Whole Foods CEO, John Mackey, is speaking up again. He is one of many prominent libertarian-minded voices that has decided to enter the spotlight and open himself up for criticism. This time it's on the subject of government involvement in climate change and Mackey's disapproval of current proposals.  This comes despite his Whole Foods stores' notoriety of being proactive in the environmental movement. However, according to Mackey, the climate change hype is not supported by sound science. 

An article by an independent blogger was published on the Huffington Post yesterday admonishes Mackey's nerve to take issue with climate change science. He notes how he's often fought for Mackey in defense of Whole Foods, but after Mackey's lashing out against universal health care and now climate change, he's lost all patience. 

Read the article here.

I chose to engage with a few commenters at the Huffington Post. Read a few of my comments after the jump. Will others follow John Mackey's lead? I hope so. 

Initial comment on post:

I love organic, I love Whole Foods and I agree with John Mackey.

Mr. Waylon Lewis, I appreciate you defending your position by informing us that Al Gore says the debate on climate change is over and that "94%" of scientist agree the world is in danger due to man-made climate change--although you wish we'd be calling to "rally the troops" in the war on climate change the way we do against "terrorists" just remember where that mentality has got us. We are in a quagmire in the middle east and our foreign policy is truly offensive.

Let's properly debate Global Warming without calling the challengers Holocaust deniers. Most of us believe in a natural climate change, but do you honestly believe Mackey's views that, "it would be a pity to allow 'hysteria about global warming' to cause us to raise taxes and increase regulation, and in turn lower our standard of living and lead to an increase in poverty," are invalid?

Let the market place of ideas play out. What "deniers" see is more government control over individuals lives under the current climate change proposals. We see government reaping great benefits if we allow ourselves to believe in this "threat." Equates similarly with the scare tactics of the right when it comes to terrorism. It doesn't mean we have to sit on the sidelines as individuals in taking care of our environment but let's be weary of what our government is giving to us.

Response to above comment by Phoenixdoglover:

There is no hysteria about global warming among the scientists who represent that consensus. What they are saying is simple. If we act now to curtail greenhouse gas emissions significantly, it will be possible to stay below a certain level of global temperature increase (2 deg C). If we wait, the challenge gets much more difficult. Increases of 5 or 6 deg C will be very bad for mankind based on what we know of the effects of temperatures in the past. If you don't like the message, just present your conflicting evidence. But don't call it hysteria.

My response to Phoenixdoglover:

I wasn't commenting on the free market but the market place of ideas. Mackey speaks of a great book that perhaps everyone on the other side of this issue should read, Heaven and Earth: Global Warming--the Missing Science I've read articles by and seen Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. I know where you are coming from.

Does the ever-corrupt government solution not concern you? Big business and their power is a product of a relationship with big government--which climate change proponents want to give more power to. I think it's very dangerous. I'm not against all environmental regulations, however I don't like the carbon credit system. That allows the big businesses that can afford them to continue to pollute while weeding out their competition of smaller businesses. Typical government solution of favoritism. If something is bad and pollutive then stop it all together. I'm not saying that is the solution but the carbon credit proposal is not the answer.

We must realize that we've had ice ages, we've had warming periods, human's will always have to adapt to ever changing conditions on this planet. I just hope that government stops preventing private industry to innovate. Something that is clearly displayed in the auto industry. Study the Tucker car episode to understand what I am talking about.