If there’s one thing that true believers of anthropogenic global warming have in common is true devotion. You might say it has become a religion, its anointed leader, the Reverend Al Gore.

Earlier this year, when the IPCC announced -with considerable alarm- that their latest assessment report made the strongest connection between the increasing levels of anthropogenic greenhouse gases and global increases in temperature we were told that even if we immediately reversed the damage we were doing, it was too little, too late. Al Gore chastised Americans for not doing enough to combat this catastrophic problem. When Canada decided to voluntarily enact cutbacks in emissions, Gore smugly chastised them too, saying they weren’t doing nearly enough.

Ironically, it was noted that Reverend Al’s palatial Tennessee mansion consumed 10 times the energy of the average American household.

When confronted with this bald hypocrisy, Gore had all the answers. Why, while his mansion consumed 10 times the energy, he proclaimed that it was “carbon neutral”. Through the use of carbon “offsets” or credits, he claimed to be living a carbon neutral lifestyle. And by purchasing some of these babies -these credits- you too could theoretically rid yourself of guilt for your pollution by paying for the burning of excess methane or the planting of some trees. And thus, a fraud was born. If this global warming lie was truly due to the damage that we as human beings are doing to our planet due to our polluting ways, then Al Gore has a lot of explaining to do.

To begin with, the “credit” in a carbon credit is not a tangible product. In simple terms, when a mine or waste disposal operation that routinely emits greenhouse gases into the atmosphere voluntarily reduces the amount of pollution in their operations, such as capturing and burning excess methane, the reduction of pollution is then somehow measured, quantified and magically turned -hocus pocus- into a commodity that someone else can purchase. The credits are then supposedly “retired” by converting them into trees that are then planted in reforestation projects or using them to pay for other projects to mitigate the impact of global warming.

Certain sellers of these greenhouse gas credits do publish methodologies on how to quantify the capture and destruction of methane from coal mines and landfills, but the standards that they cite are not readily available to the general public for scrutiny. Many of their methodologies rely upon IPCC standards that are “out of print”. So, while the methodologies explain the formulas used to calculate methane capture and destruction, there can be no independent, public scrutiny of the actual methods used to ensure that those methodologies were in fact followed, which calls their integrity into question.

We’re somehow supposed to just believe that they can not only measure the amount of methane they’re removing from the atmosphere, but they can also account for the amount of “leakage” and quantify the amount of CO2 is being removed through the planting of trees and other measures. Even if everything that pushers of these credits said was true, it simply robs Peter to pay Paul in terms of pollution.

As time goes on, the myth of anthropogenic global warming will continue to unravel. Despite what many liberals believe, conservatives do support common-sense measures to conserve our finite resources and manage our planet in a responsible fashion. But they do not support half-measures at the expense of freedom or progress.

Exactly how many of these carbon credits would Al Gore and his gigantic entourage need to pull off a Live Earth concert series? In order to save the environment from imminent destruction, Al and friends are going to travel around the world burning jet fuel and diesel and generating untold tons of methane-producing garbage and sewage in the process. The hypocrisy exhibited by these sanctimonious zealots is on full display. It’s not really about global warming or how many pollutants are being dumped in the atmosphere. It’s about who’s doing it and how they feel. It’s really about that most basic liberal emotion, white guilt. Nothing more need be said.

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