Before Al Gore became a full-fledged minister in the church of environmentalism, he had that other Truth monoplizing his discourse.   "I'm going to put a lockbox on Social Security," he said.   Of course that was a foolish statement but it was effective in terms of persuading millions of senior citizens to vote for him.   The media didn't question it and they still haven't.   Unfortunately the day of reckoning, about which there is a real consensus, is approaching rapidly.   Whereas there is plenty of disagreement about just how high the seas will be in 2050, there is little doubt that the SS system will be broken by then.   We can only hope that Gore's current dialogue on global warming faces more scrutiny than the lockbox comment.

The very notion of a lockbox on Social Security is an example of an unsustainable act.   If you really put a lockbox on this entitlement, beneficiaries would receive $100 a month - payback for what they put in plus the meager earnings yielded by fixed interest federal debt investments.   Nobody who receives benefits today just gets back what they put in.   It is a wealth redistribution system.

Social Security is a joke when compared to what it was supposed to be back in the days of the "New Deal" when it was invented.   It was supposed to be a way to deal with the poverty rate for seniors and keep that below 50%.   Today many well-healed retirees collect the entitlement.   In practice, it isn't so much a retirement plan as it is welfare for the elderly and a little extra cash for those who don't need it.   A retired worker does not get back the money they paid into the system.   They get a payout from current workers.   And as healthcare continues to extend life expectancy, a greater and greater burden falls upon those currently employed.   It just isn't sustainable unless we drastically injcrease the working age population and hold the average age of death where it is or peel it back a few years.   That's not going to happen.   The system is going to crash.   It is a mathematical certainty.   The same can't be said for global warming.

At this point I should probably drop the term "global warming" because what we are really interested in is "climate change," isn't it?   Global warming is too simple of a way of describing the phenomenon Gore is talking about.   His concerns aren't limited to the planet just being hotter.   His biggest concern is that the thermohaline circulation will be stopped dead in its tracks causing all sorts of apocalyptic weather scenarios.   of course, we don't know the entire picture for the thermohaline circulation but that doesn't stop Gore from talking about it as if he knows exactly what makes it tick.   He's pretty sure it is going to happen unless everyone immediately trades their incandescent light bulbs for CFLs, swaps SUVs for hybrids, and buys into "carbon offsets" like those offered by the company he runs.

Gore is hardly the only opportunist working the climate change beat.   Even self-described conservatives use it for photo op.s.   Obviously self-appointed US diplomat Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi has made it a centerpiece of her platform.   So has fellow Californian Barbara Boxer and a litany of other liberals.   But even John McCain takes the opportunity to stand on it.   He wasn't about to be upstaged when several other Senators went to Alaska to check out the effects of global warming which apparently were not only real but occurring already.   These members of Congress stood in mud for pictures next to homes sinking into the defrosting tundra and declared they were going to do something about it.   Where are they today when parts of Alaska have other concerns?

The Kodiak Daily Mirror published a story Wednesday regarding something Alaskans are really worried about.   They are concerned about the lox they provide to the people in the lower 48 as well as many other places on Earth.   They believe they have identified a trend which may cause their salmon harvest to drop significantly.   The trouble was this past year's record low termperatures.   It seems some of the most important salmon species are not very "evolved" and do not take care to put their eggs in a safe place.   "This past winter and early spring has been one of the colder on record" and as a result, many pink salmon eggs froze beyond their ability to survive.   Fishery managers believe this is going to result in a drastically reduced fishery in 2008.   Their concern is not limited to the frigid temperatures, "similar to some of those very cold winters we had in the '70s."   Aggitionally, fishery folks are worried about the overall lower temperature of the water which slows fish development.   Fish being cold blooded have slower metabolism when temperatures are lower.

I'm not sure how we can reconcile the reported freezing cold winter of Alaskan fisheries with the collapsing homes in the melting permafrost.   The climate in Alaska is, I suppose, quite variable.   But one thing is for sure, the lox Al Gore serves is going to cost a lot more in 2008, leaving him far less money for carbon offset investments and perhaps pricing the delicacy too high to be afforded by those reaping the benefits of a Social Security lockbox.

Labels: environmentalism, global warming