Warming not worth a lousy buck

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Last updated on August 6th, 2017 at 05:31 am

The latest New York Times/CBS poll finds:

Americans in large bipartisan numbers say the heating of the earth’s atmosphere is having serious effects on the environment now or will soon and think that it is necessary to take immediate steps to reduce its effects …

Yes – steps must be taken immediately. These effects are serious! But, hey, let’s not do anything crazy:

By large margins, respondents opposed an increase in pump prices of $2 a gallon, or even $1, to deal with environmental and energy-supply concerns.

UPDATE. In other poll news:

The French dislike themselves even more than the Americans dislike them, according to an opinion poll published on Friday.

UPDATE II. In yet more French poll news:

A poll recently conducted by an American university sent shock waves through the Finance Ministry in Paris. Researchers found that only just over a third of French people think a free market economy is the best system to develop the country.

Hit that link to view a BBC caption for the ages: “Students Laurent and Florence object to capitalist solutions.”

Posted by Tim B. on 04/27/2007 at 05:03 AM
    1. Most people will give what they think is the ‘right’ answer to a survey question. But follow this with a request for their money…hey, where’d everybody go?

      Posted by CO² max on 2007 04 27 at 05:26 AM • permalink

 

    1. I wonder just how large those margins were? The NYT/CBS pollsters have probably never had to write the phrase “100% of respondents opposed….”

      Posted by Arty on 2007 04 27 at 05:43 AM • permalink

 

    1. If only there was some way to offset all that evil glowargas.
      (via AoS)

      Posted by lotocoti on 2007 04 27 at 06:17 AM • permalink

 

    1. There’s no substitute for commitment. What their movement needs is Sally Struthers. She’s managed to gain 300 pounds while begging for cash for starving African babies, just think how much she could gain by doing the same for Ghia. On second thought, never mind. Al Gore is already fattening-up off of that teat.

      Posted by Texas Bob on 2007 04 27 at 06:55 AM • permalink

 

    1. I’ve just finished watching Part 8 of The Great Global Warming Swindle (found it on Youtube). I have a cunning plan….

      I was thinking of doing a study of, oh, Bonking in Relation to Climate Change, I reckon I can get a shitload of money for it. And it’ll be a rorta serious study that I can throw myself into. In fact I might even make it my PhD thesis, “Does climate change affect the bonking habits of Aussies?”
      I smell money….

      Posted by kae on 2007 04 27 at 07:25 AM • permalink

 

    1. Shame I don’t have Hons.

      Or a Bachelor’s degree.

      Posted by kae on 2007 04 27 at 07:26 AM • permalink

 

    1. Or a bonk!

      Posted by Pogria on 2007 04 27 at 07:30 AM • permalink

 

    1. Frog-buggering bastards! Don’t they know their self-proclaimed betters just know it’s good for them?

      They can make baby Gaia smile for a lousy dollar a gallon and won’t do it.

      Heretics! Smite them with mighty hippy mojo!

      <Hmm. mebbe that’s mighty hippy B.O.??>

      MarkL
      Canberra

      Posted by MarkL on 2007 04 27 at 07:30 AM • permalink

 

    1. And nobody remark on the mighty stench of Sheryl ‘skidmarks’ Crowe, OK?

      MarkL
      Canberra

      Posted by MarkL on 2007 04 27 at 07:33 AM • permalink

 

    1. OK

      Posted by Pogria on 2007 04 27 at 07:34 AM • permalink

 

    1. Just as long as somebody else pays for it…

      Reminds me of a big hoo-haa a few years back when a mining company wanted to quarry a mountain the central Queensland.  There was a colony of ghost bats in one of the caves in the mountain.  The Australian Conservation Foundation (read Pinko, Poofo, Commo, Greeno ferals) and their media mates immediately swung into action using all the typical scare tactics about how the colony would be destroyed (which it since hasn’t), it was the last colony on the planet (which it wasn’t), the mining company were environmental vandals (again untrue) etc etc.

      As per usual, the majority of the Queensland public bought into the Greenie line.  All sorts of opinion polls showed 80% of the public were against the quarry going ahead.

