I've finally found a
readable article by a prominent scientist decrying this "global warming" hoopla.
He makes some valid points, including: It's a manufactured political crisis, not an environmental one.
Sure, we've polluted the world in some ghastly ways. And we certainly do need to take better care of the environment and the planet. But I'm not losing sleep worrying whether the average temperature will go up a half degree during my lifetime, or even in my children's children's children's lifetime.
All those "crises" of the past didn't slow us down much. Remember the fear we had of killer bees? SARS? West Nile? Bird flu? Even AIDS hasn't slowed us down that much. We're tough. But sometimes we're also very gullible and stupid.
Like the war on terrorism, the new War on Climate Change serves to make us more sheep-like. Tweak a law here, take away a freedom there....
That is what will affect our children, and our children's children, and our children's children's children.
A few weeks ago I was on the phone with a long-time friend, a very spiritual guy. It was warm that day here in the south, and cold in other parts of the country, and I commented about how a global warming meeting in Washington, D.C. had been canceled because of a blizzard. Just a throw-away line, making chitchat about the day's news and weather.
I was surprised by the intensity of his reply.
"Are you one of those people who deny global warming?" he asked in all sincerity, a bit heatedly. I let it drop immediately, not wanting to "get into it" with a friend I haven't had a cross word with in the ten years I've known him. But I shook my head in wonder at suddenly how important this issue has become to so many people. It's the trendy thing to be, against global warming.
Scientists who deny the now-popular thinking are being fired, and
reports indicate in some cases their very lives have been threatened. That's how important an issue it's suddenly become. Death threats — how
chic. Punished for not believing what the masses suddenly "know" is "true" because politicians and TV's talking heads are suddenly saying it is so... never mind that twenty-five years ago scientists were worrying about global
cooling!In the early 1970s a few anarchists and hippies held the first Earth Day, and were probably hosed with water cannons by the authorities for parading without a permit. Now, politicians and other authorities, like Supersize Al Gore, drive around in their supersized SUV's telling us convenient lies, and the rest of us inconveniently squeeze our fat asses into Ford Escorts, pay three or more dollars for a gallon of gas, and hold pep rallies "for the planet."
How convenient.
UPDATE, Tuesday, March 13: Today's
New York Times published an article titled
"From a rapt audience, a call to cool the hype." There is a growing number of scientists who agree, to one extent or another, with Al Gore's basic science as presented in his film An Inconvenient Truth, but are "alarmed... at... his alarmism." They say that the movie is filled with inaccuracies and exaggeration. They question whether Gore has gone beyond science to further a political agenda. Interesting reading....
UPDATE Monday, April 2: In a way only he could,
William F. Buckley says "The whole business is eerily religious in feel. Back in the 15th century, the question was: Do you believe in Christ? It was required in Spain by the Inquisition that the answer should be affirmative, leaving to one side subsidiary specifications. It is required today to believe that carbon-dioxide emissions threaten the basic ecological balance."
UPDATE Tuesday, April 3: In a speech,
Bob Murray, founder and CEO of Murray Energy Corporation, dared to say that he regards Al Gore as the shaman of global doom and gloom. He is not joking when he says, "He is more dangerous than his global warming."
Inconvenient Truth |
Environmentalism |
Climate Change |
Al Gore |
Global Warming |
Burning Taper |
BurningTaper.com
It looks like we made it through a weekend without a stabbing or shooting at a party held at an American Masonic lodge.
