TT`s Lost in Tokyo : Reisman

The Road Not Taken V: Libertarian hatred of misanthropic "watermelons" and the productive love of aloof ad-homs

TokyoTom — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:03:00 GMT

I copy below a comment I just left at Stephan Kinsella`s post on the main LvMI Blog, "Physicist Howard Hayden's one-letter disproof of global warming claims", which I have discussed here in several preceeding posts.

TokyoTom Published: November 4, 2009 10:54 PM (minor edits; links added)

Stephan:

- "They, like you, accept the state's line and are happy to cede power to the state to "make things better.""

Except I DON`T "accept the state`s line", nor am I "happy to cede power to the state", which is precisely why I bother to interrupt your fantasies here.

This, in fact, represents the fallacy that is at work in climate change discussions here - and that almost completely vitiates the libertarian message - namely, that if one concurs that we`ve got a potential problem, then they must then agree to the statist agenda.

So instead of any effort to engage ON the libertarian agenda, we get guys like you pandering - with demonstrable nonsense from guys like Harvey - to libertarians who hope the statists and the purported problem will just kindly go away.

What a great way for libertarians to muzzle themselves, and to stand by helplessly instead of weighing in.

Trying to reassure yourself and your buddies that the man with a gun is either deluded or trying to take over the world is hardly either reassuring, or a step on the way to getting him to put the gun down.

Nor is calling those [like me] who think conversation may be more efficiacious a "comrade to rotten watermelons" in any way helpful, unless the goal is simply to reinforce the echo chamber.

Watermelons, ahh, watermelons! How helpful, and so much fun to bandy about this little bit of ad hom! Is it getting time for Austrians once more to gather `round the fire, and roast some watermelons? Holiday joy: roasting "watermelons" on an open pyre! A little eliminationist fantasy [a la Czech physicist Lubos Motl is not that far away ....

As I noted in my above post explaining the use of the "watermelon" ad hom:

"watermelon" is a venerable ad hominem here, useful for Miseseans to put fingers in their ears and dismiss what practically everyone who disagrees with them on climate change - from our national academies of science on down - has to say.

The trick is to first dismiss the evil "enviros" - you know, that class of rent-seekers that Rothbard and others tell us were created when statist corporations managed to subvert common law protections against polution damage to property - by focussing on their efforts to use the state to control corprations, while resolutely ignoring not only corporate statism but what Austrian economics tells us about how markets and private transaction are inefficient with respect to resources that are not clear owned or protected by enforceable property rights.

Then, having dismissed those wacky "watermelons", we can simply ignore everyone else, by jeering at the enviros and thereby implicitly imputing to the whole scientific, economic, business and government community the same malevolent and stupid misanthropism.

Neat trick, isn`t it?

IOW, enviros should be burned at the stake for the heresy of trying to use the state to solve a possible problem, and everyone else, who have gullibly been corrupted by them, ignored. In this way, we can cleanse the body politic and avoid serious mistakes. See?

Serious people know that only irreproachable commentators like Dr. Reisman get to suggest that we use the state to address possible climate change:

"there is a case for considering the possible detonation, on uninhabited land north of 70° latitude, say, of a limited number of hydrogen bombs. ... This is certainly something that should be seriously considered by everyone who is concerned with global warming and who also desires to preserve modern industrial civilization and retain and increase its amenities. If there really is any possibility of global warming so great as to cause major disturbances, this kind of solution should be studied and perfected. Atomic testing should be resumed for the purpose of empirically testing its feasibility."

We can distinguish you from Dr. Reisman, Stephan, since you helpfully insist that the state should not engage in this testing, so that we must first privatize the holding of nuclear weapons, so that firms and individuals, unhindered by the state, can engage in such experimentation. Such clear-mindedness is commendable, since freedom-loving commenters here or elsewhere seldom consider the difficult statist elements implicit in most discussions of active "geo-engineering" to dampen or reverse any climate change problem.

But while we`re on the subject of criticizing "watermelons" and their supposed "comrades"-in-arms, one wonders when aloof purists like you will ever deign to criticize fellow libertarians like Rob Bradley and Bob Murphy, who are also actively engaged in this statist discussion - shame! - but on behalf of the fossil fuel firms and utilities that until now have been the most successful rent-seekers.

