Climate Skeptics Misunderstand Us, Too

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So recently, Iโ€™ve watched a few videos from the Heartland Institute conference on โ€œRestoring the Scientific Methodโ€โ€”and it has been a fascinatingย experience.

I point you, for instance, to this session on public policy, and especially the Q&A starting at minute 56. (Also watch Marc Morano from minute 38 to minute 56, the dude is nothing if not entertaining.) Once the audience questions start coming for the panel, I was rather surprised to hear that most were basically aboutโ€ฆuh, communism. And in response, the panelistsโ€”and especially Christopher Hornerโ€”were quite affirmative that the real reason that we, the โ€œleft,โ€ want to restrict greenhouse gas emissions is that we want to hobble economies, redistribute wealth, and restrict individualย freedoms.

โ€œYou can believe this is about the climate, and many people do,โ€ said Horner. โ€œBut itโ€™s not a reasonable belief.โ€ Horner went on to argue that โ€œitโ€™s probably about what theyโ€™ve claimed they really want.โ€ For many โ€œluminariesโ€ of the environment movement, Horner continued, โ€œeconomic growth is not the cure, itโ€™s the disease.โ€

Now, Morano and Horner have various pieces of โ€œevidenceโ€ that they use to support their assessmentโ€”including out of context quotations. But I, too, have heard some environmentalists attack growth, and say that it is the realย problem.

However, I do not believe in any sense that this is the mainstream view of those who want a cap-and-trade bill, whether they are President Obama, or Democratic senators, or the many corporations who supported such legislationโ€”like GE and Duke Energy. Without economic growth, these companies could not maintain rising share prices, nor could they keep reporting rising earnings and annual dividend increases for theirย stockholders.

I can also speak for myself. If thereโ€™s anything I donโ€™t like, itโ€™s extremesโ€”including on the left. I very much want companies to thrive and succeedโ€”who else is going to create jobs?โ€”but to me, that doesnโ€™t mean they shouldnโ€™t be regulated. I actually do believe that they should be regulated as little as is possibleโ€“so long as it is enough to preserve public health and the environment. ย 

Moreover, itโ€™s not surprising that I think this wayโ€”people of my generation in the U.S. donโ€™t even have any direct experience with communism. It hasnโ€™t been a significant force on the U.S. left for quite a long time. Itโ€™s something weโ€™ve read about, certainly, but not something with which weย associate.

So exactly what environmental left are Heartland acolytes talking about here? As far as I can tell, theyโ€™re simplyย shadowboxing.

Iโ€™ve often written about how those on my side do not understand the motivations of climate skeptics. They arenโ€™t just driven by a quest for the corporate dole, for instanceโ€”theyโ€™re strong individualists who fear government control over choices and freedoms. I believe that ideology is therefore more powerful in driving climate skepticism than isย money.

But itโ€™s quite apparent that anti-environmentalists, like Horner, donโ€™t understand us, either. We didnโ€™t cook the science, and we donโ€™t hate jobs, either. We just think that, because global warming is real, and because there are solutions to the problem will ultimately also help the economy, itโ€™s a very good idea to kill two birds with oneย stone.

But now, having now cleared up the record, Iโ€™m quite sure that we wonโ€™t see this error any more in theย future.

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