Note: The above picture (minus my clumsy rescue of Santa Claus), was released by the U.S. Navy on April 27, 2009. It shows a U.S. submarine surfacing at the North Pole on 17 March 1959. You can see many other pictures and accounts of the journeys that were undertaken in 1958 and 1959 here: Ice at the North Pole in 1958 and 1959 – not so thick

Get ready ’cause here it comes…

Despite almost a decade of cooling and new evidence about the nonsense of anthropogenic climate change coming out nearly every day, the journey to enforce sweeping legislation in order to combat global warming is almost complete, and catastrophic anthropogenic government spending on the environment likely will be enacted by the end of the year. The reasons behind this are simple: there is a lot of money to be made by enforcing things such as cap and trade, and, once enforced, a new underclass of citizen will be created that will need to be subsidized through the government coffers.  In fact, not only are they planning to compensate some consumers (with other consumers’ money) for increases in energy costs, they are also now planning something called “Cash for Clunkers,” which will redistribute more consumer money to people who have cars that get under 18 miles per gallon to trade for a new car.

You know something is up when large companies across America start spending vast sums of money lobbying for cap and trade programs. ENRON, going slowly defunct since 2001, supported cap and trade and even produced a report stating that it would do more to “promote their business than any other regulatory initiative.” Current companies on the bandwagon include GE (which according to Open Secrets spends about $46,000 a day in lobbying), DuPont, and Alcoa. The reasons for corporate support vary, but generally involve an appreciation for the European style of cap and trade, which sends vast carbon credits to the largest corporations who then earn a hefty profit. In effect, companies could get huge taxpayer funds for making minimal adjustments to the amount of carbon dioxide they release. Under the European system, one company earned $600 million for spending $3 million in reduction technology, and DuPont estimates that it could earn 900% of what it invests in becoming more energy efficient. Initially, Obama’s cap and trade program involved making corporations pay for their credits via auction, but since economic troubles have deepened, the latest plan crafted in Congress now involves just giving them away (this, one should note, gets rid of about $600 billion dollars in tax income Obama was figuring into his budget plans).

General Electric is, of course, in a very special spot.  They are, via their lines of business, not only considered an energy company (the sort of company that tends to benefit the most), but also they are a company that will be looked to for efficiency projects, and we aren’t just talking about those miserable, low-light, compact flourescent light bulbs. GE is also heavily behind the “smart grid” technology that the Obama administration has made a staple of its environmental policy. GE is also in a special spot because it has a huge role in shaping public opinion via its media holdings, NBC Universal.

Selling Change Through Fear

The best way to get the public to support something ridiculous is to scare them into thinking it is necessary for their survival, and liberals are the masters of this.  From education policy to new taxes, almost nothing the Demwits support can simply be presented to the public.  It has to be accompanied by great tales of woe.  And the Demwit talking heads at the major media, particularly at GE/NBC, are helping to fan the fear.

In the last month alone, NBC has run six reports on melting ice in both the arctic and the antarctic ice sheets.  The reports include such sublimely ridiculous information as a warning that the oceans could rise by 187 feet.  Now they are running a whole series of fear-mongering documentaries under the title of “Future Earth,” which, as usual, focuses on the polar icecaps.

The whole concept of looking at polar ice in such ways is preposterous on so many levels.  For instance, the ice levels are always quite variable, as the photo at the top of this article clearly demonstrates.  For another thing, there were almost 200,000 square miles more ice at the poles in January of this year than there were in January of 1980, as seen here, and a recent expedition to the arctic discovered a surprise.

Ice in the Arctic is often twice as thick as expected, report surprised scientists who returned last week from a major scientific expedition. The scientists – a 20-member contingent from Canada, the U.S., Germany, and Italy – spent one month exploring the North Pole as well as never-before measured regions of the Arctic. Among their findings: Rather than finding newly formed ice to be two metres thick, “we measured ice thickness up to four metres” Source: Financial Post

Bottom Line

But it doesn’t matter what the facts are. Global cooling, increased ice, etc. are all just inconvenient truths to sweep under the rug or hide under the bed. The Democrats would certainly never acknowledge such a thing and neither would most of the media. The truth doesn’t matter because there is money to be stolen and political power to be created. There are fears to be fanned and sensationalized stories to be followed, literally, to the ends of the earth.

And what can you do about it? Nothing now. November has come and gone and there are almost two years left before some sense of reason can be restored to Congress.