Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » Making Fiscal Sense

I finally figured out the other day how to characterize rail supporters arguments.

They are like kids who might say, “why wouldn’t you want Santa Clause to bring you an Xbox for Christmas?” They treat rail like it is a birthday present, and that I am some sort of schlub for turning down such a shiny new present. But of course it is not a present, and costs matter. The problem with rail is not that I don’t like riding on trains, the problem is that I don’t like draining resources by force from millions of people so that a few thousand middle class commuters can ride on trains to work.

Gore promises the Warmist Inquisition | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

I once heard Al Gore speak - quite heatedly, after I challenged him - and was struck by how Biblical was his gospel of global warming.

American Thinker: We Are Doomed -- Again

Global warming is far from the first apocalyptic prediction, or even the first based on computer models. The belief that the world is coming to an end appears to be a universal concept based on an innate psychic need. All major religions -- Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism -- have a version of the end of the world. While the major religions' visions may be traced back to ancient Persia and Zoroastrian teachings, the Mayan and Hopi Indian visions of the end times are unlikely to have originated in the Middle East. While we still have religion-based suicidal groups (Heaven's Gate, the Branch Davidians, the Peoples Temple), these groups now have a competitor. In a secular society, we no longer put our faith in ancient revelations. The apparent psychic need for an apocalyptic myth may not have disappeared. The new apocalyptic visions are not based on revelation, but on "science."
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The threat of global warming will eventually recede. The need for an apocalyptic vision, however, will not. The next threat will contain many of the characteristics of the global warming threat. It will predict the end of the world. It will be based on "scientific facts." It will require massive counseling for the psychological distress it will cause. It will require the creation of a massive bureaucracy. And it will require the transfer of massive amounts of money to the hypothesized victims of the future crisis.

Conference on climate change policy ends in Athens

Among speakers on Sunday were Professor of International Law Grigoris Tsaltas, representatives of non-government environmental groups like Greenpeace, WWF Hellas and SOS Mediterranean Network and ANA-MPA Managing Director Nikolas Voulelis, who stressed the need for "new concepts, new words and a deep rechristening of classic meanings through a modern debate to mobilise citizens, simultaneous to the search for viable models for growth that are compatible with the protection of the environment."