Just prior to our annual meeting world leaders traveled to Scotland to discuss what they felt countries should be doing to address global warming. Well, actually they were calling it climate change, but then we all realize that climates have changed since the earth was created. Climate change has become the new descriptive term that political leaders use to justify the need for government mandated programs. We’ve seen a number of groups travel to meetings like the one in Scotland to urge governments to take stronger actions and we’ve seen various governments sign on to these agreements only to ignore them. Seeing those who advocate for carbon reductions as something governments must force their citizens to abide by while totally ignoring such actions in their private lives is one of the most frustrating matters when you watch these proceedings. One of the interesting items that came out just before the Glasgow meeting was the pronouncements from the British Royal Family about the critical need for people to reduce their carbon emissions. Shortly afterward a group in Great Britain, that advocates for termination of the British taxpayer supported Royal Family’s privilege status, pointed out a common practice by members of the Royal Family.  The group noted they always utilize the taxpayer funded helicopters to move from one area to the other and then on longer trips utilize taxpayer funded jets to move themselves and members of the royal entourage to their destination. This same group also pointed out the Royal Family has a number of large structures generally referred to as castles which they keep heated or cooled despite no member of the family actually living in those structures. In addition, the family keeps staff members busy maintaining those castles so that when a family member does decide to show up in their helicopter, everything will be just right for them. Of course, it isn’t just the Royal Family that is guilty of this “do as I say, not as I do” philosophy.  We’ve seen a number of our own citizens loudly proclaiming that we need to reduce our carbon footprint while flying to their favorite gathering in their private jet and maintaining several homes in various locations around the country or the world. So, when I see these world leaders flocking to a location in private jets and traveling to the meetings in motorcades, it’s extremely hard for me to believe they really think climate change is a crisis and people must sacrifice in order to address this crisis.  When I see those same people stepping up to the plate by reducing their own carbon footprint, then maybe I’ll be inclined to take them more seriously. By Ken Hamilton, Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation Executive Vice President