re: #46 Charles

Come on, man. I was sincere when I said you’re a smart guy. You obviously are. So why are you trying to deny that you’ve been mocking people who accept the scientific evidence? You know it’s true.

We could use someone with your critical thinking skills on the right side of this issue, if you’d only get over this huge blind spot.

It doesn’t hurt.

Charles, I really don’t recall mocking people merely for accepting the scientific evidence. No mockery from me on that basis alone.

I am waiting for proposals that will work. I’m all for alternative sources of energy. I actually do use low-energy light bulbs. I don’t have the money to rebuild my house into a green exemplar like Al Gore’s. I don’t even have the money for car payments on a Prius. I recycle. I buy used stuff. I pull weeds by hand. I’m too old not to use our snowblower, but one can of gas does three storms’ worth of clearing.

I do mock the NIMBYs who think wind farms are great - in some other state. Same for the purists who shun nuclear energy and improved efficiency technologies for burning oil and coal. A net efficiency gain of even 10% in coal plants would be a huge step forward, given that no country currently dependent on coal is going to stop using it in our lifetime.

At the bottom of my mockery, sadly, is an ocean-deep pessimism about human nature. I shall gladly be proven a false Cassandra. Unfortunately what I see is a species that time after time keeps on doing exactly what is easiest while crying out for top-down solutions from governing bodies (League of Nations, United Nations, IAEA, IPCC, Kyoto, Copenhagen) that are not capable of anything more than talk.

We are facing imminent threats from Iran’s nuke program, and we keep talking about useless sanctions.

We face a medium-term threat from greenhouse gases, and the best we can come up with is cap-and-trade and wealth transfers. China, India and Brazil will not be stopped no matter how good an example we set. And when has humanity ever taken the harder road to avoid a disaster whose arrival is measured in years and decades?

World War Two…everyone with a brain knew it was coming.

I am near despair when I think of the future.

If not mocking humanity would make it wise up, I’d stop right now.