Conferees at the climate talks in Durban, South Africa feared that they would close the conference with no deal, but on Sunday in the waning moments after a heated debate, they were able to stitch together a package that the chair said "saved tomorrow, today."  That's lofty rhetoric for an arrangement that is less about preventing global warming than it is about redistributing global wealth.

In the end, the conferees agreed to begin negotiations on a new climate treaty that will take effect by "2020 at the latest" and to funnel tens of billions of dollars each year to "poor countries."  From a global political perspective, that's what the alleged effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is really all about.  Global warming is a pretense for creating a global welfare system.

It's true that the Durban attendees did talk about reducing man-made CO₂ emissions, but they never even hinted at these irrefutable facts:

1.      The global climate is actually cooling.

2.      So-called "climate scientists" have hidden data and conspired to prevent the truth about global cooling from seeing the light of day.

3.      So far, more than 31,000 experts in the field have signed a petition stating that there is no convincing evidence that man-made CO₂ emissions are harming our planet. 

The late Frederick Seitz who served as President of Rockefeller University and President of the United States National Academy of Sciences wrote a cover letter supporting the petition.  In it, he said,

"This treaty is, in our opinion, based upon flawed ideas. Research data on climate change do not show that human use of hydrocarbons is harmful. To the contrary, there is good evidence that increased atmospheric carbon dioxide is environmentally helpful."

If political leaders around the world want to create a global welfare system, let's put that idea on the table for discussion, but let's not pretend that reducing man-made CO₂ emissions will do anything to improve our quality of life.  As Dr. Seitz said, CO₂ is actually "environmentally helpful."

Neil Snyder is a chaired professor emeritus at the University of Virginia.  His blog, SnyderTalk.com, is posted daily.  His latest book is titled If You Voted for Obama in 2008 to Prove You're Not a Racist, You Need to Vote for Someone Else in 2012 to Prove You're Not an Idiot.