What You Should Know Before the Copenhagen Summit

The Eurocrats have themselves a new summit where world leaders will meet once again and engage in alarmist rhetoric about "global warming" and Big Governments will then purpose new tax and regulatory burdens on their citizens.

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The Copenhagen Summit to take place in December will be Kyoto Redux - the failed European scheme to undermine American competitiveness under the rubric of environmental conscienceness.

Barack Obama had intended to have Congress pass his cap-and-trade tax bureaucracy before heading to Denmark so he could pander to European socialists. But, alas, only the House of Representatives has passed this new massive tax bureaucracy and the Senate will not even start debating it until next year.

You'll hear a lot of Al Goresque fear mongering in the days leading to and during Copenhagen, but here's what you should know before you make up your mind about "global warming" and whether we need Big Government to tax and regulate our lives even more:

- President Obama and the Democrat's cap-and-trade plan would tax anyone who uses energy. Everytime you turn on your lights, you'll be taxed. I did not take Obama too long to break his promise to not raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000.

- Al Gore and his ilk like to arrogantly state that "the science is beyond dispute" and the threat "urgant" - to quote President Obama - but is false. Not everyone was jumped on the "global warming" bandwagon, and those who disagree are not employees of the oil industry. Respected scientists, hundreds of them; including MIT's Richard Lindzen have stated that "the case for alarm regarding climate change is grossly overstate." This is not to say that these individuals claim that "global warming" doesn't exist, but that hysteria has taken over and not for the first time amongst scientists [back in the 1970s many where talking about a new Ice Age]. We need a rational and reasonable discussion about what climate change actually entails, not scare tactics in order to frighten people in to giving politicians more power.

- While global warming has taken place that is not always a bad thing. Environmentalists adhere to the doctrine of "No Change." But just because there is an ice sheet over a plain does not mean that it is bad if it melts. In fact, many would argue it is good by allowing for more arable land and extending the harvest season. It is arrogant to state that the current condition of the world is the most ideal. Global warmed has warmed the coldest parts, and has not made the warmer past any more so. The melting of ice sheets opens up more land for people and animals and that should be welcomed. The world has always been changing, and there was no Copenhagen summit to stop it before and humanity is still doing well.

- Global warming does not threaten life on Earth. Scientist Freeman Dyson has previously written that "most of the evolution of life occurred on a plant substantially warmer than it is now, and substantially richer in carbon dioxide." Do not buy the alarmist hype that global warming will mean an awful world to live. Humans and animals have evolved through a warmer plant, and a rise in 2-6C is not going to alter much our existence. Whether global warming exists as stated is, at best, unproven.

So caution is advised when you here Obama and fellow aspiring planners of the world economy talk about how dangerous global warming is, and how desperately we need new taxes.