Cult Status
Jeff Jacoby, writing in the Boston Globe, points out that this has been a very hard, cold winter and asks why the media haven’t been shouting about it. After all, if the situation was reversed, we’d be hearing endless screaming about how hot it was.
The United States has shivered through an unusually severe winter, with snow falling in such unlikely destinations as New Orleans, Las Vegas, Alabama, and Georgia. On Dec. 25, every Canadian province woke up to a white Christmas, something that hadn’t happened in 37 years. Earlier this year, Europe was gripped by such a killing cold wave that trains were shut down in the French Riviera and chimpanzees in the Rome Zoo had to be plied with hot tea. Last week, satellite data showed three of the Great Lakes – Erie, Superior, and Huron – almost completely frozen over. In Washington, D.C., what was supposed to be a massive rally against global warming was upstaged by the heaviest snowfall of the season, which paralyzed the capital.
Meanwhile, the National Snow and Ice Data Center has acknowledged that due to a satellite sensor malfunction, it had been underestimating the extent of Arctic sea ice by 193,000 square miles – an area the size of Spain. In a new study, University of Wisconsin researchers Kyle Swanson and Anastasios Tsonis conclude that global warming could be going into a decades-long remission. The current global cooling “is nothing like anything we’ve seen since 1950,” Swanson told Discovery News. Yes, global cooling: 2008 was the coolest year of the past decade – global temperatures have not exceeded the record high measured in 1998, notwithstanding the carbon-dioxide that human beings continue to pump into the atmosphere.
Jacoby also points out what a lot of us have been saying. the true believers are zealots, operating as a religion. (I prefer cult). As such, they dismiss any evidence that might question their dogma.
Unfortunately for us, we are about to have our economy hammered with carbon cap and trade laws, courtesy of the Obama administration. That will crush any recovery from the current recession. We’re in for a long haul.
Environment | Gaius March 8, 2009
By feeblemind, March 8, 2009 @ 2:58 pm
‘We’re in for a long haul.’ Amen Gaius. Obama is doing almost everything we were afraid he would do. We have to hope some dems in Congress come over to our side in an effort to stop at least some of his agenda. Otherwise, one month into his presidency, we are just at the beginning of a very long nightmare.
By Mockingbird, March 9, 2009 @ 8:52 am
Oh, man!
I want Florida to secede…again.