It’s tempting to invoke the Al Gore Rule – citing weather anecdotes, such as Hurricane Katrina, as proof of long-term trends. We’ve just shivered through what the venerable New York Times called “The Summer That Isn’t”. Temperatures from Boston to Buenos Aires Aires hit century lows. Even climatologist Michael Mann, famed for his “hockey stick” graphs showing sharp rises in temperatures in recent history, now writes that global temperatures will continue to decline for at least another decade.

But tackling climate change through a coordinated energy policy remains vital, especially because China and India, and other developing countries, are certain to resist any international carbon policy that would restrict their growth. Even if predictions by the same scientists who mis-predicted the current cooling trend are exaggerated, taking no action could prove catastrophic. We need to buy insurance. But what kind?

The American Clean Energy and Security Act is a farce. The cap-and-trade slop now before the US Senate known as the Waxman-Markey bill requires the wholesale remaking of the entire energy sector over the next four decades, at huge expense, and with a guarantee, sadly, that it will not fulfil its central goal of significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

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