Professor Stiglitz nicely illustrates central dilemmas of contemporary US politics: stuck between the lunatic left and the lunatic right. In the world of the lunatic left, it is all about global warming, in and of itself, the most classic example of cargo cult science and/or the madness of crowds of the well fed and comfortably kept variety. On the right side, it is all about defending failed (again) economic philosophy through the propaganda of scapegoating ,which happens to meet the operational definition of fascism.



In the middle, are the rest of us. As the political world around us is spinning out of control, soon to be followed by the next economic downturn, perhaps a nice little nuclear war, we the little people are wondering, will the madness ever end? Do I really have to go into politics as my second calling? Is this all that is left? Or head for the hills and buy some canned food while I can? Gold? Bitcoin?



In the world of actual reality, the world remains full of want. The world population has more than doubled in my lifetime, mostly in the developing world, and these hungry masses are competing with us, the comfortable and fat ones, for scarce resources. They want to be like us. This added pressure on resources puts downward pressure on our living standards. This is what globalization is actually about. The US ,with 5% of world population ,still consumes about 20% of world oil production. About 50% of this oil is imported. Thanx to fracking it is not 80%, but it is still half. We still have some ways to go in that downward spiral unless something is done about it, current oil prices notwithstanding. As the spiral progresses with elites either focused on the preservation of their privilege or on quixotic quests to control the weather by shutting down the civilization, the unnerved masses become ever more vulnerable to the fascist persuasion. It is well past time to end excesses on both ends of the political spectrum and focus on the plight of these masses. Really focus on their plight, realistically focus on their plight. When we do, we will have no trouble agreeing that we cannot eliminate fossil fuels, or even particularly limit their use, in our lifetime. Actually ,what we do need to do is supplement these fuels with new technologies, which happen to be technologies of the "green" kind. This will allow us to stretch available fossil fuels and help the developing world by leaving more of said fuels for their own use.



Coming back to the hurricanes, which provide another opportunity for self righteous climate flogging of the climate sociopaths and assorted witches, they are neither stronger nor more frequent than well documented past events. They may be more destructive of property, though not lives, because too many people are allowed to build on flood planes while expecting an economic bailout when it floods. Lack of realistic zoning plays a major role as well, as does upending of the environment that used to soak all that water up. Here the professor has a valid point.



The presidency of Donald Trump should have been a wake up call to the left but so far, it seems, the message has not gotten through. It is the economy, not the weather, that we need to focus on. We also need to stop debasing science with climate hyperboles, while complaining that the rotten public no longer believes the scientists. There is no definitive proof and not even a good hint that small increases in carbon dioxide concentrations due to human activity control or substantially influence the weather. Nothing. Nada. There is a relatively small group of people with PhD degrees that have been riding this theory as a career booster, and a much larger group of political opportunists that see to good an opportunity to pass up. Lets put all of that where it belongs, somewhere between the trash bin of history and a museum of the bizarre and focus on our real problems. Our real problem is rising fascist threat in the nuclear world. While not exclusively, this threat is at least partially underwritten by economic issues. Focus, like a laser beam, on those. Our self preservation may very well depend on our focus.