A powerful coalition of environmentalists and crony capitalists have engaged the American people in a confidence game called Climate Change. The coalition is an example of what economist Bruce Yandle termed “Bootleggers and Baptists”- disparate interests who network and unite to get the government to impose a regulatory regime which benefits both.
The Baptists are the true believers, fighting for truth, environmental justice and the planet. The Bootleggers are the business, academic and related special interests seeking profits,, grants and advantages over competitors.
The first card played in the climate policy con game is apocalypse/guilt. It confidently declares that Global Cooling Global Warming Climate Change Climate Disruption is a ‘Holocaust’ for the planet and life on it and that humans are the major cause.
The apocalypse/guilt card has seized the policy agenda in the past: Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and Bill McKibben’s The End of Nature all posit imminent disaster that humans are responsible for.
The apocalypse/guilt card has energized and motivated a growing and occasionally raucous coalition of progressives, environmentalists and opponents of capitalism to advocate for curbs on “carbon pollution”, fossil fuel divestment, conversion to “sustainable” non- fossil fuel energy, and preventing Canadian development of their oil tar sands. Call it the “Climate Change Command, Control and Confidence Coalition,” or C6. Most of the members of C6 probably don’t realize it’s a confidence game.
Here’s why it’s a con game: No global warming will be averted. The proposed cuts in carbon emissions pollution will have no detectable effect on the supposedly apocalyptic problem which got us to this policy point. The EPA estimates a net benefit based on optimistic health and decreased mortality assumptions and job growth in alternative energy sectors. But no global warming will be averted, and C6 advocates are always careful not to answer the basic question: How much global warming climate change will be averted?
The policy misdirection here is disingenuous; an “intentional misrepresentation of past or present facts in order to gain a person’s trust”. If ‘climate change’ is not an apocalyptic problem there was a misrepresentation from the start. If climate change is an apocalyptic problem, then the policy won’t have any effect on climate change but will benefit the Baptists and the Bootleggers and “transfer money or property to the individual making the misrepresentation.” And if this is just a first step at much greater regulation, C6 is truly engaged in a very long con game.
There is ample additional supporting evidence to the con game hypothesis:
- Continuing efforts to demean skeptics as “flat-earthers” and (Holocaust) “deniers”
- The Hockey Stick saga
- “Hide the decline”
- The EPA Administrators Incognito E-mails
- Keystone Approval Shell Game
- Others are catching on
The policies that C6 is backing will raise energy prices and reduce economic freedom and growth in America. They will definitely not “save the planet” although they will make the Baptists feel virtuous and the Bootleggers prosperous.
An alternative climate change policy would be to invest in climate engineering research rather than regulatory schemes favored by Baptists and Bootleggers. Maine has most of the needed assets in place: The Engineering and Climate Change programs at Orono have shown they can foster innovation and draw grant dollars. The climate change confidence game will have to be exposed for what it is before better alternatives are considered.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="9705 http://www.themainewire.com/?p=9705">6 Comments
Great article Jon. Pulling back the curtain however always spooks the liberal control freaks. Stay well.
Strange that the same cabals that are fighting to waste hundreds of billions of Taxpayer dollars on wind & solar power scams are the same cabals that have fought against cheap , reliable & clean hydropower ! ⚡️⚡️
Maine has pioneered in the area of climate engineering. Visit the Wilhelm Reich museum outside of Rangely, and among his Orgone boxes you’ll find CLOUDBUSTERS. It’s not important that they work but that Maine makes and distributes them, it’s work Another important climate change activity is dumping iron junk into the oceans to stimulation phytoplankton blooms. This is a great student activity for budding climate engineers; cleaning out their closets, buying new cars & trucks, etc. Perhaps we could regulated beer cans so they are made of iron.
I would hope U.M.M’s CLIMATE ENGINEERING program starts recruiting soon, because the need is so great. DARPA grants can get it started..
Instead of getting pinned to the horns of a highly polarized ‘debate’, Jon lifted the veil and revealed how expanding government’s regulatory power benefits both sides. We’ve had decades of programs run this way…air pollution, sewerage treatment….no matter how ‘tough’ the regulations are and how much money is pouring into ‘solutions’ the problem never seems to go away, but gets redefined F O R E V E R! CO2 is now a pollutant…we’re next.
Those baptists and bootleggers comparisons are brilliantly illuminating.
Every time I read one of your posts, I come away with something new and interesting to think about. Thanks for consistently putting out such great content!