Polls and Polar Bears

The funny thing about this poll is how little Americans actually understand the science behind global warming. Most Americans simply listen to their elected leaders (very few of whom actually understand the science either) when they say that we must act now to save the planet and the polar bears.

I’ll let you in on a little secret — polar bears are mean animals who, if given the chance, will rip your arms off and eat you for lunch. Politicians across the globe have been waving their hands in the air suggesting that climate change (global warming) is the biggest threat facing the earth and polar bears. To combat this threat they’ve agreed to spend trillions of dollars of your money and for what? Do those 97% of scientists think that our politicians can stop climate change? Nope.

Would it surprise you to know that 97% of scientists have concluded that if the human race stopped using ALL fossil fuels over the next ten years the total impact over the next 100 years would be 0.137 degree Celsius?

Clearly, humans DO impact the climate — but in such small ways, even fundamental changes in our societies are barely measurable on a global scale. Worse yet? Scientists aren’t able to predict what the climate is going to look like over the next 100 years — it could be about the same, cooler, warmer, or much warmer — they don’t know. The only thing they can agree on is that we have very little control over the climate — about 10% of a degree to be specific.

What do we get for that .137 degree in temperature reduction? Upside? Without knowing how warm the planet is going to get we can’t know if a tenth of a degree would matter. Downside? The impacts of eliminating fossil fuels would be massive. Start with employment. Millions of jobs (direct and indirect) would be lost. Sure, we’d gain some jobs, but certainly not the sort of jobs that the fossil fuel industry provides in this country. You might be surprised that much of our fossil fuels are used to make almost everything we consume — plastic, rubber, chemicals, aspirin, toothpaste, sunglasses, shoes, tires, carpet, and tennis balls (you better stock up). Maybe we’d be better off without that stuff — I don’t know. The world would look very different without inexpensive and efficient fossil fuels.

Politicians, in their effort to distract you have applied an age old slight-of-hand technique — find a villain: climate change deniers. While there isn’t a monolithic group of climate change deniers — they lump anyone, not on board with their climate tax/control plans as a ‘denier’. Sitting here in Dallas with 100-degree temperatures it isn’t hard to believe that the earth is getting warmer (and yes I know you can’t feel global warming, it’s a joke). I’m just a pragmatist. Instead of spending trillions of dollars to try to reduce global warming we would be far better off using that money to make this world more habitable for more people regardless of the temperature. Fossil fuels aren’t going anywhere — our use is going to go up from now on — taxing the middle class of the globe to stop something we can’t stop is theft.

At the end of the day, the polar bears are worth saving simply because they are honest in their desire to eat you — the politicians? Not so much…