After listening to a clip (thanks www.calcliptv.com ) of the hearing on Assemblyman Logue’s bill to suspend the state’s Anti-Global Warming Act (AB 32) until the economy is better, I am convinced that there is no more perfect issue for politicians than global warming. Strike that –than global climate change. Now strike that — than man-induced global climate change. Unlike early childhood education programs where you have to wait 13 years to measure if they worked or not, with the man-induced global climate change issue you will have to wait a century or two to know who was right. No politician voting today will ever be held accountable for being wrong on this issue.
It is really a faith-based issue. One side places their faith in the principle that man has caused a terrible problem that the planet is unable to accommodate, and that man must fix it. The other side places their faith in a planet that has absorbed planet-wide catastrophes in the past and will continue to do so in the future. Science is being used by both sides to justify conclusions, but in reality legislators’ positions are more of an indication on where they place their faith than in any number of data sets by climatologists.
Not only will we never know who is right, but, like all faith-based issues, this becomes emotional very quickly. To the trucker whose truck is sidelined because he does not have the new climate approved motor it is an issue of his ability to support his family versus keeping a few pounds of carbon dioxide out of the air. People will make sacrifices based on faith, but those who are demanding those sacrifices of others have an extra burden to make sure that the sacrifices are worthwhile. Logue’s common sense bill simply asks that those sacrifices be postponed until the economy is better able to handle them.
The video is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FO8-LBPMhg&feature=player_embedded