Global Warming Debate

[RAGNAR]

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[RAGNAR]

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[Boasun]

The reason we are having global warming is because all of those who support such a supposition are debating and yelling about it. Thus all of that hot air coming out of their mouths is warming up our atmosphere, ergo we have global warming.
Now if we could get them to shut up and keep their mouths closed then the earth will cool off and then there would be nothing to worry about.

[sailaway21]

This article speculates, only half jokingly, that if we return to the nominal existence of the average college student we could, well, it wouldn't do much but we'd feel, well, cold anyway. Enjoy.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q...U2ZGMyNTNkMGM=

[sailaway21]

The humbug on alternative fuels is slowly emerging. Slower yet to emerge is the colossal waste of money, your's and mine, they are going to be. Here's an amazingly clear-sighted article from McPaper no less.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/indust...-ethanol_N.htm

[Valiente]

The colossal waste of money, while regrettable, is almost certainly less than the waste from the sub-prime/ABCP crisis (which only employs auditors and liquidators), or the typical heavily-padded and pork-barreled defense contract.

In other words, it is one of a series of "institutional" scams that differ only from a Mafia shakedown in the thin veneer of official legitimacy and endorsement they sport.

[PBzeer]

Val - it isn't just defense that's full of pork.

[onremlop]

I have to figure out how to make money on global warming like others have done - hopefully there will be an infomercial on late-night TV that will show me the way with only 3 easy payments of $33.33 per month.

[sailaway21]

Uhh, Val?
Defense spending get's us something we cannot get elsewhere. Ethanol on the other hand is merely the current popular alternative to drilling oil wells. And oil, unlike equipment for defense, is something we have an abundance of.

The waste within the mortgage industry is waste incurred by private industry and is the same as that of any ill-advised business decision. It does start to get my attention when my tax dollars are expected to bail out those of poor judgement. Government involvement in ethanol means that there will be a continual drain on my tax dollars to subsidize something that private industry had already determined was not cost effective. Thus a bad idea becomes pork barrell spending, similar to the billions invested in the 1970's on synthetic fuels by our government. Oil company involvement with ethanol is no more non-sensical than their previous non-involvement. If the government wants to ensure a profit for an operation where there was none before, why not take the money and look good doing it. As a businessman I'd be naive to think my business purpose was merely oil; it's always what ever will make a profit. All else is superflous.

[Valiente]

Originally Posted by sailaway21

Uhh, Val?
Defense spending get's us something we cannot get elsewhere. Ethanol on the other hand is merely the current popular alternative to drilling oil wells. And oil, unlike equipment for defense, is something we have an abundance of.

Defense spending in many countries is the product of industry lobbying and collusion with politicians looking to get pieces of the action for their constituencies. Which may not be a bad thing in the greater scheme, except that the process is largely opaque and cost overruns seem expected. There is also the tendency of the defense industry to sell the military on the glamour of unnecessarily complex weapons systems taking decades to reach fruition, which is what leads to $137 million (and counting) single airplanes, like the F-22. Meanwhile, the 50 year old B-52 continues to fly, and the cheap, armoured if unglamorous A-10 seems to handle the dirty end of the blowing stuff up business.

There's too much wiggle room, and Eisenhower was right.