So far, all we see with regard to the way libertarians actively defend successful rent-seeking is a studied indifference.

- "now that we have irrelevant credentials out of the way, let's stick to substance."

Absolutely; I was just concerned not to leave you hanging out there on the "irrelevant" limb all by yourself.

Best,

TT

As I noted on the main thread, surely it wouldn`t be helpful if I in like fashion called libertarians who refuse to engage in a principled discussion on the issue of climate policy (preferring instead to comfort themselves with one-page letters that tell us that our massive releases of greenhouse gases. etc. is peachy-keen) "coconuts" - hard on the outside, but empty on the inside?

[Update] Another Clear Thinker at Mises warns us about "The vicious lie behind the global warming scare"!!!

TokyoTom — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:08:00 GMT

This time it`s David Veksler , with a post on the main LvMI blog , with the title I`ve quoted above. Why is it that so many Mises commentators flee from reason and prefer a fever-pitched focus on strawmen when it comes to addressing environmental issues...(read more)

Thank you, Prof. Block, for feeding our confirmation biases

TokyoTom — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:34:00 GMT

Walter Block of Loyola University has graced the main LvMI blog with a rare post, this time a clipping - without commentary - from a piece entitled " Forget global warming: Welcome to the new Ice Age ", by Canadian conservative commentator Lorne...(read more)

Thanks, Dr. Reisman; or, How I Learned to Hate Enviros and Love Tantrums

TokyoTom — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 19:49:00 GMT

In my recent post, " Escape from Reason: are Austrians conservatives, or neocons, on the environment? ", I noted two recent posts by George Reisman and Sean Corrigan and wondered whether a significant number of LvMI blog authors and commenters...(read more)

Escape from Reason: are Austrians conservatives, or neocons, on the environment?

TokyoTom — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 02:27:00 GMT

In their more considerate writings, Austrians have counseled a cool, rational approach to environmental issues. But recent posts lead me to wonder whether a number of LvMI blog authors and commenters prefer hot-headed emotional outbursts and partisan...(read more)

Holiday joy: roasting "watermelons" on an open pyre!

TokyoTom — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 03:32:00 GMT

[snark on] One of Sean Corrigan's threads brings us not only more information on handy Misesean definitions, but a path towards Yuletide joy. (For those of you who have not been reading them, Sean's columns and comment threads are truly gifts...(read more)

John Baden: is this free market enviromentalist stalwart a Mt. Pelerin misanthrope/watermelon?

TokyoTom — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 15:02:00 GMT

...(read more)

Geo-Engineering - a pound of technocrats or an ounce of Gore?

TokyoTom — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 17:07:00 GMT

[update: see additional links at bottom - including to discussions of Austrian concerns]

[update2: at bottom]

Climate change skeptic Benny Peiser of the Liverpool John Moores University recently circulated these links and excerpts via his "CCNet" mailing list (listserver@livjm.ac.uk ("subscribe cambridge-conference")):

CCNet 167/2007 - 8 October 2007

GEO-ENGINEERING: HOW FEASIBLE ARE HIGH-TECH SOLUTIONS?
-----------------------------------------------------

- CAN SCIENCE REALLY SAVE THE WORLD?
Robin McKie and Juliette Jowit, The Observer, 7 October 2007

They are the ultimate technological fixes: schemes that will span our planet and involve scientists in reshaping our world to save it from global warming. Yet only a few years ago, such projects were dismissed as the stuff of science fiction. Today many engineers and researchers - fearful of the rate at which our planet is warming - say geo-engineering projects are now mankind's only hope of saving itself from the impact of climate change.

