Just like clockwork

Sure as the sun rises in the East whenever there’s a heat wave you can depend on the New York Times to write an editorial about global warming. Everybody knows it’s a problem! President Bush is dragging his feet! Why won’t he take steps now to prevent calamity in the future?!?

Then you tell the Times that the mathematical insolvency of Social Security meets the same criteria of a long-term problem and she looks around and whistles.

The editorial is an object lesson in moralistic grandstanding: “something must be done!” But what and at what cost? Betsy Newmark links to Bjorn Lomberg’s review on the cost and tradeoffs of climate policies which – at best – spend billions to delay global warming by a couple of years. It’s a fundamental question that fails to penetrate the NY Times editorial page: should we spend $150 billion a year to implement Kyoto or should we spend that money for agricultural development and disease research? Unfortunately, the Cult of Kyoto more resembles a religion than an objective movement.