Global warming: Crooks targeting crooks ...

I’ve got a bridge to sell you …

If you believe the man’s puny efforts at energy generation affect the global climate more than the Sun’s variable output, the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, the precession and rotation dynamics of the Earth, the plate tectonics and volcanic activity, the behavior of ocean currents and the most prevalent of greenhouse gases, water vapor, I have a used bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

It is more about politics and money than it is science …

For the local, state and federal governments, environmentalism is all about seeking greater political control of the country and its citizens, being able to enlarge the scope and size of government, raising tax revenues, establishing an “elite” ruling class and curtailing individual freedoms.

For the special interests, it is all about gaining access to the public purse in seeking monopolies over energy and other sectors of the economy, of obtaining grants, tax relief and pricing subsidies. About being able to earn outrageous executive bonuses for little or no real work and to pass along all taxes and supplemental costs to the ratepayers – and by extension, the general public.

For the gross polluters, it is all about continuing to pollute by purchasing governmental indulgences which allow the continuation of pollution – without increasingly expensive anti-pollution equipment or plant shut-downs.

And for the Wall Street traders, it is about creating derivatives which are backed by nothing more than smoke and mirrors (pun intended) and trading these back and forth to earn large trading commissions and a handsome return on your efforts when a polluter needs protection from the government’s regulatory watchdogs.

So it appears ironic to see crooks targeting other crooks …

As reported by Wired.com …

“Credit card numbers are so passé. Today’s hackers know the real powerhouse data to steal is emission certificates.”

“That’s exactly what hackers went after last week when they obtained unauthorized access to online accounts where companies maintain their carbon credits, according to the German newspaper Der Spiegel.”

The hackers launched a targeted phishing attack against employees of numerous companies in Europe, New Zealand and Japan, which appeared to come from the German Emissions Trading Authority. The workers were told that their companies needed to re-register their accounts with the Authority, where carbon credits and transactions are recorded.

When workers entered their credentials into a bogus web page linked in the e-mail, the hackers were able to hi-jack the credentials to access the companies’ Trading Authority accounts and transfer their carbon credits to two other accounts controlled by the hackers.

Permission to pollute …

“Under environmental cap-and-trade laws, there’s a limit to the greenhouse gases companies can emit. Companies that exceed this limit can purchase so-called carbon credits from entities that produce fewer greenhouse emissions than the limit provides them.”

A profitable scheme created out of thin air…

“The scheme has produced a robust market for the trade of credits. More than 8 million tons of CO2 emissions worth $130 billion were traded in Europe last year.”

And that does not include the American market which promises to be five or more times larger than the European market …

According to the BBC, it’s estimated the hackers stole 250,000 carbon credit permits  from six companies worth more than $4 million.

Crooks on all sides of the transaction …

“The credits were resold for an undisclosed sum. The buyers, who likely believed the transactions were legitimate, haven’t been named.”

Just imagine the fraud potential of someone with nothing more than a computer, Internet access, a bank account and a printer …

Phony companies generating phony carbon credits to sell to polluters is just the tip of the iceberg. With governments doing little or nothing to curtail the fraud as long as taxes are paid on the so-called emission credits.

Bottom line …

Global warming is nothing more than a scheme hatched by corrupt or complacent environmentalists whose ranks have been infiltrated by socialists, communists and anarchists to pursue a toxic political agenda, control national economies and create and monetize a wealth redistribution scheme which sucks money out of developing countries (which they hope to control) in favor of under-developed nations (which they do control). All under the auspices of a corrupt United Nations which will receive billions of dollars to make this institution self-sustaining and less subject to the financial whims of its member nations.

Unless one can prove that carbon dioxide – a life-sustaining gas – is an environmental hazard, the scheme will collapse under its own weight. Even now, a rise in carbon dioxide and a slight rise in temperature would have beneficial effects on the Earth and its population.

Remember this when the democrats, once again, attempt to gain or maintain their political power with a phony cap-and-trade bill.

-- steve

Reference Links …

Hackers Steal Millions in Carbon Credits | Threat Level | Wired.com

Comments

[crow]

Let's see we have Easter Island and man distroyed it, the Maya civilation destroyed themselves with deforestation and now we are a global world. WE have the Pacific Garbage Island in the Pacific which is twice the size of the US filed with plastics created by oil. WE have had drought in the southwest for almost 5 years, WE have had Katrina in the US because the ocean temperatures have risen, WE have 150 species becoming extinct on a daily basis, WE had 3 billion people in the 70's and today WE have 6.7 billion people on this little planet WE live on. WE collective as a species on this planet have choose to do this. Are WE collectively going to what we can to save this little planet WE live on or are going to continue to deny WE have a problem an make it worse. It is our chose as humans to do that. It takes each individual to do that. You live a plastic bottle on the beach and a million others do the same you now have a million plastic bottles in the ocean. WE all need to take responsiblity for our actions.
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Where to start? First let me thank you for reading my blog entry and responding. It is through conversations such as this that we can fill-in the gaps in our personal knowledge and enlarge our rumination over the human condition.

Now to your points ...

We do not know what caused the abandonment of Easter Island nor do we know why the Mayan civilization declined.If you are pointing to a weather-related causation, you might also consider the introduction of European diseases for which there was no indigenous immunity. Or the mismanagement of natural resources by the civilization's political leaders. Anyway, these items are highly speculative and do not make your point.

As for all of the man-made garbage, I am definitely against pollution: be it of the land, sea or air. Providing government-sanctioned indulgences to gross polluters so they can continue their polluting ways is not the way to control climate nor pollution.

I would suggest that it was not man's activites which brought about drought and hurricanes -- but a global weather system created by the Sun's variable output, the Earth's orbit, precession and rotation dynamics, plate tectonics and volcanic activity, deep ocean currents, and that most prevalent of greenhouse gasses -- water vapor (aka clouds). Look to ocean currents for your hurricane problems. If you think man can control the rise of ocean temperatures, you might want to first stop earthquakes. -- I am being sarcastic if you didn't recognize it.

Nature and evolutionary dynamics tends to control the extinction process, especially when you consider that man is part of the ecosystem. We are still discovering new species and why a particular species goes extinct might simply mean that their supportative habitat is not adequate for the task. I will not engage in a man vs. beast argument because the food chain has always been a self-regulating hirearchy.

For example: why the scientists spend millions of dollars to preserve the California Condor (think large ugly buzzard-type scavenger) speaks more to preserving their jobs more than it does to maintain these outdoor pets. Yes, they are pets because they must be fed by man's efforts rather than exist in the wild by themselves. Just a side note: we keep inbreeding the same three matriarchal lines and are introducing genetic damage which makes for weaker non-adaptive birds.

I agree that we all need to be good stewards of our natural resources and that there are evil-doers in the world who pollute. It is the artificial political crap based on nothing more than a wildly speculative hypothesis that pisses me off. And the special interests who capitalize on this politcal crap to increase their power and profits.

Sorry, this is the best I can do. If you are a "population control" guy or one who believes the problem with Mother Earth is man -- I think you need a course in religion and leave the science to non-political scientists. Thanks again for responding. Steve

-- If you want to continue the discussion, feel free to contact me again; either by comments or by the e-mail link under the little American boy.