Thread:Comments:Dale Ogden, 2010 California gubernatorial candidate, talks with Wikinews/On global warming

Just thought I'd point out that not all libertarians, or even all Libertarian Party members, are in agreement with Mr. Ogden's views on global warming. My own views are more in line with those of the Cato Institute perhaps most cogently summarized in the "Climate of Extremes: Global Warming Science They Don't Want You to Know" book.

The central thesis is that there is some degree of human contribution to global warming, but that it's small and that the degree of warming itself is also small and won't have sufficiently dramatic effects to justify the extremely burdensome remedies often proposed and advanced, which would in any case have very modest or negligible effects themselves.

I also believe that market forces created by decline in the supply of fossil fuels will motivate exploration of alternatives without the help of regulation. In fact, these alternatives already show significant promise at current energy prices, though there's still a need to develop the technology to maturity. In a way, it's a good thing that the reserves are finite, because if they were not, the growth trend of fuel usage, extrapolated sufficiently far into the future, would indeed bring about the catastrophe that climate change proponents predict. The increasing costs of extraction and viability of alternatives will, however, dampen the rate of growth of fuel consumption and the "end of the world" will run out of gas, to most people's relief.