Bret Stephens has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on the Global Warming fizzle. I know, I know… liberals don’t read the Wall Street Journal. If it’s not in the New York Times, Newsweek. Salon, or the Cannibal Huffington Post they can’t read it, but Stephens makes some great points. God forbid people read things outside their comfort zone.

Consider the case of global warming, another system of doomsaying prophecy and faith in things unseen.

As with religion, it is presided over by a caste of spectacularly unattractive people pretending to an obscure form of knowledge that promises to make the seas retreat and the winds abate. As with religion, it comes with an elaborate list of virtues, vices and indulgences. As with religion, its claims are often non-falsifiable, hence the convenience of the term “climate change” when thermometers don’t oblige the expected trend lines. As with religion, it is harsh toward skeptics, heretics and other “deniers.” And as with religion, it is susceptible to the earthly temptations of money, power, politics, arrogance and deceit.

The religion marches on even in the face of Climategate 2.0. After hurricane Katrina, Al Gore blamed the storm on global warming. Now the United States is in the longest period without a category 3 hurricane in over a century. No, that’s not alarming, so no one knows about it.

The computer models that predicted alarming temperature increases have all been wrong. The Earth has warmed gradually over the past century, but nothing about the change has been alarming or unprecedented. After 25 years of dire predictions and non-stop alarmism the issue is dead. The alarmists were wrong. They’re always wrong.

With the world facing a debt crisis that threatens economic prosperity, nations can no longer afford to fund these rabbit hole theories. Alarmists have wasted billions and billions of dollars on research and advocacy. Imagine how many lives could have been saved if the money was used to provide impoverished parts of the world with clean water, or to fights diseases like malaria.

In a geocentric universe the sun has nothing whatsoever to do with earth's climate.

That’s right. I’m waging a personal war on science at home and abroad. It is, nonetheless, a limited war whose prosecution is not aimed at destroying science. The aims of my war are simply to hold “science” accountable for its claims.

Progressives love to “question authority,” but only when the authority in question that’s being questioned does not toe the Progressive line. Those authorities that do, however, are not in line for questioning; they are to be believed without question.

And, if you do question Progressive authorities you will be smeared as a racist, a homophobe, anti-science or even as the clichéd and worn-out Nazi Holocaust denier. There will be no debate, since debate would expose the single-minded, irrational totalitarianism of Progressive ideology.

There are various areas where this applies, but I’ll tackle two of the most recent and newsworthy battles: Evolution and global warming/climate change. Recently, someone asked Rick Perry about evolution, to which he replied that it’s a theory with “gaps” in it. He also mentioned that he’s not sure how old the earth is.

Inevitably, the Progressive priesthood cried foul and began to brand Perry as an ignoramus who is waging a war on science. To add insult to injury, Perry is skeptical of man-caused climate change, or global warming, or whatever. This was too much for Rolling Stone’s Jeff Goodell, who opined:

Never mind that larger droughts in the southwestern U.S. have long been predicted by scientists who model the changes we are likely to face due to ever-rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. 

Never mind that Texas dumps more carbon pollution into the atmosphere than any other state in the nation – higher than California and Pennsylvania combined.  Were it a separate country, Texas would be the seventh largest carbon polluter in the world.

Never mind that, during his first term, Perry signed legislation to speed construction of 11 new coal plants for the state. Or that he has lead [sic] the charge to undermine the EPA’s right to limit greenhouse gas pollution. 

None of this matters. Because as Perry wrote in his new book, global warming is “all one contrived phony mess that is falling apart under its own weight.” Still, the earth’s climate is changing, and so we must pray.

God help us.

Note that Goodell does not address scientific skepticism about global warming (climate change, whatever), of which there is plenty out there. Rather, his evidence is that there’s weather, Texas is trying to generate energy for its citizens and Perry believes in God. This is the typical line of reasoning on the Progressive left, since those who have completely bought into evolution and global warming have bought into a religion.

Also note Goodell’s contempt for the Constitution. Goodell says that Perry seeks to undermine the EPA’s “right” to limit greenhouse gas pollution. Under the Constitution, the EPA has no “right” to do so. That “right” is restricted to Congress and well it should be since members of Congress were duly elected by the people. Where do I go to vote out the EPA? That’s right. I can’t.

