Here are 10 winning reasons for continued climate-change hysterics:

1.  Indoctrination from grade school through graduate school has inculcated the "incontrovertible conclusion" that people are destroying the planet.  By acting to save the earth, precious self-esteem is elevated, while guilt is assuaged.

2.  Lack of depth of understanding about science and scientific practice, not only because of being uninitiated, but partially because inadequate science education has left the public either clueless about, intimidated by, or apathetic to science in general and climate change in particular.

3.  Man-made climate-change hype acculturation has infused acceptance of human culpability into the psyche of everyone, from industrialists and businesspersons to the "man on the street."

4.  Billions of dollars are up for grabs with consultants making beaucoup bucks advising on carbon credits, technocrats raking in the cash with carbon dioxide control and sequestration contraptions, and researchers securing grant money to tie every wind of change to human excesses.

5.  Those who sincerely believe they know the long-term future of the global climate are committed to the cause.  Commitment can be admirable, but nobody, no matter how smart, can predict the future climate decades ahead with any serious degree of accuracy.  That has already been demonstrated with the leveled temperature trend that belies predictions.  (Could it be that if humans are responsible for a significant portion of the global warming in recent years, that we could be witnessing the maximum effect people have on the planet's temperature?)

6.  Politicians and bureaucrats can increase their power over the proletariat.  Control of energy is near ultimate control. 

7.  Journalists and bloggers have found a juicy, fruitful topic to squeeze.

8.  Environmental and social activists have discovered a new "higher-calling" cause to champion and cash in on.

9.  Sales of T-shirts and bumper-stickers advertising imminent world environmental cataclysm and its simple solutions--"Go Green," "Hug a Tree," "Love your Mother (Earth)," "Death to Deniers" (I just made up that last one, I hope!)--would dry up like the Aral Sea.  Without such capitalistic merchandizing where would socialism be? 

And last, but certainly not least:

10.  People get to defend their deeply held religious beliefs and can feel they're doing something good for Jesus, God, the Buddha, Vishnu, Gaia, the Universe, children or grandchildren, pets, polar bears, plankton.

So, everybody wins... everybody that matters, that is, but not the middle-class who ultimately end up footing the bill, and definitely not the poor who are simply used as a sanctimonious diversion, yet end up as impoverished as ever. 

Anthony J. Sadar, a Certified Consulting Meteorologist with 35 years of experience in atmospheric science and science education, is author of In Global Warming We Trust: A Heretic's Guide to Climate Science (Telescope Books, 2012) (www.InGlobalWarmingWeTrust.com).