The Hidden Cost of Global Warming Alarmism
John on October 24, 2007 at 11:27 pm
Wonder why it took Der Spiegel so long to look into this?
No journey is too far for Angela Merkel when it comes to saving the world’s climate. At the Cape of Good Hope, Merkel listened to scientists explain the effects of global warming on species diversity. Addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York, she called upon the assembled heads of state to take decisive action. In Greenland, enveloped in a bright red parka, she observed the melting of Arctic glaciers firsthand.
The chancellor flies around the globe on an almost weekly basis to bolster her image as a determined crusader against the greenhouse effect. “Climate change threatens the very basis of human existence,” she preaches. “And we can only succeed if we stick together and act in unison.”
[...]
When it comes to the climate controversy, the conflicting camps within the ruling Grand Coalition are agreed on only one objective: To keep citizens in the dark as much as possible about how much Germany’s pioneering role in limiting CO2 emissions will eventually cost them. The chancellor consistently claims that climate protection will pay off in the end. But the truth is that the measures she proposes will lead to billions in additional expenditures for many years to come.
[...]
Although renters could expect new, climate-saving equipment to lower their heating costs, experts estimate that if the government’s plans come to fruition rents would go up by at least 10 percent.
Of course 10% rent increase is nothing…if you’re Angela Merkel.
Category: Climate Change & Environment |
Whether she is hiding something or not, surely the developed world needs to realize that we have to start behaving differently. If that means having to pay more rent, then I have no problem with that. I do have a problem with being part of a generation that was too selfish to act.
October 25, 2007 @ 5:02 amI’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but, Ms. Merkel, THERE’S A REASON IT’S CALLED GREENLAND.
October 25, 2007 @ 6:50 amWhat on earth?!
I don’t think anyone could have come up with a more ironic sentence if they tried.
Hopefully she isn’t using more than a square of toilette paper a day during her travels in order to offset those CO2, NOx, and H20 emissions…
October 25, 2007 @ 9:13 amCarol – what is that reason? I’ve always wondered why the green one was called Iceland and the icy one was called Greenland.
Cindy – I know I’m going to sound a bit “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” but as a high profile figure, her presence in certain places maybe generates enough attention to justify the flights. More attention than she’d get by videoconferencing, at least. That’s probably her reasoning, anyway.
October 25, 2007 @ 9:30 amKeith – 1,000 years ago the Vikings named it Greenland and established farming communities there. So, at one time, Greenland was warmer and certainly not covered in snow and ice. Sounds like “cyclical climate change” to me.
October 25, 2007 @ 9:39 amHey Keith,
I completely understand her rational behind being visible. But, I believe that in order to be taken seriously, her actions have to speak louder, or as equally loud. In my opinion, she should not be telling people how to lesson Co2 emissions when she is seriously adding to them. It feels too much like, “Do as I say, not as I do.”
Although my comment #3 was dripping with sarcasm, I honestly believe that she should be “offsetting” her travels somehow. If she is driving a smart-car, and using a bicycle hooked up to her blender to whip her smoothies in the morning (again sarcastic, but hopefully point made), then I would take her actions as nothing other than sincere.
I reflect on Arnold Schwartzenegger (politcal policies, and some really bad acting aside) when he first began campaigning about healthy and nutritional foods and P.E. classes for school aged children here in California. It was easy to take his campaign seriously because he was living the “it matters what you eat” lifestyle. His actions at that point spoke as loud as his words.
So, although I support her plight, and am all for making this earth a better place for everyone (on all levels), I have to walk the walk if I am going to not only preach it to others, but impose it as well.
Hey John,
October 25, 2007 @ 10:35 amAlthough she can afford the 10% increase, I like the fact that she too is a renter (in Berlin), and not a home-owner, otherwise that would smack of………… U.S. Politics. ;0)
Oh, now you’ve gone too far.
The rent increase was just one of the things mentioned in the article. But a 10% rent increase is massive. Lots of people I know couldn’t afford a 10% increase. I’m sure it’s the same in Deutschland.
October 25, 2007 @ 9:52 pmCarol – thank you for that, I genuinely have wondered about that for 30 yeras or so. You learn something every day, and I won’t forget that one. I don’t suppose you know about Iceland, do you? Maybe I should try wikipedia myself.
Cindy – yes, I have to say i agree. If people are going to talk the talk, they should walk the walk.
October 26, 2007 @ 6:59 am“I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but, Ms. Merkel, THERE’S A REASON IT’S CALLED GREENLAND.”
It’s called Greenland because Eirikr Rauðr (that’s Erik the Red to you semi-literates) named it Greenland because the name would make people want to settle there. In other words, it was a con game.
Iceland was named after an ice-filled fjord.
May 29, 2009 @ 11:29 am