Just as Galileo’s inquisitors were fully invested in a geocentric universe, Progressives have morphed theory into dogma. Progressives are philosophically wedded to both theories – evolution and global warming – because they both degrade the individual as a polluter and cosmic accident.

Rather than a special creation with basic rights endowed by the Creator, the individual is of very little worth and should be subservient to the so-called “public” good. As a polluter and contributor to global warming, the individual needs to be restricted and restrained by those who know better, because the planet is more important than the individual. As the Apostle Paul put it: “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator, who is forever praised. Amen.”

Please note that “those who know better” are exempt from the rules they create to restrict, restrain and regulate the masses. This brings to mind a passage from my favorite book in the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis:

“Well, then, it was jolly rotten of you,” said Digory.

“Rotten?” said Uncle Andrew with a puzzled look. “Oh, I see. You mean that little boys ought to keep their promises. Very true: most right and proper, I’m sure, and I’m very glad you have been taught to do it. But of course you must understand that rules of that sort, however excellent they may be for little boys – and servants – and women – and even people in general can’t possibly be expected to apply to profound students and great thinkers and sages. No, Digory. Men like me, who possess hidden wisdom, are freed from common rules just as we are cut off from common pleasures. Ours, my boy is a high and lonely destiny.”

As he said this he sighed and looked so grave and noble and mysterious that for a second Digory really thought he was saying something rather fine. But then he remembered the ugly look he had seen on his Uncle’s face the moment before Polly had vanished: and all at once he saw through Uncle Andrew’s grand words. “All it means,” he said to himself, “Is that he thinks he can do anything he likes to get anything he wants.”

Imagine if your alarm clock was powered by gas or coal or nuclear energy. Surprise! It is!

Nissan has a new ad campaign: Gas Powered Everything. The concept makes for amusing visuals as people start up their computers, hair driers, coffee makers, microwaves and whatnot with lawn mower-style pull cords. Smoke belches out as the combustion engines, which would normally run cleanly with the flip of a switch, power formerly electric devices with petroleum.

“Imagine if everything in your life ran on gas, from your alarm clock to your computer and even your cell phone,” says the YouTube description of the ad. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your perspective, everything does run on gas (or coal or nuclear energy), from my alarm clock to my computer and my cell phone! Even Nissan’s damn car runs on gas, though not directly.

America’s current power grid is run by three primary sources of fuel: Coal (45 percent), natural gas (20 percent) and nuclear (20 percent). In other words, electricity is not generated by electricity. It’s generated mostly by the Big Three of energy horrors that the environmental left would like us to dispense with so we can all live in grass huts and ride bikes everywhere.

You may as well fire up your alarm clock with a combustion engine because there’s a combustion engine somewhere that feeds a line into your home to fire that puppy up. But I suppose Nissan’s ad agency is betting that most Americans are ignorant of how electricity is actually generated.

I won’t even get into the unintended environmental consequences of manufacturing and disposing of these toxic battery-run vehicles, and that over the span of their lives they leave a larger carbon footprint.

The tag for the Nissan Leaf (the car’s name is another sign of the Apocalypse) is Innovation for the Planet. Which planet they refer to, I’m not sure, but it sure as hell isn’t this planet, a planet awash in fuels they claim are not used to power this car though they actually are.

Increasingly, it seems, the job of our nation’s ad agencies is to peddle and perpetuate urban legends, myths and half-truths so that corporations like Nissan can pat themselves on the back for being so “responsible” and “progressive.”

For ten years alarmists have warned that we were at the tipping point, the sea levels are rising, the Arctic is melting, and temperatures are rising. The press dedicates endless coverage to all these wildly false claims. Hours upon hours of brainwashing “science” programming is rammed down our throats. James Taylor at The Heartland Institute asks “where is the warming?”

The evidence is powerful, straightforward, and damning. NASA satellite instruments precisely measuring global temperatures show absolutely no warming during the past the past 10 years. This is the case for the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes, including the United States. This is the case for the Arctic, where the signs of human-caused global warming are supposed to be first and most powerfully felt. This is the case for global sea surface temperatures, which alarmists claim should be sucking up much of the predicted human-induced warming. This is the case for the planet as a whole.

If atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions are the sole or primary driver of global temperatures, then where is all the global warming? We’re talking 10 years of higher-than-expected increases in greenhouse gases, yet 10 years of absolutely no warming. That’s 10 years of nada, nunca, nein, zero, and zilch.

How can this be? How can “scientists” insist that the world is warming? They ignore the satellite data and use flawed stations scattered throughout the world. Global warming isn’t a problem. In a world full of war, famine, disease, and unclean water it doesn’t make sense to spend billions of dollars chasing an unproven theory. It does make sense, however, when you understand that climate alarm is a religion that seeks to impose its will on everyone.

I’m a huge fan of the Cretaceous Period. It was hot as hell and if you whined about it there was always someone around who’d rip you to shreds.

For some reason, Mitt Romney decided to weigh in on the farce that is Global Warming, or Climate Change, the term officially adopted by the chattering classes since it could mean practically anything. We’ve been down this road at The Daily Plunge repeatedly, parsing the absurdity of the Climate Change hysteria that mysteriously infects socialists, so-called progressives and other advocates of big government.

It is apparent, however, that the Republican front runner for the 2012 nomination is unaware of the absurdities. Like many of his Beltway colleagues he robotically repeats tribal knowledge, simply because it’s been repeated so often. I’m not sure that this shows his leadership ability as much as it does his ability to be suckered and manipulated.

“I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that,” he told a crowd of about 200 at a town hall meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Here’s what kills me about such statements. First, that the world is getting warmer. This may or may not be true, based on which part of the world you’re talking about. It’s certainly debatable, which is why the media has subtly switched the conversation from Global Warming to Climate Change. Very clever, that is, since any change in weather or shifts in climate patterns can be blamed on Climate Change, a.k.a., the same freaking thing the climate has been doing for the past four billion years or so.

However, and more importantly, so what if it is getting warmer? As I have explained in previous posts, warming is good and cooling is bad. There is empirical, historical data to back up this fact. So why worry about warming? We worry, and Mitt Romney worries, because we’ve been told to worry despite the facts, and simple common sense.

Finally, humans may or may not contribute to climate change (using lowercase here to differentiate between the thing the climate has been doing for the past four billion years or so, that is – changing – as opposed to the hysterical use of the phrase). Again, this point is debatable, but so what if we’re contributing? Who’s to say that our contribution isn’t positive, particularly if we’re helping to warm the earth and make it more hospitable for living things?

It would be fantastic if we could somehow manipulate the earth’s thermostat, but I’m afraid we don’t have that power, unless we figure out some way to control the sun. And, if we could manipulate it, who makes that decision? Keep in mind that making New York City more like San Diego will have repercussions on climate in, say, Kenya (often referred to as “unintended consequences,” the progressive’s stock in trade). But who cares about Kenya? Sure as hell not the Climate Change crybabies who want us to stop burning fuel so that we change the climate (back? forward?) to some unattainable climate ideal. Ironically, Climate Change crybabies do want to change the climate, but where they want to change it to I’m not quite sure. 1990? 1856? 1365? 67 A.D.? 4,000 B.C.? 12,000,000 B.C.? But if they could change the climate, I guarantee they’d make it nice and cozy for themselves and the rest can suffer through colder winters and narrower temperate zones since the crybabies “saved the planet,” a.k.a., their own asses. In other words, screw the Third World!

In the big picture of the presidential race, Climate Change is probably not much of an issue given the totality of issues facing any presidential candidate. However, it speaks volumes about the candidate when they’re willing to embrace what’s essentially an Urban Legend writ super-large.

I wasn’t planning to vote for Romney in the primaries, but this seals the deal. America doesn’t need another baby-talking, politically-correct drone, but bold, unflinching leadership from someone who doesn’t care whether or not the media likes them.

Sharon Begley is the "science editor" for Newsweek. That sounds just about right.

