Recently the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization) dressed itself in the robes of high holy science, and portentously announced that the wrath of Gaea was upon us. Other scientists asked for the details of the evidence, but alas, the highly scientific scientists of the CSIRO found themselves sadly unable to provide the evidence.
Or if not Cthulhu, Obama.
When I started writing this, McCain had the the most violently anticapitalist program of any presidential candidate, his cap and trade policy. (more…)
The warmists, confidently believing their own hype, have organized a bunch of tour ships to sail the northwest passage. Sadly, Watts Up With that reports the Northwest Passage is totally impassable. Last year a warmist tour to see the supposedly ice free lands of Antarctica got crushed between two icebergs. (They were all rescued, but the ship sunk)
In 1988 the warmists issued their first prophecy of doom. Repent of your sins against Gaia, abandon the industrial civilization that allows us to feed far too many people, or the wrath of Gaia will manifest in massive global warming, with the wrath setting in around the year 2000. (more…)
The energy crisis happened because of optimistic projections – that gas to liquid and coal to liquid would not be needed until the technology had been improved and the cost brought down, that the dramatic growth in China and India could be accommodated by rapidly expanding conventional oil production. (more…)
It seems that Arnold Kling has been in Afghan cave during the past six months. He does not seem to think that there has been any bad news on oil supply over the last six months.
The recent run-up in oil prices represents a similar puzzle. I think that it’s difficult to tell a story for the rise in crude prices for the last six months that is based on the rational digestion of news. Either six months ago folks were overly optimistic about long-term supply and demand conditions or now they are overly pessimistic about those conditions. I don’t think that what changed in the last six months was the news about supply and demand.
I have been watching the news, and over the past few months it has been quite horrifying, particular with the Democrats and both major party presidential candidates shooting down Shell’s plan to develop shale oil, which pretty much guarantees extraordinarily high oil prices for at least the next two decades. Indeed, the political majority in most of the developed world seem to intend to block all carbon extraction.
The measure of scientific theories is prediction, and in a sense global warming is remarkably successful. No matter what happens, sun or snow, global warming predicts it! (more…)
Cruise ships are sailing to the antarctic, passengers and crew imagining the ice to be melting. One ran into a glacier and had a change of plans. Another was caught between two icebergs, and sunk.
In the coming arctic summer, we shall see a bunch of cruise ships attempting to pass what they expect to be the Northwest passage. I suspect that this may turn out to be entertaining. (more…)
This is a graph of the global temperature anomaly published from satellite data
To smooth the graph I take the rolling twelve month average – thus the temperature shown on the graph for 2008 January is actually the average from 2007 February to 2008 January.
The presidents that have done the most to smash capitalism have never been Democrats, because anti capitalist Democrat presidents have always found themselves paralyzed by gridlock – the pro capitalist faction unites along party lines, and the federal government system locks up, as it was designed to do. The founding fathers intentionally constructed the federal government so that it would be slow and inefficient at making large controversial changes.
The greatest catastrophes for capitalism have come from the anticapitalist Republican presidents, Nixon and Hoover, because they could get “bipartisan” anticapitalist measures through congress.
Environmentalists have always intended global warming as a justification installing a socialist command and control economy. McCain has just unveiled a global warming plan, theoretically market based, but in fact not in the slightest market based, a command and control plan which is the socialists wet dream. He calls it market based, but this merely means that bureaucrats will be able to blame markets for the chaos they create. The only role of the market in the plan is to be the guy that takes the fall. As Brutally Honest says, McCaine has drunk the koolaide
Maybe Obama is just as anti capitalist, or even more anti capitalist than McCain, but if he is, he will face gridlock.