CBS is set to air an interview this Sunday with former vice president and presidential candidate Al Gore, touching on those darn naysayers who still refuse to believe global warming (or global climate change, whichever fits your paradigm) is caused by man.
I mean, come on, how can anybody believe it's not, right? But how did we ever get out of any Ice Ages, which we know dominated our planet throughout its history, if man wasn't there to begin the process? How is Mars experiencing global warming? Surely, Sojourner and the other rovers don't release a substantial amount of greenhouse gases! One answer to both questions lies in understanding Milankovitch cycles, which cause planets to wobble in their orbits. This wobbling, in turn, causes variations in temperature (enough to change the course of an ice age). It's a cosmic coincidence that both Mars and Earth are at a point in which Milankovitch cycles have brought both planets out of ice ages.
To be frank, I don't care that Al Gore says this. What really gets my goat is that he compares people who doubt humankind's involvement in whatever is going on to "the ones who still believe that the moon landing was staged in a movie lot in Arizona and those who believe the world is flat...That demeans them a little bit, but it's not that far off." (On a side note, does he include 9/11 or JFK conspiracy theorists in this group?) I personally take offense to that! Why is it acceptable that he may slander and insult me and others who share my viewpoint on the sole basis that we disagree with him? If we are akin to the camp who believes the world is flat (and does anybody really believe that anymore?), I will go so far as to compare the erroneous Nobel Peace Prize-winner to the Church authorities who gagged Galileo when the astronomer so boldly declared the heliocentric theory of the solar system. The motives between the two groups are strikingly similar, when it comes down to it; both entities, specifically Mr. Gore and the myopic Church authorities of their time, are threatened by any dissenting argument. Such debate has the power to remove the pedestal from under their feet, and it appears Mr. Gore has recognized this and has resorted to alarmism.
So where does that leave us? Well, for starters, the founder of the Weather Channel, John Coleman, has said he would like to see Al Gore and other providers of "carbon credits" (or contemporary indulgences, forgiving ecological transgressions) sued for fraud. This is especially crucial after Heidi Cullen, a Weather Channel big-wig, said in 2006 that meteorologists who debate mankind's contributions to global warming ought to stripped of their American Meteorological Association licenses. Have those meteorologists and climatologists become the Galileos of our time?
Only time will tell whether any lawyer has sufficient cojones to take on the task of calling out Mr. Gore.
2 comments:
I am not bar-certified yet. be patient. ;)
Al Gore pisses me off and not because he has a big mouth that he runs all the time. His "documentary" shows his own arrogance quite plainly and he bases his claims off of faulty science. In the 3.4 billion (or whatever) history of the earth in the universe, saying that temperatures slightly changed over 1,000 years is NOTHING.
Not that I doubt global warming's existence. I mean, we are coming out of an ice age and all. However, to go so far as to state that it is a problem is a little far. Global warming is a natural cycle of the earth. Instead of freaking out about 0.05 of a degree in change, people can simply be smart and adaptable like any other species that survives. Instead of playing the demagogue about global warming, Gore ought to focus his energy on more important environmental concerns, such as pollution.
Well said! Kudos!
Post a Comment