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What gets me is the assumption that reducing likely human contribution to global warming would "trash the American economy." It would do nothing of the sort. It would SHIFT the American economy away from industries that currently make shitloads of money with polluting technologies, and toward "clean" industries, those that develop technologies to replace and/or compete with the dirty ones. It's not a matter of ruining the economy, it's a matter of shifting the balance away from some fairly entrenched interests. Incidentally, the economic impact of running environmentally clean industries is ALL short-term. The long-term consequences of adopting cleaner technologies are almost always a net gain for the company, it's just that CEOs and shareholders seem to look at the short term. Ford motors, oddly enough, is actually a leader in "green" industry technologies, and they're realizing tons of benefits. Fuji and Kodak cleaned up their acts about 5-10 years back and got huge economic benefits. This "wrecking the American economy" argument is just a screen for protecting the immediate interests of the petroleum, power, and auto industries.
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"If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
- Anatole France
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