Think I’m kidding? As reported Thursday by Bloomberg (emphasis mine throughout):
Governments in rich nations are spending billions of dollars to buy a clearer conscience over climate change. Are they getting their money's worth? Enlightened individuals, those who stay awake at nights wondering what they can do to prevent the polar caps from melting, at least have a growing menu of choices.
To put this in some perspective, a NewsBusters article on Wednesday made the point that all this global warming alarmism is about money. Folks, you have no idea:
The Sydney-based Easy Being Green says it will mitigate your cat's flatulent contribution to global warming for 8 Australian dollars, or $6. The same company could also make your granny "carbon-neutral" at 10 dollars a year, according to a report in the Australian newspaper last weekend.
Then there's Carbon Planet, another company cited in the article. If you are hopping on a short-haul flight between Sydney and Canberra, and feeling bad about the damage you are doing to the ecosystem, you can buy credits worth 23 dollars, for which the Adelaide-based company will guarantee to keep 1 ton of carbon dioxide out of the air for 100 years.
Fascinating, yes? The article continued:
By comparison, the governments that have undertaken to cut greenhouse emissions under the United Nations' Kyoto Convention on Climate Change have chosen a tougher — and more expensive — route to guilt reduction.
[…]
Countries that must purchase emission credits to atone for their higher-than-mandated production of carbon dioxide are paying a tiny group of chemical manufacturers in China and India massive sums to reduce industrial gases and methane, which are rather inexpensive to capture and destroy, Wara says.
However, this scheme will cost developing nations dearly:
The improvement that can be obtained by spending just $31 million on incinerators could cost developed nations as much as €750 million, or $986 million, through the elaborate trading mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol, and even then only two-thirds of the problem would go away, Wara estimates.
Amazing. In the end, folks, global warming alarmism is becoming a huge international business with billions of dollars at stake. And yet, as the article concludes: “That kind of money may be a beginning, though it's very doubtful that we will be breathing a lot easier because of it.”
Nice con job the media are aiding and abetting, dontcha think?