      Anyhow, the ACF tried to get an injunction in the Queensland Supreme Court to stop the quarry.  To lodge the injunction was going to cost $600.  That’s six-zero-zero dollars i.e. absolutely SFA…

      Blow me down! Lo’ and behold nobody wanted to cough up the dough.  The injunction wasn’t lodged and the campaign disappeared.

      Posted by murph on 2007 04 27 at 07:54 AM • permalink

 

    1. #7

      Oh, yeah, and that too.

      Posted by kae on 2007 04 27 at 08:01 AM • permalink

 

    1. Id love to see a comedy channel try a “gaia juice” petrol station for a day with double the normal price and big banners out the front full of GW slogans and carbon credit mantras.
      Then see how much custom they got, to add to the joke do it in Canberra or byron bay and see how many of the “caring classes” detoured around it.
      Then a week later put a big out of business sign up with a couple of articles in the local paper saying it shut down because of poor sales, how heartless people were, yadda yadda.
      Then as a final bit of icing on the cake open a halliburton fuel franchise selling fuel at half price on the same spot.

      I think it would be comedy gold!

      Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 04 27 at 08:02 AM • permalink

 

    1. Here in Vermont, I am expecting Democrat party dominance to end the day they enact their proposed tax on heating oil. That’s right, heating oil. Unfortunately, they are probably not stupid enough to actually do it.

      Posted by moptop on 2007 04 27 at 08:05 AM • permalink

 

    1. Under The Whip is right.

      People will also tell you they should take steps to lose weight, quit smoking, cut back on drinking, get more exercise, give more to the poor, spend more quality time with the wife and kids, get invovled in their communities, clean out the garage, stop cursing and write that novel they’ve always felt was in side them.

      And these are things that don’t cost any money . . .

      Posted by cosmo on 2007 04 27 at 08:31 AM • permalink

 

    1. By large margins, respondents opposed an increase in pump prices of $2 a gallon, or even $1, to deal with environmental and energy-supply concerns.

      Damn straight.  Especially when it WON’T “deal with environmental and energy-supply concerns.” But it would make the lefties feel better, and feelings are all that matter, don’tca know.

      Posted by Barbara Skolaut on 2007 04 27 at 08:39 AM • permalink

 

    1. #11 murph – now that’s just freakin’ funny.

      And totally unsurprising.

      Posted by Barbara Skolaut on 2007 04 27 at 08:42 AM • permalink

 

    1. I am perfectly willing to make sacrifices.  In fact I will go so far as to live the lifestyle of Al Gore, or John Edwards or John Travolta.

      However, I ain’t compromising on toilet paper.

      Posted by rbj1 on 2007 04 27 at 08:48 AM • permalink

 

    1. Do I ever get polled on what I think about global warming?  Fuck no!

      All I ever get is questions like “Hey Joe, If I supply the plutonium can you…” or “Hey Joe, you know the ‘Dial-A-Yield’ thingy, can you give it a citrus smell? something lemony maybe?

      Damn Philistines.

      Posted by joe bagadonuts on 2007 04 27 at 08:49 AM • permalink

 

    1. I think the answer is voluntary energy conservation. Keep banging the drum and teach all the little kiddies in school to go home and tell mommy that every time she drives the minivan a polar bear cub dies.

      With demand down, prices fall through the floor, and I can fill my Saturn Vue with gas at $1.09 a gallon. Passing the poor conservationists on bicycles I shall light my cigar with copies of “An Inconvenient Truth” and yell out the window, “SUCKERS!”

      Posted by SoberHT on 2007 04 27 at 09:20 AM • permalink

 

    1. Oh, sure, people are willing spend someone else’s money on a problem.  After all, ain’t that what them earth lurvin’, Gulfstream flyin’, carbon indulgence buyin’* celebrities are always doing?

      ======================
      *: lotocoti, I caught that earlier!  Gee, gerbil warmening is a scam?!??!! Who woulda thunk it?

      Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 04 27 at 09:30 AM • permalink

 

    1. Apparently the prevailing theory is that military strategy should be determined by polls, so it is not a stretch to say that scientific knowledge can be based on polls as well.

      Posted by Latino on 2007 04 27 at 09:36 AM • permalink

 

    1. I would have thought that resistance to paying more for petrol was well known in media circles.

      After all, everytime the petrol price went up last year, they proclaimed that it was “bad news for the federal government”.  ie, John Howard was going to get the boot because punters supposedly don’t like high petrol prices.

      And then they do a survey and find out that – duh – punters don’t want to pay more for petrol.

      It’s like someone replaced their brains with those of goldfish.

      I guess their justification is that the voters didn’t like the HoWARd price increases because of our involvement in Iraq, but they won’t mind prices going up even more if the media tells us it is all so very necessary.

      Yeah right.

      Strike goldfish.  Brains like squids.

      Posted by mr creosote on 2007 04 27 at 09:50 AM • permalink

 

    1. Hmmmm……

      The only way to do a cap and trade scheme well is to make it revenue neutral, greatly reducing income taxes, and making income taxes much more progressive at the same time.  However, there is still the problem that much of the tax burden would fall onto businesses and industry (which has very slim margins), this would fuck up their risk-return equations and could lead to less growth.

      Posted by aaron_ on 2007 04 27 at 09:52 AM • permalink

 

    1. risk-return calculations

      Posted by aaron_ on 2007 04 27 at 09:54 AM • permalink

 

    1. #6 Kae, based on the assignments I’m currently doing, Bachelors degrees are sadly and enormously overrated.

      Of course, that’s based solely on the assignments I’m doing. As my example, I present to you the essay question for Analysis of a Business Environment:

      Social Responsibility: All businesses owe an obligation to the society in which they operate. Discuss, with reference to the pros and cons of being socially responsible.

      Surely there’s no way to fail that essay while remaining even faintly on topic. I might write about oil companies and how all their carbon release is causing the world to heat up and how it’s all Bush’s fault, and therefore they should be socially responsible by stopping trade and encouraging us to live in caves.

      Posted by Ash_ on 2007 04 27 at 10:07 AM • permalink

 

    1. If we did not have the French to hate, we would have to invent them.

      Posted by SoberHT on 2007 04 27 at 10:50 AM • permalink

 

    1. Thursday’s poll said 74 percent of Americans said whoever wins the second round of France’s presidential election on May 6 should try to improve relations with the United States.

      Why?  What do the French have that we need?

      It’s no wonder they don’t believe in a free market system.  Under capitalism, they’d actually have to work.

      Posted by RebeccaH on 2007 04 27 at 10:57 AM • permalink

 

    1. The French dislike themselves even more than the Americans dislike them…

      Hard to believe, isn’t it? But it’s probably true. I don’t dislike “the French”, but I can’t stand their piss-poor excuse for a government.

      Posted by mojo on 2007 04 27 at 10:59 AM • permalink

 

    1. (But Of Course We Love Monsieur Kerry)

      We are lovers, my friend, we are French.
      We love ennui, corruption, and stench.
      We crave, as a nation,
      Humiliation;
      Our lust for defeat we can’t quench.

      Posted by lyle on 2007 04 27 at 11:26 AM • permalink

 

    1. #30 Lyle, that was fantastic!

      Posted by Ash_ on 2007 04 27 at 11:31 AM • permalink

 

    1. OT, but funny, in a sad kind of way.  It appears that tin foil hats are not enough, veils are now needed.

      Posted by rbj1 on 2007 04 27 at 11:33 AM • permalink

 

    1. Merci, Ash.

      Posted by lyle on 2007 04 27 at 11:40 AM • permalink

 

    1. #9 MarkL made me do it.

      The Lonely Pop Star’s Night Out

      Alone at a bar in mid-town,
      She ponders the cost of renown,
      ‘I’m such a big star,
      They lust from afar,
      Plus my two middle fingers are brown.’

      Posted by lyle on 2007 04 27 at 11:49 AM • permalink

 

    1. f*&k the fwench, I want a rematch, I KNOW we can dislike them more than they dislike themselves…….improve relations by removing the knife from my back first.

