Bureaucrats are money grubbers above all else.

Put aside the familiar arguments - that the science is clear, that climate change represents an indisputable existential threat to the planet, and that every day we do not act the problem grows worse.

Well, they are familiar arguments, but still nonsensical. It isn't just when we do not act that the problems grow worse, it is also when we do act that climate threats grow worse.

At a time when the global economy is sputtering, we need growth. At a time when unemployment in many nations is rising, we need new jobs. At a time when poverty threatens to overtake hundreds of millions of people, especially in the least developed world, we need the promise of prosperity. This possibility is at our fingertips.

Economists at the United Nations call for a Green New Deal - a deliberate echo of the energizing vision of President Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Yeah, economists. They sure have a grip on reality and can chart a safe course. Look at all of their good works, especially recent ones:-( The nice thing about economic theories is that there are so many of them. There's one to suit every bias.

This new "Green Economy Initiative," backed by Germany, Norway and the European Commission, arises from the insight that the most pressing problems we face are interrelated. Rising energy and commodity prices helped create the global food crisis, which fed the financial crisis. This in turn reflects global economic and population growth, with resulting shortages of critical resources - fuel, food, clean air and water. The commingled problems of climate change, economic growth and the environment suggest their own solution. Only sustainable development - a global embrace of green growth - offers the world, rich nations as well as poor, an enduring prospect of long-term social well-being and prosperity.

No, it doesn't. But it isn't just that the tired old sustainable development wheeze offers no enduring prospects, it is also that the obsession with green makes it worse. What's green? The evidence thus far is that it is an empty notion, a catch-all for the ungrounded fantasies of those who in the not too distant past were equally convinced that the fashionable color was red. This is bog standard, double-Dutch bureaucratic wank-speak - code for give us money and power and we will soothe you with our charming smiles and warm eyes. Personally, I'd rather hire a skilled prostitute. I'd get the smiles and eyes, and some fuzz as well.

I read about some polls today that note a monotonic decline in world interest about green issues. They speculated about why this was so - the economy, winter, etc. - but had no certain reasons for the apparent lack of interest. Green fatigue? Fashions change. There is growing panic among the green grifters and hustlers. They are stunned that after they worked so hard in the US presidential election to get the candidate that promised them the most strokes, that their prospects grow dimmer.

If we have any sense, if we learn any lesson from the recent economic troubles, then we ought to deny politicians and bureaucrats more money and power. They have no idea how to deal with our problems and threats. We need to hold our mud, put our thinking caps on, and stick to the knitting. It's up to us.