Welcome to Finance and Fury, the Say What Wednesday edition.
Today we are going to cover off on Climate Change. This may be a bit weird. But, the majority of proposed solutions are political/economic.
Firstly, the taxation on CO2 emissions. What is this going to do to the economy overall, with additional costs of business? Furthermore, capping of production of emissions.
In this episode, we will discuss climate change in terms of the narrative that it is presented as. This is around rising temperatures and the world being doomed in a few years’ time. I won’t be talking about environmental destruction. Is global warming man made? How will the solutions help?
The common theme of Fear:
Different predictions over the last few decades A similar theme is fear Most people fear catastrophic events Predictions by experts on climate change keeps turning out to be incorrect From predictions, there was supposed to be a lot of misery in the world due to climate change caused events Policy changes due to global hysteria The climate change direction changed We look at an overview of predictions and temperature claims. We should be fearful of these events, right?
The issue with acting out of Fear:
Opt for any solution we think will work Even if it is against our own self-interest How does this affect the brain? Social learning and context can be tools to help fears or make fears worse There is a potential to influence the way we experience fear Social isolation is another thing people are afraid of Climate change has religious elements to it This comes down to ideological subversion
The message is in our face every day:
97 movies since 2010 depicting the end of the world The irony of Hollywood around actions towards fighting climate change The hypocrisy of politicians surrounding climate change Paid to pretend to be someone else for a living Our climate does change, it’s the only consistent thing about it
The climate definitely changes, there is no clear consensus on why or how:
97% of climate scientists agree that humans are the leading cause of climate change Do they really? Christopher Monckton criticised John Cook’s findings These are unscientific findings UQ is now proving a free climate change course These claims can be broken down in the resources below Why don’t other scientists speak out about it? How well can weathermen predict the temperatures?Saying that it is human-induced through CO2 emissions is why I have an issue with this
The mathematical modelling and their numeric assumptions What is the relationship between CO2 and temperatures? When do the records of temperature begin? What are the mathematical models and how do scientists come to their conclusions? Joseph Postma wrote A Climate of Sophistry, which covers the modelling and math involved The same modelling shows the increases in CO2 help boost plant life Milankovitch cycles describe Earth’s movements and the climate changes The debunking always goes in both directions Financially, who has the most to gain? Politicians, climate scientists, and the media.Summary:
I am not denying that the climate does not change There is no measurable increase in temperature anomaly in 18 years Focusing on clean energy is a good idea, but following advice on voting for policy change doesn’t help long term How does the Paris Climate agreement help? Let's come up with some long term plans to help produce cleaner energyThanks for listening today. If you want to get in contact you can at the contact page here.
Resources:
‘climategate’ email scandal. If you want some light reading (180 pages or so), here is the publication on this: https://www.lavoisier.com.au/articles/greenhouse-science/climate-change/climategate-emails.pdf
Milankovitch Cycles - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles
Climate Conscious – UQ Emails - UQ Emails - http://www.galileomovement.com.au/docs/UQcorrespondence.pdf
