Climate Change
It is no longer fashionable in polite circles to be a sceptic. We are told to accept the 'facts' of global warming without question. Yet I am amused that the term 'global warming' itself has now been largely replaced by 'climate change'… perhaps because of all the winter storms in the Northern Hemisphere which prevented the mass protests by hysterical True Believers.

It would seem that even if we were to descend into another Ice Age, the blame would still be placed on 'global warming'. Now we are instructed to stop the climate from changing. Fat chance of that happening! To quote Heraclitus, the only constant is change. Earth has oscillated between Ice Ages and Warm Periods for millions of years.

During the time of the Ancient Roman Empire, they made wine from grapes grown in an island we now call England. It seems reasonable to suggest that in England, at least, the climate then was somewhat warmer than it is today. And what is truly amazing is that, two thousand years ago, there were hardly any industries generating carbon dioxide and other 'greenhouse gases'. The Roman Emperors certainly missed a great opportunity to raise revenue by taxing their captive peoples every time they belched or farted.

[You can bet that our present day 'emperors' will use the excuse of 'climate change' to extract vast sums from hapless taxpayers. The hedge fund operators are going to love 'cap and trade'.]

Although I remain a sceptic about the 'faith-based science' of climate change and global warming, I do support the development of 'clean' and renewable energy. We should reduce the very real pollution created by the burning of various fossil fuels which is harmful to our health. We should reduce our dependency on foreign oil, partly because it may be running out, but also because oil revenues are often syphoned off to terrorists who want to destroy us.

Given the global warming rhetoric of the Rudd Labor Government in Australia, I was astonished by their action to limit the solar panel rebate to those earning less than A$100,000 a year. This effectively destroyed the solar power industry in this country because no one earning less than that amount could afford to install solar panels. There appears to be no end to the hypocrisy of our True Believers.

UPDATE...6/6/2010

Hilarious development! After shouting in Parliament that Climate Change was the Greatest Moral Challenge of our Time, Prime Minister Rudd decided to put the whole issue of "Global Warming" on the political backburner. Rudd has decided to defer doing anything about this issue until 2013... that is, some time after the next Federal election. What a hypocrite!

It is not surprising that Rudd's approval ratings have plummeted, as voters realise that he is just another flaky politician, primarily interested in spin... and getting re-elected at any cost.