Justin's note: Today, I continue my conversation with Doug Casey and Strategic Investor editor E.B. Tucker on the great climate change hoax. If you missed part one, click here to catch up.

Below, the guys take a closer look at what's really going on… and why all of the hysteria is actually a big threat…

Justin: Why peddle this idea that the Earth is warming rapidly? What's the motive?

E.B.: Bigger government.

I mean, climate change has become a pop culture drumbeat. If you watch the Oscars, somebody is going to say, "We've got to do something about the climate."

But no one, of course, knows what to do. All they know is that we should give the government more money to do something about this. And that money is obviously going to come from the developed world. I mean you're not going to get any money if you implement a carbon tax in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

So it's basically just a giant tax scheme. I mean carbon taxes brought in $82 billion last year. That's a big number. And no one even knows where this money goes. You can't question it because everybody has the best of intentions.

Justin: It's just one big money grab?

E.B.: It's about more than just money. Carbon taxes give government much more control over commerce. When you buy an airline ticket to fly over Kansas, you've got to pay a bunch of money to a U.N. organization to mitigate the effect you have on the lower atmosphere or whatever as you fly through it in an airplane.

It's stupid, but people go for it. I was in Mexico two weeks ago and took a domestic Aeroméxico flight. When I bought the ticket there was an option to "fly green" for an extra fee. The airline takes the money and buys carbon offset credits. It's very popular actually. But no one really knows where that money goes.

And it's only just the beginning. Now, you have Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [AOC] saying the world will end in 12 years if we don't do something about climate change. She's proposing that we build trains across the ocean and rebuild every building in America to prevent this from happening. Somebody clearly benefits from all of this.

And it's only going to get worse. You've got to put yourself in the mind of government bureaucrats, who are just businesspeople in government. Think of them as a government version of businesspeople.

They want their business to get as big as possible. And the U.S. government has never really collected more than roughly 18% to 20% of gross domestic product in taxes. But that's not enough.

Let's say that carbon taxes reach just 2% of economic output. For the developed world alone, that would mean around $1 trillion. It's a serious amount of money.