Hey, Ohio! Illinois! Wisconsin! Minnesota! North Dakota!
How have you been you enjoying this week's subzero temperatures as low as 38 below?
I know, I know. You're used to the bone-chilling winter cold. You can handle it.
But as far as the Church of Global Warming is concerned, it's positively sweltering right now.
We've all seen the heart-tugging images. Polar bears who have somehow forgotten how to swim are floating around on ice floes awaiting their doom.
And it's all George W. Bush's fault, naturally. And yours, for driving an automobile.
If only Al Gore were president of the United States!
As a leader of the the Church of Global Warming -- and with the awesome and mighty power he would have as president of the United States to control worldwide CO2 emissions from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue -- Gore thinks he would have made it even colder this week!
While you're huddling in your homes and offices thinking about that, here's a little light reading:
- Timothy Ball, Global Warming: The Cold, Hard Facts? Global warming is not due to human contribution of carbon dioxide
- George F. Will, Inconvenient Kyoto Truths Was life better when a sheet of ice a mile thick covered Chicago? Was it worse when Greenland was so warm that Vikings farmed there?
Update: Northern arctic blast kills five. If only we'd had a little more global warming!
Update 2: (For your amusement) Global Warming Helps One Man Survive a Bitter Cold Winter
ANOTHER STUDY DEBUNKS WARMING
This is from the Canadian think tank, the Fraser Institute, well-respected in Canada for its political objectivity.
Her is their Study Summary:
• Data collected by weather satellites since 1979 continue to exhibit little evidence of atmospheric warming, with estimated trends ranging from nearly zero to the low end of past IPCC forecasts. There is no significant warming in the tropical troposphere (the lowest portion of the Earth’s atmosphere), which accounts for half the world’s atmosphere, despite model predictions that warming should be amplified there.
• Temperature data collected at the surface exhibits an upward trend from 1900 to 1940, and again from 1979 to the present. Trends in the Southern Hemisphere are small compared to those in the Northern Hemisphere.
• There is no compelling evidence that dangerous or unprecedented changes are underway. Perceptions of increased extreme weather events are potentially due to increased reporting. There is too little data to reliably confirm these perceptions.
• There is no globally-consistent pattern in long-term precipitation trends, snow-covered area, or snow depth. Arctic sea ice thickness showed an abrupt loss prior to the 1990s, and the loss stopped shortly thereafter. There is insufficient data to conclude that there are any trends in Antarctic sea ice thickness.
• Current data suggest a global mean sea level rise of between two and three millimeters per year. Models project an increase of roughly 20 centimeters over the next 100 years, if accompanied by a warming of 2.0 to 4.5 degrees Celsius.
• Natural climatic variability is now believed to be substantially larger than previously estimated, as is the uncertainty associated with historical temperature reconstructions.
• Attributing an observed climate change to a specific cause like greenhouse gas emissions is not formally possible, and therefore relies on computer model simulations. These attribution studies do not take into account the basic uncertainty about climate models, or all potentially important influences like aerosols, solar activity, and land use changes.
• Computer models project a range of future forecasts, which are inherently uncertain for the coming century, especially at the regional level. It is not possible to say which, if any, of today’s climate models are reliable for climate prediction and forecasting.
“There is no evidence provided by the IPCC report that the uncertainty around climate change can be formally resolved from first principles, statistical hypothesis testing or modeling exercises,” McKitrick said.
“What does this mean for the average person? It means that while scientific evidence shows the climate is naturally variable, we still don’t know the extent to which humans are contributing to future climate change and whether or not such change is a good or bad thing. People who are bewildered by the intense global warming alarmism of the past few years should read the Independent Summary for Policymakers to get a more accurate and balanced understanding of the real state of knowledge on this important subject.”
Posted by: DemocracyRules | February 05, 2007 at 02:47 PM