As much fun as it is to discuss angels dancing on pin heads:

This is about power, not the environment. You would think someone would get a clue when they notice that increased government power, reduction of individual choice and freedom, and more wealth transferred to the government, are the favored solution to every last damn "crisis" you can think of, not just climate. Try and find an exception.

It is an accepted axiom that those who are skeptical about climate issues are servants of the evil corporations that have something to gain from this issue being downplayed.

But the people who are pushing this issue also have much to gain by its acceptance--vast new political powers and more transferred wealth among them. There are international and national organizations that have been looking for a "world government" lever this effective since before I was born.

Everyone here seems to be able to clearly see the first category, but as long as the blind spot continues on the second, the debate out there will be one-sided.

Skepticism should be balanced. It isn't. It's automatically assumed that one side is completely objective and disinterested.

Here in California our leadership has been painstakingly overseeing the destruction of California business and transportation in the name of the environment. They have made doing business here except in office cubicles almost impossible already, and it's going to get worse. All in the name of Gaia, of course. The increased power and new taxes? Has nothing to do with it.

They just passed a rule that says trucks in California will have to add $15,000 filters to each and every truck. This will kill off many small independent truck firms, just like radical pollution laws killed off a lot of independent gas stations, laundry places, and other little industries that can't field this crap the way large corporations can.

Politicians love big business, with its reliable flow of campaign contributions and easy-to-reach levers. Small business, not so much.