Europe Dumps Global Warming Efforts; Good Idea?

Regarding the religious debate over global warming, I am pleased to report Green Fade-Out: Europe to Ditch Climate Protection Goals.

The EU's reputation as a model of environmental responsibility may soon be history. The European Commission wants to forgo ambitious climate protection goals and pave the way for fracking -- jeopardizing Germany's touted energy revolution in the process.

The climate between Brussels and Berlin is polluted, something European Commission officials attribute, among other things, to the "reckless" way German Chancellor Angela Merkel blocked stricter exhaust emissions during her re-election campaign to placate domestic automotive manufacturers like Daimler and BMW. This kind of blatant self-interest, officials complained at the time, is poisoning the climate.

At the request of Commission President José Manuel Barroso, EU member states are no longer to receive specific guidelines for the development of renewable energy. The stated aim of increasing the share of green energy across the EU to up to 27 percent will hold. But how seriously countries tackle this project will no longer be regulated within the plan. As of 2020 at the latest -- when the current commitment to further increase the share of green energy expires -- climate protection in the EU will apparently be pursued on a voluntary basis.

Global Warming Hysteria

I am certainly not against improving the quality of the air we breathe.

Without a doubt, China needs a massive breath of fresh air and a flood of unpolluted water as well. So do emerging market countries in general.

Rather, I am against carbon trading schemes, taxpayer funding of green energy, and other silliness based on global warming hysteria.

• In contrast to what the global warming advocates have predicted, a UN report shows the Earth has cooled for 15 years.  
• In spite of hysteria over the melting of ice caps that theoretically would put the entire state of Florida underwater, Antarctic ice has been growing for decades, reaching a 35-year high in 2013.
• Humorously, a research ship attempting to prove global warming got trapped in unusually thick ice this January and had to be rescued by icebreakers.

Does any of that matter? Realistically, not one bit. More importantly, it does not matter one bit if the earth has been warming for the previous 100 years.

The simple facts of the matter are as follows:

1. The earth has gone through periods of cooling and warming that have lasted tens of thousands of years.
2. Random fluctuations in nature, lasting decades or longer happen all the time.
3. It is preposterous to make any kind of realistic assessment regarding the last 100 years or even the last 1000 years.
4. Even if it was possible to make a realistic assessment as to what is happening and why, carbon trading schemes and taxpayer subsidies are a ridiculous way to solve the problem.

Gratefully, Europe appears to be abandoning the mass hysteria. It's probably the only smart thing European Commission president José Manuel Barroso has ever done while in that role.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com