Climate: Making Money w/o Producing Value

Some may be wondering why the Copenhagen Climate Conference goes ahead while ignoring the mounting evidence that the "crisis" data was faked from the start. The answer is simply that too much money is at stake for any involved to let it go.

Making money by producing value is hard. Making money by scaring people is relatively easy. In using Warrior's Rules, we call it leveraging emotions (8.5 Leveraging Emotions).

The release of the CRU emails showing the the founding fathers of global warming were cooking the books from day one. Since the CRU claims to have lost the original data, people have started to go back to the source data from weather stations. In both Australia and Russia, they found a clear pattern of data manipulation. Analysis of the computer models and statistical methods used are demonstrating nothing but problems. So, why don't national leaders slink away in embarrassment?

Simply because there is too much money involved. If we understand people's motivations, we can predict their reactions (1.6.2 Types of Motivations). Large rewards will encourage people to take larger risks (8.0 Winning Rewards). And these people will risk more to prevent loss of that money than in trying to get it.

It is a perfect storm of science, politics, and economics.

  • For climate scientists, Global Warming has created billions of dollars of funding that have given them power and prestige in the scientific community that they have never had and really don't deserve in terms of the value that they create.
  • For smaller companies, it is an opportunity to stick it to large countries demanding billions in foreign aid.
  • And for the leaders of large countries, it is an opportunity for posturing and taxing their populations to pay for government spending that is already out of control everywhere.