      And which idiots are they interviewing about Gerbil Warmongering anyway??  Everybody around here jokes about that shit…….

      Posted by Old Tanker on 2007 04 27 at 11:56 AM • permalink

 

    1. 5 kae

      I would imagine a hole whole lot of that depends on the bonkee and the bonker. Typically porn ummmm, bonkee and bonker flics, do make a great deal of fbucks. Oh, and that “smell”….ummm never mind.

      Posted by El Cid on 2007 04 27 at 12:40 PM • permalink

 

    1. “Students Laurent and Florence object to capitalist solutions.”

      Translation: These “students” have never worked a day in their lives, and don’t feel a need to start anytime soon.

      Posted by Tex Lovera on 2007 04 27 at 12:58 PM • permalink

 

    1. Warming not worth what AP calls “jet-pooling” either.

      Pro-environment Candidates Fly to Presidential Debate on Separate Planes.

      Posted by C.L. on 2007 04 27 at 01:03 PM • permalink

 

    1. C.L.

      There’s only so much ‘shit’, that a plane can hold. And I certainly can commiserate, with the plane.

      Posted by El Cid on 2007 04 27 at 01:12 PM • permalink

 

    1. These attitudes have troubled Finance Minister Thierry Breton so much that he has decided to create a new organisation to make his fellow citizens more market friendly. It has got a distinctively Gallic name: Codice, or the Council for the Diffusion of Economic Culture.

      Codice:Communist dickheads everywhere

      Posted by CO² max on 2007 04 27 at 01:58 PM • permalink

 

    1. #26
      Hi Ash_
      Hmm, sounds like one of the Lessons in Marketing. We looked at The Body Shop a well known toiletries manufacturer and retailer, and how it’s founder put sooooooo much back into developing countries…
      It made me angry that this was held up as a fine example of doing good.
      “Yes, we pay the peasants 50c for their Shea Butter, and we sell it in the shop for $35. That’s fair.”
      I became ill that winter and never returned to class (too many other things on my plate at the time).

      Posted by kae on 2007 04 27 at 06:06 PM • permalink

 

    1. #34

      Lyle, that’s hilarious!

      markL Canberra

      Posted by MarkL on 2007 04 27 at 10:06 PM • permalink

 

    1. #41
      G’day Kae.

      It doesn’t sound like you would have missed much in the class anyway. I can understand how it is a good thing for companies to help out the communities they exist in, but there’s a point, reached very quickly, when it becomes all about the warm fuzzy feelings that the consumer gets from buying from a company that’s good.

      Posted by Ash_ on 2007 04 28 at 02:16 AM • permalink

 

    1. Oh, looky here, Oxfam coffee harms poor farmers in today’s Australian.

      Posted by kae on 2007 04 28 at 05:00 AM • permalink

 

    1. Kae, that’s pretty interesting. It also doesn’t surprise me at all.

      If you own/run a company and you want to be seen to be doing good, actually try doing some good. If you buy the goods for 50c per item off the supplier, and sell it for $20 per item, forfeit your profit by donating it to charity, etc. Or here’s a radical thought: pay your supplier more.

      Posted by Ash_ on 2007 04 28 at 07:48 AM • permalink

 

    1. Yeah, Ash_. Same as the shonky day of profits from Woolworthlesses to the farmers.
      Bullshit. Try paying a fairer price to the farmers in the first place, and stop gouging the customers!

      Posted by kae on 2007 04 28 at 08:48 AM • permalink

 

    1. Frankly I think the whole France situation is sad. We are watching a slow-motion tragedy unfold before our eyes, as a once-great nation slides into decline.
      I really hope they can turn it around.
      I hope that there’s some kind of crisis, or shock, that will motivate social and economic change. Europe and the world would be much better off if France was once again a dynamic, growing, capitalistic supporter of democracy and the West.
      Can it happen again? Let’s hope so.
      But there seems to be an air of resignation, even fatalism, about France’s future.

      Posted by daddy dave on 2007 04 28 at 11:31 PM • permalink

 

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