell them we would have acted sooner, but the scientist never reached 100% agreement.
Why care about polar bears?
We are tired of letting wildlife limit our economic prosperity. The dramatically shrinking artic ice cap is a myth perpetrated by bleeding heart liberals who want to save polar bears even though they’ve never seen one. I’ll be just fine if I never see another picture of a stranded polar bear, melting ice cap or receding glacier. Let’s focus on the good things climate change can do for us like new shipping lanes and new opportunities to drill for oil.
The instruments that measure climate change and carbon dioxide are in really bad places
One of the longest running climate change instruments is on Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano and is maintained by scientists from the most liberal State in the U.S. and the alleged birthplace of Barack Obama. Of course the instrument measured the highest CO2 levels in 3 million years — it sits on one of the world’s most active volcanoes spewing out CO2 like crazy.
My point here is simply to laugh a little at ourselves and encourage all of us to take more action and individual responsibility for climate change. For actions you can take to reduce the threat of climate change please read this.
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