Global Warming/Climate Change, what have you.

I see a lot of people claiming that climate change is horrible and a lot of people claiming it doesn't exist.

I claim it doesn't matter.

Let's look at the facts of my little corner of the climate:
1.  We have had one year in the last fifiteen that had a normal amount of precipitation.
2.  Even though we have set a record for snowfall staying on the ground this year, we are still behind in total rainfall, snowpack, etc.
3.  Pine beetles have been killing the shit out of trees around here for the entire drought and it's worse this year than in any in memory.
4.  It takes a long time to grow a nice tree around here, in the wild, fifty plus years is normal.
5.  With dry trees that are dying, fire is big deal, even for city dwellers.  I've still got a pretty defensible fire perimeter, but a really bad year, or water rationing in the city could change that, fast.

After fifiteen years, it's time to make plans like things might not get better.  I'm not talking cap and trade or any of that kind of crap.  If you are going to spend money on something, it should be of econmic benifit all on it's own.  Say, drought resistant landscaping, low flush toliets, water disipline while brushing your teeth.  All of these things do one very important thing, they reduce my costs of home ownership.  Just like CFL bulbs make it cheaper to light my house, and LCD monitors lower the cost of my computer habit.

They also have a second effect, they help the environment.  I really care about the land around me.  I don't dump motor oil on the ground, I use it to heat my garage.  When I wander into the woods, I don't leave anything behind that would let someone know I was there.  That allows more people to enjoy the woods and keeps the woods nice for my kids.

Cap and trade assumes that there is no economic reason for companies to reduce their carbon footprint outside of some artificial market.  Carbon footprints go down as energy gets more expensive.  Energy gets more expensive every year.  Energy efficiency will happen automatically, if you want to to show up faster, drop some money on R&D instead of implementing a new tax.

If you want to know the real reason we are in a recession you really don't have to look much further than the huge spike the energy prices took a few years back.  Sure, there were lots of nasty bad things happening in the banking industry, and housing was out of control.  But nothing kills an economy faster than high energy prices.  High energy prices effect every part of every day of the entire world.  Transportation gets more expensive, making food more expensive, it costs more to heat the house, so you've got less money to spend on that food that now cost more.  Oh, and that max leverage mortgage you took out to buy that 'investment grade' house has left you without any extra income to afford those higher energy prices.  It's a vicious cycle that only really has one solution, use less energy.

In short, make your life more efficient and leave some slack in your budget.  And remember, not even taxes are sure, only change is constant.