Nathaniel

Shockey

Read Nathaniel's bio and previous columns here

July 29, 2008

Global Warming and the Faith of the Brainwashed

That global warming has continued to captivate the media, car companies, energy companies and so many more demonstrates how enormously brainwashed Americans are.

Still convinced that “the entire global scientific community has a consensus on the question that human beings are responsible for global warming,” like Al Gore purported?

Please.

For starters, in November 2005, Swiss researchers from the journal Quaternary Science Reviews overtly stated, “Whatever slight impact humans might have on the climate, it is too small to measure.” 

Bob Carter, an environmental scientist at James Cook University testified before a U.S. Senate Committee, saying, “Lower atmosphere satellite-based temperature measurements, if corrected for non-greenhouse influences such as El Nino events and large volcanic eruptions, show little if any global warming since 1979, a period over which atmospheric CO2 has increased by 55 ppm (17 percent).” We’re obviously not causing the type of damage we thought we were. 

And if you’re still worried about the polar ice caps melting, the National Snow and Ice Data Center has reported that ice caps are not shrinking, but have actually increased in size and concentration from 1980 to 2008. 

David Evans, a consultant to the Australian Greenhouse Office from 1999 to 2005, shared in an article for The Australian that his initial reaction to the theory and buzz of global warming in 1999 was one of excitement, feeling “useful and fairly important; we were saving the planet.” He goes on to explain a few points: 

“The signature of an increased greenhouse effect is a hot spot about 10km up in the atmosphere over the tropics . . . The greenhouse signature is missing. We have been looking and measuring for years, and cannot find it. 

“There is no evidence to support the idea that carbon emissions cause significant global warming. None. There is plenty of evidence that global warming has occurred, and theory suggests that carbon emissions should raise temperatures (though by how much is hotly disputed) but there are no observations by anyone that implicate carbon emissions as a significant cause of the recent global warming. 

“The satellites that measure the world's temperature all say that the warming trend ended in 2001, and that the temperature has dropped about 0.6C in the past year. 

“None of these points is controversial. The alarmist scientists agree with them, though they would dispute their relevance.”

I probably have significantly punier scientific knowledge than Al Gore, but it is fairly obvious that Gore’s entire premise for his misleading documentary, that we are causing global warming, is questionable at best, and most likely false.

What is truly upsetting about all of this is not that so many of us were duped. It’s that so many of us are still duped.

American companies are still spending huge quantities in order to cater to this fraudulent belief. Instead of actually improving their products in ways that actually enhance efficiency and, hence, the strength of the company and the American economy, they’re catering to the brainwashed.

Judging by their “We can do this” campaign, Pacific Gas and Electric is still very comfortably convinced that global warming is inevitable, unless we all act quickly.

And in addition to the businesses, we have politicians who are either a) still clinging to empty threats about global warming or b) have seen the holes in the alleged global warming crisis but are too scared to take on the media. Is an alarmist theory that has been all but smothered really worth $6 trillion, which is what the proposed cap-and-trade climate bill is estimated to cost the U.S. by 2050? Does anyone else think this is crazy?

It smells a lot like a control issue to me, but who knows? Maybe there are a lot of ill-informed people who are just really concerned . . . and we elected them to represent us.

Feel free to reach your own conclusions about why so many are still convinced of a totally unconvincing theory. But it is imperative that those of us who have learned to question global warming have the courage to say so. Our country can’t afford a government that wastes absurd amounts of taxpayer dollars fighting windmills.

Correction: Statistics cited in this column from the National Snow and Ice Data Center were not accurate, according to representatives from that national organization who contacted North Star Writers Group following its publication and distribution. Click here for their most recent analysis: http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/index.html. We regret the error.
 

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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