Barton Swaim: Why Climate-Change Ideology is Dying

I am inclined to agree with all of this, and I've said it a lot.

So I'm just repeating myself.

Obviously I'm a mere layperson.

When I was pretty solidly on the center-left / Democrat side, I thought I couldn't do any better than tentatively accept the scientific consensus.

That's a reasonable position, and the position many people hold.

Once I started understanding the conservative heterodoxy on a lot of positions better, I slowly ended up changing my view.

What I slowly came to believe was:

[1] We're not even sure what the consensus of experts IS. The few studies alleging to discover the consensus are terrible. The 97% consensus business is BS. The Cook study is BS. There may still be a significant consensus, but it's not 97%.

[2] My view is now that (a) there's been some warming, (b) we contributed something, (c) we ought to start trying to lower carbon emissions. It's not a catastrophe, it's a problem. As Lomborg argues, it's not in the top-ten problems we face. It may not be in the top 50. Which doesn't mean it isn't a problem. 

[3] But panic--especially bogus panic--makes for bad policy. What we see now is a familiar pattern: the left sowing panic in order to achieve pre-existing and often unrelated ends. Community gardens might be swell...but they're not going to do anything about climate change. Socialism is definitely not going to help.

[4] Natural gas and nuclear. That's what we need to emphasize now.

[5] Cheap energy is more important to human well-being than climate change.

Anyway.

I've also said that I agree with Swaim about the climate hysteriacs--they don't even believe their own BS. That's a reason for us not to believe it. Not a powerful one--but not a weightless one.

The average American has concluded that he's spend about $10/month to combat climate change.

This may be a wisdom-of-crowds type case...

Oh and:

People like Roger Pielke Jr., Judith Curry and Bjorn Lomborg are who I look to for information on this now.

The Honest Broker

Climate, Etc.