Today is the last day of the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change in NYC, made up of over 200 scientists from around the world who believe that — to make a long story short — Al Gore is full of polar bear doodies. Here’s how CNN’s Miles O’Brien capped off his report about the conference on last night’s Anderson Cooper 360°, which was the latest installment in their not-at-all-fearmongering “Planet in Peril” series (courtesy of Newsbusters):
“Even the Flat Earth Society didn’t fold its tent in 1493.”
That’s right: If you dare to be skeptical that WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE FROM GLOBAL WARMING!!!, you’re just like the people who still thought the Earth was flat a whole year after Columbus came to America.
Has O’Brien always been so convinced that WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE FROM GLOBAL WARMING!!!? Possibly not. Here’s what he had to say on CNN 15 years ago (courtesy of News Hounds):
“If the Gulf Stream were to shift again, the British Isles could be engulfed in polar ice and Europe’s climate could become frigid.”
Hot, cold, whatever! I guess I’m not smart enough to understand how Global Warming is going to plunge Europe into another ice age. O’Brien uses the movie The Day After Tomorrow to reconcile the two. I don’t really get that, but then, I’m no scientist. And even if I was, disbelief in Global Warming is heresy! Hey, man, that’s science for you. You gotta have faith.
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Actually it`s very simple and not a tad bit hypocritical.
Global warming -> Earth`s ice caps begin to melt -> more water coming to the ocean -> change of ocean currents` directions -> Gulf stream, currently keeping British isles warmer than they should be because of their geografic position, changes direction -> British Isles no longer warmer than they should be -> polar ice and stuff. Oh, and Netherlands get drowned. There would be other consequences, but that`s the first wave.
Ya know he’s right. It’s actually getting warmer around here. Peaking sometime in August. Then of course we have to deal with all that cooling again.
The U.S. military has used the ocean as trashcan for munitions, nerve agents, and radio active material–and they’re turning a certain desert region into a depleted uranium paradise, but lets focus on global warming. Lets attempt to enforce a global tax as a panacea and quell any real scientific debate. We should follow this plan because the plebes won’t know what to think and we can ignore all the real environmental problems that we’re creating! If any dare to question, look mortified at their ignorance and arrogantly declare that the time for debate is over, because the science is in. We should always strive to create a closed rhetorical loop and appeal to their pedestrian hive mind, by religiously adhering to this blueprint, the masses will always rally around us.
It’s a much overlooked irony that so many on the left use the Flat Earth Society as analog for anyone who questions the alarmism on global warming. In fact, those who believed the Earth was flat, like those who insisted the Sun orbits the Earth, were driven by catechismal doctrine, unwilling to have anyone question their unproven assertions, and blind to any objective, disciplined view of emerging scientific facts –the exact characteristics of Global Warming Alarmists around the world, and exactly opposite the skeptics!
Al Gore said over a year ago that the debate is over. And here you are still debating. Al is going to be really pissed at you.
OK, I have been steeped in American consumerist “culture” my entire life and it’s really, really hard changing. In fact, most days I wonder whether I should bother because scientists *also* say that eventually the Sun will go red giant and destroy the earth. So even if we’re still around by then–unlikely–any damage we may or may not have done will be entirely moot.
Still, it’s like the healthy living vs. eat junk all your life debate: Yes, I know we’re all gonna die eventually, but why die *badly*? That’s just stupid.
The big issue I have with global warming alarmists is that if what they say is true, it’s already too late. If you look at scientific discussion on the global-warming-is-human-caused side of the debate, that’s more or less their consensus. I guess they just aren’t making it very public because (1) the press doesn’t want to share bad news and (2) why bother, it’s too late anyway. I understand that during the huge NE US blackout of 2003, the air got cleaner over the Northeast than it probably had been in a century, but I don’t know if shutting everything down worldwide would reverse the global warming trend. I have my doubts, I bet scientists do too, and anyway, it’d never happen.
So if it’s true that human beings are causing this, we’re screwed.
However, the big issue I have with global warming denialists is that you take the words of people who disagree with the idea and run with them but you don’t make any effort yourselves to cite sources, quote scientists, whatever. You make no effort to understand how atmospheric conditions work; you make no effort to confirm or deny the sources Al Gore cites in his book and documentary; you basically don’t give a s?!t. I don’t get it. If someone is demonstrably wrong, it should not be difficult to prove. Turning to your example of Flat-Earthers, even the ancient Greeks could figure out the earth was round. If it’s SO OBVIOUS that human beings are not irretrievably harming the environment, let’s see the evidence. Real evidence, not “Joe Republican Voter said so.”
I dunno… I keep thinking about what happens when you introduce a species that doesn’t belong. Like rabbits in Australia. Australia would be kind of dry and hot anyway, for the most part, but introducing rabbits made it a lot worse. Kudzu is choking the American South. Human beings have killed off a lot of animal and plant species. When we dam up rivers or build canals or bring ships into freshwater lakes from the ocean, we change things. Why is it so hard to imagine we could change the atmosphere too? I mean, we’ve taken the introduced exotic animal thing one step farther because we have technology that changes air composition well beyond what our bodies could do, and now there are six and a half billion of us to boot.
Why is this so hard to imagine? Why do people insist it’s bunkum? Are you that invested in the way you live when it isn’t even strictly necessary and reduces you to being a servant to machines? Hey, I can’t talk, I’m stuck right here with you. But I at least have the moral courage to step back and go, “OK, what’s wrong here?” Because a lot IS wrong, and you guys just sit around laughing about it. I don’t understand.
I went back and read my comment again–let me clarify one point. I’m trying to write and interact with people in my living room at the same time. Oops.
My big issue with global warming alarmists who are not in the scientific community is they actually seem to believe we can do something about this. We can’t, if we really did cause it. We’ve destroyed too much of what the Earth had in place to deal with the extra carbon, setting in motion a chain reaction that may already be beyond our control. So every time I hear someone going, “Use CFCs! Drive less!” it pisses me off. Nothing less than abandoning civilization and going back to living as tribes and throwing rocks and sticks at one another when we want to wage war is going to stop this in its tracks and even then it might not work.
I think anti-global warming types know this intuitively and that’s why they laugh the whole idea off–it’s kind of traumatic to be told your whole way of living is wrong. Human beings are very culture-bound, because that’s our substitute for instinct. Telling a human being that he’s living the wrong way is like telling a cat he’s supposed to swim. A few cats like the water, but you know, they’re not in the majority by any stretch.
So I know where this is coming from. But it’s hilarious to hear you guys talking about how irrational GW activists are when you’re being just as irrational. The rational thing to do when someone presents a purportedly scientific idea is to test the data. I almost never see anybody do this, no matter what the subject matter is. Odd.