This has been a particularly bad year for tornado activity. It was only a matter of time before some idiotic climate change alarmist decided to use it as “proof” that the climate is changing. Duh. It always does, always has and always will, and tornadoes are nothing new. I experienced one as a child in Georgia when I was growing up. There have been other bad tornado years in the past. Contrary to what alarmists believe the climate is cyclical. Just read this moronic claim by Sharon Begley:

From these and other extreme-weather events, one lesson is sinking in with terrifying certainty. The stable climate of the last 12,000 years is gone. Which means you haven’t seen anything yet. And we are not prepared. [emphasis added]

The climate has been stable for 12,000 years? I can picture Sharon Begley now. She’s glued to the TV and she greets every news story about the weather as an apocalyptic sign of the climate end times. Begley is no better than Harold Camping, and this is simply another piece of evidence that climate hysteria is a religion. At least no one believes Camping’s apocalyptic predictions.  The Daily Beast isn’t going to publish his rants.

The floods on the Mississippi River aren’t a strange phenomenon. It happened in 1993, 1954, and 1844. It’s happened again and again. As far as deaths related to tornadoes… wouldn’t it make logical sense that increased population in the South would lead to more deaths by tornadoes? Tornado activity hasn’t been increasing. In fact, it’s been trending down since the 70s. That doesn’t stop Begley…

Even those who deny the existence of global climate change are having trouble dismissing the evidence of the last year. In the U.S. alone, nearly 1,000 tornadoes have ripped across the heartland, killing more than 500 people and inflicting $9 billion in damage.

Sharon Begley, it really isn’t very difficult to dismiss your “evidence.” It’s relatively easy when facts are presented instead of sensationalist propaganda. Sadly, a lot of people believe this garbage. Just a few days ago I overheard an acquaintance say “storms are getting worse.” Storms aren’t getting worse. They’re getting more coverage because we have cameras all over the place and we get news from all over the world.

What is getting worse is this ninny-nanny crybaby nonsense about the climate. How many times must it be repeated that the climate changes, it always has changed and always will change? Perhaps it bears repeating: The climage changes. It  always has changed and always will change.

I think Mother Earth is declaring war with us, humans. We've made her angry by causing so much harm. It's payback time to us? #thoughts

March 13, 2011 12:13 am via Plume  ReplyRetweetFavorite

@memamo_mich

Michelle Lim

Because of us hurting earth badly , mother nature is angry and natural disasters came .

March 12, 2011 12:48 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@r_edapples

Yi jing 

Mother earth is angry with us. Seriously. I mean; the nature is so beautiful, but we're all wasting it. It's logical she's angry.

March 12, 2011 7:53 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@OhSoRobsessed

Kareen Pattinson ♥

It’s logical?

We can not ignore climate change any longer, mother earth is angry now

March 12, 2011 4:41 am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@papercutACT

Claire Connelly

Mother Earth is angry. Why show mercy when incorrigible humans have been abusing and exploiting her all these years?

March 12, 2011 3:13 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@dead_cockroach

William Foong

The tsunami happening in japan is all ur fault yes you reading this tweet, have u helped in any way to stop global warming? No, tut tut tut

March 13, 2011 7:45 am via SnaptuReplyRetweetFavorite

@xGomezLovato

team delena ☮

C'mon people, stop donating money to help Japan! like think into the future! We need to focus on finding a way to stop Global Warming!

March 13, 2011 2:52 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@TaraWWE

FUTURE DIVA

There’s just so much crazy in the world.

Mother Earth bears an uncanny resemblance to multi-media star and political seer Janeane Garofalo.

Mother Earth is a real bitch. According to some of the more “spiritual” among us, the earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan were the result of Mother Earth’s anger at human beings in general and Japanese whalers in particular.

When Mother Earth punishes people for their sins against the planet She tends to lash out at everyone but the actual perpetrators. In this latest case, while She may have been angry at whalers, it was other random citizens who paid the price for the whalers’ whaling. But they were Japanese, so close enough I suppose.

