It’s hard to comment about things related to climate change these days because some people de-compensate at the mention. Having said that, I am willing to spin a few minds into a tizzy.
Let me say from the beginning that I am not a climatologist or a meteorologist, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express the other night.
Here’s what I think I know. The weather is changing all the time. Climate is a reflection of weather changes over time. Climate is changing all the time.
We are growing grapes in the state of Washington where we couldn’t fifty years ago. Climate changes in California are affecting the crops they can grow today that were staples fifty years ago. Over that time, farmers have adapted their practices to take into consideration the changes.
For me and most other people, I don’t understand what all the fuss is about. Al Gore is like Chicken Little warning us that the sky will fall. Our own Jay Inslee characterized his Presidential campaign as a “War against Climate Change”. As far as I can tell, the people he intends to wage war against are you and me.
From a scientific perspective the climatologists study the evolving climate, but they don’t ever suggest we can manage it. The current craze is to reduce Green House gases and the movement is to identify those man-made sources of Green House gases and slash them.
The thing I don’t hear from reputable scientists is that efforts in the US will have a measurable impact on the problem.
The countries producing the most pollution contributing to the problem have no intention to slash production of Green House gases if the cost of doing so trashes their economy. China and India are by far the largest populations on the planet and they produce the most pollution. Unless we can twist their arm to get them to play ball, we accomplish nothing by trashing our own economy.
I’m not suggesting that we don’t undertake an effort to reduce environmental impacts that contribute to climate change, but we must keep in mind that everything comes with a cost. For the Al Gores and the Jay Inslees of the world, they don’t mind that you bear the burden of a Climate Change War even knowing up front there will be no victory.
The thing that pushes their zealotry is guilt for America’s past abuses. American excesses over the past sixty years coming from a very successful economy create an appearance to the rest of the world that Americans are selfish squanderers of the world’s resources. Creating a Climate Change movement focusing on American behavior only, contributes nothing to measurable change in the climate but a catastrophic impact to the American economy.
When Obama talked about fundamental change to America, this is the tool that will make it happen. Inslee’s war will be a war of ideas to convince us that we are bad people who should be ashamed of our success and as a result we should beat our selves to death for penance.
If the environment on the planet changes, our best strategy is to be adaptive. If we have huge population centers located on low elevation seacoast areas subject to flooding if the oceans rise, then maybe we should be talking about moving to higher ground. Just look at New Orleans if you think you can hold back the sea. That city is sinking and the government is spending a fortune to prevent the relentless flood. Move away from the low land, quit building homes in flood prone areas, quit putting people’s lives in danger by allowing residences in “future flood” designated areas.
We’ve learned that mankind is fairly insignificant to mother nature. It is only in our feeble minds that we think we can alter the weather.
I know I always advise my clients to buy property at least fifty feet above sea level. Who knows, at some time that property might be on the beach.
Adopting modest changes to our behavior at modest prices is probably a good thing, but taxes to change your behavior has nothing to do with the environment and everything to do with power over you. Think about that.
No Loss for Words 
CHINA: Ally or Adversary?
by Steve DanaWatching the drama of Hong Kong unfolding, it makes you wonder how they got into that predicament. The agreement China made with the UK was for fifty years after which China would have full control over Hong Kong. We’re only twenty years into the agreement and China is already cheating. Makes you wonder if China can be trusted to fulfill any agreement they sign. The basic answer is that China will say what it needs to say to get what they want in the long term. If it requires that they cheat on an agreement, they don’t have a problem with that.
When China was allowed into the WTO it was with the understanding that they were good citizens. Over the past 25 years, China has revealed its true character (if you didn’t already know it, they are not).
Tienanmen Square was an indication of how China deals with a population objecting to the boot on their neck. A heavier boot on their neck. China of today is as brutal a dictatorship as it was during Mao’s years in control. They dress it up on the surface for Western sensibilities. They learned to make nice with western countries only for the purposes of exploiting the West with their ridiculously cheap labor. They learned from westerners how to go back to China to turn what they learned against their teachers.
China realized after Mao that being like North Korea wouldn’t serve them in the long term. The billion people in China are a resource that can be put to work for the benefit of the state, so China became a place for cheap labor.
Later, they learned that by giving the people the chance to be capitalist on a small scale, their productivity skyrocketed. Socio/Economic policy in China has evolved into a capitalistic dictatorship. The people can have their own businesses in partnership with the government. That opportunity gives the people at least a chance to improve their own standard of living. They can drive a Mercedes car but have no voice in their government or say in how other aspects of their lives are managed.
American manufacturers were led to believe that China would be a great partner because they had a billion people available to work and a government that greased the skids to facilitate production. Did any of the companies that dumped their American workforce ever look at the human rights conditions in China before they moved? Not likely! In the effort to produce cheap crap cheaper, American manufacturers screwed American workers while forming partnerships with the devil to satisfy corporate demand for better margins. The American government allowed strategic industries to collapse in the US in favor of suppliers in China. Did anyone wonder if there was a confrontation with China, would they continue to supply steel or other strategic goods to a rival?
America is at a crossroads in our relationship with China.
Our challenge is to decide whether doing business with a country that abuses the population like China does, that wages war against trading partners with their cyber tactics, that dumps surpluses of manufactured goods on the market to weaken competitors, that regularly steals intellectual property from trading partners, that manipulates their currency to create a competitive advantage, or that charges tariffs for goods coming into China to prevent competition for Chinese companies? Do we want to be business partners with a country whose military is aggressively harassing neighbors while doing little to assist in efforts to rein in North Korea? In my view, China is a bad actor and yet we’ve intertwined our economy with theirs. Why?
The government of China should be considered hostile. Trade with China should be considered in that light. Let’s see how well China will fare without US markets.
In typical government fashion, it will be determined that trade with governments that want to defeat us is okay. China is not the only culprit in this discussion. Our neighbor to the south, Mexico is in the same boat.
The big question is, “Should the United States of America be a trading partner with a country committed to undermining our national security?” We cannot commit to trading with a country like China, then think about their human rights record or their treatment of their neighbors. Most of us as citizens think about the reputation of a vendor before we hire them to work for us. Why wouldn’t our government do the same before promoting China as a preferred trading partner?
The elected leaders in our country were seduced by China with cheap labor to produce cheap consumer goods. At the expense of our national security. Our country has no obligation to develop labor markets for companies without allegiance to the United States. Companies with only an obligation to the bottom line will do business with anyone. Aren’t we better than that?
What kind of idiots run our country?
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