Calling Global Warming a hoax does raise some hackles! I have been accused of "parroting" my reasons for my skepticism of the accepted dogma of the environmentalist Cult of Global Warming (CGW). Goodness me! If I only had a brain!
For the record, only left wing chicken littles who believe that Man is making the planet "uninhabitable" actually "parrot." Right wingers, such as I, prefer to "cite."
Let's begin simply, with a fact that most of us learned in grade school. Man inhales oxygen and expels carbon dioxide. Plants breathe in carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen. That process provides balance to nature, which is alternately a fragile ecosystem or a mighty force, depending on the point that CGW acolyte is trying to make. There is nothing delicate about it. The process sustains itself.
Remember the ad which was published last summer which showed dozens of airliners flying into the World Trade Center? It made the point, albeit crassly, that the 9/11 attacks cost only 3,000 lives, while the tsunami took 300,000, implying that the human race is both puny, and of not much worth in comparison to nature.
Despite what the CGW would have us believe, the "science" of Global Warming is anything but settled. One commentator asked for sources for my statement that the globe is actually cooling. To my mind, my statement that so-called man-made Global Warming is actually a cyclical function of nature controlled by the sun should remain unquestioned. Apparently, just my saying so isn't enough isn't enough to satisfy some people. Oh bother.
A Google search under "Global Warming Skeptics" produced 456,000 hits, among them, a group of Japanese scientists at www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=77281 who summed up the disagreement brilliantly. Their very simple point is that "Hypothesis cannot be substituted for truth." Obviously, I won't be able to include all 456,000 sources, but www.sciencebuzz.com was informative, as was www.sourcewatch.org. www.skepticalscience.com also made some interesting points.
Another Google search under "Global Cooling" brought 11,000,000 hits! There was this rather obvious one: www.infowars.com/cooling_trend_puts_global_warming_theory_in_doubt. Another interesting site was: www.globalresearch.ca. So that ought to give my CGW critic something to chew on, assuming that he hasn't yet drunk enough of the CGW Kool-Aid.
The same critic took issue with my assessment that History would judge the environmentalist movement harshly, as it does all bogus movements. I compared the example of the trial of Galileo before the Inquisition in 1633, to the suppression of the opinions of those skeptical of the effects of man-made global warming today. The Catholic Church, under Pope Urban VIII suppressed the truth of Galileo's findings, that the Earth moves around the sun, in favor of the Scriptural description of the firmament. He had his reasons. So too does the CGW have theirs.
My critic made the incredibly irrelevant statement that Galileo, like Global Warming skeptics today, was in the minority. Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't. There are no contemporary poll results that have been handed down to us. But even if he did hold a minority opinion, he was correct, wasn't he? Or does the sun move around the Earth?
Maybe we skeptics are in the minority, maybe not. At any rate, any opinion which doesn't help to move the CGW view forward generally goes unreported in the mainstream media, and disregarded by unelected, unaccountable people in positions of power, like Carol Browner, (Obama administration climate czar), who consider the "science" settled. If one reads about skepticism of the Global Warming "crisis" at all, he usually finds a one-paragraph blurb buried on page 24, or hears of it on Conservative Talk Radio.
The truth is that there are things that Man can, and should, do to help the environment. He can desist from dumping waste into streams and estuaries like the Chesapeake Bay (which was actually frozen solid during the winter of 1977. I saw that myself, so my critic will either have to take my word for it, or look that one up himself). He can continue efforts to find cleaner, possibly more efficient sources of energy, and make better use of the resources that we already have. Remove the shackles of over-regulation from businesses, allowing them to do what they do best, without a government agency constantly breathing down their necks. Invent better ways of fighting disease. These are but a few of the actions that are within our control. Earthquakes, hurricanes, tidal waves, and global temperature changes are not. As my grade school Geography text read, "The ice will come again."
Global Warming is a part of nature's cycle, like the change in seasons. Our polar ice caps have melted before, then refrozen again. The Earth has warmed before. If it hadn't done so, the Ice Age would never have ended. Glaciers would not have receded, exposing lush farmland, and allowing forests to grow. No sunny beaches. Sun-block would be unnecessary. But there would be plenty of good skiing.
Man's function, as part of nature, is to use his brain and the tools at his disposal to increase his knowledge, take care of his family and improve his lifestyle. It behooves him to use all of his tools, and invent new ones as he goes along, because nature is a mighty force which is always changing. The argument that he must not use certain fuels, or certain refrigerants, or certain lubricants etc. is ludicrous in most cases. Where would civilization be without the convenience of the internal combustion engine? Without central heating or air conditioning? Do the true believers of CGW really think that it would have been better if the Industrial Revolution had not happened?
I think that they do. I think that they view Man (excepting themselves) as the problem. I think that they think that they are far more intelligent than anyone else, and that theirs is the only legitimate worlview. That is why Global Warming is termed "a crisis." It is critical for these elitists that they control our lives as much as possible, and elevate themselves above the rest of us in the process. It's as if the nightmarish vision of Orwell's "1984" is coming to life before our very eyes. Don't think so? Just look at the lifestyle of Goofy Al Gore, then, with a straight face, tell me that he practices what he preaches.
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