Carbon and the lynch mob

---by Micheal

The mob is all worked up. The rabble rousers preach from their soap boxes about impending ruin unless "someone does something." The mob wants to lynch someone, anyone, to avert the prophesied ruin. The soapboxers point at carbon. "There he is! Get him!" Everyone takes off with torches and pitchforks in hand. The hunt for the villain d'jour begins.

When did Carbon start wearing a black hat? When I was in school, Carbon was just a humble element on the periodic table, Atomic number 6, stable with 4 outer electrons, etc.. The stuff of graphite and organic molecules. Now, carbon is THE demon which threatens to kill us all. Who'da thunk? He seems like a nice quiet guy, as they always say.

Lynching poor carbon is a fairly recent phenomenon, but a highly suspect one too, judging from the bandwagon rhetoric. The populist theory to explain global warming is to blame "greenhouse gases." Despite the media fiat declaring all scientific debate ended on the matter, there are quite a few scientists who think the warming is due to other factors, not carbon. (The atmosphere of Mars is 95% CO2, and Mars is a very very cold place.)

John Coleman, founder of The Weather Channel, points out that global temperatures started rising around 1880 before carbon dioxide levels increased. How did carbon manage that? Like many lynch mobs, they may be stringing up the wrong guy, but that hasn't usually bothered lynch mobs much. They're upset, so someone must pay.  Doesn't matter who.

Carbon has become the latest nasty thing which the environmentally pious ostentatiously remove from their lives, much like red dye or animal-tested products or transfats used to be. Now to be fashionably correct, one must be "carbon-neutral" or be striving to reduce one's "carbon footprint." Like poor ol' carbon is a toxin. I'm all for reducing oil use, material consumption and increasing recycling, but I'm not buying all this self-righteous gush about halting global weather changes by doing driving a hybrid. Hogwash.

You just watch. This rush to lynch poor carbon will result in a flurry of "new" products touting their "low-carbon" this or "carbon-neutral" that. Of course, Low Carbon Super Ultra Regular Bleach will be the exact same product it was before it was "low-carbon", but that won't matter. Flocks of well-meaning, but woefully uniformed people will plunk down buckets of dollars for all these scam products thinking that they're making a difference. It won't make one whit of difference.

You're certainly free to buy Carbon-Lite toaster pastries or Low-Carbon Latte, but if you think you're somehow saving the world through pious consumerism, you're not. You're just making some hucksters rich.