There was another group, besides Republicans, who really didn't like the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). That group: the most strident of green activists, who think the bill is little more than a sop to the oil lobby and will do nothing to save humanity from extinction.
Some of the comments are…breathtaking. Consider this tweet from former Bernie Sander staffer David Sirota:
Dear F[**]king Idiots:
Climate change doesn't care whether your favorite political party gets a “win.”
It doesn't care whether your favorite MSNBC pundit is happy.
It can only be stopped by actually reducing emissions, not by expanding oil drilling.
Sincerely yours,
Physics
He seems nice.
But it's not an outlier, at least among the most strident of greenies. According to Slate's Jordan Weissmann:
The Center for Biological Diversity described those fossil fuel provisions as a “climate suicide pact,” while Greenpeace called them a “slap in the face to the frontline communities, grassroots groups, and activists that made this legislation possible.” (It acknowledged the rest of the bill was “historic.”) On Twitter, a portion of the internet-poisoned left has already written off the legislation as a giveaway to oil and gas interests that will do little to help the climate. That chorus has been led by figures like director Adam McKay, who directed the recent climate jeremiad Don't Look Up…
McKay called the IRA “empty theater.”
And to be honest, much of what manages to pass Congress has plenty of theater in it. That's politics — welcome to the show if you're just joining us.
But on the topic of theater…what are we to make of those who say that unless governments act immediately and coercively, we can expect mass extinctions or any one of a hundred other weird, disastrous, nasty, terrible outcomes?
Histrionics and apocalyptic thinking are hardly new things. But hectoring and bullying people is no way to win an argument, let alone change the minds of those who have much more pressing issues to deal with.
Is the climate changing? The signs, and the data, all say it is. Does that mean we should marshal the forces of government to fight the problem? Only if one believes government has overcome its tendency to botch the big things. I'd put more faith in what the late Julian Simon called the “ultimate resource:” human ingenuity, creativity and spirit.
Those things, not heated tweets or cheap theater, have and always will lead to a better, healthier, more sustainable future.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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& bill expands IRS agents by 87K
& CA electric rates the highest thus owning a EV vs ICE is a No Win
Man made climate change, aka global warming, is a myth. A means to steal money and destroy the United States. average temperatures over last 40 years are trending down. With only 100 years of reliable data over the 4.5 billion the earth has been here, no one knows what the average temperature is. The “inflation reduction act” does not, and is just a bill to steal money as all leftist democrat bills do.
Exactly! That’s why they changed the name from “Global Warming” to “Climate Change.”. Now, whether temperatures trend up or down, they can claim they’re right. And the one thing we know with absolute certainty, the climate will change if you wait long enough. Presto! The climate-radicals are proven right once again!
What fact do climate alarmists MOST hate? It’s the “Medieval Warm Period”, when temperatures were higher than now (and CO2 lower and SUV’s unknown…). They have done everything they can to deny the MWP, they have forged and altered the records, they are even on record as saying that it is critical that they hide the (utterly uncontrovertible) evidence of it, whatever it takes. And yet, as Europe’s rivers shrink in the face of the recent drought, it is starting to expose “Hunger Stones” from this era of increased temperatures. These are carved stones, put in riverbeds by the folks back in the Middle Ages, which basically say “if the river gets down to where you can see this stone, you are going to have a drought and resultant famine”. WAIT! Isn’t that incontrovertible evidence that the world DID go through a period as hot and dry as the current time? How (and why) did those stones get there if the rivers, back then, weren’t receding at least as much (if not more) than they now are? The reality is that the climate fluctuates (and, as Fred notes, it is now starting to trend down), alternating cold and hot, dry and wet thanks to myriad influences. While mankind likely does have an effect on it, its importance is likely less than the Greenies want you to believe and there is very little evidence that CO2 is a significant culprit. Indeed, most of these CO2 abatement schemes are not only not helpful, they are likely damaging and dangerous even when the government’s implementation of them isn’t, itself, a disaster. You don’t have to believe me. It’s written in the stones.
From what I have read, the reputable scientists (those not on government grants) say that human effects on climate change is 0.005 percent or less. I also read that the same effects are occurring on Mars so we have little or nothing to do with any changes in climate. What we can do is help fund The Ocean Cleanup which is a non-profit company designed to remove plastic from our oceans. The greenies poo-poo this effort because it is not a complete solution and does not address the wacko things they want. It does get rid of poisonous plastics from our environment, helps marine animals and us.
Am I the only one who thinks it is a bit presumptuous to think we humans have control over the climate? One only needs to watch a few episodes on the the Discovery channel to learn that, in the past, the earth has been much hotter, and much colder, than it is today. Has anyone else considered the possibility that the Solar Cycle has more impact than our fossil emissions? The Mount St. Helens volcanic eruption put more “greenhouse gasses” into the atmosphere than all human emissions since the start of the industrial revolution. If global warming is, in fact, caused by we humans, we had better get our rovers off Mars. Why else would the polar ice caps on that planet be receding (NASA data)?
I am not opposed to being good stewards of the resources God gave us. However, the thinking that our feeble efforts will overcome the superior forces of nature is just silliness!
But the alarmists are SMARTER than we are! Aren’t you listening? They may not know the difference between a man and a woman and they may not know that a baby in the womb is a living HUMAN BEING, but they “know” that man is causing climate change!
No doubt, these Environmentalists are way smarter than you and I, Phil. After all, they BELIEVE that Science is Real. There you go – their own declaration of their scientific superiority. My only problem with that boast is that it doesn’t matter if you “BELIEVE” that “SCIENCE IS REAL”. What matters is whether you “KNOW” any “REAL SCIENCE” and, ya’ know, I just don’t think they do.
I totally agree. As a believer in God and the Bible, I know that the world as we know it will cease to exist. When? When God has had enough! When God decides! Not man! And as you said, nothing man does will change the course of the earth and its existence.
The greenies and left wingers will force the leftist government to spend trillions of dollars on this idea, which will change nothing in the cycle of nature. It will be decades before “alternate” fuel transportation can meet the needs of the population of this world. EV’s that can only travel a few hundred miles before needing recharged only fits the needs of those that stay close to home. The other problems are too many to cover here
It may change one thing. If the greenies get their way, we will use no fossil fuels which will put us back into the pre-industrial age. We will have spent ourselves into poverty so that you only survive if you fend for yourself. That will cause a significant de-population, and achieve another of their goals. Think they’ll be happy then?
THIS MASSIVE ASSAULT ON TAXPAYERS WILL BACKFIRE AND SHOW IT’S TRUE COLORS VERY SOON
Like the Indian guy sez: ‘It is the NATURE of climate to change.’ And to be very objective, we have directly measured climate only for about 160 years or so. Therefore, we will ascertain to what degree human activity was responsible or detrimental only after about 500 years. And by then we will all no longer be around. Will we?
I believe that they should be worrying about war that could wipe the world out and then you don’t have to worry about climate change and all the other green.