If I may, I am going to use the words of Golda Meir to make a point about the environment: "There will be peace when the Palestinians love their children more than they hate Israel."

Let’s hang on to the same brilliant locution and plug in a different subject: “The environment will improve when people love their children more than they hate paying higher prices for energy.”

Ultimately, cost is the siren song of the global warming hoax argument. Never forget the old Nixonian admonition, “Follow the money.” If there weren’t financial interests involved, there would be no point in arguing the issue. After all, alternative energy development and environmental stewardship⎯something that benefits us all right now⎯go hand in hand. If you ever needed proof, look at the Gulf.

Oil companies fear the specter of alternative energy sources, which is why they fund so many studies showing that man has nothing to do with climate change, and why they pay so many members of congress to swallow the results of those studies whole.

Average people are predisposed to sing along with that choir, because the hoax argument plays to their fears about higher costs for everything, and possible loss of jobs.

Unfortunately, we live in the now, not the future, and right now, some of us in our myopia see nothing but hardship ahead if we follow the green road.

There’s a flip side to this argument, which is that until we find out for sure what is responsible for climate change, it might be prudent to pretend that man is the cause.

Ah, fuggedaboudit. Let the future worry about itself.