(note: the intent of this diary is not to be an exhaustive analysis of the politics or economics of fossil fuels and climate change, for which much has been written by more knowledgeable people than me. This diary is a response to one specific type of argument raised by certain right-wing conspiracy theorists).
Amongst a lot of the Alex Jones/NWO/Illuminati conspiracy theorist crowd, its taken as an article of faith that those raising warnings about climate change are part of some globalist conspiracy to create a one world government.
Of course, these CT'ers ignore the fact that, when it comes to the most important issue facing the world - climate change and global environmental destruction - we already do have a de facto one world government, dedicated to the continued use of fossil fuels. And it includes the U.S., the EU, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India, Iran, Australia, and just about every other powerful country. Not to mention most of the worlds largest corporations. Sure, these entities may have their differences - and may fight over who gets to profit from which fossil fuels - but when it comes to climate change and the continued use of fossil fuels, they all seem to have a vested interest in downplaying the risk.
For example, the 5 biggest emitters of carbon dioxide are China, the U.S., the EU, India, and Russia. Not exactly a list of powerless entities. The top 5 per capita emitters, with population over 10,000,000, are Australia, the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Canada, and Kazakhstan - with Russia, South Korea, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands not too far behind. Again, we are not exactly talking about the Maldives, here.
And who can forget the top coal producers in the world: China, the U.S., India, the EU, Australia, Russia, Indonesia, South Africa, Germany, Poland, and Kazakhstan. And the top oil producers: Saudi Arabia, Russia, the U.S., Iran, China, Canada, the UAE, Mexico, Kuwait, Iraq, Brazil, Nigeria, Venezuela, Norway, and Algeria. Just about a list of the most powerful countries in the world.
Of course, some might say that, sure, certain countries may emit a lot of CO2, but the big money is behind the powerful scientist and environmental lobbies. Nevermind that, of the world's 15 largest corporations 10 of them are oil, coal, or national gas companies (Royal Dutch Shell (#1), ExxonMobil (#2), BP(#4), Sinopec (#5), China National Petrolum (#6), State Grid (#7), Chevron (#8), ConocoPhillips (#9), Total (#11) and Gazprom (#15)).
Granted, these are a powerful bunch of companies. But they obviously lack the clout of goliath's like the World Wildlife Fund and the Union of Concerned Scientists....
So it certainly does seem like a conspiracy is afoot, in effect if not in deed - just not the conspiracy most conspiracy theorists seem to believe in.