Geo-engineering is one of the types of thing that are worth investigating. If we can generate 100 ideas, and 97 are bad and we land up with three good ones, then the whole thing will have been worthwhile.
Ken Caldeira, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 7 October 2007

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,,2185343,00.html

- HIGH-TECH SOLUTIONS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE
Sue Carter, The Daily Telegraph, 8 October 2007

Scientists desperate to combat climate change have drawn up high-tech plans which include firing giant mirrors into space and covering the earth in a cloud of sulphur. In the past, such advanced schemes, known as geo-engineering projects, were considered too outrageous to be put into action - but now some scientists believe they may be our last chance to reverse the impact of climate change.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/10/08/sciclimate108.xml

- Benny Peiser, National Museum Cardiff, 6 October 2007

Space-based geoengineering is controllable and reversible at any stage. Solar power generation will overcome the high cost of space-based climate control schemes
http://www.staff.livjm.ac.uk/spsbpeis/Cardiff-Peiser.ppt

- OPINION: THE LAST GREEN TABOO: ENGINEERING THE PLANET
Johann Hari, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 5 October 2007

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/334444_hari07.html

"Geo-engineering" sounds like a bland and technical term but it is actually a Messianic movement to save the world from global warming, through dust and iron and thousands of tiny mirrors in space. It is also the last green taboo. Environmentalists instinctively do not want to discuss it. The wider public instinctively thinks it is mad. But now, the taboo has been breached. James Lovelock, one of the founding fathers of modern environmentalism, proposed a way to slash global warming without cutting back on a single fossil fuel.

[update:]Finally, I note that Dr. Reisman also broached this subject earlier this year, with a thoughtful suggestion that we proceed with a program of open air testing of atom bombs in the Arctic, to confirm possible efficacy in creating a mild "nuclear winter" - just in case:

- March 16, 2007 - Global Warming: Environmentalism’s Threat of Hell on Earth
George Reisman
http://blog.mises.org/archives/006389.asp

- May 30, 2007 - Global Warming Is Not a Threat but the Environmentalist Response to It Is (Full Version)
http://blog.mises.org/archives/006700.asp

There is much further discussion of geo-engineering on these two posts. One commenter (Roger M, now "Fundamentalist") made the following interesting remark: ""During the 3 days that the 9/11 disaster grounded all air travel in the US, a California scientist measured temperatures across the country and found them 3 degrees warmer than normal. He thinks airline contrails block 3% of the sun's energy and cool the earth. In India, pollution reduces the average temp by 10 degrees. So all we need to do to reduce the effects of global warming is fly more and pollute more."
http://blog.mises.org/archives/006389.asp"

I attach here a few further links that I noted there:

- GEOENGINEERING: A CLIMATE CHANGE MANHATTAN PROJECT, Jay Michaelson (Yale JD), Stanford Environmental Law Journal January, 1998; http://www.metatronics.net/lit/geo2.html.
There have of course been many discussions of geoengineering over the past two decades. The topic is gaining interest, espcially after an article by Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen last year. More here, if you are interested:
Climate change: Is this what it takes to save the world? Long marginalized as a dubious idea, altering the climate through 'geoengineering' has staged something of a comeback. http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070508/full/447132a.html#B2

- ALBEDO ENHANCEMENT BY STRATOSPHERIC SULFUR INJECTIONS: A CONTRIBUTION TO RESOLVE A POLICY DILEMMA? Paul Crutzen; http://downloads.heartland.org/19632.pdf

- A Combined Mitigation/Geoengineering Approach to Climate Stabilization, T. M. L. Wigley; http://www.atmosp.physics.utoronto.ca/~jclub/journalclub_files/Wigley_Science_2006.pdf

- Geoengineering Earth's Radiation Balance to Mitigate CO2 Induced Climate Change, Bala Govindasamy and Ken Caldeira Climate and Carbon Cycle Group, Lawerence Livermore National Laboratory; http://geocrisis.com/Geoenigineering%20Earth%20Radiative%20Balance.pdf

- Feasibility of cooling the Earth with a cloud of small spacecraft near the inner Lagrange point (L1), Roger Angel; http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/103/46/17184

- Only mother nature knows how to fertilize the ocean; Natural input of nutrients works ten times better than manmade injections; http://planktonforums.org/viewtopic.php?t=5059
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/21stC/issue-2.1/huyghe.htm
http://geocrisis.com/cpe_geoengineering_menu.htm

- "Climate change: Is this what it takes to save the world? Long marginalized as a dubious idea, altering the climate through 'geoengineering' has staged something of a comeback." http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070508/full/447132a.html#B2

[update2:]

- Global warming fix in can? By Andrew Richards
October 11, 2007; http://washingtontimes.com/article/20071011/CULTURE/110110077/1015

http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0814-gw.html