Yesterday, I was reading through my inbox — including some articles from an upcoming Nature magazine, one of which touted James Hansen, noting how his penchant for saying outrageous things tends to ruffle feathers . . . particularly when he’s right. Knowing Hansen’s utterances and his singular ability to be wrong in doomsday prognosticating as almost no man before him has been, I eagerly read on. When might that have been, I wondered.

Nature cited as its lead example none other than how Hansen burst onto the scene in 1988 warning of his vision, something about trumpeting how he had now detected “the greenhouse effect”. Of course, that is also when he famously provided Congress in the “stagecraft” hearing with three scenarios, from essentially deindustrialization to “doing nothing.” As those not soaking wet from wallowing in the fever swamp know, having “done nothing” — ok, GHG emissions rose faster than projected, maybe less-than-nothing — we’re even cooler than under his deindustrialization scenario. A big oops, in most other circumstances; here, cause for hero worship.

Naturally, my take-away was once again how this industry somehow thrives on watching everything they promised fail to come true — atmospheric temperatures, sea level temperatures, sea level rise, polar warming and ice mass, hurricanes . . . you name it, they’ve promised a parade of calamity and are continually being proven wrong — only to see the media and other hangers-on queue up to hear how things are happening even faster or worse than expected!

So it was no great shakes to see this item in my inbox from the Irish Times, located in the home of one of Europe’s deepest economic recessions:

Downturn means CO2 targets now achievable
IRELAND IS now likely to meet its Kyoto targets for greenhouse emissions because of the downturn in the economy, an authority on environmental and economic policy has said.
Frank Convery, professor of environmental policy at UCD, said that the extraordinary turnaround in the country’s finances had made the exacting Kyoto targets suddenly achievable. His view was shared by Dr Lisa Ryan of Comhar,
Prof Convery said that as recently as September 2008, it was being forecast that GDP would continue to grow at a rate of at least 3 per cent. But less than five months later the ESRI concluded that GDP had already dropped by 9 per cent bringing us back to the 2005 income level.

First, remember that Ireland’s promised “emission reduction” was no such thing but a promise to increase emissions not more than 13 percent. Second, this might buttress the notion of waiting a few years, until maybe we’re less unable economically (and politically) to take vows of energy poverty, as sensible an idea as anyone eager to inflict the Kyoto agenda on themselves could ever come up with.

Such seeds will be given no time by the global warming industry to take root, however; their handmaidens are already clucking worriedly over the idea of “losing momentum” and clinging to the greens’ script like grim death:

Global recession could worsen global warming
By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY
Hopes that humankind will deal with Earth’s changing climate are in danger of being dashed by the ongoing “Great Recession.”
Under the onslaught of the financial crisis, some European nations have turned skittish on forcing limits in heat-trapping “greenhouse” gas emissions.

So, recession, which brings about the demanded emission cuts “now!!!” — but, sadly, without the laws making that permanent — actually will (like everything else) make global warming worse. Ah. You see, the global warmists understand that no free society would ever do to itself what they demand, hence the employment of end-of-days panic (like a dozen years of warning how we only have ten years left). Now that the opening strains of the economic outcome they have longed for arrived on its own, they fear circumstances may make legislating the deepening of their game-plan ever more difficult.

This is affirmed by recent maneuvering on Capitol Hill (the president has called House Energy and Commerce Committee lawmakers up to hear the riot act on Tuesday). What remains to be seen is whether the warmists have the muscle to force votes on carbon legislation that could, like its BTU cousin did in more affluent days of yore, end many a political career.