Here’s a list of some of Mother Earth’s greatest hits. With most of Her temper tantrums it’s difficult to discern why, exactly, She was pissed. But pissed She was, and all sorts of species paid for Her wrath at whatever She was pissed off about at the time…

250 Million B.C.: Giant volcanic eruption causes the Permian Extinction. Mother Earth apparently pissed at creatures that will later become fossil fuels. Unwittingly creates fossil fuels that will lead to temper tantrums in the 20th and 21st Centuries.

28 Million B.C.: The La Garita Caldera in what is now southwestern Colorado was supposedly the largest volcanic eruption ever. The object of Mother Earth’s wrath this time around is not known.

2.1 Million B.C.: Yellowstone supervolcano eruption causes swath of destruction across middle America. Mother Earth anticipates large collection of gun-toting religious red staters and launches a preemptive strike that turns out to be premature.

75,000 B.C.: The Toba Caldera in present day Sumatra unleashed a hellish winter for at least two years. Apparently, Mother Earth likes to cool things off after a superheated flash of red hot anger. This was actually the result of a spat between Mother Earth and Father Time.

1687: A magnitude 8.5 quake rocks Lima, Peru, destroying much of the city. This area of South America is one of Mother Earth’s favorite places to unleash Her wrath since people there had the audacity to build cities.

1815: The volcanic eruption in Tambora, Indonesia is the largest one in the past 200 years. Mother Earth, for whatever reason, has never been a big fan of this region of the world.

1958: The largest known tsunami wave at 1,720 feet tall hit Litya Bay, Alaska. There are only two things you need to know about Mother Earth’s reasoning here: Alaska and Sarah Palin. Case closed.

The idea is to prepare students for roles in handling the effects of changes such as rising sea levels and shifts in growing areas for crops, said John Fountain, head of N.C. State’s Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department.

Because climate change has the potential to affect virtually every aspect of society, demand is growing for people who can anticipate the effects, develop policies to counter them and effectively communicate such policies to the public, Fountain said.

Colleges are having to cut back due to budget concerns but NC State thinks it’s a good idea to create a degree for climate change? What are these people going to do with this degree? The only people hiring for this nonsense is the federal government. That’s just what the country needs: brainwashed morons getting federal jobs for life. What possible good could these people contribute? Mankind has been adapting to change for thousands upon thousands of years.

If the federal goverment want to hire someone who is educated about this issue I’m ready and able. I’ve researched this topic for over a decade. We could publish a book on all the topics from all the posts here at The Daily Plunge. Maybe we could call it the Idiots Guide to Climate Change: Written by Idiots, for Idiots.

Still not endangered

The number of polar bears has been increasing now for some time, but that hasn’t stopped us from watching polar bears fall from the sky. It’s not really surprising then that same kid who worried about the polar bears two years ago is still worried about them today. What else is there to tell him? I don’t know if it’s an indictment on society or the educational system that we churn out this kind of ignorance.

Despite having a doodle picked by Google it took Mr. Jordan almost two years to find that I had written him an open letter. Here are the highlights of the young activist’s comments:

Well thank you Henshaw, since we’re on the topic of wishes, I wish people like you would stop being assholes and leave this alone, everyones got their own opinion on everything, I can respect that, but disregarding the fact I was misinformed or Not. I was listening to the media, like All of America does, and I was inspired to make a design about the polar bears and global warming, and if you don’t like it, you can go screw yourself

I think I missed the part where he was respecting my opinion. Anyway, it’s not really his fault, it’s the media! Evidently all those paranoid right-wingers have a real reason to be concerned. The media basically forced this kid to be ignorant. Oh, it gets better.

Ok, I’d much rather come back when you learn to play nice with the lil’ kiddies and stop being a dick head:) haha, I am 17 now, so I hope you cut me some slack again for calling a dick head ass wipe that likes to pick on kids:) so hasta luego:)

Again, where exactly is the part where he respected my opinion? I’ve seen the full spectrum today at The Daily Plunge. The Ph.D leftist and the 17 year old boy from Idaho are on opposite ends of the educational universe, but they’re both equally misinformed. Each has their own defense mechanism that allows them, at least in their minds, to get away with spouting nonsense: I’m so smart! Or, I’m so young; quit picking on me! But that’s the American way, I suppose. Who needs facts when we have excuses and feelings?